Logain's page

I really don't understand original poster's comments.

I also experienced several games (in different groups) in which the most broken character was shooting with a bow :
- full attack each round
- more chances of x3 critical hits
- no risk of being hit
While the barbarian had to move between opponents and only landed one attack, exposing himself in the process.

At the moment we have a human Zen archer in Serpent Skull, DPS since lvl 3. We even had an AP in which said bowman was a Bard's henchman, with 2 levels lower than us, who did more damage than us...

Sure, if you don't specialize into archery you don't do much. But feat tree just erases penalties too quickly and gives strong bonuses.
Bowmen should be nerfed, maybe fixing that big feat tree they need with minimum bab on some feats, which should allow them to be more diverse.

Butterfly's Sting is from Inner Sea Gods. ^_^

Thanks for the link. Nice indeed, one with a great critical range could pass his critical to the Scythe wielding friend. However phantom must be a worshipper of Desna (could try that with the GM) and needs Combat Expertise & 13 dex.

Thanks for the advices.

Haunted would allow me to choose between using character actions while phantom attacks, and usurp power when character's actions aren't that relevant.

Can't find butterfly strike.

Any hint on how to play the main character ?

In combat seems like he can buff the phantom, spell attacks are quite limitated (sure he has the Phantom already) with cause fear & ghoul touch & touch of idiocy (which phantom could use). That's why i imagine some scenes were i would buff then usurp power to play phantom only.

I'm going to play Carrion Crown, and will play a Spiritualist from Occult Adventures, i like the fluff.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/occult-adventures/occult-classes/spiritualist/

Phantom would be anger, with following feats :
N1 Vital strike,
N3 Power Attack,
N6 ? Cornugon Smash  
N11 Devastating Strike
N14 Improved Vital Strike if we get this high

Interested with the Haunted archetype that makes Phantom draw power from character.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/occult-adventures/occult-classes/spiritualist/arch etypes/paizo-llc-spiritualist-archetypes/haunted-spiritualist-archetype/
I know it's not the best, but like it. I suppose i can do nothing when Phantom is usurping manifestation.

I'm not sure about the character. I like the Scythe wielder aspect, not sure it can be something descent.

Character has to be somewhat optimized but not necessary fully, i'm looking for cool things too. Any suggestions towards fun things and/or optimized things ?

That's good.

I also happen to get NPC reinforcement (most often someone they already met) to the players when they are in a very bad shape like that 2 paralyzed warriors situation, letting disabled characters play the reinfocement for the fight.

I always found it fun that in many adventures bad guys make prisonners, and that the good guys (adventurers) kill them and murder the ones that flee or surrender while going to take them back.

In my games, being good means no murder and try to avoid unnecessary killing (it could be stop fighting fleeing opponents).
A good character must accept surrender & should ASK for surrender during battle. It makes for interesting sequences : "so what do we do with our prisonners ?". We suppose the characters here has no authority to sentence someone to death, of course. If they have, solution is easy.
Yes, all this can go against the party's efficiency, being good has its price.

Against beasts that are always evil (like devils - souls beyond redemption) or do not have a soul (plants, undead, oozes...) it doesn't really matter most of the time.

I even think murdering should be reserved to evil characters. So one player can loose his character there, as i don't allow evil characters at the table. It's also one of the main traits of being evil i feel, what's left otherwise ?

If you don't do it close to that way, alignments are near useless, better drop them. And why not.

3.x is a mix between ROLEplay and ROLLplay that can go farther on one or the other side. Maybe easier to get attracted by ROLLplay (less than DD4, but still...) with all that fighting than in other RPGs.

So yes, race is usefull as a background and to create a character on the ROLEplay part.

I personnaly feel it can be a nice idea on the ROLLplay part, it is true that 3.x has it's flaws on level progression, and make people go towards the easy broken route, you easily lose some flavour with generic optimized characters.

I'm sure your group will get more racial ROLEplay flavour through that kind of ROLLplay change to the rules.

The game is yours, if and your players feel like it would be nice to allow for racial feats on levels 1-5-10-15-20, just do it.

You just need to adapt you CR encounters if needed as it allows for some more optimization.

Damage weapon isn't really obsolete at higher level. In my campaign gamage dealers are able to deal insane damages each round. It really depends on the number of encounters per day.
If you have many, then weapons are kings and magic users save their big spells.
If you have few, magic is king because the magic users won't save their spells.

But with your system there wouldn't be much difference between a 10th level character and a 15th level in "resistance".
* It goes against the epic feel you have in D&D.
* Magic becomes even more powerful (damage dealing spells at least) and you must rewrite the magic system. If you do that, you play low fantasy, and you better do it from level two on.

Read Game of Thrones d20 system, it looks somewhat like your proposal.

Some nice musics i use :
* Complete Dune ost by TOTO (the "Sting" version)
* Complete Bram Stoker's Dracula ost
* The Lodoss War manga has good stuff.
* The Avalon ost end theme is nice.
* Star Wars ost - i use Imperial March when things go well for the bad guys, and Duel of the Fates for epic battles.
* Indiana Jones ost - i use the Temple of Doom and main theme (for end of session) tracks.
* Music from the much acclaimed Planescape Torment video game, really cool. Difficult to find now on the second hand market and nowhere to find in store. More generaly, music from Baldur's Gate and Icewindale is not bad, and many players having heard it like it.
* Babylon 5 - Geometry of Shadows track is nice.
* Enio Morricone, some tracks are very usable.
* 5th Element, Kill Bill 1 (tracks 11 & 7) have some good tracks as well.
* If you can find it, the french "Black Moon Chronicles" PC game by Cryo (1999, french title : Chroniques de la Lune Noire) has an excellent music theme for fighting against evil cults.