Hal Maclean's page

I created some special scabbards for the upcoming "Adventurer's Armory book. I also did something looking at interesting ways to employ them in combat so maybe if you're interested in scabbards that might be up your alley. No guarantees, that book came in way over budget word wise so likely Sean has had to make some painful choices.

On the broader question, my turnover for that book included a quick paragraph that said something to the effect that normal scabbards have always been a part of the price of the weapon they hold. That struck me as a simplest answer.

My only experience with Bank of America are the cheques I get from Paizo. No complaints on that front... :)

Trip Arrow: This squat arrow has a large, bulbous,
metal tip that expands and flattens in flight. If the arrow
hits, it initiates a trip attack against the target (DC = 15);
the target falls prone if it fails its check, but if it succeed
it cannot attempt to trip you in return

Does this arrow deal normal damage?

(Two of the other arrows specifically say that they deal no damage and others have specific damages)

What is the CMB for this trip check if converted to final?

Thanks Hal! I pitched the idea of taking Shelyn's Warm Embrace to my GM, but he was concerned that there weren't enough divine pacts for non-thieves in the party to select, so I got denied. :( lol.

BTW, I love the descriptions, e.g. "By some miracle Desna heard your plea..." and "Begging Shelyn for help...". Great stuff.

I need to make a point of watching Fox News tonight just so I can watch all the heads exploding... :)_

Will there be more divine pacts in other books, e.g. Dwarves or Gnomes of Golarion? This book is the only place I've seen them, and there are only four of them, and really only thief/bard types can take those four.

Speaking of SKR, since he's the guru of the Companion line I'll call his attention to your question and maybe he can give a more definitive answer.

Hal Maclean wrote:

lostpike wrote:

I am wondering why the magical arrows are allowed but the alchemical arrows are not allowed?

I'm pretty sure you're talking about one of the sections I wrote but I don't understand the question :) Could you clarify?

In what is allowed and isnt allowed in Pathfinder society play it states that the magic arrows are allowed but the non magical ones are not included in the items allowed to play....doesnt seem to make much sense to me...

Oh, that's a policy thing. I'll have to refer the question to the developers. Sorry I couldn't help you directly. While I'm reasonably qualified to speak about the creative stuff I've worked on decisions like that are made higher up the foodchain than a lowly freelancer like me.

I do know (from working on the upcoming equipment book) that there's a lot of scutiny on "normal" gear that can do weird stuff.

I am wondering why the magical arrows are allowed but the alchemical arrows are not allowed?

Odd, I just sent in something that references line of sight. Could have sworn I had read a definition in the book. Must have been thinking about line of effect instead.

Joe Abercrombie's books have a nice gritty real-culture basis to them [not that I'm bias lol] - would totally recommend them.

Been drawing some major ideas and flavour from his books for my forthcoming PFRPG campaign

Some call him the "Candyman" but we just call him "new guy"...

I went through this with "Jericho" so good luck dealing with a bubble show you love.

Watched the pilot for DG but it didn't work for me. Seemed a little too soapy for SF and a little too SFy for a soap. Did it find its footing? Maybe I'll look for the DVDs.

I am looking forward to this one, having run the "Darkmoon Vale" series of modules for my group! This will no doubt aid in expanding on the region for my players... once their characters make it back there!

Will there be information on an Eagle Knight Prestige Class?

Aroden is dead.

This is a clever idea and one that never occurred to me. I think I'd allow it since I don't see anything too unbalancing.

Right away I'm thinking an quickened disrupt undead would make a fun addition to a tomb raid. Do whatever you'd normally do and then zap an undead too.

Maybe a silent and still lullaby? No proof that you're making everybody yawn.

You could extend the little boosts like resistance just so you don't have to cast them as often.

An extended touch of fatigue would now likely last the whole battle.

Nothing too disruptive, but fun for the right sort of caster.

Enough cupcake, back to your cellar, your work for the time being is done and you have done well.

I am pleased.

Go now and enjoy your feast in the dark, but do not rest too easily, I may need you again soon...

MrP

But what about the red satin cape? Do I still need to wear that too?

Richard Pett and I just sent in our chunk of this book. We had a lot of fun writing it, hopefully you guys will get some use out of it.

I can tell you first hand that all the rumors about Mr. P.** are true.

** I'm still not sure why he insisted that I refer to him as "Mr. P.", or why he chose to call me "Cupcake" but perhaps for someone with his Olympian intellect it all made perfect sense.

I created a whole sphere when Spelljammer came out. It was called the Black Pearl of Wildspace.

I developed a pantheon using one deity. Yep a pantheon.

The deity has avatars to represent certain portfolios and interests. These avatars become the main deities of the pantheon that interact with mortals. They then break down to more specialized avatars, down to demi-god level. Thus they, in all their facets, represent all of the interests of the single god and can account for good vs evil, law vs chaos, and every other conflict out there.

It was an interesting experiment anyway.

But the losing twins from all those earlier splits still linger around. Much reduced in power and influence. Supporting cults more than active faiths.

Thammuz wrote:

thefishcometh wrote:

The sentient gorilla people of the Mwangi Expanse. You know, the ones that stole that giant cannon.

I think they are in the "Crucible of Chaos" adventure.

I'm not sure those are the same gorilla people, actually...

There should be about a page or so on this topic in the "Adventurer's Armory".

It's one of my sections so stay tuned :)

"Explorer", good name! I had the notion of "Pathfinder: Past, Present, and Future" but Explorer is better.

I'd like to see a rules set flexible enough to support any genre. That means a set of generic classes and rules for how to customize them to match the needs of the particular genre. Likely something similar for races/backgrounds.

Imagine rules capable of supporting post-apocalypse, cyberpunk, space opera, sword and planet, westerns, steampunk, time travel, etc.

This is my 1,000th post on the boards. Now, that's about 1/9 James's number, but what's the point of competing with a computer? So, in light of the additional digit and numerous zeros, I figured this should be significant post. So I'm opening it up. What monsters do you want to see in Pathfinder? Either in Pathfinder's Bestiary, or in a pseudo-hypothetical Bestiary II book?

My first thought is to flesh out some of the iconic intelligent monster races by giving them crews of pets and servants. It's a win for both flavor and crunch. Flavorwise we get new insights into their masters' culture and worldview. Crunchwise we get new monsters specifically designed to augment the special abilities of their masters.

I will just describe what I know. CJ called me up and said he needed help moving something. As I pulled onto his street, I saw Daigle driving speedily away. I asked him why Daigle didn't stay and help, and he said Daigle had to get home to meet some carpet cleaning company. We went into the garage, where there were several large ice chests. I asked what in the heck they could be for, and he said a club fishing trip. We loaded the ice chests into his truck bed. He then asked me not to mention the trip to anybody, as he didn't want the uninvited to have hurt feelings. The whole thing seemed kind of odd, but now, in retrospect...

Chadranther's Bane was probably my favorite adventure thoughout Dungeon's entire run. Some of that likely comes from the great campaign it inspired. My group at the time didn't want to get big again so they spent about ten levels building a tiny little empire.

Hal Maclean wrote:

And we all know that blue jeans and Beatles albums are currency...

Da, iss true!

I'm going to have to go ahead and ask ahead of time if this is possible, because that's one less pair of jeans I can fit in my suitcase!

If you have questions, ask them and I will try to answer them :)

What's the sound of one hand clapping?

If a tree falls in the forest will a woodchuck chuck it?

Hal Maclean wrote:

"Day of Al'Akbar" for me. A dwarf fighter/thief with a vorpal short sword... Those were the days :)

With that kind of limited weapon reach, how does a dwarf even hop up to where the opponent's head is? Such a weapon needs accompanient by an equally enchanted highchair.

I actually had a similar debate with my DM at the time. Eventually I pointed out to him that "dead is dead" and said my dwarf would chop off the giant's head... eventually. You see, in my book, starting at the ankles and working your way up one chop at a time counts. :)

I also remember my dwarf ended up with some sort of theme song based on a jingle for a food processor, maybe the veg o matic?

Daigle wrote:

Figurines and the deck for me. I always loved those things.

Me too, the deck of many things was such a staggering find, and the figuries could not have been more aptly named, but I picked up a vorpal sword in one of the G modules and it changed my life. Made me the am I am today.

Would love a Starter set for thier RPG, something I could use to introduce the game at a lower price and teach people the basics of the game.

-Start by limiting level advancement to 5th and drop multi-classing.

-Cut back on the number of playable races (dwarf, elf, halfing, human).

-Cut back on the number of playable clases (cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard).

-Use a modified version prestige classes to give players the chance to sample the more complex stuff (e.g. make ranger a PrC of fighter, necromancer specialist a PrC of wizard). By modified version of PrC I'm essentially saying you put in a rule like; "Once you hit 3rd and have two levels left you can either finish out your career as your starting class or try a prestige class. Here are some examples..."

Sooo .. Government by census poll? Mob rule? What exactly does this mean?

As an aside, is that Stephen Harper dude still in office? My mom hasn't gone on a tirade about him lately, so I'm not sure if he got voted out or not.

Yeah, Harper is still around but his reputation has taken a major beating since his major fumble late last year.

(takes a special kind of talent to turn an economic crisis into a political crisis and then to turn that political crisis into a full fledged constitutional crisis :) )

Do you think Canada would, or could elect a woman prime minister (I know we had Kim Campbell but she wasn't elected). Do you think that we could have a gay or lesbian prime minister. Do you think with the Canadian political atmosphere as it is now that it could happen?

For that matter do you think we could elect a homosexual person into major public office in the united states. I know we have already in Canada elected people like MP Scott Bryson (openly gay) and MP Sven Robinson (also openly gay) but I am unsure if the states have as of yet had a openly gay man in major public office.(Senator, Governor supreme court justice, President, Vice president). Do you think there would be a lot of major opposition to it?

(I'm collecting thoughts and viewpoints for the New Democratic Party of Canada so all opinions would be nice and interesting)
P. S. Please keep it civil.

Openly gay? That one seems less likely. However, there's a lot of cosmopolitan voters in Quebec and some of the larger cities. So perhaps a minority head of a coalition. Maybe followed by a variation of the Diefenbaker strategy (get a minority, govern competently for a few months and then win a snap majority after engineering a fall).

I don't know as much about the US. But my impression is that it's a lot more conservative than Canada. As an example, Alberta -Canada's most right wing province- still does more social spending per capita than Massachusets -arguably America's most left wing state-.

Let's put it this way. Once the Americans let openly gay people risk their lives as soldiers maybe someday they'll let one of them have a little authority in civilian life.

So you are Canadian? Frankly the only point of view I expect from a Political Party is: Every act of Government, Law, Constitution, Sovereign requires the direct and regular approval of every citizen.

That way we only go in the same direction.

I'm really glad they didn't institute a "wondrous" swimsuit round in the competition last time. Everyone else should be, too... ;-P

I bet even Morbo is pleased with this! :)

3. It's precisely BECAUSE the math breaks down in the normal D&D rules after level 20 that a special Epic ruleset is needed. Saying "normal D&D rules don't work after 20" isn't an argument against special Epic rules -- it's an argument for them. The problem is, that it hasn't yet been handled right. What I'd like to see is a set of Epic rules handled right.

4. One way to do that, just as a random thought, would be to start scaling again at 21. That is, bonuses at Epic levels are designated as "epic +1, epic +2, epic +3, etc."

This would mean that against 'non-epic' DCs, saves, etc., the epic stat automatically gets a +20 bonus. Against epic-level saves, DCs, etc., then the straight epic stat is used, making the die roll more important again and making it...

As for catching flack... it wasn't really from folk being religious or anything like that at all. It was more along the lines of some people thinking that astrology is too boring and wimpy and silly a subject to deserve any degree of coverage in D&D. A sentiment that I strongly disagree with.

So, while high level content around 15th to 20th is a likely possibility within a year... epic level content is not likely aside from the odd epic-level monster showing up in a Pathfinder AP bestiary now and then.

The premise being you're stuck at level 20 unless and until you undergo some sort of legendary deed to prove your worthiness of moving up into the epic frontier.

Anybody planning to write the Epic Pathfinder rules?

I'm sure Jason's got plenty of time these days... :)

(ducks)

I really liked it. For something that wanted to cover as many bases as d20M did (d20 Past, d20 Modern, d20 Future, d20 Cyberspace, d20 Apocalypse, Urban Arcana, all the rest...), a generic class system does make sense.

If you want to have different generic classes, then fine.

Skill Monkey
Warrior
FX User

Or just

Offensive
Defensive

Or completely classless!

I'm assuming that's what you meant by your "Skill monkey/Warrior/FX User" combo above right? If so then I agree with you :)

I'd love to see a SF themed rule book and some other supporting materials (adventures, etc).

On the idea of genres, (including "sword and planet"). I've been involved in a discussion on the Asimov's forum about Lost colonies. There's actually a lot of overlap between Post Apocalypse, Lost Colony, and Sword and Planet. I don't think it would be too difficult to include support for all three SF subgenres in the same rule system.

Michael Adams (a pollster who writes books analyzing what his polls tell him) has written a couple of books about the evolution of American culture. He does it from a Canadian perspective, contrasting you guys with us, but there's some still interesting insights in them.

Check out "Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values"

http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/css/Css_39_2/BRNeidhardt_fire_ice.htm

Edit, and I still can't remember how to get links to work :)

Hal Maclean wrote:

So, did I kill this thread or something? Anybody else got some trait ideas they want to share?

Hal, I thought your traits were a great addition and adopted them for my campaign with only minor changes!

So, did I kill this thread or something? Anybody else got some trait ideas they want to share?

Regional Traits

Keep in mind, these haven't been vetted by a developer so take them with a grain of salt balancewise.

An Tomb Treader: Your exposure to the An tradition of masonry has given you an instinctive ability to find your way out of any structure. Once each day you can, if inside a man-made structure, make a Survival check with a DC of 20. If you succeed in this check you retrace your steps and find the entrance you used to get inside.

Eto Haggler: The mercantile ambiance of Eto has made you very shrewd when trying to find, or strike, bargains. You get a +1 trait bonus on Appraise and Bluff checks.

Hetkoshu Wrestler: You are one of the courageous few who dares to tackle river crocodiles with your bare hands; and you have the scars to prove it! You get a +4 trait bonus to grapple checks made while underwater.

Ipeq Reservist: The martial atmosphere of Ipeq has given you a soldier's instinct for fighting as part of a unit. The first time you strike a creature you get a +1 trait bonus to damage if it has already been damaged by an ally in that round. If your ally also has this trait you deal +2 damage instead.

Shiman-Sehk Scavenger: The abundance of food and water at Shiman-Sehk, and their scarcity elsewhere, has left you with a ferocious drive to avoid the rigors of hunger and thirst. You get a +2 trait bonus on Search and Survival checks made for the purpose of finding or locating food and drink.

Tephu Scholar: The information you gleaned while poring through the historical archives of Tephu sometimes proves useful in other fields too. Once each day, you can, when making a Knowledge check choose to first make a Knowledge (History) check with a DC of 20. You gain a trait bonus on that check equal to amount by which you exceeded the DC of the Knowledge (history) check. You do not suffer a penalty if you fail the check.

Totra Pride: The legacy of oppression suffered by the citizens of Totra makes you very hostile towards anyone who tries to push you around. You get a +2 trait bonus on your next attack roll made against any creature that unsuccessfully targets you with a fear effect. This bonus increases to +4 against creatures who tried, but failed, to intimidate you.

Wati Remedies: After listening to countless tales of the ancient pestilence that devastated Wati you find yourself almost instinctively taking steps to keep yourself, and your friends, free from contracting any sort of illness. Your constant vigilance gives you a +1 trait bonus on Fortitude saving throws against diseases. In addition, you get a +2 trait bonus on any Heal check made to treat a disease.

Sounds like web enhancement time!* ;)

Just curious since I didn't read the rules for this round and I'm not even sure if they were posted in public view. Where more exotic villain concepts (like intelligent items) forbidden? I must confess I expected to see something completely off the wall.

I liked the otyugh quite a bit but I thought there'd be more.