Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Just saw the Hollywood version last night, which I was going to see with great trepidation -- the Swedish movie was quite good, I thought, so there seemed little point in a remake.
What a pleasant surprise! The Hollywood film was every bit as good as the Swedish version -- and better in some respects. Salander was a lot closer to the character in the book, for example (although I like the Swedish guy for Bloomquist better than Daniel Craig). Cinematography was top-notch, and they somehow managed to get the entire book to fit into the movie, through the use of only slightly cheesy 80s-style montages.
November is National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. I'm participating in "Movember," in which I solicit friends and acquaintances to sponsor me to grow a mustache (a silly gimmick, but any gimmick will do).
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
We all know a good DM can fix problems, but sometimes the rules themselves cry out for improvement. I wanted to start a thread for people who actually see ways in which the mechanical game rules could be tweaked for the better. Because most often, whenever such a topic appears, throngs of people quoting Rule 0 or some variant thereof drown out any constructive tinkering ("A good DM would fix that!" "It's fine!" "It's not a problem in my game," etc.).
Basically, if you accept that the designers are fairly good but not perfect, and would like to discuss improvements in some aspect of the mechanical rules with like-minded people, I want this to be your haven. A place where you don't need to spend all your time explaining to fanboys why some aspect of the game is NOT really "fine."
Possible topics include, but are in no way limited to:
How to fix the martial-caster disparity and move away from Pathfinder Ars Magica;
How to make it so that every single wizard is not automatically a specialist;
How to make Charisma something other than an auto-dump stat;
Why monks still suck fat wax candles, and how to fix them;
How to alter combat maneuvers so that they can actually get some use;
Why the mystic theurge punishes his teammates, and how to lighten their burden;
How to make exotic weapon proficiencies actually worth a feat;
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
OK, this is something that I know TOZ is working on independently (I've intentionally held off looking at his gaele eladrin writeup until I could independently get my own thoughts straight, but I plan to review it this weekend).
Put simply, I would like for every class level to get at least a d4 hit die and at least 2 skill points.
For something like a half-farspawn template (+4 LA in 3.5 edition), I'd spread those abilities over four "levels" of the Farspawn class. Each level is treated as 1 racial HD of Aberration for hp, skill points, and saves.
Yeah, you get a lot of benefits, but a 5th level character with (+0 BAB, 1 HD and 1st level saves) dies instantly in every encounter. Providing 3/4 BAB, 4d8 HD, and slightly better Will saves would keep him viable at 5th level, without making him totally unbalanced.
For something like a half-fiend, Outsider HD are so good to begin with (d10 hp, full BAB, all good saves) that I'd maybe spread the +4 LA benefits over 6 or 8 racial HD, rather than 4.
Thoughts/comments/people that have done something like this before?
Here it is! To get us started, I'll do individual spoilers.
VANYA
Spoiler:
You were drunk again, so the details are hazy, but the fact that you wake up in a crappy inn on the far Estren frontier means that your memory isn't playing tricks on you. You know you're in Estren because the sky, visible from the window, isn't that horrid indigo color of the Elflands, but rather a pale, honest blue. You've been told to look for a "mountain dwarf" -- as opposed to a "hill dwarf" -- you remember this point being repeated many times -- but you have little idea how to tell one from the other. The Estren Frontier, you're led to believe, is overrun with the latter. Finding one of the former would seem to be the first order of business, but alas, a loud, violent altercation outside the inn intereferes.
CASPIAN
Spoiler:
After a refreshing voyage, the taste of freedom in your mouth is sweeter than Aunt Trudi's hotcakes. Unfortunately, the ship was not travelling all the way to Hylore (the capital city of the elves), but rather stopped in a port (with some unpronouncable Elven name) in the Duchy of Autrisch. Your friend the captain told everyone at the port that you were part of his crew -- a porter and general servant -- and that should have gotten you passage on the next ship to Hylore. However, being a halfling is never without trouble -- instead of setting back out to sea and heading west, the new ship (a much smaller one) began sailing upriver, to the Lake of Fallen Stars. Not wanting to press matters too greatly lest you be deported back to Aramni, you go along -- and it doesn't hurt that the other halflings on the ship teach you to play the most entertaining games of gambling. Eventually, you end up in a frontier inn, where you're supposed to catch a caravan West into Balvora. One of the ship's maps shows you the basic geography from east to west: Aramni... Autrisch (to the south) and the Estren Frontier north of there (where you now are)... Balvora... and finally Aviona, your destination! After having to do only minor chores (sweep the kitchen and entertain the guests as you see fit), you're given a warm spot in the stable to sleep in, with plenty of hay, and all the leftovers from the kitchen. The next fine morning, the caravan arrives... but trouble comes with it. There is screaming and clashing of weapons as you wipe the sleep from your eyes.
WYVURN
Spoiler:
You’ve been tracking the raiders for a day now… bandits from the highlands, intent on robbery of the caravan. They set upon it at dawn, riding in from the east against the rising sun to hinder the caravan guards’ aim, just as it reaches a small frontier inn. There are too many to handle alone (you count at a dozen), but with the caravan guards and some luck and skill, you might be able to intervene
KELSIN
Spoiler:
The caravan annoyed you greatly – foolish humans, passing by the edge of the forest where your people dwell, starting fires and making noise, and killing rabbits for food without thanks to the gods of the hunt and the spirits of the fields. Worse, they meant that humans were becoming less wary of the forest, to pass so close to it, which could not bode well. Perhaps Ungo Usconi, the shaman of the distant Wolf Clan to the north, would change his pacifist stance and vote for war during the next council. Until then, you would keep watch.
A songbird, flitting through the glade, sings of the second group of men, and you immediately realize they must have been following the first. By dusk, you find a deer who explains that her son, a proud buck, has been slain by the second group and skinned – they are inside the forest! Worse, they chopped down a sacred grove for wood – and one of those trees contained a dryad, although the men were deaf to her screams. At dawn, they depart on horses, chasing the first group, and with vengeance burning in your heart, you decide to chase them. The dryad had been a playmate of yours since you were young and first learning the lore of the druids. The bandits decamp during the night –- all the better for you, as men cannot see as well as you in the starlight, and you follow them easily across the meadow to a human inn, where they attack the caravan after the sun has come up over the Estren Forests behind you. Smiling grimly, you set a ceramic bullet to your sling, and make sure your flint knife is loose in its sheath. Snort, always ready for a fight and happy to be getting some action, charges from the trees!
JAEGR
Spoiler:
After weeks, you are finally starting to get used to being above-ground, although attacks of vertigo still happen now and again, and the constant, terrifying agoraphobia requires all of the steel in your dwarven nerves just to keep at bay. When the first group of sheepskin-clad, kilted Maahiset came upon you, they jeered and threw rocks; annoyed at this lack of courtesy (which would be punishable by law beneath the mountains), you thrash them soundly with a spare pickaxe handle. These creatures can hardly be credited with the term “dwarves,” you think, although their ale proves palatable and their information is good. The priest Rim Carintracker had been here, and had moved on to the west, away from the great Elder Mountains, towards the lands of men and elves. The Maahiset explain that the trip is a long one, but there is an inn along the way, and they cared little what race you were there as long as you caused no trouble and could pay.
Travelling at night to avoid the terrible glare of the sun, you arrive at the site of the inn near dawn and improvise a bed among a small pile of boulders, intending to wait until evening to enter, to allay suspicion concerning your time of arrival. You have enough food left for a day, in any event. Your rest is short, however; not long after you fall asleep, a caravan of wagons arrives… and with it, a group of a dozen or so horsemen who scream and attack the men in the wagons!
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
(Yes, the title should read "Playtest.") I've resisted for years, but I'm thinking about DMing a play-by-post game, if sufficient interest exists. I have only two pre-existing conditions:
1. The purpose of this exercise is to provide additional playtesting of the version 2.0 house rules posted HERE, ones that I refer to as the Superior Hybrid Interactive Tabletop game (better known by its acronym), and which others have dubbed "Kirthfinder." These rules are similar to pure Pathfinder, but classes (especially martial ones) and feats have been rewritten, and combat rules are a bit different (half-move and full attack are compatible, for example, and spellcasting in melee is more difficult).
2. If you're going to lose interest and stop playing, that's OK, but have the decency to let me know in advance. Anyone who just randomly drops out of the game with no explanation will incur my lasting animosity. So please do not offhandedly say "Why not?" on a lark, unless you're genuinely intent on going through with it. I'd rather have 0 interested players (and know it in advance) and cancel up front, than to have a dozen people who never show up after their first post.
Other idiosyncrasies: I don't use battlemats. If you want to be in a certain place vis-a-vis others, and you can reasonably move there, you can do so. Also, play is open-ended in that players can assume that reasonable surroundings exist. If you're in a tavern and want to assume there's a wagon-wheel chandelier overhead (and I haven't said otherwise), then it is so. Likewise, if you want to flee an encounter and go back to town to look for reinforcements or oil or whatever (and the group agrees), then that's legitimate if a means of escape exist.
I've resisted for years, but I'm thinking about DMing a play-by-post game, if sufficient interest exists. I have only two pre-existing conditions:
1. I'd like to use the house rules posted HERE, ones that I refer to as the Superior Hybrid Interactive Tabletop game (better known by its acronym), and which others have dubbed "Kirthfinder." These rules are similar to pure Pathfinder, but classes (especially marial ones) and feats have been rewritten, and combat rules are a bit different (half-move and full attack are compatible, for example, and spellcasting in melee is more difficult).
2. If you're going to lose interest and stop playing, that's OK, but have the decency to let me know in advance. Anyone who just randomly drops out of the game with no explanation will incur my lasting animosity. So please do not offhandedly say "Why not?" on a lark, unless you're genuinely intent on going through with it. I'd rather have 0 interested players (and know it in advance) and cancel up front, than to have a dozen people who never show up after their first post.
Other idiosyncrasies: I don't use battlemats. If you want to be in a certain place vis-a-vis others, and you can reasonably move there, you can do so. Also, play is open-ended in that players can assume that reasonable surroundings exist. If you're in a tavern and want to assume there's a wagon-wheel chandelier overhead (and I haven't said otherwise), then it is so. Likewise, if you want to flee an encounter and go back to town to look for reinforcements or oil or whatever (and the group agrees), then that's legitimate if a means of escape exist.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
That's "multiple ability dependency," not a crush.
See, to be a viable warrior character, you need high Dex (for AC, Reflex saves, and especially initiative), high Str (for sheer damage output), and high Con (so you don't drop after the first hit). To be a viable wizard, you need high Int, and that's pretty much it, because if you're getting into melee where the other stats matter, you're already not playing a wizard.
This means that point-buy stats are seriously geared in favor of casters. Also, the stat boost items in PF are overly caster-friendly and melee-putative as well. Rather than try and fix both of those, what if we fettered the casters a bit by inflicting a dose of MAD on them, too?
For example:What if wizards, clerics, and druids used Cha instead of Int to determine spell save DCs? Int/Wis would still be for bonus spells, etc. Fluff-wise, your force of personality, in this case, is resulting in harder-to-resist spells.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
This topic was touched on in another thread, but I am interested in the various views here. One recent comment in particular really got me thinking:
"The GM is telling you more than he needs to. He could tell you, "because I said so and if you don't like it, there's the door".
Is this more or less standard approach to DMing? I ask because I believe in transarency in rulings (why I do things the way I do), and I also allow votes on new rules after discussion of them -- and as DM, I generally vote only to break a tie, in that case. That doesn't mean I'll interrupt a game in order to discuss things, but that I'm willing to lay out in any level of detail desired why a certain ruling was made, what the alternatives are, and whether people would prefer a different guideline, if it's one that's causing difficulty.
I also wonder if the availability of players makes a difference on DMing style. In my case, I'm picky about who I play with, so it's very hard to get enough players together for a campaign, which means I need to try extra-hard to keep them.
On the other hand, I'm led to believe there are some places where players are lined up in the street looking for anyone with a pulse to DM.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
This is to follow up on the "what Conservatives believe" and "what Progressives believe" threads. Sadly, I fall into neither of those two camps, so I'm forced to create my own list.
1. All power should be limited in concentration. The central government should be sharply limited to the functions of national defense, regulating insterstate commerce, ensuring evenness of justice in the various states. Regulating commerce enables them in turn to limit the power of corporations. Gersenites believe that government and corporations should be intentionally set up in terms of mutual animosity -- when the government owns the corporations, then communism results and everyone suffers. When the corporations control the government, that state is indistinguishable from fascism, and everyone suffers. Likewise, strict separation of church and state, and separation of church and corporation, are desireable.
2. Very, very few things should actually be illegal, and then only if they demonstratively cause direct harm to others. When in doubt, a "default" status of legal should be assumed unless the data show that direct harm is resulting to others (one has the right to harm oneself, however, if others are not directly impacted). Therefore murder, rape, assault, theft, deception would be illegal. Marijuana, topless sunbathing, and refusing to wear a seat belt would not.
3. Whatever the offense, the sentence should as much as possible serve some purpose other than simple "punishment." Capital punishment in no way resurrects the victims, but it does eliminate any possibility of recivitism. In cases of theft, some sort of work detail (and confiscation of assets to cover the loss) would seem appropriate. Simply chucking criminals together in a cage would seem to have little to recommend it.
4. In the pursuit of beliefs #1 and #2, a legitimate function of local government is to ensure that the liberty of local minorities is not trampled upon by their more numerous neighbors. A legitimate function of the state government is to ensure that the local government isn't simply being used by the local majority to push around the minoities. A legitimate function of the federal government is to ensure that the state governments are not simply favoring certain local governments to abridge the liberty of the citizenry.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
OK, we all know the bastard sword: it's a two-handed martial weapon or a one-handed exotic weapon. My question is: what if all weapons had variant uses/effects based on the proficiency level of the wielder?
For example, a spear:
Simple: Two-handed melee weapon, 1d8/x3, can brace against charge.
Martial: Can be used one-handed; also gains thrown range increment.
Exotic: Inreased damage? Increased range?
The idea is that all weapons would be better based on increasing proficiency. Then we could dispense with things like "this weapon is the same as weapon X but it requires an exotic proficiency and does more damage." Instead, we could just assign the greater damage to the exotic proficiency level.
This would of course ensure that the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat became obsolete... UNLESS we changed things so that MWP gives the "martial" level of skill to a tight group of weapons, whereas the EWP feat applies only to a single weapon.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Recently I upgraded my home computer... but imagine my chagrin when I realized that literally hundreds of hours of work put into converting 1e/2e adventures to 3.5 and Pathfinder hadn't been properly backed up, and are now gone. Yeah, I know it's my fault, but if any of the Paizo community to whom I've sent past conversions would be willing to send them back to me, it would be greatly appreciated.
Specifically, I'm hoping that the people to whom I sent my...
Return to the Tomb of Horrors drafts (several section docs) and my
half-finished Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan conversion
...could send copies back, if you've still got them. Completed, play-ready Pathfinder conversions of Dwellers in the Forbidden City, Tamoachan, and others, I'll just have to learn to live without.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Something I've noticed over the last year or two is that no internet discussion, on any topic, on any set of boards, can possibly go more than six or eight posts without someone inevitably yelling "Strawman!" Now, by now we all know what the term is supposed to indicate -- demolishing a false position to make your own argument look superior.
But most often it's used by people who either (a) have totally failed to grasp the true applicability of the rebuttal being made, and who therefore assume that it is a strawman instead, and/or (b) have absolutely no logical argument of their own, so they attempt to call into question a much stronger one by hurling this accusation.
It's used so often, and overwhelmingly incorrectly, that when I see it now, I realize I needn't bother actually looking for any real straw men. Instead, I can pretty much assume that the person hurling this term has a much weaker argument than the person they're accusing.
And it's become so common on some of the blogs I frequent that it's like a Godwin or something.
If you think someone is actually making a straw man argument, point out in what way the argument they're demolishing is not representative of the other side's true thesis. Simply yelling "strawman!" (or, worse, using the annoyingly snotty "Strawman much?") just leads the reader to believe that you, yourself, have no meaningful input other than mindlessly repeating catch phrases whose definition you are only vaguely, if at all, aware of.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
East of the elven lands, in the shadow of the forbidding Elder Mountains, is the Estren Frontier. Peopled by a collection of expatriate humans, exiled high elves, and native hill dwarves and wood elves, this place is a less-civilized counterpart to the court splendor and ancient traditions of Aviona to the west. Here, a quartet of unlikely adventurers receive a unique job offer:
Jazeed (played by Andostre), a male human cleric 1 of Norborger. Jazeed hails from the far eastern desert kingdom of Bailakash. What he's doing on the frontier is anyone's guess. He is by turns cringingly cowardly and recklessly brave; when he channels energy, it's positive or negative by turns, as the will of the gods (or the conflictedness of his personality) dicates.
Virac (played by Silverhair), a half-orc runecaster from the human northlands. Virac appears as a large, hulking, ugly human; his orc blood was an asset in his northern homeland, but something he carefully conceals from the elves in the south.
"Trog" (played by Jess Door), a stunted, malnourished half-elf monk 1. Trog is a beggar and street urchin, with an irrepressible curiosity and love of "shinies." She accompanies the others mostly based on promises of food and blankets.
Fiachra (played by houstonderek), a high elf wizard 1, crippled by polio, whose nobleman father refused to allow magical healing ("it builds character?"). Fiachra seeks magical power in old ruins, in order to one day oust his father and brother and assume rulership of their estates.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Setting: Aviona, an elven kingdom owing in equal parts to Alexandre Dumas' France of Louis XIII and the Musketeers; the land of the Pharisees in Poul Anderson's "Three Hearts and Three Lions;" and the Kingdom of Dragaera in Steven Brust's "Vlad Taltos" novels.
Starting characters:
Cadogan, male human rogue 1 played by houstonderek, born and raised in the Avionan capital city, Hylore. Cadogan is young (19), brash, streetwise, and disgustingly handsome.
Sheraviel, female elf fighter 1, played by Jess Door. Sheraviel is outwardly as haughty as the other elves of Aviona. Internally, she adheres to a set of personal rules so rigid that she herself can't always navigate them.
Agun, male mountain dwarf wizard 1, played by Andostre. Agun is the first mountain dwarf in generations to leave the halls beneath the Elder Mountains and venture out to live among the elf-folk and other surface dwellers. He chain-smokes dwarven cigars, lighting them with a cantrip designed specifically for that purpose.
Rim, male mountain dwarf cleric 1, played by Silverhair. Rim "the Glaive" is something of an evangelical, following Agun from the dwarven homeland in order to teach the benighted surface-dwelling hill dwarves the glory of his goddess.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
OK, pretend I have a dire bear (CR 7, 10 HD), and I want to advance it to CR 11. In 3.5, I could have added 12 HD (+3 CR for the "animal" type), and increased its size by 1 step (another +1 to CR), and made the appropriate adjustments.
The Pathfinder Bestiary, however, tells me to apply size adjustments and additional HD to more or less fit the progression in an advancement table. Okay, I understand that. The problem is, THERE IS NO WAY to create anything even vaguely resembling the table's progression without arbitrarily tacking on AC and other improvements. +60 hp are easy to get. But increasing size doesn't come close to getting me the AC improvement I'm supposed to expect, and I need several size increases to get enough Str bonus to give me the damage increases I'm supposed to have.
PLEASE HELP! One simple example of any animal or magical beast advanced by a few CR steps -- and how to avoid falling dratically behind in terms of both AC and damage after the first couple of steps -- would be appreciated.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
In the Pathfinder world, most untrained mercenaries and blacksmiths can easily defeat a full-grown gorilla in an arm-wrestling contest, without breaking a sweat. 15 Strength? For a gorilla?
I can think of only two reasons to make such an egregious rules quirk, neither of which, in my opinion, justifies the ridiculousness of the change:
1. To make the monster's threat match its CR.
A: Increase the CR, rather than decreasing the Strength.
2. To make ape animal companions weaker.
A: Specifically set starting ape companion stats with a lower STR.
There's ample precedent for this.
---
I know that real-world logic doesn't apply to RPGs, but, come on. A RL chimpanzee is something like 5 times stronger than a full-grown man, and a gorilla is stronger still. In Pathfinder, scaling down, a child could outwrestle a chimp. There's something very wrong there.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
OK, so I'm driving into work today, listening to the classic rock station, but at this hour in the morning they have some syndicated nitwits instead of, you know, music. And these guys told me some things I never knew. Within the space of 15 minutes, I learned that:
Barack Hussein Obama caused the recession so that he could offer stimulus packages which would create a "bubble" that will soon burst so that we'll all be plummeted into another great depression, whereupon he can declare himself the Fuhrer;
Barack Hussein Obama, by not shutting down the government after the Ft. Hood shooting, has proven once and for all that he hates Amercia and hates all our men and women in uniform, and that he's a Muslim terrorist sympathizer;
Barack Hussein Obama has publically declared that he is the Risen Christ, and that all men shall be judged in his sight. (This obviously proves that he is the Antichrist.)
Barack Hussein Obama is a liar! He lies!
I got to work and turned it off just when they were, I think, going to try and make a case for Obama having engineered the Iraq war himself, in order to kill our brave troops. The thing is, there was no attempt at humor; these "facts" were presented as if they were actual news, that any "reasonably informed American" should already be aware of.
Now, I understand that this is a morning radio show, and I shouldn't expect journalism or anything. But at what point does "entertainment" leave off, and "idiocy" begin? (Or am I a stupid liberal shill for not necessarily believing every word of this stuff?)
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
This has only come up in the last two days, but I've noticed an awful lot of times when I've clicked a spoiler button and not gotten the message -- even spoilers I've successfully opened previously.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Rage is a very useful combat ability, but it appears at 1st level. In 3.5, that meant an awful lot of barbarian 1/fighter X characters running around. Pathfinder introduced two intended patches:
1. Limited rounds/day that accrue by level; and
2. Rage abilities as incentives to stay in the class.
However, it is my opinion -- with which you can feel free to disagree -- that the rage powers in many cases are inferior to something like armor training or weapon training, or even to a bonus feat, making barbarian 1/fighter X a more attractive choice again. Some of the rage powers do have prerequisite levels, and are better than the lower-level ones, though, which is something I'll incorporate into proposed "fixes." Here's what I'm thinking:
+4 to stats at 1st level is a big jump, compared to an additional +2 A LOT later. I suggest we spread that out a bit, and make a new "level" of rage every 5 levels: 1st - Lesser Rage; 5th - Rage; 10th - Greater Rage; 15th - Mighty Rage; 20th - Primal Rage. Each would have an incremental +2 to the physical stats and +1 to Will saves.
Rage powers could then be scaled to the type of rage you can do, so there can be lesser, "regular," greater, and mighty rage powers, with scaling benefits. In this manner, a greater rage power can be made a LOT better than a feat, encouraging people to stay in barbarian longer.
As a final thought, at higher levels it's conditions, not damage, that often shut down the melee guys. It would be nice if the scaling types of rage provided resistance to scaling conditions. For example: "while in a lesser rage, you are immune to the effects of the 'shaken' condition. The condition is not removed; it is simply suspended for the duration of your rage. While in a rage, the effects of the shaken and frightened conditions are suspended. While in a mighty rage, the effects of the shaken, frightened, and panicked conditions are suspended."
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Just had to post this, because the term "help me convert to Pathfinder" has seemingly come to mean "help me add a zillion class features without any regard for balance whatsoever." The core classes were improved in Pathfinder to keep them on a par with some of the splatbook prestige classes. If you bump up those same PrCs, then the core classes need to be bumped up yet again, and we can end up in an infinite power-inflation loop that never ends!
There are quite a few prestige classes that not only don't need this type of "conversion," but that were so good to begin with they were no-brainers. This list includes, but is not limited to:
Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil, for arcane casters;
Radiant Servant of Pelor, for clerics;
Frenzied Berserker, for barbarians;
Abjurant Champion, for warrior/mage hybrids.
For the love of Gygax people, not every class needs to be "buffed up"! Hint: if you ask for help "converting" PrCs like the above, and someone says "no conversion needed," maybe they actually mean it. Of COURSE it's your favorite PrC, because it's a no-brainer already! Buffing it some more is nothing but an exercise in self-glorification.
And one last very important note:
+1 level of spellcasting is NOT a "dead" level!!! It probably doesn't need anything added to it, especially if it's a level at which you gain access to another spell level.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
I've been thinking about ways to bolster seldomly-taken skills. What if there were only one (1) item creation feat, "Craft Magical Item," that covered everything except scrolls -- but which required ranks in a Craft skill equal to the minimum level to take the old feat?
So if you had the feat and Craft (Alchemy) 3 ranks, you could brew potions;
Crafting magic arms and armor would no longer require a separate feat, but would require 5 ranks in Craft (weaponsmith/armorer);
Crafting a staff would require 12 ranks in Craft (woodcarving).
(etc.)
This would free up wizards' bonus feats for use on metamagic feats (which few people take, as-is), and would free up a lot of feats for clerics and sorcerers who are normally starved for them.
I'm not totally sold on this idea; simply putting it out there like thinking out loud. I wonder if anyone can provide feedback, or spot problems (or benefits) that I've overlooked?
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
In addition to the Genie Bloodlines and Zelazny Bloodlines I've already posted, I've gone through the SRD bloodlines section and done conversions for some others -- storm/cloud giant, troll, aquatic fey, etc. I'd be willing to post them if anyone is interested, but I'll spare myself the trouble if not.
Also, if anyone else has done some of their own bloodlines, I'd love to see them!
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
For anyone running LoF using Pathfinder rules, the elemental sorcerer bloodlines just don't quite have the flavor you need for a genie sorcerer bloodline. Referring to the SRD bloodline section for the Djinn and Efreet, and following the Beta bloodline rules, I've worked out the following genie-specific sorcerer bloodlines (spoilered due to length):
DJINN BLOODLINE
Spoiler:
Though few sages put much stock in myths that humanoids and genies share a common ancestor, there is no denying that the races are very similar in form. Characters with a djinni bloodline are often haughty but display great guile.
Class Skill: Bluff.
Bonus Spells: obscuring mist (3rd), invisibility (5th), gaseous form (7th), create food and water (9th), persistent image (11th), wind walk (13th), plane shift (15th), whirlwind (17th), wish (19th).
Bonus Feats: Combat Casting, Combet Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Knowledge [the Planes]).
Bloodline Powers:
Storm Burst (Su): As a standard action, you can create a storm burst targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. The storm burst deals 1d6 points of nonlethal damage + 1 for every two caster levels you possess. In addition, the target is buffeted by winds, causing it to take a –2 penalty on attack rolls for 1 round.
Elemental Resistance (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain resist 10 against acid. At 9th level, your energy resistance increases to 20.
Genie’s Guile (Ex): At 9th level, you gain a +2 inherent bonus to your Wisdom. This bonus increases to +4 at 13th level, and again to +6 at 17th level.
Elemental Movement (Su): Starting at 15th level, you gain a fly speed of 60 feet per round (average maneuverability).
Whirlwind Form (Su): At 20th level, you gain the ability to transform yourself into a whirlwind once every 10 minutes as a standard action. You can remain in that form until you choose to re-assume your own. The whirlwind is 5 feet wide at the base, up to 30 feet wide at the top and up to 50 feet tall. You control the exact height, but it must be at least 10 feet. In this form, you can move through the air or along a surface at a fly speed of 60 ft. Your movement while in whirlwind form does not provoke attacks of opportunity, even if you enter the space another creature occupies.
Another creature might be caught in the whirlwind if it touches or enters the whirlwind, or if you move into or through the creature’s space. Creatures one or more size categories smaller than the you might take damage when caught in the whirlwind and be lifted into the air. An affected creature must succeed on a Reflex save when it comes into contact with the whirlwind or take 3d6 points of damage. It must also succeed on a second Reflex save or be picked up bodily and held suspended in the powerful winds, automatically taking 1d8 points of damage each round. An airborn creature can attempt a Fly check each round to escape the whirlwind. The creature still takes damage but can leave if the check is successful. The save and check DCs are equal to 13 + ½ your caster level + your Strength modifier.
Creatures trapped in the whirlwind cannot move except to go where you carry them or to escape the whirlwind. Creatures caught in the whirlwind can otherwise act normally, but must make a casting check (DC 15 + 2 x spell level) to cast a spell. Creatures caught in the whirlwind take a -4 penalty to Dexterity and a -2 penalty on attack rolls. You can have only as many trapped inside a whirlwind at one time as will fit inside the whirlwind’s volume. You can eject any carried creatures whenever it wishes, depositing them wherever the whirlwind happens to be.
If the whirlwind’s base touches the ground, it creates a swirling cloud of debris. This cloud is centered on you and has a diameter equal to half the whirlwind’s height. The cloud obscures all vision, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. Creatures 5 feet away have concealment, while those farther away have total concealment. Those caught in the cloud must succeed on a casting check (DC 15 + 2 x spell level) to cast a spell.
While in whirlwind form, you cannot make melee attacks or cast spells, and you do not threaten the area around you.
EFREET BLOODLINE
Spoiler:
Characters with the bloodline of the efreet are most likely descended from slaves of that terrible and powerful race.
Class Skill: Bluff.
Bonus Spells: enlarge person (3rd), scorching ray (5th), flame arrow (7th), wall of fire (9th), geas (11th), permanent image (13th), plane shift (15th), incendiary cloud (17th), wish (19th).
Bonus Feats: Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Knowledge [the Planes]).
Bloodline Powers:
Ray of Fire (Su): Starting at 1st level, you can unleash a ray of fire as a standard action, targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. This ray deals 1d6 points of fire damage, +1 for every two caster levels you possess.
Elemental Resistance (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain resist 10 against fire. At 9th level, your energy resistance increases to 20.
Genie’s Might (Ex): At 9th level, you gain a +2 inherent bonus to your Strength. This bonus increases to +4 at 13th level, and again to +6 at 17th level.
Enlarge Self (Sp): At 15th level, you gain the ability to assume a larger form at will as a standard action. This duplicates the effects of a giant form I spell, granting a +6 enhancement bonus to Strength, a –2 penalty to Dexterity, a +4 enhancement bonus to Constitution, a +4 natural armor bonus, low-light vision, and a +10 foot enhancement bonus to your speed. You also gain darkvision 60 feet, and your resistance to fire increases to 30. This form lasts up to 1 round per caster level you possess.
Molten Blood (Su): At 20th level you gain immunity to fire. The flames in your blood burn those who dare attack you: any creature striking you with a natural weapon, unarmed strike, or non-reach melee weapon take 1d6 points of fire damage per blow and must save vs. Reflex (DC 20) or catch on fire.
MARID BLOODLINE
Spoiler:
Of all the genies, marids most often take human lovers, whom they lure into the waters from the shore, promising riches, lavish palaces, and a life of indolence.
Class Skill: Intimidate.
Bonus Spells: create water (3rd), invisibility (5th), water breathing (7th), solid fog (9th), mirage arcana (11th), control water (13th), plane shift (15th), polar ray (17th), wish (19th).
Bonus Feats: Cleave, Combat Casting, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Knowledge [the Planes]).
Bloodline Powers:
Water Jet (Su): As a standard action, you can fire a jet of water targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. The water jet deals 1d6 points of nonlethal damage + 1 for every two caster levels you possess. In addition, the target takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls for 1 round.
Elemental Resistance (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain resist 10 against cold. At 9th level, your energy resistance increases to 20.
Endurance of the Waves (Ex): At 9th level, you gain a +2 inherent bonus to your Constitution. This bonus increases to +4 at 13th level, and again to +6 at 17th level.
Elemental Movement (Ex): At 15th level, you gain a swim speed of 60 feet per round.
Cloak of the Sea (Su): At 20th level, you foresake the land to claim an undersea realm of your own. You gain cold immunity and the ability to breathe water. You are not affected by pressure due to depths. While submerged under water, you are affected continuously by freedom of movement and blur, as the spells.
SHAITAN BLOODLINE
Spoiler:
Class Skill: Profession (mining).
Bonus Spells: magic stone (3rd), glitterdust (5th), meld into stone (7th), stoneskin (9th), wall of stone (11th), stone tell (13th), plane shift (15th), earthquake (17th), wish (19th).
Bonus Feats: Combat Casting, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Knowledge [the Planes]).
Bloodline Powers:
Fist of Stone (Sp): You gain a slam attack that deals 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage (1d4 if you are Small, 1d8 if you are Large), plus 1½ times your Strength bonus. At 3rd level, and for every 2 caster levels thereafter, treat your Strength as if it were 1 point higher than is actually the case for purposes of this attack only. For example, a 17th level shaitan bloodline sorcerer (BAB +8) with a 10 Str has a slam attack at Str 18 equivalent (+12 melee, 1d6+6).
Elemental Resistance (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain resist 10 against electricity. At 9th level, your energy resistance increases to 20.
Might of the Earth (Ex): At 9th level, you gain a +2 inherent bonus to your Strength. This bonus increases to +4 at 13th level, and again to +6 at 17th level.
Elemental Movement (Sp): At 15th level, you gain a burrow speed of 30 feet per round through earth, and can earth glide at a speed of 30 ft. through solid stone.
Grounded (Ex): At 20th level, your connection with the earth is such that you are permanently grounded; you become immune to electricity. You also gain tremorsense 120 ft.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
As a big fan of the late Roger Zelazny's fantasy, I always wanted to play an Initiative of the Broken Pattern or whatever. Unfortunately, the rules never really supported that -- until now. The Pathfinder sorcerer bloodlines provide a useful template for modelling such characters. I've designed three such bloodlines: The aforementioned Initiate of the Broken Pattern, and also an Amber bloodline and a Chaos bloodline (you're not an actual Prince of Amber or a Lord of Chaos, obviously, but rather a distant descendant who can gain many of their abilities). These are long enough that I've spoilered them individually.
Amber Bloodline
Spoiler:
Your ancestry extends back to a Prince of Amber. Although you do not share your ancestor’s superhuman strength and stamina, the Pattern of Amber is inscribed at some level in your cells, granting you insights into the true workings of the Multiverse as you progress in power.
Class Skill: Diplomacy.
Bonus Spells: shocking grasp (3rd), bull’s strength (5th), blink (7th), scrying (9th), sending (11th), shadow walk (13th), control weather (15th), mind blank (17th), gate (19th).
Bonus Feats: Arcane Strike, Diehard, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Toughness, Trump Artistry.
Bloodline Powers: Larger than Life (Su): Choose a Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate check made when interacting with an NPC. You gain a bonus on the check equal to half your caster level (minumum +1). You can claim this bonus against any number of NPCs per day, but a specific NPC can be affected only once in a 24 hour period.
Influence Shadow (Su): At 3rd level, you gain what seems to be incredible luck; this is actually a subtle, unconscious influence on your part on the stuff of Shadow. You may reroll one skill check involving variables in your environment—for example, a Streetwise check to find a friendly barkeeper, a Climb check to find a smoother route up a mountainside, or a Profession (gambler) check when drawing to an inside straight. This ability cannot be used to influence invariable quantities, such as a Disable Device check against a set DC. You must declare a use of this ability after the original roll, but before the results are announced. For every 4 levels past the 3rd, you may use this ability an additional time per day, to a maximum of 5/day at 19th level.
Blood Curse (Sp): If you are 9th level or above and die, you can pronounce a blood curse on your enemies or their homeland. This curse manifests as a bestow curse spell (against multiple creatures), a greater bestow curse spell (against a single creature), or a spell (against a place).
Timeless Body (Ex): After attaining 15th level, you no longer takes ability score penalties for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any penalties you may have already incurred, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue.
Living Trump (Sp): At 20th level, you become an embodiment of the power behind the Great Trumps of Amber. You can use greater teleport at will (self and 50 lbs. only). The primal forces that constantly move through your body grant you fast healing 5.
Initiate of the Broken Pattern
Spoiler:
You are an initiate of the Broken Pattern, a scarred reflection of the Pattern of Amber that maintains the multiverse.
Class Skill: Perception.
Bonus Spells: shocking grasp (3rd), spectral hand (5th), clairvoyance (7th), rainbow pattern (9th), teleport (11th), shadow walk (13th), plane shift (15th), scintillating pattern (17th), gate (19th).
Bonus Feats: Arcane Strike, Combat Casting, Improved Counterspell, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Spellcraft).
Bloodline Powers: Storm Burst (Su): As a standard action, you can call on the forces that come together at the Keep of the Four Worlds, creating a storm burst targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. The storm burst deals 1d6 points of nonlethal damage + 1 for every two caster levels you possess. In addition, the target is buffeted by winds and rain, causing it to take a –2 penalty on attack rolls for 1 round.
Magical Sight (Sp): Starting at 3rd level, you can cast detect magic at will. While active, this power also provides you with darkvision (you perceive things within 60 ft. as if there was a silvery, directionless illumination present, and cannot discern color). This ability automatically manifests as a free action whenever you cast spells, prepare spells, or use the Spellcraft skill.
At 11th level, this magical vision improves to arcane sight instead of simply detect magic, and the range of your darkvision extends to 90 ft. At 19th level it improves again to greater arcane sight, with darkvision at a 120-ft. range.
Prepare Spells (Su): Starting at 9th level, you can prepare a single spell in advance as if you were a wizard, “hanging” it in your personal image of the Broken Pattern. This spell need not be one of your spells known, but if not, you must succeed at a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + level of the spell) to succeed. Preparing a spell uses one of your spells per day slots of the appropriate level. You can prepare the spell with any metamagic feat you know; if so, it uses a higher-level slot and can be cast using the normal casting time.
You can prepare an additional spell at 13th and 17th level.
Ideas for 15th and 20th level abilities hereby solicited!
Chaos Bloodline
Spoiler:
Your ancestry extends to the Black Zone or the very Courts of Chaos themselves. In addition to drawing on the power of Chaos, you can ultimately become an initiate of the Logrus, the shifting Sign of Chaos at the heart of the Courts.
Class Skill: Survival.
Bonus Spells: entropic shield (3rd), alter self (5th), magic circle against law (7th), confusion (9th), summon monster V (chaotic creatures only) (11th), shadow walk (13th), instant summons (15th), maze (17th), shapechange (19th).
Bonus Feats: Augment Summoning, Combat Casting, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Trump Artistry.
Bloodline Powers: Hand of the Apprentice (Su): As a standard action, you can summon a ghostly hand to do your bidding. This functions like mage hand, with the following changes. When summoned, the hand can draw a weapon (including a magic weapon) on your person as a free action, so long as you are proficient in it. The hand can be directed to make a single attack against a foe within 30 feet, using your base attack bonus, plus your Charisma modifier on both attack and damage rolls. The hand does not threaten foes and does not make attacks of opportunity.
If you do not attack with the hand, you can use it to perform fine motor tasks, such as using the Disable Device skill.
You must concentrate on the hand each round or it winks out, returning any item held to you before it disappears.
Magical Sight (Sp): Starting at 3rd level, you can cast detect magic at will. While active, this power also provides you with darkvision (you perceive things within 60 feet as if there was a silvery, directionless illumination present, and cannot discern color). This ability automatically manifests as a free action whenever you cast spells, prepare spells, or use the Spellcraft skill.
At 11th level, this magical vision improves to arcane sight instead of simply detect magic, and the range of your darkvision extends to 90 ft. At 19th level it improves again to greater arcane sight, with darkvision at a 120-ft. range.
Prepare Spells (Su): Starting at 9th level, you can prepare a single spell in advance as if you were a wizard, “hanging” it in your personal image of the Logrus. This spell need not be one of your spells known, but if not, you must succeed at a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + level of the spell) to succeed. Preparing a spell uses one of your spells per day slots of the appropriate level. You can prepare the spell with any metamagic feat you know; if so, it uses a higher-level slot and can be cast using the normal casting time.
You can prepare an additional spell at 13th and 17th level.
Chaos Form (Su): Starting at 15th level, you are at home among the non-Euclidean geometry of the Courts of Chaos. You are immune to Charisma check penalties on hostilely-aligned planes.
As a full-round action, you can assume a demonic form suited to chaos environs. You have a single favored chaos form, chosen when you receive this ability, that duplicates the effects of a beast shape IV, elemental body IV, form of the dragon II, or giant form I spell.
Summon Primal Chaos (Sp): At 20th level, you gain the ability to summon primal chaos—a field of total entropy equivalent to a fixed disintegrate spell. As a full-round action, you can fill a 5-ft. cube; for each additional round you concentrate, an additional continguous cube can be filled, to a maximum number of cubes equal to your Charisma score. Creatures and objects unable to move out of an affected square must make Fortitude saves each round as if targeted by a disintegrate spell at your caster level. The field of chaos lasts for as long as you continue concentrating, and for 1 round thereafter.
Suggestions, criticism, and feedback are most welcome!!!
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
How can a Michael Mann movie possibly be this bad? Maybe because 90% of the movie, as near as I can tell, consisted of lovingly-shot close-ups of Johnny Depp's sissy mustache. Certainly acting wasn't encouraged (Depp is fully capable of doing it if the director makes him), nor was plot an issue (there didn't seem to be much of one). Coming from a standard hack, this would have been more of the usual stuff, not worth posting about. Coming from Michael Mann (Last of the Mohicans, Heat, Manhunter, Thief...) it was a travesty.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
The question of daggers (used in 3.5e pretty much only when being grappled) vs. longswords came up, and the fact that IRL a guy with a longsword can hit you before you close with a dagger... but once you're up against him (not grappling, but body-to-body, "sharing a square" in D&D terms) he can't do much with the longsword except maybe club down with the pommel while you hook him repeatedly in the gut. Excerpt follows:
Abraham spalding wrote:
However again we get back to the "abstract" nature of D&D combat. Just like a 5 foot step the "reach" of the weapon and wielder is an artificial construct to simplify combat enough to keep the game playable.
Kirth Gersen wrote:
Right, but we do have a 10-ft. reach (most polearms and spiked chains) vs. 5-ft. reach (almost everything else) distinction, and the rule that the polearm guy who can hit you at 10 ft. can't attack you when you're only 5 ft. away from him (at least, not without feat investment and/or penalties; we'll see how the final rules address that).
I'm just wondering if it wouldn't make sense at the same time to have a 0-ft. reach category (daggers), at which a longsword-armed guy can't effectively strike at you. That would still maintain a high degree of abstraction (3 distinct bands based on 5-ft. miniatures "squares," instead of a continuous spectrum), but would add usefulness to daggers that we don't often currently see.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
At the end of House of the Beast, it seems more than moderately likely that Zayifid will be able to successfully flee the party, rather than fight them to the death -- indeed, "Concluding the Adventure" even states that the next adventure will include pointers. Alas, due to page count limitations and/or pugwampis in the editing room, those pointers seem to have been omitted from "Jackal's Price." I'm going with the following, subject to revision if anyone has better ideas:
1. Zayifid, disguised as a gnoll again, shows up as part of Shiz's group on pp. 18-19. Again, he flees if the others look like they'll be defeated.
2. Zayifid, if he survives that, will go on ahead and forge an alliance with the One Source guys -- possibly helping them kidnap Rayhan. In that case, he can survive until the party meets Father Jackal -- it might be interesting to have FJ, the Leng Captain, and Zayfid represent three mutually antagonistic factions, all of whom want the PCs' map!
I'm interested in other ideas or suggestions, especially on how to flesh out scenario #2.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
This is a spin-off from the "Civil Religious Discussion" thread, which is essentially a "compare and contrast Christianity and other views" thread. This thread can be used for other traditions; Buddhists, Hindus, Neo-Pagans, Atheists, and people of any other denomination, or none, are all equally welcome!
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
The adventure says the party should be 6th level, minimum, before reaching the lower areas. To all DMs: that's an imperative, not a suggestion.
A party of four (5th level, with full hp and full resources) enters the compound via the gargoyles' tower, finds area D, knocks open the door, and descends to I4. Ghartok hears them coming down; when they emerge, the fighter walks into a full attack and dies instantly. The bard takes out the wives with a spell and moves to flank; the barbarian rages, swings, and misses; and the cleric casts spiritual weapon. Round two: Ghartok reduces the barbarian, extra rage hp and all, to -10 hp. Everyone misses him except the bard; cleric attempts to revive barbarian with a cure wounds and fails, because he's dead. Round three: Ghartok kills the bard. Cleric tries to heal bard, but fails to revive him, too, because he's also dead; spiritual weapon crits Ghartok -- a minor flesh wound. Round four: Ghartok kills the cleric. End of AP.
The moral of the story: if your group is 5th level and/or lacks a meteor swarm scroll, a couple of dozen wishes, and an army of high-level mercenaries, DO NOT LET THEM REMOVE THE ARCANE LOCK ON THE TOWER DOOR. Just don't. It's not a difficult fight; it's an absurd, very quick straight-up slaughter with absolutely no chance of survival whatsoever, and no chance to flee, either.
P.S. No PCs were harmed during the running of this playtest. Like a good DM, when things looked a bit tough to me, I decided to try a trial run at home before I actually submit live players to this. That's why the party was miraculously at full health and full spells even after fighting a nest of gargoyles. Even so, most of them couldn't hit Ghaurok, and he in turn couldn't miss. His full attack killed anyone he directed it at.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
OK, a bone to pick with Paizo's otherwise exemplary product line... what happened to Richard "The Skinsaw Murders" Pett and Nick "The Hook Mountain Massacre" Logue? Haven't seen much from them lately... not like during the last great days of Dungeon magazine during which at least one if not both of them would have entries in every issue! (Logue's patently transparent "Sinister Adventures" excuse hardly gives him a free pass to slack off to this extent!)
In the words of Calvin, of Calvin & Hobbes fame: "Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!" I demand more Logue and Pett!
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
OK, so Old Bonegrinder the warthog has 7 HD. Playing LoF with PF characters, it seemed reasonable to give him another feat; I chose Powerful Charge (+2d6 damage on a successful charge). This was a mistake.
The party's scout detected him early, and party tactics were good: the Barbarian 1/Sha'ir 2 and Fighter 3 got into poision on either side of the opening to the hog's lair; the Scout 1/Cleric 2 (archer) and Rogue 3 would fire bows at him, hoping to get him into position between the flankers, who could take 5-ft. steps forward and chop him up.
Alas, Bonegrinder easily passed his Perception roll to hear them, won intiative, and charged the scout (passing both melee guys before they could react), killing him in one shot. The rogue fired his crossbow while the Sha'ir advanced and the fighter threw a javelin and moved forward; Bonegrinder charged and killed the rogue. The other two attacked him in melee, and Bonegrinder couldn't miss (+12 attack against the fighter's AC 22 wasn't all that hard), and quickly killed the two of them; scene ends with warthog tossing bloody corpses all over the road and gnolls (attracted by the commotion) laughing like the hyenas they are.
Bottom line: if you "soup up" Bonegrinder, even a little bit, make sure that he loses initiative.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Is it just me, or are a lot of ideas for the Dasati (not to mention their name) sort of liberally pilfered from Frank Herbert's The Dosadi Experiment, and a lot of the stuff for Valko and his mom taken from Herbert's Dune?
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Over here the discussion of the fighter's glass jaw (his uniquely weak will save) wandered into the area of action points. Now, many people hate them, because of the perceived "mickey mousing" of the game. But what if quantities were sharply limited (say 1 per session or adventure)? And then, the piece-de-resistance, give the fighter as a class a bunch more of them. Let's look at the ramifications:
1. High-level martial classes with iterative attacks roll dice more than spellcasters, as a general rule (and thus have more of a need for action points). Barbarians, however, also have scaling rage benefits, and paladins and rangers have spells and scaling class abilities. Fighters have... baseline feats; nothing that really scales. But action points do, both in quality (add higher bonus), and in quantity if the fighters' reserves grow proportionately greater as they level up.
2. Fighters have serious mobility problems. What if they could spend action points for additional movement, even while full attacking? This alone could resolve discussion in several threads.
3. Blocking: tripping and grappling are very difficult in Pathfinder. But with a reserve of action points, you could improve your chances to succeed when it most counts.
4. This is my favorite: for people who don't like action points, that's fine. Subtract 1/session from everyone, so that all classes except the fighter have ZERO. Fighters would still get some of them: a tactical resource of their own, like the wizard's spells, the monk's ki points, or the barbarian's rage points.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
As a note, I've completed work on a classless system that works off the Pathfinder rules. In essence, you build characters a la carte by spending XP as it is earned. All that changes is character generation; you can still play your classless characters in Paizo adventures without any conversion needed. I have included some ideas regarding changes in skills lists, combat mechanics, and the like.
The advantages of the classless system are that problems revolving around "class balance" and proliferation of prestige classes are neatly circumvented. The dreaded "Christmas-Tree Effect" is also addressed. A built-in diminishing returns mechanic helps mitigate some of the problems of high-level play.
Disadvantages are lack of large-scale playtesting, specifically in the areas of XP pricing for various features.
Version 1.0 of these rules was emailed to my group (Houstonderek, Silverhair, et al.) and to Jess Door this month. Version 1.1 (smoothing out some inconsistencies) is underway.
The point of this post is to offer a copy to anyone at Paizo, in hopes that it might spark some kind of an option in a future optional rules accessory. I might be willing to send a (VERY) limited number of copies by email to people who specifically request them, but those mailings will be limited to people whose design input in the past has impressed me... and let me add that I need not agree with their conclusions; some people with whom I've had great differences of opionion I nevertheless hold in high esteem. What I want to avoid is every Tom, Dick, Harry, and Cthulhu on the boards wanting a copy on a lark but having no real interest in assisting with it.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
In the spirit of the Pathfinder rules (no dead levels, etc.), I've attempted a rewrite of the Samurai class (drawing from OA and CW) that I'd enjoy hearing feedback on.
SAMURAI
Hit Dice: d10
BAB: Full
Good Saves: Fort, Will
Skill Points/Level: 2
Class Skills: Acrobatics, Appraise, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Initimidate, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (nobility), Perform, Ride, Sense Motive, Swim
Proficiencies: Light, Medium, Heavy Armor; Simple and Martial Weapons; one exotic melee weapon appropriate to culture.
Ancestral Weapon: Start game with mwk exotic melee weapon. Can be imbued with magical properties, given appropriate outlay of time, gold, and scrolls (as if the Samurai had the Master Craftsman skill and Craft (weaponsmith) ranks equal to his class level). If lost or broken, must be replaced ASAP.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
There is endless debate in favor of and against things like a combined Athletics skill, or whether Perform should be lumped together, or whether Perception is too good. Mostly, this boils down to the dichotomy between skill groups (e.g., Acrobatics) and individual sub-skills (e.g., Perform (string instruments)), and the problems in relative value. To end the bickering and introduce some semblance of sanity into the skill system, I propose the following:
All skills, by default, revert to 3.5e sub-skills. These cost 1 skill point per rank.
Skill groups of related skills are established; these represent training in skills that overlap to some degree, or that require similar attributes, but are not the same skill.
Characters can instead choose to pay 2 skill points to buy 1 rank in each of the skills in a particular group (this usually results in a net discount).
Skill Groups:
Acrobatics group contains the skills Balance, Tumble, Fly
Athletics group contains the skills Climb, Jump, and Swim
Craft (smithing) group contains the skills Craft (armorer), Craft (weaponsmith), and Craft (blacksmith).
Perception group contains the Listen, Search, Spot, Taste, and Touch, and Smell skills.
(etc.)
In this manner, the people who argue (correctly) that Climbing and Swimming are in no way related are vindicated; swimming monsters would have ranks in Swim, but not in Climb. Those who prefer the ease of combined skill groups can have things that way as well; a barbarian who grew up among rocky cliffs and rapids could buy ranks in the Athletics group and not have to micromanage the individual skills comprising it.
I'm aware that it's been clearly stated that no restructuring of skills will occur. However, this system requires little more than an explanation paragraph and a restructuring of the table to list skills within their associated groups. The potential of this proposal to eliminate argument, to please both crowds (the "realism" people and the "I hate micromanaging skills" people), and to restore some semblance of parity to skills (e.g., "Perception is too good"), in my humble opinion, hopefully merits some consideration.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Let me preface by saying I grew up with 1e: fighters could move and full attack, but wizards could not move while casting, if I remember correctly. If a wizard started casting, you threw initiative, and if the fighter won, he ran up to the wizard and whaled on him. In short, the mechanics specified that a wizard without bodyguards was a dead wizard.
3.0 turned this on its head: now the wizard can retreat 30 ft. and still cast a spell (and also cast a quickened spell), whereas the fighter gets only one attack if he moves at all. In short, the mechnics now specify that an intelligent wizard can never be attacked. Melee characters lost all economy of action, and the casters gained, not proportionately, but double!
I'd like to re-establish some semblance of parity. The proposed change is full backwards-compatible, because it affects the basic combat rules, and not anything in a stat block:
Spells with a casting time of "1 standard action" should require a full attack action instead, preventing the caster from taking more than a 5-ft. step that round.
Then, the introduction of feats allowing movement coupled with multiple attacks would gradually shift the balance at high levels back to the warriors' court, without nerfing spells, and without overpowering warriors.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Yesterday I played a fighter 1/monk 4 in Tower of the Last Baron. The adventure is AWESOME, and the DM (Silverhair) did a great job. All in all, I've never had so much fun being nearly useless!
Working off a 20-point-buy system for starting attributes, I attempted to optimize a human monk for tripping: Str 16, Dex 14, Wis 16; two +1 kamas; Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Trip, Greater Trip, Combat Reflexes. My idea was that I'd use TWF in conjunction with the flurry of blows with the kamas to trip, then use Combat Reflexes to take AoO against enemies as they fell/got up. Unfortunately, that was a better idea in theory than it was in reality. We fought a bunch of 1st level guards; the party wizard cast enlarge on me, and the DM, a nice fellow, let me use my full CMB on a TWF flurry of trips.
Against three 1st level warrior guards (CR 1/2), I was very nearly killed. Tripping, even with a +12 bonus, fails a lot more often than you'd think, because the DC is set so high (16-Str mooks are DC 19; level-appropriate monsters are always untrippable). Then, counterattacking is more or less a guaranteed failure (+5 attack bonus), and by somewhat neglecting Dex to pump up Str, I ended up with a lower AC and not enough AoO to take advantage of a lot of the openings. Even when I did hit with an AoO, damage when enlarged was only 1d8+5, so 10-hp guards could most often take at least one blow and keep coming at me... and emphasizing Str, Dex, and Wis left me with a lower Con, which means those d8 HD really don't last all that long. Also, Wis bonus to AC for sure doesn't make up for no armor.
This playtest left me with several thoughts regarding the monk:
Maneuver training is useless if maneuvers are still impossible as a baseline. DC 11 + CMB would be a lot more reasonable; even DC 12 + CMB would be OK if you want the defender to have a slight edge.
The monk's fast speed is a trap. Running/tumbling around the battlefield attempting 1 trip/round is a good way to waste your turn, because you really need to make a flurry of trips in order to get one of them to work. Trying to do anything other than trip (like stand up and fight) is silly, because your BAB is so low and because you aren't 2-handed Power Attacking with monk weapons; your damage output is minimal. If the monk could make a full move and still flurry, his viability would be increased by an order of magnitude. As it is, he might as well have a speed of 5 ft.
Multiple attribute dependency remains a huge issue. In order to play a viable monk using point buy, you more or less need to consign yourself to Int and Cha of 7.
4 skill points/level are great... except that you really need to axe your Int to play a viable monk. Also, you're putting your favored class bonus into hp, not skill points, in order to boost your life expectancy. Still, I got a lot of use out of skills: the class skills list really lent itself to sneaking around town and climbing over the wall, and I almost never failed a skill check. But, really, if I'd wanted to be a noncombatant skill monkey, I'd've played a rogue or a bard; both of those classes get more skills, fight better than the monk does, and the bard gets spells to boot.
Raising the monk's BAB to full really wouldn't hurt anything.
In short, I'm having fun playing a monk, but I fully expect him to be dead the first time he fights anyone over 1st level. Also, if I level up, there's no way I'll stick with monk, because that gives me nothing but the ability to jump around like a grasshopper... oh, and I won't get sick when I drink the water. Yay. I'm far better off sticking with fighter (for combat) or rogue (for skills) from now on, and relegating monk to the trash bin where it sadly belongs.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Much like metamagic lets you add something to spells in exchange for a higher spell level, there are some combat feats that let you trade attack bonus for combat effects: Power Attack is an obvious one, and Combat Expertise, and even Rapid Shot and Multishot. But it really seems to me that there's room to exploit this kind of mechanic for the fighter's benefit, much as there are a huge number of metamagic feats.
Quicken Attack (Metacombat)
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +6
Benefit: You can make a single attack at a -5 penalty any time as an immediate action. All other attacks you make until your next turn also take a -5 penalty. You may make only one Quickened attack in a single round.
Furious Charge (Metacombat)
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +6
Benefit: You can take a move action and still make a full attack, as if you had the Pounce extraordinary ability. However, those attacks, and all attacks until your next turn, suffer a -5 penalty.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
Almost all spells scale with caster level, in terms of range, duration, and/or damage. Fighters get fewer feats than spellcasters get spells, yet their combat feats almost universally do not scale, or scale with things that have nothing to do with BAB (such as Dodge giving +2 if Acrobatics has 10 ranks). Instead, they are forced to invest in "feat chains," generally rendering several of their class features (feats) obsolete. This situation is bizarrely lopsided in favor of casters at higher levels, contributing to warrior-class obsolescence syndrome.
I would like to very strongly urge that combat feats be revised so as to scale with BAB (analogous to the way spells scale with caster level). For example:
Dodge
Prerequisites: BAB +1
Benefit: As long as you retain your Dex bonus to AC, you receive a +1 dodge bonus to AC. For every 4 points of your base attack bonus, this dodge bonus increases by +1, to a maximum of +6 at BAB +20.
Note that this makes the fighter's Dodge feat scale more or less evenly with the cleric's shield of faith spell. Using 1/4 BAB means that wizards get a max +3, and clerics a max +4, compared to the fighter's +6.
Kirth Gersen(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber)
OK, so we've got Perception, which is the old Listen + Spot + Search, and also has the new abilities of scent, touch, and taste, and you can even detect disease with it.
We've got Acrobatics, which includes the old Tumble, Balance, and Jump skills, and also lets you slow fall a bit, and trumps the Mobility feat when it comes to moving through threatened areas.
And we have... Perform (singing). With no in-game effects at all unless you're a bard, and even then you can't even play an instrument.
Skill consolidation is a big hit with our group so far, but in the Beta it's extremely haphazard, and leaves vast disparities in the usefulness of the various combined and still-uncombined skills. Every single character now maxes out Perception. All melee characters max out Acrobatics. All casters take Spellcraft. All high-Cha characters max out Diplomacy.
Unfortunately, all of the other skills have now become "leftovers," taken only once those main four have been accounted for.
PLEASE, can we either combine some more (which would put many people up in arms, considering the outcry against a proposed Climb + Swim = Athletics merger), or, barring that, can we "beef up" the usefulness of some of the "leftovers," maybe by merging some feats into them?
For example, we could do some or all of the following (or none, but at least follow this sort of logic):
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