tribeof1's page

In light of a recent development at work, I'm going to have to pull Kohrath the flame oracle from consideration. Not sure I'd be able to post regularly for the next couple of months and there are lots of enthusiastic alternatives here. Good (evil?) luck!

I'd be interested in an angel-kin aasimar oracle of flame, focus Charisma, with Wisdom as foible.

Rolling...
Strength 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15
Dexterity 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Constitution 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9
Intelligence 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
Wisdom 8
Charisma 18

Interesting. Crunch and fluff to come.

It's only worth taking if you also plan to take Toughness and really want the +1 skill point/level, as well.

I have to double- and triple-check NPC names with my players - like kids on the playground, if there's an inappropriate nickname suggested, they'll jump on it. I was running a conversion of an old Dark Sun intro module last night when one slipped through.

The fact that the characters started off as nearly naked slaves probably affected their reaction when they were introduced to the dwarf elder Baranus ...

Of course, I had spent the previous hour gleefully describing a combat in which two of the three PCs were repeatedly injected with eggs by a giant wasp queen. When the dwarf kept making his saves, he joked that it must have been a legitimate attack, "because the body has a way of shutting those things down."

Theologian might be worth checking out, but most others are pretty worthless.

I think you'd be better going for a Wisdom-based caster due to your racial mods. Oracle puts off 2nd level spells for another level, and the Battle mystery doesn't offer anything very compelling. I think your earlier idea is your best bet:

Crusader Cleric of Sarenrae, with a dip into Divine Scion at 5th for earlier access to Weapon Specialization, maybe nabbing the Channel Smite and Guided Hand feats along the way to make it a more SAD PC.

I don't see any point in losing spells for Crusader Cleric if you go Divine Scion for access to Weapon Specialization, etc. Libicocco's access to Destruction is better than Sarenrae if you can get away with being LE and can access the Optimistic Gambler trait (campaign trait from a 3.5 AP, so maybe not). Otherwise Magical Lineage and Wayan Spellhunter for Dazing spell.

Mystic Past Life doesn't appear to limit you choosing spells from a single divine class, so you could still grab wrath off the inquisitor list (since it stacks with divine favor and eventually gives you Improved Critical, as well) and some other goodies like stoneskin as a 4th-level spell.

Cleric into Holy Vindicator also could be interesting if you went Libicocco (for negative channeling) and focused on Channel Smite for extra damage. At Cleric 7/HV 5, you could Channel Smite for +7d6 damage plus 1d6 bleed and sicken the target on a failed save, making it that much easier to daze.

Huh, I guess I was thinking of Dex to damage as precision damage. Shows what you get for applying common sense to RAW.

What about a paladin? You could do four levels of oracle first to get flame blade and a mystery or two, then paladin for smite evil. Going straight paladin you could still get flame blade by 7th, and the Unsanctioned Knowledge feat would get you some more fun spells like wrath, haste and divine power. Your caster level will suck, though.

Why wouldn't you get Dex to damage? Dervish Dance grants Dex to damage on melee attacks with a scimitar. Flame Blade is a melee touch attack that you "wield as if it was a scimitar."

I'd say "you wield as if it was a scimitar" makes the scimitar a weapon for the purposes of bane, but I can see why some would argue otherwise.

I would think inquisitor is the way to go. Stacking bane weapon with the destruction judgment and Destruction domain power, plus Precise Strike and maybe divine favor and wrath nets a pretty nice damage bonus on each strike - at 6th level, it's something like 3d6+12 before any ability modifier.

Maybe Weapon Finesse & Dervish Dance to cut down on MAD, although feats could get tight. Grab Magical Lineage and Wayang Spellhunter (can you do both?) as traits so you can add Empowered or Dazing to your flameblade later on.

One level of carnivalist rogue + Boon Companion feat nets an Int 8 monkey, without any DM interpretation about whether Monkey domain is allowed. And the gorilla PC would have a pet smarter than him.

I like Magical Lineage with the Admonishing Ray spell for an oracle. It's basically a non-lethal version of Scorching Ray, but has the force spell descriptor so you can add Toppling Spell, which is free w/Magical Lineage. Fits with the angelic healer theme - just knocking people aside when they try to get violent, and tops out at 12d6 damage (needs three ranged touch attacks, but no save) at 11th level, which isn't too shabby.

ryric: I had considered a requirement that the half-giant's floating feat be one possessed by a current companion or a foe encountered within the last week ... and you've talked me back into it.

I thought about an alchemist-based approach to the Athasian bard, as well. If a player was interested that's probably the route I'd explore, but I opted to keep it simple for now. I also wonder if some alchemist-flavored rogue tricks wouldn't do the, er, trick. What with defiling and all, the minor and major magic tricks probably make more sense as alchemy.

It's interesting to see the different approaches people took with their conversions.

I see a lot that kept racial abilities at the traditional Pathfinder baseline, while I purposely boosted mine to about the 20 RP range (using the ARG as a guide) so I wouldn't have to nerf half-giants and thri-kreens, as well as to allow racial mods to fill some of the gap created by sub-par equipment. I don't think there's necessarily a right or wrong way to do it as long as you end up with the desired tone.

My approach was based in large part on the specific dynamics of my group. Several of them first started playing D&D with 2E Dark Sun, so I wanted to emulate that version as much as possible. Several are fairly casual players when it comes to rules, so I wanted to keep changes minimal. And while I like to DM fairly gritty games, they like to be play combat bad-asses, so boosting ability scores in a resource-poor, scramble for survival setting seemed to fill both desires.

We'll see how it works out. I'm converting the intro adventure from the first boxed set ("A Little Knowledge") and will post the stat blocks when I'm done.

Kthulhu wrote:

C'mon dude, tell me that wouldn't be an awesome character to play in a game based on Arthurian legend!

Awesome, sure, but maybe a little stage-stealing, unless all the other PCs were similarly awesome.

But isn't it their fault, as well as the GM's, for not wanting to create just as awesomesparkling vampire my little pony robot demigods to smash the carefully-crafted medieval campaign world together? I mean, one player's all-permissive fun is more important than everyone else's, right? It would be cruel to say no to anything.

We're all playing Rifts, right?

The Aldori Dueling Master feat from the Inner Sea World Guide.

An RPG is like playing Cops and Robbers, except everyone involved has agreed to appoint an arbiter (the GM) to create a plot and adjudicate the rules. Player entitlement is one player arguing - after everyone agreed to play Cops and Robbers - that they should be able to play a dinosaur.

The time for that kind of lobbying is when the potential players and potential GM(s) are deciding what to play. Maybe everyone agrees to play Dinosaurs and Damsels, or Dinosaurs eat Cops and Robbers. But once the mutual decision has been made, the GM should be able to enforce it. And if the GM wants to run Cops and Robbers dinosaur-free, you either agree to play Cops and Robbers or find another, dino-friendly GM. Everyone has an opportunity to buy in, or not, but after that the GM is in charge.

I went with some very similar, included in the notes on classes. I require the caster to have the metamagic feat, but then let them fuel it w defiling rather than increasing the spell level. I also let it be added on the fly, rather than just when preparing spells.

Also, I realize I took for granted that anyone using the conversion would be familiar with the Dark Sun monetary convention that makes ceramic pieces the standard, rather than gold. 1 cp is equivalent to 1 gp in other campaigns. 10 bits = 1 cp = 1/10 sp = 1/100 gp = 1/1000 pp.

See the note at the top of the armor section. The baseline full plate on the list is assumed to be made of nonmetal components. It costs 15 gp. Metal full plate would cost 100 times as much, or 1,500 gp. Chain mail can't be made from nonmetal materials (as noted by the asterisk) and so always costs 150 gp.

The weapon tables take the opposite tack--most weapons are assumed to be made of metal and are priced that way in the table. Then you discount based on the material. Exceptions are weapons that don't lose effectiveness based on materials.

Yes, I've got copies of the Athas.org stuff and likely will be using some of their material (the Terrors of Athas bestiary, for sure) with very minor tweaks. I wasn't in love with their take on the races and classes, however (which are 3e or 3.5, anyway, and not really in line with Pathfinder philosophy) or the way they did wild talents, which is why I did my own.

I wouldn't disallow the other psionic classes, but my group hasn't used any psionics in our games since 3.5, and only intermittently then. I stuck with the core four to keep things simple, more than anything. Dreamscarred stuff looks good, I'm just not very familiar with it yet.

@master-marshmallow:
Impact also gives a significant boost to bull rush and is meant for larger weapons and increases the overall damage possible - ie, you use it to boost a two-handed weapon up to 2d8. Even then, I think it's over-priced. Putting impact on a light weapon (even if it was allowed) would be a complete waste.

Your Large falcata example doesn't make any sense, as the falcata would still be Large (so, you'd be taking a -2 to attack rolls) even if you could treat as a light weapon. And at that point, you're talking about a minimum +4 weapon, just to do 3d6 base damage. Um, ok, go for it.

As a counterpoint, consider the agile property. At +1, it lets you use Weapon Finesse and apply Dex to damage. The "minor sunblade" ability lets you use Weapon Finesse with a one-handed weapon and (rather than getting Dex to damage) reduce the penalties for TWF by 2. Seems about even to me.

So again, I think +1 is perfectly fine, as long as you don't (as you appear to imply) make it more powerful than what the sunblade does, ie., you should definitely limit it allowing a one-handed weapon to be wielded as a specific light weapon.

EDIT: And what the other guys just said. Note, SKR is pretty conservative when it comes to magic item design, so if he says it's +1, it definitely shouldn't cost more than that.

I'd rate "treat it as a lighter weapon" as a +1 ability. Think about it this way: the sunblade is basically a short sword that has been magicked to do 1d10 damage rather than 1d6. That's an increase of roughly 1d4 (untyped) damage, with a few other bennies (can still be used two-handed for greater damage, damage gets even better if you're big) added in. I'd say all that's about equal to getting +1d6 energy damage from frost or flaming.

In a fit of nostalgia, I recently began working up some house rules for a new Dark Sun campaign using Pathfinder as a base. There's been intermittent interest in similar conversions over the years on this site and others, so I figured I'd post my work for others to comment on or use as they see fit.

A couple of notes on my approach: I don't have any of the 4E Dark Sun material and will be ignoring any changes it made to the setting, such as including tieflings and subbing goliaths for half-giants. I've included a few rules ideas from the 3.5-era Dragon/Dungeon mag conversions, but have excised any setting/canon changes (elans, maenads, etc.) made there, as well. As much as possible, I've tried to emulate the feel of the original boxed set, 2E version of Dark Sun.

To that end, I've included random wild talents - most characters get an actual power (or two) rather than just a PP reserve - and increased the power level of the races to about 20 RP to reflect the superior abilities of the Athasian races compared to their 2E counterparts. I'm using the psionic rules from Psionics Unleashed (available at d20pfsrd.com).

The original called for starting characters at level 3, but I'm leaning toward starting mine at 2nd level. I expect to play fast and loose with the wealth-by-level guidelines in order to emphasize the scarcity of resources and magic. Magic-using classes typically benefit when you do that, but magic-users have their own problems to contend with on Athas ...

When possible, I've tried to err on the side of simplicity. Rather than heavily modifying character classes to bring them in line with the original setting, I've simply banned those that don't jibe while making minor tweaks to others. An inquisitor with very minor changes makes a fine templar, for example, and the rogue easily covers the Athasian bard and trader. If you want to play a gunslinger or a summoner, pick a different world.

It's still a work in progress - the house rules document includes notes on changes to create water and endure elements, for example, but I haven't gone through all the spells in the core rules to sift out inappropriate choices.

I've gone back and forth on the stats for the half-giant (Large or just powerful build?) and thri-kreen, but I'm mostly happy with what I have at the moment.

Here's what I have so far:
Races, Classes and Wild Talents

House Rules

Equipment

Is it just me, or is the binding on this much, much cheaper than earlier Tales books? I just started reading my copy and the first 60 pages or so were barely attached to the binding and are about to fall out. Story's good so far, but I won't be able to read it a second time ...

I'd go with a battle cleric, personally. With your lack of a Dex bonus I'd be worried about hitting the AC needed to tank with the druid, monk or combo of the two.

Channel energy is a nice source of out-of-combat healing for the whole party, so it might be worth boosting Charisma a little bit. I'd go with human or aasimar for race, using angel-blooded aasimar if your DM allows it - that gets you +2 Str and +2 Cha, plus alter self as a spell-like ability, which nets you an easy +2 size bonus to Str once a day. The standard aasimar bonuses to Wis and Cha aren't bad, either.

You might consider a 1-level dip in fighter early on for weapon and heavy armor proficiencies, as well as a feat (Toughness, Shield Specialization?) to help you tank. I'd also look at going into Holy Vindicator (in addition to or instead of the fighter level - fighter gets you in earlier, but makes HD's armor and weapon proficiencies redundant).

For RotRL, an aasimar cleric of Ragathiel or Desna would fit in well with the setting, as well. Magnimar, which you'll visit briefly, is home to a large concentration of worshipers of the Empyreal Lords.

I'm still waiting, as well. Got an email from Owen on 11/16 saying it should be coming, it didn't, and I emailed him again a week ago and have heard nothing. It looks like he hasn't posted on this site since Dec. 7, so he may be ill/on vacation/otherwise out of the loop.

The guide to traits is here. Looks like there are a couple of traits that give Acrobatics.

I'd be interested in the system mentioned earlier for granting character abilities in place of loot/wealth/magic items.

I've also been intrigued by one of the ideas forwarded for 5E (don't shoot!): making a simplified version of the various classes for players who don't want to fiddle picking feats or other variable class abilities, or for DMs that don't have the time to spare.

Essentially, you could do a book with a couple of archetypal Fighters, for example, that have all feats/skills/bonuses integrated into their level progression, like in 1E and 2E, so you'd have a ready-to-go character of that class that could compete reasonably well with a custom-built Pathfinder character.

It would be interesting to build in some streamlined abilities that could take the place of more fiddly feats. So, while the generic Sword and Board Fighter might have built-in bonuses mirroring Weapon Focus, Specialization, etc., they also might get a higher-level ability (in place of an invisible feat) that let's them try to negate one attack a round; an iconic Double-Daggers Rogue might get a pounce-like ability, etc.

A PC in my Kingmaker campaign came up with Gurthloyne Benjover for his cleric of Pharasma. Another player in a different campaign had a drow rogue named Fridgidus Vrenn.

Speaking of the art, did anyone else get the feeling there was a bit more reused material than normal? It felt like almost 1/3 of the pictures were taken out of previous products. I don't know if this is standard procedure that I didn't notice before, the result of a larger than normal amount of images, or just random luck of what pages I flipped to, but it certainly stuck out at me.

I noticed the same thing. It's good art, but I wouldn't want to see the trend continue/expand.

I house-ruled Manyshot to add a second die of damage (but no bonuses of any kind) in order to nerf a fighter-archer that was utterly dominating my Rise of the Runelords campaign.

As is, Manyshot adds 1d8+x, where x is whatever you can stack on except sneak attack. That's stupid. Utterly, indefensibly stupid for one feat. Getting to add an extra 1d8 on one attack during a full attack action, on the other hand, is on par with Vital Strike.

Also, archers dominate when they're allowed to stand around in back, free of danger, making full attack actions. Don't give them that charity.

Has anyone tried using the sheets referenced in this thread on a tablet? What app did you use and how did it work? I'm looking at buying an Android tablet for use in my Kingmaker game but want to make sure I'll be able to run either the Excel or OpenOffice spreadsheet.

I've been a subscriber to the rules line since it began and I'm not yet ready to suspend my sub just to avoid a product ... but after the Beginner Box and this, I'm getting very close.

I'd prefer that the subscription line stayed focus on rulebooks, with limited-interest accessories left as optional purchases. With the overall increase in product Paizo is releasing, my monthly gaming outlay is reaching its limit, leaving less and less room for fluff products like this.

I realize making products like this (which I'd hazard would be of dubious viability as a standalone) part of a subscription may make business sense; it also may cost you subscribers in the long run. Hope that's useful feedback!

Two feats and level 16 seems silly for what Martial Mastery gets. I've house-ruled a fighter-only feat I called Weapon Versatility that allowed all of a character's weapon-specific feats to apply to any weapon in the same weapon group.

For a single feat it adds a little versatility but no real power increase - at best, someone wielding a pair of kukris to save on feats might upgrade their main hand weapon to a rapier, for 1 extra average damage. Because weapons within the same group tend to have the same damage types, a fighter be able to get 2 of the 3 types (S/P/B) in a group, but not all three.

The primary benefit is that it makes a wider array of treasure useful - no more "Oh, that's a flaming handaxe, I only use light picks, just sell it." That's worth a feat, but not two - and certainly not at 16th level, when most characters have the money to commission whatever specialty weapon they want - and have already done so.

No.

Two sessions in, the group features a ... uh, variety of naming conventions.

Barael Medyved: Human (Brevic) titan-(orc-)blooded sorcerer
Throk: Hobgoblin ranger
Gurthloyne: Human (Brevic) cleric of Pharasma
Gaul-gull: Half-orc rogue
Verran Kale: Human (Numerian) barbarian
Zorya Svensdottir: Human (Ulfen) bard
Defrens the Vast: Ifrit oracle (metal)

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I just wanted some extra eyes on the issue in case I was overlooking something really obvious. Will let you know how it goes.

I'm considering allowing a nature oracle in an upcoming game I'm running choose spells from the druid spell list rather than the cleric list. Is there a huge power imbalance I'm overlooking?

I'm the one suggesting the change, and it seems to me they'll be giving up some healing/restorative spells and buffs (divine favor, shield of faith, bless) for a few more offensive spells and different buffs (shillelagh, barkskin).

I'm also thinking about allowing the character to pick up a couple of revelations from the Wood mystery, just because they're flavorful. Again, doesn't seem like a big problem but I'm curious if anyone else sees an opportunity for severe munchkinism.

What do folks think of today's blog? Do you like the inside look behind the curtain of RPG Superstar and the guest blogs?

Not really. It seems like all we're getting lately in blogs is:

Other than the (increasingly rare) excerpt from an upcoming book, that's about it.

I can understand the excitement about the minis and excuse their frequent inclusion, but the other three (Superstar, fiction and PFS) all have their own sections of the website. None really float my boat as blog updates ... I'd rather see actual new Golarian content (tidbits are fine, not expecting gobs of free content) or design posts as referenced above.

That said, I understand the posts I'd like to see take work on the part of people who don't have a lot of extra time. I'm just losing interest in what's being provided instead.

(Note: Mods feel free to move this, but I put it here to get feedback from posters familiar with the AP).

So, as a break from my Legacy of Fire game I decided to run some 3rd-edition Shadowrun.

Partly to see if I could do it, I decided to use Carrion Crown as a basic road map for a plotline I'm working in between more traditional runs (mostly from the first season Missions adventures on Catalyst's site).

I've not been too worried about following CC exactly. Game's set in Seattle as the runners come together for the funeral of Dr. Peter Larrimer, a mage and surgeon who ran a charity hospital in the barrens and had done favors for each of them in the past. While doing runs to keep the hospital afloat (and arrange protection from the yakuza) the group recovers Larrimer's journals that mention Harrowstone, a private prison complex destroyed in a fire several years earlier.

Larrimer had been keeping an eye on the place, which was the site of clandestine, corporate research into cyber-zombie creation before the "accident" that left it a spirit-haunted ruin. He was killed by agents of the Whispering Way that visited the prison to extract a powerful free spirit trapped in a warded research area.

The group is approached by the Palatine Eye, an initiatory group that opposes the Whispering Way's attempts to resurrect a long dormant spirit of some kind, probably using a modified form of the rituals used in cybermancy creation - at least, that's my translation of the spiritual "MacGuffins" the WW is after so far.

For Trial of the Beast, I'm going with a simplified plotline: A local gang has turned in the body of the notorious "Beast of Leper Street," a barrens monster that has terrorized the locals for several months. The scarred carcass turns out to be a troll incarcerated at Harrowstone when it burned, but the body contains several more recent cyber-mods (in quantities verging on fatal).

The runners eventually will track down the beast's maker, a deranged cyber-surgeon who has been experimenting in hiding since Harrowstone's fall. He's on high alert when the runners arrive after recently being robbed by Whispering Way cultists seeking some magical doodads he spirited out of the prison.

For Broken Moon I'm thinking of moving in Native American Nation territory - have the runners infiltrate a corporate hunting lodge at a time when the local tribal councils (stand-ins for the werewolves) are at each other's throats over succession. I could work in some HMHVV-infected loup-garou or Wendigo to keep the werewolf vibe.

I'm looking for ideas on a MacGuffin for Broken Moon, though, as well as ideas for translating the later parts of the AP. I'm not sure where to place Wake of the Watcher - maybe farther up the coast, or south in Tir Tairngire or California Free State?

The vampires of the Ordo Maximus, with their rumored knowledge of advanced cybermanchy, seem perfect for Ashes at Dawn, so I might sub in London for Caliphas. For Shadows of Gallowspire, I'm torn between placing the endgame in a buried temple complex or in a corporate skyscraper in Seattle or some other megaplex.

Thoughts?

Quality looks great and I don't mind random, but not at that price. $1-2 for small-medium and $4-8 for large is about my max. As it is, you're charging more for random minis than Games Workshop charges for multi-piece, posable (albeit unpainted) plastics. That's not the side of that equation you want to be on.

Blame Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet and/or Skip Williams, not Paizo. It's a 3.0 rule that's never been changed.

Here's mine:

Mask of the Demon Hound
Aura moderate transmutation; CL 5th
Slot head; Price 27,000 gp; Weight 3 lbs.
Description
Although some resemble the snarling visage of a fiendish mongrel, a mask of the demon hound gains its name from its function, rather than its form.
Crafted from sulfurous demon-hide, a mask of the demon hound grants its wearer the scent ability against creatures of the outsider type. For the purpose of this ability, outsiders with the evil subtype are considered to emanate a strong scent, while evil outsiders with more than 10 hit dice create an overpowering scent. Particularly foul environments – such as evil-aligned outer planes – may mask lesser scents. Abilities or effects that protect against divination or other magical detection have no effect on the scent function of the mask, which is a supernatural ability.
The mask of the demon hound also obscures the wearer’s alignment, shifting it one step towards chaos and one step towards evil for the purposes of spell or supernatural ability effects and item requirements. A lawful good character, for example, would be considered neutral when targeted by a detect good or holy smite spell and could wield an anarchic weapon without suffering a negative level. The wearer’s actual alignment is unchanged.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, beast shape I and misdirection or undetectable alignment; Cost 13,500 gp

Nope, they're all alone. Plus, Almah and Garavel don't have the strangeness I'd like to work into what is essentially a one-shot.

I'll have to take another look at Dark Markets - my last skim was for the aluum, wasn't really looking for specific characters.

A pugwampi cleric of good luck

That might lead to physical violence, considering the group got "pugwampied" severely in the first couple of books.

My Legacy of Fire campaign just hit a snag, in a good way, when:

One PC, an inquisitor of Pharasma, was able to escape, and intends to return to rescue the rest of the party. Unable to go to the authorities for reasons outlined in the adventure, he needs to recruit some help.

The group has contacts in the church of Sarenrae, but I figure the church would be wary of upsetting the peace and bringing down the hammer of the Pactmasters. Instead, he'll have to turn to the dregs of the city's mercenary adventurers.

With that in mind, I'd like to put together a samping of 5-6 temporary characters for the petrified players to choose from. As they'll just be temporary stand-ins, it's an opportunity to include some weirder, potentially imbalanced builds or monstrous races. Non-standard is better, and I'd like to avoid much overlap with the standard PCs (an elven rogue, half-elf witch, suli-jann paladin and tiefling fighter).

Here's what I've got so far:
Dim-witted air mephit sorcerer (stormborn)
Drunken/drug-addled gnome rogue/barbarian
Human (or other) cleric of Sivanha (goddess of illusions)
Gnoll ranger/fighter with hyena companion
Shield guardian golem, maybe a modified aluum, that could be the "pet" of one of the others.

Any other ideas? Strange is good, and I'm especially interested in concepts that fit in well with the Katapeshi underbelly.

Missed that last sentence. Snark retracted ;)

Recycling month-old store blog posts = lame. Just saying.

I usually give an additional "background" feat, in addition to 2 traits, to 1st-level PCs. Pseudo-PC races like tieflings, aasimar, tengu, etc. give up the background feat in order to take the non-standard choice.

This has worked pretty well for the most part, although not all races are created equal. I have a suli-jann paladin in my Legacy of Fire campaign. In addition to foregoing a background feat, I also ruled that he didn't gain any of his energy resistances or wasn't able to use the "energy hands" ability until he'd suffered damage of that energy type, which "awakened" the ability (the character was unaware of his heritage at first). Worked pretty well by delaying access to a portion of the character's abilities to about level 4-5.

Also, summoning them on the other side of enemies to harass enemy spellcasters are actually pretty funny, since literally dogpiling an evil spellcaster with celestial dogs is great. :P

And you can refer to them in character as "glory hounds."