Velcro Zipper's page

If you're talking solely about the quality and paint jobs of the minis, keep in mind that D&D minis usually look good in the poster art too. Then you open a box and your dwarf's axe is bent down to his toes and he's growing an eye out of his left cheek. Somebody is going to have to make a sacrifice and actually buy a pack of these to see if they match up to the designs shown on the webpage.

Ooo! Please let it be me! Uhm..er, I mean, these ponies are lame. Yeah, glue-factory lame. That's the ticket.

As far as the happy blurbs go, I just want some of whatever that terrier is having.

Here's a simple solution if you want more breath weapons in a fight: Add more dragons! Muahahahah!

But seriously, aren't the metabreath feats good for stuff like this? I don't have any books with me at the moment, but I think if your goal is to hammer the PCs with breath weapons (and it sounds like it is from the gist of this thread) then just have the monster take something like Maximize or Empower Breath.

I have seen the enemy and they have a squirrel.

http://www.bellasara.com/miniatures1.aspx

Apparently, they also have something called "bubble turtles" and a terrier that can smell color and sound. We may have underestimated these ponies.

Howabout expanding the list to include some weaker races to balance out the chance of becoming a more robust race. I think gray elves and xvart get a -2 Str and -2 Con (under 3.5 rules.)

Another idea is to simply have the character reroll their physical ability scores and add in the new bonuses. I've always just let it stand as is, but this could be used as a workaround if you don't want too many Str 20 humans suddenly becoming Str 24 orcs.

I remember the 2ed. version for clerics allowed characters to come back as animals like falcons and toads. However, I don't recall there being any rules for playing an animal back then so it was left up to the DM as to what to do with Rolf, the lv 10 fighter opossum.

I think it's safe to assume Construct type monsters are completely unaffected by both good and bad effects of Channel Energy. I would also rule that Living Constructs are half as affected as living creatures so something like a warforged (I know they won't be in Pathfinder but people are going to use them anyway) would be healed or harmed for half the result of the channeling.

Well, another alternative I had considered was to make the bard's 20th level performance ability based on the character's alignment (similar to a cleric's turning.) Good bards would have one ability, Evil a reverse ability and Neutral would be allowed to choose one or the other.

I suppose I just don't see how bards need an ability with the sole function of causing death. It's unprecedented. Aside from a very small number of spells that cause a minimal amount of damage, there are no bardic abilities that even scale toward causing immediate death. It just isn't what bards are about.

My other issue with Deadly Performance is the time required to pull it off. As presented in Beta, it seems the ability can used as a standard action. In other words, it only takes a bard about six seconds to create such intense joy or sorrow in a creature that it kills them. I can understand that from a spell or a physical attack, and I understand the futility of trying to argue for realism in a game of fantasy, but there's just something really anticlimatic to me about the idea of a bard rolling a high enough intiative to go first, sing a few bars of the Happy Happy Joy Joy song and Lothar of the Hill People suddenly dropping dead from sheer glee.

I suppose in the end I'll probably just make up an alternative class feature and let my players choose between the two.

I've always told my players a party is always better with a bard. I like the concept and the role they fill in a group, and that's why Deadly Performance doesn't work for me. I don't want to imagine a good-aligned bard spending 20 levels becoming the greatest performer in the land just so he can get the ability to kill things with his art. It seems rather counter-productive to me. Who is going to want to listen to you sing once they find out your voice kills people? An evil bard might take 20 levels solely for this ability and a neutral bard might decide to use it sparingly in desperate situations, but I could only imagine a good bard doing this once perhaps swearing to never sing again once the deed is done.

I know the game is mostly about killing monsters and taking their loot. I also know that most of the people I've played with don't care too much about things like character motivation, plot development and role-playing in general and rarely take 20 levels of anything (let alone bard) so this will probably never come up. However, I want a 20th level ability for bards that seems bard-like. Here's something I thought up that might work:

Proselytize (not 100% on the name but it gets the point across) - At 20th level, a bard reaches the pinnacle of her training. By giving a spectacular and passionate performance requiring a minimum of ten minutes, the bard is able to sway the thinking of a creature convincing it to give up its old way of life and take up a new path. The bard makes a Perform check and uses the result as the DC of a Will save made by her audience. Any creature that fails this save immediately converts to a new alignment equal to that of the bard. This change in alignment lasts for a number of days equal to the bard's Charisma modifier. At the end of this time, the creature makes another Will save. Failing this save makes the alignment change permanent. Targets receive a +5 circumstance bonus to their saves if their beginning alignment is diametrically opposed to the alignment of the bard. For example, a Lawful Evil creature receives a +5 bonus against the song of a Chaotic Good bard. Such creatures receive the same bonus on their secondary save. Any creature making its first save against this ability is immune to the bard's Proselytize for 24 hours. This is a mind-affecting, language dependent ability that affects 1 Hit Die of creatures per class level of the bard. Any threat or attack on the target creatures during the performance ruins the effect of this ability. The bard may combine this ability with her Fascination ability.

It might need a little tweaking or clarification, but I think this or something similar better captures the bard's role of diplomat/entertainer and it's an ability that makes sense for a bard of any alignment.

What do you all think?

As a player, I prefer to see the rules stay the same at every session but I can live with bending the rules for the sake of the plot. As a DM, I'll sacrifice the rules only if I think it will make the story more entertaining.

I suggest you ask the DM how he's going to interpret the rule so you know ahead of time, but don't be surprised or uspet if that vampire turns out to be a little more resilient when the time comes to turn him.

Bump.

A quick answer/confirmation is all I need.

Cheers!

*shakes magic kobold skull*

"All signs point to NO."

It seems to me, RAW, the way channel energy works replaces the old turn/destroy rules. In the old days, a vampire hit by a turning strong enough to double its hit dice went piff. I don't see any reason to change it. If you don't like the idea of your liches and vampires and such being in such jeopardy, try something like this: A vampire that succeeds on its Will save against Channel Energy is not destroyed if taken to 0 hit points but assumes gaseous form and must attempt to escape.

Make that a house rule or a feat for vampires and you're golden (but hopefully not a golden vampire because then Peter Cushing will destroy you.)

On July 18th the Blog entry said one of the changes in the Beta will be "Cleric domains and wizard schools now grant bonus spells instead of spell-like abilities (although they maintain their supernatural abilities)."

I'm hoping for the return of cleric domains returning to what they were of not that and something else.

Maybe I missed it, but I've got the Beta and I haven't found these bonus spells of which they speak. Does anybody know where they are?

I don't know if this has been addressed, but do clerics in Pathfinder still have access to the domain spell lists from the 3.5 PHB? I've noticed there are a few domain spells that can only be cast by clerics with the appropriate domain. It seems wrong to me that a cleric devoted to a sun deity shouldn't be able to eventually cast Sunburst or that a cleric devoted to a god of travel shouldn't have Teleport.

I like the domain powers, but I think the domain spells should at least be added to the individual cleric's spell list based on their domains if they aren't getting the old +1 domain spell from 3.5.

I have yet to actually run any of the Pathfinder adventures I already have, but I'm sure I'll figure out a way to sneak into one of these Seattle area groups if I don't run one myself. I'll have my familiar monitor this forum for signs of organization.

I vote against giving commoners a good save because they would have a harder time qualifying for the Survivor PrC from Savage Species. How else am I supposed to have a commoner with DR 5/- by level 8?

But all halflings can use slings! That means I can play a halfling commoner and have two weapon proficiencies! Surely that makes up for the loss of a +1 to hit, right? And don't forget, my halfling commoner also gets proficiency with all halfling racial weapons. All ONE of them! My halfling commoner is going to halfling skiprock the hell out of some cats! It will be glorious!

Obviously I'm being snarky. I can live with the omission in the context of halflings getting additional skill bonuses. I just think the sling/racial weapon proficiency thing is kind of like somebody eating all the skin off my KFC and handing me back the meat. I mean really. Sling proficiency? Is there a class I'm not remembering that can't use a sling? If you're going to do that, at least make the sling a more realistically portrayed weapon. Increase its range and up the damage a bit. A good slinger can accurately hit a human target at 30 meters (about 100ft) and, at close range, a sling bullet can penetrate thin steel.

Maybe give halflings the Rapid Reload feat in regard to slings so they can at least move and fire.