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I paid for an exterminator, it was $900 and it eradicated them. Had to wash every blanket/article of clothing in the house at once and dry for an hour. They guaranteed a follow up visit, and said most people get a secondary infection because they don't follow all the steps, I didn't need a follow up. I also shrunk all my sweaters and some nice stuff from the high dryer heat. And it got the GF to finally throw out a bunch of unused clothes. Oh, and none of the tricks we read online worked, so careful w the diatomaceous earth or whatever. And the heat treatment is rough b/c you have to get every room in the house up to like 130 degrees, right? It was horrible an We still have PTSD from that s%#!.
That's another unappealing thing, simply having other players in the MMO isn't creating a compelling reason to play. Where's the progression, the fun things to do, the things that make me want to log in every night. I hope this isn't just going to be PVP minecraft.
If not, I'm seriously considering withdrawing my pledge (and I've been incredibly excited about and supportive of this project since the beginning), since it would not be enjoyable to me at all if I will have to spend all of my time huddled in the safe confines of town so my non-threaded stuff won't keep getting destroyed. That's what's bothering me—no way to opt out of the pvp. I feel the same as Draelin, the way the posts are sounding, this PVP and husk mechanics are the endgame and crucial to the "fun". I don't think any of us against the husks/pvp mechanic care if pvp DOES happen, I think that there seems to be no way to opt-out. Another answer I find bothersome is "just go get some friends and take care of the problem." Not everyone who plays this sort of game surrounds themselves with friends who want to run around and counter-gank, etc. And if it's meant to have heavily-discouraged pvp (branding people as bandits, etc) why bother with the clunky weird mechanics and just allow folks to flag themselves as PVE. I personally don't want to run to mommy/guild/friends every time I get ganked and ask for help with revenge or pay a bounty. And if this pvp-with-penalties is SO much a part of the game, as so many people are saying: Setting up a PvE server will completely undo most of the game they have proposed. Then it doesn't sound like there's much of a game there. This is going to be a VERY small MMO compared to post-wow expectation, and appealing to a broad base is going to be crucial in keeping it alive. I don't see how forced pvp and risking your hard-earned unthreaded goodies is going to appeal to a wide base. I am/was an MMO JUNKIE and this sounds horrific to me.
@GrumpyMel: I don't see it as a "disconnect," I see it as I don't want to lose a thing I bought/scrounged/found/created to someone who kills me, whether it's a 50G bow or Glamdring or a stack of herbs. Whether it's gear or a healing potion or a piece of vendor trash, that's not a game I want to pay my money to play.
I am pretty sure I see it the same way as written in the original article, you have a limited amount of "threads" you can place on items, those things not threaded are vulnerable to looting from your 'husk'. This doesn't change how I feel about the ability for a player that isn't me to take something from me. Because eventually something I took the time to find/craft/make/loot is going to be taken from me, and that alone is not worth the cost of admission (to ME). I have no problem with those who WANT to participate in this sort of behavior, but without the option to turn it off (maybe like PVP flags on pvp-optional wow servers?), this is just VERY unappealing to me.
This is interesting, I like the idea of bounties, and this is a little different than I had originally understood, but I still think allowing a player to loot your body is a HUGELY unattractive option in a game. In your other post you mention that this is similar to roguelike games, but that is a very old-school and frankly unappealing (to ME) way of thinking about games, it throws the idea of FUN out the window in order to create a punishment for dying. I don't want to give Paizo a monthly fee to be punished, I want a fun gaming experience with the option to go hardcore when I want. Seriously though, I realize these are my own opinions, and if everyone likes the idea of husks and losing loot, more power to them. It's just not the game I want to play, and I love this world and system so much, I would be very bummed if the one game created with the Pathfinder property wasn't one I wanted to play.
I was very into the game until I read this post. Pathfinder seemed like an adventure MMO in the descriptions and podcasts/interviews I have seen/heard, one that encourages exploration, etc. And now I see that I am vulnerable to losing my possessions if someone decides to camp out and kill me. The penalties for doing such seem light at best--do you really think that a person who kills for fun will have a problem with being branded a thief/death-cursed killer, etc. Example--I sit in hiding while a character (or party) fights a difficult set of creatures, and while they have low health during or after the encounter, I jump out and kill, and grab what I can from the husk. Then I simply teleport/ride/run home and avoid PVP areas until the curse wears off. If there is an auction house, sell the gear, lather, rinse, repeat. While some of us care about reputation, etc, all it takes is a single prick to ruin a gaming experience that I am paying real money for. Yes, the designers think there should be consequences for PVP death, but make it something intangible; maybe experience loss, res sickness, durability loss? Maybe even simply the ability to opt-out of the 'threading'/husk mechanic at a detriment, e.g. maybe you have no change to your faction/pvp rep if you leave the threading mechanic turned off. I realize (and read on this forum post) that some players are excited about the opportunity to lose their gear after a gank, but please keep in mind those of us that don't care for that aggressive type of 'reward' system. Imagine farming an item forever and finally seeing it drop, picking it up and being killed and losing that item before being able to "thread" it. Please reconsider this mechanic, I was very into this game and was reading/researching today to consider backing the project after the $100 stretch goal PDF bonanza announcement today, but this made it a no-buyin for me. You're punishing people who are giving you money every month with this mechanic, it's a very Everquest-like thing to have in the game, but everquest died out a while ago. And, for the record, I played wow (from launch) and ran a top-rated very competitive guild, with a personal very high level of competence (undead netherdrake mount, et al--I had ALL the 10-man achievement goodies before they got patched into oblivion) on a PVP server with a HUGE amount of DBags, I hate/d care-bear servers. I have been looking for a good WoW replacement and this was my ace-in-the-hole after 2 years of playing every ridiculous, bad-mechanics, buggy, crappy, MMO made since I left that game. But I simply won't play a game where I kill things and take their stuff, and then some little s*&~ can surprise me and take MY hard-earned stuff. That's not the game I EVER want to give my money for. Thanks for listening.
Super into this--I only have a mac, won't buy a PC or run boot camp (vote with my wallet, I guess). Yes, there are games that don't come out on mac, but many quality games DO (all blizzard games, borderlands 2, TF2, Portal series, Civ V, et al). There's enough to keep me happy. If a game doesn't come out on OSX, I just don't play it (or grab a console version). No idea why non-mac-owners get so bent about macs and gaming.
If you're in the first levels of a campaign, and you already don't like the way this is going, talk to your GM as a group. If you can't find a decent compromise, he's not running the game you guys want to play, get out and start a new game with someone else behind the screen. That being said, this is still only half of the story...Get the GM in here to discuss. Might as well ;)
under Class Features An alchemist may know any number of formulae. He stores his formulae in a special tome called a formula book. He must refer to this book whenever he prepares an extract but not when he consumes it. An alchemist begins play with two 1st-level formulae of his choice, plus a number of additional forumlae equal to his Intelligence modifier. At each new alchemist level, he gains one new formula of any level that he can create. An alchemist can also add formulae to his book just like a wizard adds spells to his spellbook, using the same costs, pages, and time requirements. An alchemist can study a wizard's spellbook to learn any formula that is equivalent to a spell the spellbook contains. A wizard, however, cannot learn spells from a formula book. An alchemist does not need to decipher arcane writings before copying them.
Hi there! My defunct gaming group has been bothering me to wrap up a campaign that fell apart a year ago. The group was a little overpowered (we tried to blow through levels, I used fast advancement and probably gave the party about 25% more loot than they should have had, as a result, I could barely every touch them). Didn't help that the group was LARGE, sometimes 7 people, running in a tweaked Eberron campaign. Sooooooo... I really like this group, and I want this last adventure to be lots of fun, challenging (and perhaps deadly). Right now the party average is about level 11, and a little overgeared. There should be 4-5 players. And there's a bastard of a Monk who has made my life hell, grappling anything I throw at him. I'd like to run something canned, so ultimately my question is: Which of these modules are the most fun? I tried Carnival of Souls on this group (hated the open-endedness of the carnival), So I am wary of the Harrowing. But here's the Paizo modules in the right level range: Level 10
Level 10 Clash of the Kingslayers (OGL)
Level 11 and beyond The Ruby Phoenix Tournament (PFRPG) (11)
My thoughts on Blood of Dragonscar is that the party gear and and extra player MIGHT make up for the high CR of this adventure, and killing a dragon SHOULD be hard...but I doubt they would be able to even land a BLOW on a lvl 18 dragon. I suppose I could swap in something easier. But Tomb of th Iron Medusa gets GREAT reviews and seems like it might be an awesome dungeon crawl. Any opinions? Fun, challenging module for an overgeared 5-person lvl 11 party.
Have a look at Warhammer Online's PVP system, there were zones divided by level, and if you entered, for example, a level 8-12 PVP zone as a level 20, in a few minutes (seconds?) you were transformed into a chicken. One bad effect was the mid-level areas became starved for players, but that seemed to happen in WoW as well... Some sort of punishment for griefing would be cool. Player vs player is great (and makes the game replayable!). Another thing WHO did well was it raised your level if you were underleveled in an open PvP zone. You'd still get your butt kicked, but it was certainly much more fun and competitive-- PLEASE just do not do what WoW did and try to make 2 games out of one, keeping the PVP gear and raid gear (if raiding is going to happen) separate. Or to take a lesson from WoW, maybe make a stat like resilience not 'work' outside of a PvP zone. It made casual and non-PvP gamers incredibly frustrated. Balancing raid and PvP strengths are going to be difficult, and I think Blizzard still struggles with both mechanics--maybe the opposite--adjust player DPS while in raids and instances upward, but normalize it outside so it actually takes skill vs gear to compete in PvP situations?
Hey all. To make it short, I want to challenge my group with some interesting terrain. I was wondering if anyone had any past favorites, or some ideas I can steal, or if you even know about any Pathfinder modules I can pick up that might have some memorable terrain-heavy encounters in them? For the record, this current group is lvl 6, and the campaign is set in Eberron. I have used more than a few airship-based encounters to spice things up, these guys love movement. I'd love to hear from some players and DMs on what was their favorite module/encounter in some sort of awkward (balance, swim, fly rolls, etc) terrains!
Quick suggestion--maybe the folks who HAVE played this module should go drop a fast review on the product page. I think an insightful review like Phil Tobin's above would be a lot more useful than "ow, I died, one star". On another note, this is a freaking RPG. If it's easy all the time, why even bother playing? Being close to death (or a splat on the floor), THOSE are the moments you remember playing. Who cares about coming into a room, whacking a skeleton the head twice with a mace, and taking his loots? Ending a boss fight with two unconscious party members, no more healing potions, and everyone with less than half HP, that's the kind of stuff that gets some of our blood flowing. TPKs are just part of the game, and 9 natural 20s on a bite/claw/claw is gonna hurt no matter WHO you are. One other thing--the famously "best" classic modules are usually notoriously difficult, without danger, there's no excitement.
I had the same experience, I was playing 4E, and gave up after playing pathfinder once--the books are beautiful, apparently the changes from 3.5 to PF are small but substantial (never played 3.5), I think where Pathfinder really stepped up and made the product shine is in the organization of the information. Reading 3.5 rules on character creation made me give up, with Pathfinder, I had a working character in 30 minutes. Good stuff, and I hope they keep it up for years to come!
I agree, that +1 to hit just made the game unusable and imbalanced! ;) Seriously tho, that's your style, you don't HAVE to put stuff in the game you don't want to—and I have yet to see a PC in on e of my campaigns use a sap! That's vendor trash! As GM, you have the power to control what your players receive, if you're that bothered by it, make your own scenarios or just re-roll some loot.
This is the essence of my post, I was (because of my inexperience) unable to deal with the player, and now I think I am equipped to make more satisfying, interesting encounters for my group. I don't think anyone wants to nerf the monk, especially considering late-game that class is considered kind of weak, from what I am reading. I am more concerned with a player that built a very specific build of character that is starting to annoy the rest of the group (no spotlight time for them), and I am hoping to have humanoid encounters that don't end the same 99% of the time, like I said before, with the most interesting character wrapped in a ball at the end. The group wasn't feeling challenged. Again, thanks to everyone for their advice!
I should clarify, monk leapt up to skiff, then ate around of attacks against him before he FoB'd a trip on both of the targets I retardedly had standing one square apart. He wasn't using the endless AOO trip exploit, he simply used trip as his first attack in FoB, along with stunning fist later in the move. When that succeeded, with the caster out for a round, he then moved the remainder of his FoB to the other creature. The Girallon (stunned for two rounds and dispatched after the party focus-fired it down) being stunned multiple rounds was due to a discussion we're having now, that of Stunning Fist being applied more than once per round (in my opinion, it can't be). I would actually like a Paizo opinion on this one! From Stunning Fist feat, then from the monk skills: Stunning Fist...You may attempt a stunning attack once per day for every four levels you have attained (but see Special), and no more than once per round. These effects do not stack with themselves (a creature sickened by Stunning Fist cannot become nauseated if hit by Stunning Fist again), but additional hits do increase the duration. The player believed the bolded line in the second quote negated the bold in the first, meaning "additional hits increase the stun duration". I think in the second quote "These effects..." means simply the blinded/nauseated/fatigued effects, not stun. I've houseruled it to RAW, lol. So one creature, one stun.
We have a cleric, sorc, thief, fighter, paladin, and monk. I know =( I thought I was gonna get at least one of the party charged off the side or tore up pretty good by the 4 armed ape!
Well, here's a few examples. Eberron campaign, party comes across an emerald claw landing party, 2 in an air-skiff, 6 on the ground with some terrain thrown in. The party lands and has an exchange with the EC, the monk runs, ki points a ridiculous jump up to the skiff, jumps between the boss and the mage (who was to be peppering the party with spells), and proceeds to FoB trip/stunning blow both of them, effectively taking the only two interesting folks in the combat out for the duration of the combat. Another example, 6 dire apes and a garillon pack leader attacks the party on the edge of a monument with obstructing columns, 150ft in the air. Party worries about the dire apes (who charge and are trying to knock them from the ledge they are on), while the monk simply stunning fist attacks the garillon so it got to take a total action once. party burns down a bunch of low-level dire apes, then kills a stunned/tripped garillon. The formula is usually "monk targets most interesting enemy and proceeds to stun/trip him or her until the rest of the party finishes up". Lather rinse repeat, lol. Every encounter goes like that. If it's half as boring to play as it is to DM, I would have left this game by now as a player. I think another option would be to throw 2 or even three of the big bads into every encounter, then yeah, he can wrap himself up in one, while the rest of the party proceeds to actually have interesting combat. But throwing two garillons at a party of 6 is pretty much a guaranteed TPK. The problem is, if I load up the battles so the monk is off on his own wrapping himself around a monster, the encounters get bloated and take forever. And I am too inexperienced to have a feel for appropriate EC, it seems the suggested ECs in Pathfinder are a little weak, but that might also be a result of the minmaxmonk. I think there's a lot of great suggestions in this thread, I think with these suggestions, I know the groups strategies well enough that I can start to harry them a little more effectively.
Thanks to all yet again--so many good ideas, I think building my encounters is going to be a little more work, but I think the party will win in the end--they had a giant spider encounter that nearly took half of them out a few weeks ago, and they certainly had the most fun in a long time during that one. I think the problem is somewhat compounded by the large group (6-7 people every week), so if all I do is throw in a lot more monsters, the encounters start to resemble 4E snooze-fests (sorry for the jab). Cool mechanics are so much more interesting. This helpful community is just another reason why I love Pathfinder! Thanks again, I think there's a lot of helpful info above for building any number of fun scenarios.
No, like I said, his CMD is at 28, and he's built all of his stats and items toward the CMB/D grapple build. I never said he had a ring of protection. I think what bothers me is the monk class is able to get their class that ridiculously combat-maneuver overpowered, to the point where it takes a roll of 18 by a four-armed garillon to get out of a grapple, garillon being a monster that is built to grapple and rend. And yea, I have sat down and looked at his sheet, checked all the numbers, he's just made up his mind to play the most obnoxious character I have ever seen in a game. This wouldn't bother me if the rest of the group wasn't starting to fall asleep once the big bad became entangled. I think it's an issue of spotlight right now, no one else is getting any in combat, and I am feeling a little lost. Although now I feel I have some good advice on countering the obnoxiousness now. Thanks also for the advice on miss chance, etc, Quandary. Good advice. And just a note, of course this is only in combat. During the RP nights, everything rolls along fairly smoothly (but I don't dare introduce a tavern brawl, lol). I appreciate all the advice, thank you all. I have a lot of adventure-reworking to do before Tuesday night!
Monks only add their monk level to their CMB, not CMD. I did forget they get to add their wisdom and the +1 ac bonus to CMD though. So I guess if he had RoP +2, 18 dex, str, and wis, then he would have 31.Unless theres a high point buy, I think 28 would be more realistic. That is still pretty crazy.What's the monks CMB/CMD? You said that a Girallon needed a natural 20 to win a grapple check. Girallon's CMB is +12, so 20 would be 32 (I know 20 is auto-success). 32-10-5-2 (Monk only adds his bab of 5 to CMD, improved grapple adds +2) = 15. So the monk has combined str and dex modifier's of 15? Assuming an even split, thats 24 str and 22 dex?Monks add their monk level instead of BAB to their CMB/CMD for combat maneuvers. So a 7th level monk with improved grapple has a 19 CMD out of the box. If he has a 18 dex and 18 str, dodge, and a ring of protection +2 that's a 30. Not out of the realm of possibility by any means, but he is clearly a very focused character. Yeah, that's the problem--I made him lay out the math for me, b/c it seemed wholly broken--to have a grapple on a creature one size larger than you that can only be overcome by an insanely large roll, and it's become a one-trick pony that is clearly causing some yawning at the game table.
What's the monks CMB/CMD? You said that a Girallon needed a natural 20 to win a grapple check. Girallon's CMB is +12, so 20 would be 32 (I know 20 is auto-success). 32-10-5-2 (Monk only adds his bab of 5 to CMD, improved grapple adds +2) = 15. So the monk has combined str and dex modifier's of 15? Assuming an even split, thats 24 str and 22 dex? Without calling him and asking him, I think it takes a 28 to defeat his CMD, he's stat-built and gear-built his monk to specifically be a CMB/CMD annoyance. I am about to call in the rust monsters... Thank you all for the advice, I like the ooze/incorporeal/ranged advice, I guess I just have to suck it up and deal with my humanoids dying. Which is kind of sad, humanoids drive plot. And that remorhaz is going to make an entrance in my campaign very soon...
Hey GMs. I am running a campaign for a large group, many of whom have never played an RPG before. The single player who HAS played before is running a Monk, who is pretty much min-maxed to the hilt, and built to grapple and FoB trip trip trip trip (or stunning blow) everything I throw at the group. Here's my problem. Because the group is new, some are complaining to me that the fights have become boring. This is mainly due to the fact that once the lower level mobs are gone, the monk (who has a ridiculously high CMB/CMD for level 7, but the math works out) just tends to trip/stun anything I send at them. Meaning they basically whittle away at a stunned creature EVERY single fight. Yawn. If this was a group of like gamers, I would up the EL, but these guys would all die. As it stands, I already can't make them face any sort of single enemy, since anything just gets hogtied and coup-de-graced. I think some of this math is broken, it seems rather ridiculous that a girallon can't CMB out of a grapple from a little monk his own level without rolling a natural 20. Plus a Bodak, who can kill someone with a gaze attack, just ends up as another boring hog-tied humanoid, wtf? I think part of the problem is that myself as a new pathfinder GM, I don't quite understand how to counter something like this. Monks pretty much ignore terrain, and with Ki points they can jump to the fu&%$&%g moon, so ledges are out of the question. One boss had Freedom of Movement, that went OK. So I suppose I am at my wits end, I have lost interest in the campaign, but I like the gaming group, so I am going to try and rebuild my encounters to be monk-proof. Does anyone have any advice? Any creatures you know who might actually make these fights interesting again? I am at my wits end, I actually bought Mouseguard and Savage Worlds yesterday, lol. Any help or advice would be great.
I'd have to agree with MicMan in theory, if you give the party a very powerful attack for cheap (a bag of chili powder can't be more than a few GP), you're messing with balance--I like the idea of a -4 ranged touch, or maybe using splash weapon mechanics, and it's gotta use up the whole bag. Look up equivalent potions or scrolls that can cause dazzle or disable in a large area, and figure out the cost, giving players this attack for no money is going to get really annoying REALLY fast. And you could just be a dick and tell them there's only a bag or so of chili powder in each town, pretend you're in bland-foodia.
If they ask if they've heard of the deity, let them roll knowledge relgion checks and tell them no, regardless of their result (since it's not an actual deity). Genius. Thank you, lol-didn't even cross my mind. I've tried waiting out the talking, the guy is oblivious, but I think these tips are a good start. I suppose I need to work with the group and find a way to indicate the story isn't moving forward until his stops.
Hey guys--I am new to GMing pathfinder, Nothing was going on at my local store so I bought the PF books, learned up, and now I run a weekly game there. Played RPGs since the early 80s and was GMing 4e until I played pathfinder once (anyone wanna buy a lot of 4e books?). Aaaanyways, I am used to DMing for groups of friends, and I have yet to deal with maniacal random folks you get in a public game. Of course everyone who plays an RPG wants their character to be a star and win the favor of everyone in the party for being so awesome, but I didn't realize how bad it was until I got the email yesterday—he's playing a playtest Summoner, and now wants his summoned pet to be a deity, and in order to have favor with this deity (e.g. be on the same side, have the pet defend them, etc), the group needs to do what the high priest says (e.g. the player), well, you get where this is going. Anyways, I have two questions, first, what the f? I never knew people like this existed, much less went out in public and showed off how crazy they were--have you guys run into seriously broken people like this running games in public places like conventions, game stores, etc? Second, of course he's not summoning a deity, but I hate to just say NO, I may have to whip it out on this one. How would a more experienced convention GM handle this sort of weird request? Third bonus question, this guy dominates playing sessions, I usually have to repeat myself a few times during exposition because he's chatting around the table, I don't feel it's terribly fair to boot him at this point, but...have you guys ever booted someone from your game, how did you do it respectfully and with dignity? Still kinda floored I have to deal with this kind of stuff, that's what I get for running an open game in a public setting, lol. Thanks for any advice, I welcome any suggestions.
Hey guys--I am a recent Pathfinder convert, I played a few games at a local shop and I think it's amazing, yadda yadda. I am considering porting my 4E game over to Pathfinder, but our defender LOOOOVES his warden, I assume we can build it with some thought, have any of you tried a Warden conversion, or has anyone run into any problems (the shapechanges and corresponding spells don't seem like they would be too overpowered, but I am new to Pathfinder, not sure). Thanks for any info or tips! -d |
