hogarth's page

No system is better than another, only different.

I want to be first in line for your F.A.T.A.L. campaign. Vive la difference!

Hogarth, there was a whole thread on implied D&D metaphysics here just a few months ago.

One of the big ideas was that the aura has 9 layers, and spells of greater and greater power are "hung" on those layers as the wizard becomes more realized.

Actually, the metaphysical bit that bugs me the most is clerical magic. The gods love you so much that they'll allow you to raise the dead...but only if you ask in advance, and each request takes a separate slot,e tc.

I'll be away with limited internet access until Monday (Feb 13).

I'll be away with limited internet access until Monday (Feb 13).

I'll be away with limited internet access until Monday (Feb 13).

I'll be away with limited internet access until Monday (Feb 13).

I'll be away with limited internet access until Monday (Feb 13).

I'll be away with limited internet access until Monday (Feb 13).

Age of Worms and Savage Tide are in a statistical dead heat for first place in my heart.

Ideally...

• It should be a spell you'd like to cast twice a day, every day.
  
• It should scale with level (otherwise a 25 gp scroll would probably be just as good).
  
• It should be useful in situations where you can't cast a normal spell.

Maybe Liberating Command? Vanish or Magic Missile would probably be fine, too.

I'm not sure it would be worth spending a feat on, though.

Yeah I was tempted to plug Strain-Injury there Hogarth, but cranewings beat me to it. It does exactly that (all HP back between encounters) while leaving a place for dramatic "wounds" which are rare and persistent. Since you just expressed a desire for exactly that kind of thing, I would really love to get your opinion on it.

In my case, I would consider that kind of system to be fixing a symptom (x/day cure spells backed up with CLW wands are lame), not the disease (x/day abilities backed up with fugly kludges are lame). A particularly bad symptom, but a symptom nonetheless.

For those of you who have used the Recharge variant from UA, can you tell me about any emergent effects of the system? How do you characterize the quirks like managing different spell level in in-character terms?

How do you characterise any of the weird and awkward ways that D&D magic works? Ultimately, it will just boil down to "magic just works that way".

CrackedOzy wrote:

I do like the "touchstone" idea though, I may use that in my games.

Can you explain what you mean by this?

The ideas in Lincoln Hills's post, presumably.

But frankly Pathfinder Core can only ever have limited appeal (even if it's the 800lb gorilla of the RPG world), it's just too complicated, and like 3e too vulnerable to min-maxer play that deters more casual players.

A simplified ruleset that runs parrallel to core but is compatible with your adventures & other product is a good business proposition IMO.

I suspect you're overestimating the number of people who:

(a) would buy "Beginner Box"-style products, but...
(b) would never buy any regular PFRPG products.

Of course, the great thing about the OGL is that anyone who disagrees with that assessment is free to publish something to fill that product niche. Everybody wins!

Hmm, I didn't need the close ties as much as others did, I managed to play off the actions of Ileosa and others as suitably evil and horrific they couldn't NOT oppose her.

"Close ties" wouldn't be the way I'd phrase it. I'd just point out that an adventure path requires adventurers, not just vengeful civilians.

It was just my imagination, running away with me...

My two cents:

If I were the GM, I wouldn't allow the (water) wall walking, but I'd be pleased by the creative "bob to the surface" interpretation.

I like the way you think, Austin; I've also used the Recharge Magic rules as a GM.

CrackedOzy's idea sounds reasonable (reduce the number of rounds and let it recharge normally in 1d6+1 rounds or 5 minutes or whatever).

Everyone chips in for healing, with the old CLW Wand.

That's one of the reasons I ran a game using Recharge Magic in the first place -- healing wands are a fugly crutch, IMO. I'd much rather just have all HP recover in between fights for free.

I would love to see Paizo publish a volume akin to the AD&D 2nd Edition 'Arms and Equipment Guide' (I never had the chance to check out WotC's 3.0 version) - the 'Adventurer's Armory' from their Player's Companion series merely whetted my appetite.

That original TSR publication included so much lore! It did such a great job illustrating how a GM might fit a particular piece of gear into their own campaign world. I'd just like to see some new talent build upon that volume's foundation.

You're in luck, because I believe there are plans for a meaty hardcover "Advanced Equipment Guide" for the Pathfinder RPG.

hogarth wrote:

cmastah wrote:

Thanks, will see what I can do (though since we're starting at level 1, I'm not gonna fret too much about it right now). What about vision of madness, which requires a melee touch attack, could I make that work at reach?

The Conductive weapon property (mentioned by LazarX earlier) allows you to do that, but (a) it takes two of your daily uses and (b) it's a specific type of magic weapon.

That property only works with SLAs not actual spells.

Vision of Madness is an SLA.

Vision of Madness (Sp): You can give a creature a vision of madness as a melee touch attack. Choose one of the following: attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. The target receives a bonus to the chosen rolls equal to 1/2 your cleric level (minimum +1) and a penalty to the other two types of rolls equal to 1/2 your cleric level (minimum –1). This effect fades after 3 rounds. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

I've gotten one useful boon: a +1 to some skills usable while in Absalom. That's about it, though.

Tels and Mikaze pretty much hit every nail on the head. I will reiterate only 1 - You need to develop the close ties Mikaze metioned between the party and the city. You can't rely on the Lamm connection to do that for you.

+1.

If the PCs' only motivation for adventuring is to get revenge on Lamm, it'll be a short adventure path!

Wow, I never even noticed that. In 3E, you couldn't.

The wording was the same in the 3.5 SRD. It's easy to overlook though, since it's in the Combat section of the rules, not the Magic section.

Touch Spells in Combat

Many spells have a range of touch. To use these spells, you cast the spell and then touch the subject, either in the same round or any time later. In the same round that you cast the spell, you may also touch (or attempt to touch) the target. You may take your move before casting the spell, after touching the target, or between casting the spell and touching the target. You can automatically touch one friend or use the spell on yourself, but to touch an opponent, you must succeed on an attack roll.

In the 3.5 Weapons of Legacy there are several great ideas on how to "unlock" the weapons potential. If you dont have a copy u can ebay it for about $25.

There are also OGL "legendary weapon" rules from Unearthed Arcana, for what it's worth.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/legendaryWeapons.htm

So a non-Maguc can cast a touch spell, move, and then (free action) cast to deliever the touch spell?

<ninja'd by gDM>

Yes, it's in the Combat section of the core rules.

Touch Spells in Combat: Many spells have a range of touch. To use these spells, you cast the spell and then touch the subject. In the same round that you cast the spell, you may also touch (or attempt to touch) as a free action. You may take your move before casting the spell, after touching the target, or between casting the spell and touching the target. You can automatically touch one friend or use the spell on yourself, but to touch an opponent, you must succeed on an attack roll.

Am I crazy, or didn't there used to be more than one review of this scenario?

(Those aren't mutually exclusive, of course.)

I just wanna make sure Im getting these correctly.

Regarding Negative Energy: So a cleric who uses Channel Positive Energy in order to heal liviing creatures around him would harm a dhampir in that same Channel? If he Channeled Positive Energy to harm undead, it wouldnt do anything to a dhampir, because he is living, right?

I get the opposite: whatever you do, he ends up being treated as an undead (but only if it matters if he's undead or not).

So if you channel to harm undead, he gets harmed.

If you channel to heal undead, he gets healed.

If you channel to harm the living, he isn't affected (undead aren't affected).

If you channel to heal the living, he isn't affected (undead aren't affected).

Or play a Words of Power cleric -- all Words of Power cure spells are ranged by default.

Azazyll wrote:

That negative energy affinity is a bit broader than I understood it - theoretically, all spells, such as Command Undead and Sunbeam, would also effect negative energy affinity creatures as undead. To my mind this not only firmly makes the trait a penalty, but opens the potential for many more confusions with spells and effects down the road in unforeseen ways

Those wouldn't be applied here, because they don't apply to living creatures at all.

Sunbeam works on living creatures.

I agree with Azazyll -- the new wording is more expansive than the old wording and there will probably be unforeseen results.

Also, what is the basis for the boons? I understand that QfP is 3 parts an probably got a stronger boon that way, but WitW seems to have a fairly low powered boon and VERY situational use.

It could be just coincidence, but most of the boons I've seen in PFS scenarios would fit that description (fairly low powered and VERY situational). Along the lines of a +2 bonus to a particular skill in a very particular circumstance.

Thanks, will see what I can do (though since we're starting at level 1, I'm not gonna fret too much about it right now). What about vision of madness, which requires a melee touch attack, could I make that work at reach?

The Conductive weapon property (mentioned by LazarX earlier) allows you to do that, but (a) it takes two of your daily uses and (b) it's a specific type of magic weapon.

Air elemental is pretty great. Make sure to learn Auran and tell it to whirlwind attack. The DC isn't great and it only lasts for one round.

A Small air elemental's whirlwind can only pick up Tiny or smaller creatures, so that's pretty limited.

Creatures one or more size categories smaller than the whirlwind might take damage when caught in the whirlwind (generally damage equal to the monster's slam attack for a creature of its size) and may be lifted into the air.

Hogarth, it's you choice of course, but I don't think it's fair to marginalize an entire tier because you chose to play out of sub-tier.

What does "fairness" have to do with my personal preferences?

Rest assured that I'm going to continue to "unfairly" avoid high-level PFS scenarios in the future.

Ah, this post is about two weeks late. Got con'ed into playing this one up at Winter War and got a little dirt nap for my trouble.

I can top that. I got conned into playing up, died right away (no one's fault), got conned into keeping playing after a Raise Dead, then everyone in the party ended up getting hosed (so my PC got borked for a second time).

Not only did this turn me off playing up, but it turned me off playing at level 7+ altogether.

Smelling salts (25 gp) from the Advanced Player's Guide equipment section allow you a new saving throw. They're a must-have for my characters!

She'll be playing a half-elf Rogue. Her stats can be seen here.

I just realised something. One advantage to playing in a French-speaking part of the country is that people wouldn't mix up "rogue" and "rouge" nearly as often!

;-)

James Jacobs (Creative Director) Oct 7, 2009, 08:44 PM wrote:

While a monk of any intelligence can get Improved Trip... Greater Trip still requires it. Basically, a monk's training lets them bypass the requirements for the less powerful feat in the chain, but it doesn't let them bypass the requirements of the more powerful version.

The irony is that when Paizo first came out with PFRPG stats for their iconic monk, they also forgot about the Combat Expertise requirement and gave him Greater Disarm. So even the developers weren't sure how it works!

hogarth wrote:

Personally, I prefer something like "divide treasure equally by value", where one character might choose to get his share all in cash and one might get his share all in items (of equal value to the cash).

It can be hard to balance the magic items vs the gold since on occasion a player will change their mind and want a different magic item, and suddenly their "share" of the loot is reduced to what fraction of the value the GM allows them to sell it for.

No, that's exactly what I mean -- an item, as a share of loot, is basically worth what you can sell it for (IMO). So a Ring of Protection +1 is equal to a 1,000 gp share of treasure. That way, selling an item doesn't change your share of treasure at all.

Have you tried making your alternate game a different system? If possible, one that Alpha isn't an expert at.

That's what I was going to suggest. I've seen a number of players who act like Alpha. In fact, I'm ashamed to admit that I've been guilty of some of those infractions myself (e.g. second-guessing the number/type/tactics of the monsters that the GM sends against us).

A possible solution would be to play a game using a more light-hearted system like Toon or Teenagers from Outer Space. Then Alpha can be in charge of the "crunchier" game when it's his turn to GM Pathfinder.

Why can't you exist based on found treasure?

It depends on how your group distributes treasure, I think.

Most parties I've played in are pretty strongly against anything other than "distribute magic items evenly, then distribute gold evenly", which will end up short-changing a character who declines the gold part of the rewards.

Personally, I prefer something like "divide treasure equally by value", where one character might choose to get his share all in cash and one might get his share all in items (of equal value to the cash).

All 1st level characters run out of spells quickly if they cast a spell every round. That's hardly unique to the magus.

It should. I've tested it in ie7 and ie8. It's implementation is not perfect in ie7 because of the broken box model it goes off screen a little at the edges(I'm working on a fix for that but other priorities have jumped in front of it), but it should work fine otherwise.

Ah...I didn't realise that you now had to click on a link saying "Select this Avatar" rather than simply clicking on the picture (as in days of yore). My mistake.

hogarth wrote:

Do you expect there to be a full table for the Ruby Phoenix Tournament event? Just curious.

There's 5 of 6 already signed up for the Ruby Phoenix, 1 day after it's been posted.

So yeah, I'm pretty confident it's going to fill up.

Wow, there must be more level 11 PCs in Ontario than I thought. Maybe they're all from Neil's group. :-)

If you see an image that's tagged incorrectly, it would be super handy for us if you right-clicked on the image and selected "open image in new window", and then copy the image URL from the address bar and paste it into a post here. That tells us exactly which image needs fixing. (Turns out there's a lot of pictures of Seoni and Valeros, who knew? :-)

The ones with the boobs aren't Valeros. At least, I THINK they're not...

On a more serious note, I'm using IE7 and there's no "open image in new window" option when I right-click on it. In fact, I'm not sure the new avatar selection Javascript works at all in IE7 + Windows XP (I can filter the images, but clicking on one does nothing).

If you filter on "Cayden Cailean" (for Valeros) and "Pharasma" (for Seoni), there's only about 20 results to look through, if that helps (probably not much).

Cool! Still some bugs to work out, I suppose (f'rinstance, I saw a picture of Seoni labeled "Valeros" and a picture of Valeros labeled "Seoni"), but very useful!

Do you expect there to be a full table for the Ruby Phoenix Tournament event? Just curious.

According to James Jacobs, the country of Iblydos is an ancient Greek analogue, sort of.

http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz2u4o&page=61?Ask-James-Jacobs-ALL-your-Ques tions-Here#3046

I learned the meanings of the words "cucurbit", "hebephrenia" and "doxy"!

Oh wait -- that was the AD&D DMG. ;-)

Neat!

(Although I have to admit that I almost never use private messages on other message boards.)

Kyra and the alchemist are useful additions to a party. The other ones are a bit "meh", in my opinion. The cavalier would be all right if there were more scenarios where you could actually use a horse.

I think Crimson Throne has a more interesting storyline than Council of Thieves. To be fair, I've only played the beginning bits of both of them, but my experience jibes with what I've heard other people say.