Archmic's page

So I like to design things; creatures, spells, dungeons, pantheons, etc. But, one thing I have yet to touch are artifacts. Mostly because what makes an Artifact an Artifact is well... annoying. Technically, the only real requirement for an Artifact is it's inability to be broken; or at least very few ways to break it. Anyways, I've created an idea for an Artifact and I would like the community to rate it. If you like it; feel free to use it in your campaign.

Devoted of the Hunt (Minor Artifact)
The craftsmanship of this bow is incredible; the Yew wood is polished to a high gloss and delicate gold patterns adorn it. As the light catches the gold you notice the shapes of creatures appearing in the patterns which quickly vanish never to be see again.
This Yew Short bow is a Masterwork Composite 1 Short bow in the hands of everyone save for a person with the Favored Enemy ability. In the hands of such a person its true abilities come to life.
The bow gains the Distance ability and increases in strength as the user becomes better at hunting their chosen foe; +1 enhancement per +2 Favored Enemy bonus. At FEB (Favored Enemy Bonus) +4 the bow gains Adaptive, at FEB +6 it gains Seeking, at FEB +8 It gains Bane, and finally at FEB +10 it gains the ability to make an arrow of slaying vs it’s owners +10 Favored Enemy; once a day.
However, the bows devotion to killing its owner’s enemies is fanatical. Each time one of the owners favored enemies comes within one range increment (140ft) for the first time in a day; whether the owner can see it or not; the owner must make a Will save; DC = 10 + Favored Enemy Bonus + Weapons Enhancement bonus versus that foe. On a successful save the owner may act as normal. On a failed save the owner is filled with killing intent and must attack and kill any creature that falls under that Favored Enemy Category on sight for the rest of the day. This check must be made for EVERY favored enemy group that is encountered. Example: You run into one enemy that belongs to Favored Enemy group A you have to make a check the first time. Later in the day you run into an enemy that falls under Favored Enemy group B you have to make a check for that one as well since they are from separate groups. If running into an enemy that falls into more than one group, you make a check for each group that applies separately as if it were two separate creatures.
DCs are 13 (FE +2), 16 (FE +4), 19 (FE +6), 24 (FE +8), and 27 (FE +10)
Destruction: Owner must resist the urge to kill a max FEB enemy; +10; and administer first aid to that creature using the bow as part of the heal check. Minimum DC 35 to do this as the bow will resist being used in such a way. If the DC is missed by 5 or more the bow will vanish to find a more worthy Owner.

So here's my issue:
I have a campaign that's going really well, but the players are about to hit a major road block if they don't start doing some research or asking questions.
Premise:
The campaign is an undead based one with no Paladins or Clerics allowed as the area they are in is hostile towards anyone of those two classes; this involves the background of the world which I won't get into here. They have reached level 6 and are in the middle of defending one of the biggest human towns in the area; the mountains; which I think they are wanting to make into their base of operations. They think that it's just a necromancer that's raising the dead to attempt to make an army which is WAY off track. The actual BBEG is a Cavalier Grave Knight that's waking up; think Lich King from WoW but different. There is a Historian that they can get the information from and a few more clues and what not they can gain from talking to the other two factions in the area; Dwarves and Half-Orcs; but without them doing any research into the past at all I fear they will be severely underprepared to fight a melee combatant without gaining this information.
I want them to talk to the Historian or at least get interested into researching but I don't want to just drop the Historian on them or railroad them into getting the information.
Any suggestions on how to do this while making it still feel organic to the story and not railroading them?

Got a player playing an interesting build. This build allows him to channel both negative and positive energy. This causes an issue with the holy vindicators stigmata which gives you a bonus depending on if you channel positive or negative energy. Being able to channel both through a loop hole should the player have to choose one or the other or because he can channel both should he be allowed to gain both?

Okay, so looking at a few classes a question came to mind; stat bonus to ac.
I'm thinking that they are un-typed. Reason: both monk and sword-devils can add an additional stat bonus and dex bonus to ac and the bonuses aren't listed as having a type.

The reason I ask is the following build: 9 levels ranger (sword-devil archetype) + 1 level monk (martial artist archetype to allow different alignments). I believe these should stack giving you your dex, wis, and cha bonus to your ac.

Why is this important? Well, my group roll stats and I got some pretty nice ones: 18 17 16 14 10 6. So my char is built as such: str 10, dex 18, con 14, int 6, wis 17, and cha 16. We are starting at level 10. I built an aasimar and my final stats adjustments are this: dex 19, wis 20 and cha 18 giving me a base ac of 25 (10 + 4 dex + 4 cha + 5 wis + 2 dodge) before feats and magic items. I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything or that the bonuses can't stack.

Both monk and sword-devil abilities are listed below.

Monk
AC Bonus (Ex): When unarmored and unencumbered, the monk adds his Wisdom bonus (if any) to his AC and his CMD. In addition, a monk gains a +1 bonus to AC and CMD at 4th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every four monk levels thereafter, up to a maximum of +5 at 20th level.

Sword Devil
Untouchable (Ex): At 4th level. the sword-devil's confidence and personality distract her foes in combat, making her more difficult to hit. When unarmored and unencumbered. the sword-devil may add her Charisma bonus (ifany) to her AC and her CMD. In addition, the sword-devil gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC at 6th level, and every three sword-devil levels thereafter (9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th). She loses these bonuses when she wears any armor, when she carries a shield, or when she carriers a medium or heavy load.

So I got bored and started building a char; like I always do and made these two combinations; note whenever I build a char I build up to level 20 even if the char never gets that high so I don't waste time leveling the char later:

Level 20 TN Human Cavalier - Esquire
Level 18 NE Tiefling Fighter (Aide-De-Camps)
Level 18 NG Aasimar Oracle - Lunar (Leadership Feat)
Level 20 Celestial Tiger (Used the Aasimar favored class alt to raise to level 20 and the Primal Companion Revelation to initially get as well as the Celestial Servant Feat to give it the template)

The other combination is:

Level 20 TN Human Cavalier - Esquire
Level 18 NE Tiefling Ranger (Aide-De-Camp)
Level 18 Tiger Pet (Boon Companion feat used)
Level 18 NG Aasimar Oracle - Lunar (Leadership Feat taken)
Level 20 Celestial Tiger (Used the Aasimar favored class alt to raise to level 20 and the Primal Companion Revelation to initially get as well as the Celestial Servant Feat to give it the template)

While not the most min-maxed build created it did essentially create a party controlled by one player; yes technically the Aide-De-Camp, Cohort, and their pet(s) are NPCs that the DM could control and do with as he will, but everyone knows how people feel when the DM takes control of something that is essentially yours. Also, the favored class ability for the Aasimar doesn't state that you can't raise the level of the pet above your own; though I can understand why people would say you couldn't and lowering to level 18 would be as easy as removing the ability.

Aasimar Favored Class alt: Oracle Add +1/6 to the oracle’s level for the purpose of determining the effects of one revelation.

This also includes the hit to your leadership score for essentially having two companions and I didn't see anything that stated there was a hit to your leadership score for you cohorts having pets; I assume this is because the pets are from the companions and not you the player.

So is my build correct or did I miss something in the rulings that would alter this?

The Fighter/Ranger is from a class ability while the Oracle is from a feat. So, at no point did I take the leadership feat more than once.

Also, are there other ways to achieve the One-Player Party without getting too janky; example: I take the leadership feat, then my cohort takes it, and my cohort's cohort takes it... etc. etc..

So, typically I HATE pre-constructed adventures... but this is the exception.
The Labyrinth of Madness was and still is a masterpiece dungeon crawl that needs to endure into the future of gaming. I have looked at several forums and sites that have so called conversions... but I find them unsatisfying and most of them are incomplete so I'm doing one myself.

So here's my problem... it's a tall order; a little too tall. Working for several hours I finally got the page set up I want and text right. However, I'm only on page 13 after 2 hours of work. So I have a request. As I'm essentially retyping the WHOLE module by hand, if there would be a few people willing to help me with that. Just taking a few pages would be a huge help.

For those willing to help me... I'm simply referencing where generic monsters can be found in the Beastiarys; at least for the ones that are in those. Others that need FULL conversions are going to be a little tricky and I haven't come up with an actual reliable way to convert those over, but they will be at the very end of the document in it's own Beastiary.

So while DMing a campaign, a player of mine figured that they'd play a Sorcerer; because they are all powerful or something like that.
So looking over his char sheet everything seemed to be in order until I checked his spell list and found several spells that shouldn't have been there. Which I had him take off of his sheet and replace with legal spells.

What do I consider legal spells for a Sorc? Any spell found on the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list in the CORE book.
There is a rule written into the Sorcerer's spell entry that reads as thus:

"These new spells can be common spells chosen from the sorcerer/wizard spell list, or they can be unusual spells that the sorcerer has gained some understanding of through study."

A common spell is translated as any spell found in the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list in the CRB.

This rule was made to balance out the Sorcerer and Wizard class: Sorcerer can cast more spells per day and don't need to prepare them ahead of time while the Wizard who studies magic has a deeper understanding of how it works and essentially makes the new magic as they gain levels.

I also translate this rule to mean that if a Sorcerer found a spell book with non-core spells in it and studied it, they would then be allowed to gain the non-core spell as a new known spell, once they gained a level.

To help my player out, because he was quiet distraught, is there anything that someone can SHOW me through a link or by being answered by one of the creators themselves where this is not the case, and how they feel about the rule in general, and if there isn't a change in the rule I might become a little more flexible and give him access to an additional book to draw spells from.

So I've been playing around with an idea.
A monk/barbarian mix char.
If you take the martial artist arch type you can be any alignment you want then mix it with the brutal pugalist arch type and it sounds really fun.
There is a recommended rage power that I have a view point on though: Brawler.

For those not familiar with it the brawler rage power upgrades the barbarian's unarmed strike to 1d6; if he already has improved unarmed strike; or gives him the imrpoved unarmed strike feat; if he doesnt have the feat. Both of these effects only happen while raging.

In essence it upgrades his unarmed strike one step. It makes sense to me then that if he already has an unarmed strike damage of say 1d10; from his monk levels; and he takes this rage power his unarmed strike damage should upgrade one step while raging to 2d6.

Any thoughts on this or the build?
I like the tHoughton of the build because you can cross class two classes that were never compatible before; unless you were playing oriental adventures but even then the restrictions were hard to make a fun char with.

Okay, so here's the thing. I've been looking for a build that I can pull off that doesn't violate any rules or needs outside support books to do. The build; up to level 20; is this:

1 level Fighter
3 levels Wizard
3 levels Cleric
2 levels Mystic Theuge
10 levels Eldritch Knight
1 level Mystic Theuge

It pans out; at least in my mind; into the char being able to cast as a level 15 Wizard and Cleric, with the ability to take feats that require you to be a level 11 Fighter to take.

I justify it by combining EldK. with Mystic. For the EldK. from level 2 through 10 you gain spells as if you had gained in your arcane spell caster class. Mystic, due to it's abilities, is technically an arcane and divine spell casting class. So when I gain my levels in EldK. I choose Mystic as the class I want to gain my new spell casting abilities from. Because Mystic's spell casting abilities raise both divine and arcane at the same time I gain both. So now I've just gained; at level 10; 9 levels of both Wizard and Cleric casting abilities. So now I cast as a level 14 Wizard and Cleric. Finish the 20 level build with an additional level of Mystic Theuge to maximize my spell casting abilities.

Okay, so here's the thing. I've been looking for a build that I can pull off that doesn't violate any rules or needs outside support books to do. The build; up to level 20; is this:

1 level Fighter
3 levels Wizard
3 levels Cleric
2 levels Mystic Theuge
10 levels Eldritch Knight
1 level Mystic Theuge

It pans out; at least in my mind; into the char being able to cast as a level 15 Wizard and Cleric, with the ability to take feats that require you to be a level 11 Fighter to take.

I justify it by combining EldK. with Mystic. For the EldK. from level 2 through 10 you gain spells as if you had gained in your arcane spell caster class. Mystic, due to it's abilities, is technically an arcane and divine spell casting class. So when I gain my levels in EldK. I choose Mystic as the class I want to gain my new spell casting abilities from. Because Mystic's spell casting abilities raise both divine and arcane at the same time I gain both. So now I've just gained; at level 10; 9 levels of both Wizard and Cleric casting abilities. So now I cast as a level 14 Wizard and Cleric. Finish the 20 level build with an additional level of Mystic Theuge to maximize my spell casting abilities.