Aries_Omega's page

Was wondering the same lol. You post in a thread so it becomes 'dotted' and shows up in focus view of the forum.

Oh! So that means I guess people do want character descriptions? Whenit comes to priority, the World of Darkness characters are in more need than Pathfinder since I am not running that for a few more months longer.

Still "dotted"?

Dotting for awesome.

Dotting? Lost me on this one?

I am looking for some characters I have to be sketched out. I have ones for Pathfinder and for World of Darkness. I have seen so far some of the work here and I love it. Is anyone here interested in hearing more about this?

Here is a question off the rails a bit.

NWoD...Vampire. They have the Predator's Taint rule. Two vampires walk into a bar they have a chance to react to each other. You all know what I am talking about?

Anyhow...my question is does a Werewolf or for that matter anything else set off Predator's Taint in a Vampire?

Yes, but it may take time for someone to have enough of a free schedule do draw your request. If you want something done kind of quickly, then I suggest a paid commission from one of the artists that volunteer their skills.

There is NO hurry on any of this actually.

So does anyone have time to do sword and sorcery fantasy type character drawing? If you do let me know.

Have you tried Once upon a Time? I am sure you can find it cheaper somewhere else. I play this with my 7 year old daughter. It is not quite role playing, but it certainly keeps the imagination working.

No...I have not...but I will take a look at it. My FLGS has the most amazing and obscure items. Perhaps they have it. For her...my daughter she likes Bella Sarah since she gets to get on the computer and play with the horse in question. For my son he likes the battle maps and action of combat but he also likes to tweak a character to his liking...not to "munchkin it" but for his tastes. There has been times he picked something suboptimal but chose it for the "feel of the character".

Don't be afraid to let your baby cry...sometimes there's nothing you can do and taking a breather goes a long way towards letting you retain your sanity.

Yes...agreed. Also lets you learn to distinguish between "hungry" cry, "change me" cry, "sick" cry, "I am not hurt but I scared myself" cry and so on.

Women get crazy when they're pregnant. Insane even, one might say. Learn to drop things and admit you're wrong (even if you're not).

Yes..supposedly their brains shrink while pregnant.

One word: EPIDURAL. Take advantage of used clothing, etc. First timers tend to go nuts and buy buy buy. A few nice outfits are all that are needed (special occasions, pics, etc.). Oh, and don't waste your money on newborn stuff...they outgrow it in, like, a week. Just get 0-3.

Epidural...good thing. She had one with the second kid. First one took FOREVER and a day to come. Second one...2nd cup of coffee and I have a lil' pink princess. On clothing...very true...they sneeze really hard and BOOM just jumped a size.

Consider cloth diapers. I wish I had...my kid's almost two and I'm still spending $50/mo on diapers. Besides, their poop doesn't really stink until they start eating solids, so if you want to, switch back to disposable then.

Correct on the smell thing...for some though it's the "yuck factor" of baby poop that gets to them. Some people have weak stomachs.

Don't be afraid to let family watch the baby so you can get some quality time w/ you SO. You'll be grateful you did.

Best advice I have heard...wish I was told that when I was a young man and serving in the military. Just because you are an "adult" and have a baby and all that doesn't mean you are not YOU still.

Intriguing. How did you play Werewolf, then? It, far moreso than any other game except perhaps Mage, lent itself best to going out into the world and physically attempting to resolve disputes.

Don't get me wrong...there was a lot of "might makes right" type of stuff going and munckinizing on "agg damage" and "who has the biggest klaive" on but lots was the personal story, pack life and what it ment to be a Garou with the Apocolypse looming. The pack figured fight what they can but survive to rebuild after it happens. Just because they lived as a human and are furry didn't mean that they were petty about things...just not cold, drinking blood and petty. There was a lot of "okay...mysterious things happenening...find out the source" type of games. Our game was based in Colorado Springs (CSprings). Both the WoD version and IRL version has "Palmer Park" (http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=BGR027-217) which in a nutshell is this breathakingly beautiful park...right in the middle of the city. This allowed both wilderness and urban adventures to happen and cross over things such as allies in the Vampire community to investigate a mutal threat.

The big difference between the oWoD and the nWoD is simply how much space they give the group to create their own setting. oWoD had the metaplot, and while I think most fans of it loved it, you either did the metaplot or it didn't really feel like the oWoD.

I didn't like that. It felt that the metaplot was forced down your throat. I met so many OWoD purists that I got turned off to it. Who says the Sabbat have to be how they are presented? We used them as a different faction of vampires...more like a "covenant" that followed a different set of rules of behavior to reign in the Beast. Sometimes they fight the Camarilla and the "independents" mostly over hunting grounds, influence and resources. Another time it was a small group of Meso-America/Pre-Columbian natives and vampires that did NOT follow humanity but the "paths" and had not had contact with the world.

nWoD feels like you're allowed to do whatever you want, and still keeps its darkly taste. Of course, I've run a W:tA game with nWoD rules- why not? It takes very little tweaking to do it. There's no reason not to do whatever the hell you want with the game, and not wait for the publisher to go where you want.

I could hug you now. Yes...RULE 0 if you don't like it change it. In our NWoD game...Malkovians are a bloodline, not anything more. Tainted crazy blood created it from an already unstable clan. No disease no nothing like that. In our OWoD game there was little to no "Dirty Secrets of the Blackhand". There was no "Old Clan Tzim..Shami"...however you say it, Visscistude...whatever that Discipline is is NOT a disease or an alien symbiot. It was looked on more as a way to transcend the vampiric condition...kinda like Coils of the Dragon in NWoD. Garou were in-fighting more with each other. Changelings were few and far between. There were "Immortals" ala "there can only be one" type that did their thing...vampires hated them since they left decapitated corpses for the police to find and strange goings on...usually near the Rack. Lastly another that I remeber fondly was the HITT MARKS...some Mage Cyborg thing were more common and scary all to hell to encounter.

Just chiming in to say that I far prefer the new WOD to the old WOD. It is much stronger mechanically, and a lot better presented. The old system and setting was a bit of an incoherent grab bag of miscellanea. I love the presentation and production of the new setting, and the books are excellently edited and set. It is much more feasible to play mortals now, supernaturals balance well, and are less munchkin. The factions are less gonzo obvious, and closer to the divides we find around us. Perhaps it is just that I am in my late thirties now, but the old setting makes me cringe a bit.

I agree with you. I do like OWoD...I am a huge fan of it. I in fact have the "Gangrel Wolf" tattooed on my shoulder blade. VtM and was one of the first games I played, along with D&D, Marvel Superheros, Battletech/Mechwarrior, Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020. I like the new system since to me...IMHO it's a lighter system. Before 4 rolls to resolve combat. One to hit. One to avoid. One to damage. One to soak. If you add Disciplines/Gifts/Spheres/Etc then it got THAT much more complicated. WTF? I know the reason...to discourage die rolling and to encourage RP. I get it but it's more of a stick than carrot usage there.

A good deal of the appeal in oWoD was in the metaplot, if not the whole thing then at least its' skeleton....Pulling that out from under the player's feet and forcing them to start over completely that late in the game was the first mistake.

IMHO...I got tired of it. EVERYONE knew all the "dirty secrets of the Blackhand". Everyone has met a few "True Brujah" and attempted to correct my Spanish when I said "broo-hah" with a rolling "r" instead of "broo-jah". In one of the books it had a pronoucination guide and backed me up...still told I was doing it wrong. So many things seemed to be an afterthought...Sabbat Salubri? WTF? It seemed ever friggin story teller had stats to Caine. I for one like the NWoD reset. Don't get me wrong...I will play OWoD in a heartbeat but for me it's lost it's magic.

The second, bigger mistake was to end all support for the old setting as quickly as possible with no wind-down time.

Wasn't that all covered with the various "End of Times" supplements...Gehenna is here, the Apocolpyse is now and all that?

And the final mistake on their part was going to the "Core + setting" book structure

Kinda like that actually. Hated that 1/3 to 2/3 of the core book was stuff reinterated every time in the begining of the book like "...and this is an RPG which is short for Role Playing Game. It's like make-believe with rules. This is a d10, you roll it thusly". The quality of the books seem better than OWoD ones were anyhow and have help up pretty good. I think it gives more room for setting specific things which I want more of. I already know how to roll a dice pool...I want to know more about the Forsaken or whatever.

Hmm, Maybe I will give them another try then. What starter books would I need?

World of Darkness Core Rule Book (Black book) and whatever "setting book" that you want to play. So for VtR you need the WoD Core and VtR Core.

At least you don't have my problem... I am constantly moving and everytime I move I have to bring my 700+ White Wolf books with me! Books are Heavy!! My White Wolf books account for 1/2 my RPG collection.

Yes they are. I scanned mine in long ago when the covers and pages started falling out. The NWoD ones seem to me at least more durable.

I didn't like most of the reboots, There were enough elements of OWoD to jar my immersion in NWoD. The one I loved was WtF. They went from 'fuzzy superheroes' to 'man, we screwed up.' But then looking at the series, again the tribes were just close enough to be jarring, and then all the Ferra started creaping back in...

Yes...I hated the "fuzzy superheroes" concept as well as the "dark superheros powered by red stuff" concept. IMHO WoD is a mature game...full of themes to explore and it's personel exploration of your condition...undead, lupine, whatever.

That and my Dhampyrs and Dhampires were gone. NWoD should have appealed to me, I always preferred kinfolk over Garou, Revenants over Vampires, and Dhampyri over Kuei-jin. The 'second stringers' kept my inner munchkin at bay, and often provided surprising twists to the plot. "What do you mean, you're going to bull rush him through the door? you'll both burn in sunli- damnit!"

Keep looking my friend *wink* they have Dhampyrs...half vampires I guess is what I am saying. Check out "Night Horrors The Wicked Dead"...page 135

…As opposed to the oWOD and nWOD debate, where nobody had wrecked the original setting --indeed, it had always been in a canoe heading for the waterfalls-- but rather there was a new campaign world. I didn't particularly care for the change in Storyteller mechanics, but I honestly don't understand the level of upset about starting a new background for the game.

Whatever happened to Rule 0? Have fun...it's just a game. I have played in regular VtR game and then we tried using the NWoD mechanics for a VtM/OWoD setting and it was fine. The NWoD is a bare bones system you can use for anything.

I found this thread by pure accident.

So...if I am understanding this right...I can request to have someone on their own time draw a character for me...for personal use that is? Not for a professional use or anything...but for my own homebrew game.

If so...well...I have a few requests.

Congrats to all on the "growin the hobby". I have two kids myself...8 and 12. My 12 year old I had try out gaming and he likes it. My 8 year old...she is more into Bella Sarah at this time, which I am okay with.

Lets see...advice and stuff? Umm...enjoy it. As much as I like sleeping through the night, I miss babies. Don't get me wrong older kids are a hoot, but babbies have that "fresh outta the oven" quality to them. Plus they basically stay where you put them.

They make everything for babies. Some you may need, some don't need but it's good to have and other is crap. Go to a store to get a stroller and the salesman will try to guilt you into getting one with anti-lock brakes, roll cage and a "independent, single piece, passenger suspension system" and will guilt you about "not caring" if you get something in your price range. Bottom line try things out, read and research. Some kids just don't like pacifiers/binkies. Mine...both spat them out. One kid had to have either Mommie or orthodontic nipples to drink from...the other she'd drink from the finger of a surgical glove with hole in the tip. One loved the swing and didn't really care one way or the other for the "bouncy seat". Baby wipe warmers...to warm baby wipes so it isn't cold to their tushies...no. IMHO falls into the "crap" section.

Bottom line learn and have fun. Before I had my son I couldn't imagine my life with a kid. Once he got here I didn't want to imagine life without him. Same for my daughter. I wouldn't trade either for anything.

Question on the Nature Warden prestige class. The ability of "Woodforging". Am I reading this right they can carve themselves up a longsword, shortsword or a bastardsword for example and in their hands it is considered a masterwork weapon (normal for others). From their if they choose to they can have someone else enchant it (or do it themselves) effectivly allowing the Nature Warden to have +1 weapon (masterwork to others) and possibly special abilites like...I dunno "+1 flaming burst" if you want to be sick and twisted...kinda like ordering a veggie burger with bacon?

Whenever I make a male witch I just borrow the flavor of the v3.5 warlock (making pacts for power) or the hexblade (curses/hexes). I find that it fits those roles very nicely. I even have a high-level witch/fighter/eldritch knight character right now, which uses said hexblade concept.

The name might throw some people off but I see is as just a title. In my games none of the PCs are really labeled as thus anyway.

The dwarf war-priest and his half elf bounty hunter girlfriend have rarely used the terms paladin or ranger more than a handful of times when describing themselves.

I have to agree with you both. Warlock can be offensive to my fellow pagans due to the negative connotation. Witch is just fine for either gender IMHO.

In my games rarely to the players refer to themselves in character by their professions like in Themetricsystem's example. We have two clerics for example. Both are same level, different race, same religion. One is "Brother Douglas, War Priest to the Orthodox Sect" and the other is "Brother Ne'rho, Hermetic Priest to the Orthodox Sect". One is your typical adventuring cleric with heavy armor, mace and Sun + Healing Domains. The other has Knowledge and Good wears no armor and carries a humble staff.

First...anyone having trouble viewing this thread. I had to do some browser magic to see it. 2nd...OMG...funny stuff...evil stuff...love it.

I once in Cyberpunk 2020 (and a player adapted it to Spelljammer/Dragonstar) had the players come across a cyberarm missing fingers and it had an AI in it. It was able to speak and offered to allow it's self to be grafted to the Solo in the group and help out if they would be willing to find the rest of it's special custom fingers that is locked in the R&D labs at various offices of a certain spaced based company. Until then normal cyberfingers would be okay. So the Solo has his cyberarm swapped for the talking one. It's helpful in fights and so on. Also there is hinted it has others that the rest of the group can have like it once they get it's fingers.

Then players proceeded with black ops missions to obtain these fingers. With each one the player gets cool powers. Finally at the end of it turns out it's an evil AI and overwrites the Solo's personality and gets the rest of the cyberlimbs grafted on and gets a "dog face" exotic furries mod done to his face. He puts on a hi-tech Egyptian headdress and BOOM! Anubis is born again and on a killing spree!

I don't know if this belongs here or the off topic. Please move if it needs to be.

What kind of evil, vile and mean things have you done to your players? Anyone ever put the "head of vecna" in a game? Perhaps the "magic box" as from the Oglaf webcomic (warning that is NSFW if you are googling it now).

I had in game once a half green dragon rust monster. It took out the fighter's armor and left with with his skivvies, bastard sword and a shield. He found later on in the caverns of the adventure we were on a set of armor. He ignored the runes and the spikes...even the somewhat demonic head. Each day it leeched from him a small amount of XP and/or HP but granted him cool powers. The real deal was this was a demon that was skinned alive and made into armor by some evil warlock. When it became strong enough it became a "awakened half fiendish animated object" and attacked the party.

Not as cool as some of the stuff I have heard about...but still not bad for a low to middle level game.

The Minor Medical Miracle feat and such from A Fistful of Denarii were adapted from d20 Modern. I am confident they would work in any campaign.

Fist full of Denarii? Is that the name of the sourcebook?

For now I adapted the "Physick" feat from Fading Suns d20 and dropped references to grafting on cyberwear.

I like how the feat is presented in the d20 Fading Suns game. I think I may go with that minus the references to cybernetics. I think for implantation of magic items whether that is "spellware" or "arcane techno magic" or whatnot I may make this feat a pre-req to obtain another feat to do that if it becomes and issue in my game.

I am thinking of adding to my campaign setting a feat that allows a character to do more then what is outlined in the Heal skill. It would allow the character to have had access to training in surgery and long-term care on patients. They would be able to perform surgical operations on patients, ability required for removing tumors, reattaching recently severed limbs or stitching up grievous wounds too great for first-aid to truly handle. If the character comes from a culture that magic isn't taboo...such as most of the parts of the current campaign then it also includes the ability to implant magic devices within the body. The last is huge rarity even among the more magically adept cultures such as the Elves and the foreigners form across the ocean. In both cases it usually is a limb made of wood or metal that is a replacement for a lost one from the Great War.

Is this going to far? I was going to model it from similar feats found in such books as Fadins Suns d20 or Dragonstar? My goal is to make it so that someone with the feat and Heal skill can stabalize someone better as well as have the recover faster. For surgery I may have to up the DC's for things higher then what I see in the various publications. While it is true that the ancient Hellenics and Romans could set bones, stitch organs, remove surface level tumors, and even use needles to remove cataracts I don't know how easy it was. From what I have seen the scene from the HBO series Rome, in which the character of Titus Pullo is injured and unconcious while having a metal plate put in his head was uncommon, but common enough that people did it regularly.

Anyhow...what do you all think? Should I add a "Trained Physician" or "Mundane Doctor" kind of feat?

Sounds like you have given this a lot of thought. I think this should work out pretty well and be fun to play. Good luck and I hope you find use for the ettercap queen I statted up for you.

I love the stat block. However after reading more about the oracle...do you think you could restat the mystery to be bones? Make more sense that a necromantic item is here possesion.

The artifact doesn't allow control of undead. In fact it's just a side effect. Anything that dies, natural or otherwise cannot move on to the other side. They become tethered to their bodies, pissed off and angry. It's more of a "radiation effect" rather then the actual power.

In my campaign world in the small country they are in...in order to be able to gather in a group, go to some unknown tomb, lair or whatnot, raid it for loot, slaughter nonhumans for their treasure and the like you have to have a charter...a license from the local lord or the church...sometimes a powerful merchant family can sponsor you too. If you don't then expect stiff fines, penalties and possibly jail time. Bringing in all that loot destabilizes the local economy as well as possibly introduces magic which is considered a stain and sin by the Church. Nobles as a form of extreme penance are allowed to use magic for "the betterment of mankind and defense of the Principality" so they are given a pass...to a point.

The group is sponsored by a local duke who has tasked them to guard a lower ranking baron for him. The baron is a fighter/sorcerer. He was raised as a “penitent”…a sorcerer that since childhood has served the Church with the promise that if they do they have a shot at heaven in the afterlife. During the Great War he headed up one of the few all fighter/sorcerer combat units that later was disbanded and demobilized.

The group is religious to say the least. Not only is the baron they are assigned to so fearful of sin he doesn’t cast spells unless he needs to and even then asks later for the dwarf to take his confession, he also refuses to have divine magic to be used on him…once again goes to confess he let someone waste it on him. Makes for interesting RP…oh…he is also missing an arm…lost in the war. Once again great RP. We have currently…

• A human paladin of an order similar to the Knights Templar.
  
• A human monk from an order of religious hermits and friend to the paladin. He is a masochist...of sorts...his order belives in self-flagellation among other things.
  
• A dwarven cloistered type cleric of the orthodox and largest sect of the Church. We house ruled him from Unearthed Arcana best we could. Gains an extra clerical domain and bardic knowledge ability in exchange for some martial prowess. So far working pretty good.
  
• A human wizard who is from a noble family. His father owed the Church a tremendous debt and died before he could pay up. So the wizard inherited his debt and has to work it off.
  
• Half Wild Elf Ranger and secretly a druid. He was modeled after Hawkeye...Last of the Mohicans character...Daniel Day Lewis's character. He is from two worlds and bridges the gap well. They characters with one exception don't know he is a "pagan priest".
  
• Longtooth Shifter barbarian. The Shifters were one of the first people the humans encountered in the "new world" before the took over. The humans and shifters are to each other like the early settlers were to the Native Americans.

They might have the baron's aid come with them. They assume he is gay but he is not...just effeminate. What they don’t know is he is a great fencer and has levels of rogue instead do just expert. Also as mentioned a human cavalier might come along. Perhaps as a twist maybe he is a “ugly human” and covers himself up many times…he is actually a half-orc.

The player who is playing the wizard is moving…so we already worked out that his debt is paid off and he is taking off. During the encounter on the road with the dead merchants that is where they are meeting two new players that are coming in. Brothers….one wizard and one rogue.

So...how does this all grab you all? Comments???

Here is what I have planned out...follow along and tell me what you all think.

Players have the assassin in custody from the last quest that tried to kill the baron that they were assigned to be his entourage by their patron the local duke.

In the morning they are to meet up with a group of Church sponsored mercenaries and the mercenaries are to take the assassin to the closest Church court to stand “trial” and then be tossed in the lowest pit they can find until “sentencing” happens. Pretty much if you attack a noble who is in good standing (makes donations) to the Church you are pretty much guilty. The players are to meet up with the mercenaries at the crossroads outside of town.

The players go to the stables and find everyone is maimed and killed and all the horses are killed and appear to be feasted on. Evidence of some spidery creature is present and there is a magical aura to things. A few people are unaccounted for and there are tracks leading off to the deep forest.

The baron they are assigned to tells the players to track down the wee beastie, bring him it’s head and rescue any survivors that were hauled off.

Since the players are late to the crossroads the mercenaries show up asking what happened. Seeing the carnage they offer to take the assassin and leave an agent or two with them to help. I figured why not since the BBEG is an ettercap oracle, have one of the agents be a cavalier on a horse. That way I can test out a cavalier in the game as a NPC.

Players are on the road and come across a slaughtered merchant caravan in a similar fashion to the stables. The merchants are “guild affiliated” thusly magic is more common then in other places in the campaign. They don’t really have a stigma about magic like the rest of the campaign world does. The caravan is being scavenged by….goblins. There is also a strongbox that has been busted open and the runes on it are defaced. The runes were magical in nature. Players see that some of the merchants are still alive and fighting off the goblins. Halfway through the combat some of the corpses raise as undead. After the fight the merchant…or some kind of evidence left point that they were taking an item to be destroyed by the Church that would cause the dead to walk that was found in a set of ruins in the forest. They find out if they find the item placing it in a box of some kind with a holy symbol or vial of holy water will neutralize it.

Players finally track the ettercap and crew to their lair which is an old abandoned elven reconnaissance outpost. It isn’t very big…not a “dungeon crawl” per say…perhaps only one floor worth of rooms. They have to rescue survivors, one has already had eggs implanted inside of it (thank you Dragon Magazine), one is a actually a crazy cultist that encouraged all of this and other kind of twists to the plot as needed. The item is there with the ettercap BBEG. Perhaps before the players get there they encounter a few low level undead at the perimeter a few miles away.

So thats what I got...whatcha all think??? I figured the cavalier is lower level then the players...if they are 4th make the cavalier perhaps 2nd or 3rd. My thoughts are that I don't want to take the spotlight off the characters too much, but I do want the NPC to contribute to things.

Thank you all for the assistance....special thanks to Mortagon.

Wow...is that ready to go for 6 PC's and 2 NPC's...the minions you mentioned that is? That is amazing.

I was thinking of going all spidery on my players. I was going to have them encounter some ettercaps with a big, old ettercap "queen" that is the head of the group. I was thinking of giving it classed levels. One idea was to make it a little sickly (lower the STR and CON) and put the points into INT and CHA and making it a Sorcerer perhaps or a Druid. I was also thinking perhaps Oracle or Witch, just to play test the final test version here in my campaign.

I was wondering if anyone has done this? If so would you be willing to share your stat block on such a beastie? If you haven't and you are a good stat block crafter please feel free to show off what you come up with.

I have to be careful about what I toss at them. Mind you it is a much bigger party then what normal encounters have been designed for. I take that into consideration when coming up with the CR for an ecounter and so far the just stomp all over what I toss at them.

The party is about 6 (possibly 7) players, perhaps 1 or 2 NPC's that will be along for the ride. Players are 4th level on the average with the NPC's being 2nd level.

We have a "fire and brimestone" preacher cleric in the group. The player is wondering what skill would be used to harangue the faithful into confessing their sins before others. Something where he would extract a confession from on of the faithful.

Sounds like your campaign is something similar to what I wanted to run a while back! (Though I would actually rather play!) I'll have to check out that Relics & Rituals - Olympus!

Well the campaign is not all that. It is just an area that is that way. That area...was were humanity started. It branched out to other places and changed. The actual campaign area is much more like the time of Charlemange but the people of that land their ancestors over 1000 years ago came from the "hellenic area".

Some of the books I was gathering ideas out of:

Relics & Rituals - Olympus

PERFECT! This is what I was looking for! I am thumbing through it and on chapter 1...races. It gives a reinterpretation of traditional D&D races in a "Fantasy Hellenic" setting. "Fantasy Hellenic" from what I am reading in this book is more what I am looking for. Greek based but not necessarily 100% accurate and all. More like a D&D game "flavored" with ancient Greece. In my world, in the "hellenic" region humans vastly outnumber non-humans similar to how it is in L5R or OA. Non-humans are still there but very much not common. If anyone has done something like this I'd like to hear more.

I actually have both. VERY good books. I am am however looking for more material. Something more fantasy then mythology I guess. Is there other supplements?

I am really digging some of the recent materials out there about ancient Greece. I for example love the fluff for Mazes & Minotaurs.

My players want to travel to travel to my campaign setting's part of the world that is based on mythological, ancient generic Mediterranean in the same vein that Legend of 5 Rings or Oriental Adventures is generic fantasy Asia.

What materials can any of you suggest for this? Also what races would you all say would be appropriate? Would any of the PFRPG races be appropriate for such a setting? Would any of the player races in the Bestiary be useable?

Hey y'all Set is entitled to Set's opinions. I like that. All I was trying to figure out is how to do the above mentioned item using the rules as presented in PFRPG. While I do have a like for the nostalgia of the older edition and all, I am trying to give the old feel to the current rules which I absolutely love. My house rules book went from thick to thin. It was as if Paizo was reading my mind.

So folks...I know hear what you are saying...but how would you make this item using the current rules. Everything...a beaker ranging from a one potion that makes it daily to a 6 shotter that makes it weekly.

I'd just go with what Aelrynth suggested. A Beaker of Plentiful Potions could just be a 1/day (or 2/day) item that casts a cure light wounds (or whatever) on the drinker. Having the Beaker use multiple potions, determined randomly, with arbitrary uses / day, and losing potency over X number of months just seems like a headache and way, way more book-keeping than any deserves to have to keep track of.

But... but... arbitrary magic items are so much more fun than the sterilized ones that you get in the books now...I would recomend keeping the flavor and putting an arbitrary price on it.

I am on the fence with both ideas. What I am looking to figure out is using the rules...can I make a beaker that makes potions? The proverbial "potion bot 3000".

Here is what I am trying to build. I am horrible at building custom items and if I can see the thought process I can understand it better. I know what the end result I am looking for...just not how to get there. So this is what I am looking for...

• If a "random" treasure then it can be a "random" beaker just like there is a "random" table for bags of holding or a bag of tricks.
  
• There are different types...once again like bags of holding or a bag of tricks. The more potions it can make the cost goes up.
  
• If it brews more then one kind of potion it brews less frequently...once again not to sound like a parrot...like bags of holding that hold more will weigh more.
  
• The beaker is set for specific potions at the time of creation and after sometime later the beaker needs to be recharged.
  
• I'd ignore "cursed" potions as a possible type unless I am making a cursed version of this item.

So...how would you make this using the PFRPG core rule book?

This is some good dialog going on and has got me as a DM thinking. I want to speak for a movement though on the Beaker of Plentiful Potions. I am new to DMing PFRPG and I dug up an old 1E module and that I am going to convert to PFRPG. In it is...yes...an Alchemy Jug as an item found in some loot and one of the BBEG's big schtick is he has a Beaker of Plentiful Potions. So what is you alls best guess using just the core rulebook and bestiary to create this magic item?

What no love for old school magic items?

I am pretty sure the 4E Dragonborn are just toned down Half-Dragons.

Thats the feel I got with 3E Dragonborn. It's a way to be half-dragon without being born one or taking levels of the Dragon Disciple prestige class. 4E Dragonborn feel a bit different to me. I like them execpt for two things...predator style dreds for hair and dragon boobies.

The Dragonborn in 4E are not the same as the Dragonborn in 3E. The 3E version I like to think of as a "prestige race" in that you have to go through this big deal to become one. You start off as a....I dunno...Elf...you quest, quest and quest some more and after you are inspired by Bahmut you go through a ritual and are reborn as a dragonborn. You maintain most of your old racial abilities and gain new dragon ones. If you turn evil, like say you are a human paladin that became a dragonborn and later fall from grace to become a blackguard, you revert back to your old race.

IMHO I like the new dragonborn as a full on race. I could do w/o the reptilian mammarys, but I guess from an artistic view it makes them seem more human and heroic rathern then something alien to the reader/players psyche. I also like the new Aasimar aka the Deva. I always found it hard work one into a game, especially where they came from. Having a village of the Deva blacksmith, deva nanny and some deva children playing didn't feel right. It felt odd to even have a small village of them anywhere. The new info on the Deva and how they are with the "reborn again" works better for me. I may even use a similar explaination for Tieflings.

How would one convert the old school magic items of the Alchemy Jug and the Beaker of Plentiful Potions to Pathfinder?

Alchemy Jug: This magical device can pour forth various liquids upon command. The quantity of each liquid is dependent upon the liquid itself. The jug can pour only one kind of liquid on any given day, seven pourings maximum. The liquids pourable and quantity per pouring are:

Salt water 16 gallons
Fresh water 8 gallons
Beer 4 gallons
Vinegar 2 gallons
Wine 1 gallon
Ammonia 1 quart
Oil 1 quart
Aqua regia 2 gills (8 oz.)
Alcohol 1 gil (4 oz.)
Chlorine 8 drams (1 oz.)
Cyanide 4 drams (_ oz.)

The jug will pour forth two gallons per round, so it will require eight rounds to complete a pouring of salt water.

Beaker of Plentiful Potions: This container resembles a jug or flask. It is a magical beaker with alchemical properties allowing it to create 1d4 + 1 doses of 1d4 + 1 potions. (The kinds of potions are determined by random selection on Table 89.) Different potion sorts are layered in the container, and each pouring takes one round and results in one dose of one potion type.
Roll 1d4+1, to find the number of potions the beaker contains—delusion and poison are possible. Record each potion in order of occurrence the potions are layered and are poured in order. Duplication is possible. If the container holds only two potions, it will dispense them one each per day, three times per week; if three are contained, it will dispense them one each per day, two times per week; and if four or five are contained it will produce each just one time per week. Once opened, the beaker gradually loses the ability to produce potions. This reduction in ability results in the permanent loss of one potion type per month, determined randomly.

I find NC an interesting setting I never got to play. This is one thread I am defiantly following.

I am happy to report that so far the adventure is a success. It has been almost two years since I GMed a game. My players said it was a great game...only a light bit of oil was needed to get the rust off me.

1st Encounter - Dock Riot: That went well. The PC's went to the docks and did some RP with their patron ahead of time and knew some backstory about the bad blood between the two guilds. They greeted the baron and his retainer that they are going to escort and thats when the fight started up. Rather then two "mob" templated groups, I basically turned the area where the riot was going on into a terrain feature. If you wanted to pass through it you were going to get thwumped. The PC's were out of the way and were about to execute their plan to get around the fight when I had about 6 "toughs" come forward to fight them, trying to get to the baron. In the group is a dwarven "cloistered cleric" that dropped an "enthrall" spell on them...little if actual fighting went on. Pretty quick and painless. I was hoping for more but that is okay. They escorted the baron to his villa, stayed the night and next day got on the road to escort him to meet some nobles for the afternoon.

2nd Encounter - Similar to the first, except they walked into my "red herring" of an encounter. It's a bunch of religious fanatics. The PC's fit the bill of what they don't like. I adapted the "skill challange" mechanic from 4E somewhat to PFRPG and tried it here. It was working okay up until the dwarf cloistered cleric and the barbarian decided that the priest/leader/big mouth person needed to shut up. The intended to cast "silence" on an arrow and shoot it short, drop it at his feet. The barbarian accidently hit the enemy priest/bigmouth guy...which started combat. It is a 3/3 Cleric/Rogue and about 6 Commoners (ie fanatics) vs. 6 PC 3rd level characters and two NPC's of 5th and above. Needless to say it was a spanking but the RP of the "skill challange" was a good thing that the players liked.

3rd Encounter - The barbarian is severly intoxicated...slumped forward in his saddle and the baron's retainer leading his horse type of drunk. They are coming home and the assasin sets up a sniping position. He knows that the baron pretty much has Protection vs. Arrows up at all times, so he sets up and shoots his horse trying to get him to get tossed and trampled. This sets up another skill challange to calm the horse and to a footchase to get to the assasin...who is actually long gone but they find clues to who he is and so forth.

In two weeks we do another game. I'll let you know more about what happens. Thanks for all the input everyone.

So the assassin knew ahead of time a fight might break out at that exact spot?

Actually yes. There has been an ongoing issue with the porters and the caravan guards for months now. The caravan guards have been recruiting people to be able to take over the entire operation from the time the boats come in. Currently everyone is a bit cranky due to the weather...they are in the middle of a heatwave.

Maybe I'm missing information, but there might be another problem with your scenario. The dockworkers aren't going to get paid for delivering the cargo. Usually a dockworker's job is only to load/unload the boats at the dock so they aren't likely going to have a problem with the guards transporting it anywhere. Likewise, the guards probably wouldn't care who unloads the boat since they're still getting paid to deliver the goods and unloading a boat is tiring work. This whole argument could be solved by a really simple agreement to let the dockworkers unload the boat while the guards go get a beer and then come back later to transport the cargo.

True but the Guards Guild have want to take over the entire operation, so they been wooing over porters to their guild with little success. Now they been taking to beating the Stevedores to the punch by securing contracts ahead of time with the clause that their men unload/load the cargo to ensure its safe arrival, cutting out the Stevedores.

Don't have the whole Mob attack the party. Just have a few of the indaviduals invloved in the combat and stat them up. Maybe have two or three "mob encounters" that occur as the PC's try to navigate through the crowd. Burnt Offering starts as a raid of goblins attaking the town but the party only fights a small portion of them in three seperate mini encounters. It works well at making the group feel like a lot is going on arround them as you describe some of the actions happening as they move between each encounter.

I like that idea. I think I will go with that option.

...The only combatants I would actually bother giving statistics too would be the ones that the PCs came into direct conflict with (ie the ones that peeled off the main mob to attack the party). I might keep the stats of a generic human mob on hand as back up (likely just the example from DMG II), just in case the party does something unexpected such as charge into the center of the massed melee with weapons swinging... and in that case I wouldn't worry about the CR being much higher then the APL, because the party would have brought it upon themselves. I am a firm believer in player character actions having consequences.

I am a firm believer of that as well.

So here is what I think I will do and I'd like to hear what you all think. Noble gets off the boat. PC's greet him and some RP. The stevedores starts unloading ship as per normal. A few minutes later the caravan guards come up waiving a contract saying they were hired to do the same work and take the cargo to "XYZ" place. No one can seem to figure out who is the signing person on the contract...issues erupt. The two groups collide, PC's have to get the noble out of harms way. While this is all happening there is an assassin that set up a "magic mouth" spell to go off in order to incite more violence, yelling stuff like "yeah, get him" and the like. Also it incites a small group of caravan guards to "get the rich man over there! he is reneging on the contract" which starts with the combat the PC's get into in an effort to defend their client.

So that's my idea for the first encounter. How does that all grab you?

To start with, considering a generic Mob o' Humans is CR8, I probably wouldn't throw two of those at a LV3 party. If, for some reason, I really had to run such an encounter, I'd give the party a pretty big hint that they didn't need to try to take either one on. Saying something to the effect of, "The mobs of longshoremen and merchant guards don't seem to be paying any attention to you and you get the feeling they're really only interested in fighting each other," would be a pretty good start. Then I'd set a time limit for the skirmish and have the local gendarme show up in riot gear to break up the fight.

Done. Something to that effect is already in the "boxed" text I wrote. Also in my DM notes I put down that they will leave the party alone unless the party engages them in combat. If that happens the mob will attack until either the character finds some type of cover for one full round or the mob is attacked by something else...like the other mob.

I forgot that a "mob" is such a high CR. Perhaps instead of two "mobs" if the characters get froggy a small group of either Commoners (the dock workers) or Warriors (the caravan guards) steps out of the crowd to take care of them. If I go that route what is the CR for a single Commoner or Warrior? Is it still Level/2 = CR....so a 6th level commoner or warrior is like a CR 3? Is "human" now listed as a "monster" somewhere? (LOL)

I am about to run a game...Sunday in fact. The character are going to escort a noble coming off a riverboat from the docks to his villa, when a fight between two groups. One of dock workers the other of caravan guards, around 50-80 people on each side. If the PC's wait it out they can get out of it, if they decide to meddle they may get some "mob justice" dealt to them. No matter what they do, a few of the dockworkers break off and face the PC's thinking they started this.

How would you structure this encounter? It's a group of six (6) 3rd level characters. Would you have "Dockworker Mob" (1st level Commoners with the "mob template" from DMG II) and a "Caravan Guard Mob" (1st level Warriors with the "mob template" from DMG II) fighting each other, ignoring the characters unless they meddle? Have the "toughs" that break off be 1st or 2nd level Warriors?

I am running a game Sunday and one character is playing a shifter. I'll keep you updated on how the conversion works. I also love the gnome conversion and plan to use them for "forest gnomes" keeping regular vanilla gnomes from the PFRPG book as "rock gnomes".

Hey now, this is entirely too much vitriol for converting races between editions. Yeah, most of the changes aren't that necessary, but so what? Fryer wastes a bit of time, you have to skim over a couple posts, everyone comes out roughly equal. How about we all just sit back and let the guy do what he wants, eh?

I agree. Thank you David Fryer for converting over the races from 4E. I been looking around for a good conversion of 4E items to PFRPG for a while. I like the 4E explanation of Aasimars now as Devas and Dragonborn as a race not as a calling to become one. It leaves room for evil dragonborn and all. I really like PFRPG and 4E does have some good concepts...but it's...4E. To me 4E feels like another game line and PFRPG feels like D&D. If you continue down the line on things and decide to do classes, I'd be interested in seeing your take on Warlocks and their pacts.

One things to note. The Longtooth Shifter...

Shifter, Longtooth

+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma: Longtooth shifters are strong and alert, but their presence is unsettling.
Medium: Longtooth shifters are medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to size.
Normal Speed: Base Speed for a Longtooth Shifter is 30 feet.
Low-light Vision: Longtooth shifters can see twice as far in poor lighting as humans can.
Athletic: Climb and Run are always class skills for a longtooth shifter.
Shifting: Three times per day as a minor action a longtooth shifter gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls and Fast Healing 2 for a number of rounds equal to 3 plus his Constitution modifier.
Languages: Longtooth shifters begin play speaking Common. Longtooth shifters with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, and Orc.

Under the "Athletic" race ability has Climb and Run listed as skills. Did you mean "Climb" the Skill and gain "Run" the Feat?

I like the treatment you gave of the Deva. I love the 4E background on them and was trying to figure out how to use them in PFRPG.

I was kinda sorta searching for the same thing...except for the module RETURN to the Keep on the Borderlands. Does anyone have any idea where I may find a 3E or Pathfinderized version out there?

Huh, very nifty. I speak just enough Spanish to get by, and I lived in south Austin long enough to know most of the slang. I always get tripped up by the -a or -o at the end of words that indicate the gender of the person being spoken to. (Que pasa vs Que paso, as an example)

I can see why. English is different then Spanish in many ways. For example English has many homophones...like bass and bass. It can be a fish or a sound. Spanish not so...although they have words that one misplaced syllable turns the word for "fear" to "excrement".

I wonder if this can be true of fantasy languages? Hmmm?

Huh, I never thought of the Half-Elf = RL analogue previously. Thank you for opening my eyes to a new way of thinking.

Not a problem. That kinda how I looked at it. Half Elves not really being part of one or the other. Either short lived elves or long lived humans.

Sometimes if I am trying to add a bit of my own experiances to a character background in cases where the character was raised by humans and the character does speak Elven I usually RP that they do but poorly. Try to get Elf NPC's and PC's to speak slowly and all. ...kinda like me in real life in regards to Spanish.

Half elves for me.

I grew up in both "white" and Latino worlds...never fully in one or the other. Growing up my parents were kind like Lucy and Ricky. With the half-elf it was something that just clicked with me.

I had players fight go to the aid of a coastal village that was being attacked by giant version of wild life including crabs or other crustaceans. They attacking the village due to the BBEG controlling them. After the BBEG was stopped the party brought back loot and wagons full of the slain creatures for a feast. The neighboring dairy based village made a good profit selling them butter by the wagon load.

I like the idea of a caster that wasn't trained like the wizard or of a special bloodline like the sorcerer. A caster who doesn't cast spells but can blast instead as spell-like abilities. As much as I hate to admit it, 4E is kinda a good thing for the Warlock in that they had different flavors of Warlock, which I do like the idea of.

Another kind of related class is the Binder. IMHO they are kind of related. Neither can cast "magic missile" or other actual spells but have abilites derived from magic. IMHO that is what the warlock is about...a arcane based class that actually doesn't cast spells but has spell like abilities.

You rock!!! Consider this to be on my official list of stuff to play test in 2010! I have some old GW stuff and all I can use for the fluff side of this. I want to run some of my D&D game using the new PF system first, then branch out into other settings using the PF system...this fits what I am looking for. If you happen to have a .pdf or a word version of your work, I'd love to have it. If you want to chit chat off list, email me at my handle as one word...no underscore at gmail dot com. Please put in the subject line "In regards to PF Gamma World" without quotation marks so I know it isn't some kind of spam.