BearsDragon's page

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:

BearsDragon wrote:

So I'm brainstorming how to build a MacGuyver type character and trying to figure best class/archetype. My first instinct is to go with an investigator. I'm focusing on the using science/knowledge and ingenuity to solve problems, not looking to make a big damage dealer. Am I on the right track here or am I off base. Any suggestions on class, race, archetype and useful feats are more than welcome.

What are your expectations in Pathfinder terms? In order to reach a goal you have to define it both qualitavely and quantitavely.

My expectations are to have a fun, playable, character that will have a chance to not be out shined in a balenced party. Not nessarly a maximized one. I'm helping one of my players with the build. She dose better with less complicated as she's both less familiar with the system and more of a jump in and play sort of player.

Its using Mcguiver as a base for starting personality, alignment, and general flavor of class/skill set

BearsDragon wrote:

So I'm brainstorming how to build a MacGuyver type character and trying to figure best class/archetype. My first instinct is to go with an investigator. I'm focusing on the using science/knowledge and ingenuity to solve problems, not looking to make a big damage dealer. Am I on the right track here or am I off base. Any suggestions on class, race, archetype and useful feats are more than welcome.

What are your expectations in Pathfinder terms? In order to reach a goal you have to define it both qualitavely and quantitavely.

My expectations are to have a fun, playable, character that will have a chance not be out shined in a balenced party. Not nessarly a maximized one. I'm helping one of my players with the build. She dose better with less complicated as she's both less familiar with the system and more of a jump in and play sort of player.

I m running this ap and we are about to finish book 2. I m not sure I would choose this Ap for someone new to Pathfinder. The main reason is actualy not a negative one and basicly the main reason why I love this ap. The monsters you encounter here are prety special and a welcome change from the orcs and undead you normaly face at low levels in regular dnd and pf modules. Instead here you fight against fey creatures, winterwolves and unique stuff like an ofen who used to be able to fly and carry a witch around. Plenty of dragons and witches are also common bosses, just make sure to add some small mobs to these end encounters or they will feel pretty unepic with a whole group focus firing on your boss.

What i m not particularely fond off is the dimension hoping that goes from one book to the next, I would have liked if the adventure played for longer in Irrisen and the plot was more politcly focused in this area. If this doesn t bother you, go ahead and run the game, I love the theme and encounters of this ap. If your hole group is new to pathfinder Rise of the runelords might be a better ap. So many people have voted it as the best paizo has published and it s a great mixture of funny, spooky, intriguing and mystical plot.

I would love to run RotRL for this group. Sadly the GM from my PF group plays in my group and we just finished that. As far as new to the system half of the group has played before, one of which GMs it and most of the others are 3.5 vets so familiar with the some of the basic mechanics.

All official Pathfinder Adventure Paths, like Reign of Winter, are designed for a four character group. "Support" is hard to define. The more characters you add the more you may need to modify. An AP can "support" a 100 character party if you're willing to put in a bunch of work. How big is your "full gaming table"? It'll be easier to answer if we know if you're talking about five people or fifteen.

As for ease of running, I think Reign of Winter is one of the easier ones to run because there are no extra subsystems to learn like Mythic for Wrath of the Righteous, Rebellion for Hell's Rebels et cetera.

\

Currently I run a group that averages 3-4 with the possibility of rising to six as some folks who would like to join the game but couldn't due to schedules

I'm thinking about eventual running this RoW and I can't find how many players the AP supports. It would be a quite some time before I can manage it but I'd like to know if it will support my full gaming table. I play in a Pathfinder group but the only system I've run long term (and am currently running) is the Fate Dresden Files RPG. The story looks interesting but how easy is it for a first time Pathfinder GM to run? I'm hampered a bit by my choice of APs because my GM for my pathfinder game is on of my DFRPG players and he's a subscriber.

So I'm brainstorming how to build a MacGuyver type character and trying to figure best class/archetype. My first instinct is to go with an investigator. I'm focusing on the using science/knowledge and ingenuity to solve problems, not looking to make a big damage dealer. Am I on the right track here or am I off base. Any suggestions on class, race, archetype and useful feats are more than welcome.

As someone who has who as just finished ROTRL, you need a healer. Let me repeat YOU NEED A HEALER! I'd recommend Druid with a powerful animal companion because of the smallness of the party and some of the Druid Spells allowed the last book to happen for my group.

Rocket Surgeon wrote:

I stole a part of our character creation process from another system, though I can't remember its name.

Basically: after character creation; each player tell about an event that was important in shaping the character, the event must be at least 3 years old, but can be older.

Then players take turns telling how their character knows the character on the left. Changing the character's defining event is not allowed, but anything that fits within the campaign outline is allowed and the player on your left must now fit it into his/her story.

Why?
It gives us a group that actually works together, as well as give the game master several clues on how to involve the characters. We've even had campaigns where this process decided the entire story and everything became about the players - which was,honestly, awesome :-)

Sounds Like Fate's system. I am actually using this in the Iron Gods campaign I am going to be starting soon to tie the party together, and the player has to choose their non-campaign trait based on the backstory someone else wrote into their history, just like in fate you make up an aspect based on it.

Speaking as one of xobmaps' players it worked well. Of course it helped that my fighter made out on the deal. Ancestral Weapon. Ancient family weapon was returned to her by the spoiled rich kid medium. Also as a fate GM it makes a party that's cohesive no material what system your using.

Issue I've noticed, even a single power gamer will break a game. You may need to make something home brewed and nasty bordering into outright illegal to give the rest of your players a chance to be effective if the magus is primarly hogging the show. APs aren't realy built for fully optimized characters, their actualy designed for specific point buys. Depending how they generated the characters they may be overpowered for the AP you are trying to run.

BearsDragon wrote:

Also they get a modified age progression. Old Jaegers don't loose the physical stats they just get smarter. Perhaps one of the effects of the Jaegardraught is immunity to the physical effects of ageing. Actualy in terms of game effects it might be easier to stat the Jaegardraught as a permanent potion, or mutagen. Make Jaeger a template that can only be applied to a willing creature.

They don't just get smarter, they get bigger. Compare them to dragons with age categories.

Very true!

As a woman who plays rpgs I've seen the term gamer girl evolve into a put down and it's not a term I've thought of myself as. If I think of myself as anything its gamer, GM, word-nerd, story-nerd or writer. Also an interesting side note, I've mostly played in groups that were more gender balanced than many. I've only ever played with one group where I was the only person at the table who didn't have a Y chromosome. Gender balance makes for a heck of a better rp in my experience.

First we have to identify what separates a Jäger from an ordinary adventurer.

One of them has a love of fighting, a strange and often bestial appearance, inflated ego, gets fixated on seemingly random people or things, and only respects people skilled at violence. The other is a Jäger.

Fair point but most martial classes don't become functionality immortal even at level 20 and Jaegers are.

Also they get a modified age progression. Old Jaegers don't loose the physical stats they just get smarter. Perhaps one of the effects of the Jaegardraught is immunity to the physical effects of ageing. Actualy in terms of game effects it might be easier to stat the Jaegardraught as a permanent potion, or mutagen. Make Jaeger a template that can only be applied to a willing creature.

The "realy nize hat" of course is non negotiable.

Anyone ever work out how to build one of the feared Heterodyne minions? Kind of curious on how to stat that out. Ideas for race, class, archetype.

Thanks. The link cleared up a fair bit of my questions.

Warning my group is about to start IG next month. No Spoilers please.

Dose any one know how magic is going to be integrated in to Starfinder? How will magic interact with Tech? Will Tech reign supreme or will they coexist? Is sufficiently advanced magic indistinguishable from technology? There's a whole range of possibilities. Personally I'm a fan of both hard sci-fi and high fantasy and I appreciate the skillful blending of genres but not everyone is and Starfinder is obviously geared towards the Sci-fi side of the road. My experience as a writer is that it's easier to integrate tech into a world with magic than the other way around. As a player and potential GM those are theams I'd like to explore.

Thanks for the clarification

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:

Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:

Have them transform under solar radiation reflected off lunar regolith.

If you think about it, that's how the classic werewolf works. The Moon doesn't shine with it's own light after all.

Precisely. At a certain level of reflected illumination the change would be triggered.

Are these Saiyan type Shifters?

Can you use arcane Strike if you have SP abilities, a caster lvl but no actual spell list eg. variant multiclass sorcerer feat chain? Would be nice for my character if it's legal.

abandoned space stations, civilian colonies attacked by strange creatures, intact deep-space exploration vessels that aren't responding to hails, there's a bit you can do without having to lean on classic fantasy.

I think the point you missed is that there are players that when asked the question of "Do you want advanced science or high magic?" will answer "Yes." Since Starfinder exists in a universe where we know magic works it's natural that some groups hope for elements from both genres so they can explore the possibilities and the dichotomies of that coexistence. Others will want to play straight sci-fi games. It will be easier to do the first if the rules come on of the box.

UnArcaneElection wrote:

By the way, has anyone done official VMC for ACG and Occult classes and Vigilante? All I found were these Messageboard threads:

Variant Multiclassing For Advanced Guide Classes

Variant Multiclassing with the Occult Classes

Support for VMC was dropped faster than a rocket full of monkeys, so no. There are some 3pp options that expand on it I think but otherwise you may as well be waiting for updates on ninja or samurai.

"... dropped faster than a rocket full of monkeys" Awesome phrase, I'll have to remember it.

More Grognard the Arcane Journals, please?

VMC guides:

Amateur Night - A Guide to Variant Multiclassing
The ABCs of VMC - Variant Multiclassing and its discussion thread

Updated version of my original ratings of VMC options:

Core Classes

Barbarian (rated Green/Orange): Not too shabby in the first part; too bad the last 40% is gives you its stuff way too late.

Bard (rated Green): A solid VMC overall, although too bad Lore Master is stuck at 5th level.

Cleric (rated Orange): Has some potential use, but too bad it eats up 60% of itself getting Channel Energy (almost) up to speed. Since it invests so much in Channel Energy, you better have something specific you want to do with that . . . But you may not have enough feats left over to do so.

Druid (rated Green/Orange): Not too shabby in the first part; too bad the last 40% is gives you its stuff way too late.

Fighter (rated Orange/Green/Blue): With the release of the Weapon Master's Handbook and to a lesser extent the Armor Master's Handbook, this potentially got a LOT better, ASSUMING that it and classes other than Fighter (like Myrmidarch Magus) that offer Weapon Training can use this to get Advanced Weapon Training (which after several months of forum vetting seems to be the case). Bravery may be a relative waste for some classes, but Occult spellcasters will find it to be a good extra layer of security blanket. Do note that the best part, Weapon Training, only comes online at 11th level, which really hurts this if total character level is limited like in PFS, although for Occult gishes, it is potentially still worth considering.

Monk (rated Red/Orange): This is just BAD;...

Thank you for the Data and Crunchy numbers

I'm experimenting with it right now actually.

My plan is a half-orc Alchemist going into Master Chymist Prestige class. Losing some feats hurts of course, but the fact that Mutagen stats and Rage stack... make this a really fun combo. Also, the Barbarian abilities are really worth a feat. I don't feel cheated on those added abilities.

I do agree that a lot of them look like trap options, and I was confused about the effect my prestige class has on it at first. But the idea that VMC isn't attached to a 'base class' but the character level cleared that up a lot. Those extra abilities/Feat loss kick in on the character levels, regardless of what else you dip into wasn't something I found clear on first reading.

Appreciate. Also I apologize for being tetchy last night. Probably better not to post that close to my midnight.

OK to clarify since apparently I was not clear enough. (flame on) NEGATIVE NANCYS I AM PLAYING THIS! STOP TRYING TO SAY NOT WORTH IT! FOR THIS CHARACTER IN THIS PARTY IN THIS CAMPAIGN IT'S WORTH THE TRADEOFF! (flame off) *Dose the Disney Hades reeling the flame back in thing* Doing this will give me fewer feats,that means I need to make good use of the ones I get. It's been a long time since I played a primary melee character (way back in 3.5), so aside from Power Atack, what are the most important feats for wading in to do lots of damage with 2 handed weapons like great swords and great axes?

It's probably not something to do without knowing exactly what you WANT to do with it. XD If you have your whole build planned out and like how it looks, you're probably find. (And note that you don't have to go for perfect optimization all the time.)

I wouldn't suggest doing it without a fully-planned build, though.

I know WHAT I want her to be able to do. Basicly I want a heavy damage dealer who can do a few off the wall things that wouldn't be expected of a fighter. I'm not looking for fully optimized just a playable offbeat character with their own niche in an oversized party(7-8). It's more HOW to do it that I'm unsure of. She's going to be a front line heavy armored tank with some help from a black blade magus and gunslinger. She's also party diplomacy and intimidate person, background was a bouncer at a bar when campaign started. Thematically the bloodline powers fit for Iron Gods and they fit her backstory.

Hi, looking for advice on mechanics of actualy using the UC variant multiclass rules. My group just wrapped up a 3year RotRL run and we're starting Iron Gods. I'm playing an aasamar fighter splashed with starsouled sorcerer Str17, Dex10, Con14, Int12, Wis12, Cha16. Note I'm the only player who didn't dump cha so I am the party face. It seems straightforward on paper but I've never used those rules before. Any suprise pitfalls or caveats. Also recommendations for feats since her pool is smaller? She's going to wear heavy armor once I can afford it for her and wield two handed weapons.

Thanks in advanced for the help.

My group took something like 34, 4-6hr sessions to finish Rise of the Runelords.

Are you using the latest version of PCGen?

Got the update and it's working though not fully debugged. Didn't get it though untill after I'd hand generated.

Sending - because sometimes getting a message to someone on basically any plane right now is important.

Heal - fixes so much stuff in one little bundle
Antimagic aura - ruins so many plans in one little bundle

(honorable mention: endure elements, prestidigitation: because for someone actually living in the world,personal 24 hour air conditioner and unlimited soap and food seasoning would be just about the best thing ever)

Life bubble, fairy ring retreat. May have taken all my 5th lvl spells but dang those 2 let us finish the last book of Rise of the Runelords.

Myth-weavers website is great for creating character sheets.

Thanks appreciate the tip

Hi need advice. I'm building a fighter with the feat tree for adding starsoul bloodline sorcerer. Unfortunately for me I'm used to using pcgen for character generation which dose not have that source yet. Dose anyone know of any good typeable character sheetset for this combo. My handwriting is pretty terrible so while I can do by hand it's better if it's typed.

There aren't any real ways to teleport at low levels for people who actually fight themselves (rather than full casters).

At higher levels, Magus manages the teleport and fight thing really well, as does Unchained Monk, and the Dimensional Agility Feat line can really help.

So...I'd consider those.

Which of the full casters is better for teleportation? I'm most familiar with Druid at the moment and they don't realy have access to that particular spell list

Hi all hoping you can help me. I am long time player of 3.5 almost finished playing Rise of the Runelords, and but a relatively new GM. Most of my GM experience comes running the Fate Dresden Files RPG, with my alternate group.
Eventually I'd like to run Reign of Winter with my group, once my current campaign has wound it's way to a decent end. One of players, who's completely new to Pathfinder has had a lifelong RPG goal to play a Nightcrawler style teleporter. The player in question is a feet first, learn the mechanics as you play type with some 3.5 experience.

Any good ways to make this work as far as classes, archetypes or feat trees? Less complicated is probably better since there will only be one veteran pathfinder player in the group.

Thanks in advance, the help is much appreciated.

I've had fun playing a paladin, but there are a couple of things I did to keep her fun not just for me but for the party, or your character woln't get shanked in her sleep by the rouge.
Rule number one Lawful Stupid is usualy only fun for the player and why I know a bunch of GMs ban the class or require special permission.
Know your group paladins are easy to screw over, if your party or GM is going to try to break your class you might want to have a come to Sarenrae meeting before the game starts.
Some campaigns are not thematically appropriate for a paladin even if you're playing a strict personal code paladin, see Sparhawk from David Eddings' Elenium. Also if the party is mainly chaotic alignments you might want to save it for another campaign or come up with a really compelling plot reason for you to be with the party.
Give your character a personality and motivations beyond "Evil! Must Smite!"
Know starting out what your paladin's deity expects of them. The paladin codes are kind of awesome for that. If it's a home brew god ask your GM to write one up for you. If your playing Code of Honor write it down and have the GM OK it.
Last if you're putting Law before Good nine times out of 10 you're playing it wrong.

I think getting Firefox to download, however it's fluctuating between 2-4 hours on download times. Is anyone else having this problem? My computer's old but not usually this slow. I'm figuring it's the humble bundle back up.

It is this way because the servers are being inundated with more traffic than they can handle due to the Humble Bunlde. See this thread.

Usually personalizing takes only minutes if not seconds. I'd just give it some time for the traffic to die down. You'll definitely be able to get all your stuff.

I've used the site many times in the past and downloaded frequently. Normally it only takes 3 sec to personalize and that on a very old and slow pc. If it takes me a month to get my content, which I doubt,I still have over a hundred dollars worth of content for a $18 donation to an awesome charity. It says a lot about the community of people that play tabletop rpgs that the response is completely overwhelming Paizo'so usually amazing customer service.