Mage Evolving's page

Scott Betts wrote:

Given that having a gun in the house actually decreases your safety.

So do stairs, bathtubs, and swimming pools in the backyard.

Funny story. When remodeling my parents home and I needed to get permits for all of those. I had to apply and submit paperwork for my construction of a pool and the moving of my bathtub and stairs. I also had to build a fence of a specific height with certain safety gates around the pool and reinstall proper safety measures.

Oddly enough when I inherited my grandfathers shotgun I called my local police station and asked if I needed to file any paper work and they said nope.

So my PC's are currently playing though the underground ruins in Flood season. However, they are all convinced for whatever reason that they should retreat.

They were able to defeat the cleric of hextor but now feel that they need to leave with out any wands and then return in a day or two. I'm looking for some ideas on what the ramifications could be for leaving mid dungeon crawl or any way the PC could lessen the impact of killing the BBEG then bugging out. Any ideas?

The worlds greatest commoner!

I believe it was mentioned earlier that he has an Agile AoMF, which would give him his DEX to damage on every attack. So it's more like 1d6+7 while Raging. Which he can't do if he's gaining monk levels.

You are absolutely right.

So I think I found why the DM thinks he is broken. He has more than 20,000 gp worth of items. Twice the suggested wealth by level. I personally don't follow Wealth by level in my game but if you are going to ignore it. You can't be surprised if your players are complete bad@$$@$ by level 5.

Lots of build info

AC= 29

I like this build.

I'm a big fan of high AC builds because it's just silly fun to avoid all damage. As a matter of fact I have a very similar build for a Dragon disciple. The two issues with the build is that your damage output almost non-existent and I don't think that atonement works that way.

In many ways you're like the flash, you can't get hit but really you're not something that any supervillan has to worry about. I mean what are you going to do? Not get hit.

I guess I don't really understand why your Dm is claiming you are broken. 1d6+3 damage 7 rounds a day while raging is hardly game shattering damage at level 5.

I think that this is a straight forward interpretation. If you go master of many styles you get to go out of order allowing that you take the style feat.

However, if the OP is really begging for an answer from a "Higher-up" you could try the "Ask *James Jacobs* ALL your Questions Here!<<" Thread.

But honestly I think a better question for that thread would be: Who is your favorite spaceship captain?

I laugh much more when I DM. I also get to build all sorts of weird builds or less than optimal builds that are fun and quirky to play.

So my vote is with DM.

It will depend on the parameters of the encounter.

Do the players know what they are going up against?

If the mage has sufficient knowledge and time to prepare for the party you can pretty much kiss at least 1/2 of them goodbye before the mage simply leaves if not a TPK.

If they both (mage and party) just happen to walk into a room at the same exact time and decide to kill one another then it's going to come down to initiative and you can still pretty much bet on 2-3 players being horribly wounded/killed/turned into pumpkins. But don't underestimate grappling it can tie up a mage for just long enough for the rest of the party to a. flee b. get a plan of action together.

to answer your questions:

1. Flight, teleport, wall of force all work great against a non-magical party. But the number one spell is going to be contingency.

2, 3, 4. I think tonyz did a good job answering the questions.

I can see the first change being "Snake like eyes" and perhaps a slight tinge in the color of your skin corresponding with your bloodline. Then you start to see how shiny your skin begins as you develop small scales... etc.

In terms of fun. I think that the verdant bloodline is the way to go. I love the trip and disarm ability with reach is just awesome. I also love the very cool abilities that the bloodline conveys.

245. You have been hired to investigate the ruins that were recently unearthed during a rock slide. Entering the ruins you find a series of rooms each with guardian, traps, puzzles and monsters. At the end of the tunnel you come upon a large room, far to large to make sense of but from out of the darkness you are attacked by Allips. When defeated you realize that they emerged from a well in the midst of the giant room. Looking down the well you see a giant eye flicker open and the room/complex/earth begins to shake. It appears that you and your party may have just unleashed a very powerful evil on the earth. And those Allips where the only thing keeping it down.

In the thread this monster was the tarrasque. The allips continually feeding on it would it was theorized keep it unconscious but it could be any monster you want. I just like the idea of the characters having to clean up a mess they caused.

As the GM you might tell your players how things work in the world that you have created. Can an "evil" creature be reformed? Are there "good" goblins? Is there a kindhearted ogre out there?

If the oracle could point to an example like Mary the succubus Paladin of Erastil then your fighter might be willing to change her view in character. If nothing of the sort exists in your world then I would make it clear to the Oracle that she is probably carrying around a ticking time bomb.

Ravingdork wrote:

Odraude wrote:

Ravingdork wrote:

Azaelas Fayth wrote:

... Are you near Crane, Missouri, USA? Because I literally just wrote a Dungeon based on this concept for the PbP I am planning on running next.

I live in Florida.

What part?

The neck.

I was unaware we had a neck...

I could see a Neothelid being swarmed by a mass of Allips. being kept dormant by the souls of those that it once enslaved and drove to madness with it's mind control and psychic crush ability.

For the majority of my Pathfinder career we only allowed CRB and some of the APG. With a restriction on Item creation and no leadership. This worked out very well and still allowed for some very fun role play and gaming.

Recently, I've opened up the game to include CRB, APG, the majority of Spells from UM, and UC feats and Archetypes. This has resulted in a noticeable level of Powercreep (not game breaking but still) and the players in my game have made talk of restricting what feats should be allowed from UC.

The general feeling is that the style feats (boar, dragon, etc) should be limited to monk only... since many at my table feel the monk should have had access to them since the beginning. That said no one at my table ever plays a monk but me and I'm DMing.

I might allow for the AoO with the wand but I'd make it clear that a fumble would have dire consequences. In my games broken wands go boom.

However, this being the rules forum. I don't believe that by the rules you can take that AoO.

I'm inclined to say yes. But remember that the Destructive smite attack action is only a single swing. SO if you use it you lose all your other attacks.

I don't know of any rule that says you can not declare your attack to me more than one thing especially if they are of different modifiers and do not say they have an activation time.

Dot.

Here's the huge problem with most capture scenarios.

If the opposing force uses half the intelligence they supposedly possess in maintaining you as a prisoner as they did capturing you in the first place, your chances of escape are next to nothing.

I think you make a very good point but those that capture you need not be the ones who become your masters. Slavers sell slaves. Powerful slaves like the PCs might be worth a pretty penny to the right buyer (crazy archmage, high preist, an evil tyrant). That said I think you really need to understand your players and their PCs before venturing down this road.

OP... Honestly I say go with your gut.

You know your players better than anyone of the folks who have posted thus far. If you believe that your players will enjoy a game where they become enslaved I say do it. If not talk to them about the campaign in broad strokes (you get captured, enslaved, and hopefully escape) and see what they think.

Ultimately, I think you just have to make it believable and compelling. Perhaps they are going undercover to find another slave. Or perhaps there is no other way into a certain temple. Or maybe they are hired by an outside party to sow discord in the ranks of their slavers. Or maybe they just got beat and right before the last hero falls your villain asks "death or slavery?" If they say slavery. Done. If they say death... then you make them slaves anyway because you're a villain and to hell with the heroes last request. What ever the reason make it interesting for the players.

A lot of people have claimed that capturing some PCs are almost impossible but that is just not true. For every PC there is a weak save or a weakness in the build. There is always a battle you can not win or a scenario that has no way out. Remember that any group of slavers or villains that are thinking about going against a large powerful group like yours are either idiots or criminal masterminds. Just ensure that they have the right spells, items, buffs, etc and the fight is almost over before it begins. An opening volley of high level save or suck spells will knock most parties on their ass, especially if it comes at the end of an adventuring day when the cleric is using band-aids and gauze instead of spells and the wizard is complaining that all he has left is a magic missile and that wand of mending you gave him.

As a player I had a blast when I was thrown in shackles. Role playing a slave who had to fight for his freedom was lots of fun and ultimately when I escaped and killed my captures I couldn't complain. My DM however threw us through a loop however. We had been turned to stone by several basilisks and gorgons as well as a spell or two from an unknown source. When we were turned back to flesh and enslaved nearly 300 years had passed and the world was a very different and scary place.

Been toying with this idea for some time now. It involves the bane of all high level PCs. Something so wicked I'm not sure I would ever use it in game play.

243. A vampire plague has been unleashed on the land. The PCs renowned Vampire hunters have been called in. Little do they know that this coven of vampires are only the minions of something far more dangerous. A vampire that feeds on magic. With the ability to absorb spells, drain artifacts, turn magical weapons, and hell bent on enslaving magical races, she is something no high-level party would ever want to encounter.

Anyone have any stories about familiars doing somethting particularily interesting in game?

I had a monkey familiar who was always breaking stuff and throwing his poo.

I really enjoyed Paizo's first AP Shackled city.

I think there is info about this on RPGgenius. I seem to remember reading the very same stuff but can't seem to find it anywhere.

I can't tell you how excited I am about this.

I've been applying for new jobs all over the country and the thought of being able to continue gaming with my friends here in Chicago is just about the only thing I can look forward to when I'm submitting my applications to departments in North Dakota and Fairbanks.

I know you guys are going to do this right and I just can't wait to have my expectations surpassed.

Also, please, please, please post more screen shots when you start running the test games.

Thanks for the advice.

I limited the feat buy to a single combat feat for every 5 levels. All of them are multi-class with a martial aspect so they all seemed to appreciate it. I also made it an expensive proposition that takes weeks of down time to accomplish.

Of course training has its perks. It's offered some great role-playing opportunities, built friendships and contacts with npcs and offers some nice plot hooks.

I'm running a low level, low magic game and was wondering if allowing my players to buy combat feats (ie pay to train with masters for combat feats) would be a good idea. It's a small 3 person party that is less than optimized so I thought giving them a combat feat might be a viable option.

any suggestions?

I would give him quick draw. I know this sounds silly. But the minute you fight a flying creature and all you can do is shake your fist at it you will realize how nice it is to be able to flurry of blows with throwing stars.

The light of (city your from or the name of the land you are currently in)
The sentinels of ______
The harbingers of ____ Pain/justice/light/doom
The Night watch
The Justicars
Order of the _____ White light/smoldering flame/eagle/Roc/etc
Kobra Kai
The Wolverines
Delta force
Knights of the Golden Apple
The scapegoats
Black order of Malachite or B.O.O.M.

Don't mess with B.o.o.m. or you get burnt.

Seeing how you are all ugly bastards I might go for something like:

Adabar's wretches
The Unwashed Golorian Liberation Imperative AKA The U.G.L.I

Last time I pour gasoline on the ground and lit it on fire nothing really happened to the ground. So I'm going to say other than some color change he is fine.

There are a number of NPC evil monks on http://www.d20pfsrd.com many of whom are either undead or monstrous types.

You might think about your Temple in the following terms:
- What are their goals (ie what is the highest form of "enlightenment")
- Who would this appeal to?
- How would they train?

If you were to ask me I would answer the questions as follows:
- The Mission of the monastery might be "Perfection through pain" or "Only in agony can you achieve enlightenment".
This might mean the use of vicious, cruel, or wounding weapons. It could also mean that the high level monk would have incredible DR- as he inflicted more pain on himself than any one PC could ever hope to accomplish in a single attack. His attacks would also be geared toward injury, so bleed, blind, deafen all might be in his armory.

- This idea of perfection through pain might appeal to many Evil creatures. Either those that like to inflict pain or those that feel pain should be inflicted upon them. So why not a erinyes, Vampires, Ogres, bodak, graveknight, any devil or other creatures that just enjoys inflicting pain...

- The temple would but a series of horrible rooms each meant to maim, injure and test the toughness of the monks. Spiked pits, crushing stones, blinding spells, and wounding poisons would litter the place. The main training area might be a large open pit riddled with traps that burn, freeze, ensnare, and generally hurt.
Perhaps there is a room filled with the acolytes that failed to achieve perfection. These individuals might be Undead monks that are then used to further train with. So your characters enter a room filled with corpses and all of a sudden many of them rise up and they know kung-fu. :)

Of course all this would probably spell the death of your PCs but it could be very fun.

If you are up for the work you can buy a large piece of plexiglass and then etch your 1 inch squares on there. A friend of mine just did this with a magnetic white board and its pretty sweet.

Also Paizo announced a while back that they are releasing "Game space". It will allow you to play pathfinder online with a Gm and your buddies... Although I haven't heard anything about it since it was supposed to be released last summer. :(

We just finished up the first AP.

It was a true miracle that they survived. Luck got them through the gnome city in about 45 minutes. But it was a well timed colorspray that allowed them to turn the tide of the boss fight in the malachite fortress and even then it was close.

I brought in a NPC cleric to aid them and I am positive that was the right choice. Now it's 3-4 months of PC down time. They've all expressed interest in capitalizing on their newly found fame and perhaps setting up a shop or buying a bar. In the words of the barbarian "I've had my fill of warring now it's time for the whoring." I think that a bit of political intrigue might be a fun side quest.

Ideas I am working on for the PC:
- The trial of Keygan Ghelve
- Clearing out and perhaps opening up the Gnome City
- Opening up a bar
- Training at the local fighting academy
- Becoming "Pathfinders"
- Exploring the characters back stories

We just finished up the first AP.

It was a true miracle that they survived. Luck got them through the gnome city in about 45 minutes. But it was a well timed color spray that allowed them to turn the tide of the boss fight in the malachite fortress and even then it was close.

I brought in a NPC cleric to aid them and I am positive that was the right choice. Now it's 3-4 months of PC down time. They've all expressed interest in capitalizing on their newly found fame and perhaps setting up a shop or buying a bar. In the words of the barbarian "I've had my fill of warring now it's time for the whoring." I think that a bit of political intrigue might be a fun side quest.

Ideas I am working on for the PC:
- The trial of Keygan Ghelve
- Clearing out and perhaps opening up the Gnome City
- Opening up a bar
- Training at the local fighting academy
- Becoming "Pathfinders"
- Exploring the characters back stories

Jasharen... a number of the heralds can be found on the following page.

http://therpgenius.pbworks.com/w/page/22143342/SCAP+Ch+1+-+Life%27s+Bazaar

listed towards the bottom under local newspapers.

You can find more on the site if you poke around under the other APs.

I was wondering what advice anyone could give on running this AP in pathfinder with only 2-3 players. At the moment the party consists of:
a Rogue
a Barbarian
a Magus

Should I allow them to build superheroes (30 pt buy)?
Should I introduce an NPC Ban Dade the Cleric who will help them along?

All I read on the message boards is how this campaign is a "Meat grinder" I just want to make sure that players are able to rise to the occasion and have the opportunity to succeed with out me changing the story all that much.

Thanks so much. You are literally saving me hours of prep work!

I scanned my old dragon magazines so that I didn't have to lug the hard cover with me everywhere I went. It's really not the same thing but I really wish that they could make a top notch pdf.

Suddenly the twin brother of Gon the barbarian Fon the the barbarian arrives with an urgent message for his brother. Then he decides to stay and hang out with the guys.

we have a game on the northside of the city. if you are interested.

224. You and your adventurer companions have been hired to kidnap the princess bride of Florin by her soon to be husband in order to start a war with Gilda. But no one said anything about the Man in Black who is now mysteriously on your tail.

If I were a villain I would put together a Batman like utility belt composed of the following.

-"An escape plan"-This can be a potion, scroll, minor artifact that will allow me to bug out when the heroes are pummeling me.

-"Sight beyond sight"- past level 6 you should expect your enemies to come at you at all times. Especially utilizing stealth and invisibility. A potion of true seeing, see invisible, glitter dust, ect.

"knock out gas" or "stun grenade"- Every once in a while your villian actually gets the jump on the heroes and rather than just charge in and mack the first guy he sees he should first soften them up. Use something like slow, cacophonous call, or confusion to take some out of the battle while you make your attack.

-"Poison"- No reason in the world why you should not be using this stuff. Some of the cheaper poisons are really effective at slowing down your everyday hero.

-"Buffs"- Ideally the best villain is wearing a cloak of resistance or something that will help him against the inevitable will or fort save.

-"Battle field control"- tangle foot bags, alchemical fire, pits, anything that will create space between you and your enemies.

="The grappling hook"- Sometimes you need to scale a wall or jump out of a window and something like a potion of fly, ring of feather fall or slippers of spider climb will come in handy.

I'm sure that I'm missing a lot but this might be a good place to start. Great bad guys always get away and if they have an intelligence above 14 should be taking notes. If the heroes rely on their bard or cleric then a well placed silence spell is going to come into play. If they always fly then a web spell, dispell spell, or a team of archers is going to be waiting. Evil does not equate to stupid or crazy.

The negative channeling cleric is a perfectly viable build. I would perhaps swap out one of the extra channeling feats for another feat (perhaps a metamagic feat) but otherwise you are a cleric who has the ability to inflict damage in a burst.

You can still cast, you can still be reasonably effective in combat, you can still heal, and you are able to do all of this in heavy armor with a shield while screaming obscenities at your blasphemous enemy.

I think the Negative channeling/heal while doing it is just a quirk that other clerics simply don't have it doesn't really take anything away from the cleric.

I would love to do something like this in on the "GameSpace" platform that paizo is going to release.

172. Your valley has long been a place of peace and harmony. The orcs do not enter, the game is ample and the harvest is always a success. But now fire will not burn and the snow which has never entered your valley before has begun to fall.

173. Evandorf the notorious catpurse has escaped from prison and is on the run. Rumor has it he stole something that the Duke desires. Do you join the team that is going to be sent out after him or do you leave your half-brother to the mercy of the posse?

174. For the dwarven party. The mines of clan Redshield were legendary. Once producing nearly all of the mithral in the region. Then one day the production stopped and the clan simply vanished. Now nearly 250 years later your small dwarven town was attacked and all of the ogres were wielding mithral weapons with the red shield stamp.

At the beginning of each game I used to remind my players that this was a no holds barred, life or death game, and that they should try not to bite off more than they can chew and above all else don't do anything stupid.
Now it's kind of a joke. Every time I sit down as DM I get asked to give the speech.

I like to think of it like a course syllabus. I pull no punches. If you want in you have to accept that. You have a problem with that please refer to the speech.

Could this be a sub-plot that the DM had planned? Maybe I'm giving him too much credit but is it possible that the DM had your player friend do this?

Ban Dade - Cleric
Hitten Thaco - fighter

My group's reading of the JJ post lead us to conclude that repositioning your hands a non-action. But I suppose that technically that's just a house rule. One that will say in effect until there is a clarification by the developers.

However, the player needs to specify what your hands are doing. If you don't say you put your hand back on the weapon then don't expect to be able to wield it with 2 hands.

Missing the point. I obviously need a better example.

A prince is dancing at a ball. An assassin has come to kill him and is hiding amidst the crowd. The GM rules that his drawing a poisoned dagger initiates combat. Doe the assassin get a standard action in the surprise round to attack with said dagger, or has he already used his action to draw it out?

To answer your question. If I were DM I would roll a sleight of hand check with appropriate modifiers for the Assassin (+2 for dagger, +2 baggy clothes, +4 for crowded dance hall) vs. my PCs perception. If no one notices then the weapon comes out and no one is the wiser. Next round I would initiate the attack thus beginning the surprise round.

It is a cheap move. I mean- why would the BBEG sunder the BBN’s weapon, since the BBEG expects to win, and thus he’s breaking his own loot?

Pc’s rarely sunder the Bad guys stuff for that very reason.

Now sure, if it’s a Ogre-bane weapon, the equivalent of “Biter” or “beater”, known and hated by all Ogre-kind, then that’s just good RPing.

Stuff is both a reward for the PC and a reward for the player for having done well. This is why we no longer rain experience points/levels by undead touch.

I have been playing with a magic fearing barbarian that has sundered almost every magical weapon that every BBEG has wielded. It's something of a joke in the group now. We'd get rid of him but he's really good at killing stuff.