We have a Facebook group for roleplayers in South Korea called "D&D in Busan." There are currently 20 members. These days there are two Pathfinder tabletop games plus one Labyrinth Lord Google+ Hangout game. New players and dungeon masters are always welcome. Reply here and we can get you connected to our group.
CommandoDude wrote:
Commando Dude, I hope you are indeed the only person here who thinks that deliberately targetting the bridge full of children with area-effect spells does not equate deliberately killing the children. They could at least have sniped at the enemies with individual missiles and spells. Their foes might have started killing the children, and that should have stopped the fight. But if the children did die at the hands of the evil enemies, then at least the party would be less directly guilty. Besides there must have been spells available that would hinder the enemies.
I am contemplating building a paladin with a longbow (composite when rich enough). The idea of a hobbit excited me until I realized that in Pathfinder a small character uses smaller dice for damage. Is it still worthwhile? (Plus fewer skills and one less feat, but the racial bonuses seem a good balance for that.) Someone mentioned Deadly Aim, but without the bonus feat, it will take a long time to get that. (After all Point Blank and Precise Shot should probably come first.) EDIT: Doh. I see now that Deadly Aim has no prerequisite other than Dexterity. Time to try this out! Are there any Halfling feats or items which counter act this size disadvantage?
Scipion del Ferro wrote:
I myself like the idea of the paladin with a bow, but I can help you out on the literary background to the idea that a knight (of which a paladin is the paragon) would not use a bow. In the Iliad, the epic poem about the Trojan war, Prince Paris is repeatedly mocked and scorned for using a bow rather than engaging in melee. Achilles, Hector and the other great heroes always waded into the thick of things with spear and sword and shield, but Paris plinked away at people with his bow. Later, the term paladin was first coined to refer to the twelve knightly companions of Charlemagne, of whom Roland was the chiefest. Throughout the entire corpus of Carolingian legends and Arthuriana, I have yet to read of a knightly hero using a bow, except to hunt. I am sure it does occur, but the focus of the poets is always the cleaving and hewing of swords and axes and the thrusting and shivering of spears. I would suggest therefore that such a code against missile weapons is purely a cultural tradition, and so would apply differently to characters from different backgrounds. Furthermore said chivalry did not apply to the vilest of enemies. In D&D terms, a paladin of Good should have no compunction about how he defeats an orc, a witch, an anti-paladin or his henchmen.
I am a purist. I often like to take rules and systems to their extremes. Therefore if I play with random rolls I want nothing other than 3d6 in order, no rerolls, no choice. Or full point buy, nothing random, nothing restrained. Either give me the oldest of D&D or the newest of Pathfinder or Fourth.
I think a paladin should behave like Sir Galahad, the Parfait Knight. Ironically I read about him in the 1970s long before I ever heard about D&D, and I found his Mary Sue perfection, intolerant attitude and lily white purity just as annoying as many players find the stereotypical paladin. But as much as I disliked him, I would never want an Arthurian epic without Galahad or a D&D world without priggish and shining paladins.
Our party was sent to negotiate with a village of orcs. We tried to parley from a position of strength, but soon found ourselves in a fight surrounded by the entire fighting force of the village. At first we tried to focus on their chieftain, hoping that his death would route the others. He however was so tough that by the time he fell, his followers were enraged by his death and encouraged by his great display of orcish prowess against a party of adventurers. Much orcish blood flowed as they attempted to annihilate the small party of invaders. Fortunately they had only one shaman to harass us with spells. Finally we somehow managed to retreat back up the road without any deaths. Later we came back with a squadron of Goliaths to clear the road, but the orcs had wisely moved camp far away.
I appreciate that you do not want your character to get all the time and that she is an agile jungle girl, but at some point there has to be a point in wearing heavy armour and carrying a shield. Fourth Edition which I love initially made the mistake of overvaluing dexterity and intelligence, which mistake they rectified with masterwork heavy armour. The main tactic for an unarmoured warrior should be to avoid face-to-face combat whenever possible: backstab, ambush and shoot them from a distance or allow the Fighter to grab their attention and then come in from a flank.
Here is my first draft of a 15 point Human Cleric of a Nature goddess (for the longbow). The campaign will probably begin with a sea voyage. S13 D10 C12 I10 W17 Ch13 HP9
Feats: Channel Smite, Guided Hand
Composite Longbow, Hide since we are on a ship. Orisons for the day: Light, Detect Magic,Create Water
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