Tilquinith's page

I also have a question for you, the treasure listed for the green dragon chyfon has page numbers referenced. Where are these from? I'm guessing perhaps the Magic Item Compendium but I don't have it in front of me at the moment to double check.

So guys im making some personal changes adding prestige classes and making some of the encounters more challenging

Are you guys interested in my personal additions or not cause ive been changing my personal notes so I might want to keep an old copy of the originals without my extra changes. What do you guys think?

I'd be interested in both versions actually, this AP is what I plan on using for my groups first expirience with Pathfinder using the official rules come August. If you could send them to me in word, I'd appreciate it.

Tilquinith AT gmail dot com

Thanks

On another note, depending on who the offender in question was, I may know him, If it's who I think it may be. If this is the case he plays in my home 3.5 game and I find myself suspecting him of cheating an awful lot. He also tends to be disruptive and likes to find loopholes in the rules to exploit things for maximum cheese (as he calls it). Now this person and the one I'm thinking of may not be the same, but if it is, I'm pretty sure he was well aware of what he was doing. It's always seemed to be his policy in our home game to wait until I catch him on something.

My 2 cents, and it may be someone else.

Hmm, any chance of more of this?

I gotta say, overall I love everything you've done JB, to make my favorite game that much better. Some of it may not have struck me as that great at first, but after cogitating on it a bit and mulling over the pros and cons of each, I can't see anything thats been a change for the worse.

I have my PFRPG and Bestiary both preordered, and can't wait to get it in the mail so I can take a first hand look.

Good Job everyone at Paizo!

After playtesting my house rules for quite a while(currently session 19) I've come to the realization like someone posted earlier that less really is more. And once my current campaign (Barrow of the forgotten king through Fortress of the Yaunti path) concludes I plan on doing away with all or most of them and starting one of paizo's AP's with the beta rules as I've already preordered the core rules due in august.
I've noticed seemingly small changes, or even changes made for flavor can have the effect of severely complicating other points in the game and can end up quite gamebreaking, mainly in reference to my armor with DR rule i've been using. Gah, makes spellcasters have a really difficult time hurting the party tanks. Ahh well, I'm looking forward to a fresh start once the party either succeeds or fails in the Fortress of the Yaunti.

By the way, has anyone else seen how much of a tpk possibility the last guy in that is? Man he's killer.

I must say, I've been very entertained by this thread. Keep up the good work. I really like your posting style.

I'd have to say I'm rather disappointed that the players guide won't be available in print anymore. Given, I have the resources to print out in full color for relatively cheap, but I just like the feel of an actual finished product better.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Paizo's contribution to the GM Screen hall of fame.
I definitely give my vote for a landscape format. Although I'd like something along the lines of the hackmaster shield, very impressive, although not all of it I considered useful.
It seems unless it's a really cool screen I usually just don't use one at all, or have it set to the side and only use it for referencing conditions and such. But my players really liked the hackmaster shield and so did I.

I'd be interested. Prefered class would be cleric unless that spots filled already, otherwise any would do.

Well, I'm certainly glad I made it to the pathfinder society game on sunday. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I'll keep checking out the forums here to see when there might be another game soon.

I don't suppose there is a regular thread or perhaps a website where I could find info on a regular schedule for these games?

Sorry you weren't able to attend. We're also running at the Critical Hits gamestore, on Sunday, November 16th. Will you be able to make that?

That I can probably arrange to attend. Any suggestions on what kind of character's I should make to bring?

Also what time is this set up for?

2. If you apply this on top of crits, combat becomes vastly more random in nature: a lucky shot is better than consistent hits. This puts PCs at a disadvantage, because they have to survive multiple encounters (with chances for a massive "penetration" and/or large crit) in each, instead of being expected to die after one fight. On the other hand, if only PCs get this benefit, your game world feels artificial and arbitrary. If you and your players like dice penetration, I suggest they replace crits, rather than adding to them.

This particular addition is actually something I added by popular demand of the players involved, they seem to like the extra thrill and chance of doing some massive damage if they get lucky. And so far they haven't complained when it's happened to themselves.

6. See 2., above. Adding to the effects of crits makes combat dicier, which puts PCs at a disadvantage when compared with monsters. That's an excellent thing to have if your campaign rewards avoidance of combat; Victory Games' 007 rules, for example, are rigged so that firefights almost always get you killed, therefore punishing players who skip stealth and just attack. For standard D&D modules and even Paizo adventure paths, it will result in TPKs even more frequent than the all-too-common ones we already see.

This is something else the players seem to enjoy, although it's something I added on my own although I got the idea from another friend of mine.

Thanks for all the replies so far, you've all given me some great ideas.

As for the extra hp stuff to help players survive, I want to assure everyone that there are still plenty of deaths either through misfortune or poor planning on the part of the players.

You're replies have given me some good ideas for firing into melee.
Here we go...

Firing into Melee:
If trying not to hit allies when firing missile weapons into melee apply a -4 penalty to the attack roll. If this results in a miss by 5 or more then roll randomly to determine the actual target and roll another attack roll to see if the shot hits and causes damage.

If you choose not to take the -4 penalty to the attack, then roll randomly to determine your target and roll the attack as normal.

Effects of the archery feats:

Precise Shot:(essentially unchanged) this removes the -4 penalty for firing into melee, however you will still end up hitting a random target if you miss by 5 or more.

Improved Precise Shot: (as normal with the additional benefit) reduces the chance of hitting a random target, now this will only occur if you miss by 10 or more.

I will try this updated rule for my next session and see how it runs. I may decide to reduce the missed by range so as to increase the chance for this happening depending on how my playtests go.

You guys are a great source for new ideas and good advice, keep it coming.

I have to ask, do you intend to use all of these ? That could be problematic. For example if you use both HP modifiers, you are going to have very high hp on low level characters which will in turn effect the CR's of encounters. Also using all the house combat rules together is going to lengthen the time it takes to run encounters, with the Armor degradation, new rules for missle combat,etc...it will be tough for even seasoned vets to keep it all straight. Dont get me wrong alot of your rules seem like cool additions to try out, but all of them at once in a single game could get messy. The only one I dont like as a stand alone is the Read/Write skill, this screams of unneeded skill point theft from your players. I know you are looking at historical accuracy here, but in a game with magic and dragons sometimes you just need to know where to draw the line. This isn't 3.5 that one skill point at first level means a good bit more than it used to.

Other than the missile combat rule which I haven't decided on a good mechanic for, so far I use all of these yes. Perhaps encounters do last longer, I'm not terribly sure they do. Although my players still seem to enjoy most of them except for the read/write one. Which I understand with pathfinder means something a bit more expensive. Perhaps I could just dispense with it altogether but it still seems wrong that everyone can read and write when I know that's patently unrealistic. Not just because of a lack of education but also because it isn't really a necessity for any class that doesn't use spellbooks or holy scripture.

As for the extra hp's, those are the only additional hp's they get above the norm, the +3/+2/+1 die bump merely lets them get the maximum possible result on the die. The kicker I also give to the monsters although the die bump I do not. As both good and bad get the kicker I don't see it changing the CR appreciably. It just cuts down on the one shots to the players as most lower level monsters can't do quite enough damage to kill most players outright.

Thanks for the feedback, did you have any ideas on what might make them better? And I will consider just tossing the read/write requirement as it probably isn't worth the battle of annoying my players with.

Unfortunately it seems my finances are already stretched too thin this weekend for me to afford going to the con. Perhaps I can find one to attend at a later date at the flgs down there.

I do believe that in order to be eligible for an AoO you have to threaten your opponent which requires for you to be armed with a weapon that does lethal damage, unarmed without something to cause lethal damage you don't threaten and therefore can't take advantage of AoO's. This I believe is why the whip mentioned by the OP does not threaten any squares. It generally can't cause lethal damage if I'm remembering correctly. The spiked chain however does cause lethal damage and does threaten all squares within it's reach. And as several other posters have pointed out there are many other weapons you can use with fewer feats to accomplish the same effect as the chainfighting trip monkey. Also they've pointed out several weapon/feat combinations that are even more "broken" but those aren't generally complained about.

All in all, I don't believe the spiked chain as it is currently in PF needs any nerfing. Also in the times that I've tried playing a trip monkey I've never come out to be any more powerful then my fellow party members and I don't believe our games would be generally termed as munchkinish in nature.

While I do like the idea of bonus hitpoints for starting characters, I also believe that everything that applies to characters must also be able to apply to monsters as well.

To this end in my own games instead of using a bonus based on race and having to come up with said bonus for each possible race. I simply provide my players a bonus based on their characters size which I also apply to the monsters as well.

Collossal +30
Gargantuan +25
Huge +20
Large +15
Medium +10
Small +5
Tiny and smaller +0

This seems to work fairly well in my own playtests without seeming to make combats too terribly much longer due to the badguys having more hitpoints too.

Okay, I've dm'd on and off for several years now and over that time I've come across several house rules that I've liked or that I've borrowed from other games. Here's a few I'd like the community to look over and tell me what they think of them and any suggestions for making them better or more streamlined.

1.Hit Points: Your characters will begin with maximum hit points at 1st level character creation. When rolling for HP upon gaining 2nd level, you may bump the die roll by 3 points up to the maximum possible result on that die. This procedure will continue at 3rd and 4th level lowering the adjustment by 1 point each time. Thus you would modify the die by 2 points at 3rd and 1 point at 4th.

I will also be using whats called a Hit Point Kicker, an option I've borrowed from Hackmaster. Each creature and player receives bonus hp at creation based on their size. This helps promote character survival at those early fragile stages.

Fine 0
Diminutive 0
Tiny 0
Small 5
Medium 10
Large 15
Huge 20
Gargantuan 25
Colossal 30

2.Dice Penetration: Basically how this works is whenever a die is used to roll damage to hitpoints or healing of the same then if the maximum possible result is rolled you get to roll another die of the same size with a cumulative -1 modifier to the total damage dealt or healed. The -1 modifier therefore continues to accrue each time another die is rolled effectively capping the maximum possible so as to not make it too ridiculous. For example, suppose your basic fighter attacks with a greatsword and rolls his 2d6 for damage, say he rolls a 2 and a 6. He then rolls another d6-1 because he penetrated on the 6. If he rolls a six on the penetration dice then he rolls another d6 but now with a -2.

3.Armor Damage/Damage Reduction: I use a slightly modified rule from Hackmaster which allows a character's armor to absorb some of the damage from a hit that the character otherwise would have suffered. The armor takes this damage instead, requiring it to be repaired at some point. Armor will slowly lose a level of AC protection as it continues to take more damage, until the point where it becomes unusable and no longer provides any AC bonus at all. The amount of damage that a suit of armor will protect against will vary depending on material and quality but will always provide a DR of at least 1 until it reaches 0 armor points. This DR is subtracted from each die roll of damage that the character is effected by.

This DR is also effective against spells as well (except for the force only spells that are able to hit incorporeal creatures with no miss chance).

AC_____|___1_|___2_|___3_|___4_|___5_|___6_|___7_|___8_|___9_|
HP_____|__10_|__10_|__10_|__20_|__20_|__20_|__30_|__30_|__30_|
DR_____|___1_|___1_|___1_|___1_|___1_|___1_|___2_|___2_|___3_|
THP____|__10_|__20_|__30_|__50_|__70_|__90_|_120_|_150_|_180_|

Modifiers for special materials
Adamantine: 1/3 more hp per AC level, additional DR= 1/light, 2/medium, and 3/heavy per AC level.
Darkwood: no change, just lighter than steel.
Dragonhide: no change in hp, but one extra DR at each AC level.
Cold Iron: no change.
Mithral: no change in hp, but one extra DR at each AC level.
Silver, Alchemical: no change.

I have'nt quite got the hard/fast rules for what it will cost to repair the armor as of yet. My players usually find a wizard with a repair spell to do it for them. This works for now but if they have a capable wizard in there own party then it lessens the cost impact it's supposed to have on the characters. So I probably need to come up with something to remedy that situation.

4.Languages: Speak Language shall be considered a class skill for everyone. At character creation, the player may choose to learn a number of languages equal to there intelligence bonus from the list of bonus languages for their chosen race at no cost of skill points. This does not have to include the common trade language, but it is recommended. Any languages learned after character creation must be purchased with ranks in the Speak Language skill.

The maximum number of languages a character can learn will be limited to twice their intelligence modifier, minimum of 1 unless they possess a very low intelligence score at which point they speak a very simple form of their native tongue. If they have an extremely low score then they most likely communicate through hand gestures and grunts.

This is something I use just because it seems unreal for someone with a low intelligence to know as many languages as they feel like spending points in. For instance they have a hard time adding 2+2=4 but they can speak fluently in 12 different languages. Seems a little silly to me.

5.Reading/Writing: Characters do not automatically know how to read and write. If you wish to be able to read/write a language, you must spend skill points in Read/Write in order to do so. Also barbarians are restricted from learning to read or write during character creation, although they can learn the skill later if they so choose.

Read/Write is a class skill for the following classes: Bard, Cleric, Monk, Paladin, Rogue, and Wizard.

With Pathfinder's slightly different skill point system I'm not sure how to implement this now.

6.Criticals: For now I will be using the regular critical threat range and then roll to confirm. I will also however be using a roll to confirm for critical misses. The critical miss roll will involve any roll of a natural 1 normally. If your character has a negative modifier from dexterity this range will be increased by that amount. If an attack roll falls within that range, the player rolls again to confirm just like a critical hit, however if you miss the defenders armor class on the confirm roll than it will be a critical miss, if you hit the defenders armor class on the confirm roll it will simply be a regular miss.

The actual roll to decide what critical effect of a miss will happen is made by me behind the screen. However I will list below what the die range and effects will be, subject to change as I strive to make it a better system.

1-5 = Hit your closest ally
6-10 = Damage your weapon in some way
11-15 = Drop or throw your weapon
16-20 = Open yourself up to an attack of oppurtunity by your opponent

7.Firing Into Melee: I seriously plan on revamping the rules for this as I really can't find a good explanation for what happens when people try this. I will also need to incorporate the effects of the couple feats that touch on this kind of thing so that it still works smoothly as the game progresses into higher levels.

Essentially I feel there should be the chance of hitting any combatant of a melee when firing into one, as they tend to move around ducking and dodging their opponents swings. Nearly every game, I still get the crazy low level archer that wants to fire into melee when their own party members might take the arrow instead of their opponent. And currently the rules don't seem to frown on this at all. They just give you a -4 to hit and if you miss then you don't hit anything.

Ok thats pretty much all of them. Tell me what you think, and hopefully you can give me some suggestions to help streamline them and make them better.

Howdy, Tilquinith.

It's not playtesting for the Pathfinder role-playing game, but we'll be running a couple of Pathfinder Society scenarios (which are 3.5 adventures taking place in Golarion) at ICON this next weekend. Friday evening and Sunday morning.

Thanks for the info, I actually wasn't previously aware of this con being held. I'll have to see if my finances and schedule will allow me to attend.

You wouldn't by chance happen to know the start times or other info I may need in order to join a game if I manage to make it down there on sunday. Sadly I work friday so sunday is my only real option.

I believe the main reason that firearms aren't going to overtake bows and crossbows should have more to do with their cost to make and use than with how effective they are. Even in our own history guns overtook many older weapons but not very quickly. Plate eventually disappeared because of the penetration factor but then again heavy crossbows were pretty effective for that too. One advantage of a pistol that comes to mind is the ability to conceal something that small and be packing the punch of a heavy crossbow. Also it's pretty easy to teach someone how to use both guns and crossbows where training someone with a longbow takes much longer and is harder to attain a necesary skill level.

The point is that the mechanic for making sure guns don't over run all the older weapons is in effect going to be the cost involved. Most rulers aren't going to be willing to or won't be able to afford to outfit their guards and soldiers with expensive guns and blackpowder. As long as you keep the cost up it will still be a rare sight to see someone take guns as their chosen weapon.

I do believe they should have some advantage though in game mechanics other than the fluff of looking cool and the boom factor for a goblin.

Just recently discovered paizo's wonderful work and am looking for a steady game I might be able to join on the weekends, preferably on sunday as I usually have a 2nd ed or 3.5 game on saturday. I've printed off a copy of the beta release and had it spiral bound and I like what I see so far.

I live in hiawatha on the north side of Cedar Rapids so I'm willing to drive to Iowa City as well or anywhere reasonably close, up to 45 minutes or so away.

Not really interested in online or play by post. I'd much rather have the fun of sitting around a gaming table. I can also GM part time if necesary but I'd much rather play a character.