rando1000's page

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?

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).

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

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?

After my Kingmaker game this afternoon, one of my players suggested another get a copy of Gameroom Creations' The Modern Path, so he could make a character for my Sci Fi play by post.

The other player immediately suggested "Hey, wouldn't it be fun to play a modern game, but, instead of setting it on Earth, set it in 'modern' version of Golarion?"

Wow. What the heck would that even look like? I mean, assuming magic dwindled (almost necessary for a modern feel, IMO), but was still accessible, what the heck would the world of Golarion look like in a thousand years or so? I mean, we already have Gunslingers, so the idea of .45s and nine mils is a pretty easy leap.

So, if I went the Battle Star Galactic route (new series), and made the characters look and feel essentially Terran, but with a different belief structure, what would it look like? What nations would survive to become super powers, which ones would just get by, and what nations would be lost to history? What would politics be like?

I'm not saying I'm ever going to actually run this, but does anyone have any ideas?

I've got this sort of vague idea for an overlying campaign theme where one of the PCs (a Chaotic one) is attacked early on by a group of Arbiters. This will be a mystery to the PCs that will eventually be made clear. Somehow, this Character, according to the Inevitables, will be responsible for the end of the world.

Has anyone used Inevitables before? If so, how? Any encounter ideas, or suggestions, would be helpful.

The wording for Lesser Beast Totem is "the barbarian gains two claw attacks". One of my players has taken this to mean "two EXTRA attacks" with claws. If the character has limbs he/she is not attacking with, are these, in fact, additional attacks?

I'm looking to start a new campaign at low level. I want the setting to be more like the ancient world, Egypt, Greeks, Phoenicians, bronze weapons (no iron), etc.

Obviously the Pathfinder supplements for Osirion are set in Golarion's "modern" age. So, what Osirion supplements would be useful to me? Should I stick with a map, and build the campaign world from scratch from there? Or can I make use of the Osirion Companion and other materials?

I like to support Paizo, but I want to make sure I'll be able to get decent use out of my purchases, understanding that I'll have to do some homebrew to make it work.

Let me start by saying that while I don't consider myself in the optimizer camp, I've come to appreciate that point of view more and more. Players want to have cool AND effective characters. I get that. I also get that you can have an optimized character who's got a solid RP background.

BUT...I've got a player I've been gaming with for about 3 years, and it just gets more and more frustrating, the attempts he makes to min-max. Notice I didn't say "optimize". He DOES do that, and he's very good at it, constantly challenging me to make encounters more intelligently. That's not what I have a problem with.

What he does is look through old 3.0 and 3.5 material and constantly harangue me to let him use it to make his character even more uber. At the very start of the latest campaign, I said "NO outside material. Pathfinder only". About two weeks in, he asked me if he can use stuff form a wizards splat book (3.0). I said "No, no outside material." He's asked me three times since then about the SAME material! He's basically ignoring what I say and hoping if he pushes long enough, I'll give.

I've messaged him that, in fact, this is getting old. I don't enjoy being ignored when I have to make a ruling on something I already stated; it's killing the fun for me. Not sure what sort of advice I expect; I know I really only have two choices. Either keep with the status quo and stick to my guns, or dump the guy and find some new gamers.

Any thoughts?

I've decided I'd like to put the PCs through their Dungeon Crawl paces on their way into Drelev Keep. So, I'm planning on expanding the dungeon area prior to getting into the keep prisoner area.

I've got a map of several caves, and but I'd like some ideas on what to populate it with.

Just finished the mass combat battle in Blood for Blood, and it went great! I changed up the beginning so that the barbarians and Drelev's forces were attacking one of the PC's main cities, located very close to where Tatzleford would have been. Instead of Kisandra, I had a survivor from an outlying non-affiliate town ride into the PCs' city, where one of the council makes his home, and interrupt their dinner to tell them an army of crazed barbarians had leveled his town and were on their way.

I used much larger armies than those in BforB, and we used the full mass combat system from WotRK. The two sides basically destroyed each other in the second round of the melee phase, thanks to the city's reasonably high DV and some excellent rolls for the militia by one of the players (the invaders' OM was higher thanks to more and better troops).

That left the PCs to deal with the platoon of trolls! That was a great battle; we used the city district map as a guide to draw out the buildings on the edge of town. The PCs took up positions on various rooftops and assailed the trolls with spells and flyby attacks. Finally, the trolls retreated after a 50% loss. They did some damage to one of the town's buildings, which will need to be repaired.

All in all, the evening was an almost perfect mesh of the group's kingdom building efforts, an introduction to mass combat, and some good old regular combat. Now, the PCs head off to Fort Drelev to rescue some of the outlying town's survivors, and to have a few words with Lord Drelev.

I think the stories in Carrion Crown path would be a bit slow and/or complex for my players, who are young and not used to role playing. I'm wondering if the material on the setting in the modules is sufficient to warrant purchase, or if I'll do fine just purchasing the map folio and making the rest up on my own. In other words, will I get good details on the communities in which the stories take place, above and beyond the stories themselves? Also, which community would be best to start in, near hills preferable.

Beast Totem, Lesser says it grants two d6 claw attacks, for which the damage is reduced to d4 for small creatures. It doesn't mention if larger creatures would get an increase. I happen to have a player with a large sized Barbarian who's asking. I told him RAW, it says either d6 or d4. Does this seem fair? I mean, what if you had a COLOSSAL barbarian. Would it still be only d6?

I'm looking for something that will give me an idea on how to score certain abilities for determining the template CR. For example, if a creature can create a "Haste" effect at will, what does that add to the CR?

So I've been using Madison WI's weather history as a basis for weather in my Kingmaker campaign. I'm currently in Sarenith, for which I'm using June 2011. I notice that the temperature drops from the high 90s to the mid 60s in two days, so I'm thinking the weather is ripe for a tornado.

How would I go about catching the explorers in an F2 or so?

If a monster begins gaining class levels through experience, are any natural abilities it may have that are based on Hit Dice raised as it gains levels? In other words, if I have a 4 HD monster that has an ability equal to 10 + 1/2 HD (2) + Con (+3 for example) = 15, and the creature gains 2 class levels, is the save now 16? Or can it only advance if the monster gains actual hit dice?

Since it is not possible to switch archetypes, would it be unbalancing to swap a Ninja's 1st level Poison Use ability for standard Rogue Trapfinding?

Once again, my PCs have gone about things in a way I never would have expected, and the dice have backed them up. One of them approached the fort and, after a short amount of banter, ran away dodging arrows and retreating to the rest of the party, waiting some 600' away.

Now, Kressle had escaped from previous capture, and (boosted a level), took several bandits (none of the lieutenants) out on horseback to attack the invaders. Things went really bad thanks to some lucky ranged shots and an Entangle spell. Now, the fort is down a large portion of its general thugs.

My question is, should the lieutenants just hole up in there and wait for them to come back? It seems like allowing such powerful foes to just leave and potentially come back with reinforcements is a bad idea, but riding out to meet them obviously didn't do much good.

Suggestions?

I've got a party of young players and we're starting out with some very basic Dungeon crawl type games. Eventually I'm sure their interests will expand to the world at large, and I've so far had them working out of a town called "Glen Hollis". There's a vaguely Scottish feel to the campaign, as far as it goes. Is there a place in Galorion that has something like a celtic feel?

Okay, so your players are exploring a 12 mile hex, and the rules in the first module tell you how long it will take to explore that hex. Unless there's an event in that hex, though, all you really have to say about it is "okay, you didn't find anything". 12 miles of real-world space would have potentially several different geographic features, but all we have is a map with limited detail, and some general descriptions like "Kameland is like X".

I'm wondering if anyone has developed a system or method of some sort for dealing with exploration WITHIN a given hex where there are no specific events listed, such as "You see a wide plain with grasslands and two large hills about 5 miles from you. There is a small lake between you and the hills, surrounded by trees."

Has there ever been a definitive ruling on monk flurry attacks as combined with natural attack routines? I have a player who's going to be applying the 3.5 half-fiend template. I'm certain since he'll have two claws and a bit, he'll go for the multi-attack feat. My instinct is to say that two claws and a bit are all he gets, OR flurry of blows, but no combination thereof. It seems like a balance issue in order to keep the number of his attacks reasonable. However, I've read a couple posts here and elsewhere that suggest otherwise. Is there an official ruling?

I've got a campaign coming up and am attempting to make a druid to balance the party. What I would like to do is give up some power or other in order to be able to send positive healing energy as a cleric, while remaining a druid in all other aspects. What would be a good trade-off for this ability?

Specifically, I am going to be hitting the PCs with a triceratops, which is listed as "Huge". How many 5' squares should the token take up on a map?

This may be a simple question, but I couldn't find the answer. I don't have the beastiary, so it might be in there. Do animals and monsters get Class Skill bonuses?

I've bought this module and have it lined up as the next adventure for my Ravenloft campaign, provided the PCs decide to work their way inland on Sanguinia instead of taking a ship out to sea (in which case I'm looking at a conversion of the old Ship of Horror module). Any anecdotes, opinions, or suggestions for me? I've already read several other posts regarding the module, just looking for some info or advice to help tie it all together.

How much would it affect balance to give Rangers access to 0-level Orisons at the same time they get 1st level spells? Opinions and suggestions requested.

Is there a document that lists the differences between Beta and Core rules? I've just bought Core, but I've been running a Beta game for a while and want a reference for my players on what's changed.

So I have a party in Ravenloft, and there's quite the chance one of them will contract Lycanthropy in the near future. I've read up on the Savage Progressions Werewolf, which is three levels of Werewolf with no hit dice plus 2 levels of Wolf with 1 HD (d8) each. Is this even worth it? Losing 5 class levels to be down three HD seems pretty useless. Obviously the party always has the option of trying to remove the lycanthropy, but, if they wanted to keep it, are these rules fair and useful, or is the person who has this getting ripped off. I'm not asking if it's optimized, or specific build information, just if it's a reasonable exchange for 5 levels.

I've been playing Wizards' D&D since shortly after 3.0 came out (and now Pathfinder), and AD&D since a few years after the original Player's Handbook was released (and some "Basic" D&D before that). I find that, in general, I still think like an AD&D DM, even though I use the 3.x rules. I really like most of the changes Pathfinder has made to those rules.

Here are some differences I've noticed in the mindset of "AD&D-ers" and "3.x-ers". None of these are meant to offend anyone, just to spark conversation. I realize there are several styles of play that can all be valid as long as the gaming group is having fun.

Example 1
AD&D - Each class has it's strong points and power is supposed to vary at levels. The Monk sucks at low levels, Magic Users die if they're not very careful, and Thieves have to try really hard to get a good backstab in before the combat ends.

D&D 3.x - All classes are equal in combat, and each class should be roughly equal at all levels (I know that's not a reality, just a POV of the optimal situation, in my opinion).

Example 2
AD&D - The DM is encouraged to make new traps, tricks, and special rules for given situations, based largely on imagination. Early Dragon magazines are full of these things.

D&D 3.x - The rules attempt to explain every possible trap, magic item, etc as being able to be created by a PC class, and people question things not explainable in RAW.

Example 3
AD&D - DMs are not discouraged from making very tough adventures with combat after combat after trap after trap. PCs are expected to die if they are not wise. Mr. Gygax was notorious for this.

D&D 3.x - The rules calculate how much damage a party should take and the DM is expected not to give them too much challenge based on this.

Example 4
AD&D - Players make a character at 1st level, maybe with a character concept (moreso in AD&D 2nd Edition), and grow with the campaign.

D&D 3.x - Many players determine when making their character how they expect the character to grow from level to level, expecting the DM to make it all possible.

There are many things I like about the 3.x rules, especially Pathfinder, but I find I still think largely like an AD&D DM, quoting "Rule 1" often, though it has been somewhat tempered by my 3.x experience. Opinions, similar or different, are welcome.

I'm looking into ways to turn the monk into more of a "Martial Artist" class that doesn't step into the realm of the mystical. This is for a particular character; in general I think the PF monk is pretty good. I looked into multiclassing into fighter, which I've done in 3.0/3.5, but so much of the PF fighter's abilities focus on using armor and weapons to great advantage that it doesn't fit.

I would appreciate some ideas.

In the 3.5 SRD, a wolf gains a free trip attack if it hits with it's bite, essentially pulling it's victim off his feet. This free trip attack gains no AoO, and cannot be counter-tripped.

Not yet having monster information specific to Pathfinder, should I assume this rule holds true in the Pathfinder system, and that the victim not only doesn't get an AoO, against the trip, but that the wolf cannot trip itself up by missing it's attempt by more than 10?

I'm trying to do an Urban Ranger using the Pathfinder beta, and most of the stuff switches out without any real problem BUT...the player doesn't find any use in either the Two Weapon style or Archery Style. I suggested to him that I might allow him to trade out Ranger's weapon style specialization for Fighter Bonus Feats, based on several similar swaps in Unearthed Arcana. How does this seem to people, balance-wise?

I looked through the Pathfinder rules, and the D&D SRD, but all I could come up with regarding off-hand fighting related to using two weapons at once. What is the penalty if a character chooses to attack with a weapon in his off hand ONLY? In other words, he/she is carrying something in his/her "good" hand that cannot be dropped, and is forced to attack with the off-hand as his/her primary attack.

Also, what page is this on in the Pathfinder beta?