King Stag's page

I guess my next question is, what level(s) do most people tend to stop at?

At what point do most groups say, "let's start over" or "let's stay here for a while"?

Do dice rollers like the Dicenomicon become a must?

King Stag wrote:

I am fairly new to the game and have played around with my group and on my own on some low level adventures. I notice as I look through the rule books and Bestiaries that at higher levels the # of attack rolls and the amount of dice for damage rolls can get pretty ridiculous. The spells and FEATS seem to be a lot more complex and time-consuming as well.

Does this bog the game down quite a bit? Waiting for one player to roll 4-5 attacks and then roll dozens of dice for that damage seems like it would make combat take forever. Honestly, it seems like the game gets a lot less fun at higher levels as the attacks, FEATS, and spells get fairly complex and complicated.

Well it is a matter of preference. I my own opinion, yes, the complication of the game at higher levels, does make it less fun.

I don't think rolling dice for several attacks is the problem. Rolling all attack rolls as one, is an easy way of speeding it up. Different colors for different iterative attacks.
Whether new or old, I strongly suggest having written down the attack bonusses (and damage bonusses) for those combinations of feats you most often uses. It really help making calculating attack rolls and damage rolls faster.

That being said, I thing weird special abilities and people spending time finding spells (or not being sure what they do) is a worse reason for bogging the game down.

You put significance to the feats as something especially time consuming. It in not my experience as such, given that most tend to be used all the time, granting fixed bonusses.

So if a group is well-prepared, knows where to find their spells and how their feats and abilities work, they should still have pretty smooth combats?

I am coming from a position of ignorance. I am a long time super hero RPG player where your character is always the same. I have played D&D off and on since the early 80s but we never went higher than 5th level or so. As I look ahead to 10th level and on it seems intimidating.

I am fairly new to the game and have played around with my group and on my own on some low level adventures. I notice as I look through the rule books and Bestiaries that at higher levels the # of attack rolls and the amount of dice for damage rolls can get pretty ridiculous. The spells and FEATS seem to be a lot more complex and time-consuming as well.

Does this bog the game down quite a bit? Waiting for one player to roll 4-5 attacks and then roll dozens of dice for that damage seems like it would make combat take forever. Honestly, it seems like the game gets a lot less fun at higher levels as the attacks, FEATS, and spells get fairly complex and complicated.

TarionsCousin wrote:

If a player adequately describes what their character is doing such that everyone at the table is entertained, they gain a +1 on the d20 roll--be it combat, skill check, spell resistance, etc.

They must sufficiently answer the question "How exactly are you doing this?"

The goal here is to be descriptive and to raise the level of fun for everyone involved. Players are not required to do this; if they merely say "I roll to hit," they don't get the +1.

I like that a lot and will be forwarding the suggestion to my DM.

I agree, that is a really cool and simple way to encourage people to get into the game and be ready for their turn. I run a group after school (I am a teacher)and this will really help my students I think.

Since it is too much to post, a link instead:

The 'patch changes' for my huge overhaul. I basically made a new 3.75.

Wow, that's an impressive list. I need to get organized.

Some of the ones mentioned so far are fantastic!

I came up with a way (at least it works for my group) to speed up chases (heh..speed up chases), anyway, rather than use the RAW version, we just take a character's movement rate (30, for example) and divide it by 5. This gives you a modifier of +6, which you add to a d20 roll. Whoever you're chasing does the same, and then it's simply an opposed roll. I have all my players record their modifier next to the Speed listing on the character sheets so we don't have to do the math on the fly.

This is genius. I will use this in addition to my Chase Card deck.

We role initiative every single round of combat - keeps it more interesting and removes some tactical/predictable actions.

Ruyan.

I use Combat Manager and this would be really easy to do on there. Super easy.

I will give it a try next session!

The rule is the same for the app, you can find it by hitting the "Help" button.

Ah, damnit. In my panic I didn't even think to look for that.

Thanks.

So the Fighter gets a critical hit on the Evil Cleric (decapitation-using the iCrit app!) and as a newbie I didn't know what the fortitude save DC was....

After a quick rules search which failed, I made it 10 + the fighters attack bonus. The Cleric failed and died, there was much rejoicing.

What is the actual rule?

My favorite is allowing a character's mundane equipment to become magical based on heroic feats (or follies). Doing so allows them to become 'attached' to something like an heirloom weapon or a ratty old backpack and gives life to the character's equipment ... rather than just throwing old stuff out when a shiny magical item appears.

Basically ... it works exactly like giving someone magic items ... just sometimes items transform from mundane to magical rather than being stuff in a treasure horde.

I like this idea too. I want some of the weapons to advance, Diablo style and allow the player to be connected to it instead of just dumping their +1 blade for a +2 blade over and over.

I always like browsing this forum and thought it'd be cool to have a thread to just share some fun ways people have modified the game. Feel free to share as many as you like. They can be simple or complex, who cares! No nit-picking others, it's their house rule, you don't have to like it.

I have a simple one I'll share:

Monks get to have enchanted fists. I want Monks to do bad ass damage with their fists and feet so instead of having to carry around an enchanted Temple Sword or waiting for Feats they can only used a limited amount of times a day. When the Monk finds an enchanted weapon he can "absorb" its power through a ritual (spending gold), destroying the weapon.

So for those that have messed around with it, how easy is it to create a new race, like Dragonborn for example? Simple enough to figure out?

I was leafing through it in the store the other day and have looked at it online. It seems it is pretty heavy on Monk feats and what not. Is it a pretty good buy if you use Monks often?

King Stag wrote:

Limit them to their # of spells a day but allow them to use any of the spells they know as part of that #. So is after modifiers they have 5 spells per day, let them use any spells as part of that 5.

The problem with this is when you get to the Wizard, who can essentially have an unlimited number of spells known, being able to cast any of those spells at any time.

Which, as I just stated, is pretty much what the players seem to want.

But methinks that's a bit broken, don't you?

Yes, as you level you'd need to tweak it the # of spells per level they can use per day as in the RAW. So if they can cast/know 3 3rd level spells that's it. But they still have the ability to cast whatever they want in the 3rd level spell list.

OR, the DM could add tweak it more and say the PCs get one slot per level that is open to any spell but have to prepare the rest.

Limit them to their # of spells a day but allow them to use any of the spells they know as part of that #. So is after modifiers they have 5 spells per day, let them use any spells as part of that 5.

I also have allowed Magic Missile (or a similar 1st level attack spell) to be used at will but a ranged touch attack is required each time.

YES!

I have the GameMastery Basic flip-mat and was wondering if it would be a good idea to cut it up to use more like my Dungeon Tiles. Has anyone done this? Does it hold up well?

My Monk is a Shoanti tribesman trained in ancient tribal fighting techniques. Born and raised in Varisia.

Simple.

I don't know why people feel the need for mental gymnastics to get a Monk into a world of fireballs, magic swords, summoners, angels, demons, and talking stalagmites.

Thanks! I'll be ordering them.

http://paizo.com/gameMastery/maps/campaignMapPacks

I can't find the answer anywhere so I hope someone can help. I am making some dungeon tiles and I really hope they are one-sided so I can paste them to foam board to use with my Dungeon Tiles.

Thanks for all the ideas everyone. I'm still in the daydreaming phase. I am thinking about a concept, not class optimization. I never thought of the monk/magus idea. That might be really cool.

I was thinking about multi-classing my Magus one day. What are some cool ideas for multi-classing. I am just devising ideas for a back story so feel free to share any and all concepts.

I was thinking Inquisitor or Rogues might be a no-brainers, but wanted to hear some other ideas.

It is worth every penny. The book content is greatly discounted, 10 bucks each.

Once you start to play with the editor it gets quicker.

Also I would like to thank all of you for the guide and free rules. I am glad to hear that there are many groups who are not rule lawyers, as the rule set for me is not too hard to understand, as i played for years and it very logical. (Unlike some of the systems of old). Just that when a game becomes a "Rule lawyer" game, for me at least, it sucks the fun right out of the room. Now it looks like my next step is to find a online group or a local group to sit down and play and play (And loose) a few characters and learn the system.

I like to post this, from the "Getting Started" section in the Core Rule Book:

I am lucky to have a group that gets this and focuses on what is fun and makes a fun, shared experience. You'll find there's plenty of people out there that just want to have fun and do cool stuff!

1- a Pathfinder with a line on valuable magic items, and in need of a favor

2- a dwarf who needs to fence an item of ill repute, but for a good cause
3- a lunatic with a treasure map (see Insanity in the GMG for ideas)
4- a wizard in need of rare spell components but without compensation
5- the illegitimate child of a local scion, wants to claim a birthright
6- the guy/gal who worked with the kobolds and was enslaved anyway
7- the cohort of a renowned NPC adventurer in your game/world, but has gone AWOL
8- a passing dignitary from a far-flung city, down on her luck

All depends on what your meta-plot is, really.

These are great as well, thanks!

I love coming here to get more ideas for plots and side-quests.

Some of the more common "the prisoner turns out to be..." examples are:

somebody important (like a prince or princess)
a doppleganger
an assassin, captured on his way to a big hit
a crazy old man who happens to know where X dungeon is
a normally evil monster that turns out to be good

Maybe one of these will spur your imagination...

Good stuff. Thanks!

I suppose a plot twist would be difficult to arrange, given I don't know the plot... Actually without knowing much about the campaign all I can really do here is throw out a random adventure idea. Which I suppose I can do!

One of the captives is an adventurer who was hot on the tail of the great wizard and inventor of ancient times, Yeolde MacGuffin. His inventions were renowned for there power an ingenuity. He happens to have a map leading to one of his supposed lairs.

My problem is I don't know what kind of game you are running and I don't know the players. I could give you an entire dungeon based off a MacGuffin (what I did there before was a play on words: a MacGuffin is a literary or film device that drives the plot and his first name was Yeolde, get it YE olde!) but it will be nothing except a distraction from you current main questline unless you are looking for something a little meatier.

This was an isolated side adventure. They were on their way to get an item appraised at the Great Andoran Fair. We are in-between campaigns, that's why I didn't include any extra info. Any ideas are welcome.

So the PCs went into Candlestone Caverns and rescued the captive villagers of the small farming community of Alghast from the Kobold slavers. They even managed to capture Zalsus, the Kobold leader, thanks to some nice grappling by the Monk/Cleric. (BTW- the basis for this adventure was inspired by the GREAT resource "Dungeons of Golarion".

Of the 39 captives freed, only 31 are citizens of the village. The other 8 are random travelers (merchants, bandits, adventurers, etc?). I want to place a possible plot twist or adventure hook in with one or a few of these freed captives. I also can do something with the captured slave captain Zalsus as a plot point.

Before I head in any direction however, I'd like to hear some ideas from you guys.

One last thing, once you've worked through the BB and feel ready to move on to the CRB, don't feel like you have to use all of the core rules at once. Cherry-pick the rules and add them in at a rate you are comfortable with.

Yes, this! Slowly add what you want as you understand it. Got the BB in January. Loved it, played it, bought the Core Rule Book a month later and started adding on what I wanted. Now playing the Core Rules but still use the map and stand-ups from the BB. I also used the BB to run games with students at school.

Was thinking about it and it seems that if a PC is engaged in melee with target A and target B runs by, if the PC turns to take his AoO, wouldn't he open himslef up to an AoO from target A? Seems logical to me. So instead of adding another AoO I am thinking of removing the AoO triggered by passing through a threatened square if the threat is already in melee.

Ideas?

I am running a kingmaker campaign right now with atengu fighter, a tiefling magus, and an aasiimar paladin. The players are having a blast. Just play like normal and let them figure out what they need. Balance the fights to them but don't worry to much about it. They will figure out what they need as the game progresses.

This is good to hear.

They are a good group and we focus on fun more than rules or seriousness. They wanted to play these kinds of characters and I really like the backgrounds they have come up with. It will be a challenge at times I'm sure, to present balanced encounters but we'll deal.

I do appreciate all the advice everyone has to offer.

Is the fighter an archer?

No, pretty straight melee. The Magus is going to play that role when needed I think. We're allowing him to use Spellstrike with the bow (can't use Spellcombat when using bow though).

I am about to run a campaign with a Fighter, a Magus, and a Monk/Cleric. They are all starting at LVL 2 so they will be a little more resiliant and so the Monk can get his Cleric level for a very cool character concept he created.

What do I need to watch out for? What are the main challenges for a party with no pure casters? I assume it's easy to just be careful what monster/NPC types I send their way, but I'd love some advice from those who have some experience in building encounters for this type of party.

Might I suggest that you look at the Vanguard from Super Genius Games?

A big part of this arcane warrior hybrid class is that it has an arcane bond weapon. Through this, he can do lots of cool things, including channel touch spells. If the Vanguard chooses a bow as his arcane bond weapon, he can deliver those touch spells through his arrows!

The Vanguard has proven to be a popular and well reviewed class - check it out :)

Thanks, I will check it out!

Note that the myrmidarch archetype (Ultimate Combat) has the Ranged Spellstrike ability at 4th level, in addition to the normal melee Spellstrike ability. A magus archetype with Ranged Spellstrike in place of normal Spellstrike could work, although the limitations on Spell Combat (requires free hand) would restrict the weapon choices able to gain full benefit (full attack plus spellstrike): crossbows fired with one hand, amenta/atlatls/kestros, one-handed firearms, thrown weapons, etc.

Alternately (or in conjunction), if you allow firearms (or adapt the archetype to other weapons), a single level of spellslinger wizard gives you the Arcane Gun and Mage Bullets abilities.

I do not have Ultimate Combat, I will need to check that out.

I used to hate monks but as you can see from my avatar, they've grown on me. I love the way Sajan is presented in the Pathfinder artwork and play one similar to him now.

Yeah, it would be only for Spellstrike at 2nd level. When holding the bow he could send the spell effect through it (the arrow) instead of only through a blade. So essentially he couldn't use spell combat at all when using the bow.

I was thinking of allowing my Magus to use touch spells (Spellstrike) through his bow to fit a character concept. I would use all the same rules as written except he would be able, at 2nd level to use his touch spells through the bow and not just a blade.

Can you think of any long term problems this might create? We play in a more Heroic high-powered campaign as there are only 3 PCs.

Yeah, I think for my style of play the Fighter is more my style.

I appreciate all the tips and advice.

After reading opinions on another thread I am thinking of making a Fighter over another Ranger. I used to always use Rangers partly because the Ranger on the old D&D cartoon was soooooo cool. A bow that shoots lightning? Sweet. I realized that as cool as the Ranger always seemed I rarely got to maximize him as I tended to spend more adventures indoors or underground.

So I want to try to make a Fighter that is a bad ass with a bow and a blade. Medium armor, quick and furious over heavily armored (slow) and punishing. Any tips on creating this type of character?

This thread is as much fun to read as I was hoping it would be!

On the downside, I am starting to rethink my love for the Ranger class....

I forgot to add I also never play evil. I tend toward Han Solo type Chaotic Good or Neutral Good characters.

I get bored with a Cavalier/Paladin Dudley Do-Right type dude.

Straight casters don't appeal to me either, I like to multi-class if I want to cast, or use a Cleric, Inquisitor, or Magus.

Just out of curiosity, what are some races or classes or even weapon types or spells that you just never play as or use? I was thinking about it as I looked through the Core Rules the other day. I realized I never have played as a Halfling, Gnome, or Half-Orc. I would like to one day uses a Half-Orc but the Halfling and Gnome have no appeal to me, too child like I think.

I also have never desired to be Druid, Bard, Summoner, Witch, Cavalier, Paladin, or Gunslinger (don't have them in our campaigns anyway). Other than the Bard I have no real cause for not liking these classes, they just don't appeal to me as much as others.

When it comes to other ancillary stuff, I am usually a pretty straight up light/medium armor sword/shield/bow guy. I do like a good battle-axe once in a while but any large/long two-handed weapons are usually not my taste.

Looking forward to hearing your opinions!

Well that confirms my assumption. I was ruling it correctly but just wasn't sure. Thanks all!

Does it provoke an AoO when a Magus strikes and casts? I assume it does but can't find it explicitly stated in the rules, might be missing it.

Sounds cool, may still get it.

So are they pretty good for adding a depth to adventures? Are there a lot of ideas for campaign hooks and what not?

Oh, thank goodness you told me that! I don't want to have to convert them all over.

I was thinking of buying the Dungeon Denizens revisited but are they already all in the Bestiary books? I can't seem to find the info online.