Alex Trebek's Stunt Double's page

I propose you don't need a houserule to solve the staff charging problem, but use the established rules on worldbuilding.

It should not be that unusual for a very low level NPC to be able to become an extremely weak caster, for example a 1st level wizard with an int score of only 11 which is barely enough to even prepare and cast a single 1st level spell. Ultimate Equipment actually says how much it should be to hire spellcasting which is spell level x caster level x 10gp. It would be well within the power of a GM to make a 'Staff Agency' available who organises the task of rotating staves through charging cycles.

The way the business would work is operate a rotating stock of identical types of staves coming in and going out. What each user experiences is they give a Staff of Magic Missile with no charges and for a fee they get a Staff of Magic Missile back with more charges. It's actually a different staff with identical spells but was given in

The only question is pricing, such a business model would have to balance how some staves may come in which are nearly full, others may be completely empty. Also, people may pay more or less to get the same type of staff back with either full charge or maybe they will settle for 9/10 charges.

The business would be run by a powerful interdimensional traveller who can easily travel everywhere to anyone who may want their staff exchanged for one with more charges. The traveller would also pop out in the many various places where anyone with a low level spell is to fill a charge for the standard fee of 10gp x spell level x caster level. It makes sense for a lot of craftsmen to take a level in Wizard just to get Crafter's Fortune and may consider it easy money to just spend a spell slot than spend the day crafting.

The only big question is what would the interdimensional being want as payment?

Would gold suffice? Maybe not, as a being that could track down any staff user in any conflict to trade staves and then more obscurely, anyone who could charge a staff. They could probably could get as much gold as they want. Maybe something that's outside the gold-economy since charges are outside the gold economy anyway, such a being may instead demand deeds, the more charge difference then the greater the number and magnitude of the deeds.

This is a great point of leverage the GM has, as the GM can have such a being appear and disappear, he has something the players deeply value: time.

This can be extended for non-casters with granting their lengthy crafting checks for crafting alchemical items.

What could the deeds be? A side quest? A particular act of mercy or cruelty? An offering or a symbolic gesture? GM may be able to guide the party in a more fruitful direction by this.

Alex, the Jingasa is an unaffiliated slot for AC bonuses. The price would be doubled.

The Jingasa at 5k giving both the +1 Luck Bonus AND the crit negation is underpriced by the very rules. Given the example of the Buffering Cap being 2000 gp and not even NEGATING the crit, the Jingasa should have been an absolute minimum of 9-10k gp.

The artificial inflation of the Luck Bonus with cheap traits is what prodded the change to the deflection bonus. They could probably have made it a competence or insight bonus, but eh.

==Aelryinth

(1) There is no such rule for AC bonuses. That is merely a trend only particular for things like belt for physical stats, headband for mental stats. The "priced doubled" rule is for if it doesn't take up ANY slot.

(2) A deflection bonus is just as much in violation of that supposed informal rules as a luck bonus.

(3) Price is just as wrong with deflection bonus as a luck bonus.

"Given the example of the Buffering Cap being 2000 gp and not even NEGATING the crit, the Jingasa should have been an absolute minimum of 9-10k gp."

And this is all beside the point, they haven't made the item more expensive (and 10k is a nonsense number), they have just removed variety from the game making it a deflection bonus rather than a luck bonus. There is now no such thing as a luck bonus to AC in Pathfinder.

They changed it to a deflection bonus knowing full well a deflection bonus is one of the most common types of deflection bonuses, one which doesn't stack, so is likely useless YET YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY FOR IT!

Also it is STILL TECHNICALLY BANNED FROM AUTOMATIC BONUS PROGRESSION CAMPAIGNS. Because it has an AC bonus. One of the most redundant and inefficient AC bonuses.

What you say doesn't naturally lead to a price increase but to the Jingasa losing ANY bonus to AC. Not a deflection bonus, not shield bonus, no nothing.

"The artificial inflation of the Luck Bonus with cheap traits"

The problem isn't that some traits are cheap.

The problem is that most traits are so utterly worthless. Fortune's Favour is a trait that's actually worth writing down, and even then it is literally worthless UNLESS you get certain things like the Jingasa.

Who has this ever been a problem for?

No one.

People LIKE being good at pathfinder, finding out these combinations which work, synergy. What they don't like, what they find frustrating is multiple non-stacking bonuses. And Jingasa is NOT contributing to the supposed problem of AC-divergence. That is that a Fighter can end up with far higher AC than casters, things like Jingasa actually NORMALIZE the AC between combatants and casters as Jingasa is something for all classes.

All this has done is actually made the effective AC gap between Fighter and Caster even wider.

graystone wrote:

I don't find options that are a waste of space/ink 'better' in any way.

100% of my characters had the Jingasa.

100% of my melee characters had the feather step boots.
One of my characters had the cap of the freethinker.

Some of my character has some of the other items.

I loved many of those items.
I also understood they were broken.

Precisely how was a +1 luck bonus to AC broken?

To any extent was it actually causing games to no longer work?

You know what is actually game breaking? The Greataxe. Or really anything that has nasty crits or really crits in general. 5% of the time they can get a crit, and with Cyclops they can guarantee a critical threat. Crits are a huge damn problem in games and often players are completely oblivious to how they can suddenly be perma-deathed. How do you get them to take precautions against crits so there is an actual learning curve rather than a cliff of one bit of dumb luck taking them out?

It's really damn useful that a crit negation item had a unique AC bonus that anyone can use, it actually gets players to consider an extremely capricious game mechanic of getting unlucky with a crit. You lure them in with the luck-bonus.

Buffering Cap was a nice flavour because it didn't really change the outcome of a fight. If a crit did 45 damage and perma-deathed your character then 15 damage and 30 non-lethal would definitively knock your character out. Buffering cap meant a crit still had profound effect on combat (one less combatant) without it leading to the consternation of an important character being kicked out of the campaign by a nasty case of mortality.

If Jingasa needed any change it wasn't to nullify the relevance of the luck bonus to AC it was to give another dynamic effect. Something like the Jingasa is destroyed so that it cannot negate another crit and the luck bonus is lost when it absorbs a crit. Crits are still a big deal, but in this case they aren't on the ground vulnerable to a coup de grace or abduction.

If the problem was how boring it was everyone wearing the same style of headwear then mix it up with other hats that had the same quality. Or just that the text is generalized as Buffering cap was saying how it could be in any soft of soft cap.

Plenty of Non-Cleric options:

Troll Styptic is 100gp but would only cost 33gp to craft, anyone can use it to grant fast-healing-2 for 2d4 rounds, at the chance of being nauseated by the pain if you fail a fortitude save. Have it be found in enemy loot drops if you need after battle healing.

VIAL OF EFFICACIOUS MEDICINE is another great option, for only 700gp you can use it three times per day to have any alchemical item "applied" from it also have the effects of CL5 cure-light wounds. Also enhances the effect of any alchemical healing loaded into it.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/goods-and-services/containers-bag s-boxes-more#table-magic-containers

WOUND PASTE is only 10gp per dose, great if you need a quick way of stabilizing anyone.

TROLL OIL is 50gp per dose but means you auto-stabilize when you go negative.

FERVOR JUICE for 50gp is great if you think you'll need to last a little longer in a fight as you don't pass out when your health drops below zero but are only staggered.

SMELLING SALTS for 25gp but unlimited use are much the same as Fervor Juice only you have to apply it after they are knocked out and they pass out again if they take more damage

Other utility Cleric spells can be just as useful in potion form, 50gp for a potion is not something to quibble over. Some are better in potion form!

Some spells aren't viable for potion either due to how they target of level 2 is too expensive, you still don't need to oblige a player to be a Cleric or drag along an NPC cleric

http://www.archivesofnethys.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Imbue%20with%20S pell%20Ability

You just need to find a high level cleric in town who his selling his services.

http://www.archivesofnethys.com/EquipmentMiscDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Spellcas ting

It can cost a mere 280gp and you can get a level 2 cleric spell that YOU can cast as if you were the Cleric, you just need to be HD5 or higher. Hell, if you saved the life of an important Cleric or agreed to his religious proselytising then the GM may just grant this for free.

If you need even YET HIGHER Cleric spells remember that weapons and armour with the Spell Storing quality can store up to a level 3 spell. Spell storing armour has the limitation of it being a touch spell but has the benefit that the spell takes place immediately upon a successful hit on the target even if the spell otherwise had extremely long casting time.

Also, Clerics can cast spells with permanent effects on you or your items.

UPDATE FROM THE OP

Had the session on Tuesday night and... Situation normal, all fugged up.

But I was determined to be positive and keep trying to be a team player, I really liked lemeres' advice of following the lead of Reservoir Dogs and call them Ms Blue and Mr Pink based on the icon colour around their names.

Unfortunately, three of them had shades of blue/green that I had no idea how to describe and I got mixed up on whose character was male or female. But the GM found a way, we had to report to a royal appointment where we were forced to publicly introduce ourselves to the Royalty by the names we are known by. So finally, I am able to refer to characters by their actual name.

IT ONLY TOOK THREE WHOLE SESSIONS AND GM INTERVENTION!

The session was tedious and short, we managed to spend two and a half hours selling some jewellery and claiming a reward, yet not able to buy any important equipment. It was a mess, the party split, characters wandered off with them proudly refusing to hear anything my character has to warn about. Players would wander away from the group while their character was still in play leading to everyone standing around waiting for how the character suddenly turned catatonic. I rushed so much to get the session running in time only for the session to be mostly spent by the usual drama-queens trying to rule everything and second guessing every decision I make.

The session actually ended with us sitting around a table talking as equals, still the b$+$~iness is at a fever pitch. When I chime in on the matter of someone demanding an affidavit I'm accused of calling the captain of the guard a liar. I actually said an affidavit would only be as good as their word so any affidavit would be redundant. Characters loud exposition on how "I only work for the money for I am mercenary" no decision, session ends with us in a tavern.

I honestly don't know how I feel about this. At the same time as the session my life outside the game fell apart, work went to hell, I had an ear infection flare up (such pain) and my computer completely broke and had to switch to a backup PC from the previous decade. A PC which I am now using to post this. I rushed to get it working in time for the session.

Looking back on it now, I have to marvel at what a clusterf!%* this game is, I'm going to remember this as one of my all time worst games. But the masochist in me wants to stick with it, see how absurd it can get before I snap and have a Network style breakdown.

I've been a PC in The Curse of the Crimson Throne, one of 6 PCs and my "party" is full of such lone wolfs.

The campaign does a good job of bringing all the PCs together, but they just refuse to do basic party introduction things. NO ONE will tell anyone their names! Or each other their names, even though the GM is referring to them by their character names. I've repeatedly and respectfully asked how I should refer to them but they won't because "My character just isn't the sort to be so friendly".

Apparently giving their name requires an inalienable bond.

As they arrived one-by-one for the first meeting point I introduced myself "Hi, I'm John Smith..." and then of course they laughed like hyenas because I was repeating myself to the group chat with "hurr, Matt Damon" jokes even though in-character each was only hearing my introduction once.

When I refer to them by their character names they break character to say "You don't know what my character is called"

When I refer to them by their real person names they say "keep it role play"

When I refer to them by how they appear or act (non pejoratively like "cloaked fighter") they object to that characterisation, either out of character or directly threatening my character under pretext of "my character would be quick to anger over things like that".

Every time I tried to raise it gently with "I didn't catch your name?" they'd be reply snidely with words to effect of "that's because I didn't give my name". They are brooding in corners, constantly using stealth to hide from the rest of the group even though it's VERY well established we have a common cause. Refuse to share even the basics of their back story. It got weird like when we met the big bad one would cry out "What did you do with my sister!" a complete surprise.

Even though I'd asked earlier what beef that character had with the big bad. This was even after we'd committed to raid his headquarters. We've been through two combats and STILL they won't even tell me their names or any title to refer to them by, I've given then Message spell to communicate over distance, I've given them buffs, I've backed them up and haven't taken anything they claimed.

Still "my character isn't going to be so open with complete strangers" I SAVED YOUR LIFE!

We have a new GM who doesn't know what to do here and mostly wants to be hands off.

How do I get the PC's in my party to open up?

Here is the puzzle as it would be presented, if you feel like you may try to solve it and/or your opinion on how hard you think it is, whether this is too much of a challenge to give to people trying to role-play to solve.

Party is following antagonists along a jungle trail.

Opens up to a clearing where the trail ends a there is nothing there but an inactive Teleportation Circle (Permanency).

Careful searches find no one hiding nearby in the bushes, only a parrot that squawks at them. It periodically makes a similar squawk of "Caw - CawCaw - Caw"

Examination of the teleportation circle reveals a row of 10 stones numbered 0 to 9. Moss is growing on all of the stones but much less moss is growing on three of the stones, numbers 3, 0 and 7

Pressing any of the stones causes the number to appear in the teleportation circle and the parrot caws in response. They can press the same stone to make the same number appear. If they keep entering wrong combinations the ground shakes and on every 3rd incorrect try monsters are summoned to attack everyone nearby.

So, is it reasonable a group of ordinary players can figure out the combination in a reasonable amount of tries?

Can you solve it? http://i.imgur.com/gjJikyF.jpg

The point of this puzzle is that it isn't an arbitrary brain-teaser that baffles those the villain wants to have access as much as those who they want to keep out. You know the sort, "solve this rubiks cube to open the bank vault" sort of puzzle.

This is a reasonably realistic security measure but let down by poor user errors and a bit of luck so that it's a puzzle someone could reasonably solve by using some basic lateral thinking.