gamer-printer's page

Yeah, I go the other way around. Commission full page art, then reduce to fit where it needs to go - half page, quarter page or full page.

Run a cheap Kickstarter, say $1000 for 30 days with the goal of paying for a years operation of Endzeitgeist.com! Maybe you could twist some publishers' arms to donate some PDF materials as contributor content - I'm sure many publishers would do this. And you're bound to get more than $1000 (in the first day), I am sure. Something to think about anyway.

Once the site is 'paid for', experiment on the best ways to monetize your site so it pays for itself.

I've seen Kickstarters to pay for hot dog stands, so though your Kickstarter isn't a game, it probably still qualifies.

I'd back it, even donate content as well.

While I too agree that tagging past reviews is important. As a part of Rite Publishing, and having just released my first product (I know not #30 Ancestral Relics, that will come soon enough), and I'm desparate to see a review of Haiku of Horror: Autumn Moon Bath House - I'll give you the time to get the things you need done first.

Well, I took the initiative in having Caedwyr load up some of Rite Publishing's Kaidan setting of Japanese horror into d20pfsrd.com - including the archetypes, traits, feats, prestige classes of both Way of the Samurai and Way of the Yakuza, plus we're now getting Kaidan's races there with traits, archetypes, feats and racial paragon classes from In the Company of Tengu and In the Company of Henge. The content from In the Company of Kappa is in the queue, but not loaded yet.

As more material is released, we will add more content to d20pfsrd.com

Whoops, you're right, still, unless I'm mistaken there were other feats that added extra AoO beyond Robilar's Gambit. It's been about 3 years since I've run 3x - I've forgotten more than I realized...!

It has been shown that muslim "scientists" about 2000 years ago constructed a steam engine.

And how could that be, when the Muslim religion isn't 2000 years old (you're about 600 years off). There was a steam engine constructed in Samarkand, but that was about 1200 years ago - maybe that's what you're thinking...

I've been working on a Mask of Disguise used by actors, the cursed version steals the wearer's actual face. With the mask he can appear as any being within the confines of 'alter person', but cannot apppear as himself ever again. His face has been consumed by the mask. This might be too cursed for you, but it's what I intend to have my cursed disguise item to do. The mask will no doubt eventually be published as part of the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror by Rite Publishing.

Prayers for Joshua.

My mother suffered a stroke about 5 years ago, so I too know the awefulness of it. It can be a struggle to recover from this, I wish him all the luck in the world.

Honestly, what keeps us from getting a Kaidan Bestiary out is the money to pay for art, which is my round-about way of saying we won't create a bestiary without art. Art for monsters is that important.

In five days of voting (I took a couple days off this week) I've only seen mine twice. Right off in the fifth or sixth pairing I saw it, then I didn't see it for three more days and 40 hours voting at that time. Now it's five days of my voting participation and haven't seen it since.

I saw my item in the fifth or sixth pairing, and then have never seen it again, yet I see items I've voted down show up five or six times now, and some pairings repeated. It's difficult to continue onward without getting bored or tired of the wait...

Is it evil to murder a demon lord?

No. The discussion based on the OP surrounds the murder of sentient "living" beings of nature, including humanoids. This does not apply to most outsiders, including demon/daemon/devils, undead, etc. And as TriOmegaZero states it demon lords can't be murderered. For murder to be applied the victim must be innocent. A demon lord is never innocent.

And really this discussion does not really apply to 'in game', rather the philosophical discussion of murder in general. The question was is murder always evil. Not is murder evil in a Pathfinder game, which I think is contingent on the GM and players at a given table. How much moral relativism is applied to your game, differs from table to table.

The title of the thread and the OP's post cover two different issues. So to answer in the order presented.

Is murder evil? Yes, always.

But, is killing of sentient life, in the name of good, bla-bla-bla... No, not necessarily, it can be evil, but not always. Killing and murder are two different things.

I think your thread title will definitely cause problems in this discussion since, it's not regarding the same subject as the OP.

The sixth commandment of the Bible is different based on which version you're reading. In the King James version it's thou shalt not kill. However in the original Greek version (the first written version) it's thou shalt not do murder.

If you can't use the proper definition of the word of concern or even the right word, you can never get a clear answer.

How to avert the same problem with evil campaign that always occurs.

PC kill eachother cause they R evil

I've never had this problem. Our players don't use their alignments to define relationships with each other nor with NPCs. Only encounters with unknowns or monsters of expecting opposing beliefs/alignments. Relying on your alignments for in-group politics for good or evil groups is just silly.

But then again, nobody deliberately does acts to disrupt the party anyway, so it's really not an issue.

The best villains are often in love with an innocent they can't control, friends/associates in high places (of conflicting alignments) that they don't want to disappoint. Just because one is evil, doesn't mean kill everybody and be a friend to no one. Evil people need friends too.

Mind control is evil, and charm person takes away a persons ability to control their intentions. While physical torture is more brutal perhaps, it's no less invasive than charming someone.

I've seen many more arguments, which better prove the point, by attempting to "charm person" or other mind-control effect on a fellow PC. Would you consider such as being fair and non-invasive. For most, doing such a thing is truly despiccable. Bearing that in mind, what's the difference of doing that to an NPC?

For an evil party, no problem, but as a normal tactic by a non-evil group, I might consider a change of alignment, by the PC perpetrator should that happen on my table.

I know you weren't intending for alignment issues, but 'charm person' is an alignment upsetting act. Others might think differently, but this is how it is at our table.

Rite Publishing will be working on a Way of the Shinobi guide designed for the Kaidan (Japanese horror) setting for PFRPG some time next year. In it there will be 'shinobi' archetypes for monk, ninja, samurai and other classes, new feats, new ki powers, a shinobi prestige class, rules for designing shinobi houses and more.

Just select a race like henge or kitsune to have built in shapechange abilities, before applying that to a ninja class.

Actually the Qinggong Monk archetype, in many ways stole my ideas (though Paizo didn't know they stole it...) for my intended shinobi monk.

We have 'ghost monk' archetype with some of those ideas, already published in #30 Haunts for Kaidan. Currently $1.60 for the PDF, today is the last day on Paizo's Black Friday sale.

The party hears stories of something killing sprites in the forest, the sprites have made it known that any who attack, kill or eat sprites will be duly cursed. The party finds an old woman on the road hefting a huge sack of turnips (bag is actually larger and heavier that what any old woman should be able to carry.) She claims to be sore, having just got away from an attack by ogres. Party seeks out ogres and defeats them, but learns that they were already bested by the old woman. Upon finding her again on the road, she offers her turnips as payment. After eaten, are discovered to be altered bodies of sprites not turnips. Now the party is cursed. Old woman was a hag.

Half if not more of the Arthurian tales are actually fey tales that have migrated into stories about humans. The Green Knight is a classic fey tale - Knight visits the round table, challenges Arthur to single combat, and promises anything, if he can be beaten in combat. However demands to take his challenger as a slave in fairy land if he wins in a year and a day. Sir Gawain offers himself as combatant instead of Arthur. Green Knight says Gawain can give the first blow without Green Knight's defense. Gawain cuts off the head of the Green Knight. Green Knight picks up his head, (head speaks), I will be back for you in a year and a day...

Some say Guinevere is actually a fey. The romance between Guinevere and Lancelot is a human/fey love affair.

Brownies were originally men of the forest (possibly bronze age people that weren't wiped out by iron age people) who come out of the hills seeking work. They will accept cream/milk and bread and honey as payment for chores on the farm. If ever 'thanked' or given gold, the brownie considers that a threat and never returns. Giving gold or a thank you for favor is considered binding fey into a contract, which they consider anathma to their kind. Contracts are human things.

Some fey are actually human ghosts who have degenerated into faireis. Some are river deities and other ancient Celtic deities, still remembered by the locals, but have become fey in later times. Some were the people of the land before the conquerors came.

Knowing a given fey's true name gives over of them - hence Rumplestiltskin.

Queen Beatrice and her yellow and black knights can be run into on the road, heading for their castle - actually a beehive as Queen Bea and her yellow and black bee knights. They try to recruit humans to come along and get turned into bees.

Honestly, I don't see much paladin hate on the boards or much anywhere else. Yes, in every paladin thread there are a few that cast stones at them, but I've never seen true hatred to paladins on any wide spread level. On the other hand I've seen plenty of anti-lawful good discussions, but this isn't the providence of paladins alone - just a common alignment issue.

Truth is most people in the real world don't fit within a specific alignment, most being more or less neutral-ish with good and lawful tendencies. Lawful good is so stringent, it's difficult for most people to relate to such an extreme, so it tends to chafe at peoples perceptions of what alignment really means.

In our games, finding a paladin in the party is more common than seeing a cleric or wizard (most arcane spellcasters seem to be sorcerers and most healing tends to be done by a CLW wand.) So it probably varies with every group. No paladin hate in our group.

Many human fighting styles are based on watching animals fight, as if they are experts and we're learning their combat techniques. Also animals would know when the predator is making a bite attack, there may be an opportunity to bite/claw/strike back. This isn't complex analytical thinking, rather instinctual combat. You don't need a human brain to be successful at combat. As far as techniques go, animals learn from their mistakes and successes. If making a 5' step is more effective in a given combat situation, they animal will make a 5' step.

You've got a good start here. Perhaps you ought to check out the Cartographers' Guild if you haven't. There are many tutorials and maps in progress to help you.

It depends on your familiarity with your software and skillset, I like many have been creating my own game maps for many years, and discovered that I was quite talented at cartography and really fast at doing it. While I dabble in photorealistic style, publishers seem to be prefer my artistic hand-drawn and digital finished hybrid style.

Paizo even commissioned me to design the city of Kasai map of Minkai for Jade Regent #6, one of the 3 maps from the Dragon Empires Map Folio. Here's a link to my hand-drawn version of that map - City of Kasai.

Note: this map features over 8500 hand-drawn buildings, the total map taking me only 16 hours to complete. I didn't finish the map, as Paizo's own inhouse cartographer did that to better match the AP's existing maps.

I've been commissioned to create RPG maps for a dozen different small publishers including Rite Publishing. I even created almost 300 map objects for the Modern Map set for Campaign Cartographer - so I'm a game cartography pro...

Although I have a portfolio, it hasn't been kept updated. Here's a thread on the Xara Talkgraphics forums (the software I use for my maps) where I have most of my maps and other works posted.

No offense, but lots of people (me included) do not play classes for the most optimal game advantages. Many of us play a class to play a role or an idea that we like. Personally I feel witches have lots of flavor and fit themes that other spellcasters seem too vanilla to fit.

As Ossian666 mentions, witches are the best debuffers in the game, with Cackle being able to extend the durations of other debuffing hexes. So it's not the suboptimal choice that you feel that it is.

Really, our group plays sorcerers before wizards, and clerics almost never, as they don't fit the themes my players are interested. A wand of CLW is more common than clerics in our group. Paladins being the most common 'healer' class ever played by anyone in our group.

Since all our adventures are homebrews. We tend to balance encounters with the playing group, and not force suboptimal choices into overly challenging encounters/adventures that cater to standard groups that might be more closely fitting a PFS adventure or other published module. Our PCs do not feel suboptimal in any way.

Several are making an argument based on the name of the spell, not the mechanic of the spell. Uncontrollable and Laughter is just a flavorful idea on what the spell seems to do. The spell has nothing to do with anything 'uncontrollable', nor 'laughing'. The spell only causes you to fall prone and forced to make a save so as not to lose a full round action, etc.

If you're trying to define the title, not the defined spell mechanic, you're seeing it wrong. The spell name means nothing really, only what the spell does mechanically is what matters.

It seems some are reading too much into the name of the spell.

The 'bad' stigma for 3PP applies to 3x 3PP only, never to Pathfinder 3PP, at least so far PF 3pp tends to be far more concerned with balance issues. Arguably some 3PP like Rite Publishing and Super Genius Games are better balanced at rules than Paizo itself.

While you might not be looking to do an adventure in a dark fantasy Japan setting, Rite Publishing's Curse of the Golden Spear trilogy of adventures focus on ghost stories, insane serial killers, exotic monster encounters, and heavy flavor in dark story concepts. Many compare Kaidan to a cross between Ravenloft and Oriental Adventures. The adventures are designed for 4 players of 5th level (going up to 8th level by the end of the third adventure) - and the PCs are standard characters from a typical European style nation visiting the exotic far east.

All 3 adventures in this intro adventure arc covers different aspects of horror. The first adventure, The Gift, is more gothic horror in flavor with 2 very demented haunted locations, among many combat and roleplaying opportunities. The second and third adventure, Dim Spirit and Dark Path, are more survival horror scenarios - getting chased constantly, losing your guide, having a ghost attached to the party and much more. There are hints built into all the adventures at keeping the PCs in the terror mood.

Look at the adventures and read the reviews - these adventures are critically acclaimed.

Check out all available Kaidan products, here. Also look at #30 Haunts for Kaidan, which is in a different category, but still a part of Kaidan.

Also, before spending a dime on Kaidan material, consider we have FREE one-shot adventure (runs about 3.5 hours) called Frozen Wind - to give you an idea what to expect from Kaidan product line.

Plus we are currently running a Kickstarter project for the Kaidan Campaign Setting guides.

Consider that my own publishing efforts come from something very similar to your situation, just a couple years ago.

Instead of becoming a publisher myself, I did a search for publishing companies willing to let me publish my setting, adventures and supplements under their label, with access to writers, artists, editors, and an agreeable contract with them for share in profits.

Steve Russell of Rite Publishing turned out to be the man and company I could work with (and he was interested in my project), and have released 10 publications over the last year, and now we have a Kaidan Campaign Setting Kickstarter. Note: my setting is Kaidan a feudal Japanese horror setting.

Send your setting/product ideas to the top 3pp companies, ask for interest. If something comes up, then terms between you must be determined and you move forward from there. It's your idea, and no one is going to steal it.

Going as an imprint under another publisher is just another way of getting your material published, where you don't have to assume all the costs, you can get access to quality freelancers with whom they hire, and have their reputation (and ready market) behind you.

I thought about doing it on my own, but being an unknown and lacking the experience to know how to best schedule, market, outsource my intended products. It was important to me to get it right, but I didn't want to screw it up, cost me a bundle, and show only loss.

I chose a less risky way.

And from my experience, publishing a setting is expensive, publishing a set of adventures is expensive also, but less so. First I published a trilogy of adventures, and then a series of smaller product supplements with less costs. Based on their success of these I was building a market of those interested in my products and setting ideas, eventually allow me to finally attempt to publish the setting. Your case may be different, but just something to consider.

Your Yakuza links right back to this thread.

Personally, I'd be kind of interested in the Yakuza supplement for when we enter Minkai. Of course I'm just playing in it, not running it so I'd have to show my GM.

Whoops! Here ya go - Way of the Yakuza supplement.

My mixed chain and plate, essentially plate mail weighed 120 lbs - while I only weigh 135 lbs. It was 10 gauge steel. While I could stand around or walk in it for over an hour at a time. In actual combat (with rattan swords), a fight lasting a few minutes was tiring. If it lasted five minutes, you are almost completely exhausted. Mind you, some were trained better and could last longer, but only measured in minutes, not long at all.

Regarding the SCA, some might claim that swinging and getting hit by a rattan sword isn't the same as a steel sword. True, but the blow is full force with the goal of penetrating your armor if it were steel. Even if you can easily 'survive' when your helmet gets hit - your bell is still rung.

By Samurais in fantasy, do you mean Sengoku samurai/battlefield samurai (look at my cool lamellar, my scary helm, my horse, my yari, my sword and bow and all my followers), or duellists/urban samurai in kimonos against the yakuza (near naked gods with swords)?

Rite Publishing's Way of the Samurai covers all those periods with extensive samurai options to fill them. It depends on what best fits your needs.

Kaidan the setting this was actually designed for is pre-sengoku in development - horse archers. The Yabusame samurai archetype is just that.

For Sengoku Era samurai there are the Nitojutsu Sensei (2 weapons master) samurai archetype is based on Miyamoto Musashi the ronin 2 weapons master. For those edging towards Nobunaga warfare, included is the Teppou Bushi - a samurai and gunslinger archetype.

Edo Period/Tokugawa Era samurai aren't really accomodated well, as we're edging towards modern times, however the Yojimbo ranger archetype is both a bodyguard with iaijutsu combat style as an option that somewhat reflects the dueling style samurai of the Edo period, though could fit just as well in earlier times.

More than that, Way of the Samurai covers many class types to fit different samurai niches: yamabushi are ascetic monk paladins, court wizards skilled in origami spellcasting and feature shikigami familiars comprise the enigmatic Onmyoji.

For those looking for political intrigues at court with courtiers several options are made available - the kuge is an aristocratic samurai with more courtly skills than the typical samurai, while the bugyo prestige class is a samurai with an official appointment to a position of power.

We the developers of Kaidan wanted to create the complete picture of samurai - and we think we accomplished just that.

Well it's been a long time since I've worn armor (25+ years ago), but I've worn chain-mail, mixed chain and plate, plate armor all while a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. I've even swung a rattan sword and wielded a shield in all those armors.

All were restrictive in some way, some worse than others. All lessened my mobility and my dexterity to a degree - like trying to tie shoe laces with heavy gloves on.

The least heavy of the armors still weighed about 120 pounds spread across the body, but still more than 3/4 of my own actual weight.

In my experience there is no swim skill when wearing armor, only a "sink" skill... even if you can touch the bottom and keep your head above water, it's terribly affecting any kind of mobility. You can barely walk in neck deep water, let alone trying to swim.

I only had about a year of training with combat in armor, so not expert like a true armored combatant. I found armor to be restricting to mobility and dexterity. I'm sure articulated full plate might be more mobile than the others, but I've never worn such armor to know better.

Mark Hoover wrote:

[long list of cool encounters]

None of those cool encounters make use of the haunt mechanics. Literally none of them. Not once is there mentioned a single way in which those encounters are made more mechanically interesting by using the codified rules for haunts.

Sure, you could use narrowly-defined haunt stat blocks for those encounters, but there wasn't a single point at which I read one of your cool encounter ideas and said, "Good thing we have this complex, non-integrated haunt sub-system so I can finally pull something like that off."

The phantom shift mechanics from AD&D 2nd Edition were much more robust than the haunt mechanics. A phantom shift was an effect sometimes found near a poltergeist's lair that created an illusion of a past event. If the PCs attempt to attack the illusion or it attempts to attack them, the illusion ends. The PCs are otherwise free to interact with the past event as if they were actually there for as long as the phantom shift lasts. That's it. No additional rules. No stat blocks. Just something creepy cool that non-hack-and-slash PCs can interact with in an open-ended manner. Now that's a mechanic with some serious storytelling potential. Haunts, by comparison, not so much.

But a haunt containing a programmed illusion as it's triggered effect will do exactly what you describe above, and still constitute a valid haunt. A haunt does not have to be a harmful spell. The programmed illusion might show clues as to the manner of malevolent activity that caused the larger evil where such haunts manifest.

And not all haunt effects can be 'positive energied' away. Say the haunt effect is 'Bestow Curse'. No amount of healing or positive energy is going to make the curse go away. It still takes a Remove Curse of the appropriate DC. The positive energy could prevent the haunt to cause the curse by preventing it from manifesting, but does nothing as an after effect.

Spells and cantrips like ghost sound, animate object, excrutiating touch, summon spells, walls of fire - while some of these could cause damage (fighting a summoned monster, walking though a wall of fire), all are viable effects for a haunt, and none of which can instantly kill. All can be effective for telling a story and revealing clues.

It seems to me, that most of the detractors only consider killing spells as viable haunt effects, thus all haunts are "PCs lose now" effects and that just isn't so. Look at the spell lists, there are plenty that do not kill and all are viable haunt effects.

Note this book is 52 pages long, almost 30% larger than our Way of the Yakuza supplement that preceded it.

If you're looking to expand the options for the Samurai class from Ultimate Combat, then this book is for you. However, in Kaidan, the social castes are significant, and the Samurai caste includes lots more than just samurai warriors, which is why samurai caste gunslinger, paladin, ranger, and wizard archetypes are made available to you in this supplement.

GMs should find Chapter 3 - Creating a Samurai Clan a wonderful tool for designing your own custom and highly detailed samurai clans. Know what the opposition is like, or know your own clan in great detail.

I hope you guys like the map I created for this - the Minkai map I created for Jade Regent #6, influenced the design of this town.

Also, unmentioned above, I've replicated 36 actual samurai house crests (kammon) made available (without actual family names) so your samurai can choose the crest of his own clan. These are authentic family crests to make your game feel more real.

I can't wait for the release!

I've been commissioned to update the Cerulean Seas world map, as the first of possibly more maps for the setting...

I'd go as far as saying that no PF 3pp wants the label 'creator of unbalanced, nor over powered abilities', to the point that our concern for balance is greater than Paizo's own concern for it.

While Frank Carr wrote most of the gazetteer of the City of Kasai, I (Michael Tumey) authored several locations specific to the original map of the City of Kasai that I created for the Jade Regent AP, as a lineart hand-drawn map.

Some background information: when I was discussing the design needs for Kasai, with Wes Schneider, I knew that large east Asian urban areas are always sectioned into a rectangular design of canals. All feudal period cities had them. But Wes wanted meandering paths and roads that led to interesting locations and hidden alcoves. So I compromised by suggesting that the original town, before Kasai became a city did not feature canals and simply followed the river bank and terrain, being mostly located in the southern quarters of the city. As the town grew, especially after the emperor moved to Kasai and made it it's capital, the canals were cut as an afterthought. This is why the curvy streets of Kasai end in odd angles with the long straight streets paralleling the canals.

As I designed this map, to lessen the monotony of drawing hundreds (over 850) mostly rectangular buildings to fill the city, I really thought about where to place the next temple, shrine, park, cemetery, market area - to make the map seem functional to a real living city (plus the story aspects of what goes on there keeps me from getting bored.)

I created Area 10: Setting Sun Cemetery (my favorite location in Kasai) as one of several locations for the gazetteer. Note due to word count restraints, and the needs for providing fluffy hints, no mechanics, for a given location, I could not place what I wanted to place.

Notice a narrow triangle next to the canal at area 10 on the City of Kasai map. Imagine this triangle is actually one oblique corner of a square area that the rest of the perimeter was destroyed in the placing of the canals. The large temple district at area 11 is built on the larger area of the former shrine square. That narrow triangle piece was part of the cemetery, where most of it was removed when the canal next to the remaining cemetery. Despite the efforts of the Temple of the Sun's Blade adepts at consecrating the area, the bisection and subsequent destruction of a holy area due to urban renewal construction would be act of great blasphemy - and so Setting Sun Cemetery is cursed and haunted.

I even created (but couldn't include) a specific haunt for it:

The Grappling Ghost Haunt CR 12
XP 13,600
Notice Perception DC 27 (to notice a translucent figure behind you rising from the gravestone you are passing.)
hp 55; trigger proximity; reset 1/day
Caster Level: 12
Description: the southwest bridge path from the temple passes through an ancient cemetery, one of the smaller stones belong to a murdered nun. When anyone passes her grave her invisible spirit attaches herself to them in an ethereal grapple, where she remains invisible, though detect undead or other similar spells will reveal the ghostly corpse of a nun with her arms locked around her victims neck and legs around the waist. Every 24 hours the victim loses 1 Con damage up to 6 Con damage in 6 days, minimum 1. This damage cannot heal while the grappling ghost is still attached. This has the effects of the bestow curse, major spell*.
Destruction: in the company of a temple cleric remove her bones from the cursed cemetery and move her to a different temple in the city, and consecrate her bones before reburying her with a new stone.

So in case anybody wanted further detail on one specific site I created, I have made it available here!

In our game, we banned the Summoner, but the Synthesist balanced the Summoner in our opinion. The whole problem with summoner in our group is the economy of actions that the summoner gets around being 2 beings (summoner/eidolon), so forcing the two together into one being, actually removes this economy of actions benefit.

An optimized barbarian is tougher than a Synthesist. When you can say a martial class is more powerful than a caster, that has to make you think, when somebody suggests the Synthesist is all that. My barbarian eats Synthesists for breakfast.

Min-maxers frequently duck issues by claiming that there is no interplay between mechanical choices and roleplay. But the first does define the second. And after awhile one gets suspicious of the ubiquity of certain combinations such as the infamous ex-monk/barbarian, the Arcane Mark exploit of the magus, or that every charoper of a certain class cranks out a cookie cutter version.

I haven't seen the ex-monk/barbarian thing, but then our players don't quit one class and become another, if they want to play a different class, they play a different character - we don't have/allow players to drop one class and switch to another for mechanical nor roleplaying reasons. After all, its just as easy to roll up another character.

Regarding the Magus-Arcane Mark issue, that's not an exploit, that's a "cheat" as the Magus ability is with touch attacks. Arcane Mark is not an attack, so it is not allowed. If arcane mark allowed you to target a person, it would be an attack, but the spell doesn't say attack so you cannot target a person.

It's like casting light on a Drow. Obviously a light cast on a drow would be detrimental to the drow, thus it's an attack, but light isn't an attack spell - so you cannot use a light spell in that way. If you want to mark an opponent with a 'zorro' mark, that's a martial attack and cannot be combined with an Arcane Mark. If you want a spell or cantrip to affect a target in that way, you'd have to create an entirely new spell, as Arcane Mark cannot do that.

I guess if you let your players cheat, they can do anything.

I thought I posted it in this forum, but can't find it, so I cut/pasted it from ENWorld, where it is also posted.

Shootist (magus archetype)
The shootist blends mystical arcane powers and masterful prowess with a weapon much like his kin the magus, however the shootist uses a firearm as his chosen weapon and a deck of cards as his spellbook. While he can use all simple and martial weapons, including firearms, pistols or revolvers are his preferred weapon.

Class skills (add these to the Magi's existing skills)
Ride (Dex), Sleight of Hand (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Spell Decks: Instead of a spellbook, a shootist uses a spell deck that resembles an ornate playing card deck with cryptic symbols and formula hidden in the numbers, icons and border on each card's face.

Arcane Pool (added details)
At 5th level, these bonuses can be used to add any of the following weapon properties: distance, flaming, flaming burst, frost, ghost touch, icy burst, keen, shock, shocking burst, seeking or speed.

Deadeye (Su): At 1st level, the shootist can resolve an attack against touch AC instead of normal AC when firing beyond her firearm’s first range increment. Performing this costs 1 arcane point per range increment beyond the first. The shootist still takes the –2 penalty on attack rolls for each range increment beyond the first when she performs this deed.

Quick Clear (Su): At 1st level, as a standard action, the shootist can remove the broken condition from a single firearm she is currently wielding, as long as that condition was gained by a firearm misfire. The shootist must have at least 1 arcane point to perform this action. Alternatively, if the shootist spends 1 arcane point to perform this action, she can perform quick clear as a move-equivalent action instead of a standard action.

Ranged Spellstrike (Su) – at 2nd level a shootist can use ranged spellstrike to cast a single target touch attack range spell and deliver it through any firearm attack. Even if the spell normally has multiple targets, only a single missile, ray or effect accompanies the attack. At 11th level whenever a shootist using a multiple target spell with this ability may deliver one ray or line of effect with each attack when using a full round action, up to the maximum allowed by the spell (in the case of ray effects). Any effects used in the round the spell is cast are lost. This replaces spellstrike.

Quickfire (Ex) – At 4th level a shootist gains the ability to draw and fire his firearm as a standard action. This ability replaces spell recall. (Useful with street duels, where you start out flatfooted)

Dual Pistols (Ex) – At 7th level, the shootist learns how to use his magical abilities to effectively blend two one-handed firearms fighting and casting spells. When holding two one-handed firearms in separate hands, the shootist may spend a shootist pool point as a swift action to count one of his hands (shootist's choice) as free for the purposes of casting spells and delivering touch attacks. The shootist may also use this hand to cast spells for the spell combat class ability (but then cannot fire the firearm the hand is holding as a part of spell combat). This ability lasts for a number of rounds equal to the shootist's Charisma modifier. This ability replaces the medium armor ability.

Swerve Bullet (Su) – At 11th level, the shootist gains the ability to alter the trajectory of bullet fired at him by sheer force of will, working as deflect arrow feat, but with magic instead of your hand. This ability replaces improved spell recall.

Lightening Reload (Ex) – At 13th level, as long as the shootist has at least 1 arcane point left in his pool, he can reload a single barrel or chamber of a one-handed or two-handed firearm as a swift action once per round. If he has the rapid reload feat or is using an alchemical cartridge (or both), he can reload a single barrel or chamber as a free action. Further more using this ability does not provoke attacks of opportunity. This ability replaces heavy armor.

Greater Spell Access (Su) – at 19th level, a shootist gains access to an expanded spell list. He learns and places 14 spells from the Bard spell list into his spell deck as magus spells of their bard level. He gains two of each of the spells from the Bard list, not on the magus spell list: 0 level, 1st level, 2nd level, 3rd level, 4th level, 5th level and 6th level.

Suggested Magus Arcana
Arcane Accuracy, Bane Blade, Close Range, Critical Strike, and Ghost Blade. Note: Bane Blade and Ghost Blade can be applied to firearms for the shootist.

Working on a list of classes to develop for a Kaidan martial arts type supplement, and aside from the obvious monk variants, I'm looking to include a few archetypes for concepts such as Unarmed Magus.

I'm thinking someone recruited into a monastery discovered to have an arcane talent and given martial arts training that incorporate spell power of the magus class.

First of all I'd pull access to armor, including light armor. Since that's a big nerf of the standard magus, I'm thinking of replacing it with Monk AC Bonus. Then 7th level Medium Armor is replaced with Evasion, and 13th level Heavy Armor is replaced with Improved Evasion.

At some point, probably first level, I would need some class ability that confers a +1 enhancement bonus to your striking hand. An unarmed magus must choose one of his hands to serve as his striking hand for the purposes of casting spells with the other hand.

I would need to come up with a least a half dozen Magus Arcana that conferred special bonuses especially suited to an unarmed magus, perhaps a smite-type arcana that grants special damage against certain targets, etc.

Are my AC replacement choices too powerful? What would be a better way to confer an enhancement bonus to unarmed strikes?

GP

But, please, in the name of all that's logical,

Don't let the katana be more bodacious than any other sword.....

Only its wielder should be more bodacious - never the weapon...

Freehold DM wrote:

Sorry to hear you and school did not get along, Anklebiter, my wife had a similar experience.

Thank you, but it's quite alright. So far, I've made a lucrative livelihood in the field of picking things up and putting them down somewhere else, so it's all good.

EDIT: PS: School sucks!

I found that school didn't suck anymore, as long as you broke away from school for awhile then returned. I hated college, so went to the army for 4 years, came back and I loved school afterward. I went from a C+ student, to straight A's.

School as far as a child's career in education (5 years old to 18) sucked. Come back as an adult and school is great!

Rather than impinge on the Ninja thread where I introduce this idea, I thought I'd start a new thread discussing here...

There is a complaint that the Ninja somehow is diminishing the rogue. There's truth to that, but only where a Ninja as stealth killer/spy does that better than a rogue. While that certainly needs tweaked, another way to mitigate that problem is to expand on what rogues can do with their talents - so there's plenty of things rogues should be able to do, that ninja should not be able to do.

Note: I am specifically building a society of classes for Yakuza to be used in my Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting. These are options I intend to offer Yakuza based rogues, and as an option should be available to all rogues.

I'm looking for feedback on the talents below, and suggestions for more!

Gambler Talents:

Reading Tells - the ability to read hand, facial gestures and postures of opponents in games of chance. Using a Sense Motive check to detect if your opponent is bluffing, indicating a good or poor hand in a game of cards. Granting bonuses based on rogue level.

Reading Signs - the ability to work with an accomplice who is reading an opponents cards or hidden dice in games of chance and subtly communicating this to you without detection. Grant a penalty to all Perception checks to detect signs are being used to attempt to cheat at games of chance. The level of the rogue grants bonuses to this ability. Both you and your accomplice requires this talent to attempt to communicate this way.

Charisma Based Talents:

Misdirection - this ability is used to draw the attention of a specific target away from some covert activity being done by another party member. This could be used in combat to allow another rogue to get in position for a flanking maneuver, as well as outside of combat for sleight of hand or other unobserved activity.

Improved Lie - using the Bluff skill with this talent enables a rogue to tell more convincing lies that confer penalties to Sense Motive checks to detect the lie. Rogue level adds bonuses to this check. This ability can be used in confidence games to outwit someone of their money.

Arcane Tattoos: unlike 3x monks, only the Hinin caste members which include Yakuza are allowed to wear tattoos, as for higher social castes, tattoos are considered taboo and a mark of a criminal.

Either as a replacement for Minor and Major Magic talents or as an optional add-on: Minor Tattoo (clan sign) and Major Tattoo grants enhancement and other bonuses offering a Supernatural ability to enhance rogues.

Ki Trait and Feat: in Kaidan any class may take the following Trait and Feat as a means to access a limited ki pool for specific Supernatural abilities to any class including rogue.

Ki Potential Trait - by selecting the Trait, you may take the Activate Ki feat at 4th level.

Activate Ki feat - at 4th level if you possess the Ki Potential Trait, you may take this feat to grant you access to a ki pool of half your current level (4th), but does not progress above that. You may take the Extra Ki feat to add one more point, though your total cannot exceed 3 ki points.

General Ki Powers List - a list of general use Ki powers accessable to anyone with Ki Potential Trait and Activate Ki Feat for a variety of Supernatural abilities available to non-Ki classes. (In Kaidan both Monk and the Shinobi archetypes gain access to full ki pool)

Thoughts?

GP

For a while I've been looking at the idea of developing an Iron Age Celtic setting, and now am looking at such for Pathfinder RPG. The prime requesite that sets this setting apart from a standard Pathfinder RPG setting is there is no written language - which means no Wizards; Sorcerers and Bards, yes, perhaps a Witch, but no such thing as a spell book. This would also mean there would probably be less magic items available - probably. In the divine arena: Druids, spell casting Rangers and perhaps a specific kind of Oracle would be the only divine casters in the setting; no Clerics or Paladins. The martial classes would gain more significance, even at higher levels.

The question is how badly would illiteracy (and no wizards) nerf a Pathfinder game. I have the inklings of possibly developing this as a commercial setting - with a complete 6 part AP in mind, but am not sure how much limiting the classes to lesser spell-casters would affect the game. Would it be practical to even try?

One thought would be to include some type of spell-casting tattoo artist (whether divine or arcane, I'm not quite sure.) Buffing enchantments in permanent or must be activated kind of effects are bound to tattoos worn by all classes in the setting. Not sure how powerful such buffs could be in an otherwise magic "weakened" setting.

I love the older ruins of Britain and Northern Europe: broch towers, dun island forts, crannog villages on stilts over lakes, barrow mounds, and tiny walled patchwork of small agricultural fields - all of the Iron Age, thus both bronze and iron goods - swords and spoons exist, jewelry and other trappings that easily fall into Pathfinder items and equipment.

I have a Winter Hag, living goddess of ogres, giants and hags, mustering an army from the cold northern glaciated highlands to attack the Celtic Lands to the south, while she enacts a dark and ancient ritual in an attempt to bring back the Ice Age, where her worshippers were once the dominating race of the northern world. The PCs would eventually try to stop the ritual and defeat the goddess herself...

With the slight nerfing of magic, with the loss of the cleric and wizard, threats such as monsters, disease, death effects, etc, become much more lethal and scary. Now I'm rambling...

Thoughts?

GP

Dispelling the Myth about Vinyl Maps...

I am professional graphic designer and digital printer, who runs his own studio, as well as specializing in large format maps for RPGs.

Vinyl maps are more durable than unlaminated paper maps, in that you can spill drinks on it and it won't be damaged. However, if you laminate a paper map, it is now infinitely more durable than any vinyl printed map.

Vinyl maps are exceedingly expensive to print - the inks and media costs much higher, and the advantages of vinyl or much less than the cost.

Although I can print vinyl maps as well, I don't recommend it. The better option is to get a paper printed map and laminate, which is far more durable than an unlaminated vinyl map.

Regarding cost...

I can print a full color, high resolution RPG map using 100 year durability archival inks onto photo grade paper, measuring 36 inches by 72 inches, then laminating with heavy duty, 5 mil lamination and ship to anywhere in the world... for less than the cost of a 24 x 36 vinyl map printed at Kinkos, or anywhere else.

Just because the Ptolus map is vinyl does not mean this is better for you.

On top of that, because I specialize in printing RPG maps, I can not only use the standard graphic formats of JPG, PNG, TIF, BMP, etc. but I can print native formats from Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni or Fractal Mapper --- Kinkos can't do that!

Gamer-Printer