Angry Wiggles's page

I typically run under these rules. After a while, there came to be enough of them that my players wanted indexes and a table of contents so they could find the specific rules faster. They change slightly depending on the sort of campaign being run, especially in the character options section, but these are the boilerplate rules.

I've only ever used these in person, so I'm not 100% on how well they would work in a PBP environment, although I don't see any glaring issues. I may start an interest check thread soon to see if anyone would be interested.

I for one am quite pleased that the semi-annual librarians conventions amounted to such a competent group of rabble rousers. We do have a semi-annual librarians convention, don't we? No?! Oh, well. Such is life.

Virog Casisto wrote:

I have played neither, but have prepped Hall of the Flesh Eaters to run it for a group that did not show, so I know a bit about it. Not that I can't play dumb fairly well.

Holds tongue...

That set up was intential, I swear.

I think the move away from public participation has deeper roots

When you account for both the amount of workforce involved in getting Starfinder off of the ground successfully, as well as the issues they've had with Pathfinder Online. Take into account other, smaller things which people tend to complain about, such as additional resources, and even the contents of this thread, and it tends to paint a picture. It makes sense that the first things that they would cut in order to balance the load would be projects like public playtests and RPG Superstar. While those most definitely provide a benefit, it's less tangible and direct of a benefit than creating new products and product lines.

RPG Superstar isn't just an investment in your own company, it's an investment in the health of the industry. One which may pay off wonderfully, or may not pay off at all, but tends to have decent returns in terms of community good will, at least for the first few rounds. It does however, take a lot of work to do. It makes sense to cut when either time or workforce fall short, so as to free up those resources for elsewhere.

Public Playtests require a lot of time and work invested in order to monitor the playtest and respond to feedback provided by the community, before we even get into moderating the response threads. All to get a relatively small boost in satisfaction for the given product. Certainly desirable when the opportunity is present, but if you don't have the time to dedicate to it, it makes sense to cut this as well and simply edit with past playtest responses in mind.

My theory is that there has been a somewhat gradual move away from public participation for a rather simple reason, Paizo simply does not have the time for it right now, what with other major products needing more attention. These things have been set down one at a time with the full intention of coming back to them when the time was right and they had the ability again. When you view it from this perspective, it's perfectly understandable.

I am hoping these things come back, and there is a slow but steady rebuilding of public participation once Starfinder is in full and regular production.

Who knows though, really. I could be missing the mark entirely.

This is technically multiple parties that I've GM'd for over the last couple of years. If any of them see this, you know what you've done.

Not all of these are necessarily pets, some are just odd adoptions and recruitments.

There are definitely more that I'm forgetting, and this doesn't even touch on the "normal" people and creatures that they've recruited. My players have always kept me on my toes in other situations, but my word do they like to keep an exciting entourage.

I adamantly stick to individual initiative, including the mandate that companion creatures act on separate initiatives.

I also tend to run combats with a dozen or more hostiles in them at a given time.

However, in order to mitigate the minute or two of rolling initiatives at the start of each combat, I've taken to a system of using index cards for initiatives and rolling all of the initiatives for likely combats prior to the session's start. I also have all of my players roll 6 or 7 initiatives before the session ever starts, so that I can simply sort their cards between combats. That way combat starts up faster, I have a visual cue for everyone when the round changes (I flip the deck of cards), and I can set cards aside or turn them easily to mark delay and ready.

The chronicle sheet serves a couple of purposes. It is your official record of having played the scenario, so that you can track how much gold, experience, and prestige/fame you have.

All items found in the scenario are given to the society at the end of the scenario, and you receive approximately half of their worth at the end, represented by the value of the chronicle sheet. You can then spend this item to buy items that you need, based on their availability. The Roleplaying guild guide has a list of items that are always available (which includes all mundane and alchemical items, +1 armor and weapons, +2 stat belts and headbands, and most special materials that aren't dragonhide). Everything else you will need to be famous enough to buy.

Your fame is equal to the total of all the prestige you have ever earned. You can spend prestige to purchase objects, spellcasting, body recovery, non-combat followers, etc., but this does not reduce your total fame. There is a chart in the Roleplaying Guild Guide which tells you how much fame you need to be able to buy items of a certain cost. It more or less amounts to don't pool all of your gold into a single item, but when in doubt, there is a chart.

2 prestige will buy you any 1 item costing up to 750 gp. So Saya, you could spend yours now to get a masterwork darkwood composite longbow, or a wand of cure light wounds, or a wand of mage armor, or you could save it towards paying for a potential raise dead (in that hopefully unlikely case: 16 Prestige for the raise, 2 for each restoration, and 5 for body recovery)

As for purchasing items. All of the gold we get is what we have on the chronicle sheet. And we all get the same amount (not split up or divided, just handed out to us) In PFS all items are purchased at full price from the society (stingy punks). For in person games, there are specific sheets that we're supposed to track our inventory on, but I tend to use spreadsheets to track encumbrance, purchases over time, and how much of a given resource I still have. Mostly because they let me know when my math is wrong.

I recommend at least skimming the Roleplaying Guild Guide because it's a free download, and it's language is cleaner than mine is.

More of these will follow, but I'm out of time for the moment. I hope these are enjoyable.

Peculiar you say? I like making peculiar builds. I'll toss a few up.

An unluck generator.
The best way to do this is as a witch with the Misfortune Hex, and Summon Evil Monster to call Pugwampi, using a Pugwampi Braid on anything you can't otherwise take down, and having your familiar use wands of ill omen when most important. As all of these say "every time you roll a d20, roll twice and take lowest", they become multiplicative, rather than additive. So with misfortune, a pugwampi, and a pugwampi braid, they are rolling 8 times and taking the lowest roll. That is the point at which you throw your save or suck spells/hexes at them. You can also do this with First Worlder Summoner 5/Shaman 3/Mystic Theurge 2, but the DCs will be much lower, and it's not going to be worth it for this unless you have someone else with the S.O.S. spells backing you up.

Scrollmaster Wizard 3/Kensai Magus 7 with Kirin Strike.
Use Fortifying stones to reinforce your scrolls, and use at least a +6 scroll for a weapon to thoroughly bash your enemies. With arcane pool, you will have a +5 to +7 weapon to work with for a fraction of the cost, depending on what level scroll you buy. The cost savings let you invest heavily in hitting more often with things like boots of haste and ioun stones for accuracy boosters, along with pearls of power. There are better builds, but this one is fun and I have a fondness for it.

Fighter (Titan Fighter) 1/Barbarian (Titan Mauler) 2/Druid (Goliath Druid) 7.
Titan Fighter makes large two handed weapons treated as regular two handed weapons for you, while titan mauler allows you to wield two handed weapons in one hand. We then wield a large impact bastard sword in one hand, a large impact reach weapon in our other hand, and wild shape into a giant. This gives us a huge reach radius and massive damage dice.
Starting with a huge bastard sword, in two hands due to exotic weapon proficiency, this deals 4d8 damage, or 6d8 when we're large. Our large impact reach weapon will do 4d6, or 6d6 when we're large (I prefer a Lucerne Hammer for this). An effortless lace will reduce the penalties on the bastard sword to be equal to that of the reach weapon.
We don't take further penalties for dual wielding as long as we don't wield both while full attacking, so we can feel free to use both with combat reflexes for AoOs, and Vital Strike for damage.
It takes a bit to put together, but there isn't much less complicated than "swing once and crush it". All of this before we even look at the spells you now have access to.

Oracle 1/Spellslinger Wizard 1/ Mesmerist 8
this is another take on that color spray build that has made the rounds so many times. As a gnome with a +3 gun, spell focus and greater spell focus, an 20 Charisma base, your leveling points in Charisma, and a +6 headband, you'll have a DC 26 color spray. And you can spend a swift action to give them a -3 penalty to their save. Now creatures that fail their save with 11 or less HD simply fall unconscious, and your 1d4 round stun can affect any creature up to 13 HD. This is before you even begin to approach the Mesmerist's other disabling tricks. Be warned, this doesn't deal a lot of damage, but it does set you up to tie up/coup de grace, and skip encounters without death quite easily. If you prefer, you can stay in Spellslinger, but most people don't due to the number of Opposition Schools.

Cavalier 4/Eldritch Guardian Fighter 2/Shadow Dancer 3/Full BAB class 1
With the horse master feat, you now have a full progression horse companion, a familiar that has your BAB, base saves, half of your HP, and all of your combat feats, and a shadow that has your BAB, your base saves, and half of your HP. Now you can play tactically and overwhelm them with numbers and/or teamwork feats.
I'm fond of using this with a Half-Orc with Amplified Rage and Sympathetic Rage, and the final level being barbarian, as this gives you a burst of +8 Strength and Constitution. Sohei Monk is also decent, due to skipping prerequisites on mounted combat feats, giving both you and your familiar the ability to perform lanced charges from your horse, theoretically at the same time. Albeit you will almost certainly be more successful than your familiar. The possibilities here are many, this is more of a framework..

Oracle 1/Sorcerer 9
With the freezing spells revelation from the Winter Mystery, the Rime Spell feat, and either the Boreal or the elemental bloodline, you can make a great combination debuffer/blaster. You pick your favorite damaging spells of all elemental types, and as soon as your certain that the enemy can be harmed by cold, you convert those spells to cold damage, and rime spell them. This staggers the enemy and entangles them, along with whatever effects would have affected them normally. Suddenly acid pit becomes a death sentence for anyone with less than a 40 foot move speed who fails their first save, because double move, fast climb can't get them out of the cold damage acid at the bottom, which will continue to stagger and entangle them. Spell Focus for evocation and/or conjuration spells are a must for this, but beyond that, go nuts. Pick spells with variety of shapes and elements, because you can convert them all to something horrifying when it works, and when it doesn't, your still scary.
I definitely recommend Tattooed sorcerer and improved familiar for this. Having a backup wand buddy just makes this nasty.

Should... Should I post more? Most of the rest are either more complicated or just plain weirder than these.

That's easily my favorite part about illusions. You can suspect whatever you want, but proving it is always the kicker.

247. The party comes upon a group of people in a village square dancing feverishly. They appear exausted, and some have worn through the soles of their shoes to begin dancing on bloody feet. Someone standing nearby says that they've been like that for weeks. The villager who spoke up suddenly gets a nervous, wild look in their eye, whispers "Please. Gods, no.", and moves to join the dance.

248. A young boy approaches the party in the wilderness, or a backwater town. Eagerly greeting them by name and shaking each of their hands in turn. If the party asks the boy how he knows who the party is, he winks and taps the side of his nose, stating that he is lucky enough to be "in the know."

249. An elderly couple are arguing next to the side of the road where their cart has overturned. They appear to have been taking large numbers of furs and foraged herbs for sale.

250. A fierce woman in studded leather armor is driving wooden nails into a small mound of freshly moved earth in the center of a crossroads. Small seeds are scattered across the entire intersection and the soil is slightly damp with blood

251. A man is selling magical items from a ramshackle booth on the side of the road in the busy part of town. Some of them are rather rare and/or powerful, and he's letting them go rather cheaply, so the party is not the only people buying them. It eventually comes to light that all of these items were taken from the bodies of people killed by the regional assassin's guild, and that people found with them may be blamed for the assassination. As soon as he is finished pawning off his items, he demolishes his stand suddenly, changes his appearance and blends into the crowd.

252. A tengu is sitting and fletching arrows using his own feathers. Nearby is an oread blacksmith making arrowheads out of loose nodules of metal from his own shoulders and arms.

253. A young woman is sitting on a tree stump in the woods humming softly to no particular tune. As the party approaches, her voice shifts. It seems to take on both a low gravelly resonance and high whistling overtone, as she tries, somewhat successfully, to sing wordlessly with both parts of a familiar tune. If the party speaks, the woman jumps, clearly startled by their presence.

238. A race with that requires three parents to reproduce.
239. A race that communicates primarily via scent and gesture.
240. A race that reproduces primarily via parthenogenesis.
241. An extreme predator that relies on looking like a helpless child of another species/race to attract prey.
242. A race that reproduces via parasitically infecting other races with a disease, like tapeworms or flukes, but probably larger.
243. A race who has evolved to be somewhat cannibalistic, and sees it as a truly good act of sacrifice to the community.

232. A race with only one arm.
233. A race with true cylindrical symmetry
234. A race that feeds off of the presence of positive emotions in other intelligent races.
235. A race that photosynthesizes, but is not a plant.
236. Technically two races in physical symbiosis.

181. A young man is carefully whittling smooth strips of bark off of dozens of trees in the area. Whenever a woman passes by, he asks them to model for a moment while he sketches a small feature of their face (eyes, nose, brow, lips). If asked why, he says that he wants to know what his wife is supposed to look like when she's finished.

182. One of the player's reflections has been trying to warn them about something by writing in the fog on the mirror. Unfortunately, they can only do this when nobody can see the mirror, so they have always had to start writing before there was fog. The mirror is finally fogged and covered in dozens of warnings.

183. A man has created a sizeable workforce of animal skeletons and small constructs that he rents out cheaply to work farmland and mills. The people that this has put out of work are protesting near the town hall.

184. A tall, thin man dressed all in pale blue offers to buy a bonafide, genuine smile for someone in the party.

185. A woman drops a package in a crowd. If anyone calls out to her, she runs at a full sprint through the crowd. Anyone inspecting the package hears a small whimper from inside.

Larkspur is a screeching madman... madbird? Desperate to keep himself safe in the folds of Aster's coat, he flails about madly and burrows deeper into her pockets, shrieking.

"I'm dying! Don't let me die! Save me! Keep me away from them! Keep me and my money away from them!"

Angry Wiggles wrote:

I'm hesitant to put the full details of the Champion of Irori build up in a public manner.

I am guessing ki channel and teas of tranferance?

Actually, no. I was unaware of Ki Channel, amusingly enough. Although the addition of that to the roster makes this all the more horrifying. I shall reevaluate my build.

I suppose I might as well, now.

I was using channel pools from both paladin and cleric along side meditation crystals to grant more ki, while using the Champion of Irori's class ability to turn 2 ki into smite or lay on hands, alongside a ring of ki mastery to instead use only 1 ki. Combined with Ultimate Mercy, this provides free raise dead castings in exchange for 10 ki. combined with the Bracers of Celestial Intervention, this provides a summon monster spell of the spell level equal to the number of smite evil uses (or ki points) spent.

The AC is a combination of stacking crane style, dodge, size bonuses, osyluth guile, smite evil, barkskin from ki, with high dexterity from ki, mage armor, cautious fighter, monk bonuses to AC, and other minor bonuses that follow in that vein.

It is very M.A.D., but I'm enjoying it a great deal.

Oh dear. That's a lot to break down piece by piece, but here goes. Spoilered for brevity.

I'm hesitant to put the full details of the Champion of Irori build up in a public manner. The method I've used is quite terrifying. There is a great guide to them here, though. It covers most of what I'm doing, with the exception of a few notable, and particularly worrisome discoveries, like free raise deads, and summon monster IX.

I could see a tortured crusader/inquisitor working well, particularly given their ability to burn lay on hands for additional smite evil uses. If your planning on being mounted, you might also consider Sohei monk, as they can flurry in light armor and get mounted combat feats as bonus feats.

I've never been overly fond of Arcane Armor Training, but that's mostly because it uses up your swift action, and I tend to use classes that have abilities that use those often.

Here are a couple of character concepts from my big sheet of things I'll never get to play that you might enjoy, based on your criteria.

1. Eldritch Guardian 2/Psychic - Ride your mauler familiar into battle as a gnome/halfling/wayang in full plate

2. Titan Fighter 1/Goliath Druid x - Use Exotic weapon proficiency (bastard sword) and your ability to become large quickly and (eventually) a huge impact bastard sword held in two hands to swing for obscenely large damage dice while still being a full caster. Amusingly, does not heavily rely on strength.

3. Inspired Blade Swashbuckler 1/Empiricist Investigator x. (alternately Inspired Blade Swashbuckler 1/Magus x) - I've seen a fair number of people tossing around concepts for a variant of this one. You get a wide variety of skills based around two or three stats, and can jump quickly into your main shtick. It's basically a magus/investigator, but with toys, though.

4. Sacred Huntsmaster Inquisitor or Hunter - With Outflank, Combat Reflexes, Paired Opportunists, and Broken Wing Gambit. You and your pet become a virtual blender for anything that risks attacking either of you. And that's not accounting for the spells and high skill points of both classes.

5. Scrollmaster Wizard 1/Magus x - I will fully acknowledge how silly this one is, but with a fortifying stone to keep the scroll from breaking, and make whole to keep them intact, you can easily be swinging an effective +6 weapon in PFS for under 2k gp. You will likely want to use a ring of spell knowledge or an arcana to add the make whole spell to the magus list.

6. Champion of Irori - Do not discount the monstrosity that this can become. The last one I put together was slated to break 50 AC by level 12, can smite evil 25+ times per day, and will shortly have access to summon monster IX. And is PFS legal. She is only played with people who have full knowledge of what I am bringing to the table.

@Handsome Sully:I didn't realize that at first, but yeah. They are essentially polar opposites. This will be really entertaining.

Aster visibly cringes away from the sudden voice at her side, her hands twisting firmly around her spear. She balances on the ball of her foot for the expected blow, one eye closed. After a careful moment when the blow doesn't come, she opened her eye, and sheepishly straightens up. Her eyes scan over Sully's tattoos for a moment, and she hesitantly accepts his handshake.

"S-sorry. I mean, Thanks... I mean... Hello," She stutters in response.

Aster glances about nervously. Larkspur was sitting on the edge of the nearby table and paying absolutely no attention to her. Not that he was likely to hear her in this noisy hall. She grimaces, typically his interruptions keep her from having to talk with new people right away. She allows the air to hang awkwardly for a moment before, desperate to fill the silence, she mumbled "So are you here to gamble too?"

One of two things would happen.

I would become a sprawling landscape. An ever shifting living world as the earth itself took on a consciousness and strove to rewrite itself into a greater form. Great beasts would rise from my soil and the sea to challenge the peoples of the world, seeking to draw out heroes who could best them. Magic would creep out from my face like the slow growth of a beard, throwing all the world into primordial chaos once more as the contracts binding the earth are rewritten. Nations would rise and fall in my wake. All would love me and despair!

Or I would become a mystic theurge. That would be cool too.

Larkspur lighted on Aster's shoulder, chirping shrilly in her ear.

"Oh quit your moaning. We're here to make up for the last time you almost died, remember? Now get in there so I can win me some money!"

Aster swallowed hard and continued into the bar, keeping a respectable distance from other dangerous looking customers as Larkspur directed her towards what he predicted would be a winning table.

Terpeti

Physical Description: Terpeti are heavily built, their bodies covered in white and gray fur. Most terpeti appear to be obscenely overweight to other races, due to the thick layer of fat that covers their body, insulating them from both cold and injury. Their bodies are rounded and stocky while their face is commonly described as resembling that of a rather full-faced, tusked rodent.

Terpeti ears are short and round, and are always black or brown, and always in contrast to the rest of their body fur, and they use their relative position and movement to communicate intention and emotion in language, where other races typically use tone. Their front teeth are particularly sharp shearing teeth, and some of the larger females will sport impressive tusks.

Terpeti typically dress in thick insulating furs and leathers. Those that live among other races will wear something approximating the local style, but almost always in muted colors and fashion, so as not to draw attention.

Society: Most terpeti live in tribes made up of several small family groups. These tribes move nomadically across the tundra, guiding herds of livestock between fields that they had planted for grazing in seasons past.

Terpeti tribes are generally led by a council of elders, carefully guiding the tribe towards the lands most likely to provide enough food to keep them heavy enough to fight back the cold.

Given this nomadic lifestyle, and a diet consisting almost exclusively of meat and root vegetables, which are difficult to produce on the frozen tundra, terpeti place a high cultural importance on the sharing of a meal. Inviting someone to take part in a meal is considered to be equivalent to naming them an honorary member of the tribe, and affords them the same level of protection and respect. A terpeti who does not yet fully trust a stranger will leave food where it can be found easily, or provide a tool that the stranger could use to catch their own food.

Terpeti place great importance on cleanliness and any moment not working is typically spent grooming themselves. This is primarily due to the necessity of keeping their fur clean enough to insulate properly. Filthy, matted fur will let water cling to the skin and will cause a careless terpeti to freeze to death.

Relations: A terpeti’s opinion of other races and cultures is almost always dependent on how that races family groups functions, with more tight knit groups engendering more trust. This leads them to be fairly friendly when trading with dwarves, elves, and halflings, and relatively brash when dealing with gnomes. However, terpeti rarely interact with other races, as they would rather remain isolated than risk conflict. However, in times when food is scarce, some tribes will travel closer to other civilizations in order to trade fur, ivory, and weapons for food for themselves and their livestock.

If a few members of another race find themselves among a terpeti tribe, the terpeti typically treat them with a cautious respect. They will not allow them to join the tribe via communal meal until the newcomers have proven themselves to be particularly useful to the tribe. Even at this point, it may not be recognized by the tribe as a whole until an elder has sat with the newcomer for a meal.

The terpeti belief regarding the importance of sharing a meal frequently causes trouble for those few terpeti who travel outside of the tribe as most other cultures are much more willing to share food with strangers. This has led many unsuspecting terpeti to discover themselves suddenly honorbound family members for what others believed was a simple courtesy.

Alignment and Religion: Terpeti are patient and cautious, always looking towards the next season in order to ensure that everyone has enough to eat. Most terpeti are neutral, seeing all creatures cared for, and no desire or wish fulfilled to the point that it would tip the balance beyond the point of return. They walk a careful path between the impact they make on the landscape surrounding them, and the land’s ability to rebound each year to provide for them once again. Terpeti that worship deities tend to revere those with domains regarding community or nature, although some will revere gods of winter and ice, hoping to receive mercy from the bitter cold.

Adventurers: Rarely will a terpeti leave their home tribe without influence from an elder or from outside the tribe. Their focus on family groups and community leads them to prefer staying closer to home. Most terpeti adventurers are youths who are sent on missions to obtain food from warmer climates, or to rid the tundra of rampaging beasts or monsters. Occasionally, when further breeding would bring a tribe to an unsustainable size, the elders of a tribe will provide a young terpeti with as much food as they can afford to provide, and send them out of the tribe. Many of these youths join other tribes, but many more travel to warmer areas of the world, looking for a ready meal and less harsh of a climate than their homeland.

Terpeti prefer melee combat when possible, believing it to be more honorable to give your opponent a fair chance at taking your own life. Most terpeti youths are fighters or barbarians, although their natural skill with animals and the balance of nature has led many to become druids.

Terpeti Racial Traits (13 RP)
+4 Constitution, -2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom (4 RP): Terpeti are exceptionally durable, and farsighted, but not particularly dextrous.
Type (3 RP): Terpeti have the monstrous humanoid type.
Medium (0 RP): Terpeti are Medium creatures and receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Slow and Steady (0 RP): Terpeti have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance.
Cold Resistance (1 RP): Terpeti are naturally accustomed to colder climates and have cold resistance 5. This resistance stacks with other sources of cold resistance. A terpeti that gains the sickened or nauseated condition, or that is is made to be abnormally filthy loses this cold resistance until they spend 20 minutes grooming and cleaning their fur.
Natural Weapons (1 RP): A terpeti has a bite attack that deals 1d3 points of damage.
Skills (4 RP): A terpeti gains a +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal and Swim checks.
Languages:[/b] Terpeti begin play speaking Terpeti. Terpeti with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Common, Erutaki, Hallit, Skald

Joynt Jezebel wrote:

I think you are being pedantic Rysky. And not well.

You always have to consider context when interpreting natural language. To interpret the effects of the feat as allowing you to cast [say] a 1st level spell, consume a sunrod, and it is then treated as a second level spell with the result that you can't cast it because you didn't memorise it as a second level spell, which means that as it hasn't been cast and therefore it is a 1st level spell again, which means...

is uh, a mistake imho. :P

Being pedantic is annoying, isn't it?

You're interpreting that having some specific spells being buffed once by a component that you have to replenish somehow qualifies for early entry, on the basis that it says "for all purposes", but conveniently ignoring that by that logic it should also take up a spell slot higher.

This is the difficulty of basing our builds on poorly worded rules language. While it is fairly easy to decipher the intention of the text most of the time, we are expected to work off of what it actually reads. Which in this case, does not support our case as well as we would hope.

Currently, to our great pain, the mystic theurge is not supported as well as we would hope.

The equipment trick route can be used only with the most permissive of game masters, and I would not recommend it in most games or in PFS play, despite its legality there. It allows for simply too much table variation.

The faith magic discovery gets us around the low level pains, and can work, but also severely restricts our choices.

For a short time, we had relatively open choices about how to make our characters and have them be competent and competitive. Although most of us were not overly fond of the flavor restrictions imposed by race or domain choices, we could at least play the class.

In recent weeks, I've spent some time attempting to create a prestige class that would work as an alternate option to the mystic theurge, which would fill all of the roles that a theurge should fill, that will ideally alleviate these problems. When I'm fully pleased with the balance of it, you should know more. There are many more sample builds to make. The rules must be bent further to know if there are any holes present.

In the meantime, kobold press has a theurge base class for those of you who want to play a wizard/cleric combination.

Angry Wiggles wrote:

I'm not sure if that was more or less than you wanted to know, but it was both a long game and not as long as I wanted it to be.

It was way more than I was expecting, but that was great fun to read! How did the PCs discover all or part of their powers? Was it story-based, action-based, time-based?

Were the PCs more or less morally upstanding, or were they coerced to stand against the threats you provided?

I love this thread.

Angry Wiggles wrote:

Then there was a campaign where the players all died in the U.S. patent office fire of 1836 in the first session, only to awake in a military hospital, naked and surrounded by terrified staff. They then fled, unequipped save for hospital gowns, into the frigid Virginia winter to look for safety first, and explanations second. The premise was that they were superheroes, in a setting where such a thing was unheard of until only a month or so prior, and their characters were all built with the assumption that magic/superpowers/hypercompetence did not exist, and they would have to fix everything the old fashioned way. I also kept their list of powers secret from them, and they had to figure them out through trial and error, slowly working out how far they could go without hurting themselves or those around them. The world was essentially undergoing a "supernatural renaissance", and they were, willingly or unwillingly, going to be a focal point of it. They chose unwillingly and fled from every major plot point, developed phobias of their own powers, and in general behaved like real, traumatized people. It remains one of my favorite campaigns to date.

I would love to hear what each secret powerset was, and how the PCs discovered them!

I'm spoilering this both for length, and because some of the content can be both racially and religiously sensitive to multiple groups.

Another thing to note reading this, every player was given the option every game to leave the table at any point, and discuss what bothered them after taking a moment to cool off and center, as we handled old politics, racial and social injustices, and violence as they were, without watering them down. We added a fantasy coating to it, but player characters were openly and brutally discriminated against, sometimes in horrific ways. They were warned that this would happen, and still most of them chose to pick some group from the time that was readily discriminated against for their character. I was also encouraged by several players to openly engage their real life phobias at the table, which allowed me to increase the horror aspect of the game a great deal. I can't say that I enjoyed everything that I said and wrote to maintain those atmospheres for that game, but the players certainly enjoyed that level of realism. I think mostly they enjoyed it because we always encouraged walking away when it became too much, and coming back as soon as you were able. I'm not going to write about all of this in detail, but understand that it happened, and may bleed through.

I'm not sure if that was more or less than you wanted to know, but it was both a long game and not as long as I wanted it to be.

I once ran a GURPS game years ago where each player began the game believing that it would take place in a different setting, and built their characters around the idea of playing in that setting. Less than five minutes into the game, they were all caught in storm which picked them up from their respective settings/realities and deposited all nine characters on a tenth, completely distinct, setting. None of them were built or prepared for this and all of them proceeded to panic and flail. They spent the next 3 years of real time fighting to predict and enter more of these storms hoping to be dropped off in more familiar settings, ignoring most of the plot hooks presented to them, including those about the people who were causing the storms, in favor of desperately hopping settings in the hopes of getting sent home, a la quantum leap. A more rag tag bunch of adventurers I've never seen. Most of the time, they didn't even have a consistent shared language. Some of the most memorable characters I've ever run for came from that campaign.

We also had a psionics game where the players picked up their powers partway through investigating a global conspiracy to commit/cause a mass ritual sacrifice/suicide to usher in the end of the world by sending the psychic essence of every death to a creature who had wrapped a portion of its psychic aura around the planet. Instead of unraveling the mystery, the players figured out how to wrap their aura in a similar way, accepted the incoming levels of insanity, and allowed the sacrifices to go forward, absorbing the power themselves instead. This was followed by a battle between several near-god level creatures with an outer eldritch horror that leveled most of europe.

I was also in a game where everyone was giant crabs. That didn't last long, but it was fun.

Then there was a campaign where the players all died in the U.S. patent office fire of 1836 in the first session, only to awake in a military hospital, naked and surrounded by terrified staff. They then fled, unequipped save for hospital gowns, into the frigid Virginia winter to look for safety first, and explanations second. The premise was that they were superheroes, in a setting where such a thing was unheard of until only a month or so prior, and their characters were all built with the assumption that magic/superpowers/hypercompetence did not exist, and they would have to fix everything the old fashioned way. I also kept their list of powers secret from them, and they had to figure them out through trial and error, slowly working out how far they could go without hurting themselves or those around them. The world was essentially undergoing a "supernatural renaissance", and they were, willingly or unwillingly, going to be a focal point of it. They chose unwillingly and fled from every major plot point, developed phobias of their own powers, and in general behaved like real, traumatized people. It remains one of my favorite campaigns to date.

UnArcaneElection wrote:

After the SLA FAQ nerf (linked in my previous post), all entries into Mystic Theurge are bad -- that's just one of the worst ones that involves 2 9/9 spellcasters (anything less than 9/9 on either side is even worse, of course). If you manage to make it to really high levels, you can amortize the terribleness of your entry.

The only build I've seen that makes Mystic Theurge even remotely viable requires the Eclectic and Esoteric Training spellcasting guild perks from Inner Sea Magic to become an effective 17/17 caster at level 20 (and have access to 9th level spells from both of your classes.) But those benefits are so terribly broken in anyone else's hands that you'd have to have a *very* lenient DM to let you gain access to them (they're kinda fine for the MT, imo, but then you end up in a spot where if the MT can have them, why can't *anyone* take them?)

It's a shame. I adore the idea of the Mystic Theurge... but you're just better off going Witch, Shaman, Ancient Lorekeeper Oracle, Magaambyan Arcanist, Collegiate Initiate Arcanist, Soul Warden, etc, etc...

Personally, mystic theurge was never bad. The early entry just made it meet everyone else's terms. But early entry versions feel too strong in the middle levels when you you were able to coordinate your casting stats. It really just needed some rearranging so that it could enter slightly less painfully and maintain it's versatility without the early level pain.

Early entry is still possible, though. It's just less obvious. Equipment Trick: Sunrod (Like the Sun). I've seen some debate around this, but it seems fairly clear to me that this should grant access. Be warned either way that there is debate regarding it.

If epic level characters balk at the price, it is too expensive.

I've not forgotten about the requests for me to write a Hunter guide. It was placed on the back burner while I moved and got situated into a new job, but I have gotten some of the ground work laid out and have been doing some heavy theory crafting to ensure that the guide leads towards actual, functional builds.

Note that this doesn't necessarily mean I'll be done soon, but I am definitely working on it, and there are lots of goodies to play with here.

High damage brutes, swift striking AoO experts, tactical casters, mounted archers, cavalier-alikes, petless beasts who summon, and many, many fiddly little rules bits to poke at.

I'm growing more fond of the class the more I look at it.

Good news everyone! My wife just matched into a wonderful new medical school residency! Unfortunately that means we'll be moving and settling into new jobs during PaizoCon and GenCon, but we'll be much better established for a crack at them next year.

It's been a wild ride, and while I know I haven't always been posting for all of it, I have been here voting and lurking about. You've all done terrific jobs, and I am genuinely proud of all of you. This was an amazing experience.

Animate dead can be terrifying if you can ever get your hands on enough onyx to make it worth the effort.

I've seen a large number of arguments that the caster level is only checked at the moment of the cast, so if it dropped afterwards, we wouldn't be losing control of the undead. If we assume that's the case, this becomes downright terrifying, as we can boost our caster level, animate as many undead as possible, and then sally forth with them.

We may not even need the onyx if we can use blood money and a summon slave crystal, although it will take longer. First we'll use summon monster IX to summon a Ghaele Azata and possess it via our summon slave crystal (chosen because it was medium and wouldn't throw off the formation too badly). We'll cast blood money, taking 24 strength damage to the Azata to generate 12,000g worth of material components, followed immediately by animate dead to animate 480 HD of undead. One quick restoration to get rid of the ability damage, and we're back on route to animate some more dead.

By my calculations, assuming we don't use deathwine, or undead mastery, or any animation unique tricks, we can animate 5,737,596 HD of undead, or 8,606,394 HD if we have a one level dip in Juju oracle for the Spirit Vessels revelation. This would take 11,954 castings of animate dead/restoration to reach that cap, or 17,930 castings for the character with the Juju oracle dip.

We could probably get more animated out of each cast if we got our Azata through planar binding, and then let it borrow a +6 strength belt. At this point, I'd be willing to invest in the manual of strength to get it a +5 inherent bonus to strength. That'd get us 17,000g worth of onyx each cast, for 680 HD of undead, bringing us down to just 8,438 and 12,657 casts of animate dead, respectively.

Assuming we burn all of our fourth level and up spell slots on animate dead but one. Saving that last spell slot for planar bindings and emergencies. Also assuming we are are not a mystic theurge, and are not using pearls of power, largely to make the math easier, we should be able to cast animate dead 37 times a day, with the occasional spell leftover. It will take the straight caster 229 days to animate all of the undead, with the caster with a juju oracle dip taking 343 days.

If we do use pearls of power, the number of days saved is drastic. While every pearl of power has a depreciating value, this is only due to affecting a reduced number of days, as the previous pearls of power used have already reduced the number of days necessary. Ten fourth level pearls of power save us 45 days as a straight caster and 67 days if we had the oracle dip. Given the amount of clout we're swinging here. 160k in pearls shouldn't be an issue. Interestingly enough, it takes 56 pearls of power, or 77 for the juju oracle dip build, before the addition of a new pearl of power no longer reduces the time of this process by at least one full day. At that point we're taking 92 and 113 days, respectively, to finish.

This is all, of course, assuming that an Azata would even tolerate a plan to animate 5+ million HD of undead. Among the other, myriad assumptions in this post. This is by no means something to do, but it was fun to think about and math out.

There are probably better ways to do it too. Anthropomorphic animal and awaken can definitely let us take a high strength creature and turn it into something we can use for blood money shenanigans, but I haven't trawled the list recently to see what's worth bipedaling.

Now I'm curious, though. What would you actually do with 8,606,394 HD worth of undead? If you make them into 1 HD zombies, it will be more zombies than the population of New York City.

*edit*
I just realized the logistics of gathering all of these corpses into one location, and it's quite horrifying. I was thinking about the number crunching of animating our not-so-little army, and didn't realize the practical genocide that would have to happen prior to its creation. There would have to be literally millions of corpses, piled close enough that you can reach 680 of them at a time. I know the casting time is a standard action and all, but I don't think I could poke that many people within 6 seconds, even if they were all laying still.

Benjamin, can I guess you were thinking of the spiroskek for that encounter? :)

Not exclusively, but most definitely. All of my actual commentary for that monster was taken by the time I was ready to post, so I didn't actually post in the monster's thread, but I immediately had several rather devious encounters spring to mind that one of the groups I run for may have to handle. It's been a long time since a monster has so firmly and so immediately planted itself in my long term repertoire.

Angry Wiggles wrote:

Abraham spalding wrote:

Well my long term goal is to collect the best/most accurate/ over arching types and put together a "guide" like the class guides. Again much in the same lines as what is in the GMG as the intention is to help people find ways to do something constructive to improve their gaming groups rather than just be upset about how things go. Something like that "arm, anvil, hammer" guide that was done.

But yeah I'll see about getting the title changed to something better.

However on the positive side, I feel as a whole the thread has gone really well for as...

Oddly enough, My wife and I were discussing the need for a more extensive guide to game mastering just the other day while driving to a local convention. I was debating starting on it after finishing up one of my other projects, but if you intend to work on it, and would like some assistance, I would be happy to help.

Even if you don't want help, I do hope you work on this project. Your previous guides have all been excellent and I'm certain you'll do a phenomenal job of it.

Great no pressure!

Also shout out to Paizo technical for getting the thread renamed.

Basically at this point any trick you know that could help lessen the pressure on the GM and help the players support the GM would be a huge boon.

I have my grab bag of tricks but I am sure there are more out there!

Certainly! I'll gather up all of my more mechanical tricks into one location for reducing the actual load of preparing for a game, but those are the easy things to work on.

As for genuine issues running a game, a lot of what I like to talk about is how to avoid the original conflict, or lessen its impact when it occurs. When we did GM 101 and 201 locally, we added a great deal to it and I added a solid half hour about how much the words you choose and the way you phrase your sentences determines what people think of you and your ideas. I've seen a great deal of people who genuinely agreed with each other, at times, including myself, argue pointlessly because they didn't understand the emotional connotations that the other person was applying to the words they were using. When the conversation was paused, and the statement that both people agreed with was restated using synonyms that didn't carry emotional weight for either person, they were able to see each other's respective points of view, and the argument could be resolved.

Granted, being aware of someone's emotional language is neither simple, nor easy, but it is an incredibly useful skill to hone. I had a number of rather pointed examples, but I will have to see if I can find where I wrote them down for you.

I had another list of minor things that I suggested that GMs should do which were specifically designed to create an attitude of trust between the players and the GM. They were all very minor steps, such as removing the GM screen, rolling as far forward as you can without rolling on the map, using more visible dice, announcing the results of the roll, making brief eye contact with every player, gentle smiling, keeping an open stance, and keeping your hands flat when resting. If the players are more trusting of the GM, they will be more at ease, and all aspects of the game can go better.

I put the list together a few years ago after one of my players in a 3.5 game made a comment that I was the competition. I have never in my life viewed myself as an adversarial GM and have always wanted the players to succeed. I felt the need to go out of my way to make that more apparent, but I couldn't just outright say that I intended for them to win. I needed to find a way to make it obvious to him, who was not always the most perceptive, that I was not an enemy. I found that some of them were easier than others, with adjusting body language being the most difficult. Every step had a profoundly visible effect on the party's morale, though. They came to me more readily with questions. There were fewer rules debates, and not just because they accepted my judgement, but because I was prepared to accept their arguments when they were reasonable.

I've not been playing these kinds of games as long as some, although I may have been playing it longer than others. One thing I have noticed is that there are a lot of different attitudes about how different people run games. Some people want to run something hard, while others want to run something easy. Some want to place the players in a world of their own creation and allow them to tell any story they choose, while others may place them along the path to a single story with little opportunity for deviation. Regardless of which variant of Game Master someone may be, there is one seemingly immutable truth. Running games is HARD. Not because knowing the rules is necessarily difficult, or because writing part of a story might be difficult, or because determining what should be allowed or disallowed might be difficult, or because establishing a setting might be difficult, or because acting the role of the NPCs might be difficult, or because designing the statblocks might be difficult. They are difficult, although some of them may be easier for some of us than for others. However, any one and even all of those things can be provided for us these days, with the possible exception of a rudimentary understanding of the rules. No, running games is hard because the GM has to arrive and create spontaneously for and with a group of people who may not like what they have made. The pressure involved in this is the same as with any other method of creation. Writing music, short stories, The players can definitely both increase and lighten this load, often without even realizing that they're doing it. Which brings us right back to the importance of this conversation and this topic.

I'm encouraged by the turn that this thread took towards solutions, because far too often, in other corners of the internet, I've seen it simply dissolve into "Give up", "Stop GMing", "Surrender". It's the same advice given to new artists, new writers, new filmmakers. "Stop creating". Creating was hard enough before they were encouraging everyone to stop. That advice helps nobody. Giving good advice on GMing is hard, though. Running games is something that every person I've ever spoken to does differently. What works for me may not work for everyone, which is why we should discuss not only what I do or you do, but also what all of the other wonderful GMs out there do. This is not a science or a formula, it is an art. As with any art, we only improve when we practice and work at it. To that extent, I have long believed that the most important thing that any GM can get is feedback. If I know what my players wanted, and I know what I gave them, I can refine the game to close the gaps between the two.

That, uh... That post was longer than I expected it to be. I may have rambled a bit as well. I'm a little tired, so I hope it all made sense.

I generally enjoy buying large numbers of animals, but mostly for the extra encumbrance out of combat. I have yet to see the combat animals act as a problem at a table, although I'm not arguing that it's possible that they could. I would rather they not be removed from the list, though. This seems like the sort of issue that can be solved without banning the purchases altogether. One combat pet per player character seems to have been enough restriction locally.

Work has officially started on a hunter guide. I penned a couple of paper pages over the weekend, and built out my basic thought trees. I've got a few basic build routes to work down, as well as a few more complicated builds, but the more I look at this the more I know I'm going to enjoy writing for this class.

Yes. Most people prolly don't feel qualified to put forth their opinions. I know I don't. Maybe some just like the early rounds when they have a chance and once that chance peters out, they vamoose.

I like to keep quiet when I'd just be repeating something that someone else had already said, which left me fairly silent in the last round. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case for this round. I have so much I want to say, and do intend to, but I haven't had the time to sit down and really type it all out yet. After my elimination, I agreed to run several slots at a local PFS con, and preparation is taking a large portion of my time this week. I'll try to post something this afternoon or this evening. What I've had time to read has all been particularly good. Don't worry, you're all doing splendidly and those of us that are still watching, are still impressed.

You guys keep making the rounds more and more difficult to vote in, though. It's becoming a real challenge.

I've added a warning to the Mystic Theurge guide about how it is affected by the new FAQ and am going to cease updating it, regrettably. I'd ask that you not take it down, if you don't mind. There's a lot of value in it still, even if it's not still 100% accurate.

I'm about to start working on another guide and am debating between two in particular as to which one I should work on. I'm wavering between writing a guide for the hunter and a unified guide for natural attackers. There's been a good bit of favor for having both guides done, and I would certainly enjoy writing both. I may do both eventually, so this will likely determine only the order. Does anyone here have any preference?

I have probably learned my lesson and won't reach for writing any more guides on the scale of the mystic theurge guide, though.

Secret Wizard wrote:

Poor N Jolly, he had just barely finished the MT guide :7

Thank god I never embarked on that, but I know there is one, and this ruling just scrapped that entire guide.

The only casualties of this from my end are Arcane Strike and some traits, but I'll add this next to the Crane Wing errata in the "things that are now garbo" pile.

Yeah, that was my mystic theurge guide that just imploded. This is quite painful, to say the least. At least it can still be used for some home games, right?

Well that FAQ was certainly surprising. It's been a good ride, but I'm probably not going to go back and correct the guide to account for it. At the very least not for a while. Having a years worth of writing pulled out from under my feet is dissuading me from working on it any more at the time being. I may just put a note at the top detailing what happened and leave it as is. There's still a lot of useful information in there, although everything relating to early entry is now suddenly useless. This is quite disappointing.

I was previously debating starting another guide, such as one for Hunters, Brawlers, or another large tome dedicated to natural attacking characters after I finished moving and posting the sample builds. Now I'm not sure if I should hop back on that horse yet or not. I'm doing my best not to be reactionary or coarse, but this FAQ doesn't make much sense to me, I've lost a lot to it, and motivation seems to be in small amounts today.

What do ya'll suppose should be the next course of action here?

Having written over 270 pages of guide on the mystic theurge, and more that were going to be posted shortly, I'm going to need time to digest this ruling. This just invalidated months of work very suddenly. I need to figure out if it's worth fixing the guide, or even leaving it online at all. I should probably be distraught over this, but mostly it just has me confused.

I'll have to think about it after tonight's game.

Congratulations to all of the top 16! Well deserved progression to be sure. I look forward to voting in the next round, and I'm sure you will each put forward something truly exciting. Best of luck to each and every one of you.

Monica Marlowe wrote:

benjamin wilkins wrote:

Inching ever closer to completion. So many rough drafts discarded. So many ideas thrown out. So much time wasted worshiping at a porcelain altar. This was not a good time for food poisoning. Must... not... waste... opportunity!

Hm...will we be seeing porcelain altars in Benjamin's entry? Could be?

Feel better man!

I'll be fine. This is just my stomach reminding me that eating fast food instead of cooking dinner will cost me time, not save it. No shortcuts for me next round!

Scarcely an hour after I had submitted, our entire neighborhood lost power. Thank goodness submission time had already closed! I felt the need to post this with my phone before conserving power, because the calamities this year have been amusing so far. Whoever mentioned the pugwampi earlier, could you kindly call them off? I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank'ye kindly.

Time to design monsters by candlelight and hurricane lamp!

**EDIT** Not time for designs in the dark! Power came back less than ten minutes after I finished posting this. This is starting to get a little surreal.

Neil Spicer wrote:

Matt Goodall wrote:

Ben Parkin wrote:

Scott LaBarge wrote:

I love how many educators we have in the top 32. Teachers rule!

Where my IT professionals at?! :(

I'm an IT trainer, so both a teacher and an IT professional. :-)

FYI...I too am an IT professional. So, that's two RPG Superstars with that kind of background. You're in good company, Ben! ;)

Yay! *is too tired/stressed by map-making to put together more coherent response*

I'm a technical writer and a tier 2 analyst/technician. Also a Ben!

Considering my job involves writing the documents used to train our teams on proprietary software. That means I'm arguably a writer, an educator, a Ben, and an IT professional. I feel like I'm right on the edge of all of the popular Top 32 categories this year, but only if you squint really hard.

Congratulations to all others to have made it this far, and thank you for the opportunity to have proceeded this far as well. I would be lying if I said I wasn't surprised to be among you now.

My first foray into roleplaying games was almost exactly one decade ago in the basement of a friend's house, where I was made game master of a GURPS game almost by default. I did not manage to sit as a player beyond a single session until I began playing Pathfinder Society just two short years ago. This was also my introduction to the Pathfinder system. In the time since, I've become somewhat attached to the system, running games for the local community with as much frequency as reason allows. If all of our tables make like scheduled, our local Venture Captain and I should hit our fourth stars simultaneously on February 7th of this year, which will be an cherished moment for us both.

I've done a great deal of writing for and about pathfinder since beginning to play it, but the only thing in a state close enough to completion to actually place out where it could be publicly viewed has been my Mystic Theurge Guide.

I am currently working professionally in a combination role as a tier 2 technician and technical document writer for a wide variety of proprietary software in manufacturing support roles. Sadly, that's as much as I am certain that I can say in a public setting.

This is my first time entering RPG superstar. I had not heard of it prior to this year, but I would likely not have had the confidence to enter last year. At my wife's reassurance, I put together what I believed to be a solid item that I was excited about, and entered. I am now here with the rest of you, and I will continue to do my best. Best of luck to all of you. I am sure it will be quite a ride.

quibblemuch wrote:

Well, it's been fun. Now it's in the judges' hands.

Before I go, I'd like to say, deeply, sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, that, if I don't advance to the Top 32, I hate each and every one of you who does. Seriously. I will devote the rest of my dwindling days on this earth to turning your lives into wretched tragic woe-operas of pain and misery. There is no length I will not go to, no plot too convoluted, no expense too great for the vengeance I will bring down upon those who have the temerity to advance if I do not. The ghostly victims of every blood-soaked vendetta in history will fall silent before the grim spectacle of my aggrieved onslaught. It will take years and cost millions of lives and billions in conventional weapons, but I will be requited this snub. You have been warned. It shall be so.

If you ever make a scenario, this should be something one of your villains say. Make the GMs say it, run-as-written-like.

It should be a 1-2 repeatable scenario, where it is spoken by somebody laughably simple to defeat. They should then reappear, grumpy and with a grudge, in an extremely lethal 7-11.

I'm a little surprised at how diverse these lists are. It's almost as though we're all different people who like different things for different reasons with wildly different subtle and secret biases. In any case, the statistics are fascinating.

Angry Wiggles wrote:

You. You are a glorious item that fits a very specific niche of creative thought that caught my attention the very first time I saw you. I have voted for you over fifty times since the competition started, and you have deserved every one of those votes. You are also the only [redacted] that I have never voted down. Whoever designed this managed to write something clever and fun, and I really wish I could explain why it tickles me so thoroughly.

** spoiler omitted **

50 times. If the item makes the top 32, someone owes you a drink.

If they make top 32, I'll take that as a sign that someone at paizo agrees with me and I might be able to look forward to seeing it in an official pdf soon after. That will be all I'll really need.

You. You are a glorious item that fits a very specific niche of creative thought that caught my attention the very first time I saw you. I have voted for you over fifty times since the competition started, and you have deserved every one of those votes. You are also the only [redacted] that I have never voted down. Whoever designed this managed to write something clever and fun, and I really wish I could explain why it tickles me so thoroughly.

This is going to be fun. I've always enjoyed the mindset and culture of non-humanoid creatures, particularly how it is affected by their biology. This will give me the option to take years of notes and compile them into something real and concrete. There's a wealth of options for intelligent monsters and their mindsets that we can play with. Their household superstitions, beliefs, and even how they view other intelligent races. Oh, boy. The wheels are really spinning now.