Basilforth's page

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.

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.

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 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.

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....

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

Sounds interesting. What is a room template?

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?

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?

okey-dokey, I am reading the Core Rule book and seeing Strength check this and strength check that...

What is a strength check? Roll a d20 and apply your strength ability modifier? (i.e., strength of 9 gives a -1 to the roll)

Where are the DC for the various strength checks? I see page 178 has some rules for breaking shtuff. But what about lifting things or bending things or whatever?

pages 97 and 98 of the core rule book

I assume that if you train an animal for a general purpose, such as, Hunting, which includes the five (5) tricks: attack, down, fetch, heel, seek, and track, then the animal has used five of its tricks and not one for the 'general purpose'?

Any reason why a Druid couldn't use his various healing spells to heal plant life? Any rules on that? I guess it is mainly a RP function, but it would be cool to have an Orison so a Druid could restore an area smashed by recent combat. Would probably irritate the rest of the party who might wish that the Druid would not waste his orison's on plants. ;)

ok, i just read through the rules on page 397 and 398 of the Core Rule book, but I am still stumped....

I have a party of five 1st level level characters. They faced 30 goblins, CR= 1/3, XP =135 each.

Unfortunately, the characters survived, so how many XP would they each receive?

Way long ago, the calc would go: 30 goblins x 125 xp = 4050 XP

4050 xp divided by five characters equals = 810 XP per character.

Is that correct?

Page 399 says that "each monster, etc., awards a set amount of XP, as determined by its CR..." What does that mean? If you kill a goblin, you get 135 XP right? How does the goblin CR of 1/3 affect the XP awarded?

Any help would be appreciated.

on page 97, it shows the DC for the trick

Is the DC for the animal learning the trick or for the animal performing the trick after it already knows the trick

or does the animal automatically succeed in performing the trick once it has learned the trick.

Okay, I built this Paladin with Hero Lab. I gave the critter a longsword and a heavy crossbow. The heavy crossbow shows a -5 attack modifier. I can't figure out why. Is it a weapon proficiency issue?

BELSHAZZAR CR 1
Male Half-Elf Paladin 1
LG Medium Humanoid
Init +4; Perception +4
Languages Common, Elven
---------------------
AC 16, touch 10, flat-footed 16
(+6 armor)
hp 12 (1d10+2)
Fort +4, Ref +0, Will +3
---------------------
Speed 20ft.
Melee weapon Unarmed Strike +3 (1d3+2) and
(S) Longsword +1 (1d6+2)
Ranged weapon (S) Crossbow, Heavy -5 (1d8)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 13

Combat Gear Unarmed Strike, Gauntlet (from Armor), Crossbow, Heavy, Bolts, Crossbow, Longsword, Shield, Heavy Wooden, Chainmail
Paladin Spells Prepared (CL 1, +3 melee touch, +1 ranged touch):
---------------------
Abilities Str 15 Dex 10 Con 14 Int 11 Wis 13 Cha 15
Feats Skill Focus: Sense Motive, Armor Proficiency (Light), Armor Proficiency (Medium), Armor Proficiency (Heavy), Shield Proficiency, Simple Weapon Proficiency - All, Martial Weapon Proficiency - All, Improved Initiative
Skills Acrobatics -5, Climb -3, Diplomacy +6, Escape Artist -5, Fly -5, Perception +4, Sense Motive +8, Stealth -5, Swim -3
Possessions combat gear plus Money, Artisan's Outfit (Free), Backpack (empty), Bedroll, Crowbar, Holy symbol, wooden, Oil (1-pint flask), Lantern, hooded, Waterskin
---------------------

Ok, I am building a first level sorcerer.

I am selecting the Celestial Bloodline.

Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell of the

summoning subschool, the creatures summoned gain
DR/evil equal to 1/2 your sorcerer level (minimum 1). This
does not stack with any DR the creature might have.

Okay, so my level 1 Sorcerer has DR1/evil. Being a noob, i have no idea what "DR" means. So, I look up "DR/" in the index, where it says:

For example, DR 5/magic means that a creature takes 5 less points of damage from all weapons that are not magic. If a dash follows the slash, then the damage reduction is effective against any attack that does not ignore damage reduction.

Using the instructions on page 562 I want to read my Bloodline DR effect as follows:

DR 1/evil means that a creature takes 1 point less of damage from all weapons that are not evil.

So, is that saying that if my Celestial Sorcerer summons a creature via spell, then that creature is "good" and take minus 1 pt of damage per attack unless the weapon used against it has a specific "evil" enchantment?

Am I correct?

page 138 of the Beta book says, under Full attack, in the lower right hand corner, that:

"If you get more than one attack per round because your base attack bonus is high enough...."

What is 'high enough'? Is that why a 6th level Barbarian, for example, has +6/+1 in the base attack column? Is it saying that a 6th level Barbarian gets two attacks, the first at +6 and the second at +1? Etc, Etc.?

Not sorry again for noob question. :)

So, I am reading about the use of skills, trained and untrained.

First, untrained means you have a rank of zero (0) ? Correct?

I fully understand why some skills required training. Though I am confuzzuled why the Beta book shows spellcasting as a skill that can be used untrained. A little less confuzzled as to why the crafting skills can be used untrained.

It appears that you can use skills in which you are untrained without penalty. You simply have a rank of zero (0), correct? That seems pretty generous? Why no penalty?

Also, if I can use a skill untrained, do my ability modifiers affect the use of that skill. Seems like they should not help, but could hinder if I have low ability scores. I am sure that these questions have been asked before, I am jest wondering.

What is a cross-class skill? I done search my Beta pdf and there are no hits on cross class skills, but it shows up on the spreadsheet I am using.

Still sorta new to these forums....

Don't see a lot of PbP games starting up. Maybe a thread like this will help those who are considering starting a campaign see who is out there interested....

Well, I will be first. Others folks who want to be players in an existing campaign are also free to post here as well. Any game system and style. Let the DM's out there know what we are interested in playing! :)

Personally, I am interested in playing in a PF Beta (and eventually Core) PbP set in Golaron. First level to start. Published campaign fine. DM Homebrew fine too. I am familiar with role-playing, but not familiar with PF stuff yet. No set preference on race or class yet, I kinda would like to try some different things to get the flavor of the game. :)

Thanks!!

Yes, this is really basic....

I was reading through the combat section in the Beta book yesterday and it appeared as though initiative is fixed for an entire combat. You roll your number and that's that until the combat is done. The initiative order remains fixed for each round of the existing combat. Am I reading that right? Why doesn't initiative change each round (aside from the very practical desire not to slow down combat)?

Thanks!

I really like all the new Pathfinder stuff that I am seeing. I am very happy to support Paizo and I would also like to support my FLGS.

Just wondering if there is a way to run subscriptions through my FLGS?

I would love to pick up both my hard-copy and free subscription pdf at my local store.

I know that the pdf's are watermarked with our account information and I understand that is an important feature that needs to remain, but I am wondering if there is a work-around?

Thanks for all you do. I've really enjoyed reading about the PaizoCon updates.

Sorry for such a noob question. Well, not really....

Learning 3.5 for the first time.

Tell me about skill points... Fighters for example. They get two skill point per level of advancement. Page 53 of the beta corebook says that humans get one extra skill point per level and that if you level in your favored class, then you get an additional skill point. So, if a human becomes a fighter and declares fighter as his favored class, then he would get a total of 4 skill points per level. Is that right?