
GM Bold Strider |

Here are my feat modifications:
All martial characters are considered to have the Martial Versatility feat, which means that any weapon specific feat is treated, is treated as a fighter weapon group feat (e.g. Weapon Focus would apply to Heavy Blades (fighter weapon group) not Greatsword). This is to promote the use of various drops and not pigeonhole fighters and other martials into a single weapon.
All characters will also get one free skill point in Profession, Craft or Perform that describes the summation of their personal history. Example: Ben the Fighter takes his free skill point in Profession(Miner) due to be a miner at the local mining company.
Weapon Finesse and Power Attack are free feats that you gain when you meet the requirements.
Dodge and Mobility are now a single feat that incorporates both feats into one and counts for both for any prereqs. (+1 to Dodge AC that increases to +4 to Dodge AC when being attacked by AoOs from movement). [Slight nerf overall, but you gain a feat slot.]
All crafting feats have their caster level requirements increased by two levels.
Crafting is no longer a 50% price reduction, instead crafting will cost 80% of the value of the item.
Two-Weapon Fighting is now a single feat that advances to Improved and Greater when you meet the requirements for those feats.
Vital Strike is now a single feat that advances to Improved and Greater when you meet the requirements for those feats.
Whip Mastery is now a single feat that advances to Improved and Greater when you meet the requirements for those feats.
All Improved combat maneuver feats are grouped into three feats and no longer grant +2 to CMB/CMD.
Improved Warrior Maneuvers: Bull Rush, Drag, Overrun, Sunder
Improved Thief Maneuvers: Dirty Trick, Disarm, Steal
Improved Wrestler Maneuvers: Grapple; Reposition; Trip
There are no requirements for these feats.
Greater Combat Maneuvers feats remain the same and require the lesser Improved version.
Weapon Focus now scales at 8th level to Greater Weapon Focus and gives a total of +2 to hit
Spell Focus now scales at 8th level to Greater Spell Focus and gives a total of +2 to the DCs of that school’s spells.
Weapon Specialization now scales at 10th level to Greater Weapon Specialization and gives a total of +4 to the damage with that fighter weapon group.
Leadership is banned. (May be given out as a bonus)
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Start with full gold for one of your classes [the higher or lower, you choose ;) ]
One trait for your character must be from the Rise of the Runelord's Player's Guide.

GM Bold Strider |

A couple caster updates:
I prefer casters to have a focus and what that means to me is things like the Druid who focuses on plant and plant-related spells or a Winter Witch (archetype and prestige class). When you train your magic gifts, you will likely be an apprentice to a single powerful member of your class and that person will have specialized. Seeing a sorcerer with powerful lightning magic, cold magic, necromancy, etc. would be quite rare. I don't have any formal rules for this, but please try to keep magic in a general "specialization", if that makes sense.
Things I don't like to see: Divination or Conjuration Wizard for the powerful school abilities and then most of your spells are Evocation or Necromancy. You're not really a Divination specialist if you know one divination spell per spell level.
As such, any elemental spell has any of the four base elemental types. This means that there are acid "fireballs", cold "lightning bolts", fire "shocking grasps", etc. This is only for spells without riders for the moment. Things like Chill Touch are specific to their existing elemental type. Things like Ice Storm or Ash Storm however could be reflavored to a Lightning Storm.
Heighten Spell no longer exists. If you use a 5th level spell slot for Acidball, then it's a stronger Acidball. All spells can be adjusted via Heighten Spell mechanics without the feat. Additionally, this means having this power doesn't count toward things like Spell Perfection.
Dazing Spell no longer exists.

Harold Henry Howard Higgins IV |

Here is my character handle but I still haven't had a chance to update the profile and such. Just wanted to post with him while I could.

Elena Lovain |

Took my extra skill point in Perform Dance, as Elena is a woman of many talents!
And just so I'm clear, DM, there would probably be no need for a Intensify Spell feat, since the spells keep scaling upwards, correct? Is there a limit on that? Like if I were a 20th level caster and prepared Burning Hands as a 9th level spell, would it do 20d4 damage?
Another question, about the sort of specializing in elements....as I picture Elena using her voice and songs to power her spells, do you think I could do force damage instead of a particular element? If that is too powerful, perhaps I could do less damage somehow, while still allowing her damage to be based off her vocal power. If not, that's cool, but that's a thought I had the other day.

GM Bold Strider |

@Pathmaker: You don't have to, but you can if you'd like.
@Elena: There are still the caps on the damage potential. Burning Hands and Shocking Grasp are still stuck at five dice. The bonus this way is that you can have more variety in your spell list. If you want a Will DC/Save or Suck then you can get Hideous Laughter at first level and keep it relevant DC-wise. Also, with my homebrew rules, you still have access to higher dice cones and bursts (e.g. Burning Hands -> Cone of Cold).
Force Damage is way too overpowered. Any incorporeals would immediately melt and stuff like Toppling Spell would become way too attractive. Maybe I will think of a metamagic feat to turn a Bard's spell damage into sonic damage for a level adjustment.
@Dashuun: Survival has too many benefits as compared to Craft/Profession/Perform. If you want outdoorsy, choose Profession(Hunter/Logger/Tracker/etc.).

GM Bold Strider |

Update:
Please format your alias profile as follows:
Race: Fighter 6 / Alchemist 6 HP: 39/39 | AC 20 | T 16 | FF 14 | Fort +7 | Ref +11 | Will +3 | CMD 18 | Initiative +6 | Perception +10 | Sense Motive +3 | Knowledge(Arcana/Local/Nature/Religion) +13
Class: [ spoiler=Resources]Bombs 11/11 | Extracts - 1st: 6/6; 2nd: 4/4 | CLW Wand - 43 charges[/spoiler]
Gender: [Blank]
The first will let me easily reference your Current HP/Total HP | Different ACs | Different Saves | CMD | Initiative | Perception | Other Highly Used Skills (Not Appraise or Profession)
The second will let me keep track of your daily expendables on the fly without referencing your character sheets.
Archetypes are unnecessary. Abbreviations of the classes are ok (Alch/Ftr/Wiz/Sorc/etc.) for space reasons. If you multi-class, please put your class tracks as follows: (Wiz 5/Theurge 1) / Cleric 6

Elena Lovain |

Made changes, picked another feat, and adjusted my spell DCs, DM.

Elena Lovain |

Are we going ahead with four, or are you inviting another, DM?

Torg Maran Gor |

First level feat choice was extra discovery. I usually would have taken Power Attack, but we get that for free :)

Elena Lovain |

Glad you are ok, TSA. Welcome to the Festival!

Torg Maran Gor |

My profile is updated with my character sheet btw. Let me know if you see anything odd.

Loriana Shimmerstar |

Hey Bold, dumb question.
Was working my post up, and failed the will save. Question though:
Which one of the gobbos is casting it? Hideous laughter only has a range of 25 ft?

GM Bold Strider |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

Nah. You guys are doing fine. If you noticed, I have been interspersing in goblin fails (which you are supposed to by the AP). This is a test to see how optimized the group is so I can tailor the rest of the AP. You guys are doing fine. Just make sure to search the goblins in this group.
Also, this will give you an idea of how hard I run my private campaigns. :D There aren't going to be cakewalks (usually) and you may die, but dammit you will feel accomplishment when you win.

Torg Maran Gor |

I'm back from Prague and I can start posting again -- no more trips planned until mid-October at this point.

Loriana Shimmerstar |

I swear to God, if our luck keeps going this sour, i'm going to keep the same class spread, but retool the character to a summoning build. If at first you don't succeed, throw more things at it. eventually one will stick, amirite?