|
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Paizo Pathfinder® GameMastery® Planet Stories® Paizo Games | |||||||||||||||||||
| About Paizo Messageboards News Paizo Blog Help/FAQ | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 Recent Posts
If your game has a penal colony or a frontier area, the PCs might have been sent there as punishment for various crimes or by members of a guild who are envious of a PC's talents. This puts them where (presumably) the action is, and gives them a reason to work together. Later in the campaign, the PCs may want to redeem themselves for past crimes or take revenge on those who wrongly sent them to the gulag.
Inspired by "Prince of Redhand" and delvesdeep's treatment of the Demonskar Ball, I've been working on something similar for my homebrew campaign. One of the things I wanted to feature was billiards, but I'm not sure how to go about building the mechanics of shooting pool. A simple opposed check of Profession (gambler) is unsatisfying, but I don't want to overburden the session with an endless series of rolls. What I've come up with so far is a game of 9-ball (to reduce the amount of time needed to play a round). A Spot check is made to find the best shot available, the higher the Spot check roll, the easier it is to sink a ball. Shooting takes the form of an attack roll, the AC of the target determined by the results of the Spot check above. The AC rating of the shot takes into account the distance, proximity of the ball to a pocket, etc. without the DM having to figure out where the cue ball is in relation to the other balls in play. Critical hits allow a second attack roll, potentially sinking another ball. Levels in Profession (gambler) allow a synergy bonus to Spot checks, reflecting a gambler's expert eye on lining up her shot. Similarly, Profession (gambler) grants a bonus to hit as well as increasing the threat range for critical hits. Those with Profession (gambler) skill can also attempt a trick shot (DC 35), which allows two attack rolls, either of which will sink a ball if a hit is rolled. That's the nutshell form of what I have. Please, let me know what you think. Comments, suggestions, and the like are welcome.
As strange as this may sound, 'The Zombie Survival Guide' does an adequate job describing the behaviour of mindless undead. It's worth checking out. Most of the information is geared toward surviving an attack of the living dead in a modern setting, but some of the information and the anecdotes of zombie attack through history could be used for D&D.
...you work in tissue banking and the funeral industry because it's as close to being a necromancer as you will ever find. My campaigns aren't too undead. I do have a lot more detail on funeral rites and burial customs than most campaigns, I've noticed. There's also a country in my campaign ruled by a junta formed by a lich, a vampire, and a death knight.
Green Ronin's 'Plot & Poison' offers a feat called Armor Mastery. The feat reduces the armor check penalties for a specific type of armor. Not a perfect fix, but it's something. Perhaps Armor Focus/Specialization could be offered as feats? They could reduce the mobility penalties and lessen armor check penalties while increasing the Max Dex. Such feats might not eliminate all the penalties, but if it were to reduce them, heavy armor might be a more attractive option.
I don't have my books with me now either, so this is a total guestimate on my part. Maybe you could use the creature's Cha to replace constitution for this purpose? More of a blind leap of logic than a step, but so is a lot of D&D rules. I had a similar question about Constitution-based skills for undead. How does Concentration work for a lich?
My PCs are coming to a point in the campaign where large-scale battles will be occurring. To facilitate this, I am looking for some rules for dealing with mass combats. The only two products I know of that touch on this subject are the recent 'Heroes of Battle' by WoTC and 'Cry Havoc', which was released a couple years back by Malhavoc Press. I was wondering how they compare, what the buyers thought of the products, and what recommendations might be made in handling large-scale combats
My players average around 6th level at present, the group consisting of a Ranger, a Fighter, a Wizard/Sorcerer, and a Priest/Wizard. Each of the combat types (and I include the Priest in this) have defensive magic (armour or bracers of armour) and either a +2 weapon or two +1 weapons. The Wizard/Sorcerer and the Priest/Wizard have a wand apiece, plus a handful of spells on scrolls between them. It seems that the party is underpowered as far as magic items go, there being no potions or wondrous items. Despite this, I am hesitant to dish out more items, for fear of unbalancing the game. I tend to run low magic campaigns, but I feel perhaps I'm being too stingy as a DM. I was hoping other DMs might provide some advice on the subject and let me know how they've dealt with this in their own games.
It was the autumn of 1978. My brother came home from Boy Scouts, talking about the game he and his friends were playing, "Dungeons & Dragons". He was a magic-user (which he pronounced 'mad accuser' for some reason). Being a fan of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, I was enthralled. Then, one friday night, Curt brought home the rule books (the 'white box' edition), and I rolled up a druid. My character explored level after level of various pyramids, castles, and crypts, supported behind the scenes by the nearest town's cleric. The cleric always seemed to be able to resurrect me (and called me 'bub'), which was a good thing. I was quite inventive in finding ways to get myself killed in those days. I recall almost all the secret doors were operated by inserting a finger into a hole next to the door, which ended with the finger being cut off. Another favourite was the 10'x10' room whose door locked behind you before the walls started moving toward you. The dreaded squisho-compacto rooms were a regular feature in every dungeon. Must have been the same architect.
I've experienced this with my players as well. I have to wonder if the players think that, by being the heroes, the DM won't kill their characters, no matter how foolishly they behave. I have taken to explaining to my players that, on occasion, they may run into foes that they may not be able to overcome at the present time. "Better to beat feet than be meat," as one sly rogue put it. Even such reminders go unheeded, occasionally. While I don't mind fudging the occasional die roll to favour the PCs, I do not make it a habit.
Personally, I'd love to see a race of Squirrel-Folk. They could be obsessive collectors with a racial bonus on Sleight of Hand checks made to hide things, or something. There was an article in Dragon during the 2nd edition era about a race of squirrel folk. Kerpka or something like that. They were allies of the elves. I wish I still had it. I would like to see a 3.5 update of that article, with an option as a PC race.
My vote for 'Most Annoying Player' would be the player who insists on playing a paladin, then using said paladin to be the most egocentric, greedy, and obnoxious character I had seen played (10 years playing/DMing D&D, at that point). Added to this was the player's unfortunate habit of taking every bad thing that happened to his character as a personal insult. This habit was not limited to the paladin character, but any character. It became too frustrating and disruptive to allow him to continue gaming with the group, and he was ejected, ultimately.
Not to be a rules lawyer, but the decription for Magic Missile lists it as 'Evocation (Force)'. Whether or not the spell's missiles have mass, they could inflict impact damage - we are talking about magic. That being said, I prefer to use some other description as to how the damage is caused. Adds a little more magic to the missile
It's not a soundtrack by any means, but I found a band who produces medieval music. Corvus Corax - Best of Corvus Corax It's available on Amazon or Tower Records. 3 percussionists, up to 5 bagpipers! If you get an opportunity to view the Asleep By Dawn 'Sleepwatching' DVD, there is a video of a live Corvus Corax performance. Outstanding show. Also, for horror settings: the 'Alien 3' soundtrack is excellent.
My nipples are pierced (double-pierced, actually). I didn't find it to be a particularly painful experience. I can imagine a magic missile's effect being akin to being hit by a taser. Granted, the spell is listed as being a force effect, for which the 'struck by a baseball/beanbag' description would be more apt, but I can think of the magic missile disrupting any target's ability to function, without necessarily leaving a specific wound (i.e., lacerations, abrasions, burns, etc.) Ages ago, there was a Dragon article that discussed changes in appearance for spells, without altering the damage, range, etc. This allowed a wizard specializing in fire spells to have magic missiles that looked like darts of flame, rather than just 'magic missile, 1 each'. I had a necromancer whose magic missiles took the form of spirits that attacked the target. Same range, same damage, but the effect it had on PCs and NPCs!
Not knowing your campaign exactly, here's a rough idea: The character grew up in a keep that was subject to raiding by (insert local bad guys here). As an apprentice fighter, he used to help man the gatehouse and dropped rocks and other defensive seige weaponry on (local bad guys) or perhaps he aided a catapult crew in some fashion. He might become a Hulking Hurler out of an interest in this sort of weaponry. Just an idea.
And we all know what happened to that poor old Bennie at the end of the movie. My players suffered the same fate, metaphorically speaking.Ultradan Yes, he became the most memorable character of the film. I was rather hoping he'd make a reappearance for the sequel, but alas. More seriously, I have seen gaming groups self-destruct over both good and evil campaigns, too. It's less of an issue of the campaign itself, than the players and DM.
I guess my favourite race depends on the type of character I'm looking to play. Instead of looking at race as a matter of extra feats, skill points, or abilities, I use it as a means to make an interesting persona. So my dwarf has gone in search of adventure, but why? Ah, he was exiled from his clan for killing a fellow clan member in a drunken brawl. He seeks atonement and cannot return for at least two score years... I find myself more interested in the character than the bonuses to his/her stats. That being said, I must say I can't stand gnomes. They are to dwarves what light beer is to Guinness.
Nonsense! This is an evil campaign we're talking about. If the party plays in character and true to their alignment, the bigger fish are merely steps along the road to power. "It is better to be the right hand of the devil, than to stand in his way."
rpgnow.com has a PDF for the Thrilling Tales pulp d20 RPG called "Zeppelin Adventures". The senarios therein are adaptable to D&D (with some work). More important are the deck plans for classic airships such as the Hindenburg and the USS Macon (called the USS Hoboken in the PDF). These plans were really what I was after, though the adventures were interesting. I would recommend it to anyone interested in airships for their campaign.
My suggestion to Paizo was to reanimate the Dragon Annual magazines. Rather than fill them with new material, use these revived annuals to reprint the new feats, spells, magic items, monsters, and prestige classes that were printed in the pages of Dragon (and Dungeon) over the course of the year. Non-subscribers would have access to the same information by buying the issues, while subscribers would have it in a more concise format that would be easier to bring to a gaming session. If that is unfeasible for economic reasons, then slipcovers and indexes would be a worthy alternative
Dragon #340 provided us with a workable system for astrology. I would like to see a treatment of the effects of multiple moons on a world. The system detailed in the 2nd Edition 'Dragonlance Adventures' was pretty good. Perhaps an article could use that as a basis, updating it to 3.5 and expanding it. I have put together a few things for my campaign, but they are cumbersome to use. Are there others who would like to see something similar?
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
