Basilforth's page

I'd consider buying a towel with the StarFinder logo on it.

Yes. This.

It's good business. It's neighborliness. It's good for gaming in general. I am glad to see Paizo's support of 5e.

Well, it is not spell in a can, but it is perhaps "Druid in a can." I think it should have limited or one time use.

The idea of touching the weapon with the scorpion medallion is *fun* and cinematic. That's why it works. Personally, I might not require the chain to be wrapped around the weapons, maybe just touch it.

Two thoughts.

First, I think that OOTS had a good take on good characters dying.

Second, if I was running a campaign, and one of good players wanted to be "immortal", then they would have to go the Gandalf route.

They would have to have permission from their sponsor deity. First, the deity would chuckle at them for their immature understanding of immortality. But that deity would be patient, understanding that mortals are limited creatures.

That character would have to have a purpose for immortality greater than their own pleasure and power. Except for maybe Chaotic Good characters, LG and NG characters would have to have some sort of celestial oversight. CG characters might be required to lose a key part of themselves that essentially changed their personality.

The key is that striving for immortality would have to cost something for a good character and serve a purpose outside of themselves. Those two factors would place a different feel than the grasping, selfish motive typically ascribed to evil characters.

I like this class. Almost seems like a good wizard alternate rather than alchemist.

With the Heal skill? Sure, one rank, a +1 Wis bonus, and a +3 class skill bonus can really put a dent in the spread of a disease (and it only takes 10 minutes per person).

Wow! This actually makes the Heal skill very powerful. I normally think of the heal skill as advanced first aid, which seems useless against diseases.

The level of technology might be low, and they can't tell a microbe from a virus...but they don't have to.
Fever would be a fairly common malady with a common origin and he'd know it was contagious.

Hmmm, HMMMMM! Microbes? Fantasy setting? This made me think of magical and/or intelligent bacteria. Wouldn't that just be ... evil? Or very useful.... Tarrasque? No problem. Just toss this little bottle in its mouth.... Of course one of you will need to volunteer to, um, administer the dose....

Really enjoying this thread.

This is more of a fluff / RP question than anything...

But I was thinking the other day, the Dark Ages/Middles ages were a pretty tough place for the common folk: oppression, disease, starvation, etc. I was wondering, in a world with access to nearly routine displays of divine magic: creation of food and water, healing, etc., would the the common folks have more access to better food and health. Could even low level clerics stem the tide of famines, plagues, etc. Stipulate that the political situation would not be much better for the average Joe.

The Scarlet God has my vote. It may need some tweaks or even a new paint job (swapping out the Leng), but the engine is running fine.

Interestingly, the Scarlett God and the Doom Comes to Dustpawn are very similar. In the first, the PC go get the Cthulhu-esque villain, in the latter, the PCs wait for the Cthulhu-esque villain to come to them. I am sure it is merely a matter of personal preference, but it seems to me that it is easier (and more fun) to run an adventure where the PC must go DO something rather than run an adventure where the PCs must wait for something to come to them.

It seems like the whole Cthulhu/horror theme space was, shall we say, very well explored this year. More Cowbell?

You had me at: "...trade in exotic diseases..."

I want to know more about this organization.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts. Thanks to Erik for his detailed response, especially the references. The idea that the pictures are what the devils look like in hell is probably how I would run it.

It still goes to show that LE takes a lot of thought to run.

Is it my imagination but didn't Orcs used to be LE in 1st edition?

I think that the LE alignment is underused in D&D settings. A lot of potential for conflict. I am curious though .... Something that has tickled my mind since the days of 1E, so I thought I would toss out a question: should devils have a different visual theme than demons?

I am sure that I am missing something, but it seems that on first appearance LE outsiders should have a different look and feel than CE outsiders. Think of Tolkien's "look fair, but feel foul" rule of thumb for LE compared to "look foul and feel foul" for CE.

However, it seems that most of the graphic images in the Bestiaries show grotesque LE creatures that look little differently, thematically, than their CE counterparts.

I'm sure that it comes down to a personal preference and 'whatever works for your game' but I am curious to hear what others think.

Thanks, Basilforth!

... he presents a plan to integrate into society in order to eventually destroy civilization from the inside.

Ah, ok, that makes sense to me. I'm glad that you said that. I was having a hard time seeing why an evil (or chaotic for that matter) monster would participate. I can definitely see a neutral evil monster totally digging this group. A lawful evil monster would like it, but could absolutely NOT keep a straight face or stop drooling while trying to participate in such a group. ;)

Much thanks to everyone for their responses!

I was very surprized to find 3.5 PHB in the local hobby shop for $65 and the 4.0 PHB for $15!. What's up with that?

Mike,

Congrats on advancing in the competition! This entry seems to fall into the "people really like it" or "people really don't like it." Interesting reactions. No such thing as bad publicity, eh?

Regarding the organization, I have a question: (I think sort asked by one of the judges): "why would evil monsters want to be accepted by a fantasy society?" By acceptance, I assume that you mean more than just be left alone. But rather, inclusion in a fantasy world ecology, economy, society, etc. I am curious about your reasoning/perspective.

Good luck in the next round!

I have some friends who want to keep using 3.5 rules. Does anyone know where I can find out the most recent edition of the 3.5 Player's Handbook? How many printings did it experience?

I *like* the use of the term 'Kremlin'. It really fits nicely with the frozen landscape and the totalitarian theme of the Ogre Mage.

Hit points!

I have a guy in my group who has 18 CON, is a fighter and has rolled "1" for hit points for levels 2,3,4 and last night 5! He has less hit points then the Wizard (16 CON). We have a policy that you roll in front of everyone and you get what you roll. The fighter is mechanically optimised in every way, but given his hp's he's just crap. Don't heal in combat the 'experts' say - well without the cleric dumping every thing on the fighter every round he goes down like a sack.

S.

I have to say that that player is a real trooper. Sounds like an unfun character to play. The game is supposed to be fun. Rolling less than half your hit die is is not fun.

As an option, you could allow the player an extra feat or trait if they get a low hit point roll. Something to keep things interesting.

In about 20 years an asteroid of similar size will strike the Earth. The governments of the world know about it and are making preparations to save a chosen percentage of the population. This is not a movie or TV special.

Dude! Wrong planet. Jeesh! That is for planet P475G1.

Sorry folks! Nothing to see here! Move right along!

Very interesting....

Corollary questions....

What is the deal with soul destruction in PF. It is discussed a lot in Bestiary 2 in the daemon section. Is that annihilation of the petitioner?

Also, if a mortal is killed on a lower plane, is their soul trapped on that plane?

I like this one. I have players that would obey a 'kill command' in order to have a dog like this....

that said, your intro text, "..however some lack the finesse with equines required to be proficient riders. Still wishing to serve their order..." almost makes it sound as if the Hound Masters are second class Cavaliers. I would guess that they would not think so...

A cool, big idea....

If I was GM, use of this item might have alignment repercussions. Might even register a visit from one of your alignment outsiders who notice the change and pop by to say, "What Up? Why weren't you happy with what we gave you?" Lots of neat RP possibilities.

Also, what if you force fed a sorcerer one of these puppies?

I think that the negative level should be very hard to remove. Wish or Miracle.

Another option is to look to books like Fred Saberhagen's Books of Swords. Knowing an item's powers doesn't mean you know all the drawbacks or limitations.

** spoiler omitted **

Maybe the item doesn't know its weaknesses. Or maybe make it so Identify doesn't pick up any of the 'intelligent' powers. So The Saphire Blade, imbued with the collective intelligence of vizers past, able to heal its wielder, sense gold and cast shield to protect the wielder, just Identifies as a "+2 shocking burst scimitar."

<thud> <thud> <thud> <thud>

+1

I was waiting for the Fred Saberhagen reference.

I had to check the feat before I answered again, but the bolded area is the issue. Horses are large, so the horse could not use it with anyone unless they(the cavalier in this care) were enlarged.

Horses are also not great combatants.

Ah, ok, the size issue.

Maybe if I had a pony? <joking>

Thanks for your assistance!

Thanks for your response.

I found the spot in the Core Rulebook that covered the material. Looks like a horse could get a +1 to intelligence when the Cavalier reached level 4. Then the horse could use the SWAP PLACES feat.

Does that sound right?

I am building a first level Cavalier, named Axelte. I have included the stat block below if you are interested.

As one of his feats, I selected the Teamwork feat SWAP PLACES for Axelte well.

Swap Places is a teamwork feat, meaning that you can only use the feat if someone else has the same feat. (Different topics, but the whole teamwork feat concept seems problematic. How do you coordinate with the other player characters to get them in action. Seems unlikely.)

Cavaliers also get an animal companion. That animal companion is the same as a druid's animal companion, meaning it gets a feat at first level. So, in a fit of creativity, I selected Swap Places for the animal companion.

I sure hope that that is allowed. Seems like a cool concept: the cavalier fighting alongside his trusty steed? Does that sound reasonable or is a animal companion not smart enought to use teamwork feats?

BTW - If anyone is running a lowlevel PBP game and is accepting new characters, I would love to try out Axelte.

Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons are a bit dicey for me, but I may try and stop by to say hello sometime. I do occasionally get over to Family Game Store. I live in Catonsville, Md. I run adventures for my kids and friends and wouldn't mind getting an opportunity to play sometime.

In many ways it comes down to the nature of the game: Are the players metagaming to 'beat the GM'? (a futile, but strangely popular, exercise), or are they metagaming because they're thinking of their characters as themselves (see 'faraday cage' example above)? Or are they metagaming to make the story flow (example from a previous post of the barbarian suddenly arriving on the scene of action).

A good breakdown.

I'd even consider having only hunter's bond get replaced and changing favored terrain so that you only ever can choose "urban" as your terrain. This way you still get the later two abilities, but you miss out on the normal ranger's ability to branch out into new terrains. In fact, that might be the best way to go.

So, in essence, a Sable Company Marine would be giving up three abilities (2nd, 3rd, and 4th favored terrains) in order to gain the Hypogriff as a mount?

That's a very good deal at lower levels since the Marine would get their enhanced mount a full four (4) levels before they feel the pinch of their 2nd favored terrain loss. It will pinch a bit at the higher levels as they lose the subsequent terrains.

Too bad there is no "Air" Terrain? Or maybe a Sable Marine should be allowed to select Air Elemental Plane as a favored terrain at 18th level? So, they would in effect lose their 2nd and 3rd favored terrains and essentially be force to take Urban and Air Elemental terrains at 4th and 18th levels.

Corollary question: can Rangers take multiple levels in the same favored terrains and have stacking modifiers?

I was recently reading through my pdf copy of Bestiary 2. Really enjoyed the sections on the Aeons and Inevitables. But my thoughts were immediately drawn to the World Wound as I read about the Bythos Aeons and the Lhaksharut Inevitables.

In addition to the obvious demonic activity there, I would imagine that the Aeons and the Inevitables would also display a, um, curiosity, shall we say, about the apparent planar breach.

A mysterious emmisary, representing an unknown client, recruits your group to help with a dragon problem. With a different twist. This dragon is not an intelligent scheming creature, but rather a brute beast that must be put down. The mysterious client is, in fact, another dragon that wants the bestial dragon put down for many reasons, not the least of which is the humiliation of seeing his noble kind so poorly represented. The twist? The bestial dragon is in fact ensnared by a sorcerer who has afflicted the creature with a spell that removes its intelligence.

Question: are there any spells in PF that remove intelligence? Any creative combinations to create this effect? Of course, I have no problem designing my own spell for that effect. Just wondering....

Perhaps you could substitute another penalty instead of the loss of rage powers? If the player could come up with a creative alternative and you were okay with it as GM, it would add to the player's experience and probably provide some cool RP hooks that the player would be really invested in.

To be honest, if one of my players had a cool idea that added to the game, then I would be inclined to let them make a change as long as they were consistent with its implementation.

Sumthin like this: Paizo Twitter

If it's an Introduction to Pathfinder game that we're looking at, I think I'd rather see it as:

Pathfinder RPG Introductory Box Set
• Player's Manual: Softbound book with the basics on classes, skills & feats. Included are Fighter, Rogue, Wizard and Cleric with only the first 5 levels. Races included are Human, Elf, Halfling and Dwarf.
• GM's Manual: Rules on running the game in the very basics. What the dice mean, how to make a roll, how to run combat.
• Adventure Book: One part PF Fiction, one part adventure book.
• Challenge Cards: 30 Cards with various monsters and traps on them. Stats are broken down to the basics, with a range of monsters from Orcs to Goblins to Skeletons. 1 Dragon card is also included.
• Tokens: 60 tokens included, with heroes and monsters.
• Unique Map Tiles: 12 Tiles which are unique to the set. They can be used to form a few different maps included in the Adventure Book.
• 6 Pre-generated Heroes: New heroes unique to the box all @ 1st level.
• Dice: Full set of dice.

This seems like a better Intro box, as it doesn't deviate from the main system and allows a good start. If they wanted to continue, they could pick up the main books and keep going with no conversion necessary. I think one of the flaws in Basic D&D/Advanced D&D is that the systems are a bit different. It's better to introduce players using the same rules that they'd use to move forward, rather than confuse them when they want to get more involved in the game. But again, this is only my opinion, YMMV :)

love the guy wearing the "Jayne hat" from Firefly.

Sounds awesome. I can see myself purchasing everything you offer for PF.

It looks as though everything will be available in September!

Can't wait to see the bundled deals.

Basilforth wrote:

Thanks for the clarification. However, my question may return. :)

The mechanic says, "... before the result of the roll is revealed....".

Could someone describe an example where the player would benefit from re-rolling before he knows the result of the original try?

Actually, now that I think about it, I had the same question on another part of PF. Isn't there a character class perk or a trait with this same feature? Re-roll b4 you know the result.

The key is the definition of 'result'. To me, the result is either a success or a failure, and thus, the re-roll must be requested before the GM declares it to be either.

So if you're fighting an enemy and you know from past rolls that a natural 8 isn't enough to hit, if you roll a 3, you can ask for a reroll before the GM declares the result of the roll.

'Preciate the folks who have taken time to 'splain me. Maybe I am overthinking this...

But, what is the practical difference of having the re-roll before the result is "announced" and just plain re-rolling a failure? Isn't that a trivial difference? Why not just say, "re-roll any result, keep the new roll"? Seems more clear that way.

Hmm, now that I think about it, a re-roll before the result is announced would serve to protect the existance any hidden modifiers that the GM may assign. Otherwise the player could metagame any hidden modifiers if he knew the exact result of the roll.

Okay, nevermind. I got it now. :)

Sounds interesting. What is a room template?

Hey there Everybody,

Honestly, I see this being used on the player's side of the screen far more often.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Thanks for the clarification. However, my question may return. :)

The mechanic says, "... before the result of the roll is revealed....".

Could someone describe an example where the player would benefit from re-rolling before he knows the result of the original try?

Actually, now that I think about it, I had the same question on another part of PF. Isn't there a character class perk or a trait with this same feature? Re-roll b4 you know the result.

Even if the DM rolls behind the screen, this ability could still work:

<snip>

Rogue Player: Cool! Thanks!

Nice example, thanks! It wasn't clear to me that the player got to see the dice roll before the DM announced the result.

Very interesting, I am actually using a temple/guide system that is like a bank. The players can deposit their wealth in the temple for a 10% fee. Then they can make a withdraw from any similar temple in any other city. Identification is magical and/or divine. And yes, the temple is 'blue'.

I am running a home brew campaign using PF, but I am changing the money scales. For example, 1 copper piece is a respectable sum to a commoner/peasant. He could buy a simple meal with that. 10 coppers a day could be a living. 100 coppers equal 1 silver piece.

Commoners don't often see silver pieces. If you wave a silver in their face, they will be either entranced or scared out of their wits.

A silver piece gets an adventurer a meal, two rounds of mead, and a night in a decent 'adventuring' inn. Two silvers gets you special treatment in that establishment for the night. You haul 20 silver off a monster and you are actually pretty happy at low levels.

Now 1,000 Silver pieces equals 1 gold piece. How's that for not having to manage sacks full of coins?

1 gold is the coin of nobility and merchants. Gold is not flashed around AT ALL. Commoners and low level experts probably have never seen a gold piece and probably wouldn't believe that it was real if you showed it to them. One gold piece is a respectable sum to launch an adventure. One gold piece might pay for your resurrection at the local temple.

Any thoughts or comments? How much would a common adventuring weapons, such as a longsword go for? 20 silver? How about a horse?

Congrats to Hero Labs and Paizo!

I own HL and I bought the Bestiary. I will eventually buy their other offerings as well, over time. I have already gotten my money's worth in time saved making characters. Not to mention the fact that walking through the character creation process on Hero Labs helps me learn the PF game. Not to mention the fact that it is incredibly convenient to have the journal feature which allows you to track XP and money. Plus the custom magic item making tool.

I have fun just playing with the character creation process. Letting my imagination roam through the possibilities.

Best of all though is the incredibly responsive customer service at their site. I mean, I am a pretty infrequent poster over there, but I think that every single questions that I've ever asked has been answered by the staff. I've even re-initialized my license a couple of time due to computer changes and/or updates to the program. No problem at all.

I am eagerly looking forward to the character sheet customization upgrade that was hinted at above. I would also like to see a comprehensive set of GM tools in the future. Maybe Gencon 2012? :)

This tool is well-worth your money and support.

Very intriguing. I assume that the scale is not necessarily one block equals feet feet for the entire island, eh?

This is simply awesome.

The more I read about Paizo and the way that they interact with their fans and supporters, the more I like.

Thank you for the clarification!

Seems like there should be an entry for slam in the Bestiary under the Appendix 3: glossary - Universal Monster Rules. So, it is essentially, just an unarmed attack by a Monster then?

Okay, I have looked through the Core Rule book and the bestiary and this forum. I can't find any description of the Slam attack. Specifically for a Fire Elemental. any hints?

The medium Fire Elementals has attack:

Melee: slam +7 (1d6+1 plus burn)
Special Attacks: burn (1d6, DC14)

So what does that mean?

Does the Fire Elemental do 7 points of slam damage plus 1d6 burn damage with a DC14 save against the burn damage?

Or does the Fire Elemental do 1d6+1+1d6 burn?

What does the +7 next to slam mean?

Very interesting discussion. I have 5 kids, ages 7 to 15. The oldest four play RP with me and a couple of additional adult friends. My adult friends were aware, from the beginning, that my kids were playing. In fact, the sessions started with kids only and the adults joined because they enjoyed playing. A significant portion of my enjoyment of the game is watching my buddies react to my kids during the session. Another twist, one of my adult friends serves as "assistant DM" He RP major NPC and help herd sheep. It is pretty fun that way. Especially since I am rather new at GMing.

The age of the kid matters, but the personality matters as well. Two of my kids get pretty emotional if things are not going well. I have to resist the urge to go easy on them. I feel perfect freedom to allow them to swap character details around or even take a whole new character of the same level at the drop of a hat while they are getting used to the game. I wouldn't take any of my younger kids to a convention. They would not have the attention span for that experience.

My oldest is fifteen. He would do fine with other adults at a convention. A PFS might be enjoyable for him.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Paizo held a kids only gaming session? I bet that would be fun. Educational too for the adults who observed.

Another advantage of having kids play. I feel perfectly free to stop the game session and teach the kids how to roleplay. If they want to use their bardic skills to negotiate, I make them at least attempt to come up with some dialogue to accompany that request. Maybe it's just me, but would be more reluctant to "instruct" and adult in the art of RP. What do you all think?

I have a rather large group with a lot of young players. On any given session, we will be missing upto half of the players.

On a current mission, they were guarding a caravan. I ruled that the absent players were on the end of the caravan fighting basically the same mobs that were raiding the caravan and therefore too busy to help the PCs who were present for the evening.

That way I gave all characters the same XP for the evening. They are only 2nd level, so every little bit makes a difference.

I purchased of copy of HL after looking around at various different software. I like HL a lot. They software is stable. The customer service is awesome both on the forums and through e-mail. The updates are plentiful. I really like the ability to record notes and journal the adventure with the file. Makes record keeping much easier.

The basic use of the program is comprehensive for Pathfinder. Anything I need for character generation is there. You can also manage combat. You can also create customized classes and more. I am still learning about the capabilities of the software 6 months after I bought it. I probably use about 1/3 of its capabilities and I am completely happy with my purchase.