Kamelion's page

I'd love to see a PFRPG version of the Tome of Horrors. Other than that, though, I agree with those who have said not to update Necro stuff that is already in print. Far better to get Tegel Manor and Slumbering Tsar out there! They get my vote.

There is another thread around here somewhere with psionics ideas, but to respond to your points...

I am running a Pathfinder Dark Sun game with a psion and a soulknife in the party.

For the psion I did exactly the things that you are suggesting. I agree that the power points don't need changing - they balance well against the wizard's spells per day. HD should go to d6 and skills should be tweaked as you mention. I also gave them discipline powers like a wizards, but I was lazy and based the discipline powers largely off arcane schools (filling in the gaps with a couple of powers based on cleric domains or just making stuff up).

In addition, I gave the psion bonus powers in the same way that a wizard gets bonus spells. Basically, they can manifest a free power once per day (or more, for 1st-level powers as their manifester level rises )without spending power points (and can augment it with power points as normal). This is a direct port over of the wizard's bonus spells and helps to offset the psion's lack of 0-level powers while keeping the class on an even footing with the wizard.

After seeing the wizard and new psion in play together, I am satisfied that this new version of the psion is balanced. Both classes performed similarly to each other, with neither overshadowing the other. I'll be keeping an eye on how it goes, but so far I am content.

Although there is no psychic warrior in the game (yet) I agree that the class doesn't need tweaking. Basically, the psychic warrior's powers balance well against the fighter's armour and weapon training. In fact, I tend to think that the psychic warrior's 20 powers are maybe a bit more powerful, but offset by the class' lower HD.

As for the soulknife, I am still undecided. I am using the soulknife unchanged at the moment and it seems to be holding its own. The player has never played a soulknife before and is still finding his feet. The class looks balanced on paper against other melee-based classes, but I wonder if it might not run out of steam at higher levels. God feat selection is probably important here. Something to watch, I think...

Oh, and I'd give Psicraft to all psionic classes, just on general principle. I'm folding Concentration in Psicraft like with Spellcraft, so it becomes necessary. Autohypnosis has its own niche, imho, so I am leaving that separate.

For on-the-fly Grapple to CMB conversions, I have a little note stuck to my screen that summarises the basic changes. Add or subtract the following numbers from the 3.5 Grapple score to get the base CMB value.

FINE +8
DIMINUTIVE +8
TINY +6
SMALL +3
MEDIUM 0
LARGE -3
HUGE -6
GARGANTUAN -8
COLOSSAL -8

Then adjust as needed for feats/abilities like Improved Grab etc.

For feats, I did a table that compares the differences between feats at levels 1-30. Add the following number of feats when converting a 3.5 statblock to a PFRPG statblock. (These amounts are not cumulative.)

Level 1-4: -
Level 5: Add 1 feat
Level 6: -
Level 7-10: Add 1 feat
Level 11: Add 2 feats
Level 12: Add 1 feat
Level 13-16: Add 2 feats
Level 17: Add 3 feats
Level 18: Add 2 feats
Level 19-22: Add 3 feats
Level 23: Add 4 feats
Level 24: Add 3 feats
Level 25-28: Add 4 feats
Level 29: Add 5 feats
Level 30: Add 4 feats

For skills, I use the Alpha 1 system (aka the simple skill system from UA), so I just rebuild from scratch. Doesn't take more than a minute or so.

These are the changes I find myself referring to the most. The rest I tend to just play as written. Sometimes I'll add a hit point kicker, though, if I want the NPC to have a bit more staying power ;-)

My PFRPG game uses Arcana Evolved heavily, so the core book sees a lot of use. It's still going strong, thanks to the excellent binding. However, I would certainly buy a new edition if it incorporated all the errata.

PC's Name: Raeddyn
Race: Human
Class: Totem Warrior (bear)
Level: 6
Circumstances of Death: Slain by an Aspect of Orcus' single daily use of the Wand of Orcus' death attack on board a flying ship high over the Isle of Dread
Setting: Homebrew

PC's Name: Darganeth
Race: Human
Class: Sorcerer
Level: 6
Circumstances of Death: Beaten to a pulp by an Aspect of Orcus on board a flying ship high over the Isle of Dread
Setting: Homebrew

Primer
An incredible mind-bender of a time-travel movie. Loops within loops. Won't say anything for fear of giving away its twists, but if you liked Memento ,you'll love this.

Pi
From Darren Aaronofsky. Utterly deranged portrait of madness and genius and the fine line between the two. And, as and added bonus - unlike his other movie Requiem for a Dream - it won't make you want to go and kill yourself at the end!

Memento
You've probably seen it, but if you haven't, your life is not complete. One of the best movies ever, in the same tradition as Usual Suspects.

eXistenZ
Is this obscure? Dunno. A must-see for all gamers, as it delvbes heavily into the blurred line between real-life and game-life. More subtle than The Matrix although without the black leather. It's about a virtual reality gaming system. Say no more. Watch it. And enjoy your next Chinese meal ;-)

The American version of the Office was definitely amusing - enjoyed the episodes that I've seen.

The UK version was fantastic - a brilliant piece of work. On a par with Alan Partridge at his finest for comedy that makes you laugh out loud and cringe in horror at the same time :-)

Option 1. Most options, most flexibility, most fun. Had a player make a new barbarian just the other night. Good stuff.

That's a very sweet table! Another great design is the Agyris gaming Table (http://www.agyris.net/v3/ugt/default.asp)

Two of the guys in our group recently finished kitting out our new gaming room with a table based on the Ultimate Gaming Table design linked to above (it's the same design, only with nicer chairs and without the cup-holders, lol). I ran my first game on it last Friday and it was a dream. Surround sound, weapons bedecking the walls, cool drinks on tap. The whole thing only cost around $200 (the 8' x 4' plexiglass was the most expensive.) If you have the room, I highly recommend installing one. It doesn't break the bank and makes for the perfect gaming environment.

Second this. A downloadable index would make playtesting the Beta a whole lot easier!

Yesterday I bidded and a won a copy of Deities and Demigods. You know the one with the purple cover thats about 20 years old. Yeah that one...Anyway I opened it up and I about swallowed my dice...
The Cthulu and Melnibonean Mythos (Elric, Stormbringer) were missing. WTF!!!! That's why I stop buying food for a whole week (yeah video gaming is a cool job but it doesn't pay very much). Just so I could pay the 20+ odd dollars to have a Cthulu and Melnibonean Mythos in my Deities and Demigods. If there is anyone out there that has pity for a starving gamer could u send me copy (attachment zip .rar pdf whatever works)of these two missing sections to my email @ esotericluv@hotmail.com , I sure would appreciate it.

Lazy skeleton AKA EbonKnight

I think that rewarding levels in a favoured class is far better than penalising characters that stray into other classes. Big thumbs up for the general idea. I don't think that the +1 hp or +1 skill point is enough. For some time now I've been using the favoured class rule from Conan d20. Under this rule, you get a bonus feat for taking levels in your favoured class: one at 1st, 5th and 10th level.

This is probably too high-powered for the Pathfinder core rules. But in games where you want to have a lower amount of magical gear, for example, these bonus feats work to offset the reduced amount of treasure.

I'm not expecting PFRPG to adopt this rule, but just wanted to throw it out there for general consumption :-)

The absence of several domain-only spells from the PFRPG cleric list is my main complaint with the changes Pathfinder has made. I'm a huge fan of the game otherwise. I applaud the ability of the cleric to access spells/spell-like abilities from both his domains at once - big improvement there - but it's a shame that several spells unique to numerous domains have been lost.

If anyone is interested, I made a list of all domain-only spells that were avaialable to clerics under 3.5 that are no longer available under Pathfinder. I posted it a couple of months back. It's accurate up to the Alpha 3 release and I can post it again here if folks would like to see it.

For my own games, I'm just going to add those spells back into the spell-list of clerics who take the relevant domains. A few extra spells here and there won't break the game - it's no different to allowing a cleric access to extra spells from Complete Divine, Spell Compendium or whatever. I'd like to see the problem fixed in PFRPG core rules, but am happy to house-rule it if not...

Planescape: Torment. Utterly engrossing. Loved it to bits.

Honourable mention for Clive Barker's Undying, because it scared the wits out of me and made me scream like a little girl. One more than one occasion.

Torg!!!

There's only one The Hellbound Heart. Everything else is a weak-sauce movie adaptation.

Just read my 20th anniversary copy of this the other day - utterly magnificent stuff! Often imitated. Never bettered.

Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! ... Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

(Awesome news, guys!)

We have a similar situation in the UK, albeit with a few notable differences. Here, the cutoff point for import duty/VAT is £18 (about $36) at the moment, and the "handling charge" is £8/$16. I thought that was bad enough, but your $32 added charge is outrageous! The main difference here in the UK, though, is that books are not subject to VAT. As most of the Paizo stuff I buy (including all of my subscriptions) are classified by Paizo as books, they never get charged. I only have to be careful about order sizes when I'm ordering flipmats and the like. Sounds like you guys are getting squeezed by your postal service - those levels and charges are unreasonably restrictive. But, like you say, you're in a monopoly. Bummer.

You have an awesome site - great work there. I used to get WD every month (until it became dedicated to Games Workshop stuff) and cherish my old issues dearly. Wonderful to see these old classics updated. Nice one!

In TORG there was a built in system that IIRC was called 'skill challenges.' at the least it was called something like that.

:-)

(Sorry, nothing to add to the main discussion. Your mention of Torg just set off my Torg Remote Alert Sensor and I had to come and see what was being said...)

Throatwarb...

Umm, never mind, actually.

I pronounce it BAH-Hah-Mut.

Hmmm. I suspect that the BBC will be very careful with what they allow out before the season finale airs in the UK. It should be interesting, to say the least, although I could have sworn that the seventh doctor was supposed to have taken Davros out with The Hand of Omega.

Er, wow. Just watched "The Stolen Earth". Didn't see that coming. Pretty damn cool.

Awesome news! Congratulations!

We're using the Grace, Health and Breather rules from BoXM in my Pathfinder game at the moment. Works well and keeps the game flowing nicely, especially as there is no cleric in the party.

Yay! Ordered one!

Thanks Paizo!!!

Orcus speaks of Pathfinder ToH

Post #64

ToH yay!!!

Kamelion wrote:

hopeless wrote:

So the doctor is now officially half-human on his mother's side then?

See the bbc dr who site for more details

That first cropped up in the 1996 tv movie of the 8th Doctor, iirc. Where is it mentioned on the BBC site?

Has a new section pertaining to Frequently asked questions heard about it at doctor who forums and took a look.

Still wonder why they still won't explain about Susan though.

Congratulations guys - and great work Jason :-) Enjoy a well-earned rest!

Looking forward to the next few months' goodies with slavering anticipation ;-)

I pronounce it Throatwarbler Mangrove.

So the doctor is now officially half-human on his mother's side then?

See the bbc dr who site for more details

Tome of Horrors is likely stone-cold dead.

>claps hands frantically<

Watched this on dvd the other night. Great movie and solid departure from the somewhat tired vampire cliches (angsty, looks good in velvet or long leather trenchcoats.) Very scary vampires (animalistic, very fast and brutal) and not bogged down by the need to hit all the supposedly-required cinematic milestones. Gets straight to the action and the horror and builds to a rather unpleasant end. Good stuff.

In my perfect world, there would be three types of monster books for Pathfinder.

1) A core monster book that updates all the SRD monsters and perhaps a bunch of other 3.5 open monsters into one big book. This would have 2 monsters per page (one per column of text, or 1 monster per page for really complex monsters), probably with pretty dense and/or small text and about as much flavor as the 3.5 MM has. This would become the core monster reference book, and we'd likely do ecology-style writeups of monsters from here in Pathfinder now and then (or in book category #3; see below). This book would be super big, too. As many pages as I can get away with, in other words. The monsters in here would be world-neutral, just as in the current MM.

2) Pathfinder Campaign Setting Monster Books that use a format similar to the bestiary at the end of each Pathfinder Adventure Path (1 monster per 2 pages). The monsters in here would be Golarion-specific, and would probaly include a lot of reprints from Pathfinder and the modules.

3) Lots of Classic Monsters Revisited style books that cover various types of monsters. Again; these would be Golarion-specific, to the same extent that Classic Monsters was.

NOTE: No such books are on any schedules yet. But that's my personal take on one possible route we might take.

I'd sort of expected that #2 and #3 were a given. But a dense, intense heavy-hitter like #1 would be awesome!

I was intrigued to see that 4e took a bunch of rules from 3e's Unearthed Arcana and made them core. I'm thinking of the simpler skill sytstem (a version of which also appeared in Alpha 1 - I liked it and still use it!), complex skill challenges (quite cool, been using them for a while), static xp (which Pathfinder is now using too and I am quite interested in). So Pathfinder is already cherry-picking stuff, but not necessarily from 4e - rather, from the same sources that 4e is cherry-picking from. Which is fair enough. A good idea remains a good idea no matter who else is using it.

I like Pathfinder's arcane school powers as they solve the problem of wizards running out of spells. 4e did this too.

Minions? Teh suck. No thanks.

Bloodied? Not sure. I like the idea of monsters that do something nifty when certain conditions are met (losing half their hit points, death throes etc) but I wouldn't want to see it applied across the board. Better off as a special feature of certain creatures.

Bonus hit points at first level? Just tried this out (using the Grace system from BoXM). Like it a lot. Will be using this more in future.

Static saves? No. Also teh suck.

Losing access to combat maneouvres for all classes? No thanks. 3e's approach of "everyone can do it, and anyone can do it better with a feat" works best imho.

I think there were new combat styles in an issue of Dragon but I don't remember the number. I expect that more options will be available in future releases so I'm okay with only the two in the hardcover, although a few more would be nice.

Bear-Wrestling: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, Stunning Fist

Mounted Combat: Ride-by Attack, Spirited Charge, Trample

Piscator: Exotic Weapon (net), Improved Trip, Improved Critical

Strong-Arm: Power Attack, Improved Sunder, Great Cleave

Throwing: Quick Draw, Point Blank Shot, Far Shot.

I think that the PFRPG approach of domain powers is a big step forward in keeping the cleric class viable longer.

But I do think that the loss of domain spells is a bit of a shame, for many of the reasons cited above.

For my own games, I'd just add a cleric's domain spells to his list of spells known. I don't see how that would break the game - it's no different than allowing the cleric access to additional spells from a splatbook, and we're only talking about a handful of spells that a cleric would get from his two domains (and in some cases, none at all.)

I ran this adventure today for my kids - we had a great time :-) They went through it at a cracking pace - skipped a couple of areas but got to the heart of the adventure. The battle with the tatzlwyrm was good and the killer cauldron unexpected. Most enjoyable encounter, however, was with Gurtlekep, whom the characters surprised in his bed. He spun a series of outrageous lies to win their trust, failed miserably, ran for help and ended up on the wrong end of a ranger's sword :-)

All in all, a very well-written adventure that fitted neatly into a Saturday afternoon. We shall see if Aragorn the ranger and Pink Strawberry the wyrmling silver dragon head into D1 next. Good stuff.

Snorter wrote:

And, when you consider that the advice in the 1st Edition DMG literally consisted of "Hit them with random lightning bolts, and set blatantly obvious grudge monsters on them", then it is an evolution...

Not to be a terrible thread-snarker (okay, maybe I am), but can you dig up your literal quote of that? Because I never read that in my 1st edition DMG.

"Strong steps short of expulsion can be an extra random monster die, obviously rolled, the attack of an ethereal mummy (which always strikes by surprise, naturally), points of damage from "blue bolts from the heavens" striking the offender's head, or the permanent loss of a point of charisma (appropriately) from the character belonging to the offender. If these have to be enacted regularly, then they are not effective and stronger measures must be taken. Again, the ultimate answer to such a problem is simply to exclude the disruptive person from further gatherings."

Anyone got a link to Clark's review? Can't find it.

Here ya go - over at Necro's site :-)

Can you die during character creation?

I playtested the rules a few months back but haven't yet picked up the rulebook. It was a lot of fun - fast, enjoyable and largely simple to grasp. I particularly liked the character generation process - the careers gave you a well fleshed-out character by the time you started play.

Plus the binding was good and it wasn't labelled as "Travellar" or something like that on the cover. (Yeah, I know, cheap shot...)

Interesting. I kinda liked the idea but I fear change so I wasn't sure how well they'd mesh with existing material. Never got round to properly trying them out (been drip-feeding alpha material into my homebrew over the last few weeks and hadn't gotten around to feats yet.)

So are Pathfinder feats going to be working more or less like PHB feats then? That would keep things nice and simple.

That said, with Reserve feats, Divine feats, Metamagic feats, Wild feats, etc etc, I'd say there's room for some fighter-specific feat types. Or would Style feats cover that base already well enough? There's always Monte's Uber feats, I suppose (my favourite name in all of gamingdom, by the way :-)...)

I've already preordered both of them.

:-)

Kamelion wrote:

Well, there are plenty

What I mean is spells that appear only on domain lists. Not spells that clerics can only get via domains, but spells that no one except clerics of that domain can get. Right now, I can think of only 4 (Holy Smite and the versions for Chaos, Evil, Law).

The PF GM Screen. Landscape format, made of the same material the Vampire: The Requiem one is made of, featuring the twelve iconics in combat,...

I like the 3.5 DR system and won't be using this new variant.

If any spells aren't used any more (and no domain ability closesly resembles them), just put them on the cleric list (I doubt that there will be (m)any).

I do agree, though, that they could be added to the cleric's list, but I would still make them specific to the domains. A few extra spells known for each domain wouldn't unbalance the game, imho. Official word, however, would be nice :-)

Someone else pointed out the only core spells that are not on *any* class list are the Holy Smite/Order's Wrath type ones, which are still spell-like abilities for the Alignment domains.

Are some of these spells not really the best choices for these domains? Yes. But by the same token, some are good choices for these domains.

Are some redundant, or merely weaker or stronger versions of existing spells? A few are, but most are not.

Are the new domain powers a more powerful option for clerics than domain spells? Generally speaking, yes they are. But they're not always as versatile, nor as compatible with previously published material.

However, these aren't the issues I want to highlight here. I just want to point out that we don't have a clear answer in this regard yet.

By the absence of any reference to domain spells, it makes sense to infer that they have been removed. But that then raises the questions of backwards compatibility - what about those characters or NPCs who use these spells in published products?

Anyway, as there are so many domain-only spells that aren't covered by equivalent powers in Pathfinder, I think it needs addressing in an unequivocal fashion by the designers. That's all I am asking for.

So I made a list :-). These are the spells that are only available to clerics through their domains:

Air Domain
Gaseous Form
Control Winds
Whirlwind

Animal Domain
Calm Animal
Dominate Animal

Artifice Domain
Hardening

Charm Domain
Suggestion
Heroism
Charm Monster
Demand

Community Domain
Greater Status
Telepathic Bond
Sympathy

Darkness
Blacklight
Armor of Darkness
Prying Eyes
Nightmare
Power Word, Kill

Death
Create Greater Undead

Earth
Spike Stones
Iron BOdy

Evil
Unholy Blight

Fire
Fire Shield
Fire Seeds

Glory
Disrupt Undead
Holy Smite
Holy Sword
Bolt of Glory
Sunbeam
Crown of Glory

Knowledge
Detect Secret Doors

Law
Hold Monster

Liberation
Mind Blank

Luck
Mislead
Moment of Presience

Madness
Rage
Bolts of Bedevilment
Maddening Scream

Magic
Magic Aura
Identify
Protection from Spells

Nobility
Demand

Plant
Plant Growth
Command Plants
Repel Wood
Control Plants

Protection
Mind Blank

Repose
Surelife

Rune
Lesser Planar Binding
Instant Summons
Teleportation Circle

Strength
Stoneskin
Clenched Fist

Sun
Fire Shield
Fire Seeds
Sunburst

Travel
Longstrider
Teleport
Phase Door

Trickery
Non-detection
False Vision
Mislead
Screen
Polymorph any Object (not sure if this applies, however, given changes to polymorph.)

War
Power Word, Blind
Power Word, Stun

Water
Fog Cloud
Acid Fog
Horrid Wilting

Weather
Sleet Storm
Call Lightning Storm
Whirlwind