Blackwing's page

Sorry if this has come up before, but I can't for the life of me find any rules on it.

Are there rules to cover hitting or even intentionally crit-hitting yourself with a weapon?

The reason I ask such a crazy question is this:
I'm currently pondering a villain (or maybe even a character) that uses abilities similar to Unwilling Shield, Bestow Wounds (3.5), and gains temporary hit points to help offset the damage.

If you can auto-crit yourself as a standard action, I can get away with using a smaller, less common weapon like a katar or something but still have a threatening but rewarding encounter.

I've been slacking off on uploading this, but here it is.

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Ever since I started playing 3.5, I had been tinkering with character sheets to better fit my needs and style. In the end I created a 5 page character sheet that turned out to be overkill. I'd like to try to avoid that fate again, and these are the results.
I'm working on another version with color, however I like this one because it saves on printer ink.

Any criticism or input is appreciated.

Also, I haven't used photobucket in a while, and the quality dropped dramatically. If anyone could direct me to a site I could upload stuff to without the decrease in quality I'd be grateful.

Recently another character of mine has met it's demise, and I'm just about out of ideas for anything new to try.

I have the freedom of pretty much any 3.5 book (mostly non-third party books preferably) as well as most pathfinder stuff. Preferably non-evil, but race isn't really an issue. The character will be either 6th or 7th depending on how generous the dm feels, and what level the average turns out to be.

I'm not asking for a full character build. Just some basic ideas of stuff that sounds fun.
I'm already pondering a swashbuckler/dusklblade/blade singer, but I've already played such a character. Sadly, he died because he wouldn't stop taunting a juvenile/young adult green dragon while fighting it. I did soak up few full rounds of attacks though, so it was good for the party in the end.

Past characters I've played (and can remember) in this include the following: (in order of most recent to oldest.)

Chuck, an orc fighter 5 Master thrower 1, who specializes in Harpoons. His death was due to terrible rolls, no good range past 30 feet, and overall bad luck.

Heu'mon, a tengu cleric 5 Shadow Dancer 1. He channeled negative energy, running channeling smite with spring attack. He died from getting too close to 3 fighters and not knowing when to withdraw.

A short lived human pyro sorcerer of 6th level, who lived long enough to craft "Beads of Burning Hands" that served the party well. That is after he was grappled on a surprise round, and dead on the second. Sadly he didn't live long enough for me to remember his name.

'Tweek', another character I made when I was out of ideas. He had one level in: Ranger, Rogue, Barbarian, Warlock, Sorcerer, Duskblade, Shadow Dancer, and Fighter.
He sorta wondered off with the other gnome when we converted over to pathfinder.

A human fighter2 cleric 4 who was based on tripping people with a chain, and then using two weapon fighting to smack them around with it. He died when he cast shield other on a party member, who proceeded to get crit for more health than I had left. Said party member didn't really need the help though due to vampuric touch, cure wands and tons of hp anyhow.

A level 5 human rogue bureaucrat who always got stuck with the paperwork. Death by 1 on a reflex save of all things.

A level 4 kobold sorcerer, who got eaten by a giant frog.

A 4th level barbarian who got mauled after charging into combat. This one was ironic as well because I had tried to base this guy off having lots of hp.

Gix, a 4th level kobold variant ranger (racial variants) who survived longer than any other in this party, except maybe tweek. This was the character I started this campaign in, and he met his death by a giant frog.

The back story:
The pc's in my campaign have been battling a cult of demon worshipers who have been causing all kinds of misery for them and there friends/family. Recently in there fight against these cultist, the pc's have encountered a high ranking erinyes who almost killed 1/2 the party in one round. The devil was being held captive by he same cultist, and the players accidentally released it. Rather than kill everyone, it decided to use the players for revenge. The deal was, the erinyes would spare the pc's lives. In exchange the pc's would hunt down the cultist responsible for imprisoning the erinyes. Most of the party agreed but they made a point that it was for there own reasons, not the devil's. There is a paladin in the party, but he acknowledged that the erinyes could/would probably kill everyone unless they agreed to talk rather than fight.

Here is where the problem starts.
The paladin of the party was originally a male dwarf, who after an unfortunate turn of events was reincarnated as a female gnome. The erinyes has found out about this, and has sent a Falxugon (Harvester devil) to attempt to corrupt the paladin. The opening deal was the paladins soul to become a male dwarf again, (pact certain) to which the paladin flat out refused. I'm sure he would have attempted to slay the harvester, but I think he's worried if he does the erinyes will return to kill them all in retaliation. The paladin is also the harvester's only target as of right now. I get the feeling that he's also trying to keep the devil focused on him, rather than his companions. Another problem to worry about, is the paladin is convinced they will end up facing off against a demon lord, and thinks they might need the extra help.

So my question is this: At what point, given the situation would the paladin lose his pallyhood?
Further more, would the paladin be able to sign a pact insidious (to help exterminate this demonic cult) without losing his pallyhood right away? Of course, he would not know what he is really signing, and would also lose all his abilities once he did something evil.

For those who don't know: A pact insidious is a pact in which a devil grants a mortal a string of benefits in exchange for favors. The mortal must continue to do these 'favors' to continue to gain more benefits, or all benefits are revoked. It does not bind a mortal's soul to baator, nore does it require any statement of allegiance to any archdevil. The purpose of this pact is to slowly corrupt the mortal before they realize it's happened.

tried to post this once, but it disappeared on me so I'm trying again.

Recently my Wednesday night group has been reduced to 3 people so we've started a mini-campaign based on being members/gaining membership to an assassins guild. My last character in this was a duel kukri wielding rogue 2/swashbuckler 3/assassin 5 (pathfinder) human, but met a painful demise at the hands of the city guard during an assassination attempt. Long story short, the invisibility that was on me were off and I couldn't re-apply it myself in time to escape so I chose to fight. Many fail rolls followed, and my red mantas assassin partner wasn't able to do much to help from his position. (we allow pretty much all 3.5 material, so we've got a lot of freedom to work with)

For my replacement character, I'm going for a slightly more versatile approach. My plan is rogue 5/ assassin 5 (3.5) tiefling. I really feel the spells are much better than the options the pathfinder assassin gives. My feat selection is currently Combat Reflexes, Two weapon fighting, Dodge, Mobility, EWP: Kasari-gama, Spring attack and Elusive Target. I've taken 2 flaws (unearthed arcana) Meger Fort, and Shaky (-3 fort save, -2 range attack) to gain access to 2 more feats, and used one rogue talent on weapon finesse. The other rogue talent is fast stealth.

For those who don't know: The Kasari-gama (Oriental Adventures) is basically a kama with a weighted chain attached. It can be treated as a double weapon or reach, determined at the start of your round. It is also a trip weapon. If you get the chance, look up some videos of this thing in action irl. It's really interesting.

My main concern is the feat Elusive Target. It pretty much negates power attack against me, and gives me a free trip if someone takes an aoo on me and misses. There other part of this tactical feat is if I'm flanked and attacked, I can have one attack target the flanking opponent rather than myself. Since this only works if I'm flanked it's pretty much nil. I would like to pick up lunge eventually, but I'm pondering dropping elusive target for it now. I also plan on picking up Quickdraw sometime soon, maybe even just give up combat reflexes for it but I'm not sure.

I'd like to hold on to Spring Attack for it's versatility (move, trip, move to escape, or move strike move to avoid lots of full round attacks on me) and it will be getting a lot of mileage due to boots of striding and springing, as well as the quick trait giving me a speed of 50. I've also got the up the walls skill trick to 'run' up walls, spending 20 feet of movement per 5 feet up I go with no climb check needed. I'd also like to keep Two Weapon fighting for when I've singled out an opponent with my partner, or the shadow double spell (gives me a flanking partner that deals STR damage, 1 round/level)

Anyhow, any advice or tips on feat choice would be appreciated. Now my second dilemma- Poisons

My current picks in poisons are Purple Worm Poison and decent DC as well as needing 2 saves, and Shadow Essense for it's afford (and to keep with the STR dmg theme). This would be more for keeping me alive rather than out-right killing. I'm thinking of even picking up a toxic weapon (+1 bonus, holds poisons for 2 hits rather than just 1) but I'm not sure if poisons will be useful enough to warrant this.

Any input would be greatly appreciated, especially since I've never really gotten into using poisons before

Currently my campaign is about to take another turn, involving the destruction of the current home of the PC's by a group of demon worshiping cultist. This creature is what I plan to use to make it happen. I'm not sure if I have the appropriate CR though.

The basic concept of the creature is a giant demonic insect that feeds on flesh and vomits up more of it's kind. It would also travel in packs of no less than 4. I was originally thinking crickets when I started making this creature, but demon crickets just don't sound threatening enough. Cicada's were my next choice, but I decided locust would be more fitting based on there habits.

I'm not completely sure on the temporary hit point limit for the consume flesh or spawn abilities but it's close enough to test.

My current gaming group has taken on some really bad “munchkin” tendencies over the past few years, and I’m wondering if I should start getting worried about it (or maybe just “power gamers” I can’t tell yet). Our current stat system is to roll 4d6, re-roll 1’s and drop the lowest. All but 2 of us are completely opposed to a point-buy system. We also have almost every WotC 3.5 book printed excluding campaign related books. Needless to say, it’s not uncommon for a character to use 4+ books by level 6.

Our typical parties can usually take on an encounter 2 to 4 levels higher than what they should be fighting without too much issue (excluding encounters that are intended to outright kill). This is with level-appropriate gear most of the time.
However, from time to time we do get a party that pretty much implodes upon itself. This is either from great rp of opposing character alignment and principles, or someone brings it upon them self to anger the entire party. Usually when this happens the rest of the party will either go out of there way to get that one person killed/let that them die, or if they are non-good they’ll just find an excuse to attack and usually kill them. When this happens, the DM will at least make an attempt to calm everyone down unless said player got on the dm’s bad side as well.

However, I think there is a source to this issue. Years ago, when we transferred to 3.0 from 2nd Edition we had a DM that was overly strict on what we could or couldn’t do. We were only allowed core books for a very long time, and were lucky to even get masterwork items thought playing. At one time, he started a campaign starting at level 20, would not allow us to take prestige classes, and would not even let us buy any items better than masterwork quality. Many times we got railroaded into situations that someone was going to die because the DM said so. Needless to say, they no-longer DM for us (or are even in our group anymore but that’s another story that doesn’t need to be told) but at the time that was our only DM.

Anyhow, I’m wondering if I should start getting worried about the general “power gamer” mindset this group seems to have gotten. I’m also wondering if it’s time to start trying to reel them back into a more “manageable?” game environment. Also, if I were to attempt this, what would be the recommended method as to not offend all my players? I’d like to join in other gaming groups with some of my friends without them all freaking out about how they “can’t do anything” in a more normalized power level campaign.

Thanks for any tips/thoughts/opinions in advance, and I apologize for the 5am wall-o-text.