Jay159's page

All I have is this

We are in the process of restatting the Sword of Sloth. Summon monster, while thematically appropriate, can be easily unbalanced.

We just ran through the Seven Swords of Sin and inherited them. We sat with our GM and statted them out for fun. Also part of the party doesn't want to return them. The Sword of Greed and Lust are the canon stats, the others we made up based on the first two.

To date Krant is the scariest villain my party has encountered in Golarion. He's in The Masks of the Living God module. He'll need some serious leveling to participate, but we were scared to death.

Wasn't too impressed with today's episode..I'll take it as a bit of a hiccup and move on.

I hope it was a hiccup. The characters haven't developed like they did in ATLA. It seems that most of the characters are shrouded in mysterious backstory. I think we can say that Pabu is developing nicely though.

Hell, I think if companies just allowed for their games to be sold as RPGs they would be okay. Some people really enjoy MMOs. The only MMO I ever really got into was City of Heroes, and a lot of that was spawned by the character creator they released. I did a Super Group once and it just sucked so much time.

I can't say that I've ever been a fan of MMOs. They definitely have a market, but the idea that every game with a cult following needs an MMO is a bit ridiculous. I'm just waiting for the day when the decide Devil May Cry and Frogger are in need of being turned into an MMO.

Does Amon remind anyone else of Razmir?

That's one of the first thoughts I had.

Off Topic:
Masks of the Living God is probably one of my favorite modules.

The link above is probably better suited for campaign info. But if you run Ubuntu there's a pretty cool application called ZimDesktopWiki. It allows you to create a desktop wiki of your campaign information. You can hyperlink pages together as well as load images into the programs. I find it to be a good note taking program regardless.

The Elder Scrolls Online announcement spawned this mild rant.

I have to say that I've fallen out of touch with the video game community nowadays, but I have to ask if I am the only one tired of MMOs?

I purchased SWTOR, because I loved KOTOR and KOTOR 2. I stopped SWTOR, because I found while playing that though that I didn't like having other people in the world.

The reason I find immersion to be difficult is because tons of players are just running about. The equivalent would be the dialogue and actions of strangers being inserted into a story I'm reading.

I treat my RPGs like books, they are both something I enjoy doing to relax veg out.

When I want to play games with friends I usually bring out the dice, but that's just me.

Thoughts?

I didn't feel that it was harsh or anything. It was an oversight on my part. I'm trying to find a better copy of it (the one I submitted was missing the price info, and a few other things, so I am attempting to find it). I may have uploaded it to google docs or something. . .

This is not so much about the items, but more a comment on organization (ok, maybe more of a cranky rant than a comment).

I'm really surprised by the number of people in the critique my item thread who either don't have the final submitted version of their item, or aren't sure if what they have is the final version.

Computer crashes and viruses are somewhat understandable, but that's why backups are important.

Editing in the submission box instead of on your final draft copy (and/or not transferring those changes to your final draft copy) is a bad idea, and is bound to leave you without the final version. It's just a recipe for confusion.

Simply not knowing if you have the final version or not? Really? You're essentially applying to be a professional game designer and you didn't keep track of what was a rough draft and what was final?

I don't know how you can expect to succeed as a professional without this basic level of organization.

There is simply no good reason for anyone not to have a copy the final version of any work that they do for hire or profit.

My mind is boggled.

Even if you didn't make the top 32, start building your portfolio with your best examples of finished, polished writing! Would you tell a potential client/boss that you entered the contest, and then show them a rough draft of your work? Or worse, tell them that you don't know if what you showed them is final or not? You'd never get hired.

(If I remember correctly, this was even mentioned last year by one of the judges)

I'm guilty of this. It was in my top five submitter's remorse thoughts that occurred. I understand why this is a problem and I agree everyone should have the final copy. Well, this was my first year. I'll learn.

EDIT: Just checked to see how off the copy I had was. I removed it so that no one's time would be wasted.

Congrats all. I look forward to your creations in future rounds.

Jay159 wrote:

I'm not encouraging Paizo to publish psionic rules, I'm fine with what Dreamscarred is doing.

Do you have psionics at your own tables? If so, do you run transparency? What do you like/dislike about it?

I'm finding myself to be a recent convert to psionics. Not saying I'll drop Paizo stuff, but I didn't use to like it.

I have not used it in a while, but I do allow it. I do use the transparency rules, because if you don't it creates a lot of work for me as a G, and I have enough to do already.

I like that I can boost the power of powers so that they remain relevant. I don't like the fact that magic still has more options.
PS:I only have DPS's core book, and none of the expansions.

Dreamscarred is selling a supplemental material. I think there are four classes for 9.95 up. The Aegis, the Marksman, the Tactician, and the Vitalist.

I really like the features of the Vitalist and the Tactician. It also comes with options and powers for the "core" psionic classes.

The Fetchling and Suli are more powerful then the Aasimar.

The Aasimar doesn't have an attribute penalty though.

There's a handful of things, well maybe a couple handfuls, that almost always devolve into shouting matches between entrenched oppositions, at least around here.

Alignment threads.
Psionics.
Anything relating to caster-martial disparity. Claims that wizards are gods and the subsequent attempt to put them in their place, complaints that fighters aren't up to snuff and the subsequent deluge of DPR calculations by people who don't get it ;).
Gish threads, though haven't seen one since UM kind of shut us up with the Magus.
Also anything that has to do with types of DMing and what's the right and wrong way to handle things.

I stumbled upon both the alignment thread and the caster-martial disparity the other day. Didn't start using the forums until after UM came out, so I missed the Gish party.

While on the topic of psionics, how does Dreamscarred handle 3rd party content based off of Psionics Unleashed?

Paizo gives out OGLs and it's very official, I haven't seen anything like that for DSP. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Oh THIS again. I guess "Psionics" came up on the wheel o' threads. Last week it was a crapton of Magi questions. It's been a while since I played this game and, so far, this thread is civil. Yay!

I had a feeling Psioncis was one of THOSE subjects.

I was just curious what other people's feelings were, because I have been playing Pathfinder for about three years. For the longest time we ran Paizo only, but we're moving away from that now. Our DM has gotten more liberal. One time he let us take templates instead of levels . . . Let's just say that I quickly abused that into the ground to show why it was a bad decision.

I'm going to have to agree if you can reach them, you can grapple them.

My GM has even allowed us to jump into the air and grab them. We had a monk with a decent acrobatics tackle a quasit out of the air and into a pool of water and began drowning it. The quasit never escaped the grapple . . .

I've never considered this. When I've played the Haunted Oracle we just assumed that the bonus spells (mage hand, mirror image, reverse gravity, etc.) were of the level you would find them on a class that gets them regularly. So mage had would be 0th level, and so on and so forth. It hasn't caused any problems at our table.

Are wrote:

However, remember that most of the time when NPCs use Stealth, it's because they've set up an ambush that the PCs walk into (gaining a large bonus to Stealth for not moving), while when PCs use stealth it's primarily to attempt to sneak past a group of NPCs.

What is the bonus to stealth for not moving in an ambush situation? I've been trying to find something about it in the rules, but I can't. It does seem to me that ambushers who are hidden and not moving should get a big bonus to their stealth.

I would think that the bonus for the ambush resides in the fact that those ambushing have had time to set up and get hidden. If you have a lot of time and are not threatened you can take a 20 on a stealth roll. Which is a bonus. Perhaps they are also getting circumstance bonuses. I'm not sure what the specific instance is, but having prep time is usually advantageous.

If you haven't pick up the Psionics Expanded stuff from Dreamscarred. The Aegis, Vitalist, and Tactician classes are really fun.

I'm not encouraging Paizo to publish psionic rules, I'm fine with what Dreamscarred is doing.

Do you have psionics at your own tables? If so, do you run transparency? What do you like/dislike about it?

I'm finding myself to be a recent convert to psionics. Not saying I'll drop Paizo stuff, but I didn't use to like it.

bumping this back to the top of the list, and awaiting more of Master Arminas's unmatched storytelling skills

+1

TheLoneCleric wrote:

Numerian, what ruleset for Psionics are you using?

3.5 Shaper made a bit more powerful to balance the rest of the party, using some abilities from Alchemist, Artificer (Eb) and 2e psionics as an inspiration.

I've seen the book by Dreamscarred Press, was disappointed cause it's a poor-looking Expanded Psionics Handbook, just copy-paste, no originality.

We've decided that primitive looking robots don't fit the setting's image, e.g. with visible electronic circuitry. Nanotechnology is hidden, appears mystical, almost like magic. And there are no guns with bullets, lasers appear like the scorching ray or similar.

Dreamscarred has come out with some new stuff since then, and I think it's an improvement from the first book. They introduced the Aegis, the Vitalist, and the Tactician. I think they are really fun psionic classes.

I only read about a third of the thread, and maybe this has been mentioned before, but what if Paizo did more connected modules. For example Crypt of the Everflame, Masks of The Living God, and The City of Golden Death (Though City of Golden Death was kind of bland) all tied in. They had options for running them separately.

On a side note if you do run those three Masks of the Living God is the most fun.

Back to the topic at hand. This model could represent your smaller AP want, and it would allow for them to take risks, but it would also mean that 3 modules are tied up in one story-line.

I would really like more modules to be tied in together, but that's me, and I'm also happy that every time a module comes out I have an option to buy a campaign that I probably haven't done.

With what I've got so far I'm pretty happy but a few other players may join and when they ask about it I'll tackle it so here are a few more questions to place in the pot.
1.)What are a few ideas to include psionic races without causing chaos?
2.)What are some options for encounters beside wandering constructs?
3.)What are some options for native fauna for animal companions?

Psionics in Numreria could be handled like a very strange Sorcerer bloodline. People won't know the difference. Maybe they call them "silver touched" or something because they think they're mutants.

I really like that idea. Do you run transparency with magic/psionics?

2. You could use barbarians, because there are a lot of barbarians in Numeria. There is a really fun acquired template in The Seven Swords of Sin that comes from Numeria.

3. Go for hardier plants an animals that are built to survive in less than ideal conditions.

I'll assume that many people were like me and put aside the item(s) they were working to let them breathe, got caught up with the holidays, then realized the date and rushed to submit.

-X

I didn't know about the contest at all until a few days before hand. A friend of mine sent me the link.

EDIT: I had heard about the contest, but beyond that I was fairly clueless.

The only evil campaign that had any amount of success was when we were running Rise of the Runelords.

We had a good thing going we were all working together. Initially, we had trouble keeping the antipaladin in line. He settled down after I agreed to let him torture all of my prisoners (I was playing a homebrew class that relied on other people's powers, so I kept prisoners. The class needs to be rebuilt, because its horribly ineffective, but that's another story). At the end of every fight I would make sure that our powerful enemies were alive enough. The antipaladin wanted to kill everything and everyone. I had reasoned with him that torture is the better route, because their suffering never ends and he always had a source of joy.

Now, my character wasn't so much for the torture, but it kept him from tearing me down and it made the party run just a little bit more smoothly.

We continue for a few weeks and things are running smoothly. At one point we did strip the antipaladin of his gear and make him fighter another character with no weapons, because his arrogance was making it hard to go about our tasks. He ended up winning the fight, but the caster had gotten him down enough hit points to scare him.

After once again putting the antipaladin in check we continue about our business. We're exploring this dungeon and run into a haunt of shadows. I get strength drained like nobody's business and end up running into the next room (fortunately, the shadows didn't follow). The next room we find has a giant crab that starts beating down the party. I run away, because with six points of strength damage, I'm wasn't too useful. Two of my evil compatriots the antipaladin and the monk were felled by the crab beast and our fourth member had decided this was his opportunity to stop the evil. Up until this point we assumed he was down with our plans to gain control of Sandpoint. It turns out he was not. As I'm running away he yells (lies) that everything is okay. I start heading back and he trips me in the room of shadows (mind you I had dropped most of my gear because I had been strength drained). I manage to get out of the room again and I tie the doors shut with 50 feet of rope.

Realizing that he wouldn't be able to escape alone he finishes off the crab and administers healing to the antipaladin and the monk. The monk was suspicious of my disappearance and began questioning the sorcerer. Realizing the sorcerer was hiding something he began to ready an attack, but the antipaladin sided with the sorcerer and the monk seeing he was outmatched used a lightning bolt on the paladin (Qigong Monk), the antipaladin became nothing more than a pile of bones. After that the sorcerer threw out a few spells, but eventually the monk grappled him tied him up and drowned him in the water. The monk was an undine and at the bottom of the pool was an exit from the dungeon.

The monk came and found me meditating in an anti-grav chamber we had found previously and then said, "There can only be two one to harness the power, and one to crave it". Actually, he asked for my version of the story and threatened me with lighting if I didn't tell the truth, but we worked it out.

We haven't picked that campaign up again yet.

Our party unity wasn't ruined by an evil character though, it was ruined by a good guy. Though we did have to reign the antipaladin in kind of often.

rkraus2 wrote:

master arminas wrote:

...Only a well schooled, experienced DM can do that. And even then, not always.

Master Arminas

I'm going to suggest you try a game with a social combat system, like any of the indie games from the Forge. After you get past "hey, new rules", I think you'll be impressed.

Here's what happened in my group. (Half of which were the types to completely dump int and cha every time).

** spoiler omitted **

...

My group started doing something like this after The Old Republic came out. As a joke we would roll percent die and whoever rolled highest got to talk first. While we laugh at the process I think it has sped up the process on occasion.

For those who were curious, we did get a spike in the number of entries in the last two days (which happens every year), and I think at least one of those got moved into the temporary Keep pile, so even if you submitted very late, there's a chance you're in. :)

Do those who submit late typically not make it into the top 32?

Jay159 wrote:

InVinoVeritas wrote:

Jay159 wrote:

Tacticslion wrote:

Hodge Podge wrote:

Like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense. D:

DUDE SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! SPOILER ALERT?!?!?!?!?!onequestionmarkone!?!?!?!

(nah, I'm just kiddin' ;D)

My friend made this reference last night, and I hadn't seen the movie yet. I guess that's my fault it's been out forever.

Rosebud was his sled.

There goes another movie spoiled.

Penny Arcade has some thoughts on this...

. . . Wait. Jesus dies?!?! Three in a row.

I should probably be up to date on movies, but I'm just not.

Jay159 wrote:

Tacticslion wrote:

Hodge Podge wrote:

Like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense. D:

DUDE SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! SPOILER ALERT?!?!?!?!?!onequestionmarkone!?!?!?!

(nah, I'm just kiddin' ;D)

My friend made this reference last night, and I hadn't seen the movie yet. I guess that's my fault it's been out forever.

Rosebud was his sled.

There goes another movie spoiled.

Hodge Podge wrote:

Like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense. D:

DUDE SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! SPOILER ALERT?!?!?!?!?!onequestionmarkone!?!?!?!

(nah, I'm just kiddin' ;D)

My friend made this reference last night, and I hadn't seen the movie yet. I guess that's my fault it's been out forever.

The module Seven Swords of Sin has some Numerian goodness in it. I would recommend that.

I'm interested in Carnival of Tears . . .

I recommend Tales of the Old Margreve from Open Design for some creepy forest adventures. Streets of Zobeck (also Open Design) is great for urban adventures.

I haven't looked closely at the level 5 Paizo modules, but I've always been happy with any of them.

I haven't seen those, but I'll go look into them. I love when third parties create good work.

I'm looking to run a scenario for a psion, a cleric (undead lord), and a witch. They are all at level 5. What would you recommend?

I've been running the same character for 8 levels now and he's died twice, three times technically. Our group uses the hero point system, and I went with the anti-hero. Since hero points stave off death I guess no one dies, but they're used about once every five sessions by at least one member of the party.

Most of the party deaths that have occurred have been because of rending. That alone counts for more deaths than anything I can think of. Death happens often enough in our group to be a scary thing. I've detailed some that have occurred. Fortunately, most deaths that do occur are pretty epic.

The first death I don't count towards this continuity, because we reset our level 1 characters after this event.

In the Hangman's Noose we had a total party wipe.

In Masks of the Living God a party member of ours was critically hit by magic (We use the critical hit and critical fumble deck). He took enough damage so that he started dying, and the critical from the spell sent him to the ethereal plane for a few rounds. In those few rounds he died. When my gm read the critical card he said, "I don't see how this could be a bad thing".

The City of Golden Death took two lives

My first counted death happened in this module, too.

My character doesn't like to talk about it. My GM was nice allowed me to roll a new character, and since I provided a story tie in, he resurrected my old character at the adventure's conclusion.

I died again in The Seven Swords of Sin.

I lived because of an item I invested in after my first death. In our group we call it the "ring of paranoid self-preservation". It has one breath of life charge in it. I survived the coup de grace because of that item. I've since recharged my item. I was happy about my death (and subsequent resurrection), because I now qualify for the Graverisen feat.

Now, we have a player who plays inconsistently and his death is something to be expected within the first few rounds of any combat. When he plays, he dies, but it is due to poor tactics, not reading his class abilities, and it is not through the fault of the GM.

His most recent death also happened in The Seven Swords of Sin Module

Critical hits that turn the tide of battle kills us and not running away. It's never a result of our GM being hard on us though. He just lets us make our decisions. Even with hero points, magical rings, and the like death is still a real and scary thing.

So, - gods willing I make it to round two - I've started outlining my organization.

What's up with the leader section? Is it just some character's name, or can more than one leader exist? I assume that the leader is supposed to be explained somewhere, but given the limited word count, I'm finding it more difficult to discern the importance of the leader, and how elaborate that should be.

I'm sure it's all important considering it was asked for, but some structures lend themselves to multiple leaders or no leaders at all.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for the link.

How does Paizo - or any tabletop publishing company for that matter - determine what they pay their artists? Does a formula exist like x number of pictures equals y dollars? Or is it a flat rate per project they work on?

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had wonderful holidays.

Hack and Slash Games started up 7 months ago and we worked hard during the summer months to alpha test our classes, then the school year hit and many of us had to return to college. In the past two weeks, since we've been reunited, we have been getting our classes ready for the public. Two of them should be ready for public beta by next week.

We need fine folks like you to try them out, see what you think, what problems occur, and what you would like to see from us.

If interested in participating in the beta please email me at jmiller@hackslashgames.com and I'll add you to our list. Once on the list you'll be able to peruse the site, read our news, and by next week hopefully download the playtests. Even if you're not particularly interested in playtesting, we'd still love to show you around the site.

We're working on getting the site public.

In other news, we need an artist. If you're interested in that email me at jmiller@hackslashgames.com

We hope to hear from you!

Best Regards,

-Jeremiah

You should consider using different words for the modifications you buy and the ones from class ability.

We don't want another of these situations.

+1

I'm sorry to report that the player in my group didn't take the level in Armored Engineer. The alchemist's 3rd level abilities appealed to his concept more. Also we didn't level, he just told me his decision.

I want to playtest this, but am currently playtesting my own stuff right now.

When I get a chance to use it I'll post my thoughts.

ok here is the most recent update to the class. in the power armor section of the class abilities, it now says that all modifications cost two points unless the specific modification says otherwise. racial mods are still 1 point for members of that race and 2 points for members of other races. i hope this balances things out a bit. thanks for the feedback and as always additional feedback/suggestions/ideas are always welcome.

The Armored-Engineer Core Class PDF

We're running a module tomorrow night. If we level (we're like a dire rat away from leveling) my friend is multiclassing in it. I'll let you know how it goes.

The answer is actually right above the entry in the Eastern Armor intro paragraph:

Quote:

Many of the following types of armor are constructed of multiple parts, which a number of these armors mix and match. For instance, it is not unheard of for warriors to combine chain mail with four-mirror armor (see, the variant piecemeal armor rules on pages 198–205). Only the various types of plate mail would be either rare or unfamiliar in an Asian-inspired setting.

Thanks! I missed that the first read through. Time to go learn some piecemeal rules. Our group pretty much uses all of the rules published by Paizo, so I may get as well get familiar with them now.

I bought UC this morning and have been reading through it. Is the line about four-mirror armor being worn over chainmail just flavor or does it stack while wearing chainmail?

If it doesn't require having chainmail to wear and doesn't stack then it appears that it's just a cheaper investment for the same bonuses as chainmail.

Jay159 wrote:

So 10 modification points at first level? Isn't that a wee bit ridiculous? That's 10 abilities at first level. Unless I'm misunderstanding it and you get get a modification and then a separate pool of points?

maybe if i make all modifications cost 2 build points instead of 1 except the upgrade armor mod which allows you to raise your power armors ac? that would cut back on how many abilities you would have at first level. how does that sound?

I agree. I think you may want to increase the more powerful abilities that you can get at 1st level to a 2 point cost.

EDIT: I'm saying this, because you also get devices at first level. That's a lot of abilities with a ten point pool.

Out of curiosity in what way does your Gun Mage differ from the one in UC?

EDIT: Haven't read UC yet so I'm just wondering what you've changed.

If you're trying to make in line with the way Pathfinder does things. I would either make the class' BAB poor or increase the hit die to a d8. As of now it's a little off.

On the Trick Shot I'd suggest using his Gun Mage level for BAB rather than caster level.

This is a little nit picky, so I apologize now, but for Phase Bullet would magic armor be considered a magical barrier between the bullet and the target?

That's what I would look at right now.

So 10 modification points at first level? Isn't that a wee bit ridiculous? That's 10 abilities at first level. Unless I'm misunderstanding it and you get get a modification and then a separate pool of points?

Under the class features section it should be Defenses instead of resistances and should read like this: "Defenses (Ex): Starting at 5th level the supernaturalist gains a defense based on bloodline, and then they gain additional defenses every four levels thereafter. "

I'll get an update posted soon.