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Here's is my artificer conversion for PF that I used for my Eberron-Spelljammer campaign: Also received inspiration from several fellow posters.
Green dragons possess the ability to move through dense foliage unimpeded. Wasn't this fight in thick/deep wood, nearby a water source, inside a large bramble mound, etc.? The majority of all green dragon fights would mostly likely suffer from LOS issues, severely hampering ranged attacks by interlopers. Adult green dragons are also untraceable so there would be no way for the party to find one in the wild, the Green Dragon finds them! Though I think you said you used a young adult which doesn't yet have this ability. Sounds like the Paladin was well buffed by party members, so in essence it wasn't only the paladin's actions that took down this dragon. It was a party effort. Plus it seems the party managed to discover and come upon their foes at the party's advantage as well and at range with no LOS problems. As far as green dragons are concerned they were able to sucker punch the dragon in his home ground, so that sounds about right. Evil doers FEAR the paladin! In-game big bad evil things curl their fingers, flinch away, widen their eyes, and hiss between barred teeth at the mere mention of a Paladin. They are truly a force for Good to be reckoned with in PF! Not evil, not so bad! As it should be. :)
Can a Paladin take all of the following archetypes: Holy Tactician (UC, Hospitaler (APG), and Warrior of the Holy Light (APG? As far as I can tell this should work since all class abilities are there to be replaced and each archetype replaces different abilities. The only example where it might be argued is with the Hospitaler, which doesn't replace smite evil it just adds an additional use per day, and the Holy Tactician, which replaces smite evil with Weal's Champion. So per RAW can a paladin take all three of these archetypes? Thanks!
Hey Erik, Not sure how much of a board game fan you might be but I know Ropecon will have a demo for the space empire building game Eclipse! I haven't heard if there will be a demo at GenCon or not (it'll be at the Asmodee booth there if they manage to get their demo copy in time). I've been following the game's development all spring being a big fan of space 4X games (such as Twilight Imperium or Race for the Galaxy). So if you're into these sort of games check it out and safe travels to you both!
Here's what I use for my campaigns. It allows characters to use alignments as well as other allegiances!
If you are using all of the languages for the Inner Sea then I like to allow characters that know the relevant language to roll Knowledge: Local for any regions that the language either originated from or is the dominant language. Its not perfect (since languages are spread out a bit in the Inner Sea) but cultural knowledge often is a crucial part of learning other languages, so it works for me!
Conjurer 1
Spell Book
Prepared Spells (3/2+1)
I have been running our campaign for the last year or so at around 4-6 players. I tend to have around 5-6 players so that we will have a steady 4-5 at the table each week with the occasional full 6 game sessions. During this time I have also been keeping a wait list of 3 players that expressed interest after the campaign filled up or or were invited but were unable to make the commitment at the time of the campaign start. Over the course of the campaign (1st-8th) we invited 1 more player (started with 5 players) from the top of the wait list and he accepted. I added 1 more player to the wait list who expressed interest. I then had another player drop so the next guy on the wait list got invited but declined. The next on the wait list accepted the invite and we are once again at full capacity and with 2 more players on the wait list. Set the number of players at the desirable crowd you like to have about your table. Accept players in order of acceptance and put the remainder on a wait list in order of original invite/past experience with. Should a player not work out you then have a ready and fair list of attendees to draw invites from.
This should be the upcoming release schedule for Pathfinder RPG:
Elaboration for the Curious:
Ultimate Kingdoms - Expanded rules for exploration, kingdom building, mass combat, and political intrigue. Includes character options for traits, feats, and class archetypes to support campaigns using these rules.
Advanced Rules Compendium - Advanced rule options and rule variants. A tool box of new optional rules that re-imagine aspects of the Pathfinder RPG. Ultimate Villainy - A catalog of villains and their backgrounds/motivations with versions at low/mid/high levels. Included are also henchmen, foot soldiers, and organizations to support them. Advice for building your own and using villains and their machinations in your campaign. Advanced Planar Guide - A book on planar cosmologies, planar character options, using planar elements in your campaign, running plane-hopping campaigns, and planar invasions.
Have you checked out the Condition Cards deck yet thenobledrake? It has been a great buy for the group as we use the cards most sessions. When someone gets stunned for 4 rounds or nauseated (curse stinking cloud!) for 6 rounds they get the card and use either tokens or a die to track the number of rounds they are affected. I agree Buff cards would need to be kept fairly simple. The biggest hurdle being how the buff bonuses vary based on the caster/character levels. I assume a Buff Card though would simply list the bonuses available and how those scale by level listed like: Shield of Faith 1st, +2 Deflect Bonus to AC 6th, +3 Deflect Bonus to AC 12th, +4 Deflect Bonus to AC Durations can be tracked in the same way we use for the condition cards. If there is a nicely spaced table like above for bonuses the buff provides you can place the duration die or tokens on that level of bonuses.
Our PF group enjoys the condition cards for easy reference during game play. As the campaign I'm running has reached mid-levels (currently 8th) we all sat around the game table and began wishing we had Buff cards for the various spell and class abilities to hand out to fellow players for on-the-table-and-in-front-of-you reminders of the buff itself and a reference for the associated bennies! Any chance we might see Paizo release a Buff card set? I'd love to have the wizard in the party cast haste and be able to hand out 4-5 Hasted cards to party members while the Bard does their thing and hands out Inspired +2 cards!
I am actually considering 'Pathfinder-izing' SW Saga myself. There's a whole lot of good work there that I would like to see PF move towards such as the axing of iterative attacks, grab rules instead of grapple/pin (trained-only), feat design, minions, etc. The three defenses enabling three different modes of attacking a character's HP I found to be quite inspiring (Will = Morale Damage, given by a demoralizing monologue from a villain, for example). I wouldn't mind trying porting in a little Saga into PF either though. Has anyone considered doing a Words of Power mod for Force Powers? That should provide the flexibility that I think most would like to see in force use as well as a focus in general areas (words of power) that can be combined in different ways.
I too tend to play TPKs straight up with no coddling. I have one caveat though: we use Hero Points from the APG (we only use the points, no HP feats or spells). So I kind of cheat TPKs by introducing a mechanic that discourages TPKs from happening through their use in-game. As a result I am able to play the dice as they lie and never worry about balancing encounters 'just right' or whether the party will TPK or not. Its a care free solution for my DMing style and we're all enjoying it. I have also found HPs also helps players that have radically different play-styles. One player, for example, really prefers no-characer-death games while another player wants multiple characters and see several go to a horrible fate. With HPs Player #1 is allowed to hoard a minimum of 2 Hero Points (the points necesariy to avert outright death with a good explanation) while Player #2 spends his Hero Points to do wild and fun things but then occasionally his character does die a horrible death. Best of both worlds and even better, as the DM I typically don't have to worry about a thing! To date we have had only 2 character deaths (1st - 8th) and a number of near-TPKs but no actual TPK yet. Continuity of course is the mother of story and TPKs do tend to disrupt that (hence why I discourage them in a hands-off sort of way) but outright disallowing TPKs to happen by DM fiat...that almost harms the game more by disrupting the sense-of-disbelief for my players.
I'll re-post my comments from one of the future-AP threads I posted back in march: (1) Exploration below the waves! Sunken treasures, diplomacy with undersea civilizations, and some aquatic dungeon delving! (2) A mercantile trade/plunder and ship improvement mini-game! Like Kingmaker, I want to build a mercantile empire (or a corsair-piratical one), construct new ships, and improve existing ships with modifications and enchantments! (3) Ship-to-ship combat! Starting with a humble coastal schooner, by the end of the AP I want to be able to sail my mighty flagship at the head of a fleet of united free captains against a great and rising evil!! (4) Yes, pirates! Whether the players join them or hunt them, having to choose which faction to join should be a pivotal part of the campaign! So which will it be chum? Scaliwag or Freebooter?! I want to take a moment and thank Paizo for bringing exactly the kind of AP I've been wanting to play/run for a long, long time! Swashbuckling nautical campaigns ftw!!
Here's a simple WIP of what I am currently implementing for my KM campaign (they have just finished part 2) to alleviate somewhat the removal of the magic item economy. This expands the 'farm' hex development into three different types and adds the Trade edict which allows for the conversion of excess 'farm' resources into monthly BP. Magic item slots remain but can no longer be sold for BP though they can add a small economy bonus. My group will be play-testing this 'live' in our KM campaign so I highly value any feedback or experiences anyone may have using this system. Hexes may be developed for resources in the following 3 ways: 1. Farm/Fishery (Plains, Hills, Swamp, or Lake Hex)
All three developments will act in all ways as farms do now (swamp and mountain hexes cost double BP to develop) by reducing kingdom consumption by 2 BPs but for different hexes. Total kingdom consumption will be divided by 3 to represent the need for each of the three sectors: Example 1
Example 2
Additionally, I will be adding the Trade edict. The Trade edict represents trade negotiations with neighboring lands and can be set to convert an amount of excess consumption in one resource sector into BP. Changing the trade edict level will require a successful Loyalty check by the Kingdom Diplomat (adding their ranks in diplomacy to the roll) against the kingdom's Control DC. This represents the breaking/negotiating of trade agreements and lobbying the kingdoms merchants to accept whatever deals are made. As the amount of trade increases in your kingdom so does the need for safe and secure trade routes! This is represented by the stability penalty to your kingdom as the pressures on security forces mount and crime arises due to the higher volume of trade between your kingdom and other lands. Edict Level_______Resources Converted______Stability Penalty
The impact of the Trade edict also increases as your kingdom grows larger: 1. Baron (one sector may be converted)
* * * * * * Magic item slots remain. The ability to sell them for BP has been removed. To cycle through the magic item slots each month the kingdom may choose to roll to 'move' (i.e. sell) an item slot per the original rules for selling magic items though no BPs are earned for doing so. Magic item slots may also be converted into a small economy bonus rather than filling them (+1 for minor, +3 medium, and +5 major) as an option. The ability for the kingdom leadership to 'take' a magic item from a slot for themselves remains. This automatically incurs 1/2 the normal unrest (as if the check was failed) and shuts off all magic item access purchased by the leadership through the kingdom until a settlement for the item is made either by (1) paying for the item and all returns to normal (2) or negotiating a settlement for half price (though the unrest remains). Note: For medium and major magic items, this is often one of the few ways (besides discovering items somewhere or crafting them) to access powerful and expensive magic items and it is always a good idea to have these slots and cycle through them.
The chest in the OPs original example would not have exhibited magic auras from the items inside since the thickness of the chest itself would have blocked it. As long as you keep to the rules for the use and application of detect magic things should run smoothly for you. It isn't the end all of detection spells by a long shot as such auras can easily be blocked or hidden. The spell Magic Aura sole purpose is for hiding and creating false magical auras.
Yup, here's another for a naval campaign with pirates and ships! -Exploration below the waves! Sunken treasures, diplomacy with undersea civilizations, and aquatic dungeon delving! -A mercantile trade/ship improvement mini-game! Like Kingmaker, I want to build a mercantile empire (or a corsair-piratical one), construct new ships, and improve existing ships with modifications and enchantments! -Ship-to-ship combat! By the end of the AP I want to be able to sail my fleet of ships against a great and rising evil! -Yes, pirates! Whether the players join them or hunt them. Having to choose should be a part of the campaign!
To be honest I don't think an intro board game should have the players creating characters whole cloth. Its too good of an opportunity to miss introducing the iconics to a new audience front and center. This will allow a new audience to recognize and identify the Pathfinder brand through the artwork of the iconics. It should allow some limited choices (feats and spells) but most of all introduce players to a world of imagination, adventures, story-telling, and world-building (i.e. RPGs). Here's what I think a successful intro game should include: -1 set of dice
Players of the intro game should be able to pick up the Pathfinder RPG Core Book and continue leveling the same characters if they want or create some of their very own! Not only that but they can continue using the materials in the intro game to continuing telling their own stories. It will have everything they need. The key is that picking up the core book expands on the experience of the intro game and that there are useful bits in the intro game that can continue to be used running the core PF game! This has the added gain of introducing the world of Golarion to the players opening up the doors for all that wonderful Golarion content Paizo has available. Not to mention to PF minis, flip-mats, other gaming accessories, the Paizo website, and PF Society play as well! Really I can see how an intro game can't be anything but a win-win for Paizo. I'd expect the box to come out to $50 retail easily but to be worth it, even for veteran gamers for ease of pulling it out to play with out any other materials. Nothing like playing with the box set with no pressure to continue but when everyone realizes they are having so much fun they end up staying with it and playing in a regular campaign! My choice of iconic classes would be: Barbarian, Cleric, Magus, Rogue, and Wizard. But given these are card stock sheets there could easily be a dozen iconics to go with the game. An expansion could even introduce more iconics, feats, and spells for 1-4th level game play. Not to mention it makes players of the intro box set customers for all the paizo accessories and content without necssarily diving into the core books and the full set of rules!
The duelist's intelligence bonus would certainly apply since it's an addition to the dexterity bonus. The bonus from defending probably, too, since it's an untyped bonus that stacks with anything else, similar to the monk bonus. Good call on the SR. I went over the SR entry and it looks like the ring would work great at negating grapple checks. This also makes the character immune to the Swallow Whole ability as a result, nice. Canny Defense (Ex): When wearing light or no armor and not using a shield, a duelist adds 1 point of Intelligence bonus (if any) per duelist class level to her Dexterity bonus to modify Armor Class while wielding a melee weapon. If a duelist is caught flat-footed or otherwise denied her Dexterity bonus, she also loses this bonus. This rule specifically states it only adds to Dex to modify AC. So the Int bonus won't increase Dex for other cases such as Acrobatic checks, Reflex saves, or CMD. A defending weapon allows the wielder to transfer some or all of the weapon's enhancement bonus to his AC as a bonus that stacks with all others. AC only here too. As I understand it, in order to add to CMD the bonus must either 1) be one of the listed bonuses under the CMD rule, or 2) specifically states it adds to CMD per a special rule.
Hmm that looks a little high for CMD. Sounds a tad generous there. I'm not sure all of those bonuses translate over to CMD bonuses. ok so I pored the PRD and it looks like the weapon quality 'defending', Int bonus to dex from the Duelist PrC, armor bonus from the bracers, and natural armor all won't apply to CMD as I understand it. This gets him the following CMD:
= 54 Even if the character did have a CMD of 65, the tarrasque has a grapple CMB +57 and would need a 9 or higher to grab the character. So I would advise adding a Ring of Freedom of Movement to be added to the list of magic items to guard against grapples. Though I doubt it would have much of a chance of functioning against the beast's Spell Resistance 36 though. Best to just stay away from the darn thing.
The Shift and Dimensional Step abilities function exactly like Dimension Door except where they state the differences. So yes, after each of these teleportation abilities are used your wizard cannot take any more actions. This has no effect on anything else as long as you have already spent an action to concentrate on an active spell (a move action) for example.
With respect mdt, I must disagree. 1 round > full-round action Thereby a spell with a casting time of 1 round remains an invalid candidate for Quicken Spell. 1 round casting durations are a special case where casting time is greater than a full-round action, hence why they risk being interrupted by other creatures during their turns. A risk that a spell with a casting duration of a full-round action does not suffer from. That should be reason enough for most GMs to decide how they prefer to handle this ruling. What mdt posits is that no spell in the game exists with a casting duration greater than a full-round action. I humbly disagree. Why would Quicken Spell refer to spells that are ineligible when none exist with durations greater than a full-round action, making the statement superfluous? This thread would be a good candidate for an FAQ.
As mentioned, a solid to start is going to be the free pdf of the Player's Guide to the Rise of the Runelords AP here. The RotRL forum can be found here of course for advice, tips, and loads of fan-created additional material for the AP. "Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Korvosa" is a guide for one of the largest cities not too far from Sandpoint (Magnimar is a lot closer but smaller) in case your interested. Part 2 of the AP will have more info on the city of Magnimar. Usually the APs are pretty good about providing additional detail for the setting, religions, monsters, etc. all related to that AP. So some of your best info can be found in the AP materials. Welcome to Pathfinder and enjoy RotRL!
I've always preferred using "non-heroic" versions of the PC classes as opposed to separate NPC classes. What I mean by that is that normal non-heroic NPCs level in a class such as rogue or fighter as normal except they received no class abilities. NPCs are allowed to spend one of their normal feats to obtain class abilities they would otherwise have access to if they were heroic characters. All non-heroic full casters have delayed spell progression equal to the adept. That's pretty much it. This allows NPCs to have some of the same class abilities but by no means are as heroic as a character who has access to it all. It also means I don't ever have to build NPCs to be significantly different than PCs, just more limited, as it should be.
I understand what Kela is talking about. Why would anyone choose to do anything else with a Ranger's FE than to max one of them out leaving all their other FE's at a low +2 and then repeatedly cast Instant Enemy, say through the use of a wand? For the record, Pathfinder's current version of the Ranger's favored enemy is the best we've seen from previous versions. I agree with you Kela. It'd probably be better for the FE class ability mechanic to function as +2 for new favored enemies and for all other current favored enemies to increase at a rate of +1 for every 3 ranger levels or something along those lines. I also like your idea of meditation but would expand on that to allow the ranger to have an ability that would allow them to "study" traces left by their target for an hour (for example) and gain a benefit against that target in their next encounter.
If successful, both you and the target gain the grappled condition...Although both creatures have the grappled condition, you can, as the creature that initiated the grapple, release the grapple as a free action, removing the condition from both you and the target. When starting a grapple, the character gains the grappled condition. I would say if the character is unable to gain the grappled condition, they are unable to start the grapple or maintain one. Just be sure if your character wants to start a grapple that the cleric is popping this ability off.
I wouldn't recommend a dex-based two weapon fighting archetype without rogue levels for sneak attack damage. You need Strength to dish the damage in regular melee combat. A multi-classed fighter/rogue gives you more feats at the loss of some abilities. I'd recommend a Fighter 2/Rogue 3 build to get him started and tell him not to get hung up on the "rogue" name of the class. Otherwise, a Strength-build with a good dex fighter would be the way to go. Which will be tough at a 15-point buy. A sailor without acrobatics as a class skill might be a tad rough. Again, I recommend a rogue/fighter multiclass to get that 'swashbuckler' build. Fighter 5
-or- Fighter 2/Rogue 3
What's tragic is the propagation of this misperception. Your players are fairly inexperienced I take it? A rogue wields wands and scrolls to cast all the same spells a wizard can. Why does the party need a wizard when there is a rogue in the party? Hell, why do you need a cleric. Load up on cure wands and wands of scorching ray (that the rogue can sneak attack with even) and you're all good. Heck, no need for casters in the party at all past 5th level with any character with a good Use Magic Device skill. (5 ranks, +3 class, +2 cha = +10; 50% wand usage per round). Gratz wiz, you just blew a whole spell slot out of a small handful per day to open that door. Too bad it was trapped. Where's you're cleric to detect traps? Too bad neither one of you yahoos can disable magical traps. *rolleyes* Cavalier mount is fine. You seem to enjoy discounting everything else the class provides. You want an uber pet try playing the summoner and ride that.
It is indeed an area effect. All affected creatures must be within 30-ft. of one another and must be within the spell's range.
You are correct, which creatures are affected isn't entirely under the control of the caster (as with the sleep spell) but is on par for a 1st level spell's capability. What the caster does have control over is where and when the spell is cast. If there is only one target in range (and you're not in combat) then they will only effect that single target per the spell's description. There is a multi-variant effect depending on the circumstances of the spell's use. Some conditions may be harder to achieve than others with non-combat application being the best use of the spell. -2a) If it's uncontrolled than does it effect friends? And if that's the case than you can only cast it out to 25' feet at 1st level so you are yourself very likely to be in the area should you roll high enough HD. As with other area spells (burning hands, colorspray, etc.) you do not want your allies to be in the area of effect so you'll need to make sure they are not within 30ft. of your desired target(s) or are more powerful (i.e. higher hit dice) so that they aren't likely to be affected. Again, since the application is best used in non-combat this should be relatively simple to achieve. We should assume the caster is not affected by their own voice and spell. A agree that should indeed by clarified in an FAQ.
Yes it is a poor man's suggestion. Suggestion can make targets do something they wouldn't ordinarily do without endangering themselves and can have a triggering event as well as last several hours. A request via hypnotism will only allow the targets affected to submit to an immediate request they would only perform for others they have the same attitude towards. So what the request can get the caster is much more limited in duration and scope compared to suggestion. For example, after visiting the evil duke's castle to parlay (unsuccessfully I might add) the party wizard stops by the castle gate house and (after determining the guard just started his shift) casts suggestion on the guard and states: "As an honored guest to the Duke, I would appreciate if you would immediately open the gates upon my return to the castle." Two hours later when the party returns to the castle in full force and ready to take down the evil duke the castle gates open immediately... That is of course far beyond the capability of the hypnotize spell.
If I have a less experienced GM that may not be prepared for adjudicating spells I tend to take Illusion as an opposed school instead of necromancy.Can you please explain your last sentence a little more? (it's probably the late hour). IME less experienced DMs (especially ones unfamiliar with all the spells and have not played casters before) dealing with mid to high level wizards with Illusions (greater invisibility, illusory terrain, etc.) can cause them a bit of stress since they aren't sure how NPCs should react and doesn't have the knowledge of magical and mundane counters that NPCs would rightly be aware of. Particularly when an Evoker is flying invisibly above the battlefield dropping fireballs upon the pirate cove and their citadel. For this reason alone I will back off of Illusions because they can be very effective if not countered by magically prepared foes. I've seen some DMs adore Illusions in play while other less experienced DMs freak at the sight of it.
I play wizards that tend towards the more LG side and so they often take Enchantment (mind control?!) and Necromancy (eww) as evil-ish and tend not to dabble in these areas. So those are my two fav picks! If I have a less experienced GM that may not be prepared for adjudicating spells I tend to take Illusion as an opposed school instead of necromancy.
What sunshadow said. Cohorts are primarily running the PC's organization, estate, fiefdom, or some other grand purpose for the PC. Followers have important support roles beneath the cohort where trust is needed. Where appropriate the cohorts are the well equipped reinforcements and extra aid when called upon for special missions. They don't travel with the PC a 100% of the time. I've had players have their characters take their wives as cohorts to be sure she can take care of herself and the homestead. I've had player characters decline leadership of a great temple only to seethat their cohort gains the leadership role while the character continues to conduct special missions for their church. Hell, in my current kingmaker campaign all 5 of my players are looking at taking the Leadership feat come 7th level. They want to be sure that when they are not around that their cohorts can take care of things and can back them up when they need to call them in for the heavier stuff.
What kind of TV are you using? The reason I ask is that plasma TVs held on a single image for too long will "burn" into the screen. LCDs are ideal for digital table tops because they can hold the same image without harming the screen. I'm using my 46" LCD as a tabletop in games right now. Just laid it flat on the table and protected with a plexiglass cover. Works great! I can personally plug maptools. I use it and its great. I've set-up maptools as a server-client with my LCD screen and computer screen with a GM map and a player map (with fog of war) and I reveal areas as the characters explore. My players love it.
Hi and welcome to the boards! My suggestion? Don't jump into the deep end with such large open-ended questions without providing at least a minimal amount of info about yourself and what motivates your interest in having your Q's answered. Creating a such a short non-descriptive OP asking for divisive opinions to be posted side-by-side in the same thread? Not going to do much in the way of helpful reading in the short or long term. Try to go more specific and provide more info about yourself so posters can target your Q's with answers that will be of relevant interest to you. For example, try posting your GMing experience thus far, what has interested you in pathfinder, and your interest in catching the highlights of what the Pathfinder system can and doesn't offer. Ask fellow posters to post their top 3 favorites and 3 least favorite aspects of the system. I assure you that would go head and shoulders further than your original post. Cheers!
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