rando1000's page

Also take a look at the jungle encounter table here

There used to be limitations (pre-3e) about barbarian rage. one could not simply enter and leave it at will. the original concept was that one lost control of one's self and gave in to battle lust, which is most definitely NOT lawful as one only had marginal control of one's actions.

In all honesty I can't even understand how the concept is supposed to work in 3e and beyond. I have trouble understanding how one can become some enraged as to gain massive combat bonuses and still somehow be in complete control of one's self. Being "angry" is not going to give you those kind of bonuses, else every race and class would just have it as an ability.

In rules terms, you could try using the slow advancement track. Or you could build a custom experience track that takes more XP at the higher end. This would limit the amount of downtime you need, but could cause issues if you're running an AP.

Yeah, I looked through all the magical traits on the pfsrd, but couldn't find it. I agree it's definitely not overpowered. If no one else has an idea, I'll just pick a name.

One of my players is looking for a trait and we can't seem to locate it. In his own words:

"There's a trait that adds +1 to the difficulty for enemy spellcasters to identify your spells."

Any idea?

My favorites are my Chessex gemstones. They're hard to read, but they look like actual crystals. Bought my first two sets in 1985, of which I lost all but two; bought another set two years ago online.

If you need a really good in-game reason for the meta-knowledge, just have an NPC expert who will tell the PCs all about magic items, for a nominal fee each time.

e.g.

"So, Mr. Expert, I'm looking for a way to increase my protection, but I can't be slowed down by heavy armor."

"There are magic rings, my friend, that will see to your needs. Shops in the larger towns hereabouts may have one. Tell them Mr. Expert sent you! Now, that will be 10 GP, please."

I realize this isn't exactly what you asked for, but for your very first session, you might try just a small randomly generated dungeon with one level and ten or so rooms. Throw about four sets of monsters and one trap in there, with maybe one magic item, and you're good to go.

This concept is basically stolen from the one-player adventure in the red box circa 1984. It was a great way to learn back then, still valid now. After they've cleaned up that minor dungeon, you can start on a "real" module. Just my $.02.

The campaign concept is a fantasy classic, of course (re: the retaking of Moria), though I've never seen it run. It will be interesting now because dwarves can fill any class they want, vs. in 1e/2e where they were more limited.

As far as the Con aspect, I've never run at Con, but if you're pretty sure you'll have at least some of the same players, it should work.

Yes, it is NOT your responsibility to buy everything. Just buy what you want and set up your campaign around what you own. There's a limited amount of splat for PF, so the players probably won't be bringing tons of rules around you don't own. And if they do, most of the rules stuff is available in the SRD.

I started running with the Pathfinder beta and an 3.0 monster manual.

My feeling is it stretches believability. It also cheapens character death to the point of being a video game. To be fair, though, I'm usually coming from the DM side, so my opinion as a player might be different.

It also depends on how your DM handles new incoming characters. Some DMs really rip people off, forcing new characters to start with less equipment, lower levels, etc. If this is the case, definitely resurrect as often as possible/necessary. But if your DM is fair, I'd say go with a new character, hopefully one significantly different from the previous one. It will add more meat to your story, and make death seem more real.

Not sure if there are any specific rules, but if one person falls, you might consider having the strongest remaining person make a Str check; have everyone else on the rope do Aid Another. If the check succeeds, they're able to pull the fallen one back up. If not, the rest of them fall prone and begin sliding toward whatever drop. At this point, give them a Climb check or Reflex Save to keep from all going over.

Nice! Not only does it tie the characters' presence into the adventure, but it gives them at least some reason to get involved.

I think I can get around the threat of them aligning with the Drow if I make it clear that once they're done on this world, the Drow plan to move on to others. They can create gates, after all...

He is an "actor"(that is what he does for a living) and he is merely acting out the part.

He needs to understand that an RPG is not a play. It's a game, where people participate to have fun. Ruining other peoples' fun on purpose is not acceptable behavior. Playing in an RPG is not the same as acting, because with acting (in most cases anyway) someone has determined what your character will do ahead of time. You just have to make it believable to the audience. In an RPG, you have to decide all of your character's actions, and you as a player have a certain responsibility not to purposely siderail the adventure for the sake of "playing your character".

I'm not sure it would work that great. If the PCs are from another universe or planet or whatever, why should they care about saving a particular piece of Golarion from destruction? Other than "we're nice guys, caring is our job"?

As far as they know, there's no getting back. Superman saves earth time and again, not just because he's a great guy, but also because it's his home. Plus, they're pretty new gamers; so far they've followed pretty much every lead I've thrown them.

okay, thanks.

passing him a note should work, it'll let the other pc's know something is up though (may ruin a little bit of the dramatic tension)

I used to use a trick where every now and then I'd pass players a fake note, just saying "Hi" or something. That way, the other players never knew whether I was passing a real note at any given time.

Roughly, I play on bringing several people through a "Stargate" type gate into the campaign world. I've read some of the basic info on this AP and wonder if it's worth a further look for my concept or if it won't jive with the PCs being outsiders (not the type, just people from elsewhere).

Thanks, all good suggestions.

Aside from Eastern European, The Caribbean, and Louisiana, what are some other locales that lend themselves to horror campaigns?

I think I have all 18's. Does that mean I'm a munchkin?

That or you're AWESOME! I wouldn't allow you in my campaign, though.

I think since your system seems to come out so close to mine, and mine is a very minor tweak of RAW, yours is probably good to go as suggested. It certainly won't change the balance too much to use just as you wrote it, IMO. Good luck.

Name: Minx
Race: Half-Elf (Half-Fiend Template)
Classes/levels: Monk 5/Fighter 4
Adventure: Blood for Blood
Location: Fort Drelev/Armag's Tomb
Catalyst: Fighting Armag
The Gory Details: I combined some things to have Armag actually in Fort Drelev when it was attacked. The PC took several decent hits from Orvinbaane and was knocked out. She was healed by the bard to about 17 HP and went back into melee, where she met her doom. The rest of the party finished off Armag, whereby the Druid, thinking his will save good enough, picked up Orvinbaane and was immediately taken over. Fortunately, the bard managed to disarm him.
The dead PC was taken back to the kingdom, where they found an evil cleric to resurrect her in exchange for their organization having immunity to legal issues.

Wouldn't it be simpler just to leave the skill system in tact as is and just make all rolls either 10 (immediate) or 20 (with enough time)? That way the ability score bonus still adds in, and the skill points will take care of level increases.

I mean, in your example, your rogue is going to have a 22 to detect traps. But if you go with RAW and just take 10, the same rogue is going to have (8 ranks + 3 for class skill = 11) + 10 = 21. Seems like a lot of extra effort to go to creating special feats etc when RAW gives you basically the same result.

For another example, let's use wizard Spellcraft check. A 10th level Wizard with a 20 Int will have a 28 by taking 10 (assuming he actually puts a point into spellcraft every level). Your system would give a 30. Once again, you're only off by 2 points, and you don't even have to rework the system, just say everything is either take 10 or take 20, and get rid of any rules that say you can't take 10 in a given situation.

An intelligence of 13 would be the smart guy out of a group of like 6 people. An int of 15 would be the smart guy out of a group of like 50 people. An int of 17 would be the smart guy out of a group of more like 1000 people.

I think this sort of benchmarking is much better than trying to convert an Int score to an IQ. IQ seems really iffy when it comes to applying bonuses to skills. My wife has about 30 points up on me in an IQ test, but I'm consistently better at anything involving math or language. She rakes me over the coals in general knowledge and biology.

That certainly makes sense; drinking isn't going to make anyone better at combat IRL, unless of course you consider deadening your nerves as a benefit. However, I can see an introvert's Charisma bonus actually being raise, as he is less inhibited and might actually TALK to someone. Might make an interesting Trait.

I often base NPCs on people I know (preferably NOT the players). This allows me to act them out relatively accurately, as well as to determine what their actions would be in a given instance.

Languages: Common, Fortran

Awesome you have Fortran as an actual language. For balance reasons, it would be nice if that Cha went UP while drinking when your Wis went down...I guess real life isn't balanced!

This is a completely sub-optimal but close to real-world build:

(ex) Monk 1/Expert 3
AL: CG

Str: 10 - nothing special here.
Dex: 15 - Lots of martial arts training and reasonably quick reflexes
Con: 9 - Used to be about 14, but I've seen better days
Int: 13 - Smart enough, but not anything impressive
Wis: 14 - Been around, made some bad decisions and learned from them
Cha: 11 - Okay at making friends, can get my point across without being abrasive

HP: 19

AC: 15

Saves:
Fort: +2; Refl: +5; Will: +6
BAB: +2
Flurry of Blows: +3/+3 (Weapon Finesse/Unarmed) for 1d6/1d6

Feats: Dodge (1st Monk), Weapon Finesse (1st), Improved Initiative (1st), Scholar (3rd)

Languages: English, Chinese

Acrobatics 1 Rank (+6); Bluff 2 Ranks (+5); Craft/Computers 3 Ranks (+7); Craft/Sewing 3 Ranks (+7); Diplomacy 1 Rank (+4); Intimidate 1 Rank (+5); Knowledge/History 2 Ranks (+6); Knowledge/Local 2 Ranks (+6); Knowledge/Religion 3 Ranks (+9); Knowledge/Technology 3 Ranks (+9); Perception 1 Rank (+6); Profession/IT Guy 2 Rank (+7); Sense Motive 2 Ranks (+7); Stealth 2 Rank (+7)

What a great start! Players always love stuff like that. I use a custom crit table, so results of a crit can vary from a slight damage bonus to instant death. It always adds extra excitement, and even when one of the PCs died on a crit recently, it made for some great story getting her back to life.

I say if multiply works for your table, go for it. You might want to let your players know it's a house rule so they don't expect it at other tables, too, though.

My problem is I tend to start thinking ahead to new campaigns I want to run before the players are tired of their characters. This has always been a trend with me, but has gotten worse since Paizo started putting out such awesome stuff. I got Dungeons of Golarion, Dragon Empires, and lots of other stuff burning a hole in my metaphorical pocket while winding up Kingmaker.

Thanks, I'll look those up.

I'm preparing my own version of the Starstone Test for 16th level characters. My problem is, I imagine some really complex puzzles and traps being a part of it, and I basically stink at those things. Any suggestions for good sources of interesting puzzles and traps to throw at high level players?

That picture IS wicked cool (former fashion design major).

Thanks for the info, Jeff. Sounds like a great place to start, if one really wanted to start a campaign based off the gazetteer and one or more of these scenarios. (now I'm rethinking my decision to wait...)

I want to run an adventure there, but only one of my regulars is interested in playing.

I would LOVE to play in a game like that. It's been years since I played an asian themed fantasy game, and I just saw Ip Man 2 last night. Too bad I'm about 1000 miles away!

Asian games are not everyone's thing. In all honesty, I can't understand why so many gamers have such a narrow interest in settings; I love to play Sci Fi, fantasy, superheroes, spies, just about any genre. But I've had players drop me like I'm hot when I try to transition from good ole' fantasy to something else.

If I WERE to do a campaign right now, I'd have to do an inside-out design model, where I started the PCs at 1st level in one isolated province of one country whose real world correlation I knew well, and build out slowly from there. Then, hopefully by the time the PCs were high enough level to really start getting around, Paizo would have some more info out there.

As a separate campaign, it would almost be safer to do a complete asiatic home brew; at least that way, the stuff you had to develop from scratch wouldn't conflict with what Paizo puts out later.

I bought the Gazetteer, and started working on a campaign, but then decided to put it off a while. While I feel I COULD run a campaign using that, there's an awful lot to fill in, and I would just come up with stuff that was completely different from what Paizo will as canon in a few months/years. I guess I'd rather wait until it's better supported.

There are several random dungeon generators out there, though mostly for 3.5. Donjon is a good one. If you just have it create the dungeon, you can look up the pathfinder version of the monsters on the srd when you get to each room. I've done it in a pinch.

Alternately, I'm running a world hopping game similar to Sliders, and while I intended it to be a Modern Path game, everyone opted on Pathfinder classes. I've got a hollywood actor using the Barbarian class; he's arrogant, uncouth, and charges into combat at a moment's notice.

If you don't really care for Modern Path (I think it's pretty cool, but it might not be your bag) you can just refluff Pathfinder stuff, add a few skills and Feats from D20 Modern, and done.

Yes, Check out Modern Path. It's a decent mash-up of D20 Modern and Pathfinder. The characters are generally more powerful than D20 Modern characters (one complaint I hear as a D20 Modern GM is that the characters aren't as solid as Pathfinder). In addition, it's pretty well compatible with regular Pathfinder, so if you want to allow any regular PF classes into the mix, you can do that too.

Also a great possibility. If Arcadia is now a dominant power, while the PC nation rose to a great empire and then fell over time, Cheliax could well be in a position to threaten the PCs land.

...Arcadia(which is the America equivlent)?

I did not know that. Went and read the PF wiki on Arcadia as soon I read this.

you could give a 1980's feel and have Cheliax substitute for the Soviet Union. then there are a multitude of adventure possibilities as the PCs are involved in proxy wars between the "good" superpower of choice and Cheliax.

Great idea! my brain was churning along those lines, but hadn't quite gotten there yet.

If I take the location of the PC kingdom in Kingmaker as the other "super power", the proximity to Cheliax is similar to central Europe and the Soviet Union.

If I kept that metaphor, does anyone have any idea what Golarion nation could be a "United States" equivalent? It would have to be a decent distance away from Cheliax, preferably across an ocean. Maybe a colonized Sarusan?

Whenever I'm in this position as a DM (and with few players, I usually am), I find it works fine as long as my NPC doesn't outshine the PCs.

A few key points:
If you're using point buy, start the NPC with less points than the PCs. This will help the PCs be superior in play.

Don't "optimize". Make the NPC a viable but imperfect representative of his/her class.

An NPC NEVER finishes off a major opponent.

If possible, have the NPC fill a support role, such as casting buffs for the PCs.

Tailor your encounters for the abilities of your PCs, so they can shine. Try to avoid situations where your NPC would be better than the PCs for extended periods of time, especially in combat.

...just as a homely person can be very charismatic.

The Emperor in SW Episode III. In fact, I think his personal charisma actually went UP when he became deformed, due to the pity factor.

Exact method for determining IQ to Int aside, I think if you just play the character like most of the people here have suggested, your DM will be just fine with it. You do, after all, have stat penalties to help the character be more "realistic".

I run off my laptop. I have a folder for each campaign, and subfolders for session notes, modules, images, and npcs.

In session notes, I generally customize any encounters I think the PCs will encounter that game; I put the text to be read aloud to the players in red. I put important things like Save DCs and Perception checks in blue.

During the game, I have the following open on my laptop: electronic dice, a link to the PFSRD, the Session notes for that session, the module (if any) that I'm running out of, and any other charts I might need, as well as any major NPCs I need.

Another idea, maybe borrow a page from Dragon Age, and have the elves enslaved by humans at some point in history. it would be over by the "Modern" era, but that history would still be there.

I'm thinking with the advent of technology, gnomes would have all faded or escaped back to the First World. Dwarves would have dug deep, but maybe still have some contact with human society. Not sure what to do with halflings, not to mention all the humanoid races.

I also imagine such a project would require an intimate knowledge of Golarion up to this point, in order to be able to extrapolate a fake "history" of the next few hundred years. It really seems like an intimidating project.