Michael Miller 36's page

A rogue's sneak attack damage IS impressive and sounds like a lot, but even 6d6 damage only averages out to 18 points extra damage per attack. Not a whole lot. Compare that to a fighter who is probably dealing twice that per attack (and his attacks are at a higher bonus to hit) and you realize its not broken.

Best combo I've seen so far is a monk and rogue team as flanking buddies. monk would stun/trip the opponents and the rogue would wail on them :)

So far the most OHMYGODLOOKATTHEDAMAGE i've seen is the paladin i'm playing in the second darkness campaign. we're 12th level and i'm doing on average 150 points damage per round, more if i'm smiting.

Hitting with 4 sneak attacks, and rolling 24d6 damage LOOKS really impressive and frightening, but ultimately its often misleading.

"Is that thunder....or are you rolling for damage?"

Service is definitely a winner. Knowledgeable, courteous staff will keep me coming back. I don't mind paying an extra dollar or two for a pleasant experience and it makes picking out RPG material much more fun. Since I stopped having a regular FLGS to patronize the material I've purchased has decreased quite a bit. Nothing can compare to going in for one item in particular and glimpsing something else that might be interesting. Having someone say "yes, thats an excellent product, and if you like that you might also like this!"

On the one hand my budget likes not having a FLGS around. Never was a time that I went in to buy a $25 dollar book, and came out with less than 35-50 worth of material or more, often with a return trip next pay period.

It wouldn't surprise me to find (if there was a way to do such a study) that the decline of the FLGS was largely responsible for the decline of the gaming industry. Yes, borders might be a physical location that carries RPG books, but its hardly a place to find out about 4e, 3.5, pathfinder or conan. Chances are the people there don't even know what those terms are other than a word in a catalog.

I definitely agree on the preference to brick and mortar stores to virtual shopfronts. While I DO enjoy the virtual benefits of buying directly from paizo I only do so because I have not found a B&M store that is close enough. Nearest store that even caters to the industry at all is nearly 30 miles away and they don't carry much of a variety of RPG supplies, focusing mostly on miniatures, CCGs and comic books.

I buy my material from paizo (despite the slightly higher cost) because I would rather support them directly than Amazon or another distributor. The free PDFs I get as a bonus are nice, but for the most part while I peruse the PDF while waiting for my dead tree copy other than archival purposes it is unused afterward.

The almighty dollar is powerful, as are the virtues of "free" benefits such as shipping, discounts and giveaways, but nothing is truly free. When I first got into the hobby there were a half dozen gaming stores I could patronize, then it was down to 3, then one. Now the nearest one is difficult to get to and he really only supplies me with dice and miniatures.

A brick and mortar store may cost more money than a virtual storefront, but the "freebies" in my opinion are the most expensive of all

Early in second darkness I was playing a human wizard. We were on an island investigating a meteor impact and were defending a small tower of wounded survivors against these doglike aberrations that were swarming the area. My mage was on top of the tower using grease to keep them from scaling while attacking with ranged spells managing to avoid taking any damage mostly through luck.

The tower started to list to one side due to damage and looked like it was going to topple over so as many as we could quickly lowered down with ropes, myself going down with feather fall now that most of the aberrations had been destroyed. Most of us had come out without serious injury and myself had been uninjured despite having very few hit points and a fairly low armor class.

Then the tower toppled, and rolled down the hill as it crumbled. I rolled my saving throw to jump clear. Die came up a 1. So.... I roll my save again as I fall down the slope in the chaos following the tower collapse. End result, I end up covered in tower rubble dying via the avalanche rules. To this day we still laugh at the mage that the DM had to resort to dropping a house on in order to kill :)

Many thanks!

I placed an order a while ago for two books and requested they ship with my next monthly shipment. However the email I got today that my monthly shipment was being prepared didn't list them as being in the order. On my order history it shows my monthly shipment as shipping, but my two items as still waiting. I am curious as to when it will ship. While I would prefer to not pay more shipping then neccessary, I would also rather not wait another month for my items.

well, if he's taking 3 rounds to buff then he's definitely going to have some advantages. There is also more ways to fight then just going for his AC. Theres touch attacks, will saves (which the other party members will find easier) and grappling. I wouldn't be too concerned with them dominating encounters early, though if they are having TOO easy of a time you can add in a couple extra baddies or improve them a bit with the fast rules in the back of the bestiary. Give them a bit of boost (+4 to ac and CMD, +2 to all rolls including damage rolls and ability DCs and an extra 2hp per die)

you could try making fights where they don't necessarily have time to buff with ambushes, but you want to be careful not to overdo it. Intelligent enemies WILL go after casters if possible though, a few fights of the casters realizing they need to protect themselves first instead of buffing the fighter, or a few fights of failing spell DCs (concentration checks are difficult at lower levels) might discourage the practice.

That being said you don't want to punish them for using good tactics or going into battle prepared, just make sure your npcs are also fighting intelligently :)

Mikhaila Burnett wrote:

In game treatment for an out of game condition is not the answer, in my opinion.

Spoilered for being somewhat off topic…

** spoiler omitted **

…sorry. Had to vent.

This is a player problem thats causing a situation. Hopefully it can be resolved. Its never fun to tell a player not to come back and makes it even worse if your in a low pop area for players. Fortunately I've only had to kick a player once in 15 years for being a d*ckcheese. And that was less for his actions in game, than his flagrant disrespect for the fellow players in the group and the GM for that campaign.

I'll repeat what above posters have said:

You can't solve out-of-game-problems in the game.

You just can't do it. And if you consider it for a moment, you'll understand that each in-game putative measure only increases the player's lack of commitment to you and your game. I've had your experience with no-show players before, and it is a matter of personal disrespect for you and your other players.

Imagine things in the context of a party, a club, or some other social gathering dependent on all participants being present, but without any kind of "in game" consequence available. You can admonish the player all you like, but you're only real solution is to get this player to respect your time and effort, and the time of your other players.

If you can't reach that goal, you need to dismiss the player. If you wouldn't invite someone to a house party because you thought they would let you down, you shouldn't invite that person to a game either. Dismissing the player might be hard, but you can play the game with three characters. I have frequently done so, even in pre-written modules.

Knowing the line between People and Characters is the single most important skill that a GM can possess. Once you learn this, there are very few problems in the game that can't be solved. While you can't solve out-of-game problems in the game, you can almost always solve in-game problems out of the game.

Best of luck with this!

We had this problem, two sessions in a row ended up getting cancelled due to last minute cancellations (the player involved had his character plus a cohort, so instead of 5 characters the game would have been down to 3, and would have been minus the cleric and wizard).

What we ended up doing was that character sheets for everyone stays at the host place with the DM, and we set aside a small period at the start of every session (since we catch up for the week, last session and such anyway) for updating such as level up. This has avoided the problem happening again and allows the session to play even without a player present.

You may wish to exclude a character from earning xp while the player is not there, that is optional. Perhaps this would be a case for peer pressure. If you talking to him won't accomplish anything (did you try?) perhaps the rest of the players having a word with him (no blood on the carpet please) about themselves being inconvenienced will do so.

I thought you said you got that rash from Big Buns Bessie.

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Ohhhhhh, Big Buns Bessie is a dwarf; now I get it.

Carry on.

I dont think that will help with someone taking the 'they have inifinite resources' stance which is what I was originally suggesting that to. Personally untill i see evidence otherwise I dont think the classes need changing at all. I wont see any evidence though, as despite a bunch of players saying for some time now that they wanted to play a ToB class, none of them are playing one in my upcomming game [as an aside i never disallowed ToB, i just havent run a DnD game in a long time and our other DM's dislike ToB].

I do find it amusing though on a private level to be defending their overall power level when for so long I refused to let them in my games though

Michael Miller 36 wrote:

I nowhere suggested they get their hit dice lowered, I merely suggest they don't need a conversion to a higher dice as their power levels are just fine for the game. NOT getting an increase is not getting a penalty. Other classes were brought up to level the playing field. The TOB classes have had their camp on that plateau for quite a while.

Both the wizard and the Sorcerer's Hit Die were increase to fall in line with Pathfinders BAB HD standardization. Do you feel they too need a boost to even the playing field? To me its about consistence in the game then about power. I would probably bring the warblade's HD down to D10 from D12 to fall into line with the standard as well (and because i think its appropriate for only Barbarians to have a d12 hd).

Michael Miller 36 wrote:

kyrt-ryder wrote:

Michael Miller 36 wrote:

and don't boost their hit die. The combination of melee and magic certainly justifies a slightly squishier hit point total.

So... Clerics and Druids should have a d6 hit die?

Did I mention anything about clerics or druids? No. We're talking about converting/importing/overpowered or not class from a non core book and previous edition. What I'm saying is that the TOB classes are just fine as is and don't need the power boost to keep up. They WERE overpowered in 3.5, they fit in just fine in pathfinder. Read the post, keep the snark at home.

I read the post Michael, I wasn't trying to be adversarial. Just having a little fun joking around about the fact that the same logic you used to excuse dropping the swordsage's HD applies to clerics and druids. That's all.

Sorry if I upset you.

Michael Miller 36 wrote:

I would definitely agree, and this is coming from someone who for a long time banned TOB classes from my games. Swordsage and the rest ARE powerful, and at lower levels yes they can outpower some of the other classes. However even a halfway optimized fighter or a mage who is intelligent about the spells he chooses will out damage him. The damage seems impressive when you see it at the table and with a roll+con check you see him do 50-80 points damage on one attack, but he can't do that every round. Let a TWF fighter with power attack and weapon focus and he'll eclipse that or at the least come close. Add in cleave, or vital strike and the damage goes up along with the ability to hit multiple opponents.

Check out the Warblade I put up on DPR Olympics. He can do 102.6 DPR using a double weapon.

I'm not saying the TOB classes aren't juggernauts. They are. Incredibly powerful, incredibly versatile. But are they truly overpowered? I'd say no. I'm not a genius at optimization, but it wouldn't be hard for me to build a straight fighter with pathfinder and equal the DPR of a TOB class. I won't do area effect, this is true but round for round giving the same enemies, and the same circumstances the damage will be fairly comparable. Give me a paladin of equal level and an evil foe and I'll probably surpass it.

Everyones milage varies, if the TOB classes as written don't work for you (as they didn't work for me under 3.5) feel free to tweak them, but overall I've found them to be relatively balanced now.

Michael Miller 36 wrote:

and don't boost their hit die. The combination of melee and magic certainly justifies a slightly squishier hit point total.

So... Clerics and Druids should have a d6 hit die?

I would definitely agree, and this is coming from someone who for a long time banned TOB classes from my games. Swordsage and the rest ARE powerful, and at lower levels yes they can outpower some of the other classes. However even a halfway optimized fighter or a mage who is intelligent about the spells he chooses will out damage him. The damage seems impressive when you see it at the table and with a roll+con check you see him do 50-80 points damage on one attack, but he can't do that every round. Let a TWF fighter with power attack and weapon focus and he'll eclipse that or at the least come close. Add in cleave, or vital strike and the damage goes up along with the ability to hit multiple opponents.

You feel the swordsage and such are overpowered? Then make them roll against SR like other caster classes on their blasty manuevers (I did mainly so they would be on par with the mage in that regard) and don't boost their hit die. The combination of melee and magic certainly justifies a slightly squishier hit point total.

ANY class in the hand of a good player can be deadly, but the TOB classes while overpowered for 3.5 core, fit right in with a minimum of alteration with PF core classes.

I have a 5 player group, all experienced and fairly skilled at min maxing with two who like to utilize splat books so the encounters can be difficult to keep them challenged. Typically I'll use the fast rules in the back of the bestiary(+2 on all rolls including damage rolls and special ability damage DCs, +4 to AC and CMD +2/HD) this tends to equalize things for the average encounter. For creatures your expected to encounter many of (Such as the red mantis, or the gargoyles of scarwall for example) I write up a special member, slightly higher level but with about the same gear and mix it up. this way there is a bit more challenge, but they are not getting treasure they are not supposed to. Makes for a bit more work, but typically only 3-4 monsters per book do I have to redesign or restat. Most are fine with the "fast rules", which i was pleased to see, since I'd been doing something like that BEFORE it was made official :)

Don't forget the benefit of magic items that are consumable. potions of barkskin, scrolls of mage armor instead of letting them get a hold of the wizards spell book, potions of firebreath or haste instead of boots of speed, etc. If you use a wand for a baddie that you don't want your players to get a hold of let the bad guy come in with only a few charges and use them in combat.

Don't forget that there are many enemies that through the books observe the PCs and their tactics and are prepared for them. Those should definitely have their gear or spells prepared altered slightly as appropriate.

It doesn't help that the adventure was NOT designed with the abilities granted in pathfinder, for example one of my most maddening times is when the illusionist automatically blinds his targets for a round just by hitting them with a ranged touch, which makes it childs play for the rest of the group to take apart the group one by one. Great team work yes, but makes extra work for the DM :)

Also, its easy to forget (and i've definitely been guilty of it) that its not players VS DM, we all want the players to win. Its often a difficult stuggle in making them work for it, and actually plotting their demise.

We ran a swordsage in a pathfinder campaign at level 9-12 before the guy playing swapped out, and with a minor change (we simply kept concentration as a skill in his case to make things easier, but treated his special attacks as magic for SR) he worked out quite well. He was still one of the hardest hitting in the party (barbarian, wizard, cleric, and monk) and seemed fairly balanced. Bypassing SR isn't a big deal in most 4.5 games, but SR is a bigger deal with pathfinder. With the extra feats you get in a pathfinder game taking spell penentration is a simple no brainer if you wish to hit a bit harder, although the player in question didn't have that feat and in multiple battles only failed the roll a few times.

I'm actually of mixed feelings about this. On the one hand armor as DR is annoying and adds one more step for the work of the DM in converting and adjusting encounters. Not as easy to run things on the fly as spells that grant armor, creatures with natural armor, and enemies that wear armor now have to be adjusted. On the other hand, if you run a alternate rule like in unearthed arcana it has the potential so you don't have as much of the "power struggle" to overcome increasing armor class of the players so that saves SOME work.

Next campaign we run we're going to try the UA rules for armor as DR, but I suspect that unless it just goes amazingly well, I'll ultimately go back to the tried and true way of AC. Combats are already the longest part of the D&D game, no point in making them longer than neccessary.

My DM and I are having a rules interpretation issue regarding Readied Actions, and he would like an official answer about the situation. His exact words were "need a piazo guy not some forum monkey". Is there a place on the paizo site to submit questions for official rulings? If so, can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance.

sending one of these against my players soon, should either be this session today or next session in two weeks. Will let you know how it goes :)

Yeah, on this Thanksgiving I give thanks to the awesome Paizo.com community, which often has the correct answer to a question before the staff even notices it's been asked.

Thanks, guys!

Seriously, it amazes me your guys dedication to the job. It shows in the product you produce, the service on the forums and the feedback we get. Keep up the good work but try not to forget to take a break once in a while!

I am GMing a campaign where a halfling captured a aurach (Herd animal-wild cow) and he wants to train it as a charger for mounted combat. He has all the riding and handle animal skills and mounted combat feats.

Is there any reason this can't/shouldn't be done?

Assuming he successfully completes the handle animal roll, do standard mounted combat rules apply?

Finally if all of the above is ok, would special equipment be needed?

Thanks

you CAN get around caster level but the DC of creation goes up for each requirement you do not meet. The only thing you MUST have is the feat itself. So you CAN create a construct at a lower level (level 5 for your homunculus) but your chances of failing are that much higher.

Although the theory is that there are fewer GMs to sell to than players... in practice, it's the GMs who buy the most stuff. Players tend to pick and choose. Is it better to sell EVERYTHING to 1/4 of your audience? Or to sell 25% of Everything to Everyone? It's a complicated problem, that's for sure.

We saw some evidence of this when back in the day we relaunched Dragon and Dungeon magazines. At that time, the theme was "Dragon is for Players, and Dungeon is for Gamemasters." And lo and behold, sales for Dragon declined and sales for Dungeon rose.

I know for a fact that the gamers in my own groups tend to follow this theory pretty well—players buy FAR fewer products than gamers who are GMs. Even if they're only GMs part time or in theory only.

While I am quite heavily invested in pathfinder (yet to find a product I DON'T like that I've purchased, if anything its ones I like less than I do others) I'm probably not your average consumer. That being said I'm not exactly in a hurry for a monster book. Would I buy it when it comes out? Certainly. But IF it were done I think I would want it done right. For example, I LOVE how you handled the lycanthropes in the Bestiary, its now easy to use them at level 2 (or even level 1 really) without it being too unbalanced.

I hope you don't think we're being ungrateful, we certainly don't want to bite the hand that feeds us all this great gaming goodness. (God knows -I- wouldn't put in the time you guys do, your nuts!) I'm not really sure what a good compromise is, but at least now you know that the demand is there (in at least some amount) and including the product IS a good idea at some point even if not a huge priority.

Keep up the good work (and get some sleep man!)

They've made no secret of the fact that they focus on humans and demihumans as the core races and that its the main thrust of the game. Its most certainly not a big priority for them and probably something that JAMES at the least is not eager to do, but that is not saying that SOMEONE at Paizo might go and say "Hey James, I think I might have a good idea for that monster PC book...mind if I give it a whack?"

Who knows? Maybe someone on the boards will come up with a system. Maybe you yourself will. People expect Paizo and WotC to write all our game content for us. They forget they started out just like us gamers who liked playing and writing their own adventures. Nothing saying you can't do the same if you have a better idea.

My party of 4 had enough treasure through the AP for the most part and they had no real problems (though we didn't make it all the way through, we stopped at book 4 since we wanted to switch to beta and it rather than convert characters we just started a new campaign)

I would even go so far as to say that unless your converting the adventure to pathfinder and your using pathfinder characters you might have the opposite problem and it being too easy. Your milage may vary, give it a shot and see what happens, you can always compensate later.

I DO throw out slightly more treasure in my pathfinder game i'm running now (running CotCT currently) but then I rebuild all the monsters and NPCs to pathfinder stats and add in a few more mooks to challenge the PCs.

Treantmonk wrote:

The OP should not have caused any harm. If he had included a shot on people who play 4.0, that would be different. If the response had been more to the case of, "I disagree, I think 4.0 is a pretty good system *insert rationale here*" we could be having a meaninful and healthy discussion on that topic right now.

Unfortunately, the OP wasn't inviting rational discussion. He was making a joking dig at 4e, not discussing the merit of this or that part of the system.

If I titled a thread, "One thing PFRPG gave us," and then went on to discuss how I use the book as a door stop, there would rightly be hell to pay. It's not funny, it's not cool, and it's disrespectful to the game designers and those who value the game. It's blatantly antagonistic.

As for as the doorstop reference, I suspect the PFRPG core book would be quite useful in that regard. Its durable, got some weight and mass to it. If you can keep its smooth cover from sliding on the floor then it should serve quite well. Also doubles as a paperweight, spider-killer and if you slam the open book shut incredibly useful in scaring the cat!

With a lot of things, going out of your way to find insult is more work than its worth. Its much easier to roll with the joke, find some amusement in the post (especially as he was NOT insulting anyone in particular or even the game really, just that he found some use for his purchase) and move on. Life's too short for needless conflict and its just a game.

I always get amused when i see people get all bent out of shape because someone doesn't like the game they play. Unless the criticism is aimed at YOU such as "wow, you play XXX? what are you an idiot?" taking offense is silly. People are entitled to an opinion, it wasn't stated crassly or in a vulgar nature. 4e is a decent game, I don't much care for it but I played it for a while. I currently play pathfinder. I've run into several players that when they found out our group played that, they got fed up for us playing a "stupid game" and that 3.5 was much better. One even claimed that pathfinder was a bastardization of D&D. To each their own.

Expecting a someone who likes one system and hates another to not comment in some way is like expecting a dwarf to kiss a kobold and not get sick. Its an opinion. We're adults. Can't we act like it?

It looks like we are getting closer to this becoming a reality for roleplaying, with a Microsoft Surface Table. Here is a great video showcasing it as a battlemap.

When used as just a battlemap, it would still be useful for Pathfinder, however the team working on it (right now just as a student project) is making it a fully automated battlemap for 4E D&D.

http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/surfacescapes/demo.html

I might be wrong (wouldn't be the first time!) I think something like this would be better as a virtual tabletop type system for PBEM games or gaming over the internet but for people who meet in person I would think most would prefer the battlemat, minis and die rolling.

Now one thing I think this would be GREAT for, would be conventions, PF society games and such. Cases where you wanted to get rid of some of the randomness of die rolling or (in conventions) the confusion of looking for floor dice.

Cool product most certainly, but probably not for your average gamer.

I like playing Kobolds too, but personally I've always seen as their deficiencies and penalties to be challenges to overcome. First level is definitely a struggle, but once you gain a level or two the difference is negligible. Its definitely not for everyone, but if you want a challenge go for it. Personally I never play a gnome or halfling unless its a caster because of the slow movement. Between the small size and reduced damage the penalties are too much.

I DO like the idea of separatating standard kobolds and "wyrmkin" which I might incorporate into my games (and see if the other DM who runs games is kosher with it) and the addition of a bonus feat or NPC class isn't a bad idea either.

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

stuart haffenden wrote:

How can an AP give more detailed info on a God than the God book does???

Because the god book only has 2 pages allocated to each god (as the Chronicles line is always 64 pages, 20 major gods x 2 pages = 40 pages, plus room for info on the lesser gods), whereas the AP can devote 6, 8, or even 10 pages to a god article that is especially relevant to that AP. Iomedae and Asmodeus are particularly associated with Council of Thieves, for example, so they get big writeups that can go into more detail than Gods and Magic.

That's all well and good but if someone doesn't buy the AP's they get shafted in the info stakes for Gods... imo, that's plain wrong.

I DO hope that paizo at some point does a compilation of the 20 articles when they are done, and consider releasing a compilation of the Pathfinder/Golarion specific monsters they have created.

Heyo,

Noticed that while others have had access to the bestiary PDF, while mine shows pending I have not yet gained access to it. If its waiting on something (either seekers of secrets or book of the damned) can you move them to another order and ship the bestiary as soon as possible?

Thanks in advance

Michael Miller 36 wrote:

Quote:

The normal TWF problems of DR don't apply, because fighters get to ignore 10 points of DR. You get more chances to apply the amazing critical feats. You get all the AC bonuses of using a shield, the dex you apply to TWF also helps armor training, and all of your nice static bonuses to damage apply to both hands.

-Cross

Where is this? I don't recall seeing any place where it states the fighter can ignore DR

There are two fighter only feats in the weapon focus tree that allow the fighter in question to ignore 5 points of DR (regardless of source) each.

My PCs are talking about just outright buying a house in Sandpoint, my question is what would a person buying a house in sandpoint expect to pay? none of the books I own cover that. Also, the house of the blue stones is currently ownerless (the PCs had Sabyl accompany them to thistletop where Gogmurts Firepelt made mincemeat of them in the tunnels.) so do you think the price for that specific building (the library is being auctioned off and most of the books will wind up at the curious goblin so no accounting for the library in the cost)

Depending on how you want to handle it, the PCs could get a deal on the property if no relatives, or the price might be higher if they are blamed for the death of the previous owner.

The normal TWF problems of DR don't apply, because fighters get to ignore 10 points of DR. You get more chances to apply the amazing critical feats. You get all the AC bonuses of using a shield, the dex you apply to TWF also helps armor training, and all of your nice static bonuses to damage apply to both hands.

-Cross

With two secondary sources of healing you should be okay. Our party in second darkness has a paladin, a dragon disciple, a druid and a monk. so far we've been doing just fine, and the paladin has done very little healing. Most of that has been a lay on hands here and there. Depending on how optimized you are, how your tactics are it'll change though.

You know, I'm almost tempted to pick some of this up if only for the fact that I could draw out maps for the my next session, and not have to redraw anything when I don't run for two weeks and have to draw new maps in between (I run Star Wars Saga one week and then Pathfinder Society on the other week).

This is one case where its definitely better to order directly from the manufacturer if you want more than one roll. Cost per roll is the same, but shipping is reduced.

Gamingpaper.com

Definitely a cool product! I'm going to see how well it holds up, going to use it to make my life easier on the upcoming battles in Scarwall, and later Castle Korvosa

I'm thinking about creating some variant magic items based on the Bag of Tricks in the 3.5 DMG. I was thinking it might be fun to have "themed" bags that create one animal type.

The first I'd like to create would be a "Bag of Bats".

Much like a bag of tricks you reach in and pull out a creature. However, I kind of like the "charges per day" concept that allot of items from the Magic Item Compendium have. So 3 times per day you can reach in a pull out a bat at the cost of 1 charge.

I was also thinking of adding one more ability. At the cost of 3 charges you can turn the bag inside out to create a swarm of bats.

How would I go about pricing an item like this for Pathfinder?

if i were to do this, i would estimate it thusly:

User activated or continuous: spell level (1 - Summon monster 1 (or natures ally))x caster level (going with 3 in this case to keep them around a bit)x2000gp =6000gp base price

under special for charges per day, you want 3 charges, so you take the base price divided by (5 divided by 3 which is 1.66)=3,614 gp base price

to create, you'd need half in material costs plus the spell summon monster 1 (or natures ally)

this would create an item that 3 times per day you could summon a bat for 3 rounds at a time, though you could increase this by simply increasing the caster level of the item

of course this is a little higher than the cost of the smallest bag of tricks, and summons lesser variety creatures with the bonus of summoning a swarm and the bag of tricks item summons the creature for ten minutes.

If i were the DM in this case i would go with the higher cost (it does summon a swarm after all, and go with a compromise of duration. 10 minutes for single creatures, (1 at a time) or rounds per level of the caster creating the item for the swarm. Possibly even just 10 rounds for the swarm instead of ten minutes.

I started getting all my stuff from paizo directly BECAUSE of the reluctance of my game store to carry it. If i had a nickel for everytime i heard someone say "3.5 is dead" I'd have core rulebooks for my entire table.

The attitude is slowly changing, but the rest of my table had to beg just to get him to place an order for the rulebooks. We asked for 4, he ordered two. Its a start at least. Theres at least 3 groups in the area playing pathfinder actively though so with luck he'll see the logic in stocking the books. The one bright spot is he DID place a order for the 3 monster books we asked for plus a few extras since "monsters always sell"

I wish more gaming stores realized the benefit of customer service

I could see it being useful, say for an evil cleric to use on a necromancer summoning undead, since it could hurt him without bolstering his allies.

However it does seem too situational to be of much use.

I agree that its situational to a lot of campaigns and the enemies you'll be fighting but then so are a lot of feats. All those grapple feats are situational too...but in the right circumstances...deadly :)

no need to enchant hand wraps when you can simply improve the monks hands themselves with "Magic Fang" and permanency. Hardest part is finding a high enough level caster willing to do it for you.

up til recently I rarely saw a human being played in one of my games. When it did happen it was generally a human fighter just for the extra feat.

However now with pathfinder humans are interesting again. A variety of cultures, some with their own feats and traits. We are now on our third AP (second darkness and CotCT are being played concurrently) and 2/3 or more of our group have been humans. Wasn't until a near party wipe in SD that we had a party of mostly non humans and that was because the two that died started elves from the Crying Leaf settlement.

if you make humans interesting, with different cultures and backgrounds you'll likely see an increase in the number of them. Eliminate the fantasy races if you like.... but a simpler way might be to just downplay them. Perhaps the elves or dwarves are not very numerous. Either because they live in remote areas (by choice, chance, or geographical oddities) or some calamity has befallen them in the past.

Its your world, do what you want with it as long as you and your players have fun :)

The only real issue I have with casting in melee being so tough at low level is touch spells. Clearly they are meant for use in melee, so why is casting them in melee so very tough. Spells like shoking grasp are built for emergency situations when the wizard is caught in melee. I would think it would thus be easy to cast in melee, but unfortunately it isn't. You know how using ranged touch provokes attacks of oppertunity is a special case maybe touch spells should by their nature not provoke attacks of oppertunity. Just a thought.

Cool information...would be sweet to play with the people from the boards! I have a bunch of characters on Steamwheedle Cartel. Reluctant to switch servers, but perhaps a dedicated play day could be an option for me ^_^

Is the /paizo channel still in use? if so I'll keep an eye out for other gamers via that

Michael Miller 36 wrote:

Generally sex roles in the medieval period came from the fact that life was hard and it was short. many women died in childbirth, many children died from disease.

This is probably true from the beginning of time up until the turn of the 19th century. Giving birth was always life-threatening. I guess male dominance rests on the sheer power of men for the most part - men are on the average stronger and more aggressive than women, and do not hesitate to use this power. Women have been seen as being weaker not too long ago, and the responsibility of child-rearing rested almost exclusively on the womens shoulders. Now, in the end it is indeed up the the DM how he portrays these fantasy societies, but real-world behaviour is of course easily transported into fiction, and in most societies today, we still see a male dominance - or how many women do we see each day in politics, financial markets or at the helm of big companies or corporations?

Stefan

To each their own though. Racism, sexism, like it or not is part of life and its only natural it creeps into our R&R to a degree. How much is up to you.