Charlie Bell's page

leo1925 wrote:

Ok i have to ask, what did the 4E did to the forgotten realms?

(i am not trying to flame or anything, i am just curious since i haven't really touched the 4E FR)

They blew a good portion of it up and killed a bunch of gods, and then set it several years post-blowing-up. Someone else can provide better details than that, but that's the (ridiculously oversimplified) basics of it. There was no good (IMO) story inspiration for it, it was just so they could shoehorn 4E rules into a setting first designed for AD&D and then already altered a bit for 3E, and I felt, from what I saw of it, that they strained a little too hard to keep it going.

Realms have a long-standing tradition of getting cataclysmically blown up for edition changes. I think part of the reason people got so angry about the 4th Ed. blow-up was because many of them had hundreds of dollars worth of setting material that was suddenly completely invalidated.

The Piratical Cat's plan for vengeance was born
When the book showed a top-hat, not a stylish tricorne.
If you examine the victim, I think you will find
That he could not handle the strawberry kind.
He swelled and turned red and struggled for breath!
Allergic reaction was this cause of death!

Victims are a roomful of mid-level managers at a manufacturing division of a multinational corporation. Victims are found sitting around a table in a division headquarters conference room. Empty plastic water bottles and thick, printed paper handouts are scattered around the tabletop. Another victim is found lying on the floor behind a podium, on which rests a notebook computer; nearby on the floor is a laser pointer. There is a slight scent of burnt paper in the air, though no ashes are evident. Sitting by the head of the table is a live male Elephas maximus indicus, whose face is wet.

Charlie Bell, you are making this thread worse. So far it's been fairly arduous, entirely because of people coming in and arguing against it because they think it will end in argument. Can you really not see the irony there? So far every on topic post has been civil.

You missed something.

Mark my words, this will only end in tiers.

Well, that was 4:27 of my life I'll never get back.

"OMG I CAN SEE FOREVER" went insane from having seen a Great Old One. Men in white coats took him away to the insane asylum, where he was kept for weeks. He managed to escape and clawed out his eyes shortly before he died of pure cosmic terror.

Leaving the office... I'll post the next one when I get home in a few min.

I have to say, if I had to choose between making Planescape: Torment and walking away with $1M or making Aliens: Colonial Marine and walking away with $3M, well, nuke the site from orbit.

a one shot

One shot = all bets are off. Who cares if you lose all your gear if you defeat the BBEG?

As for the inconsistency in feat adjudication/houseruling on the fly, sure, that's a bad GM move. But you could have just asked if you could change feats on the spot since he ruled that feat didn't work on the spot. Instead you tableflipragequit. That's more jerkish behavior than a bad rules call.

OTOH, you made the decision to run your own game. That's a good choice. Take the opportunity to show your buddy what consistency and fairness look like.

Liara, Liara, Liara. Slamming blue figure, sultry voice, brilliant mind... Liara. Telepathic, telekinetic nookie that is literally mind-blowing.

Mrs. Bell's literary crush is Rochester. Mine's Liara.

This is a very important work. This film will really help get the message of the dangers of Dungeons & Dragons out to a whole new generation of impressionable youngsters. We need to make sure they're engaging in wholesome activities like unprotected sex instead.

Not broken, working as intended. If you can't stand the heat, take a level in commoner and give up adventuring!

Your wish is granted! You're me!

I wish lucky7 was himself again.

People do crazy things like climbing Everest, hunting dangerous game, bullriding, and jumping out of airplanes all the time for fun. I don't see why someone who can shoot lightning bolts and summon angels wouldn't engage in dangerous activities when something significant is at stake.

If I was going metal, Immigrant Song would be in there for sure.

With Jenna Jameson
That's where I was all last night
A Reading Rainbow

Well, that would be one of the problems with FR. It was chock full of Mary Sue NPCs. I mean, Shadowdale. If you were below 9th level there, you were probably a butler or something for the rest of the villagers, who were all 15th+.

Another problem was the bloat of canonical detail. I don't need to know that building 5c in Sandpoint belongs to Farmer Jacobs and is a chicken coop containing 1 red rooster, 6 hens, and 6d6 eggs on any given morning.

In fact, I much prefer the current level of detail for Golarion locations. Settlement stat block plus flavor text, like what you have in books like Rule of Fear, is just right IMO. A higher level of detail would constrain GMs and players in customizing the setting to their own PCs and campaigns.

Dear Paizo,

Please kill off your successful business model by stopping releasing your most popular products.

Also, please turn Golarion into the Forgotten Realms. We need extensive canonical details so that no GM ever has room to develop any part of the setting.

Thanks,
OP

I can imagine that if I were a little person, I might find it cool that there was a whole race of dwarves, and not only that, they were awesome!

I am eminently qualified in several fields of study, young fellow-my-lad, if I do say so myself.

Charlie Bell wrote:

IMO, it's on the players to figure out what capabilities they need and have them. I always recommend to my players to talk about group roles beforehand. If they don't have a healer, that's their problem, not mine.

It's a two-way street. A GM has the responsibility to tailor the game to the players' preferences. If you have three rogues and a wizard, you build encounters that will be challenging but winnable for three rogues and a wizard. Being subjected to constant TPKs isn't fun -- and neither is being forced to play a class or role you don't enjoy. And if the players aren't having fun, it most certainly is the GM's problem.

I generally don't build encounters at all because I run APs or PFS. Players are responsible for their own choices. If they want to play 3 rogues and a wizard, then they can put on their big boy pants and figure out how to deal with encounters given the ample capabilities they have. Players are smart and figure out ways to make things work.

Oh, so many demands and requirements for a good DM. (this makes him a rare species)

One very important aspect of a good GM I didnt see yet is carefully choosing his players before he starts the game. Eg. not every player can be invited to every game or combination of co-players.

Maybe we should also talk about how players could contribute to help their overworked GM creating a good game experience? :)

This. Having good players helps create good GMs. When players and GM are on the same page, it creates a feedback loop of awesomeness and win.

I now have this awesome mental picture of the trunk monkey with a minigun.

The brumal pinemaiden is the queen of the bunch. She's the one I should have submitted but didn't. My buddy felt that she might be under-CR'd, but she's about in between the CR3 dryad and the CR5 nymph. She is also much more of a harassment encounter: she drops something nasty or just inconvenient on you, then breaks contact and does it again a few miles down the road.

A harshly beautiful woman with rough, dark skin and icy, pine-needle hair turns her cold amber glare on you.

Brumal Pinemaiden CR 5
XP 1,600
NE Medium fey (cold)
Init +7; Senses low-light vision; Perception +14

----- Defense -----
AC 20, touch 17, flat-footed 17 (+4 deflection, +3 Dex, +3 natural)
hp 36 (8d6+8)
Fort +7, Ref +13, Will +13
DR 5/cold iron; Immune cold
Weaknesses cold dependent, vulnerability to fire

----- Offense -----
Speed 30 ft.
Melee icicle dagger +8 (1d4+1/19-20 plus 1d6 cold)
Ranged pinecone +7 (1d6 plus 1d6 cold)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks chilling gaze, pinecone throwing
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +12)
At will—icicle dagger (Ultimate Magic), tree stride
3/day—frigid touch (DC 17, Ultimate Magic), frost fall (DC 17, Ultimate Combat), obscuring mist, unshakable chill (DC 17, Ultimate Magic)
1/day—dominate person (DC 19), sleet storm

----- Statistics -----
Str 10, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 19
Base Atk +4; CMB +4; CMD 17
Feats Combat Casting, Elemental Focus (cold) (Advanced Player’s Guide), Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +14, Climb +11, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (nature) +12, Perception +14, Stealth +14, Survival +14
Languages Common, Giant, Sylvan

----- Ecology -----
Environment cold forests
Organization solitary, pair, or copse (3-8)
Treasure standard

----- Special Abilities -----
Cold Dependent (Su) When the temperature is above freezing, a brumal pinemaiden immediately becomes sickened. Every hour thereafter, she must make a DC 15 Fortitude save to resist becoming nauseated for an hour. A pinemaiden that is in an area above freezing for 24 hours takes 1d6 points of Constitution damage, and another 1d6 points of Constitution damage every day that follows.

Chilling Gaze (Su) 1d6 cold plus fatigue, range 30 feet, Fortitude DC 18 negates. A creature that fails its save against a brumal pinemaiden’s chilling gaze and is already fatigued does not become exhausted. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Pinecone Throwing (Su) A brumal pinemaiden can throw icy pinecones that she produces from her needle-like hair. A pinemaiden’s pinecones have a range increment of 30 feet and deal 1d6 points of bludgeoning and piercing damage plus 1d6 points of cold damage. A pinemaiden can hurl her pinecones up to five range increments.

Unearthly Grace (Su) A brumal pinemaiden adds her Charisma modifier as a racial bonus on all her saving throws, and as a deflection bonus to her Armor Class.

Brumal pinemaidens are corrupted dryads of the evergreen forests of Irrisen. Desiring to experience all the world, the first brumal pinemaidens swore allegiance to Baba Yaga in exchange for freedom from their trees. However, the capricious hag deceived the pinemaidens. She did free them from their trees, but replaced their mystical bond to their trees with a similar bond to herself. The pinemaidens gained a measure of her magical powers over cold, but found themselves unable to leave the Land of Eternal Winter. Like dryads away from their trees, pinemaidens cannot survive where temperatures are above freezing. The severing of their bond with their trees and their powerlessness against Baba Yaga’s betrayal has left the pinemaidens bitter and vengeful. Although they retain the ability to step through the trees, they can no longer understand the voices of the trees or reshape them with a caress.

Brumal pinemaidens appear as other dryads, but always bear the characteristics of coniferous evergreens such as pines and cedars. Their skin is like pine bark, their hair like icy needles, and their eyes like frozen amber.

Also, +1 for outsized anime greatswords looking ridiculous. Hey, if that's your aesthetic, fine. But please don't get your overcompensation in my Pathfinder. :D

A Magnum Revolver isn't any more deadly then a regular handgun (in terms of able-to-kill someone, not the size of the hole), but that doesn't stop Dirty Harry from using one.

Factually incorrect. Magnums generally have 80-100% more kinetic energy than non-magnum, non +P rounds of the same caliber, and consistently higher one shot stop percentage. You don't use one because it's scary looking, you use it because it is more effective.

After reading the AP overview in the back of Snows of Summer, I had the idea of coming up with a Reign of Winter soundtrack list. There are a couple really obvious ones, like Mussorgsky's "Hut on Fowl's Legs." That gave me the idea of coming up with a track list showcasing the work of Russian composers in keeping with the Russian folklore theme.

Here's the first few.

1. Taldor. Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, Great Gate of Kiev.
2. Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut. Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, The Hut on Fowl's Legs.
3. Rasputin Must Die! Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture, with super-appropriate CANNON!
4. Machine Guns. Gustav Holst, The Planets, Mars, Bringer of War. Not Russian, but so perfect for machine guns that people said Holst had prophetically foreseen trench warfare.
5. The Riders/Baba Yaga. Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle.
6. Irrisen. Tchaikovsky, Marche Slave.

Who's got some more ideas?

I used to think I was indecisive, but I changed my mind.

Judging from this thread, the only broken spells in the game are the ones from levels 0-9.

From a nearby tree, a monkey-faced creature coils a heavy stick in its whip-like arms, taking aim with beady black eyes.

Argopelter CR 4
XP 1,200
CN Small monstrous humanoid
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., greensight, low-light vision; Perception +8

----- Defense -----
AC 17, touch 16, flat-footed 12 (+5 Dex, +1 natural, +1 size)
hp 32 (5d10+5)
Fort +2, Ref +9, Will +6

----- Offense -----
Speed 20 ft., climb 30 ft.
Melee slam +8 (1d4+2)
Ranged branch +12 (1d8+3)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks branch throwing (40 ft.), sneak attack +2d6
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; concentration +3)
Constant—greensight (Rival Guide), pass without trace
1/day—tree stride

----- Statistics -----
Str 15, Dex 20, Con 13, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 7
Base Atk +5; CMB +6; CMD 21
Feats Deadly Aim, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Skills Acrobatics +10, Climb +15, Perception +8, Stealth +17 (+25 in forested areas); Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth in forested areas
Languages Sylvan
SQ brachiator

----- Ecology -----
Environment any forest
Organization solitary, pair, or gaggle (3-7)
Treasure standard

----- Special Abilities -----
Brachiator (Ex) An argopelter travels by swinging through the trees on its wiry arms. An argopelter suffers no penalty to Acrobatics and Stealth checks due to undergrowth or difficult terrain in forested areas. Whenever it is climbing, an argopelter is counted as having a running start when making Acrobatics checks to jump, and uses its climb speed rather than its land speed to determine its bonus or penalty to Acrobatics checks made to jump.

Branch Throwing (Ex) An argopelter's muscular arms fling tree limbs with cannon-like force. An argopelter has a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls with thrown branches, sticks, or similar pieces of wood. The creature can hurl irregularly-shaped tree branches of up to Small size. In forested areas, an argopelter has an effectively unlimited supply of branches available. An argopelter can pick up and ready a branch as a free action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. An argopelter’s thrown branches have a range increment of 40 feet and deal 1d8 points of bludgeoning damage plus 1 1/2 times the creature’s Strength bonus. An argopelter can throw branches up to five range increments.

The elusive, reclusive argopelters consider themselves the natural guardians of the ancient forests in which they dwell: places such as the Verduran Forest, Darkmoon Wood, and the Hoarwood. Argopelters do not get along well with dryads, treants, druids, or other beings that defend the wildwoods. Such beings find argopelters to be dangerous nuisances, but often cede territory to them since the argopelters are both motivated and capable of protecting their trees.

Argopelters often cross between Golarion and the First World at places where the planar boundaries grow thin, although no one knows on which of the two they originate. This may explain their legendary territoriality, since the ancient woods in which they lair often contain portals between the worlds. Argopelters hate most humanoids, although they tolerate gnomes. They especially despise lumberjacks and woodcutters and will go out of their way to ambush anyone carrying an axe or cut wood. Many a logger has been found with his skull crushed by a “fallen limb.”

An argopelter’s wiry arms are strong and highly flexible. The creature uses them for both movement, brachiating through the trees, and attack, flinging tree branches with deadly accuracy. An argopelter’s mottled, pebbly hide camouflages it perfectly against tree bark. It has a lithe frame but stumpy legs. An argopelter stands about three feet high and weighs around 80 pounds.

"I don't always use Power Attack...

...but when I do, BADGUYS DIE."

[/worldsmostinterestingfighter]

Fortune's Blight is no joke.

Now: on to the important stuff. Who's running the archerype game, how many of us are in, and what level do we start at? I'll bring pizza and Dew!

Prefer to play that one, count me in, 20th (capstones or bust!), and Swedish Fish.

You might not know that prestidigitation can resurrect dead threads.

Green Knight (Paladin)
Green knights represent a more primal, uncivilized good than other paladins. Although they often quest in pursuit of their own mysterious ends, green knights are always firmly on the side of good. Green knights draw their powers from deities or azatas, from the magic of good fey or the more benevolent powers of the First World, or even from nature itself.
Alignment: Chaotic good.
Class Skills: A green knight gains Knowledge (nature) and Survival as class skills and does not gain Knowledge (nobility) and Knowledge (religion) as class skills.
Smite Evil (Su): This ability functions like the standard paladin’s smite evil ability, except that if the target of smite evil is an evil-aligned fey, an evil-aligned plant, or an evil-aligned magical beast, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to 2 points of damage per level the green knight possesses. This ability replaces the standard paladin’s extra smite damage against evil outsiders, dragons, and undead.
Resist Nature’s Lure (Ex): At 3rd level, a green knight gains resist nature’s lure, as the druid ability of the same name. This ability replaces aura of courage.
Spells: Beginning at 4th level, a green knight gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells. This functions like a standard paladin’s spellcasting ability, except that a green knight casts divine spells drawn from the ranger spell list instead of the paladin spell list. For all purposes, a green knight’s spell list is considered to be the ranger spell list. This ability replaces the standard paladin’s spellcasting.
Divine Bond (Sp): A green knight who chooses a weapon as her divine bond can add the anarchic or vorpal special abilities to her weapon, but she cannot add the axiomatic or disruption special abilities.
Champion of the Wild (Su): At 20th level, a green knight becomes a true fey creature. She is forevermore treated as a fey rather than as a humanoid (or whatever the green knight’s creature type was) for the purpose of spells and magical effects. Additionally, she gains low-light vision and DR 5/evil and cold iron. This ability replaces holy champion.
Code of Conduct: A green knight must be of chaotic good alignment and loses all class features except proficiencies if she ever willingly commits an evil act.
Additionally, a green knight’s code requires that she respect the sanctity of nature and the free will of all living beings, seek to undo the schemes of evil fey, and punish those who harm or threaten innocents. A green knight is free to associate with allies of any alignment, as long as the association furthers the green knight’s quest for good. This replaces the standard paladin’s code of conduct.

This was the only item I can recall seeing while voting about which I was in no doubt whatsoever that it would be Top 32. I told all my gaming buddies about this one.

What an awesome item. Finally a way to keep those pesky cloudkills from wandering off all on their own. Also handy for when the bad guys just walk out of your clouds, thinking they can simply carry on. But "NEGATIVE," say you, cloudwrangler!

Thanks to everybody who upvoted me, and to the judges! I'm humbled, and frankly, surprised.

Now, I've got to hurry up with my archetype, since I didn't imagine I'd be having to write one. Not that I'm complaining!

With a little planning, any party will do just fine. Superior is a matter of overkill.

Considering that the bad guys have, and use, these same options, I find it hard to consider them "broken" in any sense of the word in PF AP games.

Maybe you're just used to the smaller numbers of 2E. PF just has bigger numbers across the board (except for good old fireball, it's true), but it all comes out in the wash.

Grapple spellcasters! If they don't have a weapon in hand, they don't threaten. You don't even need Improved Grapple to avoid the AO in that case. Spellcasters suck at grappling, too, and it basically totally shuts them down. Same goes for monsters that mainly use SLAs, although they're probably better at grappling.

Speaking of grappling, if an enemy has crazy high AC, you can bring it down without hitting. Everybody Aids Another for one PC's combat maneuver check to grapple it. Next round, everybody Aids Another for the pin. Next round, everybody Aids Another to tie it up. Coup de grace the now helpless enemy.

Familiars can Aid Another, too! If your familiar isn't doing anything else, there's no reason it shouldn't be using Aid Another to boost your AC.

To add to the offensive uses of a CLW wand, it also can be used to deliver positive energy sneak attacks against undead. Also targets touch AC, and holds the charge so a charge is never wasted. Even if you run out of badguys you can still use that held charge to heal somebody.

I'll be under general anaesthetic when it hits. Timed that one perfectly, suckers!

Spell-Winding Timepiece
Aura strong universal; CL 13th
Slot none; Price 25,000 gp; Weight —
Description
This ornate platinum pocketwatch has a brass hour hand, silver minute hand, and golden second hand. Despite the presence of a winding knob, it never needs winding and always keeps accurate time. The bearer can wind a spell-winding timepiece as a standard action. Winding the timepiece causes the durations of active spell effects that target the bearer to be reset, as if the spells had been re-cast just as the timepiece was wound. Only spells with a duration based on caster level and measured in rounds, minutes, or hours are affected. The duration is reset only for the bearer, not for any other targets of the original spells. Spell effects from magic items and spell-like abilities are likewise not reset.
A spell-winding timepiece can be wound once per day with no risk. If it is wound more than once per day, there is a 25% cumulative chance per use past the first that the delicate clockwork will be ruined, permanently destroying the device.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Extend Spell, limited wish; Cost 12,250 gp

+1M. Quick thinking under the most extreme pressure and selfless sacrifice.

Can you favorite a poster? Cause I'd favorite Mikaze.

Already the Paizo fanboys are clamoring that "if you don't like it, you can just houserule it." If you houserule out that semicolon, you are clearly not playing The Game As It Was Meant To Be Played and you are a bad person and should feel bad. But that semicolon invalidates my 184 DPR RAW PFS magus cross-blooded dragon disciple paladin barbarian build, so how could the "devs" have possibly made such an egregious error that automatically makes my character totally unplayable.

If this thread has provided any answer to the OP's questions, it's this: that people will have a wide variety of reactions to charm person, anything from violent repulsion to "meh, no biggie."

Exactly. Ability scores on the current scale are legacy from 1st Ed., where you rolled 3d6 for your attributes. The design decision to tie modifiers more directly to ability scores was a step forward from 2nd Ed., in which you got a bunch of modifiers to random things, but only if you had very high or very low ability scores. That design decision was an improvement, but it resulted in the odd ability score problem. It also resulted in a system that was very different, but still grounded, in the ability score mechanics of previous editions.

The next logical step in the progression of design would be to do away with ability scores altogether and just use ability modifiers instead. So instead of having ability score arrays like:

STR 15
DEX 14
CON 13
INT 12
WIS 10
CHA 8

You have instead:

STR +2
DEX +2
CON +1
INT +1
WIS 0
CHA -1

You guys that are converting to PF-- I have full PF conversions beginning with Chapter 7. PM me your email address and I will give you permissions to the Google Docs.

I hate talking on the phone and I will lie to get out of a phone conversation that isn't holding my interest.