Adam Christman's page

Did I miss the players guide? I searched and did not find it.

Should be "rogue," not "rouge." At least, I *think* that's the case...

I added a pair of benevolent drunks during a prequel/character gen session that led up to the Night of Ashes. One goes by "Dom," and the other is called "Blind Tiron." I endeared them to the party, and the pair eventually functioned as eyes/ears of the Silver Ravens halfway through book 1. Repeatedly, I dropped hints that Dom and Blind Tiron are retired pirates who have their own local legend (that the party learned was true, eventually...)
Dom was pirate captain Dominic Smythe, known as the Red Crane due to the tattoo on his torso. I envisioned his youth as a Han Solo-esque, gone sour as he and his first mate (Tiron) abandoned their ship for their favorite city and the bottom of a bottle.
In part 2 of book 1, it was Dom and another well-loved NPC who were doghoused by the CCG (I love the name "The Loyal," btw). Dom died of his wounds, and the other suffered physical (d% table) and emotional damage from both the encounter and surviving it.

I also created an inn/tavern in Villegre called The Pen and Paper. (I know, I know.)
It functions as a normal tavern or inn, though it offers an expensive members that allows access to the closed-doors Members' Common Room, as well as other benefits. A dwarf in a nice suit stands as host and bouncer, making sure all guests sign their name in the guest ledger as they arrive and sign out with a 'secret' of some kind. (Most being riddles or jokes with their answers, many others being fairly inane stuff.) But mostly, this inn serves as a trading post for information, and occasionally, magic items.

Oh, and a magical tattooist who secretly serves with the Church of Abadar in the House of Golden Veils. He's an aged Tengu Oracle with scrimshaw on his beak.

I've created a few things for my campaign.

The Red Mirror (tavern)
A very small church of Aroden when it was built, the Red Mirror was abandoned and purchased by an ambitious dwarf named Voldraic Onyxgob. The Red Mirror boasts a vestibule populated with the night's bouncer, then the one main room with vaulted ceiling, then a small cellar that was once the priest's quarters. The altar in the front of the church has been replaced with the bar, and behind it hangs the eponymous Red Mirror. Any who look in the mirror sees in the red reflection every non-tiefling with a pair of horns, and every tiefling with no horns. The pews have been replaced with long tables with benches, though they have retained an aisle in the middle for walking up to the bar.
Onyxgob does not typically tend bar. He's too busy with his endeavors as a loan shark. Rather, the drink slinger here is Venn Balanck, a middle-aged human with a decent enough demeanor so long as you don't talk too much.

Voldraic Onyxgob is a loan shark who runs a small gang out of Old Kintargo as a rival to the Red Jills. The two gangs are comparable in size, and Onyxgob is looking for a way to put them out of business. He is less inclined to Thrune's martial law than Scarplume, but he also may not be someone the Silver Ravens want to do business with.

Dominic (Dom) "The Red Crane" Smythe is an Old human swashbuckler alcoholic. Once a semi-legendary pirate captain, an event in his past drove him from the sea and into a bottle for the last twenty or more years. He still has a good streak in him unsullied by whiskey or criminal life, however, and may be found sticking up for the defenseless against the dottari or Chelish Citizen's Group. He has gray, wispy hair, and sagging muscles that belie his once-youthful fitness, and the tattoo of a red crane on his chest. The only things he owns are the clothes on his back, whatever his current bottle of liquor is, and a pitted, acid-scarred piece of curved brass. The brass piece was once part of the hilt on Dom's Swashbuckler's Rapier. It retains a glimmer of the magic weapon it once was, and holds 1/day use of Bane on any subtype of humanoids for 2 rounds. If brought on as an ally of the Silver Ravens, Dom grants +2 to Secrecy checks made to Gather Information in Kintargo.

Mikhail Braeton owns and operates a nameless tea shop on the side of his hovel in the Devil's Nursery. Mikhail is thin with small horns and fairly pale skin for a tiefling. He is neither physically strong nor intellectually impressive, but he proves loyal to someone who shows their worth (such as if they solve the latest rash of murders in the Nursery). If brought on as an ally of the Silver Ravens, Mikhail grants +1 to Secrecy checks made to Gather Information in the Devil's Nursery and +1 to Secrecy checks made to Secure Cache in the Devil's Nursery.

Finally, here is a team of Street Performers recruited by my players, which incorporates Morgan Manthai, NPC from book 1.

Manager: Franco Menconi, adult Chelish human male, Rogue 1; singer, musician, parlor tricks (incl. card games); married to Allegria Menconi.
Size: 6
• Allegria Menconi, adult Varisian female half-elf; musician, singer, dancer; married to Franco Menconi, half sister to Morgar Manthai.
• Morgar Manthai, adult Varisian male human; parlor tricks, singer; half brother to Allegria Menconi.
• Patrizio “Pat” Rigo, young Chelish male human; comedy, musician, dancer.
• Hekrolsi “Hek” Hillminer, middle-aged female dwarf; comedy, oration, acrobatics.
• Hauvannah "Anna” Hillminer, middle-aged female dwarf (younger sister); comedy, oration, acrobatics.
• Zaos, young (93 years old) male elf; musician, singer, dancer, comedy, oration.

Taldan political intrigue sounds awesome.

I'd also like to see a half-orc gunslinger traveling around Alkenstar, a la Louis L'Amour's work.

I was hoping to take a look at your GM material, too, as I'm looking to run my group through TotB fairly soon. May I access that info? If so, how do I log in?

Had no idea. And I have no time - dang it. Oh well. Maybe next time.

If you do build one out of Legos, I recommend you build encounters such that the place can and will be torn apart by spells, traps, environmental hazards, that sort of thing. That way, you can use the versatility of the Lego blocks to show the scattered detritus after a particularly successful Fireball, or a rampaging construct, or the molten lava burning a new course in the dungeon dug into a mistakenly-thought-dormant volcano.

Nice. I'm about to introduce a new NPC to the party near the end (or maybe after the end) of volume 2 - a gnome wizard (Creation subschool specialty) who has taken a deep liking to golems and seeks to create a lifelike quality to them. So, after meeting them and attempting to get them to agree to help him test one sometime. Whether or not he succeeds in getting them to agree to help, a "bear" will attack them on the road to Turtleback Ferry for volume 3. When they defeat it, the back will hiss and open, and out will step the gnome, covered in grease and whatnot.

I'm planning to introduce a sidequest with him as kind of too chaotic a guy, who has a reputation in many of the small towns in this part of Varisia. Can they help him find a place to settle down and not piss people off so much that they want to strangle him? :)

Adam Christman wrote:

It's tough for me, but I think I would have to say Baern Orcbaneslag, dishonored Dwarven fighter 6/invulnerable rager barbarian 1 in a Legacy of Fire campaign that ended in the middle of it.

At level 3, we infiltrated the town and entered the battle market. *SPOILERS*
We were trying not to seem out of place, so Baern challenged the resident champion, an ogre, to a fight. Baern wields an urgrosh and had been a little hit-and-miss so far in the campaign. Right before heading onto the stage, our party's caster gave me a potion of Bull's Strength and cast Guidance.
Baern won the initiative and charged, urgrosh at the ready. I confirmed on a crit, splitting the ogre open from crotch to the top of his rib cage, one-shotting him off the stage and onto the floor.

Baern gave the [person who runs the battle market] a small bow, then immediately walked off the stage and sat down for a pint.

I've always wanted to bring him back in a different campaign. Haven't done so yet.

Huh?

This is definitely on my list! Looking forward to it. :)

It's tough for me, but I think I would have to say Baern Orcbaneslag, dishonored Dwarven fighter 6/invulnerable rager barbarian 1 in a Legacy of Fire campaign that ended in the middle of it.

At level 3, we infiltrated the town and entered the battle market. *SPOILERS*
We were trying not to seem out of place, so Baern challenged the resident champion, an ogre, to a fight. Baern wields an urgrosh and had been a little hit-and-miss so far in the campaign. Right before heading onto the stage, our party's caster gave me a potion of Bull's Strength and cast Guidance.
Baern won the initiative and charged, urgrosh at the ready. I confirmed on a crit, splitting the ogre open from crotch to the top of his rib cage, one-shotting him off the stage and onto the floor.

Baern gave the [person who runs the battle market] a small bow, then immediately walked off the stage and sat down for a pint.

I've always wanted to bring him back in a different campaign. Haven't done so yet.

I've only been playing D&D for a couple years now, so for me, when I roll a new character, I think, "What haven't I played yet?"

For instance, my group is starting a new campaign soon, so I chose to try out a Grippli. He'll probably die a few sessions in by getting stepped on in a tavern, but, hey, I can try another one after that.

How did it go?

Nope, you'd need a different feat or weapon property for that.

IF you've got a nice GM maybe they'd let you, but DEX is already one of the best stats, letting more abilities pile on make it even more valuable and can harm game balance.

In light of this comment, I suppose I should clarify my own. If it is a full or large party of PCs, I'd probably say no. If it's a smaller party (3 or less), I'd definitely say yes.

Personally, I'd deem the RAI to allow the Dex in replacement of Str.

Besides Haladir's excellent transition point between books 1 and 2, you have a variety of options.

For one example, there could be a rivalry between Vhiski and Jargie Quinn of The Hagfish. Quinn is trying to honestly build up his business, especially the gambling side - as that is proving so lucrative - but Vhiski is fed-up and wants to stop losing gambling customers at the Fatman's Feedbag.

Someone intercepts a written agreement for payment from Vhiski to Titus Scarnetti for 'services rendered' (when, really, it's just Vhiski paying Scarnetti for permission to make the hit) regarding 'J.Q.' The agreement shows a date for tomorrow in the wee hours of the morning after closing time.

The note could be in Thieves' Cant (Google it if you don't know what that is; or you could get a copy of the Second Darkness Player's Guide and/or SD Book 1 for a little info), so the courier (and his boss) thought it obscure enough to carry around in the daytime. Somehow, the courier loses the note - perhaps by mouthing off to the PCs and getting into a little fistfight, where it falls out of his pocket or notebook - and the PCs can investigate. Maybe they figure it out and lay an ambush (FYI, a Comprehend Languages spell should clear it right up). Maybe they're not sure what it means, but they tail Vhiski to wherever he's going (good luck to them doing that; if you don't rebuild him, he's a 7th level rogue) and get the drop on him when he starts breaking into The Hagfish (or Quinn's nearby home).

I disagree about your assessment regarding his alignment. His NE alignment doesn't necessarily mean he has to fight to the death. NE is actually a lot about self-preservation and self-promotion. If he's doing poorly in the fight, he would be more likely to flee.

Sooooon!

Awesome.

Yay for fruitlessly negative comments! Ah, internet...please change.

The Quiet Man

After PaizoCon.

Thanks!

For those of us who can't make it to PaizoCon, will it most likely be in stores before or after PaizoCon?

HangarFlying wrote:

Woah! More than a dragon? Hmmmmm...goblins would be glorious!

It's not goblins. It's a lot bigger than goblins.

You are freaking me OUT, dude. WHY IS IT NOT JULY YET? CAUSE OF CALENDAR? CAUSE I CAN SMASH MY CALENDAR.

I'd love to see a follow-up to The Worldwound Gambit. Not a story set in the Worldwound, but a sequel with those characters (or, at least, most of the central characters) written by Robin D. Laws.

Alkenstar.

Cheliax.

If you're using Defense as DR from the alternate rules in Ultimate Combat, a Large-sized creature ignores that DR when calculating damage for creatures sized Medium or smaller.

If I missed somebody else already sharing this info, I apologize for the repeat.

Create a circumstance where the BBEG somehow learns the weaknesses of specific player characters (spies, disguises, scrying, somehow), and determines that the summoner is so dangerous. Then send assassins specifically challenging against him but not others (like an enemy group led by a ranger with fully maxed favored enemy against outsiders and an inquisitor that disrupts magic) so that suddenly their strongest player needs help. Might even make this a roleplay opportunity, since suddenly the guy everyone relied on has to rely on his allies.

This is a really good idea.

It's possible, but if you're a new GM (and I get the feeling you are), I would suggest you NOT try to run a Character while you run the game.

Don't worry about it for now. Just run the game.

If you do end up switching off GMing with someone else in the future, you won't have to start with a level 1 character. You can build your character at whatever level the rest of the group is at. (Or if you're playing PFS, you'll be gaining levels by GMing anyway).

+1 to this. There are rules for building a PC at a level higher than 1. I enjoy using them when the occasion arises (see: death of my previous PC...).

I recommend that you and your group agree to do some sort of round-robin GMing, or to have at least one or two other people agree to take turns, sometimes. When the other GM has his/her turn, the whole group of players gets to roll new characters at level 1, because the two (or more) GMs each run their own campaign or one-shots.

This is the way my group does it. We have a group of 4, and we each GM when it is our turn. Last summer, I finished a 2.5 month round as GM for book 1 of Rise of the Runelords. When I was done, our group picked up with our Kingmaker campaign where we had left off, at level 6 (end of book 2, beginning of book 3 at the time; we've almost completely finished book 3 now). Recently, we turned to another guy, who ran us a one-shot game as an interlude before our next campaign, which is currently a homebrew game leading up to book 1 of Skulls & Shackles, being run by the 4th guy in our group.

It gives us each a chance to play quite a bit, and it's fun to roll new characters from time to time (especially since one of our GMs seems more interested in running unrelated one-shots when it is his turn).

I hope this helps.

Sweet; thanks for the help. I'm obviously pretty inexperienced with this sort of thing.

Hello all!

I've been working on a homebrew Oracle curse for a buddy of mine and have come to one that I think may work pretty well, but I'm looking for helpful feedback.

Obsession*: At 1st level, pick an obsession with a particular thing (person, place, thing, activity, drug, etc.).** You may choose more than one obsession, but the bonuses and penalties only apply once (i.e., you can not stack obsessions of many obscure things to get crazy results). You must carry 1 to 2 tokens of your obsession on your person at all times (GM’s discretion if this applies to when the Oracle is bathing, etc). Failure to engage with/look at/talk to the object of your obsession for the requisite number of times/hours per week results in the Oracle retaining all curse penalties and only the bonus to Will saves; he loses all other bonuses until he returns to the object of his obsession.* You take a penalty on all Perception rolls equal to your Charisma modifier. When engaging with/looking at/talking to the object of your obsession, the Oracle also becomes temporarily Fascinated (CRB 567) for the duration. Your obsession clouds your mind so much, you take a -1 penalty to your AC. Also, you are never able to act in a Surprise Round when you are the one being surprised regardless of feats or class features gained from other classes. You gain a permanent +1 bonus to Will saves. You gain Rage, as the barbarian class feature, with the following exceptions. You can only Rage for 4 rounds per day and entering Rage is a swift action. The Oracle does benefit from an increase of 2 hit points per Hit Dice in temporary hit points that disappear when the rage ends. The number of rounds of rage per day, like the barbarian class feature, cannot be increased due to temporary increases to your Constitution, nor by any other means – the number of rounds per day is fixed.

If the Oracle’s obsession is destroyed or killed and he learns about it (either through direct observation or believing the report of an eyewitness), the Oracle immediately uses any/all remaining rounds of rage for that day. When his rage ends, he loses that feature until his obsession is restored, 30 days have gone by with a shift to a new obsession, or the Oracle gains a level (whichever comes first). If, conditional on the destruction or death of the Oracle’s obsession AND the passage of 30 days (or the Oracle gains a level, whichever comes later), he or she wishes to change curses, he may do so, but the new curse’s bonuses and penalties begin in that moment as the level 1 version of the curse. For example, if a 6th level Obsession-cursed Oracle changes to the Lame curse, he only gains the 1st level reduction in base speed; he will gain the immunity to the Fatigued condition at 10th level, as that is 4 levels after the first level of the curse, and he gains the benefit of speed never being reduced by armor at 15th level, and so on.

At 5th level, the Oracle’s rounds of rage increase to 8 rounds/day. The Will bonus increases to +2. The Perception penalty increases to the Oracles’s Charisma bonus + 2. The Oracle must now carry 4-5 tokens of the obsession on his person at all times. Also, while raging, the Oracle becomes proficient in whatever weapon he is holding at the time. If he is holding two objects, the Oracle may choose the one with which he gains proficiency. He gains a +1 morale bonus to all damage rolls while raging.

At 10th level, the Oracle’s rounds of rage increase to 12 rounds/day. The Will bonus increases to +3. The Perception penalty increases to the Oracle’s Charisma bonus + 4. The Oracle’s morale bonus while raging increases to +2. The Oracle must now carry 7-10 tokens of the obsession on his person at all times.

At 15th level, the Oracle’s rounds of rage increase to 16 rounds/day. The Will bonus increases to +4. The Perception penalty increases to the Oracle’s Charisma bonus + 7. The Oracle’s morale bonus to damage while raging increases to +3. The Oracle must perform a special ritual regarding his obsession to gain the 15th level increase. While this is subject to GM approval, such a ritual could be getting a large tattoo in honor of the obsession on the Oracle’s back, regularly consuming a totem of the obsession (some of the person’s hair, pieces of bark from the trees in that forest, etc; something odd that would not normally be consumed by a sentient being) though this may not need to be as frequent as the usual weekly number of times/hours engaging with the object of the obsession, or securing the object of the Oracle’s obsession away completely for his own enjoyment.

*The nature of the obsession is subject to GM approval, as is the number of times/hours the Oracle must adequately engage with his or her obsession each week in order to count as having sated the Oracle’s appetite for it. Yes, this Curse is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it could actually work.

**Obsession examples:
1) A memory. The Oracle’s engaging activity is to recreate the memory every week. It can come in different forms each week, but the memory represented is always the same. For example, the memory could be of a ship at sea. He draws it in the dirt with his finger, paints it on a canvas or mural, carves it into a wall, builds it with colored stones, etc.
2) A game. The Oracle carries the game (and, in later levels, variant editions) around with him. His engaging activity is to play that game for a number of hours each week. Even if he plays by himself, the Oracle cackles in glee when he succeeds and moans in despair when he fails.
3) Writing. It could be a historical work, a new play, or a corpus of poetry. Each engaging activity is a new writing session, whether that is new material or editing the work over and over.
4) Physical appearance. The Oracle is obsessed with getting his body to look just the way he wants, whether that means exercising whenever the PCs pick a camp site, or filling every gap of his skin with tattoos/piercings/scarification, or dabbling in Drow fleshcrafting.

I can dig it.

I played an Old human oracle of Nature (Seer archetype) as a secondary character in a Kingmaker campaign for a while. I gave my GM my concept for the character along with some background and he was up for it. His Con was decent (14), even though his Str and Dex were low.

He was a lot of fun! A foul-mouthed drunk who was quite selfish and as cut-throat as nature herself at the beginning of play, he often Bluffed NPCs in town into thinking he had performed a divination for them (at an expensive rate...cuz THEY didn't know any better!). Over time, he came to see himself as in the debt of the other PCs and was helpful, eventually getting cut down by a [SPOILER OMITTED].

Just a warning, It may have been the DM I had, but the module felt like playing a video game. The exploring hexes, felt like someone was waiting with a chart and encounters. Most of the exploration went like this... "We check this hex": DM Rolls Dice "What is your AC? A centipede come out of the brush and hits you for 5 points. Roll initiative."

Possible spoiler if you don't know so just in case
** spoiler omitted **

I Think it may have been the DM running it, but just be aware the potential is there. The jokes concerning quest npcs, and researching gunpowder I think finally got to our DM, and we had to stop playing. If you are going to run this one, make you you put the work into making it more than another night of world of warcraft - at a table.

I agree with the others that suggest your suspicion that it was your GM is correct. I'm currently playing in a campaign of Kingmaker and our GM is fantastic. For rolls like the one you mention (Public Scandal), he actually rolls those events before we get to the table, so he has developed what that public scandal actually IS and gives us a chance to roleplay the situation and our responses. There have been times when he gives us the story of whatever was rolled but then - because we all agreed that we wanted to move on to something more interesting, or because it was so late at night - there were a few times where he informed us of a problem that we simply responded to with a roll for that month. Typically, though, we have addressed that issue at the next session; even if it was just to say "my character wouldn't do anything about that."

Alkenstar all the way. I know it might be tough to work out a story that wouldn't bind all the PCs to playing Gunslingers, and to allow time adventuring outside of Alkenstar to get any magic-users to be able to...you know...use magic...but it could be a lot of fun.

It could be about an arms race kind of thing. Sure, guns are rare, but whoever controls the guns can take them and an army somewhere else and almost immediately rule the roost. The PCs, agents of the Alkenstar government, have to retrieve the caravan of weaponry from the villains and return it to Alkenstar. Maybe book 5 or 6 has a "Battle of Five Armies" vibe when multiple armies lay siege to Alkenstar, so there are multiple fronts the government now has to protect/fight over to keep their guns. Book 6 allows for two major plot paths: Alkenstar is saved by successful diplomacy and fighting, led by the PCs, so that more conflict in Alkenstar is the main point of book 6, or Alkenstar is lost and the conquering faction is now steamrolling more countries. Only an intrepid, last-ditch infiltration and assassination effort by the PCs can remove the twisted leadership, allowing for the younger officer NPC to take over and return the guns to Alkenstar.

There's an alignment requirement for monks (specifically, any Lawful, as they are so disciplined).

I don't think I'd buy this if it were offered.

I mean, why not just give them traits that already exist? Just use the crunch of an existing trait and change the fluff if you feel compelled to give a reason for it.

I'd like to see an expanded list of Summon Monster & Nature's Ally options.

Robots would be cool. :)

Paizo's covering demons really well, but I would also like to see more angelic beings. You know, so your PCs can storm heaven/etc, if need be. :)

What about some Fraggles, eh? And some Gorgs! :D

Rad! I think I'm using this for my own holiday game coming up 2 nights from now.

It isn't quite finished, but I've been working on an alchemist archetype who loses the mutagen (I feel the same way as you about the mutagen) in favor of abilities with firearms (which makes the most sense for all the classes other than the Gunslinger).

Here's the build so far:

Black Powder Alchemist

Class Skills: replace Heal with Knowledge (Dungeoneering)

Weapon Proficiency: All firearms

The Black Powder Alchemist gains access to Grit and Deeds, but using his Intelligence modifier in place of Wisdom. This replaces Mutagen.

The B.P. Alchemist gains Gunsmith (as per the Gunslinger class feature). This replaces Persistent Mutagen and Swift Poisoning.

I'm only a player in a Kingmaker campaign, so I can't add much (and will probably not return to this thread, to avoid spoilers [*THPOILERTH!!*]). What I will say is, look for something natural that grows out of your PCs backgrounds, yo.

For instance, in our campaign, one of the PCs has a stronger background (mostly homebrew) with the swordlord who commissions the founding of the kingdom than was apparently intended for the campaign. Our GM created a rival sword school and built them up as offended noblemen, upset that it wasn't THEM who had the commission from Brevoy to found a kingdom. They eventually decided to try and take the kingdom from us, even assaulting our town with an army of 200 men (mostly on horseback). Our GM houseruled the mass combat rules from the later books for smaller unit fighting and we had a great (and long) night of slugging it out between our meager army and the polished, deadly invaders. We were only 5th level at the time.

It. Was. Great. My GM is le Awesome.

"Figuring things out for yourself is practically the only freedom anyone really has nowadays. Use that freedom," Jean Rasczak, Starship Troopers (the film, but I think it is a line that Robert Heinlein would have approved of)

Master Arminas

It's settled. The ultimate authority, Starship Troopers, has been appealed to and quoted.

That would be rad. Even if they just did a Campaign Setting-sized book.

Nice; thanks.

Hello all. I'm trying to work out an Alchemist archetype that works in a grittier, more realistic (i.e., more like Low Magic) setting. Primarily, the idea was to switch out Mutagens for class features from the Gunslinger. Any time and feedback you offer would be appreciated.

Here's the current concept:

Black Powder Alchemist

Class Skills: replace Heal with Knowledge (Dungeoneering)

Weapon Proficiency: All firearms

The Black Powder Alchemist gains access to Grit and Deeds, but using his Intelligence modifier in place of Wisdom. This replaces Mutagen.

The B.P. Alchemist gains Gunsmith (as per the Gunslinger class feature). This replaces Persistent Mutagen and Swift Poisoning.

-Improved ship to ship combat.
-Acro DCs for various tricks, such as leaping from one rope rigging to another.
-More support for aquatic-oriented spellcasters (sorc's, druids, rangers, esp.)
-More water/ice spells
-More enchantment spells that aren't so broad (such as Charm Person)
-If you must have cannons as new equipment, please make them as optional as possible. (If you have cannons, after all, why build/use castles?)
-A side quest with tongue-in-cheek jokes at the pirate genre.

This should be the upcoming release schedule for Pathfinder RPG:
1. Ultimate Combat
2. Bestiary 3
3. Advanced Race Guide
4. Gamemastery Guide 2
5. Ultimate Adventure
6. Mythic Heroes
7. Immortal's Guide
8. Pathfinder Alternative Rules

I don't recall about the Grapple question, but for your second question, just make the perception rolls yourself.

Before play, get their Perception bonuses from them and have them written down where you can use them to make any/all secret Perception rolls. Makes it super easy.

Wondering about the Telepathic mystic art... It seems a little over-powered since it's described as an "at will" equivalent of the Detect Thoughts spell. Restricting this one to the Avatar's CHA bonus or maybe 1.5x her CHA bonus per day might be better.

What do you guys think?

Adam Christman wrote:

Just a thought: for those Mystic Arts (essence) that require 1d6 of damage to be subtracted in order to get another effect (cold, blindness, fire, etc), it might make more sense to explicitly require the Avatar to be minimum 4th level on those. The user already has so many good choices at level 2 that restricting those wouldn't make too big a difference...would it?

Available at 2nd level (non-essence):

• Drain Life
  
• Eldritch Strike
  
• Healing
  
• Spellmaster (0 or 1st level spells only)
  
• Wand Mastery
  

Available at 2nd level (essence):

• Arctic Bolt
  
• Beshadowed Bolt
  
• Brimstone Bolt
  
• Shining Bolt (doesn't subtract 1d6)
  

Available at 4th level:

• Deflection Shield
  
• Illusory Guise
  
• Lightning Bolt
  
• Otherworldly Step
  
• Piercing Bolt
  
• Vitrolic Bolt
  

I could see my way into moving Arctic bolt over to the 4th level slot (it does stagger), but the others just don't seem good enough IMO. And I actually like the idea of having an essence chosen at 2nd level essentially turn the bolt into a status-effect attack. It deals no damage, but blinds/burns the enemy. Just my opinion.

-The Beast

Good point.

Just a thought: for those Mystic Arts (essence) that require 1d6 of damage to be subtracted in order to get another effect (cold, blindness, fire, etc), it might make more sense to explicitly require the Avatar to be minimum 4th level on those. The user already has so many good choices at level 2 that restricting those wouldn't make too big a difference...would it?