BobTheCoward's page

I never realized it was so tall (the wiki made it clear the altitude was from the old Absalom book).

Volume six provides some info about Arazlant Mox. This mountain is almost twice as tall as mount Rainier, and it is closer to Absalom than mount Rainier is to Seattle. Plus there are two other peaks taller than mount Rainier nearby.

I can't even fathom. I lived in the Seattle area for a bit and when it is clear, you can't miss it. I would love to see the view from Absalom.

Hello,

Earlier I started a thread to get ideas on what a refreshed Valeros Iconic would look like. The reason I thought about refreshing it is the iconics have a lot different meaning for me than when I started with the game. Before they were core-rules demonstration of that class. After 8 years of appearing in art and now having appeared in several issues of comic books, Valeros is his own NPC.

Also in that time, what is available to a human fighter has had a makeover (weapons master, unchained stamina, etc)

So, I set some guidelines on what a new Valeros Iconic could be

-Use any of the Paizo sources (I will make any changes for society if I ever go down that road)

-Reflect the character of Valeros in personality and background (andoran, worships Cayden, left the farm to be a mercenary, etc).

-reflect the fighting style in the art

-Keep it to fighter levels and prestige classes (he is still the iconic fighter)

-After fulfilling the previous three adequately, try and make him "good" at it.

Here is my draft. I got bored at around level 12 because I don't actually like making characters (I GM mostly, but having a good NPC is always cool). I have to thank everyone in the previous thread for helping. Now that I actually have a baseline, I'm hoping there is plenty of room for improvement.

Str 16 +2
Dex 14 +2
Con 14
Wis 8
Int 10
Cha 12

Traits: Mercenary
Andoran Freedom fighter

1 Fighter 1 Two-Weapon Fighting, Double Slice
2 Fighter 2 combat reflexes
3 Fighter 3 courage in a bottle, armor training
4 Fighter 4 improved initiative +1 dexterity
5 Fighter 5 advanced weapons training - armed bravery, weapons training light blades
6 Fighter 6 improved two weapon fighting
7 chevalier 1 hammer the gap
8 chevalier 2 +1 dexterity
9 fighter 7 improved critical, armor training (advanced?)
10 fighter 8 two weapon rend
11 fighter 9 greater two weapon fighting, weapon training (advanced?)
12 chevalier 3 +1 strength
13 fighter 10 (2feat)
14 fighter 11
15 fighter 12(2feat)
16 fighter 13
17 fighter 14(2feat)
18 fighter 15
19 fighter 16(2feat)
20 fighter 17

Before I get started, I have a preamble from a different geek hobby. I respect comic books, but I'm not a fan. I can't embrace the timelessness of characters and constant lack of permanent death.

I always had the same issue with resting between dungeon attempts. It works for "old" dungeons but I have trouble making it exciting when it is the HQ of a villain engaged actively. To give an idea, I can do book 5 of hotel, but have trouble with tone in books 1 and 4.

I understand why it is in the blood of the hobby, but I can't do it justice.

How do you like to handle this when it comes up?

Hello,

I am gearing up to run a session with new players to pathfinder, but pretty smart cookies. I almost always GM so I have long ignored character creation and the metaunderstanding of making characters.

Despite this, I had an idea of having some super awesome rebuilt iconics starting with Valeros. They would remain flavorful, fit the original style, and also be really good at their fighting style.

But I don't actually know how to spruce up the Valeros fighter. There is a lot of non core material out there that I am cool with using including unchained.

How would you rebuild the iconic Valeros with what is out there? The one obvious requirement is dual wielding swords, preferably short and longsword. Archetypes and prestige classes allowed.

Do you end up having to devote a ton of resources to make them effective? Is there some room left over for flavorful feats?

My science fiction rpg experience all tends to be a certain style.... battletech, gurps, shadowrun (never a big fan of magic). My modern and superheroes was normally gurps.

I didn't really like leveled games until pathfinder. I think I was a good RIFTS GM, but even though that has levels it has nothing like wealth per level or CR, and guns really equalize levels. That suited me.

What is d20 sci fantasy like? How does it play? What sort of design choice have previous designers made to make aspects of the system synergize with the setting?

I have only read a portion of the small amount of Vudra and Kelesh content out there. The content seems to make them out to be the two greatest nations on the continent and comparable to the Old Taldor and Cheliax empires that dominated the inner sea region. I have a few random questions...

1) Are they that impressive or is it a lack of material on the region hides their divisions (when a resident of Almas says Vudra is an impressive nation does a native Vudran say the Inner sea is an impressive nation)?

2) Why don't they just run over the nations of the Inner Sea?

3) Often in fantasy RPGs, the setting would has stronger ties to "the greatest nation on the planet". Do you like that it may be set in one of the "weaker" areas?

I have seen a lot of discussion about handling the easy difficulty of the the adventure path. However, there was one solution I have not seen a thread on.

Let's assume I am a super lazy GM, and the only thing I want to change is to alter the level advancement and pace of mythic tiers. All the loot and challenges would be the same. I would not alter when mythic tasks are completed, I would just give the tier when appropriate.

Is this possible? Instead of being level 20, tier 10 and raising the final challenges, can I lower those two numbers and achieve the same effect? Or does rocket tag favor the opponents too much at that point?

What kind of alternation do you think would work?

Hello,

Our group is level10: tiefling alchemist, barbarian, fighter (archer), cleric of gorum, and a halfling rogue/shadowdancer.

Right now, the alchemist is a little bored in combat. She is really good at bomb throwing. The problem is she feels a little like cyclops from the x men. Every attack is optic blast (bombs). She rarely uses mutagens or extracts.

Have you seen ways to improve the diversity of combat? The player wants another really enjoyable action in combat.

I want to find ways to make religion more interesting in my game. While working on it, I keep coming back to Zyphus, the Grim Harvestmen. There are two components to his myth 1) souls that experience a meaningless death become his and do not pass through Pharasma in the Boneyard and 2) Cultists that arrange "accidental" deaths send those souls to Zyphus.

Would you play this is true or a complete fabrication? In my game, I'm leaning toward saying it is true. It does make for a setting where the fate of a soul is a lot less clear. It may be a little too dour, so I might say whenever Zyphus feels like looking in on the material plane.

Hello,

I have an opportunity to introduce some players to roleplaying. I have an idea for an experiment.

In the short time I have been here, it has became obvious there is a perception of some classes being "better" than others. More importantly, there are a lot of classes that seem to invoke general feelings of not being "right." I wonder how much of these feelings stem from experience and expectations of traditional pathfinder? Very few of these "wrong" classes and archetypes come from the core rulebook. Is there something truly off with these classes or is an experience bias?

My current plan is to make some pre-generated characters out of these classes and archetypes with negative reputations to hand out to players, and see how the dynamic changes.

Here was my first take on the list based on very early experiences on this forum

Samurai-negative connotations from the perception of asian culture in a western game

gunslinger-a combination of dislike coming from guns feeling out of place, and a dislike of the firearm rules.

Alchemist-a few ban it from their tables because of style

Synthesist summoner-dislike over power level, plus some feel the image of a summoner floating in a semi-transparant monster is over the top.

If I had a fifth, I would toss on a rogue for the general feeling that it is underpowered.

When it comes to getting an eclectic band of heroes not seen in a favorable light, I think this nails it. Heck, I think if this group showed up to a few GMs on this forum, that GM would ban all 5. But it has problems. I don't think it hits all the roles a group needs. The goal would be a group that could run through rise of the runelords successfully.

So, I ask you, can you make a group of four or five that is weirder, or more disliked, and/or more capable meeting the roles and challenges of an adventure path?

All classes welcome. Prestige classes are welcome. I would like to avoid multiclassing. Weird archetypes for base classes are welcome. Also, weird gods, domains, etc are welcome. For example, if you can't make an effective group without a cleric, but you pick a cleric with two domains that makes a GM say, "Really?" then you are in the right direction.

Hello,

I have been working on a project for awhile to remake the iconic PCs. So often the iconic characters and pregens placed into books are traditional. Rise of the Runelords was fighter, sorcerer, rogue, and cleric (I think?). What happens when we replace the iconography with the weirder things Pathfinder has to offer? My best example is the gunslinger. What would players think of Golation if ROTRL had a gunslinger?

So, I'm working on making a team of mistfits to replace common pregens. My first take was samurai, gunslinger, synthesist, alchemist. But, I'm worried about its ability to meet all of a group's needs and succeed in a campaign.

There are 22 classes and numerous archetypes. Here is the question! Taking the needs of a group for adventure paths (fighting, skills, traps, arcane, healing, charisma), what is the weirdest group of 4-5 class/archetypes that can fulfill these rolls?

Hello,

I started working on a project to re-imagine the classic campaigns with different Iconic characters. Those characters created a lens we see the rest of pathfinder through. So, we find a lot of people don't like a lot of standard Paizo stuff that don't fit that view (gunslingers, asian influence, certain powerful classes). What if people saw the game through these misfits? My goal is to make new pregens, and experiment to see how the playstyle affects perception.

After some polling, here is the first draft.

Half-Orc samurai. No half-orc represented in the iconics and a general dislike of asian influence.

Halfling gunslinger. Less represented than gnomes, and a general dislike for firearms in games.

Aasimar (master?/synthisist?) summoner. People generally seem to worry about summoners for a number of reasons. Aasimar because if plane-touched are ever allowed, tieflings seem more important.

Elf (maybe tengu or some other race in golarion) alchemist. People also seem to not feel it fits in.

Pros: I think it is a good start.

Cons: Does it meet all of a group's needs? As much as I'm trying to get away from fighter/rogue/cleric/wizard, that really does fulfill all the big needs.

I have two ways to try to improve this.

1) Please start with this list above. What substitutions (the fewer and the weirder, the better) can be made to the list to give the group a good chance of successfully playing through adventure paths? If you could add a fifth, what would you add.

2) Starting with the basic four needs:

melee [fighter]
skills/traps/backup [rogue]
arcane [wizard]
healing [cleric]

What weird substitutions can we make to these four roles while still meeting those needs? If you could add a fifth, what would you add?

Prestige classes are welcome. So is multiclassing and different archetypes. Those three things are underrepresented in the iconic characters.

In all the games I play, battles are nearly always set to the limit of our abilities. they consume all the abilities, one or two players are knocked unconscious, and then we devote days to recovering.

I'm looking at running some modules. I realize that in years of gaming I never did or ran a dungeon crawl. I was always "too cool" for it. But really, I'm scared. I don't know how to play without using all our abilities against the first kobold we see.

What am I missing? Why are they fun? How do you play them? How can I tell if a pre-written one is reasonable for a group?

Hello.

I am new to the Pathfinder forums and the Pathfinder meta. Something I have already picked up on is the heartburn some of the classes in the game give Gms. It has made me think about how I play and GM. While I don't ban anything, I have thought what I would consider an ideal group, and its fairly conventional. I am guilty that same way.

So, I had an idea. What if the often discouraged stuff was actually presented as the standard/ideal? Here is what I want to do. I am going to create 4 pregen characters, and apply them to a traditional adventure path. Not Runelords, but maybe Crimson Throne. I won't run it as the world saying, "look at these misfits." Instead, the world will react as if they are like the four traditional pregens in the back of these adventure paths.

To do this, I want to poll everyone on a list of classes they feel best represent some categories.

Most Often Banned for Flavor (list 4)
This group is those Gms most often ban because they don't represent whatever the vision of pathfinder is. This would be things like gunslingers (don't like guns) or ninjas (dont like it in fantasy).

Most Banned for Power (list 4)
This is for those classes that Gms freak out about. Multiclass and Prestige classes are welcome. There is only one pregen character that had this feature, and I feel more are welcome.

Played Least Often (list 4)
For those non prestige classes people just never want to play.

Also, please share what you think of the project.