The closest simple formula I could come up with is 50*3^(spell level), where ^ is exponentiation, not bitwise and. The formula isn't useful for much, unless you're planning to make spells higher than 6th level. Edit: My formula is the same as the "multiply by 3 to get to the next level" formula mentioned above. But I did linear regression to get the answer, so mine is better. :-) OK, so R did the linear regression. If you want to use 49.30374*(2.97725)^x, go right ahead. And the model A*B^(x^n) for n slightly bigger than 1 is probably even better (I haven't figured out what n should be yet, just that 2 is much too large).
Presenting:
Adding the Psionics Expanded Work in Progress points to Psionics Expanded puts that book at 425 points. Adding the Path of War Expanded Work in Progress to Path of War Expanded puts that book at 326 points.
Top 10 Publishers of All Time (through December 2017):
If one wishes to conglomerate Super Genius Games, Rogue Genius Games, OtherWorld Creations, and Everyman Gaming [products from each have fallen into Rogue Genius Games' current catalog], that adds up to a whopping 5685 points. One may wish to ignore Pathfinder Paper Minis. The next few publishers are Drop Dead Studios (773 points), Big Finish Productions (755 points), Louis Porter Jr. Design (694 points), and Purple Duck Games (553 points). Jon Brazer Enterprises is at 450 points; the rest are below 300. [edit: minor formatting]
Presenting:
Kobold Quarterly 21 is up there because of a sale that lasted through four of five weeks of December. All the bundles have been bumped off the list. Only one Starfinder book made the list (The Starjammer stuff listed, and the Aethera Campaign setting, are for Pathfinder). Both Spheres of Might and In the Company of Vampires did very well, for only being available since mid-October (and KQ dominating sales in most of December). Top 10 Publishers of 2017:
If one wishes to ignore the 220 points Kobold Press got from its KQ sale, they drop to 49 points, below Louis Porter Jr. Design (76 points) and newcomer Stroh Hammer (52 points), which I believe is Starfinder-only. Jon Brazer Enterprises is at 42 points. [Edit: fixed ranking numbers, minor formatting]
Holidays may slow them down, but they cannot stop the Dire Orc (CR 18).
The Demon Trap Spider (CR 17) is ready for lunch.
A Thunder Lizard (CR 15) is a fearsome beast, indeed.
The Ellack (CR 14) helps explain why one shouldn't use condemned prisoners for experimentation. Fortunately, an ellack apocalypse is far less likely than a shadow apocalypse.
The Station Giant (CR 13), reporting for duty. I'm not sure if its disrupt technology ability is too strong, too weak, or just about right.
The Eclipse Dragon (CR 11) didn't turn out as awesomely as I had hoped. Someone who knows solarians better than I do could probably help me do a better job. It's probably not quite as tough as the young adult blue dragon, but it's also not supposed to be a "true" dragon.
The Virtual Ooze (CR 9) might be the most intelligent-seeming mindless creature in existence.
The Drop Bearcat (CR 8) is a fierce animal that would as soon fall on you and eat you as look at you. Pray that you never see a dire drop bearcat. Then again, you won't ever see a dire drop bearcat, because it will kill you before you know it.
The Abyssal Cyberhound (CR 7) is probably the right power level to be put on the 5th level summon creature chart. Even though Alien Archive doesn't list such things, I was very tempted to put the easy-to-miss aspects of the constructed ability and line effect of the plasma rifle in the stat block. I'm finding that there are some things (like ranges on ranged attacks) that I would prefer were in the stat block, but aren't. Maybe I can make a list.
Here's my first try at an undead, and at including a corresponding template. I'm not confident in my understanding of how templates work in this new system, though. The "energy drain" ability is also a little generic; I noticed that none of the undead in Alien Archive have energy drain. I'm not sure what a better replacement would be, though. Here is the Hollow Husk (CR 6).
The Gul-Lakthra (CR 5) makes its living selling other peoples' secrets.
And now comes a Spell Engine (CR 4). This is a lookout/guard style spell engine. I imagine there are many versions of this one across the galaxy. I'm pondering swapping out sense through for a constant see invisibility, and adding a different 2nd-level spell (inject nanobots? make whole? microbot assault? security seal? So many choices). The ghost sound is there to set off an alarm, but it can have other uses, too.
Here are a couple of word processor templates for stat blocks, in case anyone is interested. I tried to put in too much, rather than too little. Open Document Text alien template Microsoft Word .docx alien template I'm sure there are plenty of improvements to be made.
Spacecaptain Pillbug Lebowski wrote: Now I'm curious for which kind of "dark matter" did the OP wanted to see in the rules. What TV show(s)/movie(s)/other fiction's depiction of dark matter did you want to see in the game? They put an "XD" in the original post, so I'm assuming they are referring to the cable channel Disney XD. Or they are joking.
Here is the Myrmar (CR 3), a foot soldier in the celestial armies. With body armor, a machine gun, and holy hand grenades. Apparently, looking at the aliens wearing actual armor in the Alien Archive, they get their AC from their armor and Dex, but ignore Max Dex to AC and Armor Check Penalty to skills. (See the aeon guard and formian warrior.) I originally gave the myrmar the melee striker gear boost and a carbon steel curve blade, which is by the guidelines, but that gave it 1d10+9 melee damage, which puts it between CR 4 and CR 5 in damage. That seemed too much, so I gave it a weaker weapon (with the holy weapon fusion) and a different gear boost. Its damage is still above typical damage, and it has reach. I also was originally thinking of making it summonable (the CR is correct), but its stats are so far beyond the other CR 3 summonable creatures that I don't think it's a good idea. If I were to do so, I'd likely eliminate its protective aura, or at least cut down the bonuses and area of effect.
Today we have the Silektha (CR 2). They could probably be adapted to a PC race pretty easily; mostly I didn't want to bother trying to figure out how to handle the poison. And I'm not sure which ability score should get the -2.
The last critter was actually yesterday's; today's alien is the Inkling (CR 1). Which doesn't have anything to do with squid. I'm considering adding DR n/cold iron, for some low value of n, to the creature, but I'm not quite sure yet.
I don't mind. The more, the merrier! This one wasn't originally intended to be (another) magical beast, or a relative of an existing creature, but it happened. Behold, the Frill-Gnawer (CR 1/2).
Inspired by Rawr!'s Rawr! Monsters! thread, I've decided to (try to) post one monster a day for November, using the NPC/alien creator in Alien Archive. This partially an exercise for me in getting used to the new monster creation rules. Anyway, here's the first creature: the Fire Wasp (CR 1/3).
GeraintElberion wrote:
If it's under the GM's control, it's still an NPC, so there's no need to change anything. If it becomes a player, then you'd use the player version, and the creature would (probably) suddenly become weaker. Bad guys often get weaker when they become regulars.
I'm not a 3PP, I don't have my copy of Alien Archive yet, and I still have a lot to do, but I'm working toward something.
I'd say archaeology is a specialization of Culture, but that's not an option with the Scholar theme. If I had to choose one or the other, I'd pick Life Science. [Similarly, Mathematics isn't either Life Science or Physical Science, but I'd pick Physical Science for a mathematics Scholar.] Edit: If one wanted to be a "scholar" of history, or literature, or the like, what theme would work best?
Here's what I've found, with an example for each:
Did I miss anything? [I may have enough for all but 2 of the dice listed ...]
I found six or seven differences between Small and Medium creatures:
The first and the last overlap. Is that enough for them to be different size categories? That's probably up to an individual's taste/opinion.
I'm pretty sure Legendary Games thinks it's OK. (Alien Bestiary contains more than just converted monsters, but it will convert some monsters.)
My hope is to have something working by the end of September, and then when Alien Archive comes out, adapt it to Starfinder. We'll see if I can get it done in time, and how easy it is to adapt. I'm working on some infrastructure for spellcasting and the various options right now. Lots of changes for step 6, but steps 7 and 8 should be easier when I'm done.
Maezer wrote:
Rathendar wrote: I believe the fellow may be referring to Shackled City.(Though i don't recall a gap that large for that one myself.) Kids these days. Get off my lawn. And 64 pages of full color? Back in my day ... Spoiler: I was referring to the two-year gap between D3 and Q1 in the GDQ sequence of AD&D modules.
I was updating my files for this just now, when I noticed: Skill Challenge Handbook is currently 3rd for 2017, and 19th overall. Not bad for being out for just over 3 months. Edit: I'm a bit torn. Now that Starfinder products are regularly showing up on the lists, does this still belong in the Third-Party Pathfinder RPG Products area?
Deadmanwalking wrote:
Easily?
Below should be a directory for a Java program. It's a Dropbox link; let me know if it doesn't work properly. The program does nothing useful; at this stage, it is more of a proof-of-concept than anything else. Even so, I'm sure it has bugs. I am inordinately proud of it; I learned a lot while making it. Since my formal training in computer programming is over two decades old, UI interfaces are something I never learned much about. Java is pretty new, too, but it's close enough to C/C++ for me to muddle through. I did a lot of Google searching; a lot of the help I found was from Stack Exchange and java.com.
Steel_Wind wrote: Starfinder, unexpectedly, has an XP track that has abandoned the Medium Track and has reverted to the Fast Track (and only the Fast Track) in part to cover up the fact that an AP volume is ~32-33 pages of adventure, instead of ~48-50. [citation needed] on the "in part to cover up" portion.
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