Matthew Trent's page

I still fail to see how me fudging a single roll with nobody knowing about it in West Virginia affects you all the way in Indiana.

Your right. My character din't get saved my GM cheating. Now I had to pay a 5000+gp fine to be raised. I'm cool with that because I'm a mature player.

Jack a third player is looking to fill up his group for Bonekeep and looking for a wizard. He picks Jill over me since her character has some nice gear (such as those gloves of Breath of Life) that I couldn't afford. Now my experience is less because you as Jill's GM cheated for her.

We do all interact. And not wanting to let someone loose is a poor reason to cheat.

We should just kick jerks out of the game, then. You define a jerk as anyone who ruins your fun. Well... gunslingers are ruining my fun, so start whipping out that banhammer!

If your curious, the reason I beg you to just stop GMing is because you make the rest of us look bad.

Exactly why does Hunter and Warpriest need their own spell lists.

The Hunter and Warpiest need their own spell lists because they are six level spellcaster shoehorned into using a 9 level spell list.

The bard doesn't use a Sorcerer/ Wizard spell list because if he did all his spells would be bad. A bard has his own spell list to show what he's good at (sonic evocations, enchantments, and illusions) many of which he gets at a lower spell level than a sorcerer/ wizard. Due to the fact that he gets second level spell at around the same time that a wizard gets third level spells (and fourth at around the time wizards get fifth) this means that he's really quite good at those spells. If he was using the sorcerer/ wizard spell list he would just be a very bad spell caster, instead since he has his own spell list he is a focused caster. The same points apply to all the other six level casting classes (who all have their own spell lists).

Hunters and warpriests are just very bad spell casters at present.

Saint Caleth wrote:

Paladins follow divine LAW and not mortal laws.

Then what does "a paladin's code requires that she respect legitimate authority" mean?

Nothing according to most paladin players.

I question how much use the lists of spells do anyway. Its already such a giant pain in the ass to shift through a dozen (or more) books with spells that I'd rather just check the online spell lists on d20pfssrd or in Hero Lab. In fact when I leveled my character in Skull and Shackles to 10 tonight that's exactly what I did.

I honestly do not see why such spell list summaries appear in any books after the Core. The short listing of inquistor (random selection) spells in the APG take up not much space. After the class is introduced its a negligable amount of space to include the line 'Bloodrager X' before 'Druid Z, Sorcer/Wizard Y' on future spells.

A solution to wasting space on spell lists in the Spell chapters is not to shortchange new classes. Well a good solution it isn't anyway.

TL,DR: Spell lists in books are not useful, but using them as an excuse to limit the potential of new classes is wrong.

I've been GMing quite a bit again lately, and I have run into an issue. What would you think is the best way to handle a gunslinger who sits down at your table?

Should I:
A) Not say anything and attempt to kill his character every chance I get
B) Be up front about my intent to kill his character so that he has the chance to leave the table or switch characters
C) Leave the table without a GM to avoid the confrontation

Yes, these are pretty much the only options. It's sad, but it's true. I appreciate your input.

Please just stop GMing.

Would people be mad at me if I attempted to hijack this thread and turn it into the official "DIVINE MAGUS NICHE" thread?

I do not see a need for a divine magus.

Some initial thoughts.

I do not understand why the sacred weapon and sacred armor ability are set for the entire day. Was the magus' ability two switch his swords properties each time causing excess confusion?

Secondly I think its a bit weak to just copy / paste the cleric spell list. Inquisitors, bards, summoners, and even antipladins get their own list and I'd like to see one for this class as well.

I've had a bit of an itch to play a cleric of Asmodeus lately, so I think I'll try this class out with the concept maybe with luck I can convert a paladin or two.

I'm also sad that I don't get to detect as evil like a cleric of Asmodeus.

My theory is that if a scenario can't be run adequately by an average-bad DM then its bad.

I love how all of reality has to bend over backward to keep lawful stupid types happy.

The simple solution is to play or GM the mentioned scenarios.

This is not a solution and offensive to those of us who have not the time to play every scenario.

When I first started working for Paizo, my mind was swimming with different villains who had tormented the Pathfinders in the past and might one day make a second appearance. Already there are several familiar faces set to show up again in the coming months...

This is the source of my concern. Forgive my doubt, but I have no confidence that a recurring villain will be portrayed well for new players (or new PCs even) when reoccurring NPCs such as Venture Captains or Faction Heads have been portrayed so inconstantly in the past.

Note, I'm not trying to jump down your throat, but I've seen this notion before, and not just with the "because PFS" reasoning. I just want the idea to die. Determining how multiple effects overlap is one of those reasons why the game has a GM. All we can ask is for GMs to make a good faith effort to adjudicate the rules fairly and without malice.

Sadly many vocal DMs on this board are in the GM vs Players camp and get their fun from "winning" sessions by defeating players. Such an attitude makes fair and without malice an unlikely event.

Seems unnecessary. No one needs a reroll. The bag is cool enough on its own.

The bottom line is that PFS is Paizo's world, and just like in the real world we have rules and guidelines to live by to play in their world.

I am in complete agreement. Hence the point of this thread - to lobby for a change in rules.

I was inspired to by a boon I picked up at GenCon to build a witch. Having recently picked up the Ultimate Campaign Guide, I start reading though the background questions and come up with a dark and flavorful back story. While its open I go ahead and pick out my traits. Now I print off a character sheet and start filling in the blanks. As I'm writting down the elf abilities I wonder what options are in the Advanced Race Guide and pull it off the shelf. One seems especially apropos and a quick check of the website verifies that its allowed. Finally I recall that Infernal Healing is a very good low level heal spell and a check of the Inner Sea World Guide shows that it is indeed a witch spell. Now I realize that to play the character I need to bring an extra four hardback books with me.

If I'm just hauling the bag to a local shop for a gameday this isn't end of the world bad, but when going to an event like GenCon or Pax where I wish to do more than just sit in one ballroom rolling dice all day its inconvenient to the point where it distinctiveness playing PFS at all. Especially when the majority of these rules are available on the PRD mobile site with quick access.

I propose that players be allowed to reference the PRD for rules they use.

Note that in the example above I'd still bring my copy of the Inner Sea World guide to the table (or if forgotten at home I'd only be out a single spell). As the current rules stand if I forget my APG the character is entirely unplayable.

Alternately if photo copies of the pages I'm using were allowed this would also alleviate the problem. Each of those books only has a handful of pages I'm referencing, but per the Additional Resources website I am being penalized for not buying the products twice (once in hardback and then again in PDF).

Finally, I strongly dislike the current requirements because they are both easy to circumvent (replacing a watermark on a printout is child's play), and assume a level of dishonesty among the player base which is unhealthy.

Matthew, it is important to remember paizo is a company that wants to make money, and pfs is probably a good way to do that.

Sorry. I refuse to buy PDFs of books I own.

I kinda get the feeling that everything that we're being told right now (and it isn't much) is marketing flim-flam. Though I am jaded.

So, its been 5 years now has it friends?

I so fondly recall the excitement at the new 4E announcement back in the day. Ah those glorious rumors from GenCon and the excitingly looking forward to all the glory the new dawn of gaming would provide. Ooohing and Ahhhing at the idea of a fully supported electronic tabletop and a freedom from grapple checks. Such exciting times.

Sadly in 5 years I've played in zero 4E campaigns and only a handfull of one-shot adventures. Perhaps I should have worked harder to convince my friends that it was as amazing as I wanted it to be, but their counterpoints that the adventures were just dreadful (and they were - both LFR and the published line started off weak at best).

Then the electronic table top died a quiet death.

Then it rapidly became clear that the material printed in the core books was to be rapidly outstripped in power by supplements available first (and sometimes for years) only though the subscription model with the character creator software making those of us who bothered to buy books look like chumps.

That said I do like most of Monte Cook and Mike Mearls' work and so will be paying the new edition a fair bit of attention. It will honestly not have the same hooks in me that 4E did.

One significant note is that the announcement came not from any of the industry events (not even their own D&D experience) but via mainstream journalism. The jaded part of me wonders if this means that they no longer think the RPG customer is deserving of attention or if marketing at WotC is so terrified by their sales numbers that they don't think we're out here anymore.

And for the record I am still against it.

Its easy to confuse a handfull of people feeding of each others bad ideas as consensus though.

Roleplaying games, specifically of the fantasy genre, should encourage characters to play multiple characters than that of all roles on a single character.

Why? Skyrim requires no such many character approach and I hear its getting pretty decent reviews from the rpg crowd.

... an even playing field is necessary to promote the game to potential new players.

Why?

I'm really curious. I'd see your point in an arena based pvp systems (which is all most people have experience with in MMOs) but having played EVE as a latecomer I can say that it was not at all hard to get to play super-fun roles and if you were smart and planed your character toward it not too difficult to build toward the higher end combat jobs. Open world pvp is really a totally different beast than anything you can find on WoW or any of its variants these days.

I point to the 'hero rifter' that TEST promoted in EVE even naming several stations after brand new pilots who through tenacity and a bit of luck could pin down veteran players till the big guns blew them up. Very new players can have very real impacts without nearly the skillsets of older players. Now how one implements tackling or ewar in a fantasy style game I'm not entirely sure, but I'm confident that there will be some interesting answers.

Dropping the point buy to 15 won't reduce high stats - it'll just lower the low ones. Die rolling might reduce them but might not also. I like the idea of using the elite array, but my players howl so I'm just resigned to them just having high stats.

Edit: misspoke slightly

I like the advanced races. It seems to me they work well for building mostly humanish dudes who are strictly better. Akin to the drow nobles you'd only let one be played if everyone was simularly powered. See my loxodon thread for a thought process on building one.

@artanthos, by the same argument all adventures are useless since the DM can just make up every adventure right?

The honest truth is that most of us aren't super-creative nor do we have the confidence to just make things up and believe them balanced.

Also the rules do say it. It dosen't matter how big a font Paizo uses the munchkins will ignore it.

good stuff

That's a great campaign option. What were's actually talking about is a campaign neutral rulebook though.

In a faint effort to bring it back on topic. I was also wondering why quadruped requires the base creature to be large and why its a monstrous ability.

@SRM So you are going to just tell me that +2 to profession: baker or the ability to pick any language as a bonus language is balanced with say the ability to re-roll a 1 once per day?

Because I'm a fairly smart person. I don't believe you.

I think skill bonus is the major offender in overpriced abilities that make everything 'balanced.'

Weakness Abilities
Standard Abilities

Night Blind (-2 RP): Prerequisite: a type trait that grants darkvision (construct, monsterous humanoid, outsider (native), or undead); Weakness: Unlike normal creatures of your type you lack darkvision.

I came upon this need when I was tooling around trying to create a bariaur race.

Inspired primarily by the leonin art in Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed books, magic cards, African folk tales and getting our paws on the shiny new rules me and Melissa went to work building a new race.

Lionfolk: Living in southern Gerund the reclusive natives to that continents plains are a young race. Newly emerging from mysterious origins the lionfolk's first encounter with humanity was a group of Chelish slavers who decided they would serve magnificently in chains. Capturing a lionin (as they call themselves) proved almost as difficult as keeping it alive afterward making them a rare but prized site in the slave pens. Some few have escaped captivity and make their way out of Cheliax and to the plains of Varisia where the naive nomadic peoples have shown these rare few a different side of humanity. Though the greater majority of the race still resides on the plains of Gerund.

Lionfolk (humanoid (leonine)). +2 str, +2 cha, -2 int. +1 natural armor. Lowlight vision. Speaks Leonine only base, bonus languages Mwangi, Gnoll, Common. +10 movement on a charge. +2 vs. fear. +2 dodge bonus to AC and CMB checks against humans. Perception and Stealth always in class.

Just a thought...

Improved Weapon Finesse (combat)
You're increased training in using your agility in melee combat translates to more damage.
Prerequisite: Weapon Finesse
Benefit: With a light weapon, elven curve blade, rapier, whip, or spiked chain made for a creature of your size category, you may use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on damage rolls. If you carry a shield, its armor check penalty applies to your damage rolls.

Special: Natural weapons are considered light weapons.

Matthew Trent wrote:

Well done! Though I was surprised not to see some boons for Spirvy. What would you do if a character wanted to romance her?

I'd make up rules for her on the spot, based on the rules we've provided already.

This is in fact my plan. 8)

I like the girl myself and have observed that DM enthusiasm often encourages PCs. Most of my wondering was if good outsiders had rules against such things (though being CG she might easily break them if they did).

Well done! Though I was surprised not to see some boons for Spirvy. What would you do if a character wanted to romance her?

It was mentioned in another thread that there isn't a lot of beefcake shots of various male iconics. Is there any chance we might see say Lem wraring not much more than a thong or Valaros on the beach wearing short (and tight) trunks? The gays (and presumably the ladies too) are firing here.

No one bathhouse scene isn't enough.

Also feel free to forget about the old man wizard when making this art buy, okay? ;)

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a Monte Cook fanboy. So if he is playing a major role in an upcoming version of D&D then it has my attention and probably my money.

Now if WotC is smart enough to realize they aren't the best at everything and returns to OGL I would be very sad if Paizo failed to take the opportunity to cash in with what everyone knows is the best adventue writers. Does WotC / Hasbro have that wisdom? I hope so.

Maaaaaaybe Aroden's surname before ascending to divinity was Veidt? >_> <_< ^_-

Or maybe the alignment system isn't a stratjacket but rather a creative tool?

Fahrenheit actually not without merits. While I'd agree that the 32 and 212 points are a bit odd, the system works well enough in normal climates for providing a high gradiation of temprature. The diffrences in temprature between 76 and 78 degrees are distinct and easily felt by the human body.

I think celsius is great for science and stuff. The true dog of the imperial system is the Rankien. There is no excuse to ever use that scale over the Kelvin.

I would enjoy being able to never see posts by people who are allowed to be insulting and rude to other players. I'm not sure why this is allowed but it is.

Regardless I think that an ignore function would make the boards a much more inviting digital space and I advocate its implementation.

Yes, I guess as long they are on the first level, I'll give them the chance to run. The trap(s) may really be a problem, because they have noone to deal with those. If I remember correctly, they don't even have that high a perception, so they will probably not find the other entrance.

If they should reach second level and decide to go on, I really don't think, that I can justify giving them the chance to rest in the tomb.

Why no resting? The Soul Eaters, Picodaemon, and cycolps zombies don't seem like the kind of opponents that are able to/ willing to move around. And the wizard would rather fight the group in his own room where he's sure of a tactical advantage.

I leveled up my group after their first session in the tomb. To eight. They beat down Vordaki like a little girl. Silence him, grapple him, and split up the loot. Its sad how not-threatening a single monster is - even at CR+4.

The "cool factor" is still with the Ronin. Why wouldn't it be? It's about being the masterless mysterious figure... someone who upsets the settled members of society and represents an unknown factor.

So you agree that its a good type of character to play?

I'd even suggest that a ronin wandering about makes more sense in the Inner Sea region than an Order of the Warrior samurai.

I think the class needs to not be mechanically disadvantaged. The fringe case where a samurai who abandons his previous order gets to jump strait into ronin has been highlighted as a reason to leave ronin broken and unable to compete.

I think that a ronin order should not be held back by outlier cases like that. I believe that completing the level without any order bonuses at all is sufficiently punishing to those few samurai (and cavaliers) who make such poor choices as to leave their order. That adjustment period before a ronin learns to 'stand on his own' even makes sense thematically.

In conclusion my recommendations are:

A: make the ronin's challenge on par with other orders
B: remove the clause about samurai getting to switch to ronin for free

It seems that some folk just don't get the point of the ronin. It wasn't really something you wanted to be. I guess I should probably be a bit more clear on that. There is a reason you can jump to this order for free, unlike the others that take dedication. The order's powers suffer for that, but it seems that few understand that trade off. An interesting note.

As one last note, the tone here could use a bit of work. I get your point, but being insulting really just makes my job harder.

I think you're building a lot of setting into your rules that seems unnecessary, and the setting you're building on doesn't even seem to be Galrion.

If that no time to get ronin benefits is holding the order back then I suggest that it needs to go.

A note on tone: a spade is a spade and a squeaky wheel gets grease.

Hey there all,

Since Ronin often seem to get into fights with other samurai it made sense for them to have a power to use against each other.

Thoughts?

I thought I was clear. The ability is trash. It reads: don't write this down you will never use it.

It says: Don't play a ronin in PFS.

Its just very very bad. Yes you still challenge for bonus damage, but thats what every samurai does.

Also I dispute that ronin necessarily get in fights with other samurai/cavaliers. In L5R to name one setting, most samurai don't even consider ronin to be worthy of a duel and they often find themselves defending peasants from monsters that the haughty clan samurai are too busy feuding to deal with.

What every other cavalier/ronin gets is an active ability that they control how to use somewhat akin to a personal bardsong. What ronins get is countersong. Which while okay in the once in a campaign time it comes up, is not something that they get to control how to use.

It should be an active ability to be on par with other orders. This is not an NPC order. This is not an order that is defined to be worse than other samurai, though it currently is.