Kingmaker (Inactive)

Game Master Dreaming Warforged

I'm going on a trip from December 27 until January 5. We'll have to take a break as I won't have access to a computer.

DW

@Kalsgrim:

Janku is at 3 hps.(And this is after healing him 8 hps!) Max is 18.

Ember is at 4 hps. Max is 22.

Kriger is at 14. Max is 27.

Obviously, the top two got big time rocked! :(
I'll use a potion and see where that puts me.

@OM: How much does the potion heal? Is it a 1d8 + x, or is it just 1d8?

@OM: How much does the potion heal? Is it a 1d8 + x, or is it just 1d8?

CL 1, unless otherwise noted, so 1d8+1.

Javell DeLeon wrote:

@OM: How much does the potion heal? Is it a 1d8 + x, or is it just 1d8?

CL 1, unless otherwise noted, so 1d8+1.

That's a good question. Our group had always assumed that since "Brew Potion" required a 3rd level caster, that the spell was 1d8+3 on a Cure Light Potion.

Most potions are assumed to be brewed at their minimum caster requirement. Or else the price changes to reflect that.

1st level potion with a caster level 1 = 50gp (cure light wounds, 1d8+1)
1st level potion with a caster level 3 = 150gp (cure light wounds, 1d8+3)

You can choose to brew a potion with any caster level so long as it is high enough to cast the spell.

Most potions are assumed to be brewed at their minimum caster requirement. Or else the price changes to reflect that.

1st level potion with a caster level 1 = 50gp (cure light wounds, 1d8+1)
1st level potion with a caster level 3 = 150gp (cure light wounds, 1d8+3)

You can choose to brew a potion with any caster level so long as it is high enough to cast the spell.

I see what you mean. Another thing we've been doing wrong. Makes me yearn even more to start my FATE game... ;-).

Of couse, minimum caster level means that a potion of cure *moderate* wounds would be at a minimum caster level of 3, since you'd have to be 3rd level to cast it, so 2d8+3 for that one.

And minimum caster level ends up being subjective. A curing wand made by a Paladin or Ranger would have a different minimum CL. Whackiness!

Merry Christmas all!

I've asked if you preferred another method for hit points. I would like to hear SdF on it for obvious reasons.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I don't mind re-rolling ones when it comes to hit-points or healing. It really feels like your gipped when that happens.

Ok, flight cancelled because of the weather...

I'm still flying, but everything is shifted by two days. Leaving the 29 back on the 7...

I'm back.

First return flight left late, making us miss our connection, which, strangely enough, was on time. The next flight was three hours, but left four hours late!!!

Jet lagged but happy!

Welcome back Warforged! Hope you had a good trip.

Some of the games are in are struggling (three in fact, not counting the one where our DM is stuck in the muck in Australia) so I'm thinking about different projects. I saw a few games opening, and Scranford mentioned something about the CoT he's in, but I'm thinking of DMing one.

I have in mind Pathfinder meets Eberron (homebrewed) meets E8.

Thoughts? Interest? Concerns? Warnings? I know I mentioned this a while ago, and I did start a game for some friends along those line, but in French. This one is probably dying soon, so I'm pretty serious.

Give me some feedback. I enjoy playing with you and would take your input quite seriously.

Some of the games are in are struggling (three in fact, not counting the one where our DM is stuck in the muck in Australia) so I'm thinking about different projects. I saw a few games opening, and Scranford mentioned something about the CoT he's in, but I'm thinking of DMing one.

I have in mind Pathfinder meets Eberron (homebrewed) meets E8.

Thoughts? Interest? Concerns? Warnings? I know I mentioned this a while ago, and I did start a game for some friends along those line, but in French. This one is probably dying soon, so I'm pretty serious.

Give me some feedback. I enjoy playing with you and would take your input quite seriously.

I'd be interested in this game. I really liked what WOT was doing with Eberron, before they jumped the shark and went to 4th edition. Lots of pulpy flavor. keep me in the loop if you decide to go. In spite of Janku's troubles I like the way you're running the game.

"Hey Staglord, we did find this on the troll, you might find it interesting."

Hands him the paper with explosive runes on it.

Haha, almost forgot about that. Lukasz is probably still a little wary opening it because it could just be a scroll that you can use to cast explosive runes, then again...

DW, let me know if you think Kal's suggestions of tactics that involve deception (i.e. playing dead)are too close to violating the no lying tenant of the paladin's code. I am assuming he's drawing a parallel to hunters using blinds or camoflauge in true Erastil fashion. But if you think its flirting with a violation, I'll back off.

Thanks!

You're such a tease for the devils watching your career moves!

They're still disappointed. No worries!

Congratulations Scipion! Good luck for the next round.

Anyone else had an app? Results?

Hot crackers!

Oh hey, great job with the Flask of Five Fifths!

Congrats SdF!

I did have an entry, but apparently it wasn't up to snuff. I'll probably post it in the next day or two to get feedback from the judges. It was called the Cincture of Horrific Emaciating. Perhaps the name was too over the top and turned them off.

Yeah, big time congrats Scipion!

You guys should post yours here so I don't have to wade through 700 "Plz Judge My Itam" posts.

Set and I shared items ahead of time but I'm not sure which one he finally decided on.

Be sure to check out the Round 2 entries tomorrow!

You guys should post yours here so I don't have to wade through 700 "Plz Judge My Itam" posts.

Set and I shared items ahead of time but I'm not sure which one he finally decided on.

Be sure to check out the Round 2 entries tomorrow!

I went with the Mnemonic Crystal, but completely changed how it worked (prepare the spell(s) into the crystal, to eliminate confusion as to how it worked). But it was workmanlike. Nothing like Superstar. No cyclopean nomenclature. No undead monkey pants. I'm no good at that sort of thing.

Here's what I put in the feedback thread.

I apologize, but I couldn’t recover the final submission version after an operating system crash. This is the last version I had, which I know is about 40 words or so less than the final version. Thank you for any feedback!

Cincture of Horrific Emaciating
Aura moderate transmutation; CL 5th
Slot belt; Price 1,800 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
This frayed rope is knotted onto itself, creating a loop that allows one end to hang down. When put around the wearer’s waist, it tightens uncomfortably. When the command word is spoken, the cincture causes the wearer to shrivel, taking on a grotesque nearly skeletal form. This effect lasts for five minutes.

The emaciated form have three effects. First, the wearer gains a +2 bonus on Intimidate checks due to their grotesque appearance. Second, the wearer gains a +1 size bonus to armor class that stacks with other size modifiers. Third, the wearer can squeeze through tight spaces as though they were one size category smaller than they actually are.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, reduce person Cost 900 gp

Cincture of Horrific Emaciating

Aura moderate transmutation; CL 5th
Slot belt; Price 1,800 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
This frayed rope is knotted onto itself, creating a loop that allows one end to hang down. When put around the wearer’s waist, it tightens uncomfortably. When the command word is spoken, the cincture causes the wearer to shrivel, taking on a grotesque nearly skeletal form. This effect lasts for five minutes.

The emaciated form have three effects. First, the wearer gains a +2 bonus on Intimidate checks due to their grotesque appearance. Second, the wearer gains a +1 size bonus to armor class that stacks with other size modifiers. Third, the wearer can squeeze through tight spaces as though they were one size category smaller than they actually are.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, reduce person Cost 900 gp

Initial thoughts (pardon the curtness, long post just got eated, mildly annoyed with self for not Ctrl-C-ing).

1) 'When the command word is spoken,' should have some sort of action type specified. Free action? Move? Provoke an AoO? Reduce Person is a 1 round casting time, for whatever silly reason, so if the activation time differs from the spell significantly, you should definitely 'spell' that out.

Sean seems to hate items that don't require actions to activate, and, while I rabidly disagree with him on this point (mostly), I think an item that has a duration measured in minutes should probably require a standard action (or at least a move action) to activate, and, given the visual of the item, it really 'feels right' for it to require the user to manually tighten the cincture (which should be do-able one-handed, just like tightening a belt), and not just require a 'command word.'

So, I'd be inclined to say move action (or standard), that does provoke an AoO (since it requires fiddling with your trousers).

2) That the belt gives the size bonus to AC, but not to attacks (or skills, like stealth, or CMB/CMD, seems odd to me.

I like the intimidate bonus, I like the squeezing option, but the belt, if it's to retain the +1 AC feature, should grant a natural armor bonus to AC, and perhaps add alter self to the requirements (or just replace reduce person entirely with alter self) and describe the shrivelling process as making the skin tough and leathery, by way of explanation. That keeps the theme, and the effect, without creating the 'exceptional' corner-case of gaining one benefit (+1 AC) from reducing size, while not gaining others (+1 Atk, +4 stealth, -1 CMB/CMD).

Note also that, depending on the starting size of the wearer, the number might be different than just '+1 size bonus to AC.' A Tiny wearer would theoretically gain a +2 size bonus to AC,' if emaciated down to being effectively Diminutive, for instance, which might be another reason to dump the idea of a size bonus and go with a natural armor bonus.

3) Finally, it has no 'uses / day' mentioned (and it should!), so I'm assuming once per day, for five minutes.

If that's the case, I'd rather that the minutes be divided up and not necessarily have to be used all in one go (do not need to be used consecutively, is the favored wording, IIRC). An item that takes up an equipment slot, and can only be used once / day, generally bugs me, although that's not a mechanical bit of advice so much as a personal pet peeve. :)

.

I like that it's an item that attempts to make use of reduce person (even if I suggest moving it to alter self...), which, in my experience, has not been cast since 1st/2nd edition, when it could be used to shrink boulders out of the way and stuff, and wasn't limited to only affecting a person.

The use of the squeezing mechanic is a fun thing, although, from a player's perspective, items like one-person flight items, one-person water breathing items, etc. that allow one to go places where the rest of the party might not be able to go (which a 'squeeze' item definitely counts as), runs the risk of the player with that item using it to do that very thing, going somewhere the rest of the party can't go.

This runs two risks;

One, of leaving a portion of the players sitting around with their cheese flapping in the wind, discussing sports and quoting Princess Bride and generally losing the 'D&D' spirit, while the mobility-enhanced player is off having a solo adventure in the place they can't get to.

Two, encounters in D&D/PF tend to be balanced around a four man party or whatever. Swimming, flying, squeezing off into a solo adventure means that *eventually* that PC will run into a challenge that is appropriate to his entire group, and get messily devoured. OTOH, that's a self-correcting problem, since it generally removes the party member most inclined to 'split the party' from play, and gives the GM the option of destroying whatever magic item encouraged him to do so. :)

Because of that, I'd judge this item more on it's use as a belt of +1 AC and +2 to intimidate, and, as that goes, I think it's pretty cool. It's got a theme, and isn't 'just' a belt of +1 AC and +2 intimidate, which I could see many fighter-types enjoying for those benefits alone, and it's got a creepy visual that might cause some players to recoil away from it, on general principle. I like that sort of thing, as it plays with comfort boundaries without coming within scrying distance of being *really* uncomfortable or potentially offensive or insensitive (barring a player at the table with an eating disorder, anyway...).

Edit: OK, apparently I got wordy anyway. So much for the 'short, short version.' :/

The name doesn't work for me as a term, but I like some of the individual components. Cincture has to stay, cause that's a total Superstar word, pretentious, archaic, cool.

Maybe Emaciation, instead of Emaciating. Emaciating is the word that kills it for me. Noun of Verbing. Ick!

We aren't allowed to discuss SdF's submission, or, more to the point, we can talk about it all we want, but he's not allowed to reply with anything other than 'thanks for commenting, vote early, vote often' or something similarly extremely-careful-to-avoid-disqualification.

In addition to my not reading judge commentary before coming to my own conclusions ('cause I'm a raving egomaniac who values his own opinions above all others), I also promised myself that I wouldn't judge SdF's contribution differently than any other.

Turns out that wasn't an issue. After reading them all (even the couple that were, IMO, painfully bad), I only saw three archetypes that I *knew* I was voting for, and one of them has a pet dog.

Nice work, man.

Really appreciate that. I hope everyone else likes it just as much. I am glad that everybody can finally see it.

You've got twice as many posts right now in the Hound Master thread than the next most-talked about submission. Love it or hate it, it's got buzz.

(Even if some of that is WoW IP tangent, which I wouldn't worry about. A search of just about any gaming term tends to pull up WoW stuff first...)

BTW, kudos to you, Scipion, on the archetype. That's pretty dang cool! I will echo what most others speak on the subject. I don't really have an interest in playing a cavalier, but this variant would actually give me a reason to try it.

That's good stuff, dude! Looks like you'll be moving on. Keep up the good work!

Off topic question here:

What does the initials IP stand for? And why is it such a topic within the wording of Scipion's archetype?

IP is Intellectual Property. It is the term used for creative ideas that are owned by the person that dreamed them up. It is the reason, for example, that Paizo cannot publish stats for a Mind Flayer; that is IP for WotC (they didn't include it in the OGL. It was created by TSR and companies that have bought D&D bought the IP that went with it).

Ahhh, I see. Also the same reason Paizo can't publish the Beholder either. I've heard about Paizo not being able to use some of the monsters from 3.5, just didn't know that's what it was called. Mind Flayers and Beholders. Awesome creatures that we'll never get to see in Pathfinder.

Stinks.

Ah well, hey thanks for the breakdown markofbane!

So I was wondering, how high are the walls around the fort? How far of a drop would it be from the wall to the ground outside the fort and about how high are the walls form where the men on the roofs are standing, waist level, shoulder level?

Sorry, I was keeping an eye on the IC...

The walls are 8 feet tall, and the towers are at six feet from the ground, with walls of 4 feet, so those walls are 10 feet from the ground.

Hope I'm clear. I'll let you post your actions as you sure sound like you're up to something and I sure wanna know what.

Good luck with the dice roller!

Action already posted for this round. You'll have to wait and see.

So, I'm back on the other side of the fence, thinking that the Eidolon is too good.

I'm so fickle. It either dies too soon and feels like a waste, or it jumps in there and dishes out ridiculous amounts of damage. Instead of being consistently okay, it seems to veer between extremes...

Or maybe I'm just bipolar. :)

So, I'm back on the other side of the fence, thinking that the Eidolon is too good.

[SNIP]
Or maybe I'm just bipolar. :)

Yup, bipolar. Kriger just did twice as much damage with his one attack than Ember did with the two that hit. I feel less like Ember's overdoing it.

Set wrote:

So, I'm back on the other side of the fence, thinking that the Eidolon is too good.

[SNIP]
Or maybe I'm just bipolar. :)

Yup, bipolar. Kriger just did twice as much damage with his one attack than Ember did with the two that hit. I feel less like Ember's overdoing it.

Lol!

And on this too!...'If Beaky attacks Dovan, and Dovan dies horribly...' :D

Sorry DW, I didn't see that you'd thrown your hat in the ring for Lucendar's LOF game until after he picked someone. If we have the same problem again (we are on our fourth healer in a year), I'll see what I can do.

No problem. It was one of those: "I really shouldn't, but I really can't resist!"

If that Legacy of Fire wasn't so far along, I might have thrown a character in for it. I've been in one that made it as far as the fight with the evil bad luck mites, and the other didn't even make it that far. (Crypt of the Everflame PbPs also seem to die fast. I've made it to the Crypt twice...)

I sometimes have trouble getting invested in games that have been running for more than an encounter or two, as the rest of the group tend to have a groove, and I end up feeling a bit left out.

If that Legacy of Fire wasn't so far along, I might have thrown a character in for it. I've been in one that made it as far as the fight with the evil bad luck mites, and the other didn't even make it that far. (Crypt of the Everflame PbPs also seem to die fast. I've made it to the Crypt twice...)

I sometimes have trouble getting invested in games that have been running for more than an encounter or two, as the rest of the group tend to have a groove, and I end up feeling a bit left out.

I wonder why CoE games tend to fail, it's a pretty easy Scenario to run. I like that you hit level 2 right after going to the second floor into the resting room.

Well, I lucked out with it. Lucendar is a great GM, and the players are as well.

I wonder why CoE games tend to fail, it's a pretty easy Scenario to run. I like that you hit level 2 right after going to the second floor into the resting room.

spoiler-y for CoEF