Aeris Fallstar's page

I have really been enjoying the "What are YOUR Houserules?" thread quite a bit.

Two rules that were brought up that I would love to expand are:

Action Cards: I think someone mentioned (Evil Lincoln?) that they were given out on Critical Fumble rolls. I would love to hear what these Action Cards are, or anyone else's ideas on good cards.

Cursed Magic items: Someone else mentioned that their players could start with one magic item, as long as it was cursed in some minor way. I believe the example given was a magic sword that acted as a beacon to undead.

What ideas for minor cursed items are there?

So, my latest Homebrew venture is a mishmash of various sources. The flavor I am going for is dark, low magic, gritty, weird.

My players have had enough of Golarion. For now, anyway.

The mishmash of sources is as follows:

Raging Swan Press' 'The Lonely Coast'- We love the adventures set there and the low key, cohesive feel to the limited area. I have made it the starting point for our campaign.

Malhavoc Press' 'When the Sky Falls'- I have worked in the fallen Elven Empire of the Lonely Coast into one destroyed by a thaumaturgic meteor strike (the skull of a dead god) that obliterates the upper third of the main continent. Anti-magic rain still falls there regularly.

Malhavoc Press' 'Chaositech'- The elves were just developing the basics of Chaositech when their Empire was obliterated. Small pieces of the tech still survive.

Fritz Leiber's Farfrd and the Grey Mouser stories- Specifically, Lankhmar. The largest city on the continent, Krakenport, is based on Lankhmar.

Places:

Major City: Krakenport- a sprawling port city, your typical wretched hive of scum and villainy.

The Ghostblight Mountains-haunted mountains, home and refuge of the Mountain Elves, the most common remaining elves.

The Reedymoors- Halfling Territory

Spellshadow Fields- Plains scoured by magical 'acid' rain. Gnomes have some small, underground cities there.

The Godfall Sea- Crater Sea cause by the skull of a dead deity falling to earth.

The Strangle Dunes- dunes and coastal marshes, home to hidden smuggler towns near Krakenport

Binzakar- home to the nomadic Dwarf clans and their herds of prehistoric Glyptodons (giant, car sized armadillos) or Giant Ground Sloths or possibly Wooly Rhinos.

So, all of that being said, can anyone think more flavor/sources of flavor to help me develop the world further?

First, up front, not looking for optimization. Looking for flavor.

I want to make my next PC off the wall, for me anyway. That means, I want to branch out to the Advanced Race Guide. A couple have caught my eye but I am looking for cool, flavorful race/combos that will be fun to roleplay, though not necessarily the stereotype favored class...

These are a few races that caught my eye (because I am intentionally trying to play a race I wouldn't usually go near)

Fetchling

Samsaran

Kobold

Catfolk

Kitsune

Tengu

Hi all. I posted this yesterday in the Homebrew section and got no response. Maybe I'll get some ideas here...

I am busy constructing a Homebrew Pauthfinder world for Campaign use as well as the writing of Fiction.

I am looking for a catchy label similar to Steampunk, Stormpunk, Sword and Sorcery, etc.

It's basically a world where the Alchemists have bypassed the discovery of gunpowder and worked with electromagnetism. They have also discovered radioactive elements. There have even been small nuclear explosions due to the use of vorpal swords that, on extremely rare occasions, have split atoms.

Alchemists and wizards have spells that contain/use/channel radioactivity for various offensive reasons as well.

Radpunk? Atom punk?

Swords and Atoms? Atoms and Sorcery?

I need help with that kind of label.

This is a link to my blog, which has an extremely limited amount of info right now, though, more that here.

http://vorpalsands.blogspot.com

I am busy constructing a Homebrew world for Campaign use as well as the writing of Fiction.

I am looking for a catchy label similar to Steampunk, Stormpunk, Sword and Sorcery, etc.

It's basically a world where the Alchemists have bypassed the discovery of gunpowder and worked with electromagnetism. They have also discovered radioactive elements. There have even been small nuclear explosions due to the use of vorpal swords that, on extremely rare occasions, have split atoms.

Alchemists and wizards have spells that contain/use/channel radioactivity for various offensive reasons as well.

Radpunk? Atom punk?

Swords and Atoms? Atoms and Sorcery?

I need help with that kind of label.

This is a link to my blog, which has an extremely limited amount of info right now, though, more that here.

http://vorpalsands.blogspot.com

After reading Treantmonk's guide to Wizards, which was awesomeand fun to read, it left me wanting to play an illusionist.

Are there any guides out there? Or good ideas?

I dislike clerics. But I really really dislike Oracles. I just don't get them. But my DM is trying to get me to play one.

Can anyone convince me they are are worth it?

I am almost 90% positive that one of my players has downloaded the Rise of the Runelords PDF and is surreptitiously reading it while we are playing the campaign.

Any advice on what to do about it?

I am starting the Rise of the Runelords tonight with a party of 4

1) Goblin Summoner

2) Human Arcane Bloodline Sorcerer

3) Elf Druid

4) Goblin Rogue

Any ideas how to handle the two Goblin PCs as they relate to the Goblin threats?

They are CG aligned ( brothers ). Are they considered traitors? Do they get taunted?

How would you all handle this?

What is the point of this class? I think they have a cool name but I expected something along the lines of a Paladin Archetype.

So, what is the lure or point, if any?

I wanted to throw a challenge out there. I recently lost my latest PC (Ranger) to a Save vs. Suck spell and an horribly timed Natural 1 roll ( which our House Rule calls an automatic and catastrophic failure).

I want to play something cool and unique and different. Pathfinder offers so many choices that I can't make up my mind.

So rather than tell what my ideas are, I'd like to open it up to creative suggestions for a 13th level PC.

Any cool ideas?

Does a Tengu make a good Ninja?

I can't remember which paladin thread it was but a couple of humorous Alignments were stated and it made me think that I'd love to see a list and maybe even a whole work up of "alternate" humorous alignments.

Lawful Stupid (Lawful Good) is the one I was most familiar with.

Chaotic Convenient (Chaotic Neutral) was new to me and I got a good laugh.

Does anybody have anymore?

Ok, after decades of avoiding min/maxing and optimization, I think I want to give it a try. But I am no good at it.

I have lost a beloved character at 13th level and have to bring in a replacement at 13th.

I am pretty sure I am going to bring in either a dwarf cleric (Cayden Cailean)or oracle or a ranger ( that specializes in killing large or bigger monsters).

Any advice on builds?

Ok, after decades of avoiding min/maxing and optimization, I think I want to give it a try. But I am no good at it.

I have lost a beloved character at 13th level and have to bring in a replacement at 13th.

I am pretty sure I am going to bring in either a dwarf cleric (Cayden Cailean)or oracle or a ranger ( that specializes in killing large or bigger monsters).

Any advice on builds?

I use an Apple IPad3 with the latest update. When I attempt to download (I am trying to download one of the free player's guides as a test) and it tells me Safari won't let me download it.

How would I fix that or gain access to the download through another browser?

So, I have played a Universalist Wizard up to 10 th level. It s the first time ever that I have played a magic user.

Our group is facing off against an ancient black dragon next week and I was wondering what kind of tactics and strategies were recommended. I looked up black dragons and it seems that magic isn't very useful against them.

What should I do?

I wanted to start a new thread rather than get the message lost in the Official Critique my Item Thread.

Thanks to everyone over there that has worked their way through the critiques of everyone's (and of course my own) submission. I can't remember everyone's name and don't want to leave anyone out.

It is awesome to see the caliber of people on the Paizo site..

We currently have a Pathfinder Golarion game every Saturday night at 8 pm. We are looking for a fifth player. We have three rotating DMs. DMs, players or both welcome.

I keep looking at the Magus class and I just don't know. It's tantalizing but I am not sure if I want to take the leap.

Can anyone tell me what it is they really like about the Magus, both from a roleplaying perspective and playability perspective?

I like Golarion but I was wondering if Paizo has ever hinted at another campaign setting.

As much as I enjoy Golarion, I'd like a little more choice combined with their quality in products.

Anybody know the name of the large bay (Hudson Bay sized or so)' that looks to be almost directly north of the Lands of the Linnorm Kings? If it even has one. I have looked on the large map of Golarion with all of the known continents and can't find a reference to a name anywhere.

I have a campaign idea for that region but I don't want to name the bay because someone at Paizo most likely named it already.

I posted this in the advice thread (under Random Encounter) originally but DeathQuaker said I should try it here.

Last night we were playing "Clash of the Kingslayers". We had an encounter that really frustrated me and kind of angered me.

Now, I don't know if it was run correctly or it is our DMs mistake. First, I know he is running us through a module two levels higher than the party (8th level PCs: Halfling fighter, Gnome rogue, Elf wizard and Human fighter who is the DMs character being run as an NPC). He told me, after I called him on it, that we were being run through a module for 10th level characters.

All of that, in and of itself doesn't bother me too much.

But we had an encounter in the mountains in which, during our overnight watch (which happened on the NPCs watch) we were awakened and told to roll a will save and series of reflex saves. That's it. No initiative rolls, no opportunity to fight back, no options. And we were dealt anywhere from 25 points of damage to 46 points (my wizard's hit points total 56). My PC nearly died in an action with little to no recourse, in an almost instakill.

It felt cheap and like being railroaded. When I said it felt cheap, I was told, "We'll, that's the encounter , it was random and it was a caster level 17 spell."

Does anyone know or is anyone familiar enough with the module to know if that is the case?

Am I being unreasonable feeling railroaded?

Is this just a product of a module being too high for the PCs?

Last night we were playing "Clash of the Kingslayers". We had an encounter that really frustrated me and kind of angered me.

Now, I don't know if it was run correctly or it is our DMs mistake. First, I know he is running us through a module two levels higher than the party (8th level PCs: Halfling fighter, Gnome rogue, Elf wizard and Human fighter who is the DMs character being run as an NPC). He told me, after I called him on it, that we were being run through a module for 10th level characters.

All of that, in and of itself doesn't bother me too much.

But we had an encounter in the mountains in which, during our overnight watch (which happened on the NPCs watch) we were awakened and told to roll a will save and series of reflex saves. That's it. No initiative rolls, no opportunity to fight back, no options. And we were dealt anywhere from 25 points of damage to 46 points (my wizard's hit points total 56). My PC nearly died in an action with little to no recourse, in an almost instakill.

It felt cheap and like being railroaded. When I said it felt cheap, I was told, "We'll, that's the encounter , it was random and it was a caster level 17 spell."

Does anyone know or is anyone familiar enough with the module to know if that is the case?

Am I being unreasonable feeling railroaded?

Is this just a product of a module being too high for the PCs?

I already tried this on the advice board but there were no takers so, I'll try it here too:

First off, since I am playing in a campaign that revolves around politics and roleplaying, I am not worried about being useless or underpowered.

That being said, I want to build a bard based on Harry Houdini. I want to remove all access to spells and substitute with some thing else.

I still want him to be able to combat song/vocal attacks, etc. But I want him to be able to do so through the power of his presence and possibly mesmerism/counter-hypnosis.

I like playing challenging PCs. I just need some more ideas.

First off, since I am playing in a campaign that revolves around politics and roleplaying, I am not worried about being useless or underpowered.

That being said, I want to build a bard based on Harry Houdini. I want to remove all access to spells and substitute with some thing else.

I still want him to be able to combat song/vocal attacks, etc. But I want him to be able to do so through the power of his presence and possibly mesmerism/counter-hypnosis.

I like playing challenging PCs. I just need some more ideas.

If one already exists, that would be cool. But if it doesn't I am looking to make a list of interesting/odd/ possibly cryptozoological familiars. Stats wouldn't be needed if the animal was close enough to one already statted up, e.g. Snow leopard-cat, medium.

I am not looking for anything that would belong on the Improved Familiars list.

Ideas I already had:

Platypus

Koala

Llama

Red Panda

Wallaby

Mountain Goat ( thought this would be cool for a dwarf sorcerer)

Flying Fox

Sea Otter

Any more cool, unfamiliar Familiars?

I am toying with the idea of an Oracle of Liberty that has been called out of the Reign of Terror-like state in Galt.

I am thinking of going with the Blind Curse. My rationale being that Justice is blind and it goes hand in hand with Liberty.

But as far as Mysteries go, should I shoehorn an existing Mystery into the concept or create a new one. Or does a Liberty Mystery already exist somewhere in the literature.

And should I tie the Oracle to Cayden Caillean?

He's the Diety I find most interesting and frustrating at the same time. But he seems a good fit for it.

I almost think he'd be a better fit for Oracles than for Clerics. I just have a hard time picturing his priesthood.

If am PC with haste charges through a threatened square and is surprised, how many attacks is he subject to as he passes through?

As I am unclear on the rules, I was looking for clarification.

It is rare that I think I was robbed by a GM ruling but in last weeks game, my wizard (w/ eschew somatic comp., eschew materials), was being swallowed whole by a really big fish (size Large).

I wanted to cast shocking grasp (5d6 at my level, 7) on the fish. I made a concentration check.

Now, the GM makes me roll the touch attack.

I think I should get a least a bonus to it, if not an automatic hit, because I am already touching it, being half in the mouth.

I make the roll and just fail it. I am kind of annoyed and he explains to me that I am being successfully grappled, and therefore can't make the attack.

This doesn't make sense to me.

Any thoughts? I am I off base here?

I'm looking for suggestions for a half Orc paladin.

I'm not building for power, I want him to be interesting and kind of quirky, if possible.

Any ideas on a dirty or some other philosophy?

Gaming table debate going on.

Could a Mage from 2nd Edition D&D cast healing spells? Were there any spells in any of the books or supplements that allowed such a thing?

I'm looking for more fluff than crunch here. I run a group with some players obsessed with racial alignments and inspire of the curve balls I've thrown them, they still get stuck on the Bestiary alignment descriptions.

I need a real good backstory/origin concept.

Any ideas?