After years of inactivity, I’ve dusted off this profile in the hopes of finding some PF1E pbp.
As there doesn’t seem to be much recruiting going on, I had an idea to throw out and get some feedback on, though I’m not expecting many to be into it (for a lot of reasons that occurred to me very quickly, but it keeps knocking around my head so let’s put it to rest).
I am an obsessive character maker, and it’s escalated to the point of regularly building entire pre-fab parties for specific APs or modules.
The odds of me getting to play even a fraction of these characters is extremely low, however I am quite fond of some of them.
So what do folks think about playing through an AP with a pre-generated party. The nuts and bolts of their backstory and their first level build would be set for you, but you’d be free to develop their personality and progression (both fluff and crunch-wise) from there.
Assuming anyone is interested in this idea, I figured I’d hold recruitment via short RP-writing submissions, then the selected group of four could vote on the list of complete APs I own and the pre-crafted party associated with each AP.
What do you think? Anyone interested in indulging me, or is not making your own character as unappealing an idea as I suspect it might be?
So the Ectoplasmatist archetype for Spiritualist states in it's Spiritual Combat ability:
Spiritual Combat:
At 3rd level, as a full-round action, an ectoplasmatist can make all of her attacks with a single light or one-handed ectoplasmic lash wielded in one hand, and also cast a single spiritualist spell with a casting time of one standard action as a free action either before or after making the ectoplasmic lash attacks.
The ability says you can only use the light or one-handed version of the Ectoplasmic Lash, but it does not have specific language stating the other hand must be empty/free. As Psychic spells do not have somatic components, strictly as written this would mean you can have a shield in use in your other hand.
I searched the forum far and wide and did much googling, and have not found any sort of ruling that contradicts my above interpretation. If anyone knows of any rulings of any relevance to this, I'd appreciate hearing what you've got.
This is a closed recruitment for a PbP with myself and my old IRL group so we can play again despite our disparate meatspace schedules. Details to follow.
This is an invite-only recruitment thread for hashing out characters. I will be posting character creation guidelines later today, probably once I am off work.
In the meantime, I'd like to ask my invitees if you would like to add a fifth player. If the consensus is "Yes" then, Kubular, please invite your friend to join.
I've got the bones of a Fighter I want to put together: Sensate archetype plus VMC: Wizard for the Teleportation subschool. Probably pick up the feat to use Psychic Skill Unlocks for some flavor. The elevator pitch being "I know what you will do before you do, and you don't even know what direction I'm coming at you from."
Problem is I'm still figuring out where I want to go after that, mechanically speaking: weapon selection, familiar and fighting style, mostly, but as an extension of how I wan the character to "feel". I'll have to start in on the Dimensional Agility chain at level 8, but before then I have a few feats to play with (even with VMC eating a couple).
So I was hoping some of you fine folks could throw some inspiration at my while I flip through all my books for some of my own.
Some rough guidelines to what I'm looking for:
Melee-oriented.
I like everything to mesh pretty well, tonally, so dipping into some extremely niche corner in order to gain a superior mechanical benefit isn't really my thing.
I am also, in general, not looking for the "best" choices mechanically. Like, I know a monkey familiar is cool because it can use wands, but does it disrupt the feel of my character?
While my character will definitely have a decent Dex score, as we're looking at a quick, swifty type here, I'm currently leaning towards Strength as my combat stat.
But ultimately I'm open to most ideas. I feel like there's a very specific thing I want, but I haven't found out what that is yet... :P
Trying to make Arcane Duelist Bard work out with the Magus subclassing option in PF Unchained. Err... "Variant Multiclassing". Why didn't they just call it "Subclassing"? That's exactly what it is...
There is so much good here. Subclassing costs you half of your feats, but the AD gets loads of bonus feats: most of them essential to the class. Arcane Pool is a big tub of icing on the AD. But this build falls just short of working perfectly. The problem is Spellstrike.
A.)The subclassing ability only allows you to Spellstrike with spells from the Magus spell list... which... there is zero meaningful overlap with the Bard spell list there. Mostly because...
B.) The Bard spell list is rather bereft of melee touch spells.
Now, I *could* use a Magus Arcana I gain to get Broad Study. But then I've used one of my Subclass goodies just to make another one work, and the *only* thing I have to show for it is Spellstriking with Touch of Gracelessness. Which is a decent touch attack spell, but that's gonna get boring *real* fast.
So I ask you, the great and vast Pathfinder community, is there something I'm missing? Some clever tweak of the rules, or obscure character option I am missing? Please help.
Hello all! I have little experience with Gestalt character builds, but I'm running an AP (Runelords, Iron Gods, or Giantslayer) for two players and I was curious if having them do Gestalt will be enough to make up for being down two players. One of them is absolutely going to run a pet class (Hunter, Summoner, etc.), so I imagine that will help even the ground.
Any input from those with experience is appreciated!
It is early afternoon in the quiet Ulfen village of Frostbark. Snow falls regularly but lightly; extremely mild weather for a village so close to the border with Irrisen.
Due to the nice weather, a few villagers are outside their homes going about whatever business needed doing. It is, for Frostbark, a boisterous day. Friends converse outside of homes, carts of various necessities are pushed to and fro, and Rista Stoutbarrow stands atop a crate outside the general store as she calls out details of her newest shipment in the hopes of attracting some customers.
Additionally, a single cloaked figure moves hurriedly towards the local tavern The Linnorm's end..
For your first posts, state where you are in Frostbark (the tavern, just arriving in town, etc.) and what your character is up to. We'll take it from there. While the quickest way to get things going is for everyone to just be in the tavern, do not feel obligated to do so. I greatly enjoy rp and it's not necessary to jump right into the meat of things.
Hello everyone! Please check in below. Once everyone has piped in, I'll go over expectations for post etiquette and posting frequency. Then we'll do final character tweaks and establish were everyone's character is "at" (both literally and metaphorically!).
I have a homebrew module I've cooked up that I'm rather proud of, so I'm putting it through it's paces. I'm running two in-person groups through it and would also like to try a Play By Post. It should take you through level 3, and it's possible for it to expand into a full campaign if there's interest on your part.
I am looking for 4 players, I *may* go up to five if you guys really wow me with your characters and I'm having a hard time settling. My schedule is erratic, but I expect to be able to post at least once a day and I expect the same availability from players.
The details!
Overview:
The PC's are all neophyte adventurers who's paths have all brought them two a small Ulfen village near the border with Irrisen. A priest of Nethys recently made a wondrous discovery a few miles outside of the village, within the Irrisen border: a cave buried under the snow, which appears to be made entirely of adamantine!
Knowing Irrisen's witch-queen would surely covet the discovery herself if she learned of it, he quickly traveled to the nearby Ulfen village in order to recruit able hands to help him explore and excavate the sit. Finding little more than fearful refusal to get any closer to Irrisen than they already were from the village inhabitants, he posted an offer for adventurers in the local tavern and sent missives to other nearby towns: 500 gold apiece to any who could help him secure the site.
A tidy sum for a group of rookie adventurers. But at what risk?
Character Guidelines:
Right off the bat, let me tell you that unique and interesting characters with a *good back story* will impress me. Generally speaking, optimization does little to blow my hair back unless you managed to find some really kooky, typically suboptimal gimmick that you've figured out how to make sing (assuming you've got good fluff to back it up), things like . I cannot emphasize this enough. I like to run games for characters I'd want to read stories about.
Starting at Level 1.
20 point buy. Maximum starting gold. 2 Traits. Traits from specific campaigns are allowed, but it needs to be a clear reflection of your background (not just "I wanted Acrobatics as a class skill) and must be vetted by me. I *am* willing to consider custom traits in order to make *very good* concepts work.
As a general courtesy, please refrain from builds that summon huge swarms of creatures. Summon spells in general are fine, but I'm running this PbP for fun and I just have no interest in keeping track of 8 fiendish dire mongooses in a fight.
Races:
No Drow Nobles.
Otherwise, any Paizo published material. If you're playing one of the weirder races, that needs to be an integral part of their background. If you're playing a Dragon Empires race then a convincing reason for you to be in Avistan is a must. Being in LotL should help justify DE races with the (dangerous) trade route and all, but I'm still going to need a good reason why your Nagaji is mucking about with vikings.
*Houserule: Player races with the outsider type do NOT get proficiency with all Martial weapons. You're already immune to all the "X-Person" spells. Be happy with that.
Classes:
I'd love to say "everything goes". However, I'm going to have to impose a couple restrictions.
No Master Summoners or Synthesists. I don't think Synthesists are overpowered at all, but I have no interest in dealing with everyone and their mother's different opinions on how they actually work.
No archetypes with multiple Animal Companions. Again, I just don't feel like managing a small army in combat.
Feats:
No Antagonize. I like it in theory but it's still just sort of a mess, mechanically speaking.
Leadership may be an issue if we keep this going past the initial adventure. I actually like cohorts a *lot* but again, that's a lot more to manage. We'll cross this bridge if/when we come to it.
Skills:
HAVE SOME SOCIAL SKILLS. It's not necessary for every single player to have potent interaction statistics, and there's going to be plenty of good old fashioned combat, but there will be plenty to reward those with strong social capabilities from time to time.
Alignment
For the most part, no Evil.
However, if you have a *really good* (and I mean REALLY) concept for a Lawful Evil character that *is not going to be a significant threat to party cohesion* I will consider it. A Lex Luthor on a team of heroes can be a lot of fun.
Concept:
Lots of freedom here, but there needs to be a solid, feasible reason your character is in the Land of the Linnorm Kings. They could have heard about the call to adventure from either the missives sent to nearby settlements, or they may have been in the As-Yet-Unnamed border village when the priest posted his offer.
If someone wants to play an *actual* Ulfen resident of the village who has some sort of (very compelling) reason to want to leave the village and travel into the terrifying land of Irrisen, that would be fantastic but not necessary. If you go this route a character that incorporates skills and other elements suiting some sort of guide would be gravy.
All right folks! Have at it with those submissions!
As much as I love running my dedicated group of PC's through my latest dastardly narrative, lately I have been itching to sit on the other side of the table.
My preference would be a Pathfinder group, but I have experience in (and books to share!) many other tabletop RPGs.
Also, while I'm only interested in being a player I don't at all mind "backup DMing" and helping with the boring stuff (running numbers, checking rules, keeping track of initiative, etc.). I did that for the DM of a group I played in a couple years ago and it really helped move things along.
ALSO: Groups in the East Bay are a possibility as well, as long as you are near-ish BART access.
Hope to hear from some of you Bay Area dice-chuckers!
(Seriously guys, I'm drowning under something like thirty character ideas and only coming up with more. Help!)
I've made so many characters at this point that now the way I mostly manage to enjoy myself is to find a few interesting-sounding mechanics and see what I can do with them.
For a possible upcoming Carrion Crown game, I decided I wanted to give Channel Smite a try (I rarely play Clerics, when it comes to Divine casters Inquisitors are much more my style) and decided that I also liked taking that a step further and trying to build around Guided Hand.
For those without UC: Lets you use Wis. for attack bonus on deity's favored weapon.
To add an extra layer of nuttiness (and feat dependancy, har) I also decided I wanted to be an archer. I passed on Erastil because, while I find him quite intriguing from a world-building standpoint, I have no interest in *playing* a borderline misogynistic traditionalist. After some poking around on the Pathfinder Wiki I found the Empyreal Lord Shinashakti: CG, Shortbow for favored weapon, and a couple of fun domains. Sold.
Finally, the mechanics! (And what I'd like a little help on).
I'm going human, and I'm going to use the Crusader Archetype (One Domain, One less spell per day/level/tasty bonus feat selection in return) and taking Focus: Shortbow for my 1st-level Crusader bonus feat.
Here's my conundrum: I'm going for a minimal Dex of 13 to qualify for Deadly Aim later. Being Human I have two feats... Do I use them to go Channel Smite + Guided Hand to get Wis. on attack at level 1, or do I go Point Blank Shot + Precise Shot to not take that nasty "firing into melee" penalty?
Either way, the two not chosen would be picked up at level 3 and 5 repectively. But which is best to start out with?
And, please, none of the answers that tell my why this is suboptimal and I should just play "X" instead. This is what I want to do, I'd just like some outside perspective on this starting feats business.
My Kingmaker game is pretty much by-the-book with the exception of tossing the players a 20-Point-Buy bone and allowing one player a non-standard race choice. However, I really like "personal sidequests" for PCs and often include them in my homebrew campaigns.
Since Kingmaker is so sandbox-y, I figure it would be fairly easy to throw in a little side quest for each of my players with some sort of goodie at the end that's somewhat stronger than what they'd have at that level. Two I've got figured out: The halfling druid is going to get the "Fey Creature" template applied to her giant frog companion and the human cavalier is getting a custom feat that'll provide some nice buffs to make him a better king. I'm stuck on the gnome ranger and tiefling witch.
For the witch, I decided some custom spells at spell levels 3, 5, 7, and 9 a bit more powerful than they should be could work. Since her family is a big part of her character and has been fleshed out a lot, I think some sort of inherited "blood magic" would have the proper flavor. Each spell would be quite great for the level, but would require hefty personal risk to make use of.
Thing is, designing spells is a pain in the umber hulk.
This is what I've got for the first spell, at spell level 3. Please, let me know what you think and offer any suggestions you think are worthwhile. *Constructive* criticism is appreciated, and any clevel thoughts on flavor are also welcome.
Mind Crush:
3rd-Level spell
School: Transmutation (mind-affecting)
Casting Time: One Full-Round Action
Components: V,S,M (a significant amount of the caster's own blood, freshly shed)
Range: Close (25ft + 5ft/2 levels)
Target: 1 creature + 1 additional creature/5 levels, no two of which may be more than 5ft. apart.
Duration: Instantaneous
Save: Will for half
Spell Resistance: Yes
When you cas this spell you must wound yourself deeply, inflicting 1d6 points of Constitution damage to yourself per creature targeted by the spell. Targeted creatures take 1d4 Intelligence damage/2 levels, to a maximum of 5d4 at level 10. A successful Will save halves this damage.
Hey friends, this will be the thread for discussing the game. Occasionally some OOC talk will be necessary or urgent enough to be included in one of the in-game thread posts, but for the large part it should go here.
Once each of you chimes in on here and gets their character sheet up on their Alias' profile, we'll start up the game thread.
I have a quick question about the "not needing fighter levels for Weapon Specialization" clause in Quarterstaff Mastery.
What this says to me is that you do not need the "Fighter Level 4" prerequisite on Specialization if you take it for the quarterstaff, meaning a 1st level human Staff Magus (who gets QM for free) could take Weapon Specialization(Quarterstaff) at first level provided he took Focus(Quarterstaff) for his other feat.
The wording is a little vague so, while I am 95% sure this is the correct interpretation, I'd like additional imput or an official ruling.
It's possible this should go on the playtest board, but it's not *specifically* playtest data, so I'm gonna post it here and if it needs to be moved, so be it.
Anyway, the wording of Derivish Dance states that the "off-hand must be free". Most initial ideas to try and circumvent this for some sort of benefit, like a Ring of Force Shield, are prevented by clever wording (in the case of the ring, the word "wield" is specifically used).
Now what I'd like to know is whether or not Dervish Dance works with the Magus' Spell Combat and, regardless of if it does or not, if it was *intended* to.
From what I can see so far, there's no specifically stated mechanic that prevents the two from functioning together. Spell Combat states that it functions "much like" two weapon fighting, but with that wording it is hardly more than an aesthetic reference point. Since, from what I understand, Dervish Dance functions as long as there is no weapon or shield in the other hand, this means items such as wands are OK. This indicates to me that it functions with Spell Combat.
Anyone who'd like to weigh in on this, especially if there is some obvious piece of rules that i have just completely missed, pelase do.
I seem to recall that some time ago, about half a year to a year ago, someone posted a by no means complete but fairly extensive list of arcane spells with no somatic components.
I have used the message board search for about a half hour to no avail. Either the post was buried in a thread with little to do with the subject or my search-fu is quite weak. Can anyone do a better job tracking it down for me? Better yet, anyone know the thread in question off of the top of their heads? Links would be appreciated.
I rather like the Rage Prophet. I like prestige classes that attempt a theme-y mashup of two classes you wouldn't normally put together as I think it can inspire fun character concepts.
I think the Rage Prophet does a pretty good job, but falls up short in one key area: Selecting Rage Powers or Oracle Revelations with a level requirement. Since you probably won't ever get past level 5-7 in each of the foundation classes it makes certain Rage Powers or Revelations that might fit your character concept really nicely out of reach.
Now, there is the Savage Seer class ability of the Prophet to allow powers obtained to advance. I was thinking that it wouldn't be at all problematic to houserule in a clause allowing Rage Prophet levels to stack with Barbarian levels or Oracle levels for determing selectable Rage Powers or Revelations. Since there's a good chance anyone wanting more of these will be getting them through the "Extra X" feats it doesn't seem too gamebreaking to me. Feats are thin for the character, so a slight boost to what you can do with them seems fair.
I generally avoid house rules and only implement them when some sort of mechanic REALLY sticks in my craw. Fortunately, I am one of those poeople who is pretty happy with Pathfinder's mechanics and design 99% of the time. Unfortunately, this falls into that tiny 1%.
So, those of you out there adept at GMing and tinkering with mechanics: Is this a sound adjustment, or is it too much?
Before anyone says anything, yes I searched the forums (multiple times) before asking this.
Can someone tell me the progression for reduced movment in armor for speed values over 30'? It has been ages since this question came up for me and I cannot remember and I also do not have access to my books at the moment. Big thanks to anyone who can clear this up for me.
I am going to begin running a Kingmaker campaign for my weekly Pathfinder group, and one of my players is rather inexperienced and often needs (a lot) of help building characters. She generally prefers to be a person who hits things and the game we've been playing up until now has seen her using a solid Ranger build (Treantmonk's "Switch Hitter").
For this game I am building her something a *little* different: a Mobile Fighter. The idea is to give her a slight change of pace by going from someone who stands there and WALLOPS things to someone who runs, flips, and jumps around the battlefield to where she's needed and then still hits pretty hard. It's 25 point buy and this is what I've got so far:
Str.18
Dex.15
Con.14
Int.10
Wis.13
Cha.10
(I know I could "dump stat" Charisma, but I did last time and I'm trying to avoid feelings of "playing the same character".)
Any suggestions as to how I could tweak the character a bit to perform better but without deviating from the concept I mentioned above would be appreciated. Also, advice on Feat progression past level 8 would be wonderful as well.
For my own amusement, I'm considering running a Halfling Paladin that primarily focuses on bows (in homage to one of my favorite Baldur's Gate characters).
I am NOT concerned with "optimization" but *would* like any helpful build suggestions for viability (i.e. Way less feats than a fighter, plus Paladin-enhancing feats to consider, so what should be prioritized).
Call me weird, but this is possibly my favorite prestige class ever. Bard is my all time favorite class (go ahead, laugh, you are far from the first) and a prestige class that is basically just one huge callback to 1E bards is fantastic in my opinion. That, and the flavor is pretty nice. Bard/Druid hybrid just creates a very nice and rather unique aesthetic.
SO! On to conversion. First of all, I think the class should be available by around level 6 or 7 rather than ten, simply to increase the sense of the prestige class as your character's identity.
Secondly, I am aware of all the arguments made about not having full caster levels, splitting spellcasting focus, Mystic Theurge is awful, etc. I am of the camp that does not see these deficiencies as particularly huge issues, but the Fochlucan Lyrist as written in 3.5 is rather underpowered for Pathfinder.
What I would like to end up with is a preservation of the general concept: a prestige class that continues to increase spellcasting for both bard and druid and a scoche of their class abilities as well. I am considering adding a class feature that allows Lyrist levels to stack with Druid levels for the Nature Bond feature (animal companion or domain) to give the class a little "oomph". Also, upping the hit die to d10 to keep it in line with it's full BaB progression. Does anyone think this is too much? I am by no means a power gamer, I just want the class to be viable in Pathfinder.
Lastly, some sort of progressing class feature would be nice to give it a Pathfinder feel, but I coming up with nothing. Sound off! I'd love to hear your suggestions!
I'd had a 3.5 steampunk idea on the backburner for a long time, and my recently renewed interest in D&D via Pathfinder has brought it to the forefront.
I'm hoping to go light on the amount of conversion. I've removed several base classes and intend to replace them with alternate base classes from 3.5 supplements (after some possibly extensive conversion, sometimes you just can't avoid the old elbow grease). The adjustments to the core classes being used should be minimal, mostly changing some armor and weapon proficiencies to account for tech level and changes in weaponry. I also removed a couple basic races and replaced them with some appropriate alternates.
The basic idea is that the world was once a typical D&D world (essentially, your basic Western fantasy setting) until the gods got their tights in a bunch and more or less cut off the material plane from all of the others. The quick explanation is that magic (especially divine) changed a lot and people understandably started focusing on technology as an alternative. A moderate amount of arcane power still exists in the material plane (though priority of its application has shifted to support technology) and divine magic barely exists any more (no gods), the natural power of the planet's spirits being the only source for it.
I'd like some commentary on the class/race loadout I've got so far. These are the early stages, so a lot of things will likely change but I think this is a good base. Advice on the slight adaptations to the core classes and conversion of the other base classes is also highly appreciated.
Classes:
Fighters: Mostly unchanged. Will probably give proficiency with all firearms and remove heavy armor proficiency.
Rogue: Also largely unaltered. Likely add pistol proficiency and change some of the magic-oriented rogue talents (Or are the called tricks? Can't remember.) to tech-based ones.
Bard: No changes. It's a plot point why the bard's unconventional "music-powered" magic hasn't been affected by the slight reduction of overall magicalness in the world.
Barbarian: Also unchanged. There's still plenty of tribal cultures in the world, and they don't see much worth in all of these newfangled devices.
Monk: Unchanged, again. The other side of the coin from the tribal peoples, stuffy ascetics devoted to personal perfection likewise care little for all that is newfangled.
Spirit Shaman: The only divine spellcasters left, hailing for the aforementioned tribal societies. While it's going to take some serious work to bring in line with the Pathfinder core classes, I want to preserve as much of it's flavor as I can.
Artificer: No brainer. Don't think I'll have much trouble adapting it, either. A lot of concerns about their ease of overproducing magic items in PF's system will be addressed by changes I'm making to magic item's overall cost in the world and the fact that Artificers will be the only source for many of them at all.
Warlock: Again, hopefully will not require TOO much work to Pathfinderize. Regardless, his ability to create magic items is going to be removed completely.
Swashbuckler: Fits the setting to a tee, should require little conversion work, and mitigates the loss of melee class options created by the lack of Paladin and Ranger.
Questions, comments, criticism (thoughtful and polite), and advice will all be accepted with great appreciation.
