My old rule for home games always was "The GM has access to the same books as you. Core + whatever splats you're brave enough to delve into." (In the case of alignment specific books, the printed corollary).
During a certain final boss fight in book 1 of Reign of Winter, the party was engaging the caster, largely ignoring his goat familiar. As he flew out the window, most of them began to rush downstairs to pursue, begin healing, or try to aid their blind comrades--except the (already wounded) sorceress who rushed to the window to try and get a pot shot off. Not really having much else to do, the goat familiar makes with the bull rushing--nat 20. Needless to say the sorceress didn't make it that day. This remains the first and only time I've seen a familiar get a legitimate kill.
In regards to OP's original question: Yes. My characters tend to have separate or distinct motives, goals, methods and quirks in my mind. As such they may not always make the most optimal decision within the confines of the game world.
I'd say make sure you know your player's intent. I have a little bit of a reputation as a power-gamer among our home group, I suppose that is the role I fill. So, no surprise when the GM and other players were a bit wary when I wanted to make a business for our Kingmaker campaign.
After 2 years game time I have a functional mercenary company and am building a military academy to go with it. It is profitable, but I've so far spent all the profits on buying birthday presents for the other characters in the game each year and improving the business so I haven't made back my initial investment yet. I could probably hire some more teams, spam certain rooms, and really break things open, but I'd rather let the business grow naturally in game. So YMMV.
Oh man, I ran an entire campaign focused on cinematic and memorable moments.
My wife and I were discussing one of the encounters, happened years ago but still gets brought up from time to time.
The party had recently been stuck in a neighboring country to recruit mercenary forces to protect their homeland after a brutal civil war (that campaign had catapulted directly into this one, so we're talking 17th level characters). There was to be a sacred ceremony in the city they had taken residence in following uncovering a Yakuza plot, a vampiric cult, and repeated harassment by a Doppelganger they had come to know as 'faces', including framing, misdirection and all that good stuff. This was the opening of a new market square, the unveiling of a statue of the merchant prince celebrating an alliance with the surrounding orc tribes, and a general celebration for all--during an eclipse.
As the ceremony got underway there was some great exposition, a few speeches and a nice monologue from an unseen villain over it all. The ground shook and all Hell unleashed (literally) and I threw The Legion Devil encounter at them, backed up by an ranger optimized for sniping. The 8 Legion devils (dubbed Hell's 9) I believe were: 1 Ruby Knight Vindicator, 1 War Weaver, 1 Crusader, 1 Lion Totem Barbarian, 1 Lockdown Knight, 1 Chain Tripper (3.5), a debuff wizard and a Disciple of Dispater crit devil, all optimized for max synergy. Evil DM me chuckled inwardly "how will they get out of this pickle!" All-in-all the devils were a distraction for the real show, artifact robbery. A later mid-boss (Epic Redspawn Arcanist) for the campaign was watching the show from several hundred feet away, having cast a spell to make the eclipse more permanent, and was waiting to unleash his pet Half-Iron Golem Abyssal Drakes (the party had previously slain them, but left the bodies) should the PCs take to the skies. The party had anticipated something like this and had bribed a nearby Copper Wyrm to come to their aid on this day, so he did battle with the Abyssal Drakes overhead while the party prepared themselves.
Mobs of Vampire Spawn flooded forth from the city sewers as the sun was fully eclipsed. A reasonable low-damage swarm with a level drain thrown on.
The party wizard opened up with a banishment. Poof, half the encounter gone. The PC cleric threw up a defensive wall to keep the vamp mobs at bay for a moment. The remainder of the Legion Devils were mopped up by the party's own Barbarian and Shadow Sun Ninja. At this time the paladin of Bahamut decided to engage the Redspawn. He was immediately Detonated, after managing a lucky crit at range, which angered the entire party. With the Legion devils mostly beat and their allies taking care of the Spawn Mobs directed by one of the PCs (the nature cleric), the remainder of the party took to the sky for the Midboss, intercepted by a Vampire Blackguard mounted atop a Vampiric Dragon--his sword forged of soul-stealing metal. Concerned more with the Redspawn for the time being, the party Ninja hit him with a force-chain dimensional anchoring crossbow bolt and let the Barbarian winch it taught while he ran up the line to engage the flyer in melee. Unable to escape via teleportation or other means, he engaged the party to the best of his ability while the Wizard and her cohort combated the vampiric threat, throwing him against a called forth Elemental Monolith and enough positive energy to heal an army. With his ally nearly beaten, but the heist known to be a success, the Vampire Knight struck a final blow, slaying the wizard's cohort and absorbing her soul into his sword.
The campaign left off a little after that, with the party being summoned to the realm of the death god to learn what their foes had planned while simultaneously being offered and exchange of the cohorts soul for the body and gear of the Redspawn. But I have so many great stories of encounters that came before, I'd be happy to share when I have time again!
As the class listed in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook except as follows:
Class Skills
As Rogue, but maybe cut the points gained per level in half, then add your intelligence modifier (if any).
Class Features
Rogue-ic Knowledge (Ex)
A rogue adds half his class level (minimum 1) to all Knowledge skill checks and may make all Knowledge skill checks untrained. This lets the rogue sneak attack undead and constructs--provided they don't have concealment, uncanny dodge, all-around vision, fortification, incorporeality, an indiscernible anatomy, vulnerable points that the rogue cannot reach, are the DM's NPC, et cetera.
Sneak Attack
If a rogue can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from her attack, she can strike a vital spot for extra damage, but probably should be careful how often they use their defining class feature, or people might get upset that they're doing damage in bursts.
Clarification: Incorporeal creatures, oozes, swarms, ooze swarms, other rogues, barbarians, elementals (air/earth/fire/water), and swarms of incorporeal barbarian oozes cannot be sneak attacked.
Now that THAT is out of my system, I'd like to say this:
In the 'classic' party of the Wizard/Cleric/Fighter/Rogue. The rogue being able to sneak attack constructs is huge. The Wizard and the cleric are going to be out of luck for the most part. Furthermore, unless the fighter is a two-handed specialist, that DR is going to seriously eat into his damage output. This is just my experience playing since 2nd edition. Let the rogue have her moment in the sun :(.
The player's guide flat out recommends Rangers take dragons as a possible favored enemy. If I were a betting man, I'd put a few gp down on "Yes. Here there be dragons."
I live in a state which prohibits the sale of alcohol on election day. Will the Beer Party work to help me regain my right to go to the polls snockered?
A fellow player of mine is interested in running a game. He's basically never done so before. I had mentioned that I'm definately buying Kingmaker, and my only regret was that I'll probably end up behind the screen, at which point he offered to run.
My question is this: given the sandbox nature of the AP, would it still be a suitable nearly-first time game for someone with little experience to DM? He's familiar enough with the ruleset, I think, but I don't want to overwhelm the boy.
Arcane bond (an item, of course, say a sword?) just begs to be lent to a gish class. Limiting it only to weapons, giving something similar to the granted power of the rune domain, and tossing in 3/4 bab.
For spellcasting I'd say use the 'ol bardic spell progression. Focus the spell selection differently, and there you go.
I could also see full bab, with up to 4th level spells, but the thing is: if your point is a martial character with supplemental spellcasting abilities, a paladin/ranger ripoff isn't going to do it--the spells are basically just an afterthought of the class. It's nice and all, but when the ranger gets out his mistletoe and starts to speak in tongues while hand-jiving, nobody is really afraid. At least the bard poses a little more threat in that avenue.
Lets say you make your save vs. Cloudkill. Half of 1d4 is 3/4 times going to be 1. 15 CON goes to 14 CON. No loss of hitpoints, no reduction of saving throws. Bam.
Prerequisites.
Also, in standard competitions of straight up ability the person with the highest score wins. Arm wrestling: The guy with 17 str beats the guy with 16, regardless. In my group we use dexterity to determine who acts before who when initiative rolls tie (None of that simultaneous hassle. Turn based all the way!)
I feel the need to weigh in, here. Keep skill points. Or, perhaps, and this is just me: Make it optional. There may be a variant rule for this already, I'm not even sure, but if you want to satisfy both crowds, it seems an option.
I mean, I see some people lauding the idea of the newer system...when you can already do that. Take your # of class skills, + your INT bonus, viola. That many maxed skills. Whee.
But it loses versatility. I often put half ranks in all kinds of stuff. A few points in a few knowledges--what adventurer hasn't learned odds and ends about zombies and devils, after all? Even if they're not an expert on the matter. And aren't those professions and crafts tempting--even fi you don't wanna spend 23 skill points on Profession: Barrister by level 20.
The idea of 'all or nothing' has a poor feel to it from the player's standpoint. People do dabble, and experiment, and you can be just OK at something. And thats a great deal of the fun.
