Aw. Looks like mine didn't make it past the cull.
Search Posts
And for everyone who wanted more, Flaws II: Electric Boogaloo is available now here and at RPGNow.
No love for the 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming classes... Paths of Power from 2009 has our versions of the Gladiator, Samurai, Hedge Witch, Voyageur, and Anti-Paladin. The Elemental Wizard was more of an archetype (before Archetypes were introduced). Paths of Power II currently has the Corsair, Timebender, Shinobi, and Sheriff; the Ayutthayan Monk is an alternative class.
I also do not use Hero Labs.
The Ayutthayan Monk by Purple Duck Games / 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming, if you allow 3PP material, is a fairly atypical monk variant. One of the new class ability / feat trees is Body Hardening (with basic, Improved, Greater, and Superior levels). Getting all 4 levels gives your monk a constant DR 5/-, +9 to Fortitude saves vs special attacks, and +4 to unarmed attack damage.
I threw my hat in the ring. This would be a dream job for me.
And Purple Duck Games / 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming has released its own Player's Option monk variant, the Ayutthayan Monk (which is based off Thai fighting arts).
You might like the Book of Arcane Magic by 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming, and Paths of Power by the same company has an elemental wizard with spells organized into elemental groups.
Would you mind touching base with her to see if she would be interested? I linked her to this thread and let her to know contact you if she's available (hard science courses are a major timesink!)
What about Connie Thomson, formerly of 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming? She wrote a lot of material for the very well received Luven Lightfinger's Gear & Treasure Shop, the 4WFG Witch class in Paths of Power, as well as quite a bit of The Book of Arcane Magic and the Book of Divine Magic. Not to mention doing the layout of all of 4WFG's earlier material and being co-owner of a small 3PP. She also did a gaming column for Geeks Dream Girl. I know she's not the name that most of your other contributors are, and she's got academic obligations for most of the spring, but she's worth reaching out to. Granted, I say that as a friend of hers, and am unashamedly biased.
Sadly, Rite Publishing has the kind of track record that causes people to ban all third party material in PF games. No quality control whatsoever. That doesn't match my experience with their products at all. Rite Publishing produces generally very high quality from the products I've bought. The only reason I don't have more of their products is because I have a very limited gaming budget.
Recently given a 4/5 star review by Endzeitgeist!
Because Ninja and Monks have developed different methods of tapping into their Ki, I'd imagine. If we're going with a stereotypical kung fu monk, the idea is that the character's training was rigorous, disciplined, and ascetic - by depriving oneself of worldly pleasures and distractions, one channels the inner self into power. This takes a dedicated and axiomatic mindset - someone undisciplined or resistant to authority would quit - hence, a lawful alignment. Monks gain significant power through mastering their ki, both actively and passively. Ninja, on the other hand, have to be much more morally and spiritually flexible, and while they train to tap into their ki, their abilities are far more specific than a monk's, result in various tricks of using their ki. Ninja thus could be considered to know how to use ki in bursts, while monks have it flowing through them at all times (ie some of their more esoteric abilities). Back to the original question: Alignment restrictions make perfect sense to me. Druids being neutral - because nature itself is neither wholly good nor wholly evil, and is both orderly and chaotic at once; while a particular druid may lean in one direction or another, their very power comes from being balanced between the extremes. Paladins being lawful good - because they are champions of order, justice, and goodness. Good over lawful, when it comes down to it - at least in the best cases - but honorable, fair, just, and diligent. Too many people play Paladins as Lawful Stupid - ie "you committed a misdemeanor, DIE SCUM!" - but that's not the fault of the class. I've written a few classes that had alignment restrictions, because they were important to the flavor of the class. For example, the Samurai class was originally written that they must be lawful in alignment, because one of the defining things about (folklore) samurai was their honor and loyalty, even to death. Ronin, masterless samurai, could be of any alignment, but they are often considered outlaws, mercenaries, or criminals (negatives to reaction rolls, etc). The Sheriff class, as the enforcer of law and order in their jurisdiction, must be lawful - serving and administering law is their job. So if an alignment restriction is important to your concept, by all means, go with it.
Oddmage, I'd check the reviews for any 3pp products you're looking at. Even the same company can be very balanced on several products, but over or underpowered here or there. I would say that the majority of Super Genius Games' work IS balanced to core, but that there's so much of it, you can easily find exceptions. I personally would readily accept anything from Rite Publishing, Super Genius Games, and of course Purple Duck Game/4WFG, at my gaming table. I'm not familiar enough with the work of other 3PPs to offer an opinion on them, but its widely agreed that if you want Psionics, Dreamscarred is the way to go.
Excellent.
I gotta tell you, with all these apparent problems, middling reviews, and issues with presentation, I'm really having second thoughts about buying this. $30 + shipping is a big chunk of my entertainment budget so if it's not really worth the money I guess I'll skip it.
For rules about magical prosthetics, and the Tin Man Prestige Class (for an adventurer whose a few limbs shorter than when they started), you might want to check out Luven Lightfinger's Gear & Treasure Shop by Robert & Connie Thomson (and some other guy), and Strategists and Tacticians by Ryan Costello Jr.
So... basically everyone but PurpleDuckGames? (j/k)
I'd take into consideration the fact that many hafted weapons have langets extending down the haft, secured with screws or nails to prevent splitting and breakage of the wood. I'd say that effectively the weapon has the hardness of the special material, but normal HP - it's just harder to damage, it doesn't absorb more.
Ron hit it out of the park with the Timebender. I look forward to playing one in my next Pathfinder campaign.
Well, with that many top tier designers on board, it is very likely to be a good product when it's finally released.
The 4WFG Shinobi is now in the editing stage, and at the moment has, among its other class abilities, 17 ninjutsu techniques and 3 unique weapons.
I've gotta back up what Dale's saying. I was talking about one of the classes I'm working on for PDG/4WFG on a fan group owned or sponsored or whatever by d20PFSRD. The only response I got was "Ew, Third-Party." So yeah, the stigma's there.
I'm just saying that in most of the WH40K novels I've read, Inquisitors or other authoritative characters who were acting this way were almost always the villain. I'm willing to play on to see where this goes, though.
He definitely won't be accompanying us on missions because he's not going to survive this one if he keeps acting this way.
So... now what?
Raziel nodded. [bold] "Well spoken, Brother Fabian. Let us take the Oath of the Astartes, and know that we are unified in purpose,"[/bold] he said.
4 Winds Fantasy Gaming has released a PDF of NPCs / PreGen PCs, GM's Options.
I don't think they had rules for the Salamanders in the core book or in Rites of Battle, though the latter did have rules for setting up your own chapter/successor chapter.
Bastard swords, or hand-and-a-half swords, were long swords that were most effectively used with both hands, but were not as heavy or long as a true greatsword. With proper training, a swordsman could wield one in a single hand, for use with a shield or while on horseback. Interesting fact: in most medieval fighting manuals, the bastard sword was referred to as the "longsword", and the single hand, 30-34 inch blade cruciform sword D&D calls a longsword is an "arming sword" or just "sword"; it was considered to be a sidearm or secondary weapon. Using that as my base, I see it this way: Using a bastard sword in two hands requires a martial weapon proficiency, because it is a martial weapon. Using it in one hand requires training above and beyond normal to strengthen the wrist and forearm appropriately and getting used to the different leverage, explaining why it needs an exotic proficiency to be used one-handed. So if you are proficient with all martial weapons, you can use a bastard sword in two hands without penalty, but attempting to use it one-handed gives you the -4 penalty because you haven't specifically trained to do so. Since the bastard sword can be used one-handed, and because it is slightly smaller than a true two-handed sword, it should be considered a medium weapon.
Very consistently with SGG products, I read them and I admire how easily grasped the mechanics are and extremely solid the concepts are. Then I shake my fist to the heavens because I hadn't thought of it first for my own work!
4 Winds Fantasy Gaming provides GM and Player's aids, knowledge cards, and a series of supplements including Luven Lightfinger's Gear & Treasure Shop (a thoroughly packed equipment book), Strategists and Tacticians (lots of cool prestige classes and new combat manuevers), and Inkantations, a book of tattoo magic and body art. Sean O'Connor
Battle Brother Raziel, Assault Marine of the Blood Angels, at your service.
Just as a note - 4WFG is reworking some of our classes from Paths of Power. We should have revised versions available soon. I don't know if our work was on your radar or not, but I wouldn't want you to put something up and the next week see a completely revised version.
|