KnightErrantJR's page

Hm . . . the original post isn't showing up. It used to say that that BaB and hit dice didn't match for the Oracle, and the rest of the posts were answering that original post.

I think its a matter of how iconic the thing is that you are using from a given setting is.

For example, I played in a campaign where our PCs were looking for a magical lance to kill a dragon, and the dragon had draconians as servants, but the rest of the campaign had little to do with Dragonlance, but between the dragonlance and the draconians, it just bugged me.

On the other hand, there are several monsters in the MWP Bestiary that are kind of cool and don't scream out "Dragonlance" in the same manner as draconians do to me.

The Phaerimm from the Forgotten Realms were aberrations with a mysterious background that were enormously powerful in magic. Its completely feasible that such creatures could wander the planes and end up somewhere else, but you probably don't want them to be the campaign boss if the campaign is suppose to be heavily rooted in Golarion.

I think that the key is to figure out how much your players associate a given monster with a given setting, and how unique you make its presentation.

And then, on top of all of that, I immediately thought how much better Lord Soth would be in a Dragonlance game if he were a Pathfinder Graveknight.

Given that the only Balor mini I could get my hands on is the current WOTC mini, I'm thinking the next Balor that shows up is getting the "giant" template anyway . . . ;)

Since I've whole heartedly embraced Golarion as my campaign setting, I'm not likely to use monsters that "break" the assumptions of the world, such as outsiders that presuppose a given cosmology.

That having been said, there are lots of monsters that can still show up as "something that's pretty rare" from across the various monster manuals, and even using my own logic, its not impossible for something from another cosmology to "break the veil" and end up where it shouldn't.

Heck, if Fritz Leiber can do it by bringing Norse gods into his own cosmology on a cosmic fluke, its good enough for my games from time to time.

Don't suppose you remember what issue that was or the name of the adventure?

No offence, but even the title is painful once you get the joke.

There was an adventure in Dungeon once that was purportedly set in Impiltur in the Forgotten Realms, but was actually one long running parody of the Batman mythos, but it was so obtuse in its presentation that unless you were a Batman geek, you probably wouldn't get it . . . but once you did, you couldn't take the adventure seriously at all.

I'm sure the adventure, on its own, as fine, as Paizo didn't publish junk, and when I first started reading the adventure, I didn't put two and two together, but once I did, it ruined the entire adventure for me.

I have looked over the Golarion map before to figure out why it is those five factions, and I see that four of the five countries the factions are from directly surround the part of the Inner Sea that contains the island that Absalom is on, thus giving them political and territorial reasons to fight over the city. But I also wonder sort of the opposite of why aren't there more factions, more it is why is there a Cheliax faction when they are so far away. Now, looking at the map only and not reading the histories of the countries, I wonder if there is a faction for Cheliax, why isn't there one for Thuvia or Katapesh. They are coastal countries also and maybe not even as far from Ablasom as Cheliax. And on the point about an Absalom faction, if there was one added, shouldn't it be more of a Kortos faction, which would be trying to keep the foreigners out and control both islands and not just the city?

Unlike the other factions, which have strong central governments, Thuvia is a coalition of city-states, meaning that their interests like in keeping Thuvia independent and prosperous, and its hard to have larger goals than than when the individual cities are still a strong element of their government.

Katapesh is odd in that, while they have the second largest trade city on the planet, they are ruled by strange aliens (the Pactmasters) that have inscrutable goals, that work by pulling the strings of various merchants and minor rulers across the nation. While they may have goals that are more extensive than "make Katapesh richer," its hard to know what they are, and it would be very hard to have faction missions based on goals and drives that have never been explained.

Beyond geographical location, Taldor and Qadira are major powers, even if Taldor is falling apart around the edges, and have a lot of pull and resources to bring to bear in pushing Absalom on direction or the other (and Taldor has a tenuous claim to the Lordship of Absalom under the right conditions).

Andoran and Osirion are both "up and comers," and while they may not have the power and wealth that the other factions have, they have drive and energy, as well as still having a lot of wealth on their own (just not the wealth of having once been the "empire" that dominated one continent or another, as Cheliax, Taldor, and Qadira via the Keleshite Empire have and/or had).

Osirion also has the interesting dual personality of being a "new and young" nation while still inheriting "Old Osirion's" culture and tradition, giving it a youthful drive with the sense of entitlement that comes from "Old Osirion's" importance and influence before Qadira's control. And, of course, just like Cheliax will get involved in Taldor and Andoran are involved, Osirion will have an interest in Qadira not becoming more powerful.

Finally, being the young idealists with a lot of resource wealth isn't the only drive for Andoran, either, as Cheliax is both morally opposed to them due to slavery, and traditionally opposed, due to their former control of Andoran, they have a history as being under the control of Taldor before Cheliax, and as the biggest mercantile driver of the slave trade, Qadira is a huge idealogical target (and the fact that Osirion has slaves, even if they aren't as cruel to them as Cheliax or as financially driven to push the market as Qadira, pretty much assures that Andoran opposes everyone else).

I guess what I'm trying to say in all of this long winded post is that the factions that exist certainly aren't the only factions that have agents in Absalom, but the five factions chosen have a reason to both try to influence Absalom's politics and to push their agenda before the other factions push theirs, as there is a kind of spider web effect with the chosen factions where if they promote this, they have to oppose that, which involves X and maybe Y.

Finally, an Absalom faction, if you read the Guide to Absalom, would most likely be interested just in keeping tabs on all of the other factions. Absalom's "personality" is much more interested in just knowing that there are plots going on than actively pushing one or squashing another, and unless a given faction was on the verge of dramatically changing Absalom, or, gods forbid, endangering trade, most of the faction missions would most logically be to note other faction missions and report on them, which isn't the most dynamic of goals to consistently give out to players.

I'm going to have to bow out of this one formally. I really enjoy Tham, but I just can't seem to keep up the way I want to with the threads, and I don't want to take up a spot for someone else that will have the time to do so. I'm really sorry all.

My sincere apologies, but I'm going to have to drop this pbp. I was greatly enjoying the character and the other characters, but I'm not able to keep up at a good pace with the thread, and between work, the FLGS groups, and my family, I'm just not going to be able to commit the amount of time that will be needed to keep this going. I'm sorry all.

I know that everyone put a lot of work into this, and I was having a really good time with this, but I don't think I can keep up with running this game at this time. My sincere apologies, but between my FLGS groups, work, and family, I'm just not able to keep up with any play by post activity that I had been planning.

I'm very sorry all.

Wait.. Explain to me again why would you bother getting a cold iron weapon if you already have a +3 weapon?

The Galactic Empire isn't exactly the best example to use in this debate KEjr, they're specifically known for OVER cheapifying their common soldier's gear, to the point of throwing alot of lives away because they just didn't give a damn.

They practically invented the Tie Fighter ship class to be used in expendable swarms that would die like flies to a flamethrower.

(One of the reasons the Rebellion almost always won the dogfights, unless they were outnumberred at least three or four to one.)

First off, I'd like to say that reading through this article definitely temps me towards using Sanity rules in my games, a temptation I fluctuate back and forth with often. If it weren't for the fact that I have already made up my campaign standards for my current campaign, I might have gone over the edge.

I liked the feats relating to this topic, as I think any subsystem that is going to work needs to have the standard d20 supports in place, including alternate uses of skills as well as feats to modify the topic at hand.

That having been said, if I do use sanity in my games, I'd probably be more likely to start with the OGC material on Sanity in Unearthed Arcana, but modified to take advantage of some of these rules. Both sets of rules, to me, introduce a little bit more complexity than I want to to keep things feeling natural (for example, the "levels" of sanity in the OGC material, and the creation of the Mind score and the save, which only relates to Sanity).

Its a great work for inspiration, and when I finally do succumb to adding Sanity to my games, I'll probably be mining this for some information to create a bit of a hybrid with the Unearthed Arcana material.

There is a difference between "realism" and "suspension of disbelief." Without running any numbers, I know that no country can afford the best armor possible for their common foot soldiers, nor the amount of time it would take to make that armor.

I don't need to run any numbers to know that it wouldn't sit right to have every Stormtrooper in Star Wars wearing Dark Trooper powered armor, or flying TIE Defenders, even though I'm not running any numbers and I'm fairly certain the Empire has tons of credits to throw into their military.

Personally, I like AP starting at first level. I have tried to join APs at higher levels, as a secondary campaign to let players see how they liked higher level characters, and the campaign just never gelled the way that campaigns that start at lower levels did.

I think part of it is that when someone creates a character at higher level, they kind of visualize what that character has done to get to that point, and you have a group of "islands" that have developed to whatever level without needed or interacting with the rest of the PCs.

As far as "skipping" levels, I would much rather the AP at least try to cover most of the levels involved. While its fun to add encounters here or there and customize things, I'm not as thrilled about it being required, especially in the middle of an AP where my tangent might end up breaking the flow of the next adventure or even making the PCs want to follow up on threads from that adventure instead of diving back into the AP.

Finally . . . please never make an adventure like Dragonlance where you have multiple sets of PCs that are designed to go on separate paths. I think all it does is make things more complicated and to keep things on track I think it requires much more railroading than a standard AP does.

Why does this "playtest material" come with "mock pictures of the new classes" looking a lot like... certain people... in... really daring underwear? And why does it say "Please provide us with feedback. In order to do so, come to the 'Agonized Wail' club on a Wednesday night - and come alone?"

And why does that class have abilities like "§$/%" and "I'll @@³²4§$% you until you scream"???

And they're WotC IP which makes them totally untouchable anyway.

I don't regret the purchase, and I got of lot of interesting ideas from it, but I do have to admit, it wasn't quite there for me.

To explain further, I'm probably a pain, because I like to make things as simple as possible, so I tend to be all or nothing with what I allow into my games. There are a lot of feats that I like in here, but not enough to pick and choose and complicate the process of explaining to my players what is and isn't allowed.

Some specific nit picks of mine . . . a lot of the utility abilities, such as the feats that allow a character to follow up with an auto threaten critical, seem kind of cool, but I also can't help but feel that feats like this might be similar to things that will come up in future products, and therefore will cross over with "official" material.

The meta-magic feats that allow for extra fire/acid/cold, etc. damage to spells are interesting, but I can't help but feel that making these meta-magic feats that don't bump spell level makes these potentially problematic, and something that I'd rather have seen as a feat that, for example, sets things on fire only if you use a spell with the [fire] descriptor, which, to me, feels a bit more streamlined.

I do like that the feat that allows for an automatic critical on an opponent if you allow the opponent to crit you allows the opponent to make a Sense Motive check to keep him from being compelled to do this. When there was a similar feat in the Book of Experimental Might II, my biggest concern was that it could be used as a "trap" for opponents that have no way to avoid the auto attack (such as spellcasters getting an attack with their whopping quarterstaff or dagger attack).

One feat that I really, really liked, however, was the Allied Cohort feat, which allows for what most people really want out of the Leadership feat without the "extras." In fact, if there is something I would be willing to "piecemeal" into my game, it will be this feat.

Overall, as I said, its a solid item, but for my own personal taste, I really tend to be all or nothing, and it wasn't quite hitting on all the right notes to make me want to allow it wholesale or with minor caveats.

I'll rate this too, as I tend to be bad about not posting such things.

I can't believe they are glorifying a thieving, low down Ambershard as their iconic dwarf . . . hurumph . . .

Mentzer's gave you the finger from beyond the grave.

"What are you doing?"

"If we wait to loot the place until after the fight, we'll never beat this thing."

To quote a pretty solid piece of wisdom from Mike Mearls: "If knowledge of a game's plot would spoil its experience, it isn't a game." Your players may be coming at it from this angle. The story is great and all, but underneath the plot and the villains' motivations and the behind-the-scenes scheming, you're playing a game. If they're still capable of having fun, then it's simply a matter of differing expectations - NOT cheating.

here is the bard (catman)

Camris here, check out Mario's profile.

With a bard and a swashbuckler, I could very easily see the pair of you as traveling souls looking for adventure, that just happened to meet at the Publican House, the temple to Cayden Cailean, and decided to find your fortunes from there.

If that doesn't contradict with you view of your bard, Catman, and the you can get the bard written up and traits picked, you guys still have time to jump into the beginning of the campaign, since I just posted the opening post of the campaign.

That having been said, post the character here first and let me okay it before you start posting in the campaign thread.

The white dragons, especially, are my favorite dragons. Probably followed by the black and green dragons.

In regular campaigns, I almost always paraphrase boxed text, but when it comes to running PFS scenarios, I like having the text as a good jumping off point. As has been pointed out, with a time limit, something that quickly summarizes the adventure and sets the stage is appreciated, and the temptation to make the intro too long or give away too much is present.

Long story short, I'd keep the intros in the same style.

I know its extremely unlikely, but it would be great if these happened to hit before Thursday when I have the character creation session for my Council of Thieves campaign. ;)

For what its worth, I'm thinking the "work" trick is probably the best option for a riding dog that's going to carry a load. If its trained to have a cart hitched to it, its probably going to be good to have saddlebags thrown over it as well.

Making me Alternate #1 woohoo!
Thinking of a drunken Swashbuckler...

well i am still instered in playing that bard but i have no idea about aback story

Hm, I'm afraid that it looks like I have to give some bad news then.

With seeker pulling his name out and no new entries in, it looks like we don't even have enough folks to build a full team so I am going to be calling this game. The backgrounds I received were great and I was really excited to get things rolling, but I suppose a few things worked against me; the fact it was a module and not an AP, the background requirement, and the low level. When initial interest came so quickly, I hadn't realized total interest would be so low.

So thank you to those of you who built a character and got started with things, I'm sorry that the game didn't quite pan out. If I put together an idea that has more traction and interest, I'd be happy to have any of you involved.

Thanks,

-Tarlane

I also noticed in my Second Darkness pbp planning threads that at the beginning, you can find tons of people interested, but as Shadow pointed out, the longer the thread gets, the more I think people assume that the pbp is pretty much full. I've had a hard time getting back ahold of some of the alternates in that game when other people dropped out, so I don't think its just your game. I think its just how many initial people jump and and if they get the chance to make up their characters in the same timeframe as everyone else.

It seems strange, but even a few days after the initial post, I think you almost need to make a new post like "X Campaign, Still Seeking Players" or something like that.

Anyway, I had fun making up the character, so if it turns out nothing came of it, it doesn't bother me any.

Any updates on the final player tally?

So I'm getting ready to start a Council of Thieves campaign in a few weeks, and one of my players asked me if Desna's worship is banned in Cheliax, and my initial response was, "why no, but you are pretty much repressed, in that you can't say anything that could be construed as being against Cheliax or the worship of Asmodeus," based on what I had read in Cheliax: Empire of Devils.

Then I noticed the reference that made him ask, which was at the end of the religion section, where it mentions that only the worship of demon lords or disruptive or chaotic god is banned outright. Hm. I had initially read this to mean gods like Lamashtu or Rovagug, but upon thinking about it, taken on its face it could also exclude Desna and Calistria (a goddess that another character of one of my players will be worshiping).

In the long run, it won't change their characters too much, since they'll be "underground" anyway, but I am wondering if I'm running them as "legal but repressed" faiths or "outlawed" faiths.

Sorry about the confusion. That was totally my mistake. The actual alternates list is as followers:

1. AinvarG

2. Kobold Cleaver

3. Camris

Sorry for any confusion.

Bah, I'll have to sleep soon, or my Star Wars game tomorrow will be plagued by the kind of session I run on a lack of sleep. Last time that happened the Wookiee decided to become a Jedi and they found a blind Kushiban to train him.

Speaking of that, did you know that the Tarentatek from Knights of the Old Republic was based on the Umber Hulk model in the Aurora Engine that was used for both KOTOR and Neverwinter Nights?

No, he doesn't.

Now we just need to find a way to keep this thread bumped so that anyone that hasn't been hanging around discussing monsters for the last year or so can still see the thread.

Know what I think its interesting?

Carrion Crawlers aren't OGL, but Slime Crawlers, which are their young, are . . . kind of like that whole Neothelid thing.

Plus there are Slaad Lords but no Slaad, but that just leads to confusion.

And of course Eyes of the Deep without Beholders.

Since this has come up a lot lately, that's a good link to post Heathy . . .

Also, if you go directly to that site's FAQ, they detail what monsters from the 3.5 Monster Manual specifically are not open content:

d20srd FAQ page

Well that's no reason to respond in kind. And in fact people accused us who were arguing against cleric's heavy armor being removed of whining and the like when we we're doing no such thing and it was brought up again here. I'm starting to think the people who are noticing a lack of civility on these boards might not be as wrong as I previously thought.

What in the world is wrong about complaining about things you don't like? Fine you disagree, but don't insult the people you disagree with by saying they're "whining" or whatever. It's quite offensive.

When people start to imply that Paizo is "ruining the game," or "being lazy," or even "screwing people out of money" rather than simply stating a disagreement, it tends to rile people up a bit.

If at all possible, I'd love to get all of the concepts approved and have the characters ready to go by this weekend. If this will be a problem, let me know. Thanks all.

Great to hear already have a rouge Idea for a Halfling(or gnome) Sorceress

Unfortunately, looks like Kevin picked up the last slot, but you're bumped up to #1 alternate since I've called up both my alternates so far. Thanks for the interest.

Hi just want to throw my name in here as a possible alternative if you happen to need an extra player at some point (Since far as I can tell your full right now)

How bout this;.....swallow me, a wee leprechaun, and when I emerge from your thorax via the auspices of my electric cairving knife, do an ab crunch and see if the blood spraying from the wound will slake atall.

Honestly, I've been really busy, and when I've dived into threads, and gotten caught up on my e-mails, I've been playing catch up for a while. Long story short, I'm really impressed with the Bestiary, and it looks much clearer and easier to use than the Monster Manual was. While there are some things I might have done differently, for the most part, its an amazingly useful and beautifully put together book that does pretty much what everyone at Paizo has been been saying it would do for months now.

Okay, that's fair. But I can't help but feel like they left a big hole in the book by not attempting to fill those spots. The addition of the Genie varients was nice, as were the Linnorms, but don't tell me they couldn't invent some kind of new Psionic species.

Edit: Sorry, I misread your comment, I thought it said "include" instead of invent. The Neothelid and the Intellect Devrouer are from the psionic OGL material, but the point still stands that you have two "mental power" evil guys to use in the illithids role.

I really enjoyed the ranger, so much so that I had just gotten the PDF, read through it, and noted it as one of the few 3rd party things I was going to allow in my new Council of Thieves campaign.

A whole bunch of the things you were complaining about aren't open game content. Paizo can't put them in the book. Not allowed. Not going to happen.

I have no idea what you mean about templates and monstrous humanoids . . . are you talking about the changes to the types of some of the creatures?

Just out of curiosity, since most of the Pathfinder monsters are OGL creations, are there any plans to do cards like this for monsters in the Bestiary portion of the Adventure Paths or the Pathfinder adventures?