|
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Paizo Pathfinder® GameMastery® Planet Stories® Paizo Games | |||||||||||||||||||
| About Paizo Messageboards News Paizo Blog Help/FAQ | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Posts
 Recent Posts
Going to stear clear of permenent undead...though a spell to make him so bears thinking about... I didn't post up his skills, but yeah...he's pretty good in that department. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong spot for NPC gold. What I have him at is 9 HD, which according to the chart is 7,800. This sound right? His headband is over half of that...
Alright, wasn't as naughty as I thought it was...but going back over it was good. Reminded me that I wrote it before I got my copy of the Darkmoon Guide...so, this may be revised at some point in the next month or so... Where You Find Yourself
introduction to the setting:
A rough community wholly owned by the local Lumber Consortium, Falcon’s Hollow rests just off the southern edge of Darkmoon Vale. It is a blunt sawdust-choked stop on a winding trade route to Ptolus, city of adventurers. Home to fewer than 1,500 humans and a smattering of other races, most of the townsfolk care only for the paltry coins paid for their backbreaking labor, and what debase comforts they can spend them on. A few however, understand that what’s bad for one is bad for all, and so the community thrives on a tenacious mix of greed, debauchery, and stubborn self-reliance. Falcon’s Hollow is, to put it bluntly but honestly, one of the worst **** hole towns you are ever likely to find yourselves in. Only the foolish, desperate, or utterly mad willingly call this den of sin and suffering home, and once here all but the most hopeless do everything in their power to get out. Unfortunately for many of them, the Hollow has it’s ways of keeping you in. The largest work force in Falcon’s Hollow is logging, though copper mines have been active in the area longer than the Hollow has been here, and some of it‘s richest inhabitants are the mine managers. Several ancient cairns dot the hills north of Darkmoon Vale. Ancient burial mounds from a civilization lost to the ages. These were once full of coins, jewels, and strange artifacts, some believe predate even Thasilon, and attracted hordes of adventurers to the area. Years ago these cairns were plumbed of their last goods, and though the occasional down on their luck adventurer passes into Falcon’s Hollow, with a tattered map, making wild claims of one last unlooted cairn. Few find anything of value, and most end up trapped in the Hollows, quickly joining ranks with the rest of the broken down addicts. One of the most popular dens of indulgence is an establishment known to the locals merely as the Emporium. A veritable smorgasbord of vice is available here, from the hazy opium den and smoke filled gambling parlor upstairs, catering to the Hollow’s high class, to the cheap and graphic thrills of freak’s ally, where for a few copper you can see all manner of oddities of nature, and for a much higher price you can become as intimate as you like with them. The every-day residents of the Hollow are a sturdy breed of people. Frontier living, along with little to look forward to beyond the escape offered by cheap whiskey and cheaper companionship, gives people a dark outlook on life. Though not everyone is so thoroughly in the ruts, even those with something to look forward to beside blacklung and gambling debts have adopted something of a gallows sense of humor. No one religion holds sway over the bedraggled masses here, though several cults, sects, and mad prophets have found a haven from persecution in the frontier community. The graveyard of Falcon’s Hollow is tended by a small sisterhood of Pharasmites, protecting the resting places of the dead from desecration by the living. A cult of fanatical flagellants claim to worship Milani in the poorest neighborhood, offering a twisted sense of hope to those desperate enough to seek them out. Iomedae is the patron deity of the near-by garrison, home to the soldiers who have sworn to protect this area of the realm, though most folk in the Hollow would rather they stick to business else where. A mysterious group, known as the bronze-wood lodge exists to protect Darkmoon Vale from the predations of the Lumber consortium and Falcon’s Hollow’s mine managers. Not far to the south is a monastery dedicated to physical perfection, controlled by a collection of Irori worshipers.
What You Are Involved In
introduction to the campaign:
You and several other desperate souls have decided to take a gamble on getting out of Falcon’s Hollow. A local trouble maker, Blixt Venker, claims to be in possession of a map to the “Whispering Cairn”, one of the burial cairns to the north that was supposedly missed by looters during the town’s boom. You don’t know that you entirely believe in the map’s authenticity, but you’ve heard rumors from time to time about a lost cairn some of the town’s older generation used to explore when they were young. There was something about a disappearance, which may explain why they stopped talking about it. Either way, Blixt’s offer is at least a chance at getting some capital together, which is more than any other propositions that have come your way lately could claim. The plan was for you to bring what equipment you could scrounge together that might be useful in looting a long lost burial cairn, and meet up with Blixt and several other locals at an abandoned mine office in the foothills on the eastern edge of Darkmoon Vale. Unfortunately Blixt hasn’t shown, so now you and several other ne’er-do-wells are pointlessly staring at each other. What’s more, the mine office may not be quite as abandoned as Blixt let on. What You Should Consider
table rules:
Cell phones - No texting or phone calls at the table. If you need to use your phone, please get up and leave the table. Yes, I want you to get up and leave for texts too. The game will not be held while you’re up, so I would suggest you only use your phone for important calls if you don’t want to miss anything. Die Rolling - All rolls will be done in front of the DM, on the table, where I can see it. There will be no rolling the dice and quickly picking it up to look. If you can’t read your own dice get new ones, if you can’t read any dice, get glasses. Hit Dice - Each time you level you’ll roll your hit points in front of me, once and only once. Cohorts, pets, eidolons, animal companions, and anything else similar will use averages for their hit points. Eg. If they have a d8 hit dice, they receive 4.5 hit points per hit dice (rounding that total up, as in if they have 3d8 hit points, their total is 14 before con mods). Character Death - In my campaigns death means quite a bit more than a few thousand gold worth of diamonds, or dragging a body to the nearest friendly church. There are always consequences to your actions, and death should (and in this case, does) hold some of the most sever. You don’t get to know the game mechanics behind this, but you do know that when a person’s soul is brought back to their body, it doesn’t always arrive alone, nor does it always arrive in the condition expected. Everyone in Golarion has heard rumors and stories of people who came back changed, darker, alien, and though there are as many explanations as there are cases, no one knows for sure just what causes the change. Game Mechanics Character Creation:
You have twenty points to buy your character’s attributes, as per the Pathfinder RPG Core Rule Book. You may choose any class and race combination from either the Core Rule Book or the Advanced Player’s Guide (Pathfinder Companions are open too). No other material will be used for character creation, though if you would like to hear me say no in person, by all means, feel free to bring the material, I’ll look it over, and tell you no. Bellow is a break down of races and their common roll in Falcon’s Hollow: Dwarf - Nearly all dwarves who reside in the area are affiliated with the Dourstone Min, most being simple minors. There are a small handful who prefer to live above ground, and make their living as loggers, working in teams that run gruelingly long shifts in the deep woods and Darkmoon. In the mountains north of Falcon’s Hollow, there is rumored to be an abandoned dwarven monastery, which attracts a number of explorers, dwarven as well as other. Few return from their trips to the monastery, and those that do speak of horribly vicious wolves, and terribly cunning lizard-like creatures. Elf - Gnome - Halfling - Half Elf - Half Orc - Human - Starting equipment will be purchased from a budget of one hundred and fifty gold per character. You may purchase anything in ether of the above books that you can afford with your starting gold. Each character begins with one outfit, a back pack, a water skin, and either a small home, or two months worth of a common quality inn room (or one month of a high quality inn room). Each class also begins with a single piece of equipment deemed required. Below is a short description of why any particular class would be in Falcon’s Hollow, along with the extra equipment.
We will be using the Hero Points optional rule from the Advanced Player’s Guide. For the most part I haven’t modified the actual rules of this mechanic, though reading through the section in the APG you might notice some of the sentences are a little vague. Here is some clarification:
Campaign Traits
The Lord Martyr: You have somehow become close with one of the priests of Milani, either by faithfully attending the bloody sermons, or defending the priest during a confrontation in town. Either way, there is something resembling a friendship between the two of you, gaining you four cure light wounds potions to add to your starting equipment. You also receive a ten percent discount on divine spell casting purchases made from the cult of Milani. Because of your affiliations with such an extremist religion, anyone affiliated with the Lumber Consortium, any of the mine managers, the Hollow’s law, and all members of other local religions is considered one step closer to hostile upon initially meeting you. Able Bilks: Having a close friend of the family be a lieutenant in the garrison has quite a few advantages. Baring arrest for any serious violent crimes, Able can take care of one legal issues , per game session, you might end up in, even in Falcon’s Hollow. He can send a low ranking soldier to fight along side you, also once per session. Also, by presuming a tiny bit of his authority, you can gain a +5 bonus to one Diplomacy or Intimidate check per game session. Being under the wing of a garrison lieutenant practically guarantees no one involved in nefarious dealings will have any dealings with you. You suffer a -4 trait penalty to Diplomacy checks involving anyone regularly associated with criminal activity in Falcon’s Hollow. Good Ol’ Boy/Girl
Allustan: The supposed “smartest man in Falcon’s Hollow” has taken a special interest in you. Perhaps you show sign of possessing some eldritch abilities, or maybe one of your parents impressed him before you were even born. Either way, your time spent amongst his many magical treasures gains you a +1 trait bonus to Use Magic Device, and you treat it as a class skill. You may also remember some off hand fact or piece of history from a discussion with the elderly mage, granting you a +10 trait bonus on one Knowledge skill check, or one bardic knowledge check per game session. Unfortunately, most of the Hollow’s common man types view you as little more than Allustan’s pet snob, gaining you a -4 trait penalty to all Diplomacy checks involving commoners in Falcon’s Hollow. Balabar Smenk: It’s been made very clear to you that no one is actually friends with Mr. Smenk, though a fair number of people in the Hollow seem to think they are. Luckily you understand your position a little better, which in turn insures your relationship with the infamous mine manager runs a lot smoother. In return for the occasional odd job, done discreetly, you receive a small stipend. The odder the job, the higher the stipend, and lately some of Smenks requests have becoming fairly odd. Unscrupulous Bastard/B@%#*
Card Shark: Quick of wit and nimble of fingers, you spend much of your time at the gambling parlor in the Emporium. Unfortunately the games there are rarely straight, and you have found yourself in a bit of a hole. You gain a +1 trait bonus to Bluff, Profession (gambling) and Sleight of hand checks, but owe the Emporium fifteen hundred gold. Dark Archivist: It has long been known, by those who concern themselves with such things, that Darkmoon Vale is home to many strange cults and religious offshoots. The study of which is your hidden obsession. Years seeking out the queer and morbid has given you a strong foundation in both arcane and divine lore, though it has kept you from more spiritually healthy pursuits. You gain a +1 trait bonus to Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), and Spellcraft checks, but suffer a -2 trait penalty to Will Saves versus Taint effects and spells with the Evil descriptor. Tomb Raider: You originally came to town with thoughts of long buried cairn loot dancing through your larcenous dreams. By the time the reality was made clear to you, whores and stiff whiskey had deteriorated what little coin you’d arrived with. Still, opportunities are best found by those who create them. You’ve recently made arrangements with one of the Hollow’s many cults, bodies for coin, though the more dealings you have with your new partners, the stranger things get. Your experience skulking about and previous research gives you a +1 trait bonus to Appraise, Disable Device, and Knowledge (history). The hindrance for this trait is unusual in that it comes into play during the campaign.
I might just have to do that (make him younger than I wanted). Problem with that though is then all of his mental attributes drop. What I'll probably do is just go through and give him the stats I want, the description I want, and give up trying to make it work by the rules. I'm thinking of having a number of lower ranking cultists in the room with him to play interfearance for a round or two to let him buff up (beyond what buffs he has cast on him daily). I'll throw his revised stats up at some point tonight, with some notes on tactics and what not... Next up will either be a gunslinger or antipaladin. Burnt Offerings/Skinsaw Murders spoilers:
gunslinger is Mr. Foxglove, and the antipaladin is Nualia.
Spent some time converting over RotRl to Pathfinder. One thing to keep in mind (that I did not the first time I ran it). A D&D CR is one higher than it should be in Pathfinder...so either add class levels to everyone, or lower their CR and adjust to that however you like... As far as conversions I have so far...here is a list of NPCs and what I made them...most of them arn't finished, but the basics are done (little to no gear and maybe missing skills), if your interested in anyone let me know and I'll post up their stats.
list:
Tsuto = monk2/ninja2 Erylium = summoner 3 Ripnuget = cavalier (dragon) 5 Nualia = antipaladin 4 Alderan = gunslinger 5 Ironbriar = magus8/rogue1
There's the Darkmoon Vale Guide... Also, if your familiar with Age of Worms it fits nicely in the area. I got Sandpoint and Diamond lake really drunk, but on some R&B, and threw them in a small room with a jar of vasseline for a few hours...the stains are never coming out of the carpet, but the results are worth it. I'll post the primer I wrote up for my campaign here if you'd like (need to edit all the swearing out first...might take a while).
Being that I don't get much of a chance to play these days, and will soon be moving to a larger campus where I will (strangly enough) have more money and possibly more time, I like to spend a few minutes here and there converting up older APs/adventures to PathfinderRPG, and generally changing things around and making them my own, in the hopes that I might...at some point...maybe...get to run a complete AP... I'll put the campaign specific stuff in spoilers, just in case, but there shouldn't need to be much of that. Where I need the most help is finding holes in my NPCs that I over looked, and some advice on how to handle those holes (not always fill them in, just...handle them). What I'm working on right now is an NPC from the Skinsaw Murders, the second installment of Rise of the Runelord...but don't worry, mechanically my guy is very different than the one presented in the book, so if you're playing in that campaign, don't look at the spoiler, and just comment on the build. RotRl spoilers:
This is Justice Ironbriar. The concept of the character is the same. He is still a monster wearing the mask of a civilized being...and he is still under the sway of Xanesha. He is however quite a bit more powerful, and will be given a different area to be encountered in. His office will be a foreshadowing exercise rather than a fight. The party finds his collection of faces, and some notes to implicate some people and give back story...but they wont encounter Ironbriar himself until they go to his home. So, the basis of the character is a murderer and cultist, who has wormed his way into an influencial position in society. The exact position isn't as important as the fact that no matter what changes are mmade to him, he needs to be "socialy presentable."
what I like so far:
One of the things I like about this character is his age. Elves are normally a race seen as eternally youthful, and beautiful. With this guy I want to make an almost obscene gesture with him being a twisted and ugly old man. Think Emperor Palpatine...durring the day he's an aged but dignified, upstanding member of society...but when the sun goes down the black robes come on and he looks like someone who's more than willing to cut throats and do naughty-naughty things with small children. I also like the fact that what age has taken away, class abilities and feats have not only replaced, but made more powerful. His physical stats are abismal...but with his Magus Arcana he can (for a limited time) still act as a melee terror. This coupled with the fact that he's very much in the genius level intelligence department (translating to he does not fight on anything less than his terms) is going to (hopefully) make for a nightmare encounter for the party
Now that I've bragged a bit, and talked him up...here are his game stats...
BBEG:
elf magus8/rogue1 Atributes Str 5 Dex 14 Con 5 Int 22(24) Wis 14 Cha 14 Defense HP 21 AC 12 touch 12, flat-footed 10 Fort +1, Ref +6, Will +8 Feats Combat Expertise, Dervish Dance (this is usable with any finessable weapon), Piranha Strike, Skill Focus (use magic device), Weapon Finesse Gear headband of vast intellect +2, Spells 0th Acid Splash, Detect Magic, Ghost Sound, Prestidigitation, Spark; 1st Expeditious Retreat, Grease, Magic Missile, Obscuring Mist, Shield, shocking grasp; 2nd Blur, Cat’s Grace, Mirror Image, Pyrotechnics, Scorching Ray, Web; 3rd Cloak of Winds, Displacement, Fly, Vampiric Touch; What I don't like about him are his saves. I need a way to make this guy not fold like a cheap suit to spell casting. Not looking to make him invincible, just to make him a little less of a glass cannon. There are two feats and three thousand eight hundred gold (I believe) left to spend. The only other piece of gear I know I'll get for him is a warrazor, as it fits with the concept, and with our houserules works with all his exsisting feats.
I'm happy it works for you. Personally, I wouldn't complain if I came in to a game using such a houserule, but it's not something I would ever do as a DM. Voiding a number of feats/traits is one reason. Mostly though I don't see the need. The order everyone goes in has never seemed to cause a bog down in games I've been involved in, or at least not to the point that I've ever felt something needed to be done about it. In my games everyone rolls, adds up their numbers, and we write it down on a dry erase board with enough room that when people delay or refocus (not sure if that still exsists, but it does in my game) and one of the player's keeps a good eye on the order and tries to keep me honest. It's people not looking up what a spell/feat/manuver does until it's their turn that slows things down for us...but that's a seperate issue. Also, the way you do things further weakens the rogue a little. Or rather, further weakens sneak attack. Having a high initiative and catching people off guard before their initiative count comes up on the first round of combat is how sneak attack gets used most often in the games I've played in.
As far as mechanics...there doesn't need to be that much more. Your stats change because of the mutagen affecting you. Also, you seem to be forgetting the forced change damage to you can cause (at least I remember there being something about this in the PrC). I think part of the problem is your expectation. This class isn't there to let you play two seperate characters, with different stats/skills/feats/abilities. It's there to give you a Jeckel and Hyde type character, which it does rather well. What your saying is something along the lines of "I want to play a woodsy hunter type guy who casts spells like magic missle and fireball, but when I make a ranger it doesn't work." If you REALLY have to have one physical character with two completely different stat arays...get with your DM and come up with something. I would suggest playing a summoner, but I think what you want is "one body, two characters". It's a cool idea, and something I've tried to play in the past (in second edition, not longer after reading the Tribe of One Darksun series).
I don't think it's ment to be the chance to play two different people...I think it's you playing the same character seen through a tinted lense. The Jeckle and Hyde story, as far as I'm familiar with it, isn't that Hyde is some complete other entite, but Jeckle without the filter that polite society encourages us to have. Where Jeckle see's a pretty woman and tips his hat to her, maybe admiring her physical features so subtlely as to almost be subconciously...Hyde sees that same girl and goes right in and rapes her. They both find the same girl attractive for the same qualities, but choose to act on these feelings in far different ways. Age of Worms spoilers:
In the AoW notes I've been working on, The Faceless One is an alchimest/master chymest...in his normal mind set, he revears Norgerber as a god of secrets, and works toward the same goals as the rest of the cult...though he has a sneaking suspecian things aren't on the up and up. In his mutagenic mind set he revears Norgerber as a god of death and doesn't care one bit about the cult's activities, thinking the idea of mixing his god with two others is ludicrous...but he's more than willing to use cult resources to kill people in the name of his deity. It's like being presented with a situation when you're in a good mood and everything's fine...and later being presented with the exact same situation in a completely different mindset (like right after getting into a bad fight with your wife, or when your really drunk). It's still you making the decisions, but the results are very very different.
Find a way to prove that this particular criminal is a threat to the wealthy...baring that, find a way to plant evidence proving this particular criminal is a threat to the wealthy... Develope the prestigue/wealth/influence to get the watch to do what you want them to... A murderer/kidnapper you say? Watch the Dark Knight...as the premise of that movie is pretty much the exact dilema your having...
Yeah, "on the payroll"...figured as a noble poser I would need the extra cash. Sorry I didn't make it clearer, but the heirloom weapon is the rapier. I refered to it as a dueling sword in the background because that's how the character would view it. It's not a new weapon out of any strange source...though I would have prefered to use a cane sword out of the APG for theme (their stats are unimpressive though). forgotten stuff:
alignment =LN deity=Nethys (though not terribly religious)
Starting languages...well crap. Do you know where it talks about what countries speak what languages? I'll go through the players guide again and see if I can find anything after I post this. Also, I'm not seeing a spoiler addressed to me magus:
As for build...I'm a little weaker than I could be starting off (compared to other magi builds), but probably not as bad as you might think. At second I'll be able to chanel spells (such as chill touch) through the rapier when I attack, so the -1 damage will be overshadowed. Through first level, I'll mostly be a flanking budy using my high AC and fighting defensively to keep from getting dead while helping somene who can hit do their job. For spells...they have a spell book with all 0th level magus spells, and 3+int mod spells, and gain two every magus level afterward. Pretty sure they can copy from scrolls and other spell books like a wizard. Any other questions I'd be glad to answer. This is my first time playing a magus, but I've been going through other APs converting over NPCs to the new classes from the APG and the playtest document...so I've made three or four magi now and looked through a lot of the message board posts on the subject.
What can you tell us of the Festival? Anything you'd recommend?" The half orc grins as he speaks, "Finding a comfortable tree to lean against while she sherif speaks. Good man but not much of a crowd pleaser." He turns to the wizard, offering a thickly calloused hand, "You can call me Grog. Good to meet you Ezren. I'm a bit of a people watcher myself, so I can point out some of the more interesting folk our little town has to offer. First of all, there's one more half orc in town, though he's a bit of a surly pri..." Grog continues talking as he joins the group, slowly making their way to the festival propper. Before leaving he snatches up his pack and tosses a few coins onto the bar.
Creating the dialogue can be one of the hardest parts of playing these games...and to help you out, I'm going to need some more info from you. Are you new to RPing? Or are you asking because the horror genre is new to you? Basically, where are you coming from with the question. Introducing people and events...are we talking the PCs? NPCs? For one, read through the adventure completely first...I know it's really tempting to scan through quickly, and then want to start working on how to start it...but you really need to understand the whole book before you think much about starting it. That...and it'll give me time to finish it before I give any specific advice...
Posting as a reserve...changed things up a little, and I'm aware of the stigma an elf would suffer. Nym Vallidorn:
elf magus 1 Atributes Str 8 Dex 18 Con 8 Int 18 Wis 10 Cha 12 Defense
Offense
Skills
Feats
Traits
Gear
Background:
Intrigued by the haunted landscape of Ustalav and its arcane history, Nym has spent the last few decades in Caliphas studying fencing as well as wizardry. He first came to the attention of professor Lorrimor years ago while an aristocratic student was arguing with the professor on the subject of fencing. Nym came into the conversation, supporting Lorrimor’s position. The discussion was settled with Nym and the aristocrat dueling to first blood. The duel was a close fight, but Nym won out in the end, scoring a slash on the back of the aristocrat’s hand. The professor came to Nym on several occasions afterward, hiring him as a liaison when dealing with rougher elements on campus. Durring their dealings the pair would often bounce back and forth between matters martial and planar, often speaking late into the night over drinks. Upon graduation, Lorrimor gave him a finely crafted fencing sword before they parted ways.
Very half formed thought here...but the idea of non-ghost style haunts came into my mind while reading through this. Sorta a forced dream used to unload a large ammount of information to a single person in a short ammount of time...which, being alien information, would likely cause all sorts of mental damage to PCs who triggered said haunts.
What are you doing so far? How do you track initiative? How experienced are the players? How quickly do spell casters take their actions? Regarding initiative...one thing that helps is index cards. It takes a little bit of prep work though, but writing down stats on index cards, and then putting their initiative total on the top can make combat go pretty quick. Also, having a player stay attentive on initiative order helps out a lot to, as the GM has a lot of other things to keep track of. Do undead minions/druid pet roll seperate or just go when the controlling PC goes? It may feel a little forced, but grouping things up quickens things up. Regarding experience. It sounds like people are familiar with the combat rules, so there isn't much flipping through books durring game? If people still need to look up specifics on combat manuvers or what a feat does, again, index cards with just the very basics can help out a ton. Everyone having their own rulebook and the foresight to look up stuff while others are going helps out a lot as well. Regarding spellcasters. One to two players running spell casters and having to stop and look up the specifics of a spell every other round can slow things down to a painful crawl. Suggest to people that they study up on spell stats on their own time, and write up spell cards with the basics of commonly cast spells. Are people playing distractedly? Watching TV/playing with phones durring the game? Remove any distractions you can, and try to cut down on off topic discussion as much as possible. Obviously you don't want to end up comming accross as some tyranical prick...but all those montey python jokes and "this one time, my character in bob's campaign, stuck a flute..." quickly eat away the time you have to game.
Sorry I dissapeared for a while. Thought I would have wifi at the campus I was touring...but noooo, why on earth would there be wifi access on a college campus? Anyways, if it's still cool for me to play, I would like to. Looks like we might be down a fighter type. I'd be up for making a melee oriented ranger. Grogthamus:
Grog grew up in and around Sandpoint, not quite fitting it, but never a full-fledged outcast either. He first showed up three years ago, the very illegitamite child of an adventurer who left him in the town and quietly walked away. Male half orc ranger 1 align NG Init + speed 30 ft. Atributes (did 15 point buy, as I thought that was OKed earlier)
Defense
Offense
Skills
Feats
Gear (just went with some basics and a little bit of gold, if you think anything is too much just let me know)
DCironlich...are you asking this because you want your DM to have something to look at to make an educated decision? Or are you asking this so you have ammunition for an argument? At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what people on these boards say. Doesn't matter how it works in real life. Doesn't matter what the developers say on the matter. If your GM has a way he wants to run it, then that's how it works in his game. Do you trust your GM enough to make a decision to keep the game interesting and fun, or do you think your GM is going to try and screw you?
I'd be interested in getting in on this. I read Paizo stuff voraciously, but rarely get to play. So you know ahead of time, I'm familiar with RotRl, but can play dumb if it's cool with you. Would really really love to play a magus, though I know you want to stick with core classes. So unless anyone else wants to play the rogue I'll run Merisiel.
It's something I'm going to look into on a spell by spell basis, and I'm one of those people that would rather say NO now, then add abilities to the character later, than say YES now, and have to take away later. The speciics elude me at the moment, but I remember coming up with something using this ability when I first saw the magus, that seemed to do quite a bit of damage in one shot. If memory serves it was well balanced in my opinion with players in mind, as you had to use a lot of actions to get everything aligned, or you could only do it once per day...something like that...then I realized a magus NPC I was working on would essentialy erase a single NPC on the first round of combat, and then be able to whoop a fair ammount of booty afterward. I don't go out of my way to kill players (generally the opposite), but if the players have access to a solid tactic, NPCs who would be just as capeable of utilizing it will do so...
I'm assuming you're talking pistol whip with spell combat then? Costs way to much grit in my opinion to use as a continous attack. I'm really hoping for an archtype for the magus to make a gunmage type character, but I'm highly doubting it. We'll more likely see some sort of arcane archer type prestigue class...which is ok too, just not as cool.
When I GM there are lots of skill checks...mostly social, or knowledge...though often times there are no knowledge skills for what I want to convey, but that's a seperate issue. In 3.? there's been plenty of times where we were screwed because no one had climb or swim, followed by games where we bearly squeaked through because someone picked up climb/swim and just put a point or two in it...followed by the campaigns where everyone asked to play something with gills/wings... Unfortunately I've been in plenty of games where the GM would just toss a die, maybe look at it, and then tell you if you were able to do what you wanted...it's frustrating, and most of the time a waste of time, but if that's all there is, then that's all there is.
Very good playtest...I completely agree that this is a better format than the arena scenarios. That, and your assassin gave me a great idea for a reacuring villan like in the movie Fallen. Seems like the gunslinger was a pretty important contributer to the encounter here...half the time getting himself into just as much trouble as he got out of.
Depends on who sees them, and how many friends s/he has. One person is unlikely to be confrontational, especially if it's your average commoner (as in social class, not NPC class...someone not acustom to killing violent things for a living). As the group gets bigger, so to does the bravery of those in it. NPCs are part of the world though, and the world understands the capabilities of the PCs. Ten angry commoners (now we're talking NPC class) armed with pickforks and hoes are unlikely to do much to a reasonably leveled tiefling with a PC class...and very well may know this. Especially if said tiefling has developed any reputation for being an adventurer. Just something to keep in mind. If you havent yet, read Prince of Wolves. There are a couple scenes where a tiefling gets mobed up on by a small village in Ustalav, but for the most part it's more of a social issue than physical one. Mechants would refuse service, inns would make them sleep in the barn if they let them stay at all. They might get talked to by the local "good 'ol boys" club about just how short their stay in town should be...things like that.
In essense it boils down to this..."you play different than I do, so you're wrong." In all seriousness, I'm interested in your playtest. There is no standard, so what you use at your table is just as relevent as what someone else uses at theirs. Honestly, the changes you made sound more reasonable than some of the others I've seen. You do higher stats than I use currently, though I've had players ask if we could use higher stats. You give more hit points than I do, though not by much. Your game doesn't sound far off from what mine is, so yeah...I wanna see your results. As far as the developers...they've said they want a variety of scenarios...some higher powered, some lower. Some with Pathfinder only stuff, some with 3.5 stuff. In short...forget about the whiney people and do your thing. No matter what people will whine, it's the net.
I'll second an actual pirate AP. Savage tides was "this has pirate elements, but a lot of the AP doesn't take place in the water" and Serpent Skull was very similar. Paizo knows people want this...so how about it gets done? I'm cool with a mega dungeon, because I have an extreme ammount of faith in paizo. Rules for setting up camp underground, encounters that can potentially go combat, but are just as likely to go social...new and interesting abberations to devour PC internal organs by entering various orafices...that sorta thing. One that takes place in Magnimar would be nice...isn't there a great big bridge full of spider like creatures just waiting for some attention there?
HTJ...thank you. That's quite a lot of info you gave me there, much appreciated. I think jujitsu is one of the arts taught by the guys around here...I know one of them does a lot with escrima sticks, and the other seemed to know quite aa bit about ground work and locks. Ultimately, yeah, I think it's best not to pass up anything you're likely to learn in a martial arts class...but I can understand why you would want to block out some things if you're looking to understand something specific. On a more Pathfindery note...was anyone else completely underwhelmed by the sword cane in the APG? I was going to take an Idea I got off Pendergast in another thread, and write up a magus who looks more like a traditional wizard, to get the party fighters to try and get in close for a nice supprise...and figured I'd use the sword cane to represent a "magic rod/wand"...until I saw it's stats...as a weapon it's absolutely horrible, and as far as it's "special ability" goes, a DC 20 spot check isn't that impressive, especially at anything beyond the lowest of levels. Think I'm going to delve into some of my 3.? books, much as I'd rather not.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
