Rathendar's page

Chat does not work for me. Is it broken for everyone else, too?

*gets the shakes*

halflingpie wrote:

I haven't thought much beyond it sounds like a good idea, helps let non-spellcasters fly airships.

Off hand I can think that obviously the size of the ship would modify the DC

Isn't that normally handled by Proffession: Sailor (or Proffession: Air Sailor I guess....)?

though both would put ranks in the air sailing talent...

Looking for an AP example, i believe Karzoug in the runelords AP had a multiple spellbook collection in his treasure list.

Hope that helps you.

dulsin wrote:

I am also found of the following...

Bigby's Interposing Hand? Mordenkainen's Sword? Cure Critical Wounds? Fire Storm?

Seriously?

Doing a Adventure Path or Module for optimized characters?
Also would y'all please tell me what Adventure Paths, Modules, and Society Scenarios y'all consider to have a high challenge rating?
I've heard some say your age of worms was particularly difficult!

Thanks!

As a feedback suggestion regarding the knowledge focus power. In 3.5 they were basically skill focus, in PF skill focus goes from +3 to +6 at 10 ranks. You could make the namer choose a different knowledge skill each time and treat it as the skill focus feat (allowing them to get the +6 when they invest the requisite skill ranks if they so choose)

Lord Fyre wrote:

Sharoth wrote:

The GURPs books are great SOURCEBOOKS, but the system is too clunky too. When you are taking forever to make a PC or NPC, then it is too complex.

Edit - Despite that, I think it is a very good system, if you want to put the time into it.

I take it that you have never played/run Hero?

~grins~ I have played Champions, which is the precursor to Hero. Yes, it is more complex than GURPS.

As far as the couatl/undead conundrum :

Tonituh has been in mourning for the loss of the people and followers he had tried so hard to protect for centuries. That's a hell of a lot of time spent moping around. Apathy springs to mind as a descriptive. He may very well be aware of the mummys or whatever else, yet still not be able to rouse himself to do anything about it due to his current state of disillusionment.

Well, with cross-class skills costing 1 skill point now, this feat seems useless. Any idea how to tweak it? It allows Humans to purchase cross-class skills at 1 point per rank. Now I need to think of a substitute benefit.

I never understood the reasoning for that change. With the skills condensed, it seems a Rogue or Ranger with high Intelligence is now going to be TOO skillful. I liked it better before where you really had to specialize precisely.

Michael Carter-Wright wrote:

concerro wrote:

How did a 4th level barbarian get an AC of 21? The AC is one of the main reasons I am hesitant about playing one.

I suspect a breastplate, high Dexterity (16-18) with completely dumped mental stats, and a buff of some sort; likely Barkskin.

The breastplate and the dex(assuming it is a 16) gives s 19AC. A shield would push it to a 21, but then the barbarian is no longer using a THW. He might as well be a fighter at that point.

I just checked and the poster said he(his barbarian buddy) was using a THW so no shield was possible. My shenanigans sense is tingling.

I think crying shenanigans might be overstating things a bit?

Quote:

Valon Neverdo'ell - Moon elf - Rogue 4/Ninja 4/Swashbuckler 3/Wizard 2/Invisible Blade 5/Occult Slayer 2 – CG

How did this guy manage to be lvl 20 with XP penalty (because of the 4 base classes) ?

I respectfully disagree.

In 3.5, you needed a monster book. You opened to the page and pointed at the monster and said "That's me. I move, fight, etc., just like it says right here." No math, no recalculating, no playing with numbers at all.

In Pathfinder, you still need a monster book. You open to the page and point at the monster and say "Ok, that's what I look like, but it's not me. Hold on while I recalculate several physical ability scores, adjust the attack values listed in the monster book, recalculate these numbers, and yeah, OK, who brought a calculator?"

It's not easier, it's harder.

Howdy folks. I realize this is generally off topic, but given that the brain trust in residence here is both responsive and insightful, I'd figure I'd see what you knew.

First, a quick rundown of the SR Rules that I'm puzzling over:

** spoiler omitted **...

In practice, i have played shadowrun 1E and 2E (and own/read/played 3rd)for many years and i have seen characters built with both styles (high accuracy/huge dice rolled) and also middle grounds. Each one has been useful or shined at different points. Huge Dice builds are great when dealing with 'mook' squads and the High Accuracy tend to do best against the Higher Powered boss type folks.

Type of weapons and ammo are also a factor,as well as the Bioware, Cyberware, and Magic to boost things.

Overall, for a general feel good as a player, the Huge Dice build can be very fun from the simple fact of the handfuls of dice to throw.

I find that Vanthus is fairly "weak" for a CR 20. His AC is pretty good, but Hp, SR and saves bonuses are so low that I can't imagine him to be up and fight for more than 2 rounds.
In Serpents of Scuttlecove, when the party heard about Vanthus kinadpping Lavinia, a player who has a druid character immediately looked at the sunbeam spell. We're still in Scuttlecove but by the start of Into the Maw, the party and the druid should be 16 or 17th level.
This give about 66% to pass SR, Vanthus will have about 50% to make his save against the 16-17 dice of damage each round (the druid should be able to launch 5 beams at this time). Even if he still has his unholy aura, it won't help him much, and his 97 hp won't last long. Same for the shadow demons... And add to that that Lavinia can "weaken" him, giving him some penalty to attacks, saves...

Do you have done something to Vanthus to make this combat more memorable ?
Has anyone run into the same problem ?

Those are a couple ideas off the top of my head.

OR, Heighten could work slightly differently:
Used by itself it works as it does currently,
but MERELY HAVING the Heighten Spell Feat means ALL other Spells you metamagic (Empower, Extend) increase their DC to match their effective Spell Level. It gives people a reason to get Heighten, and benefit from it, even though they may rarely use it BY ITSELF.

From what Nick has said on his own site. Is that when you order the book you can pick the version you want. Here is a quote from his forum.

Quote:

Hi All!

Here's the dilly on Razor Coast preorders:

1. Once the book is finished in PDF form (by the end of October), I'll email everyone who preordered to take your request for a 3.5 OGL or Pathfinder print version (you can choose). You get both as PDFs (and other systems as we adapt it).

For those who haven't pre-ordered, the site will be changed soon so you can choose exactly which version you are ordering of each Dark Vista.

Hope that makes sense.

Also, we'll be adapting all the Indulgences for Pathfinder too (past and future) and those of you who ordered them before can definitely have Pathfinder copies of them too (I'll email them to you all).

Thanks for the patience and the faith all! Rock!

Nick

Hi All!

Just dropping in to let you all know that Sinister Adventures will be adapting every single product we put out to be Pathfinder compatible. In November a Pathfinder Compatible Dark Vistas #1: Razor Coast will be available as well as Pathfinder Compatible versions of all our past and future Indulgences.

Get you some Pathfinder!

Also keep an eye out for a new line of products on Sinister focused purely on Pathfinder goodness - as well as a line of GM supplements good for all gaming madness.

Where outside that "Special" section is ANY mention of Lay on Hands?

"Okay, i can use channel energy 2 more times per day. 1 channel energy is 2 lay on hands. So 2 channels = 4 lay on hands. Sweet, that's more then the extra lay hands feat

I agree, it's basically a no-brainer however.

actually.. I see what he means.

How much can a backpack hold? We know how to find out how much a person can hold, but what about containers.

I ran across this in the beta when my girlfriend and I were going to run CotCT together, she started work on figuring out what was in each bag and such (caltrops in a belt pouch,etc).

Now, no one is dieing by the lack of rules, but it is still missing.

so.... how much can you put in your barrels?

I'd have to vote Sarah Conner as well. Using the timeframes you mention Sarah was a much better fighter then Ripley in comparison. If you had gone further in the movie timelines, Alien4 Ripley would trash Sarah without breaking a sweat.

Greg Wasson wrote:

And Paksenarion from "The Deed of Paksenarrion" will always be an example of a paladin to me.

I keep hearing this series held up as a prime example of paladins done right, and I have had the collected volume sitting in by bookshelf for around seven years now. I really need to get around to reading it....

I'm running the RotR AP and at Hook Mountain Massacre. I have a group of 5 players. My problem comes from 2 players that have AC's 33, 27. Are these to high for 8th level. It practically means I need to roll 19-20 to actually hit these guys. It can get a little frustrating at times. I like my game to be Heart pounding in style and play. Any ideas?

I don't really see a need to punish the players for using gear you have given/allowed them to have by forcing them to lose it in water, etc. If you feel that it is destroying your game enjoyment for YOU, however. just sit down with player A and B, explain that its not fun for you as is, and allow them to swap out a few pieces of gear 'offscreen' to bring things in line with what you wish.

I would like to reiterate however, that those high ac's will rapidly lose their safety net.

Rathendar wrote:

the +56 bonus to me reads as Con +3 x 14 = 42 and toughness = +14 totalling 56. looks liek the extra boost at the start was done away with.

Yea, could be. So no more racial hitpoints too?

Fighters get a feat every level!!

Wait?

Am I forgetting this or is this new? I haven't played a fighter in quite along time and don't have a book handy.

Even taking off one for being human and four for every three that would leave 10 feats counting first level.

fighter bonus =8
leveling = 7
human = 1

pathfinder gave all classes feats on odd levels.

Mikaze wrote:

I say! 4 + INT skill points!

Hmm, I fear not. If I am not mistaken Valeros spend 68 skillpoints. Since he is human and has Int 13 he gets 4 skillpoints a level, 5 if he decides to add his favored class bonus. So by the beta he could have 56 to 70 skillpoints.

Let's look at his hitpoints:

14d10 + 56:

1st level 1d10 + 6(Racial) + 3(Constitution) + 1(Favored class) + 4(Toughness)
2nd level 1d10 + 3(Constitution) + 1(Favored class) + 1(Toughness)
.
.

At 14th level he could get a maximum of +79 hitpoints. Since this is not the case he might have used some of his favored class bonus points for skillpoints, but wait - the discrepancy is 12 skillpoints but he's 23 hitpoints low from his theoretical maximum?

*scratches his head*

Some possible explanations
- At least humans lost their racial bonus hitpoints.
- At least humans got racial bonus skillpoints.
- Chars get more skillpoints at fist level
- My math is wrong due to caffeine withdrawal

I say! 4 + INT skill points!

Wait a tic...

weapon training (heavy blades +3, light blades +2, close +1)

Que?

i'm more curious about the Armor bonus in his AC calculation.

+4 breastplate = 5 base + 4 magic +3 armor training = 12
he's listed with a 10.
he's also said to have full move (30) on a charge. so...my theory is that Armor training can spend 1 pt to offset 5' of movement penalty. that would use up 2 points and leave 1 for the AC boost making it match the 10 above. possibly even more then just those two options as well, maybe a small list of things. (armor check penalties, for example)

Xaaon of Xen'Drik wrote:

And exciting combat, where they feel they might die at any moment...

Like the end encounter in Grasp of the Emerald Claw...

Gods, I wish.

** spoiler omitted **

Kinda what I'm shootin' for Db3. I want them to be much greater threats than they are, capable of seducing the strongest willed men and consuming their life force thru "feeding", but unfortunatly I'm outta meds and can't seem to get my creativity bones workin'.

What should I set the DC at? I was thinkin Fort DC25 at its most potent and maybe a DC15 for something as subtle as a kiss.

The lady would have to spend feats to increase the DC further after that: Ability Focus (+2 DC)

I was reading the ranger's favored enemy description and one line there sort of confuses me.

At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (10th, 15th, and 20th level), the ranger may select an additional favored enemy from those given on the table. In addition, at each such interval, the bonus against any one favored enemy (including the one just selected, if so desired) increases by +2.

I'm a little confused about this bolded line. It seems to say to me if I choose "orc" as my second favored enemy, then I may choose whether or not to apply the +2 bonus to the listed benefits against orcs.

In previous editions, ranger bonuses scaled in level. If I read this right, the scaling is gone, and now you just get a +2 for each favored enemy you have?

Is this correct?

Anyone know what the significance of the bolded line above is?

Am I able to keep selecting the same favored enemy? (At 1st level I choose "orc" and get +2. At 5th level, I choose "orc" again, and now get a +4)?

So, one of my first concerns is where to place Sasserine. I read a suggestion that Singapore could easily replace it, but I think that may be too exotic. I need a place that is both cosmopolitan and on the fringes of civilization. I'm perfectly willing to just place Sasserine on the coast of a particular country where it would fit in, but I would like suggestions of possible locales. As far as converting characters, I've taken the suggestion from Urban Arcana and run with it. I'll tac on 3 or 4 levels of an appropriate base class or classes to the recommended "modern" version of the class listed in the module (Barbarian=Tough/Thrasher, Fighter=Strong/Archaic Weaponsmaster or Strong/Soldier, Cleric=Dedicated/Acolyte, Druid=Dedicated/Shaman, etc). I'll be using the Renaissance firearms from the DMG in place of those listed in d20 Past.

If you use the carribean, then you can use south america for the 'isle' of dread. The landmass was huge in the adventures as it was. You can get the Incas and Aztecs for the Olman civilisations. Lost temple of Tamoachan was Aztec inspired, as were the Olmans if you read their dieties.

Polynesian gives you the island chains, the tropical cultures, and the indigant tribal peoples. also volcanoes. yay volcanoes!

When you take a negative level, you also take 5 hp in damage for each one. This is the same as the temp HP gained by the energy draining critter. So if a fighter got hit for 7 damage and energy drained for 2 levels, he would be down a total of 17 HP, 7 of which were healable until the neg levels were cured. The HP lost are not based on the Target's Class/Type (not d10 average, or d4, etc)

The Wraith wrote:

... it seems so funny that a character has been an Amoeba for 23 hours, and then - pumped at the last minute - shrugs off the Deadly Chill of Death easily...

What if, without altering the actions (casting buffs right before the 24 hours pass and call for saves), the perspective and description is changed?

"Will he make it, Antonidas?"

"Perhaps. The curse is powerful, but there is a critical hour approaching. I will use what spells I can to offset the foul enchantment during that vital time which will determine his recovery."

"You can use your magic to overcome the effects of the curse? Why haven't you been doing that all along?"

"First, I cannot overcome the effects. Only mask them. Second, it is far beyond my power, or that of any but the greatest of spellcasters, to constantly expend the amount of energy required to accomplish what you ask. But at this deciding moment, the magic can make a difference."

Same events, described totally differently, and I think a lot cooler. I used to get really frustrated because my players never described things in-game the way I wished they would. Then I learned to remove that irritation and please myself by taking their actions and recasting them through my own descriptive lens. It also pleased the players. They enjoyed the descriptions, and liked hearing the DM not only support their plan, but to get enthusiastically behind it and make it sound even cooler than it did in their heads. It's all a matter of perspective and description.

unseen servant?
/nobrainer.

Guys, time to lay off I think.

Abe, Nethys - I'm with you on the rules as written, though expanded on by Complete Arcane, which is hardly core.

Kirth - I'm with you on the double-dipping stuff. Frankly I still find sneak-attacking will spells a bit iffy. But it's definitely one of the *remaining* un-nerfed areas (though at least splash weapons got nerfed in this regard).

Let's move on :)

So new question, does the bonuses from going full defense help against ranged touch attacks? What if you're not aware of the attacker?

Retro-threadjack: Blake - what on earth are you doing with a stealth check at -20 to remain concealed, if "by definition the target automatically sees you?"

Kirth Gersen wrote:

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

I believe that Baba Yaga, given the way that she has been built up in Golarion, is TOO BIG for any game unless it is at an epic level of play. An Irrisen adventure path maybe, but an adventure involving Baba Yaga herself or an invasion of her hut wouldn't make sense to me at anything less than epic level.

I disagree with this evaluation, inasfar as the Russian mythology is full of tales of "low-level" people wandering into the Hut and escaping before Baba Yaga can come home and eat them. In short, you can have the Hut, and have Baba Yaga -- and have the PCs interact with the former without having them fight with the latter.

In Call of Cthulhu or perhaps a Ravenloft style D&D game maybe the players might build characters operating with that mentality.
In a regular D&D game, I guarantee there will be players whose characters want to stay there and beat down on the owner of the hut, because 'running away isn't very heroic'.

Black James wrote:

Last night was the third death of one of my PC's in the savage tide.
they were saving the phanaton's from the one armed Temuahti-Tecuani, after all of the PC's had been swallowed and most had carved their way out, poor Punkin the 9th level rouge/scout was digested by the powerful belly juices and stomach muscles of the angry dinosaur. now the search for a high enough level cleric begins.......

Yeah, that was a mess...poor Punkin, we hardly knew ye...well, my character didn't, at least.

Kirth Gersen wrote:

Rathendar wrote:

Ok. Would a normal flaming weapon (which doesn't multiply on a crit) do extra damage to a cold vulnerable person? 1d6 x 1.5?

My stance is simply this: sneak attack damage doesn't get multiplied: not on crits, not for energy vulnerability. Regular damage does.

See the problem is there isn't sneak attack damage -- The dragon doesn't look down and go, "Well that half of this massive cold numbness is actually sneak attack damage."

Damage vulnerability states that any damage of the type it is vulnerable to is increased by 50%...

So critical damage of the correct type is increased, it is damage of the type increased and all such damage is increased.

Sneak attack damage of the correct type is increased as it is damage of the correct type and all such damage is increased.

In both cases all means [/b] all [/b].

*******************************

Side issue:

If Regdar is anything like me he doesn't drink water in a bar -- if it's not hard liquor it's not fit to drink.

Rum please.

Nethys wrote:

So if I critical with a Polar Ray against a Red Dragon (vulnerable to ice) you are saying I should only get the critical or the vulnerability not both?

That's not at all what I'm saying.
I'm saying you get: (base damage x 1.5 for the vulnerability) + (the crit damage),
Not: (base damage + crit damage) x 1.5.
You never do less damage on a crit, using either interpretation.

No one said you'd get only (base damage x 1.5) or (base damage + crit).

Karui Kage wrote:

I'd like to point out the irony in a player of role-playing games knocking someone else's role-playing. :)

DM: "Hey, Mike, I'm gonna fetch another beer from the 'fridge. You want one?"
Player: "I, Regdar, Master of Battle, know not the meaning of 'beer.' How dare you offer me your piddling slops?"
DM: "Good, 'cause there's only one left, and it's mine now."

Now see, in my circle of friends that can and would happen, and folks would just laugh and get back to playing...

Nethys wrote:

Though I do not appreciate your insults against my character of arrogance or being illogical, I endeavor to show you the error of your ways.

I'm "in error" the same way that you are: we disagree on a case in which interpretation can be made either way. I understand your argument, and can understand why you come to the conclusion you do, but I use an equally valid route to arrive at a different conclusion.

As far as insulting, when you tell everyone else you're their God ("your God of Knowledge," no less), how is that not insulting their knowledge, vis-a-vis yours? I'm not intending to "insult you back" you so much as to question why you do it to eveyone else in every post?

Nethys wrote:

The link (specifically the quoted part) and my judgment only reference spells with sneak attacks. Not weapons.

But spell sneak attack damage doesn't get multiplied by crits, either.
Sneak attack damage never gets multiplied.

If you criticaled with say....a flaming burst weapon, on a creature that was vulnerable to fire, the increaded burst effect WOULD be increased afterwards because of the vulnerability?

I personally think that Nethys is correct in his view that yes, it would be multiplied simply by the effect of the Vulnerability.

ArchLich wrote:

I would have probably went for a +4 bonus (16,000 gp) as you don't have a shield just the effect, ignored unusual placement (as no real shield) and added the 2 level swift spell cost (2 SL x 3 CL x 2000 = 10,000 gp). I would go for full cost on the spell as you can use it more then 5 times per day (thus exceeding the less then 5 charges rule).

Total Price: 26,000 gp

But hey I could be wrong.

Thanks!

But 2 SL x 3 XL x 200 =12,000 gp, +16,000 = 28,000 gp.

So EVEN MORE expensive!

Yikes!

And my PC is only 4th level, and maybe only a couple grand. Grrr! Oh, well.

But the reason I used the Magic shield pricing instead of the bonus squared x 1000 pricing is because it doesn't apply to touch AC like deflection, sacred, luck, insight, etc. Also, it was cheaper!

Rathendar wrote:

SmiloDan wrote:

Brother Willi wrote:

Are you familiar with the old show "Pirates of Darkwater?" Darkwater is an intriguing villain - I believe there are some variants on that out there. Your Black Pudding is a good start. What about a Dark template Water Elemental (bends a few rules, I know)?

For aquatic villains, I really like Dragon Eels from MMIII. Perhaps it's a bit too much in the way of Sea Serpents, but they're cagey opponents. Easy to make Shadow versions of them.

If you'd like to hinder the party rather than subject them to constant battles, you may also consider variant advanced Ethereal Filchers or similar "pesky" creatures that will cause the party to have to worry about leaving the ship.

Yeah, dragon eels are a favorite of mine too. Slapping the Dark template on water elementals IS kosher. I can also use Shadow Elementals.

Keep the great ideas coming!

I'm trying to think what would be a cool encounter of knights riding nightmares over the shadow sea?

Also, what kind of critter would sail a ship made out of ice?

make it black ice ;)

But of course!

Brother Willi wrote:

Are you familiar with the old show "Pirates of Darkwater?" Darkwater is an intriguing villain - I believe there are some variants on that out there. Your Black Pudding is a good start. What about a Dark template Water Elemental (bends a few rules, I know)?

For aquatic villains, I really like Dragon Eels from MMIII. Perhaps it's a bit too much in the way of Sea Serpents, but they're cagey opponents. Easy to make Shadow versions of them.

If you'd like to hinder the party rather than subject them to constant battles, you may also consider variant advanced Ethereal Filchers or similar "pesky" creatures that will cause the party to have to worry about leaving the ship.

Yeah, dragon eels are a favorite of mine too. Slapping the Dark template on water elementals IS kosher. I can also use Shadow Elementals.

Keep the great ideas coming!

I'm trying to think what would be a cool encounter of knights riding nightmares over the shadow sea?

Also, what kind of critter would sail a ship made out of ice?

Rifts

I should slap myself for forgetting to list this one.

Besides Shadowrun, what other rpgs cover cyberpunk/fantasy crossover as the default setting?

Cthuhlu Tech

Dragonstar

Champions/GURPS

I just made 2nd level tonight, so I gain the second level wizard ability that gives me a first level necromancy spell I can cast each day.

So I have to choose 2 necro spells and one other one for this new level. My necro choices are rather limited, but the other isn't. Grease, perhaps? I'm also considering Babau Slime from the SC, to dissuade enemies from entering into melee with me.

Seldriss wrote:

My opinion is that feats make the game rich with variants for characters to customize their characters. No two fighters are the same.

That was the intended purpose for sure, and a noble one at that. However, what we have ended up with are one or two "optimum builds" that invariably are chosen. End result, seemly more options than ever before, but in reality you end up with game mechanically based clones.

Obviously a DM does get the final say on who takes what, but I find that level of interference in the players choices never goes down very well.

S.

Do you have the map to (Age of Worms)Dungeon Magazine 124. I have the magazine, but the seller did not send me a map.

Valegrim wrote:

I always envied the classes that got some autododge; man that was a hyper power and only certain super bad warriors get it; sheesh.

In Robotech Sentinels, the sabercycle style had an autoparry. It didn't use an attack, could be used as a reaction, and you could parry with a lasersword that had unllimited MDC. Nothing could touch you except missles, which you could just shoot down. It had autododge too.

Their really tough defense options were offset by their relatively low damage output, and it was almost all melee oriented. They weren't untouchable, even with autododge, you still had to beat the attack rolls. But it did make them pretty dang durable! A Veritech Alpha or a Hovertank would still mop the floor with them.