Boggard

Humphrey Boggard's page

717 posts. Alias of Humphey Boggard.


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It's hard to describe him, but I'll do my best:

Kenny is the type of player that started off playing barbarians, still prefers barbarians, and can play any class as a barbarian. Oftentimes minimally invested in roleplay he perks up in combat and gets really excited about crits even if they're rolled by our opponents. Sometimes especially if they're rolled by our opponents.

He practice rolls: "Practice roll, practice roll, practice roll, practice roll. Real roll! [rolls a crit]". The central limit theorem does not apply to his characters. I've seen this in practice. One time I played his character while he was gone and completely failed until I started practice rolling. Crits galore. If Kenny tries practice rolling with a non-barbarian this also fails.

He often attacks inanimate objects in combat. If we are fighting pirates there's a good chance he's fighting the ship. If we are fighting a bronze golem on a platform suspended by chains above a pit of lava he attacks the chains. When asked why he explains that his character, a former slave, hates chains.

Since he might be moving soon we have been joking that this might finally be the week that he runs a one-shot. He finally did. And it f***ing rocked.

The Rules of the $wag Barbarian one-shot:

- Only barbarians. Level 6. 25 point buy.
- 8th level wealth but the extra 2 levels of wealth can only be spent on luxury items that don't affect combat in any way.
- 3v3 barbarian combat, we rolled randomly before the game to figure out teams.
- Arena combat, no explanation of why we were fighting each other.

How it went:

As we were finishing up our characters Kenny asks me how to calculate the CR of a challenging encounter. I explain that we take the average party level (3 6th level barbarians with a generous point buy = APL roughly 6) and he starts flipping through the bestiary looking for something appropriate. Then he asks how costs scale for magic weapons. We talk about that.

He draws a huge, perfectly symmetrical map that he explains was inspired by Super Bomberman, complete with respawning goblinskull bombs. There are chariots with unkillable horses and ejector seats, ramps, and jump pads. Everything is destructible including boxes on platforms that we later find out have potions of resurrection that you can drink before you die and have an instant resurrect effect. In the middle is the piece de resistance: A ( CR 12 taiga) giant on a bridge with a +10 great sword in its stomach. How we knew there was a great sword in it's stomach I still don't know.

My character, Swagthor the Barbarian (aka Swaggy T an urban/mad dog barbarian mounted archer*) was teamed with 69 Chains (a primal rager covered in gold chains) and another barbarian, Electra Diamond, (played by our paladin) a completely bedazzled invulnerable rager. On the other side were two breaker barbarians and titan mauler who wore a simple loin cloth and carried a great club made out of the entirety of his gold.

Combat was fast paced and fun. Our team tried to kill the giant early on, which led to the primal rager being killed. The invulnerable rager (played by the paladin) tried to heal him by lobbing a resurrection potion at his corpse but rolled a 1. The giant swatted the potion out of the air and gave her the Dikembe Mutembo finger wag. Not in his house. My archer barbarian ended up chased all around the map by two breaker barbarians in the unstoppable chariot before finally being cornered and killed. The dead players took control of the giant and combat reached a crescendo when the breaker barbarians managed to sunder it's spear. The last two barbarians managed fortunate crits that killed the giant before fighting to death for control of the +10 great sword. Presumably the winner went off and started a $wag barbarian kingdom somewhere.

* Technically you can't combine these two archetypes. Kenny's GM rulings were generous and largely uniformed. It turned out that almost all of the barbarians had some kind of minor rules issues.


In my homebrew a rebirthing chamber has been used by the mad* (rampant even) AI of an ancient crashed spaceship to endlessly clone the heroes and make stronger, evil-er versions.

This all came about when the new players started arguing over which PC would win in a fight. They asked me to come up with a set of duels to be run outside the campaign and I later folded the duels into the actual campaign.

* Really just subservient to the plague god.


Instead of bending over backwards to challenge them with "CR appropriate" encounters just throw tougher stuff at them. Sounds like their capabilities are closer to that of a party of 12th level characters so throw a CR 16 challenge at them. Maybe a fallen Planetar or an Ancient White Dragon in the middle of a whiteout blizzard.

Once I threw a CR 11 Wickerman* at a group of 6th level PCs and most of them survived. They still talk about how epic that was.

* Admittedly the terrain favored the PCs a little but you get the idea.


One thing I love about these boards is you really get to see the wide variety of takes people have on how to Pathfinder.

For our games it's taken as a given that you can reskin all you want as long as it's not some kind of over power grab and it adds to the overall narrative of the game. For example, in our Curse of the Crimson Throne game I'm playing a dour, heavy set Samurai who is part of order of women knights from Irrisen tasked with protecting the fledgling wizards of the Academy. They call their weapons by Russian names but they are mechanically identical and entirely interchangeable with the Japanese equivalents.


I don't think the party needs that much healing unless you really wanted to play a glorified hit point battery. I think there are better options for a divine caster than focusing on healing - think of it proactively preventing damage from hitting your party by buffing them, debuffing your enemies, and dealing damage yourself. You'll still lean on wands of CLW to some extent but you'll have status removal and options for emergency healing in combat.


Just played the first session with Sun "The Cage Potato" Wei.

I had a lot of fun. In combat the Inspire Courage was always appreciated and I enjoyed giving the other PCs ridiculous martial arts advice (e.g., "Damn it O'Malley, hit him with your discipline not with your fist!"). Also, pre-combat buffing with Barkskin made the other front-line monks/brawlers a lot more viable.

He was a surprisingly effective grappler in one-on-one fights although in group fights he tended to hang back and shoot off scorching rays (easily refreshed with drunken ki). Since two of the other monks were so focused on being DPR machines it was easy enough to let them do the heavy lifting, although I expect to put him more in the thick of it in more dire situations that will be coming up. Certainly he's plenty survivable (high HP, very good AC, very good CMD, great saves) and can impact a fight in non-DPRish ways.

Outside of combat the additional skill options from the Sensei archetype were much appreciated, especially when used with the trait that makes a str or dex skill a class skill based on wisdom.

I think the Sensei/Drunken Master/Qinggong monk combination is an interesting one and has the benefit of exercising significant battlefield control while increasing both the offensive and defensive prowess of other martial classes. Scorching ray gives an interesting ranged option and restoration as a SLA saves the party spending a lot of diamond dust. I do have a few reservations about the rules gray area regarding the applicability of Mystic Wisdom to Qinggong class features, so you may want to get an official ruling from your GM before proceeding. There is also a minor bit of uncertainty in which rules system you use for drinking alcohol. We used the system that allows you to drink 1+2*CON MOD drinks before getting sickened. This was more than enough Drunken Ki for my purposes. GMs that use the addiction rules may derail your character by over punishing drinking so beware.


Just played our first session. The party members were:

Volanta [Monk 1/Brawler 10] - A disarming machine. Acquires whichever combat maneuver feats she needs on the fly to win a fight.
Irish "The Wagon" O'Malley [Monk 2/Brawler 9] - Uses Dragon and Pummeling style together to devasting effect.
Chip "Lex Bomber" Chesterman [Zen Archer 11] - Ranged juggernaut.
Sun "The Cage Potato" Wei [Sensei/Drunken Master/Qinggong Monk 11] - Drunk buffer, competent grappler, and shooter of scorching rays.

Here are a few notables:

9. Damn it, O'Malley, hit him with your discipline not with your fist.
10. Damn it, O'Malley, I haven't seen you in the Chi gym lately.
11. Chip, try shooting the arrows where the opponents are instead of where they are not.

Generally the pattern has been player X rolls badly and I tell them to try harder. When I want to end the Advice bonus, I switch to pure criticism so they know it's the last two rounds of Inspire Courage (since I took lingering performance).


Your friend clearly has misunderstood the role of the GM. The job of the GM isn't to beat the PCs but to work with you to craft a fun and interesting narrative, largely by losing graciously 19 times out of 20.

I would steer your friend into listening to some podcasts on how to be a good GM and have fun while you're doing it. Happy Jacks podcast is probably my favorite although there are other good ones that I'm sure other posters will suggest.

edit: Ninja'd by Abraham Spalding. Also, it might be worthwhile having someone else step in for the role of GM for module or two to demonstrate good GM behavior: Keep the game going, keep it fun, describe things in interesting ways, adjust encounters and details of the material you're running to make it fun, lose graciously, and sometimes lose hilariously.


Aemesh wrote:

Also note, if you pin its wings you both fall. And if you gave up slow fall, it's funny when you both drop 100 feet and crunch into the ground with a meaty splat.

Most creatures who are flying when you grapple them will probably fly upwards if possible; if they manage to escape a grapple, you fall, and then they attack you if they can keep up; you're helpless.

That's why I've got the Winged Boots. Slow Fall doesn't matter much when you can fly. Also, I've started a thread looking for good Advice lines I can use in combat, if you guys are interested.


"Your Ki is weak! You need to do more Ki lifts." Advice from a Sensei.


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After much rules learning and careful crafting my PC, Sun "The Cage Potato" Wei, is ready to lead our all monk party at the Ruby Phoenix Tournament.

Since Sun Wei is a Sensei/Drunken Master/Qinggong monk he'll be using his Advice class feature to Inspire Courage as a bard of the same level (11 here). So I thought I'd ask the boards for good martial arts advice that he could impart to the team with each round of Advice he uses.

1. [After compatriot misses an attack or fails to confirm a critical hit] Your Ki is weak! You need to do more Ki lifts.
2. Your so-called kung fu ... is really ... quite pathetic.
3. When you can balance a tack hammer on your head you'll be able to head off your foes with a balanced attack.

Any suggestions for tips to help the party?


I think Brother of Seal's dispelling is more narrowly defined than he would want.


Arachnofiend wrote:
Humphrey Boggard wrote:
- One other monk TBD. The player mentioned that he was hoping to find an archetype that would allow him to dispel magic with Ki points. May end up as a Sacred Fist War Priest.
The only way to do this would be as a Barbarian with Greater Brawler and Spell Sunder, I think. He could reflavor rage as a sort of zen battle trance if he was interested in the idea.

Just talked to the player, he's going with a disarm specialist. Dude loves his gimmick builds (the all pits all the time wizard, the three-armed gunslinger, etc).


Renegadeshepherd wrote:
What you have is a support build. As support goes this is about as good as a monk gets at this level so I could not say much against it. I could only warn that like most supporters you need to have good damage dealers to win.

The rest of the party is:

- Zen Archer Monk
- Brawler (melee DPR specialist)
- One other monk TBD. The player mentioned that he was hoping to find an archetype that would allow him to dispel magic with Ki points. May end up as a Sacred Fist War Priest.

Renegadeshepherd wrote:
One thing I would say that you will need to plan for is the fire immune flyer because you don't have a good answer for them and your fellow monks who are not zen archer aren't much better. Someone got a solution to that?

Also, I've got winged boots and a pretty good stunning fist + grappling ability. Incidentally, can you grapple a creature out of the sky?


Here's what I've got as a draft character:

Sun "The Cage Potato" Wei, Master of Shuai Jiao

11th level Sensei/Drunken Master/Qinggong Monk, LN Human

STR 12, DEX 14, CON 18 (16 + 2 from belt), INT 10, WIS 24 (16+2 racial+2 advancement+4 headband), CHA 8

Makes the following Qinggong replacements:

Slow Fall -> Barkskin
High Jump -> Scorching Ray
Wholeness of Body -> Restoration

Feats:

1 Defensive Combat Training
1H Crushing Blow
1M Improved Grapple
3 Stunning Pin
5 Lingering Performance
7 Fast Drinker
9 Greater Grapple
10M Spring Attack
11 Deep Drinker

Gear:
Belt of Con +2
Headband of Wis +4
Monk's Robe
Wand of Mage Armor
Winged Boots
Cloak of Resistance +4
Ring of Ki Mastery
Body Wrap of Mighty Strikes

Before combat: Buff the rest of the party before fights with Barkskin (delivered via the Sensei Advice class feature with Drunken Ki ensuring that there's enough Ki points to go around).

During combat: Buff the rest of the party with Advice (Inspire Courage), using lingering performance to get the most out of his limited rounds/day (level + WIS). After starting up his Advice, he rushes in to grapple and deliver stunning fists (or crushing blows). Unarmed strikes have +16 to hit and a saving throw with DC 22. Grappling CMB is 18 and CMD is 39. He also has the option of hanging back and attacking with Scorching Rays.

After combat: He can help with party with restorations (someone else will have to take care of healing hit points).

Any thoughts?


Back in those days I too had a rich, flowing mane of fur. Funny how times change.


Imbicatus wrote:
jakebacon wrote:
Humphrey Boggard wrote:

Here's what I'm looking at so far:

...
Qinggong replacements:

Slow fall 20' -> barkskin
High Jump -> feather step
Slow fall 30' -> gaseous form
Slow fall 40' -> dragon's breath
Slow fall 50' -> restoration
...

Is that how replacing slow fall really works? I though you swapped it out once and it's gone.
Slow Fall is a single ability, you can't swap out each improvement of it.

Thanks for pointing that out.


Here's what I'm looking at so far:

Monk 11 - Sensei/Drunken Master/Qinggong.

Feats
1H - Crushing Blow
1 - ?
1M - Scorpion Style
2M (replaced, Sensei)
3 - ?
5 - ?
6M (replaced, Sensei)
7 - ?
9 - ?
10M - Medusa's Wrath (considering replacing)
11 - Drunken Ki

Qinggong replacements:

Slow fall 20' -> barkskin
High Jump -> feather step
Slow fall 30' -> gaseous form
Slow fall 40' -> dragon's breath
Slow fall 50' -> restoration

25 pt buy will be heavily invested in wisdom. He should be acting as a party buffer with Advice (i.e., Inspire Courage +3) and Mystic Wisdom (using Ki to hand out Barkskins like Halloween candy). He'll have a nice secondary portfolio based around debuffing opponents with DC 10 + 1/2 level + WIS mod abilities like Stunning Fist and friends. I don't expect him to do much damage but being able to do damage would be a plus. Scorpion style is a nice way to limit opponent's mobility to enable my full-attacking monk buddies to avoid having to move more than 5' a round.


Renegadeshepherd wrote:
One time adventure Irontruth, sadly. Your idea is great but wasted in this instance :(

If the party is really fun we might take some time away from our existing campaigns to continue with that group.

Current campaigns:

Homebrew #1 - Wild adventure in Kaer Maga. Our bard disappears for weeks at a time only to emerge from an ether binge with a treasure map on his back before becoming an unintentional paladin of Adabar.

Homebrew #2 - Lovecraftian Horror mixed with high technology. The Many Worlds hypothesis + Traveller's from Beyond the Stars + Crashed Alien Ship churning out evil clones.

Curse of the Crimson Throne - Just started with a colorful cast, featuring a brand spanking new GM who is rocking it so far.


I like Secret Wizard's idea on the Sensei. I can build entirely around WIS and focus on serving up enemies on a platter to the rest of the party instead of focusing on doing damage.

What do you guys think of a sensei/drunken master/qinggong build where I take Scorpion Style, Gorgon's Fist, Medusa's Wrath and Crushing Blow? What should I do with the feats at 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 11th level?


Renegadeshepherd wrote:
what level is this btw? some monks cant function as intended until a certain level. for example, no ki mystic is worth his salt until level 3 and zen archers also don't hit their sweet spot till the same level.

Level 11 and our group tends to be fairly generous with the point buy (25 pts).


For an upcoming one shot (Ruby Phoenix Tournament) we've decided to put together an all monk party. The character I have in mind is a chubby human monk with a lisp and a tendency to stutter, which is why our party is registered in the tournament as the "Five Fifths of Fa-fa-fa-fury".

I'm leaning toward a sensei build but I'm not seeing what I should do with him in combat aside from give my fellows advice. Also, if it helps one of the other players is playing a Zen Archer monk so I'd prefer to stay melee-oriented.


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You'd think Paizo would have thought a little bit more before unleashing a dragon that can literally do anything. Our party ran into one today but fortunately we won initiative and were able to kill it before it deleted our user accounts.

Spoiler:
This afternoon a player still newish to the game heard the GM mentioned a psuedodragon and asked what a dragon had to do with sudo. It took a while to explain to her because she had been doing a lot of programming lately. Later this evening I mentioned the psuedodragon to my fiancee and she too immediately jumped to sudo. Ladies be coding.


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What about if it's hidden in a

spoiler:
smurf


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"Is only four useful inches on entirety of average man. Three in case of wizard."
- Yuelga Sokolov, professional wizard bodyguard.

"I will die protecting wizard. My mother died protecting wizard. My grandmother died protecting wizard. My great-grandmother killed by bear while s***ing in woods like most Irrisen elderly. I f***ing hate bears."
- Yuelga Sokolov, professional wizard bodyguard.


Any thoughts on how Comprehend Languages could fail to decipher a language?

I'd love to base an adventure around the PCs working to decipher the language on a stele they found in a dragon's horde (patterned after the Rosetta Stone).

Galgauth's Stele:

My players found a curiously carved tablet in a dragon's horde:

At the top of the stele there are 23 lines of Aklo. Only the bottom seven are intact enough to read:

14. ... Focus-ing (?)
A - Will be commemorated with the (Ptolemy/Priestess)-{stone/complex}
B - As {monoliths} coincide-{sideways}
C - When Ssoth {shade} falls long.

[Other fragments include words that are evocative of travel, migration, and history ancient even when the stele was made]

In the middle are 85 lines of an unknown script, ancient and alien in origin.

At the bottom of the stele 52 lines of draconic script of which only 14 survive completely intact.

"Anya, daughter of the Ptolemy priestess of Ssoth, the lover of her father; day this Decree, being Directors (superintendents) of services (?), the Prophets-(hidden things)..., the Priests who go in the Holy Shrine to "Robe the Gods"-(statues), Scribes of the Gods, Sages of the 'House of Life', (the Pr-Ankh)-{pr-House (hieroglyph), the Library, the storing of secret, priest scrolls."

1. Anya did great things, for Ssoth-Lands, of all [People]-(under her control),
A - being like a God, daughter of Gods, II...
B - Gifts to Soldiers, in her authority, according to their rank

2. Citizen taxes remitted
A - Taxes of Nobles, that concerned Ssoth-daughter, remitted ...
B - Others, absolved ...
... Army (Soldiers), and Citizens "comfortable" in her period of sole ..."

[The rest is impossible to make out without further context]


daimaru wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:

The question boils down to how deities handle divided loyalties. Most don't take such things too well. Note that saying a prayer to a deity other than your patron is not a rejection of your patron in a polytheistic system -- but having two patrons is more problematical.

In this case, your GM created the issue by having Abadar be the deity to approach your character, even though that character had no inclination to serve Abadar. Since he created the problem, he should solve it.

Why should all problems be solved? Maybe the DM wants the character to have a problem. If that's the case, getting out of it by serving two deities will give them lots of opportunities to play with you. Such as always having the wrong deity show up at the crucial moment.

After all, a dragon in the caverns is your problem. A good DM shouldn't kill you, quite, but toying with you is just fine.

That's exactly what I'm going for - I want my character to be conflicted. After his unfortunate revelation that he's a paladin he's spent a lot of time shouting at the sky "Fine! We'll have it your way!". Now, when he's shouting at the sky I want him to look in a different direction and be able to shout, "You too? Gods damn it.".


David knott 242 wrote:
But what are you trying to accomplish by doing this? Paladins have very few if any abilities that are deity dependent.

The story is this:

In our homebrew campaign, my hard-drinking, ether-addicted bard recently launched a bit of a personal crusade against those who would commit the crime of insurance fraud. We had finally corned the big bad, who among numerous other things, was in the act of insurance fraud - Markos wasn't offended that the BBEG plotted to kill him and his friends but was somehow incensed that he would betray the trust of innocent insurers trying to make some honest gold. We gain a new level and Markos has a terrible dream that he had been chosen by Adabar, who apparently has trouble finding paladins interested in rooting out insurance fraud.

Markos now finds himself confined to the Paladin's code, even in respects that Adabar doesn't care about (drinking) or even actively supports (prostitution). Having had this brush with the divine Markos has become keenly interested in all matters religious but doesn't feel particularly bound to Adabar, who was admittedly somewhat presumptuous in choosing Markos as a paladin in the first place. Now Markos is looking to Iomedae (the patron god of the party's other paladin) and thinking that he really could devote his life to spreading her word, even though he'd still technically be a paladin of Adabar.


Is there any reason why a PC couldn't be a paladin of one god and a cleric of another?


Alex Cunningham wrote:

I saw this thread and hoped it was about how to work running a Pathfinder game into a real-life wedding.

Anyone have any good ideas on that front, I'm getting hitched in a few weeks and would take all the advice you got. Bride demanded a 2-foot diameter inflatable d20 be involved in the ceremony somehow and I haven't yet solved that one.

I went to a wedding recently where the bride and groom were married by their GM who performed the ceremony from behind his Pathfinder screen. I told them they should roll a wedding skill check but the groom said he'd just take twenty.


Also keep in mind that the Samurai can be reskinned and that there are no implications of place within an Eastern Style feudal structure built into the class beyond that implied by certain choices of Order. You could just as easily flavor a Samurai as belonging to an esoteric order of western knights that use their own (reskinned) weaponry.

For example, I could easily see a CN Vlad the Impaler analog as an Order of the Cockatrice Samurai.


Human Bard 4 (CN) - Drunk, ether binging lawyer devoted to fighting insurance fraud in all its forms.
Human Witch 8 (LN) - Clueless academic carried far and wide by his research interests.
Human Samurai 14 (LG) - A brash young warrior who has been forced to mature rapidly to deal with the events of the Rise of the Runelords AP.


172. Ether binge tattoo says not to trust bartender.


Thanks for the advice. The Kasatha is a perfect fit.

The gunslinger 6/alchemist 2 is only using the third arm for reloading purposes. To get the five attacks he's got two from his BAB, another from Rapid Shot, and two more from Two Weapon Fighting and improved Two Weapon Fighting.


For a one-shot one of the players has rolled up a three-armed gunslinger 6/alchemist 2. With the help of TWF feats he is shooting five times a round and having a ton of fun surprising people with the third arm.

I'd like to help our (newby) GM create a four armed gunslinger to give the PC a truly memorable duel. It doesn't have to be made using character creation rules, a monster would be fine but I'm hoping for something that will give a fairly optimized 8th level character a run for his money. What would you all suggest?


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Thomas Long 175 wrote:
Humphrey Boggard wrote:
A 20th level commoner would be a folk hero, like John Henry. He may have never fought a battle in his life but his life was one of toil and you'd never want to find yourself on the wrong side of his hammer.
Paul Bunyan?

Definitely. I think Johnny Appleseed would be another great 20th level commoner.


A 20th level commoner would be a folk hero, like John Henry. He may have never fought a battle in his life but his life was one of toil and you'd never want to find yourself on the wrong side of his hammer.


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You can play a Demonspawn Tiefling Cavalier, dump INT, and still never have to worry about getting outsmarted by your horse.


Bigdaddyjug wrote:

Here's my paladin. As I said, currently level 5.

Allizsah Bloodfeather
Female Demon-Spawn Tiefling Paladin (Oath of Vengeance) 5
...
Str 20, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 5, Wis 10, Cha 20
...
Divine Bond (Weapon +1) (5 minutes) (1/day) (Sp) Weapon shines with light and gains enhancement bonuses or chosen properties.

Taking the weapon divine bond was a mistake - you should have gotten a mount (min INT 6). The roleplay would have been absolutely priceless.


Purplefunk wrote:

I'm starting a game with my friends this Thursday and two of them are starting with vertu low rolled charisma, the lowest being 5. If it was intelligence, they would be 3 points away from not being able to speak!

So I feel like prices will be higher for them off course and randomly fights will stay because they looked at someone wrong but I'm wondering if any of you have good ideas how to punish these people.

I like to force my players with low CHA to fight it out in The Pit. But I wouldn't change anything in the game to punish their characters.


eakratz wrote:
Yeah it helps. I'm mostly suffering from a lack of imagination right now which is why myost is kind of vague. Pretty much any advice will help me steer in a direction. Right now I'm vacillating between a witch and wizard.

I say go with the witch. They fulfill similar enough roles and the witch class features give you a lot more structure to work with in planning out your character.


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[deleted snarky crane wing response that doesn't add to the conversation, sorry folks]


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doc the grey wrote:
How do traditional Orcs view homosexuality in lands like the Hold of Belkzen? Is it different based on paring, do they have any concepts of trans orcs and if so how does that diversity of non-traditional genders (assuming they share the same 2 sexes we have) factor into their culture?

There is now a grad student NPC in my homebrew campaign doing research on exactly these questions.


Ooh Ooh! We should all put together 20th lvl builds and argue over which one is best!


I think that's fine at early levels. At much later levels combat tends to bog down and introducing more enemies may make for slower gaming. Just dive right in and see what works for you. Sometimes it'll be more monsters, other times it'll be advancing monsters or throwing in challenging environments.

For example, at level one a "Hard" encounter is APL+2=3. For 4-5 PCs it's 200XP per PC or an XP budget of 800 or 1000, depending on whether you have four or five PCs, respectively.

An encounter for four PCs:
Experience budget is 800 XP. So you might have

2 Lizardfolk (400 XP each).

An encounter for five PCs:
Experience budget is 1000 XP. So you might have

1 Advanced Lizardfolk (600 XP, has advanced template)
1 Lizardfolk (400 XP)

or

2 Lizardfolk (400 XP each)
1 Human Zombie (200 XP)


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"My character is a vegetarian that only eats sentient plants."

[Gets stink eye from Druid's Assassin Vine]


I always thought the perception rules were for noticing fine details or hidden enemies rather than how far a character could see.


I accidentally did something similar to a player last session.

The party had been exploring the ruins of a burnt shell of an Opera House, investigating a haunting. I had designed around a 6th level party with a ranger, rogue, inquisitor, wizard, and a tetori monk. The player with the rogue had been frustrated by the mechanics of his character* and wanted to roll up a different PC. He decided to go with sorcerer and all seemed well until I realized he selected fire based spells almost exclusively. Almost all of the encounters in this burnt out Opera House were fire immune (fire based undead and demons mostly) and the player had a miserable time. For next session I've done a significant amount of replanning (flexible design FTW) and am expecting a fairly balanced fight with the BBEG (now a Charnel Hound variant composed of the bodies of ancient Kellid cultists instead of a demon) where the sorcerer can play a meaningful role.


Rynjin wrote:
Seriously, all of this argument is over a damned random encounter. It's silly, and the OP should feel bad for ever starting this conversation over something so trivial in the first place.

I don't think it's possible to create a thread about a paladin falling without it inspiring hundreds of forum posts of heated back and forth.


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Darinby wrote:
And I never gave a big thumb's up to the Wyvern's actions, but I don't need to. The Wyvern is neutral and not that bright, it is within his alignment to do occasional #$@$# moves. A Paladin whose abilities stem from maintaining the highest standards of good doesn't get that leeway.

To be fair, a properly optimized paladin should have an INT no higher than 8. Definitely the paladin doesn't have the mental wherewithal to follow complex metaphors involving natives tribes any more than the wyvern would (INT 7).

edit: On reflection I have a whole new respect for the player. When I read the GM's descriptions of what had happened I figured he was just being an immature prat. Now I realize that he was role-playing his character.

edit 2: To say nothing of the fact that the Paladin likely has a WIS of 7 or similar whereas the Wyvern has WIS 12. Really the Wyvern would appreciate the ethics and morality of all this on a much deeper level than the Paladin would.

edit 3: [slight derail] Could a character with WIS 7 really appreciate and understand the concept of freedom enough to act on its behalf?


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Yes. Yes it is.

The GM explained that the player's reasoning behind killing the wyvern was that he was frustrated that he didn't get to kill a troll in an earlier encounter.

Stephen Ede wrote:

From what he said he was operating on two levels -

A) In game - "It attacked me and damaged me and made me angry so it has to die".
B) Metagame - The player was pissed about the Trolls in the last encounter not been killed thanks to (in his mind) an agreed mutual withdrawal...

Like every great paladin morality thread we've spent several hundred posts making profound moral arguments that clearly don't reflect the reality of what took place at that particular table.

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