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This spell is actually pretty goodon the Druid list. It give the druid a cheap damage dealing spell that can be used as a base for metamgic spells. The thing that is great is that it makes Spell Focus(Conjuration) into not just a feat tax. If there is a fix to be made it would be to half the damage progression. This way it would lose some power around lvl4-5 when it really shines, the power falls really quickly after that.
1) Human
The Laundry machine noise is one annoying problem (A player is doing his laundry during the game and the noise is louder than anything else) The mysterious connection problem that appears 5 minutes before game start. @Tormsskull This is actually how I got started as a GM, the guy who recruited the group never showed for the first session and disapeared completely so I told the group : "Someone else should be the GM"
Google Drive is pretty good to keep notes, I can use it on my tablet, my phone and my laptop. So I can use my tablet to show pictures at the table, work on my notes rom my phone while I'm away. Government archives websites have plenty of old maps you can use. (Best for 19th century but it can pass for earlier)
Also get ideas from your players, they know what they like and are interested. Listen to what they like from the module, the ideas they throw and the things they say they want to do. Make them want go after the dragons. Make it clear at the beginning what the story is about so they can select the relevant options (Paizo's AP player's guide are a good example) In the last session I ran, I had two half-orcs, one sitting by a quest giver and another one attacking them later on. A player asked if they were the same guy, they became the same guy at that point and I will be bringing him back later on since he survived the encounter.
Thorsen, God of Survival in winter, guide to those lost in the cold
The winter is a seson of untold riches for those able to survive it and thrive in it. Fire and community are the means to thrive through winter. Thorsen would be a protector god prayed by those trying to survive through winter. His temples would always have a central fire kept lit to give warmth to the community.
I can't wait to find what will happen next. Hopefully things will settle down soon.
I don't get why Hero Lab would be different then hand made. I have players that make their characters themselves and other that ask me to make them based on what they tell me and in between where they "point and click" through the books. I use Hero Lab for NPCs, making an optimized character isn't in the tool used to create the character but in the thinking that goes behind the choice you make. If you are thinking "what is the best choice to keep me alive because I don't want to have to make a new character" you will make an optimized character using paper or Hero Lab. It seems to me like the GM made a mistake in making this an arms race between you and him. Disarming will have to come from both ways, he needs to be careful not to be too deadly and you will need to bring your character down in power level a bit so that what threatens your character doesn't obliterate the other characters.
When I prep for a session I usually know what plot points I want to hit through the session and where things can go. I prepare a toolbox of NPC, encounters, rules systems and things like that. I define locations for battlemap purposes and events happening. I go from there, following the paths the players take. I think of it as an hybrid between full improv and GM-driven plots. For the major plots I use a comic book system. I have the main plot (plot A) they are following and foreshadow a few other plotlines. Usually they'll pickup one of those (now plot B). I keep the old threads progressing so at some point when plot B is resolved I have plot C ready and it appears to the players like I've been preparing that plotline for a while (back when they were after plot A). Also Session 0 is important to define where they want to take their characters, make sure everyone is on the same page and defining what the campaign is about.
As a player I like to create a character that won't be second best in everything he does. I want to make a character that won't be exactly the same as another player's character. If I need metagaming for that, so be it. As a GM, I won't care as long as I can spotlight each characters strength and weaknesses. If there are no healers I'll manage. It's easy to make two characters completely different in Pathfinder.
This is something you should talk to with your GM. The rules don't say either way and different people have different opinions on the subject.
I'm the GM actually looking to flesh out my idea with details. I'm starting the players in Korvosa, he has a meeting whith his brother (another PC) he hasn't seen in 8 years. The Acadamae provided a great way to split them for a long time. His introduction has him in the Acadamae, and I was wondering how would a Magi be trained for flavoring. (Events will have them leave Korvosa for a while) On the mechanic side I'll figure something with him.
Yeah I think I can have him arrange his character to fit with that. I'd say for the Academae you would need the 3 skills Kn(Arcana) Kn(Planes) and spellcraft. His initial spells would be similar to a 1st-level wizard anyway, I'd probably keep 2 schools out and require a couple of conjuration spells. He doesn't need to graduate either so that would simplify that matter. I need him in Korvosa at the start of the campaign and being locked for 8 years in the Acadamae would fit with the other players background concerning him. I think it would be hard to pass as a wizard after first levels as the mechanics start drifting away a lot after that.
I understand you point I just completely disagree with your first example. In my view the paladin would no way kill an innocent. Even to save others. He would sacrifice himself before doing such an evil thing. The train dilemma is a good example of what Scarletrose means by a binary choice. If the only way to save a group of five persons is by redirecting the train on a byway with five other persons(Insert reasons why it's binary). If the Paladin decide to not touch the lever, he should not fall IMO. Looking for a third way is nice but sometimes no third way exists
Would the Acadamae be training Magus and if so, what might be different in their training, exams? How would they be viewed by other students and teachers?
TPK
After their heroic victory against Haidar the party decided to explore the rest of the place even though they were out of resources. They spotted the chokers and took them by surprise dropping the first one quickly. The second one critted and dropped Leyen to negative. After a few rounds of missing Nadrie's mountain lion went down, followed by an unlucky Beatrice. Nadrie the last one standing swung with her sword and missed before the last choker with one hit point left critted her.
Definetly Neutral Good. I've played almost all non evil alignments but Neutral Good is where I feel at home.
Ask them to create links between themselves. It's far easier to come up with a reason for them to work together if you have 2 brothers, one childhood friend and a business partner than a bunch of random people in a tavern.
* A hall of mirror where you see yourself getting older, when you get out you have advaned in age category. If you try going back you get out as a younger version of yourself (child). * An oddities exposition where the exhibitions are polymorphed previous visitors cursed when they tried to touch what looks like a powerful magic item. * Poisoned food that shows the past or future to those eating it (Also makes them confused while they have the visions) Something Wicked This Way Comes By Ray Bradbury could be good inspiration
34 male hetero (Current)Thorsen, Human Male Druid probably Hetero. Attractive isn't a word I would use to describe him. He started as an 18 years old but got aged to 26. Egon, Human Male Fighter 22 years old. Asexual I would say. A man so focused on his swordmanship that he doesn't think about sexuality. I was thinking of Miyamoto Musashi from the novels by Eiji Yoshikawa. Kal, Female Elf Ranger. She grew up in a shrine in the middle of the wilderness so she didn't have many contacts with the outside world. She wasn't attractive, more of a wild child. I never got to explore her sexuality. A few others that I don't remember the names : A human male Beguiler, Hetero and attractive.
As I was pointing with Sandpoint, the cleric there is performing the rites for the regional pantheon even if his deity is Desna.
I usually like to know in advance what the next feat will be, those kinds of things but farther than 1-2 levels I never plan because you never know if your character will get there.
I imagine information would be a premium in a Golarion war. Knowing what are the schools favored by the opposing casters. Fighting abjurers will require different strategies than fighting necromancers or transmuters. The land of the Linnorn Kings probably favor coastal raiding with autonomous units.
Wasn't there a pantheistic cathedral in Sandpoint?
Illusions might make casting fireballs less worth it, if you can't quickly determine what formations are real and false. If all you use are fire spells, a few resist energy(fire) might make those less efficient. There are many low level spells that can transform the battlefield like entangle, grease or sleep. How casters are employed can make for very different armies. One country can mass them into formations, another could place a few within each unit as support.
It was fun playing with you. Thugar was a fun dwarf to interact with and I loved your characterization on him.
Welcome aboard Rider Ok final shopping Retraining of INT(1) skill point from stealth to spellcraft : 450gp, 5 days So final price 8660gp the rest goes to the party
I'd love them to go back to Katapesh or explore Nex, Geb and Jalmeray after Iron Gods but I suspect we might get an urban AP after Iron Gods.
Also keep in mind Rangers share a lot of the early ones that could be druid only. I think their are a few higher level ones in the summon line.
Power is a relative thing. All the best stats in the world can't compare to the finger of the GM squishing them like ants, like they saw your previous GM do and that isn't fun. The best games are when everyone is having fun. What you need to explain to them is how it makes your job harder as a GM having to balance for those stats. If they want to feel powerful they don't even need those stats. As a DM you can make them feel powerful through descriptions, modifying their opponents stats and things like that. The same goes in the other way, you can make them feel underpowered wathever their stats are. They may have fallen into thinking the relationships between players and GM is an opposing one where the GM is trying to kill their characters so they need to be great or they'll die. Ask them to give you a chance and see how it goes, if they don't like their new characters they can always go back to the previous ones. Then make sure you give them a few easy fights to start things off and let their new characters be awesome.
The general Weeping Angels Tactic seemed to be show you one obvious Angel to keep you looking at it while 3-4 were catching you in the back. They also tended to isolate one prey... hum character and go after that one. To be scary they would need to just have to touch you, no saves before sending you in the past. They use darkness and numbers rather than being invulnerable. I don't think they'd translate well to Pathfinder, they would lose part of what makes them scary I think.
Skill system Even if I think skill are always a bit problemeatic in class base systems, Pathfinder gives enough points to most class to have a few extra to spend into other skills than the main ones from your class, and the DC are usually in the range where you can manage ok results with half your level points in a skill. And in play it works reasonably well if you don't use perception too much and ask for skills you know your players aren't putting as much points into from time to time.
Usually we pick what we find useful and roll when more than one person needs it. I could use the belt but it would be better if you have it, also you have a right to your share of the loot. So spend away. So far I've spent 7760 gp adding the rod, I'll look for scrolls, wands and potions to round up what I have, the rest will go to the party fund.
Ok so I have 4 760gp used out of around 10 000gp 1) Cloak of Fiery Vanishing 2600gp
EDIT: Check the "How to format your text" section under the comment box.
I think the current skill system has some fondamental problems : 1) Some classes get more out of combat spotlight than others
What 4e did well I think was making some skills part of the class, like Rogues getting Thievery or Wizards getting Arcana. Grouping skills and removing the ability to spread points, I felt, lost some of the customization that Pathfinder/3.x has. wich made many skills a binary (have/don't have) thing that wasn't as fun. I'm more a fan of the classless systems for skills systems.
The NPC Codex book contains pregenerated characters for all the classes and all the iconics. As I'm not familliar with the Beginner Box, do the character in there come with anything in specific?
There is a Piercing metamagic rod that would be useful when dealing with SR foes, the lesser one goes for 3000gp, I didn't list it for myself becaus I already have a suite of non SR offense spell. How do we determine if an Item is available in the town?
This is clearly where I fall in the optimization category. Playing with a GM who killed 2 of my characters with awesome concepts in the first 2 sessions made me want to have characters that survive is important. So my characters tend to be more swiss knifes than laser guided scalpels. I usually go with the whirlpool method. I find something to start, role missing in the party, cool idea or bit of fluff that I find inspiring and start asking questions until I get a character out of it. I rarely go all out on rules or flavor but mix and match, each choice leading me to the next. I think it is a spectrum with one end being full background written before even looking at the system used and the other being the character is only stats before starting to look at justifying the stats with fluff.
Ok, here's what I want to buy. 2x Restoration spell cast on me. 760gp Headband of Inspiring Wisdom +2 4000gp If it's available I'll take one of those in this order
Guns were present in late middle ages, early Renaissance, depending on the location, 1132 for the first ones in China. 14th Century for the Arab world and then made their way to Europe around the 15th century. So I can easily imagine the first basic unreliable firearms in a medieval-light setting. As was previously said talk to your GM if they bother you, in the game I run I don't allow them for thematic reasons.
We are 3 sessions in, last session the players finished clearing up the Monastery. They consist of : Beatrice, Aasimar Paladin of Iomedae, looking to establish a presence for Iomedae in the region. Nadrie, Elven Druid and now Moldspeaker. She hates Gnoll with a passion. Leyen, Ifrit Rogue, on a quest to find her sister Haleen "Book", Tiefling Wizard, from the Mwangi Expanse, he's on a quest to learn all the spells he can.
A "Sage" Looking to write the next Bestiary. With a tendency to get into trouble to gather information on monsters. Prone to bad conclusions.
I would go with 2. I play a NG arctic druid, he is really not what someone would call a hippy treehugger. Humans are a social species so in general he values communities very high and since he's from the north, he sees survival against a cold and harsh environment as a constant struggle. When he summon a creature, he will not put it in danger unless it is for the rest of the group's benefit and he won't put it in a place he wouldn't go. As a caster, he is not in the thick of things but doesn't hesitate to go save the rest of the party because sometimes one must sacrifice himself for the rest of the group, a sacrifice he would never ask of anyone else. If he were to fall, I would imagine he'd have betrayed his community/party members or he'd have let someone freely destroy nature. Using fall as a club against players actions is bad form IMHO. It is at his best used as a story tool in collaboration with a player.
I like to present my players with two things at the start of a campaign. A list of rules for character creation
"That aquatic druid might sound really interesting but this campaign is gonna be about a zombie invasion it might not be the best place for that character to shine" is the kind of thing I will say. Or "we are going for an Arabian Nights feel, maybe your Samurai isn't a good fit, but here's how your ideas might fit in with the theme." My goal here is to start a discussion, maybe the samurai will end up in the game, but the discussion need to happen. If a player insists and start trying to badger me, that is the point where the creation rules are handy, being explicit on why you don't allow some things is a good thing here. If he continues and start flipping tables, no game is better than a bad game.
I would be interested in such a book, Creating a good and interesting Humanoid Dragon race isn't easy and would probably need to distance itself from those Dragonborn for copyright purposes. I would go with how Blood of the Moon went and set it up so the color of your draconic thing would change your appearance and abilities. A red Dragomanoid would be better suited for a sorcerer and a blue Dragomanoid better at melee.
...A hat that permanently turns you into a strawberry blonde would be just as cursed. Only if it doesn't ask for your consent before changing the color of your hair. This is a very minor curse but still . The part about consent is what is important, if the hat allows you to change your hair color at will it is a magic item, if it inflict the hair color without consent on the character part, it is necessarily something bad. (Note here how the argument was made that some curses can be turned into positive thing, it is always after the decision to use the item was made by the person beforehand.) If I was to use a cursed item like this as a GM I would talk about it with the player beforehand to be absolutely sure the player is ok with it.
I saw a fun group, I was playing with, implode due to the GM mishandling of this item. So for me it will always be cursed. This item is also cursed simply because it doesn't ask for consent. I'm sure an uncursed version could be made that could be used by people that wants a sex change.
I would like a dragon empire world guide hard cover with information on the races like Kitsune and Tengu included. Races of the Dragon Empires is the one I see being made on the Player Companion line, probably with the next AP set there.
I mostly know FR before 4e messed it up for me and now it's a setting I'm not as familliar as I used to be. Golarion doesn't have as many High-Powered good NPC ready to swoop in and fix problems. The deities aren't as involved so it centers the plot on the PCs. The desert areas are better in Golarion IMO, with many different countries spread over northern Garund it makes for a lot of variety. Forgotten Realms does global world spanning stories better, trade and political tensions too. As was said previously, a lot of the countries in Golarion don't spill over the borders and since countries tend to be focused on a theme, it might make some transitions a bit weird. In the end th GM amounts for a lot of the setting so there is no better one excepts the one that spawns more ideas for you and your players.
Quite a few good ideas in there
In the zombie one, I can see fighting your old incarnations. You allow settlements rule after a point where you'd need to secure the surrounding areas while still fighting the zombies. And then the plague start affecting the surrounding inhabitants so you'll get goblin zombies, Ogre zombies and Dragon Zombies...
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