I happen to think that playing as a huge animated object with the robot subtype (Bestiary 5) using equipment from the Technology Guide is a great way to go fighting dragons.
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There's also the Mastercrafter feat from d20 Future. Needs a little bit of translation to work in a fantasy setting though.
Necromongers?
There's the World Serpent Inn web enhancement for the 3.0 Manual of the Planes. I think I remember something similar in Beyond Countless Doorways, but it has been a long time since I've read that book. I'll need to dig through the storage unit to find it.
I am about 99.99% sure that Mythic is suppose to scratch the "epic level" niche, and that we will never see a dedicated epic level book for in the 3.0/3.5 sense of the word There's always 3rd Party:
Your wish list sounds exactly like the d20 variant of Big Eyes Small Mouth.
Note: the following is not a haiku. Depublicrat or Remoplican. Don't want to vote for R'Obomney. Sometimes I want to just write in "The Other Guy", but what if someone names themself that? Same issue if somebody changes their name to "None Of The Above". Bad political year.
Yeah but he wasn't quite at full capacity because he had just woken up.If he had gotten a cup of coffee or a shower, Game Over man. Just wait until he gets his glasses on and grabs his belt. No amount of running can be sufficient.
There's an error on the example races page. http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advancedRaceGuide/raceBuilder/exampleRac es.html It looks like every instance of the letters "cr" got replaced with "rp", leaving a lot of words misspelled.
I've always felt that the 3.x Sorcerer should have just been called the Psion, since it captures most of the feel of earlier editions of Psionics, while still making it sort-of Vancian.
Makes me think of the movie teasers: <*voice of Mr Moviephone>
<ominous music plays as minotaur roars on the screen> Mythic. Coming to a game store near you.
Found this in both the PDF and in the PRD: The Adamantine Golem lists in its creation prerequisites the spell "crushing fist", which does not exist. The correct spell should be either "clenched fist" or "crushing hand".
If it is due to homosexuality, I'd go with a magic floating incubation orb and would have to think more on how I would handle such a thing. The easiest answer to that is the Girdle of Opposite Gender. They can change back after gestation with a Remove Curse. If they don't want anyone to know they changed, even if just temporarily, they can use a Hat of Disguise to hide the transformation.
The books I would most like to see Paizo's take on are the Epic Level Handbook and Deities&Demigods. I would also like to see a psionics book, though subtracting the spellpoint mechanic which it seems most Paizo devs are either not fond of or actively dislike, the psionic classes would be best done as archetypes for other classes. (Psion/Wilder->Sorcerer, Erudite->Wizard, Psychic Warrior->Paladin, Soulknife->Rogue) Others have mentioned Magic of Incarnum, and while the incarnum classes are interesting from a mechanic standpoint of turning your body into a magic item, the flavor of incarnum was never particularly appealing to me. It strikes me that something similar would be best done as archetypes of Monk or Druid.
You're remembering 3rd edition, which had a Level Adjustment to add to a monster's hit dice before making it a PC. PFRPG did away with those, mostly. If you're wanting it for a 3rd edition game, the only place an ECL for a Solar was listed was in Dragon #293, which was a precursor to the Savage Species book and was intended for the 3.0 versions of the monsters, which estimated it at ECL 36. Some of the estimates from that issue of Dragon were way too high, though, and many got adjusted down quite a bit by the time they saw print in Savage Species, and adjusted further by the time the ECLs showed up in the 3.5 monster manual. All of the estimates for ECL's higher than 20 were never used in either newer book, though. The new rule of thumb for PF for a monster that doesn't specifically have a version for PC's is to basically use the monster's CR as a starting character level, keeping all other stats as is. (ie. no rolling/point-buy for stats then adding bonuses like in 3e. A monster's stats in the bestiary are the stats they start with, period.) The powers a Solar gets when taken individually are not unrealistic for a 23rd level character, but I don't believe it would be possible (or at least not easy) to build a regular character that gets the combination of all those powers from some strange build of classes. I am fairly certain that there are people who could build an optimized character of 23rd level that would be more powerful than a Solar, however I am not one of them.
Poster really does not understand exactly what a neutron bomb is, and why it can't do what he thinks it does. Or more to the point, why an invading force wouldn't use such a device. While there may be many reasons why an invading alien force would not use such devices, there are also reasons why they would. (It would, of course, take more than one. Unless they had a reason for using one really big one for wiping out all living organisms, such as terraforming the entire planet to their own specifications.) The reasons that they would be attractive to an alien force are the same reasons that they were banned by every government.
Anticlimax - The Test of the Starstone is a "shell game" in which a being places the starstone under a cup and mixes it up with other cups. Each player must successfully guess which cup the stone is under in order to become a deity. *spoiler* -- The stone ends up in his left coat pocket. Aroden knew where he was going to put it.
I really want to get an octopus familiar for a beast-bonded witch, but I am unsure how to keep it alive before I am high enough level to have magic items to do so. If you're not in a campaign that keeps you near the sea all the time, it might be a bit awkward but you could just keep it in a bucket. Depending on the size of the octopus, it might need more of a small barrel, of course. (A giant octopus would require at least a 500 gallon barrel, a cart, and a team of horses to take around with you.) As for what to feed it, octopi eat crabs, crayfish, small fish, snails and molluscs, so you should be able to keep it alive so long as you're at least near water.
Actually, applying the Great Wheel / Hourglass Greyhawk cosmology to all of the campaign settings was a 2eRevised Planescape retcon.With the two booklets from the original 1st edition gray box set in front of me, I'm seeing that the setting is FILLED with references to the cosmology of the great wheel... Found my old character notes from the game I was remembering. (My primary exposure to the older works in the FR setting.) I was half right. (And thus half wrong.) It appears the GM was running his campaign with FR having its own wheel. (It was almost 15 years ago, so either I didn't remember or wasn't completely clear on at the time, that it appears he was applying Spelljammer rules first, Planescape second. There may have been only one Sigil, though.) Though, Mulhorand was apparently written at various points assuming its own isolated cosmology bleeding over from the portals and deities from Egypt. At other times, the Planescape view was used to just say it was the respective deitys' realms in their own corner of the wheel. I don't currently have access to a full FR archive (haven't seen that GM since a mutual friend's wedding 7 years ago), so I cannot say at what point which author said what.
Actually, applying the Great Wheel / Hourglass Greyhawk cosmology to all of the campaign settings was a 2eRevised Planescape retcon. Before that, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance were written assuming distinct and separate cosmologies. (FR even had instances of different cosmologies for different areas on the world map.)
The one thing I've noticed that has ground most high level games I've played in to a crawl is players gaming the system to get more actions per round. At least one of those games had one player trying to bring in a ridiculously multiclass character having a mount, multiple animal companions, a cohort from leadership, an improved familiar, _and_ a group of hirelings, and still trying to argue for letting his cohort have yet another slightly smaller army following him. If I remember correctly, this led to a house rule allowing only one follower in combat per player character. I went one step further in trying to help speed things up and stopped bringing my one cohort into battle completely, maintaining that as he was fully trusted, he was staying back at the castle running the city.
The only official way is for a humanoid spellcaster to take all 10 levels of the "Renegade Mastermaker" prestige class (Magic of Eberron). Lifespark Construct from the Advanced Bestiary isn't a far step from living construct though.
I seem to remember there was some template in 3.5 that made the creature into a construct, not warforged specific though. I'd love to see a Pathfinder version though. Especially if it had a "simple" application too. You might be thinking of the "Effigy Creature" template from Complete Arcane.
The way the game is currently designed is not conducive to the infinite progression the ELH tried to shoehorn in. When some abilities use a fraction of character level and others are equal to character level, there will always be a point where the difference between automatic success and automatic failure is more than 20, meaning that the difference between classes becomes too great for a class that does not improve at character level to make any significant contribution in that area. Consider BAB: since the lowest multiple is 1/2, if you want to have monster armor classes scale appropriately to keep things challenging for a fighter, those AC's will become unhittable for any other class on anything other than a natural 20. (The same happens with the difference between good and poor saving throws, though not until later, but still meaning that most characters will eventually have a save that they will always fail.) The ELH tried to mitigate this problem by changing all progressions to 1/2 character level, but that was a patch that still shows its warts eventually, particularly with hit points. 4e tried to avoid the issue by stretching the range a bit granting extra bonuses when you reach a new "tier", and keeping a level limit of 30. Setting a level limit is the only way to keep the existing multiplers on progressions and not have the d20 become irrelevant in one situation or another. (The other ways are to either stop progressions altogether, including hit points, like BECMI and 2e did, or make all progressions tied directly to character level.) As for whether or not Paizo will ever print a lvl 20+ book, I sincerely hope they will. I admit that the things a character is capable of by around level 30 or so are more akin to the Labors of Heracles than to standard fantasy tropes, but I personally enjoy that style of game as much as I enjoy a gritty over-realistic low-level game.
...there are multiple creatures exceeding CR 20, and most of them have DR/epic, but there are no epic weapons....hm...perhaps they are foreshadowing their intentions. One could ask Mr. Jacobs, I suppose, if they ever considered it? In fairness to the rules, a +4 or +5 Bane weapon can overcome DR/epic, meaning that a very well prepared character of level <20 can still overcome those creatures DR.
Definite second on the Amber multiverse: why settle for just one universe? Though I'd prefer as a half-breed, so as to be able to walk both the Pattern and the Logrus.
Just like the flu, you can't contract two different flu's at the same time, one wins over the other. Yes you can have multiple flu viruses at the same time. You just get sicker the more infections you are having to fight off. As for Lycanthropy, if you as a DM want to allow multiple lycanthropy, just be careful that your players don't start to just use it as a power-up method. I've had a DM who would allow you to have 2 alternate forms, since his world had 2 moons. (Though I suspect that the only reason he was threatening to allow it was because of the humorous combination of were-bat and tortoise. Long story.)
I believe, I recall James mentioning the various reasons, as to why they don't do any of what you mentioned. Messing with their bread and butter is not such a good idea. However, I wonder if (ie. hope that) they might float the idea of occasionally doing a "part 7 of 6" in the Modules line, as an addendum to the most popular of APs.
I second this idea.
STR: 16 (Based on encumbrance tables and max press. While actively weightlifting in college it was more like 18, bordering on 19 when I injured my back badly enough I had to quit.)
Move to Washington, there's no state income tax. But how are the sales and property taxes? Not to mention license/registration fees...
New GM? I mean Sheeeesh. Pet Dinosaur, Werewolf, finding the campaign equivilent of the One Ring? Next thing he'll be giving you a battlemech... Battlemechs should be withheld until at least level 16. Sheesh, what is he thinking... (Unless of course the game is based around them. Most people like my campaign world losely based on Final Fantasy and Vision of Escaflowne.)
But, there really is no reason for them to publish the rules. Dreamscarred Press already published the rules and many people like their ruleset. There is one reason for them to publish psionics rules, and that is that many within Paizo do not like the non-Vancian psionics system, but some of them do want a "mind-magic" caster. (Coinciding with a potential Vudran AP, if I remember correctly.) Most of the flavor of a psion could be replicated with a couple of archetypes for Wizard or Sorcerer, but the added flexibility that the psion enjoyed in previous editions would be lost without some extra rules. (The best option I've seen for gaining that type of flexibility and still keeping it mostly Vancian is the channeler classes from Wheel of Time d20. Not OGL, but the mechanics of the classes could be cribbed for ideas.) The same basic reason exists for Paizo eventually getting around to writing an Epic (or Mythic or whatever it will be called) extension to the PFRPG rules: They have some stories that they want to tell that will need them. (Namely, several devs have said that they would love to do a module for the Starstone. I think an expedition to the Worldwound might also be a potential use of Epic rules.) When the time is right for Paizo to write the products that will need the new rules, the new rules will be written.
In 2nd ed AD&D, mindless/non-intelligent undead were always neutral, and only intelligent undead were evil. The thought process there was that the mindless undead were little more than constructs that happened to be made out of bodies, differing from a flesh golem only in that they were powered by negative energy rather than an elemental spirit. Positive energy mummies came from the idea that Life was based on the balance of positive energy and negative energy, so a mummy was more of a body turned into a construct with a little positive energy to provide for motion and prevent it from decaying like an empty corpse. Prior to 3e, alignment only existed in the outer planes, and all the inner planes were entirely neutral.
I'm going to have to use that idea for the next non-serious game I play in.
UFO's are simple. They work like this: 1 - Look up.
UFO's certainly exist. It's extraterrestrial spacecraft that are questionable.
You know, these kinds of questions make alignment seem less like a 2d axis, and more like an icosahedron.
Harder question: The good wizard divines glimpses of the future of the child, and sees that they would be wracked with depression and torment as an adult without intervention, but would otherwise live as a good person. He decides not only to wipe their memory but that he should play guardian angel for the child during times he divined that further misfortune might come, secretly keeping them safe from harm until they are of age.The child develops a sense of superiority, thinking that no harm can possibly befall them, and becomes a horrible person as an adult. Was helping the wrong thing to do?
As I think about how I would like to see epic eventually handled for PF, I would prefer to see the "bridging" aspect as part of an all encompassing book, high-level/epic/mythic/demi-god-esque/as powerful as you want. Put something in the book for everyone, and almost everyone will want it. All of the world building aspects that affect high level continue to affect higher tiers, with varying levels of detail. I could always use some handy references for coming up with evil cults, religions, demon lords performing world shaking rituals, regional deities, etc. If the focus of the book is on the world building aspects, with some crunchy bits thrown in to help you stat out the powerful entities should you want to stat them out, I'm pretty sure that would be a product that most people could get behind.
The difficulties that a GM sees in running the game at high level (15+) do become amplified at epic level. The easiest workaround is to take a more narrative approach to the game, making the game more based around politics than combat. This is the approach that AD&D took, with "name" level characters, that stopped gaining additional hit dice, but still got more levels and started automatically gaining followers and such. Not everybody likes a political game, though. It isn't hard to continue to challenge epic characters in combat even with mid-level monsters. Just add hazardous environments to the mix that don't affect your monsters, but severely hamper your players. Depending on what you allow your players to use, this gets more and more difficult the further you press into epic, however. Hence the need for a level cap somewhere. Some prefer the level cap at 20, I happen to prefer it around 30 to 40. I do agree that there needs to be more written about how to run high level games, since they can get derailed fast. It is also best to start a game that you intend to run into high levels at low level, so that the players have more investment into the character than just what are the best stats they can come up with.
A viking campaign is what Land of the Linnorm Kings made me think of. Made me nostalgic for an old college campaign made with the AD&D Vikings sourcebook. Good times, raiding and pillaging, fighting sea serpents. I like the idea of a Historical AP as well. I think it would be fun to see a module or two of a stone age / ice age adventure, hunting mammoths on the tundra. I wonder if there is a way to make an AP cross a large span of Golarian history without seeming contrived, such as the PCs having to re-live key moments in history in order to find some specific pieces of information that weren't big enough to make it into the history books, but are key to the quest...
Many of the campaigns I've played in end between 8 and 13, since the DM has finished the story that they set out to tell. This is also true of the Adventure Paths, which usually run to between 12 and 15.
It is always possible to re-scale the encounters in an adventure path to match whatever level your characters are.
A favorite tactic of another DM in my old college group was to make kobolds be effective at any level. They may be physically weak, but were as intelligent as an average human, and fiendishly clever at making traps. Even a high level party had to worry about why a kobold was running away in a specific direction, since they might have put up several ambushes along the way. Also, never crawl through the low tunnel in the kobold lair. You count as prone, and you can't make a dex save vs the guillotine trap, or defend against the coup-de-grace with a sledgehammer from such a tight space when you stick your head out the other end. Also, use the environment against the players. The monsters can take tactical advantage from terrain, making even low to mid-level monsters effective against an epic group. You can even sanely continue into epic without any limit by limiting Wish and Miracle (make the only kind of wish that they get be the kind a sadistic genie would grant), only give poor quality or cryptic information from divination spells, and don't use anything but carefully selected feats from the 3e/3.5 epic level handbook.
I would like to see an extended AP (ie. 1 issue per month for 12 months - the length of two normal APs) that stretched across the same scope (1--20+) as the Dungeon APs (Savage Tide, Age of Worms, Shackled City). According to James Jacobs, Word count on the Dungeon APs was around 324,000, and a current AP in 6 months is about 342,000. Given that the old Dungeon APs were printed in 12 to 13 months, I would love to see what Paizo can do now in the same amount of time. I doubt we would ever see such a massive AP, as it would be a possibly risky deviation from the existing (and proven) release schedule. I can dream though.
The Channeler from WoT-RPG is more powerful as written than a typical 3e/3.5 casting class. I haven't re-evaluated them against the PFRPG casters, but my gut feeling is that it should be comparable to a sorcerer. You may want to put some additional limits on overchanneling in order to keep balance with other casters, if it becomes a problem.
The "easiest" way I can see to extend an AP into the highest levels would be to make it a double feature. By that, I mean two APs with overlapping story arcs that combined make a double length AP, where the first goes from Lvl 1 to 12/13 and the second goes up to (or past) 20. I believe it would be less risky from a business standpoint than simply starting an AP at 10th, since you can still keep the steady progression from 1st.
I think the intent was that fly speed increases by 10ft for each time you spend +4RP, and separately, you may increase maneuverability with a cost of +2RP per step. The wording here should be clarified.
A good question is: How much of that 200 years was spent in the timeless alternate universe? The Doctor would probably count it as time spent, whether time was actually passing or not. Timey wimey and all that.
To address the animosity in this thread: The OP left the PCGen project in early 2005 following a disagreement and several public arguments.
NotMousse,
All I can say, it is free, People don't get paid for it. Your characterization of the association is not really accurate. A Brief History of PCGen:PCGen began existence as a VB program, and migrated to Java (around '97-'98) to provide multi-platform support. Around version 2.x, when the project was trying to get certified for D20 System compatibility, WotC informed the project that they were in violation of copyright by including all the content from books that were not under the OGL license. At that point, the project dumped all the files containing non-OGL WotC copyrighted material, and implemented a very cautious data source vetting process, gaining explicit permission from any publisher before including data sets in the distribution. At the same time, some of the data set developers split from the core PCGen project to form the company CodeMonkey Publishing, which obtained a license from WotC for creating PCGen data sets of all the D&D books, re-implemented all the WotC book sets from scratch, and began selling these data sets. There were many cases of CodeMonkey Publishing developers submitting code to the open source PCGen project in order to support features needed in their commercial data-sets, but there was no other interaction, due to legal reasons surrounding the licensing agreement between CMP and WotC. Around '05, WotC revoked its license from CodeMonkey Publishing, eventually leading to the demise of the company a couple years later, as their primary revenue stream was cut off. The open source project PCGen has continued on, in a purely volunteer manner, as the core of the project has always been.
I've got my 23rd level Fighter(4)/Cleric(19), who's favorite spell is a an area-of-effect version of Blade Barrier. (He slices, he dices, he even makes julienne orc.) Also in the same game, another player has a Lich Wizard(19), who developed a spell to summon himself from his own private demiplane onto the material plane (unlimited duration), thus making him even harder to kill. Unintended consequence of that spell, though, happened when he ended up in an area of antimagic. He temporarily winked out of existence until the antimagic field was gone.
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