primemover003's page

So not being able to use Sigil, we still NEED to have some sort of Marketplace in the Middle of Everywhere. The Planar inside me insists on it! I know really detailing anything planar-centric is about as high a priority as updating psionics (which ALSO MUST be done)...

However having such a new Cosmology we can take the time to set the right tone and feel to any planar settings. I like the way the articles on the dieties are written, especially the Planar Allies sections. Much as I am a Planescape nut I think the blase attitude of Cagers should be avoided if a City at the Center is done. This along with the Cant were the top two reasons I saw for most people who disliked PS.

The Planes should be the homes of the Gods and their servants, places that while accessible to mortals should not make complete sense to them. Trips to the Underworld or Afterlife should be pretty special.

Try DMTools.org. Lilith has a pretty good site there (it's been a bit buggy lately though). I routinely get NPC mooks and such from there and have a posted a few as well.

And if you happen to have old dungeons lying around I recycle NPC's from there quite frequently!

6th level fighters are nothing but fodder against even 8th level PC's. My group likewise made short work of them, the Wizard's Red dragon effigy tore through them like a scythe through wheat. I mean at best a 6th level npc fighter will have BAB +6, STR +3, Masterwork weapon +1, and Weapon Focus +1 for an attack bonus of +11, +13 on a charge, flank, or aid. What is your groups average AC? At 12th I'd imagine at least 26ish.

6th level fighters are nothing but fodder against even 8th level PC's. My group likewise made short work of them, the Wizard's Red dragon effigy tore through them like a scythe through wheat. I mean at best a 6th level npc fighter will have BAB +6, STR +3, Masterwork weapon +1, and Weapon Focus +1 for an attack bonus of +11, +13 on a charge, flank, or aid. What is your groups average AC? At 12th I'd imagine at least 26ish.

Yeah that pic would be awesome in Planet stories and the idea of explorers running into dire gorillas that may or may not be intelligent could definitely work in Pathfinder. I would just keep the time periods between the bronze age and the early age of discovery... that's a nice wide brush to paint a canvas with.

Well Pathfinder could always put the PrC back into the DM's hands. As originally written a Prestige Class was a DM's tool to create higher level organizations for the PC's to interact with and join, not a candy store for Players to grab goodies out of willy nilly. It was supposed to be something special.

That was one aspect of 3E I didn't enjoy was seeing the glut of PrC's come out in brown covered books instead of blue ones.

I think opening DR/magic back into +1, +2, +3 is a good idea. Keep Weapon type, alignment, and material DR the same as 3.5 and spread DR/magic open a bit more. DR/magic was fairly useless after level 4 anyway.

As for the arguement that flaming is better than a +5 weapons I'll argue that +5 damage is better than 3.5 fire damage. And +5 on a crit doubles or triples whereas the 1d6 of flaming does not. Even the extra d10's from burst weapons aren't as good as +10 damage. A +5 kukri or falchion can be a pretty nasty weapon especially if you have it made keen or have the Improved Critical feat.

The golfbag of weapons IMO is a fallacy. You don't NEED every combination of weapon to DR in the game. DR does not hose classes other than fighters.

In general every character should have a primary melee weapon, a backup, a light weapon, and a missile weapon. Occasionally you will be disarmed, your weapon sundered, stunned or panicked (i.e. drop weapon in hand), and/or grappled. A light secondary weapon made of Cold iron or adamantine is the most beneficial in a core game because of silversheen. It's also good in a grapple.

DR at any given level is not hard for a frontline warrior (Ftr, Pal, Bbn, Rgr) to overcome, at all. Power attack, smite, rage, higher crit threat ranges, favored enemy... all things frontliners should have.

Skirmishers like monks and rogues that can't overcome DR need to c hange tactics. Trip, stun, disarm, grapple, bola, net, tanglefootbag, alchemists fire or acid (bypass DR). Plenty to do even if you can't get over the DR.

Spell aren't affected by DR. Casters shouldn't worry about it unless the frontliners are not doing their job.

I'm with Polevi, some of the Pathfinder nations and illustrations have been straying a little too far beyond the medieval/renaissance period for my tastes. Shorts, Pith Helmets, and Rifles? Far too 18th century IMO. I mean none of those explorers look like adventurers at all.

Robin Hood had a code.

"Steal from the Rich and give to the Poor" isn't a code, it's a cause. Robin Hood was a Freedom Fighter, and that archetype is certainly more Chaotic than Lawful. Paladins have a code, which are strict rules to live by. Paladins are Lawful Good. Any other church can sponsor a knightly order and there are plenty of PrC's out there to cover those.

I think one of the earlier posters hit it on the head, and it bears repeating.

You can only provoke for movement once in a round! Run circles around the guy if you want, he only gets one shot at you!

Yeah you can only get one AoO for movement... but you get another if the poor sucker tries to stand up! Yes you cannot re-trip them, but straight damage and disarming (-4 to hit) are also good choices.

I like the idea of making the spiked chain not threaten the area's it can reach.

By default undead are seen as evil and really most of them should be. Ghosts, certain mummies, and the rare guardian undead could well be neutral. However from the point of view of most humans (who are the majority default race in most settings) skeletons and zombies are evil. The mindless undead may just be tools to the apathetic but those corpses were once someone's mother or father, spouse or child. The act of reanimating a corpse should always be evil. The same should be said of creating a Flesh Golem though.

There are rules for crawling. Damn beaten to it!

Crawling

You can crawl 5 feet as a move action. Crawling incurs attacks of opportunity from any attackers who threaten you at any point of your crawl.

And the penalties to being prone are already bad enough.

Conjuration creation spells that deal direct damage should be few and far between. The entire orb line of spells while balanced certainly didn't fit thematically. No other spells turned the traditional Golem encounter from a Fighter's challenge to just a speed bump for the wizard/sorcerer.

Inner planes have nothing to do with alignment. They can't. You can't even access the outer planes from the inner planes directly.

So what about the Demiplane of Dread? It's not in the Outer Planes and it's all about Evil. The ethereal isn't aligned in and of itself but that doesn't mean alignment plays no part in it's confines. How about the battle betweeen the Princes of Elemental Good and Evil? The City of Brass is most assuredly an evil place ruled by the Lawful Evil Efreet.

Undead 99% of the time should be evil. They're icky and want to destroy life... that puts them in the Bad column by my reckoning. Negative energy in a D&D setting is linked to evil creatures and gods. The worldview of the typical denizen of a fantasy setting isn't so cosmopolitan as our modern worldviews. You start throwing out negative channeling and the villagers will want to bust out the torches and pitchforks.

Well I guess I missed that plural... Ok it can be done to each opponent hit. At least this Knockback is less disruptive than the Goliath racial feat Knockback (gods do I hate that feat).

The Pathfinder RPG, Alpha 3, p. 14 wrote:

Knockback (Ex): Anyone hit by the barbarian’s melee attacks this round is pushed back 5 feet, if possible. This power is used as a swift action before any attacks are made.

Clarification is needed in the language of this power I think, specifically the last sentence. I was puzzled for some time before I sussed out the intention of the description. I think changing the wording of the last sentence like so would clear things up a bit:

"Activating this power is a swift action. The Barbarian must choose whether to use this power before her first attack is made."

No the barbarian must declare they are using this power before any single attack roll they make on their turn (as swift actions can only be done on your turn). So if the Bbn is making a full attack against a single enemy he can choose to use this on the last attack. If it's done your way it has to be done on his first attack which is fairly useless.

And as it is a swift action it can only be used ONCE per round against a single enemy, so the Conan example above can't work that way.

Thanks Vic... I will be back with Bells on, I love CotCT so far and am dying to run it but since my groups still finishing the STAP and we're waiting for the Beta of Pathfinder I have some time!

Keep up the fantastic work.

I unfortunately need to cancel my Pathfinder subscription. If you could make that happen before volume 10 is shipped I'd be greatly appreciative.

I will be back though!

--Between a Vrock and hard place :-(

Even though one of the party Clerics started shacking up with her, the rest of the group doesn't like her at all. Incompetence for getting them lost and stranded is the main reason, the other major one her brash demeanor, the consumate independant woman. This especially grated on my Goliath barbarians nerves as she refused to buckle down to his "we're the heroes, you need protecting so you better do as we say" attitude.

Porthos of the 3 Musketeers in other words...

No.

Why change it at all? Just because the lower HD classes got a boost doesn't mean this one does. It's balanced enough already at a d8 HD and 3/4 BAB, with less spells per day. I don't see why it needs any more love.

So are you taking a fighter with a few spells or a wizard that can fight? Warmage or Duskblade? If you want to make an armored caster use the Psychic Warrior as your baseline.

They should d8 HD and 3/4 BAB. Give them Light armor initially and medium armor at mid levels. their spells should either be fairly limited to self buffs, single target spells, and short range area of effect spells like cones or lines.

And the OP boards appropriated the term "Gish" from Githyanki fighter/caster multiclass combos.

Actually the Single weapon fighter gets a lot of love from the Duelist PrC.

Firstly just plopping an illusory wall or floor in a room with nothing else around it is just poor dungeoncraft. A caster taking 3 rounds to detect the presence of magic, finding the number of and most powerful of said magics, and finally the location and strength of all magics is just screaming "Shoot me!" Illusions must be layered with more illusions or mechanical traps and guardians.

I agree that you trade damage for AC. Your role as a sword and boarder is quite literally meatshield. Focus on Con, be a dwarf and go for Dwarven Defender. Your job is to hold the line, not dish damage.

In 3.5 a tank forced big monsters to choose not to power attack in order to hit the tank at all. If you're standing between the monster and the squishies your doing your job.

Now with the changes to Power Attack in the Alpha rules this is gonna change, so we gotta see how the playtests work out...

Using a home-made ring of enlarge person is a little cheesy... the MIC's Belt of Growth only lasts 10 minutes and can be used 1/d for 3,000gp. It's a much more balanced item than your ring which should've been compared to an existing item for pricing, not just slapping the default formula on it (which is explicitly mentioned in the DMG). 2,000gp for Enlarge Person in every encounter is way, WAY too cheap.

That said Potions of Enlarge Person are only 50gp, not 250gp as that's a copy/paste error from 3.0. For the same standard action to activate it's a more managable way to achieve Large sized monk-ey business that's in line with balanced gameplay.

James Jacobs wrote:

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Fiend of corruption was alignment neutral, beyond it had to be a [fiend] taking it?

Edit:
On the law-chaos axis I mean?

The requirements =

Race: Outsider with evil subtype
Base save bonus: +7
Skills: Bluff 10 ranks, Disguise 10 ranks, Sense Motive 10 ranks
Special: Must be able to use charm person or charm monster as a spell-like ability

Erinyes therefore are left out unless they do something tricky.

They need to go to stage-school to learn how to Bluff and Disguise themselves you mean.... :D

Maybe there's a theatrical college in Cheliax which trains them up as a side-line.

Or maybe there's just a Golarion equivalent prestige class for erinyes which operate in or out of Cheliax.

Actually they could always enroll in Grenpoli's Political School on Maladomini. Diplomacy, Bluff, Disguise... all skills neccessary for espionage.

Yes Golembane scarabs make much of Maure Castle very easy to deal with. I ran a party through the top two levels before they disbanded and the varius Orb spells really killed the Golem. I'd really love to run it agian sometime, especially the lower levels... Kerzit and Eli Tomorast await!!!

CotCT is my next campaign and I plan on using PFRPG beta for it. Just from reading the adventures so far I think you need to spread the events out over the course of a few months at least. That said with the new XP chart it's probably best to run Side Treks connected to the peripheral NPC's you meet along the way and the Guide to Korvosa. You need a way to invest the players in Korvosa and it's people.

I already know one of my players is angling to be a not so goodly aligned bard and I'll need to motivate him (or her as his PC's tend to be) by reinforcing the notion that Korvosa's status quo is better suited for her agenda than one locked down in martial law by the Queen.

Of course it doesn't mean that James Jacobs and the Paizo staff might not have invented a baatezu variant with a 'close contact' ability, or designed a prestige class for them.

Edit:
Ahhh. Was there a prestige class for fiends in fiendish codex which might have had an ability?

Well BOVD had the Mortal Hunter, but FC I's only PrC was the Black Cultist of Ahm and FC II's are Hellbreaker, Hellfire Warlock, Hellreaver, and the Soulguard... none of which have a kiss per se. The Thrall of Graz'zt has the charm like abilities, I don't remember where Malcanthet's Thrall PrC is, Dungeon or Dragon?

Ah I see James beat me too it... always forget about the fiend folio.

Correct-a-mundo! Neat little rhyme to remind you, "Erinyes wings are feathered and Succubi wings are leathered."

Riiiiigggghhhhhttt...

Glasya doesn't have a kiss attack in BOVD (just looked), but I don't have FC II on me. Fierna didn't either. Malcanthet the Queen of Succubi certainly does, but then again she's a Tanar'ri.

Notice his hands are bound... not so willing in my book. But then again I just fill em full of spores then tear em apart and dance on their remains.

See James I KNOW you KNOW... there are few Paizonian greybeards more lanned to the chant than yourself.

--Vrock of Gibraltar

Anyone guess my favourite D&D edition?

gnOmeD&D???

Even the PATHFINDER artists are getting it mixed up!

Notice the Blog about the Cheliax Faction? Why, oh why is an Erinyes energy draining a prisoner with a kiss??? Anyone?

Ah the Clueless. Even a Manes knows Succubi drain with a kiss and Erinyes don't.

I don't know about you but the Hunter's Bond seems to imply it lasts a single round and you need to use a move action each round to reactivate it. Flavorwise it sounds like you're calling out to your party telling them what to do when they attack your favored enemy.

Yeah I'm in the middle of the STAP so Gaze attacks are rampant and I've had to become an expert on it...

The half orc, the dwarf, and the tiefling should still be facing the death gaze even with the lights out as they and the bodaks have have darkvision. Against the elf and human the gaze would be ineffective, but so are they.

Well if you noticed Heroes Feast doesn't provide immunity to Fear and Posion anymore.

Why would being flat-footed do anything to CMB? Besides not being able to make AoO's, Armor Class has little to do with any of the combat manuevers.

That's why there are tons of rules lawyers and mechanics wonks, but only a few really good Adventure authors.

Mike McArtor wrote:

Well, whether the requirement is ranger level 4th or ranger level 6th, a straight ranger can't take this feat until 6th level anyway. That's why it's not ranger level 6th. And as you point out, rangers don't gain their animal companions until 4th level, so we can't let them have this feat at 3rd level.

A clearer way of writing it may be Prerequisite: 6th level (4 of which must be ranger). The prerequisites also differ between the players guide and The Guide To Korvosa. In The Guide To Korvosa it adds a prerequisite of Ride skill 6 which you can meet as a 3rd level ranger. I assume that the Korvosa guide version is the correct most updated one. Hopefully, my GM will allow me to use my 3rd level feat for this as I don't like to toss aside a animal companion once I have it.

No, the feat as written is perfectly legible. It's no different than Weapon Specialization (Fighter level 4). The prerequisite for Sable Company Marine is Ranger level 4. Just because you can't take it till 6th when you actually get another feat doesn't change that fact.

Wow talk about rampant metagaming... Most players don't really dissect cut scenes or flavor text to the degree your and mary's players seems to. Like James says sometime the rules need to be bent or ignored for the story to proceed.

I mean I can get fairly anal about rules, especially when I started being a Player again. At some point though you have to let the DM or Writer do their thing and tell a story. If you have no story, you have no adventure.

Against most run of the mill diseases your method would be perfectly acceptable, but this is an epidemic that has an unknown vector (initianlly) and is extremely contagious. It is also being actively spread by the Plague Doctors and cult members of Urgathoa. All these factors make the traditional healer with several ranks of Heal fight a losing battle. They can only treat so many people in a day. In that same time the disease is being spread to an exponentially larger number of people.

Trust me, most watchmen aren't going to be catching your average street thief sneaking around. Watchmen are paid to basically keep buildings from burning down. In security you don't keep an eye peeled at all times, you deter and funnel. Doors are locked, alarms are set, and the main entrance is under watch and likely well lit and free of clutter (i.e. no cover or concealment). I've been a security contractor for 10 years and I can tell you there's no way you can be in a constant state of alert. If you need advanced warning of intruders, especially at night get a dog (scent, low-light vision, and better Perception scores than an average human).

Fighters should not get Perception. The average fighter's got a helm on, has armor that makes a good amount of noise. Put the rogue or ranger on point, not your heavy weapon operator.

What I can hit a vital spot with a greataxe but I couldn't hit the space between the helm and breastplate or underarm of a figher with a pint sized glass flask? It's smaller than your average bottle of soda (20 oz in america). Just remember the skin is the largest organ on the humanoid body.

Actually common sense has nothing to do with it. A Rogue can sneak attack with a thrown weapon within 30ft. The extra damage is considered the same type as the weapon used. A flask of Alchemist's fire requires an attack roll and does direct damage when it hits, thus a rogue can apply their sneak attack damage to that attack if they satisfy the conditions (opp dex to AC is denied). It's no different than a rogue/sorcerer applying their sneak attack damage to a lesser orb of fire. See Complete Arcane.