Cory Stafford 29's page

I just may have to make a backup paladin.

Cory Stafford 29 wrote:

Samnell wrote:

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

What is it about the mere mention of a non-hetero attraction between two consenting adults that somehow crosses the line into being harmful to impressionable players/readers? Yeah, it's your home game, do what you want... but why are LGBT people automatically censored in it?

I believe it's to do with our very existence being objectionable, a regrettable fact that they prefer not to be reminded of in their fun time reading. Of course calling it an agenda is a way to stigmatize and vilify: We act from carefully-considered principles; They have the agenda.

There are certainly things I don't want in my fun time reading, but I can't say that I always want it purged of, say, homophobes. A setting where nobody ever objects to LGBT people is very nearly as bizarre and impossible to relate to (if in a more positive way) than one where LGBT people simply don't exist. It's nice for an occasional break, of course.

But really I think Paizo did a great job way back in the original Sandpoint write-up. There's a closeted gay couple that everyone in town knows about and nobody cares except one guy that has an E in his abbreviated alignment. It strains my credulity a lot that a somewhat isolated small town (like the one I live in) is that broad-minded, but I'm willing to spot that as Sandpoint is meant to endear itself to the players and it comes from a world that does not have the same obsessive sexual hangups that ours has so often suffered.

Exactly, I don't need sexuality mucking up my D&D or Pathfinder fun. It's not supposed to be part of the game. I must say that I am extremely disturbed about this little tidbit about Sandpoint. They make the one guy that isn't okay with the homosexual couple evil? That truly is bigoted. Yes, let's villify everyone that has moral objections to homosexuality. That sort of thing definitely has no place in Pathfinder.

Just stop. You've been told multiple times to knock off...

Not once did I advocate violence against someone or depriving people of their rights. I simply do not think that putting gay npcs in Pathfinder products to promote some personal beliefs about homosexuality that the developers personally have is appropriate. After all, no one would bat an eye or care (even the most staunch pro-gay supporters) if there were no gay npcs in their products, so why do otherwise? On a striclty pragmatic level, no one is going to refuse to buy Paizo products if they don't have gay npc randomly inserted into them, but you better believe some parents will not allow their children to buy or play Rise of the Runelords if they are aware of the gay couple in Sandpoint because they don't want their kids exposed to that. Before I leave this thread for good, I'd like to point out that the only ones spouting hate and practicing bigotryin this thread are the supposed "tolerant" pro-gay warriors. Look at yourselves before you judge others.

My human oracle of life has survived (well technically died once and got reincarnated) to 12th level, but we have had a lot of party deaths. The TPK encouunter you described did kill one of our characters, but me and the sorcerer managed to take the necromancer out. This is a difficult adventure path. You need a lot of surviability (hit points, AC, saves) and good tactics, scouting, and prebuffing.

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

What is it about the mere mention of a non-hetero attraction between two consenting adults that somehow crosses the line into being harmful to impressionable players/readers? Yeah, it's your home game, do what you want... but why are LGBT people automatically censored in it?

I believe it's to do with our very existence being objectionable, a regrettable fact that they prefer not to be reminded of in their fun time reading. Of course calling it an agenda is a way to stigmatize and vilify: We act from carefully-considered principles; They have the agenda.

There are certainly things I don't want in my fun time reading, but I can't say that I always want it purged of, say, homophobes. A setting where nobody ever objects to LGBT people is very nearly as bizarre and impossible to relate to (if in a more positive way) than one where LGBT people simply don't exist. It's nice for an occasional break, of course.

But really I think Paizo did a great job way back in the original Sandpoint write-up. There's a closeted gay couple that everyone in town knows about and nobody cares except one guy that has an E in his abbreviated alignment. It strains my credulity a lot that a somewhat isolated small town (like the one I live in) is that broad-minded, but I'm willing to spot that as Sandpoint is meant to endear itself to the players and it comes from a world that does not have the same obsessive sexual hangups that ours has so often suffered.

Exactly, I don't need sexuality mucking up my D&D or Pathfinder fun. It's not supposed to be part of the game. I must say that I am extremely disturbed about this little tidbit about Sandpoint. They make the one guy that isn't okay with the homosexual couple evil? That truly is bigoted. Yes, let's villify everyone that has moral objections to homosexuality. That sort of thing definitely has no place in Pathfinder.

Possibly he was trying to say he wants to leave out the debates and politics and stuff, which i find ok, because it´s a game not a discussion place. Remember somwhere i says Pegi 13.

Exactly, I look at the random placement of gay npcs in modules and scenarios, and think "Is this really necessary?". Is Pathfinder, a fantasy roleplaying game, really the proper venue for such issues? I think not. If someone wants to play a "book of erotic fantasy" homebrew game,and include this kind of stuff, fine, but I really don't want to see it in published adventures and PFS scenarios.

I have to say that Pathfinder is supposed to be a game that facilites lighthearted fun. The last thing I want in the game is something that promotes the homosexual agenda or any other political or philosophical agenda. I was highly annoyed at having to change the gender of the love interest in "The Midnight Mauler" so I could run the scenario in good conscience. This sort of thing has no place in your typical rpg game.

Cory Stafford 29 wrote:

mplindustries wrote:

blackbloodtroll wrote:

Are Craft Feats disallowed?

If the DM is restrictive with what you can buy, is he also restrictive what you can create?

If you're asking me, for this particular GM, yes, I asked about Crafting magic items and he said no. While he allows new characters to come in with normal WBL, he is ridiculously tight fisted during the game--he rolls randomly to determine most loot and even what is available for sale.

It is stupid, but so far, it has always been to our advantage to die because it means we get proper WBL when we come back.

Our DM's think alike. I don't mind less magic items because I want it to be about my character and not his loot, but the game does assume you have proper WBL gear, and I'm pretty sure he hasn't adjusted the encounters accordingly.

This GM, in fact, makes the encounters harder. He made all the zombies in the beginning Fast Plague zombies that exploded when they died. He found an upgraded Herstag on the Carrion Crown forum and it wiped us (he didn't scale it down when literally half the party missed the session). Then, when I had to miss a session, he apparently doubled the number of Erinyes the party faced on some bridge (I don't know the details since I wasn't there--just got told about it later).

I'm pretty sure he thinks the main draw of Carrion Crown is the "horror," and he just mistakenly thinks "horror" is "you are screwed at every turn." Oh well. Since I GM pretty much 95% of the time, it's still nice to PC, even if I'm thinking the whole time how I would run things differently.

As for those other things (the craft-based stuff), nobody is one of them or asked about them, so I have no idea. I just met the guy a few months ago, this is the first time I've gamed with him.

Our DM is just on the tough side plus some bad decisions and bad luck thrown in. It sounds like yours actively wants to kill PCs. I feel for you.

Rewarding PC death is a bad thing.

How does he handle the classes and archetypes based around crafting, such as the Golem Constructer Arcane Discovery, or Arcane Bond??

How does he handle the Access the Vault power of the Balanced Scale of Abadar?

So far this is his first time DMing for our group and no one has gone the crafting route. In this AP, you move around a lot with little downtime, so I'm not sure that crafting would be that feasible.

blackbloodtroll wrote:

Are Craft Feats disallowed?

If the DM is restrictive with what you can buy, is he also restrictive what you can create?

If you're asking me, for this particular GM, yes, I asked about Crafting magic items and he said no. While he allows new characters to come in with normal WBL, he is ridiculously tight fisted during the game--he rolls randomly to determine most loot and even what is available for sale.

It is stupid, but so far, it has always been to our advantage to die because it means we get proper WBL when we come back.

Our DM's think alike. I don't mind less magic items because I want it to be about my character and not his loot, but the game does assume you have proper WBL gear, and I'm pretty sure he hasn't adjusted the encounters accordingly.

You can't go wrong with a Paladin--I'm playing a Paladin Archer in Carrion Crown right now (but only because the GM asked me not to play my Oracle of Life--he felt that I healed too well such that I removed all danger).

You can tell your DM he shouldn't worry about that. I have saved the party's bacon several times, especially in the early parts, but we've still had plenty of deaths.

Buy a Salve of the Second Chance.

Give it to a trusted ally.

Now you have a back-up plan in case you die.

Would be a good idea if the DM wasn't so against "magic item stores" in this campaign. We've been able to buy little beyond low level basic consumables. We bought some weapons an armor but had limited seledtion and had to pay through the nose for it.

I have another question. Should the unthinkable happen and he perishes, what would you recommend as a replacement, given the party composition.

Those all seem like solid suggestions> I am leaning toward summon monster 6 since we sometimes have our tankinsh pC not show.

Help me help you. How many spells do you need help picking and what levels are they?

Mainly picking ones going forward. A 6th and 5th at 13th level. A 7th and 6th at 14th level another 7th and 6th at 15th.

just as an aside, don't oracles already automatically know all spells with the word "cure" in them?

Yeah, they are still spells known so I listed them. I forgot to add levitate, minor image, and telekinesis from my curse as well as summon monster V. Should I get summon monster VI next?

Divine Interference

You can convert a spell to interfere with an enemy's attack.
Prerequisites: Divine spellcaster, caster level 10th.
Benefit: As an immediate action, when an enemy within 30 feet hits an ally with an attack, you can sacrifice a prepared divine spell or (if you are a spontaneous caster) an unused spell slot and make the enemy reroll the attack roll. The second attack roll takes a penalty equal to the level of the spell you sacrifice. You must sacrifice a spell of 1st-level or higher to use this ability. Whether or not the second attack is successful, you cannot use this effect on the same creature again for 1 day.

Basically sacrifice a spell slot to negate a crit with the added bonus of giving a minus on the reroll. No SR. No Save. Totally worth it!!

I wasn't aware of that feat. Sounds nice.

Channeled Revival Feat.

Pretty nice gear if you ask me.

Maybe for 9th level. I have less than 60 grand in items. I should have 108,000 by the wealth by level tables.

So I am looking for advice on what to do feat and spell selection with my human life oracle in carrion crown that just hit 12th level.

Str 14 (16)
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 13 (15)
Cha 20

Feats: Alignment Channel, Extra Channel, Great Fortitude, Improved Channel, Quick Channel, Quicken Spell, and Selective Channel
Traits: Reactionary, Subject of Study (undead)

Spells:
1st: Bless, Cure Light Wounds, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, PRotection from Evil
2nd: Cure Moderate Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Eagle's Splendor, Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance
3rd: Dispel Magic, Searing Light, Magic Vestment, Circle of Protection from Evil. Cure Serious Wounds
4th: Blessing of Fervor, Holy Smite, Cure Critcal Wounds, Greater Magic Weapon, Death Ward, Restoration
5th: Flame Strike, Righteous Might, Mass Cure Light Wounds, Breath of Life
6th: Heal, Mass Bear's Endurance, Mass Cure Moderate Wounds

Magic Items: Dusty Rose Ioun Stone, +2 Morningstar, Ring of Force Shield,+2 Breatplate, +2 Amulet of Natural Armor, +2 Ring of Protection, +2 Cloak of Resistance, Belt of Giant's Stregth + 2, Headband of Incredible Wisdom +2, +1 Shapechanger Bane Dagger

As you can see, our DM has been stingy with the magic items which concerns me.

The other members of the party are an aasimar cleric 5(pahrasma)/ holy vindicator 6, elven cat (forget the name)sorcerer 9, human druid 9 (cat's cohort),a nd human ninja 11.

Gerald wrote:

As I say every time someone mentions a MT, look at playing a Witch instead. To me, the Witch is what the MT should have been, plus hexes.

Witch is an awful class. Vs MT you give up full arcane and cleric list, dual spells bonuses, the ability to switch slots between classes, and perhaps the most overpowered lvl 10 power of a prestige class by breaking the action economy. On MT all you give up is a spell level behind pure arcane/divine which can easily be offset with MM rods. Sure if you are trying to out damage the two handed fighter in your group thats not going to happen but your utility/buff/debuff/summon options are astronomical and enough slots to do them all. The fact you can get specialist and two cleric domains while increasing both classes is very nice.

But go Witch instead? For what, a few low DC hexes and a piss-poor spell list (no Heal, Harm, Time stop, Wish, etc etc etc)? No cleric domains or specialist options? Are you serious? Witch is one of the most overrated, one dimensional classes of all time and bad flavor to boot.

Worst. Advice. Ever.

I have seen a high level witch in play, and they can be almost as good as wizard with some healing to boot. I gurantee that a single classed witch would be much more powerful than a gimped multiclassed mystic theurge.

I've tried to play a non-channeling healing class in parties without a cleric. It stinks. My 5th-level non-life oracle almost never gets to cast anything other than cure lights. I am now at the point that I will not play a non-channeling healing class in a party unless another PC has channeling because I'll be nothing but a healbot most of the time. That's my anecdotal experience.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of healing wands flavor-wise, but given the option between buying one and the non-channeling healer being forced to cast nothing but healing spells if the party gets beat up, I'm taking the wand.

I hear you. I've done the same thing, and it does suck. It's why few people wanted to play the cleric prior to 3.0. Even now, they still don't.

Joana wrote:

Why do you want to kill PCs? Not just defeat them, but kill them?

I don't want to kill PCs. I do want PC death to be a possibility. A game where my PC can't die is a boring game for me. The game is less interesting if there's no risk.

This is a question of aesthetics and play style, mind. Some people would disagree (and probably will).

Doug M.

It is a possibility. I have been playing in a Carrion Crown campaign and we have had about 10 PC deaths. That is with some wands of CLW (which never even got used up), lots of potions, and my uber healing life oracle that channels like crazy. You are being way too nice if death isn't a "possibility" because of wands of cure light wounds. They are pretty much useless in combat except in the first two levels when most PC's won't have them anyway.

I too hate that players aren't required to play clerics anymore.

My ideal D&D game consists of going back to town and sleeping for two weeks after every battle, waiting for the incredibly slow natural healing to have an effect.

Exactly. Would you prefer the other side of the coin, where every combat has PC's near death, and they have to go back to town to rest for days or weeks, thus putting the campaign on hold? I know most players would bail on a campaign like this, me included.

We are about halfway through Ashes at Dawn. The party is:
Human Life Oracle 12
Aasimar Cleric 5/Holy Vindicator 6 of Pharasma
Elven outsider cat (can't remeber the name)Sorcerer 9
Wolf Shaman Druid 9 (cat's cohort)
Human ninja 11
Elf Ranger 9/Fighter 2 that occassionally plays with us.

It gets you a big mount quicker is all, and I like the "I'm a leader" and "fight me" stuff they get. I could probably get rid of it.

I also make a version of him that is horselord ranger 12.

is it a plastic mini?

MY wife is real good at paint, so we dont like the white ones.

After all this Im curious, what did you decide to do with YOUR Azog? what level is he going to be? What are you actually going to use for a mount? Did you decide to go with glamored armor or bracers or armor?

I like the bracers/belt of armor personally because just about anyone in a party could/would use it... makes good treasure (once you defeat the guy)

As a backup for carrion crown he's a cavalier (beast rider) 1/barbarian(mounted fury/savage barbarian) 11. No armor. Big wolf mount.

Pathfinder society. Beast rider cavalier one with the oreint belt (forget name) and a klar/morning star with twf. Horse mount for now.

I looked at the Game's Workshop stuff for the hobbit. They look pretty neat.

I think I'll stick with the Pathfinder pawns though. I can get the entire NPC codex box with over 300 in there for the price of one or two of the ones I saw on there.

They're neat if you have that much money. I sadly am poor. lol.

After scouring the internets for a proper Azog mini, the closest i came was Pathfinder's own half-orc barbarian. His outfit is very similar to Azog's. Gut the blade off of his axe, and it will look like a flanged mace. I am not too concerned with coloration, but it could be white washed for the albino look I suppose.

I know games workshop is making minis from the movie. I haven't seen Azog yet, though. Oh well.

What about without the warg?

Does anyone know of any good Azog minis?

Horse lord could work. I do wonder how I can have him have a decent AC wihtout armor like Azog in the movie (I know I'm being nitpicky) Azog only had a big metal belt. How would you guys make that work?

Cory, no it doesn't,

It specifically states you can have any animal the Character can RIDE.

So at first level, yes the character can only ride a horse or camel IF the character is medium.

Simple to take wolf, add giant template and you can have that as a mount, eventually at higher levels you can have dire wolves and all sorts of things to ride (hippos if you like)

Depends on what level you are trying to go with.

I must have missed that. Thanks for the info.

It also only allows a horse or camel for a medium sized horse lord. That's not what I had in mind and hardly much variety.

Cory Stafford 29 wrote:

The idea is to make a Pathfinder version of him that is inspired by the movie character. I'm thinking around level 12. I am also curious how to make him a Pathfinder Society character starting from level 1 and to progress to him to BBEG coolness. Obviously he won't be an evil orc warlord, but a CN half-orc beastrider or beastrider/mounted fury may work.

Is it legal to make a dual archetype single classed PC in PFS? If so, check out Horselord Ranger with the additional skirmisher archetype. The bonus here is the free goodies that come with ranger and his combat style of course. But the mega good good is you get mounted skirmisher at level 10, which in PFS is the only way to get it, since it doesnt go up to level 14.

AS far as making the half orc, Id look into the ARG, you could take sacred tattoos for the scars, and blood vengeance feat would give a bit of rage without taking levels of barbarian, and beast rider feat will affect your effective druid levels for your AC as well (up by two)

by level 12 the horselord gets full druid levels tho, so I dunno what happens to the boost to the feat then (wasted?) but it's a thought.

But again horse lord makes you the only mounted skirmisher in PFS, which is really cool.

Except horselord doesn't give you a giant wolf, just a horse. Try again.

The idea is to make a Pathfinder version of him that is inspired by the movie character. I'm thinking around level 12. I am also curious how to make him a Pathfinder Society character starting from level 1 and to progress to him to BBEG coolness. Obviously he won't be an evil orc warlord, but a CN half-orc beastrider or beastrider/mounted fury may work.

Beast rider cavalier is my first choice, but there is a problem. Wolves are medium so they can't be a mount for a medium creature. How do I legally make the wolf big without resorting to something cheesy like a permanent animal growth spell?

Free Hand Fighter
HEYYYYOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

That does nothing to get me a giant wolf.

For those of you who have seen the Hobbit, how would you make Azog the Defiler? I was thinking a orc barbarian with the mounted fury and savage warrior archetypes with some levels of mammoth rider to get a giant wolf (warg) to ride. Anyone have any better ideas? What would his big mace equate to? An earthbreaker, heavy mace, morningstar?

I don't think it's the grand jury system, Comrade Hawkshaw, it's the state repression, surveillance and harassment of leftist activists.

I know that whenever the FBI goes looking for black clothes and books by Bakunin, my spider sense starts tingling.

Well, the left may portray themselves as "tolerant", but they are, in fact, only tolerant if you agree with their views completely. Don't like same sex marriage, and state it publicly. Be prepared for the left to vandalize your stores, have leftist mayors threaten to keep your business out of their cities, and have liberals threaten to charge you with violating "hate speech" laws. That's exaclty what happened when the president of Chik-Fil-A voiced his opinion. Obama's administration has been harassing tea party groups with IRS audits for years now. You can't tell me that isn't politically motivated. I am not saying the right is perfect, but I see much less repression of human rights from them than from the left. Let's not forget that the NAZI's started as leftists. They were a socialist party.

I live in KY. Where are you playing the games at?

Andrew R wrote:

What has he DONE to DESERVE a second term?

Amongst many other things, work to dig the economy out of the huge hole caused by the GFC.

Makes one wonder what he could have done if had inherited an economy that was in a much better state ......

Or what the economy would be like today if McCain and Palin had got in.

You mean his awesome "jobless recovery'. Give me a break. The only reason unemployment numbers go down anymore is because the labor department manipualtes the numbers, and people stop looking for work. It's unreal how many jobs blocking domestic oil production, EPA regulations, and Obamacare have eliminated or prevented. He has destroyed far more jobs with his liberal pro-environmental policies than his so called stimulus ever created.

What has he DONE to DESERVE a second term?

Finally someone who speaks reason. Come on, give him another chance. He's only increased the national debt more than all other previous presidents combined and pushed through the largest tax increase on the middle class in history. He still needs another term to complete our transformation into a third world socialist country with him as dictator in chief.

For one thing, you should have what he looks like at all the levels or at least the various level ranges. Anyone can build an awesome 20th level character. What about all the levels he has to survive through? Stat him out a 1st 4th, 8th 12th and 16th levels as well. Then you get a better idea of if he measures up or not.

I have to go with Master Spy. Great costume.

DemonSword wrote:

LISA STEVENS: We were aware of that, but as we noticed when my friend got his PDF was how super heavy it really is concerning it being campaign specific to Golarion. We saw a post made by one of your staff saying they did try to make the prestige classes work in a way so that they could fit in other settings but I guess that was just a false hope.

But what you said didn't relieve our number one concern; will we ever see more prestige classes for the RPG line ever again or is Advanced Player's Guide all we're ever going to get? It's been way too long, if you ask me.

We were extremely desperate for more prestige classes from the Paizo Pathfinder line and thought this would ease our impatience but we were wrong.

To echo someone above (Enlight_Bystand, I believe) and others from before, many (though I'm sure not all) of the authors and staff at Paizo believe that most PrCs should be tied to world-specific elements and organizations. That's what makes them "prestigious". Generic shifts from the base classes are mostly covered by the Archetype system. That's not to say all PrCs are setting-specific and that's why we have the ones from the CRB and the APG. I'm sure at some point they will release more PrCs that are more generic and we'll see those presented in the hardcover rules line.

With all that being said, there is nothing preventing you from re-skinning many of these for your home game. Need an assassin that specializes in poison, the Daggermark Poisoner is for you, just throw out all the Daggermark stuff. Same with the rest.

Cheers,
Tony

True. It just takes a bit of creativity. Hellknights and signifiers could be from an elite order of Bane or Asmodeus worshipers in FR. Mammoth lord works perfect for Uthgart barbarians. Winter witch sounds like something from Unapproachable East. Noble scion works perfect for some Waterdhavian noble. Sleepless detective is a shoe in for a watch detective in a big city. Sure, not all of them work out of Golarion, but if you see a few, you and your players would like to try in FR, it could be worth picking up.

Mergy wrote:

Michael Brock wrote:

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:

A couple of questions:

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks.

** spoiler omitted **

Is this specific to the special, or is there no need for a GM to print chronicles for any of his games? I'd like to kill as few trees as possible.

I have enough Chronicles and tracking sheets for every game all four days. GMs will need to print faction missions and any players handouts.

For every scenario, or just the special?

Can someone confirm that a DM running a module ads 3xp and 4pp to the character getting credit for that scenario is a typo? I understand wanting to give DM's incentive to run scenarios, but this seems a little too good.

If it helps, this is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Number 2358, says regarding homosexuality:

“They [homosexuals] do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.”

So homosexuals will indeed go to Heaven, at least according to Holy Mother Church.

The "Catechism" is just human opinion. The Bible is the only authority in all religious matters. We shouldn't persecute them, but we shouldn't also perpetuate the lie that their "lifestyle choice" is okay or acceptable to God.

Well, I did quote a post that said they were glad they canned Monte, so I guess that's what did it.

I seriously don't have a clue why my post was removed. It wasn't insulting at all.