Boojumbunn's page

Important thing to me. I want my character to magical with lots of low level, none combat, and weird magic items (like the Tengu jug, the hat of disguise, a magic hut that sets itself up.) I want my characters to live in a magical world, even if they are not wizards... and be able to use their wonderful little magic items without taking away from their combat abilities.

Making a roleplaying game an "It's the GM's Story" or "it's the PC's story" is the wrong way to design the game. A GM who demands the story goes according to their desires will soon find they have no players. Players who regularly and deliberately destroy a GM's adventure will soon find they have no GM. The story belongs to both, and.. to a lesser extend.. the module designer/game designer.

To me, the job of the game designer is to provide both the GM and the players with the tools they need to have fun. How versatile and easy (yes, two opposing designs) a game is determines how wide spread it becomes.

If pure ease of use is desired, just make everything a coin flip or rock paper scissors to determine the outcome. Very simple, not much fun, but fast. If pure versatility is desired then the game bogs down in complex and contradictory rules until it takes an hour just to decide what one character can and will do.

For me, I think it should be somewhere in the middle. PF2 looks interesting for people who like the low magic type of play. It doesn't look as interesting for people who like the characters dripping in minor magic items. I think that is the way they want to take the game, which is their choice. I hope they have good luck with it.

For the GM/Player balance, like any new game we are seeing bare bones rules. It leaves out a lot of the wildly different character races and types that we have gotten used to in PF1. I'm sure those things will be added into future books, but that the custom rules will make the game more complex again. At the beginning, this will make the GM's job to control/guide things much easier because there will be less options they have to account for. As future supplements come out, this will swing back in the direction of players having more control over the story as they pull some feat/power out of some rare supplement that the dungeon designer didn't know about. Then the habit of banning certain classes because they are to effective, game breaking, or slow the game to a crawl will start up again.

For now, I see the options that an adventure designer needs to account for is very limited in the current PF2 rules, so the GM's who want to have more control over the direction their game goes should enjoy that.

Boojum

Do we still have to track Charges AND Focus points AND resonance? Please, if you are going to have Focus, please remove Charges and times per day. THEN I can see Focus making sense and making everybodies lives simpler. But if I also have to track x/day uses or charges as well as more point systems it just doesn't feel right.

How does one tell, after the fact (i.e. when finding bodies after the fight is over and the winners have left the area) that burns are "magical"?

I would say by making some lore rolls. Arcane and Healing are the two that stand out the most.

For example, a fire inspector, after a fire, can tell you if an accelerant was used, or if it was an electrical short, or a bunch of things based upon the patterns of the fire... particularly at the source of the fire.

So an expert would likely be able to tell if a fire was started by an alchemist, a magician, or a torch.

Boojum

Your welcome, and side adventures are pretty cool when properly used. There are players who so optimize their characters for the adventure path they are going on that they completely ignore anything that doesn't help them in that adventure path. This allows their characters to monster that one adventure, but they would do less will in a different adventure.

For example, an adventure path titled "Lord of undeath" would have players optimizing for undead while "Lair of the giant king" would have them prepping for size large creatures with reach.

The secret to slipping in side adventures without complaint is to associate it with something to do with the characters. Look to the characters traits, languages, and backgrounds for ideas. It needs to be enough of a hook to get them off of the main adventure path for a little bit.

Modify your side adventure so that characters feel like their off path skills are useful. Did one of the players take gnomish? Include something they can practice the language on. An invite to a party is an EXCELLENT way to get people onto a side path, particularly to celebrate something they did.

Character weaknesses are kind of hard to quantify, so you have to go looking for them. An unhitable fighter might have a crappy will save, so a charm would be useful. An unspottable stealth character might be weak on area of effect, particularly entangles so they can't get into position. A Dedicated Healer might not be able to harm undead, so a lot of undead might give everyone a problem or two.

A man who uses precision pokey weapons will be weak against creatures with DR/Piercing. A man who uses smashy weapons vs DR/blunt. A ghostly figure takes less damage from almost everything. A cavalier I had got blindness from a failed save.. just think of the fun THAT was until the other characters helped him out.

Finally, don't make it obvious that this is what you are doing.. so don't just pile it on. A side encounter might include something that only the fighter has trouble with... allowing the other characters to shine as they rescue him. You are not trying to stop the characters on their main path, just giving them something to spice up the adventure with. Kind of like the Monster of the Week episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Boojum

Another suggestion, from a player who has lost his character more than once to a GM who did this, learn to use Tactics for your intelligent monsters. Many GM's I play under simply have the bad guys charge right into the fight with the adventurers, which can result in what you are talking about.

1. If the players do not exhibit an ability towards area attacks, intelligent bad guys should stick close together to support each other. Extra bad guys can make attacks to reduce the always hit fighters chance to hit. Getting flank can also help your bad guys to not miss.

2. Limit the summoners ability by the int of whatever they summon. If the creature is not very smart then have them end up using their own action (or movement) to give detailed instructions. Remember, if your summoner can't speak the language of what they summon, then only basic commands should be given.

3. Do not fall into the problem of silo'd encounters. If it makes sense, have a group of bad guys send of one of their own to warn the other bad guys you are coming. Don't have bad guys fight to the death if they are intelligent. You might have them surrender to a character who they feel is honorable and who will keep them from getting killed. Fighting isn't everything. Intelligent bad guys can use their minds to mess up your characters. If someone gets away to warn the other bad guys, then they can co-ordinate to increase the challenge level of the next fight.

4. Have your bad guys focus fire/attacks on WEAK members of the party. Have them take out the healer, if they know he's a healer, first. Take your your summoner or wizard second. Don't forget, when a summoner goes down, their summoners vanish. Do not fight one monster per one character, have all the monsters try to take down ONE character.

5. Have your bad guys take advantage of cover and use ranged weapons, if they can. A small wall can give them cover yet not give the characters cover for archery fire.

6. Once other groups have been warned you are coming, start using tactics against the good guys. Have someone with stealth hide near the entrance of the room so that when the good guys move in to attack the bad guys can attack from the rear. Be aware of your map. If you have two groups co-ordinating, then have one group suck the adventurers in while the second group circles to attack from behind.

7. As gm, you can give Followers whatever personality you want. The follower was hired to do something, so they should still do it. However they will not necessarily do more and, if not treated well, may want to leave. They can have whatever annoying personality trait that you want. The follower is NOT a second player character. If you feel that the player is taking advantage of the situation, then just take control of the follower as an NPC. The personality of the Follower a character has is just as important as the personality of the barkeep in town or the lord of a town.

8. Add in side adventures that address weaknesses of the party. By side adventure I mean a completely unrelated adventure that sucks the party in, but doesn't take long to complete. For example, your fighter character always hits for massive amounts of damage. Have a side adventure where he runs into someone with Sunder who attacks his weapon instead of him. The shadowstep character is impossible to spot, a side encounter with an area attack (like negative channel) will quickly make them remember they can be hurt. Side adventures that feed into the characters class/personality is best, because it gives the players a chance to play those aspects of their characters.

9. Always remember that extra things you do will cause players to advance faster, you will need to adjust the CR level of your encounters to give them a challenge. Always add some extra level/s for summoned creatures.

10. Take advantage of player greed and encumbrance rules. The occasional "throne artpiece" that weighs 500lbs, but is worth a lot of money can cause some interesting reactions.

Boojum the brown bunny

One way to solve the "combat attrition" design is just to assume the party will do one single long combat event per dungeon. The combat encounter literally never ends. When one wave of monsters is dead, the next one spawns. Or maybe put a delay of 1 minute until next wave barges in from the door for some emergency healing.

Which basically would turn a roleplaying game into a first person shooter, complete with spawn points. That would channel all modules into that one trope, which I would find boring after a couple of times.

I just hope that, whatever solution they come up with that they build an in game reason for it to work that way.

For example, it has been suggested that things made by alchemists not cost resonance (because it is a class feature) but that other things do. Ok, if that idea was implemented I would expect an in world reason why Alchemists were able to avoid resonance costs that no one else can.

So far we have been sort of focused on how we would like resonance to be changed from a game design level... but no discussion, particularly not from Paizo, on the IN GAME reasoning.

For example. Let us say that the rule is made that arcane casters can not wear armor while casting spells with a somatic component because it prevents them from moving properly. Ok, that's fine. But if you then allow a Magus to cast spells with a somatic component while wearing armor I would expect there to be an IN GAME reason why they get to do what other spellcasters can't. It would need to be one that felt correct to the players rather than something tacked on to support game design.

Boojum the brown bunny

I have seen it used before where healing magic heals a percentage of the persons life... So a full heal potion would heal all their HP, a half heal would heal half their total HP, etc. Of course, this would mean that at low levels you would only get 2-4hp per 1/4 heal potion, which would be the least expensive... but 4 of them would get a person up to full.

If parties can get by without healers, then the game must not need healers. In that case, get rid of the class altogether, so that people won't waste their time doing a role that's unnecessary.

But if a healer is necessary, then it's on the group if they don't want to fill a role that's necessary. It's like losing a soccer game because no-one wants to be a goalie. Given the PF2's 3 action rules and Heal's 1 action economy, it's quite easy for Clerics to cast spells and attack enemies while still healing allies.

One group got by on one adventure without any fighters, just casters. So just get rid of fighters... Yeah, I don't think thats how it does, or should work.

Boojum the brown bunny

In Pathfinder First Edition my Life Oracle was also a kickass healer...

My personal favorite is a character who is both healer AND crowd control. At the beginning of the fight, you use crowd control spells to funnel opponents so they can't just run around the fighters... then begin healing when the damage starts coming in. Being able to summon a monsters to provide flank for the fighters is also pretty cool.

Boojum the brown bunny

I think that a Healer should be no more, or less, mandatory than a rogue, a fighter, or a wizard. I strongly feel that it should be up to the players what characters they want to play and what sort of fantasy world they want. That is one of the strengths, and one of the weaknesses, of roleplaying games.

If you build your adventure so tightly dangerous that having an unoptimized character means death for all the characters then you are forcing the players to run those characters in order to avoid a TPK.

Alternatively, if you build an adventure so loosely that an random group of adventurers can survive, then an optimized group will steamroll it.

If a game system is designed so that only the best suited race/class can fill a role, then I think the game system is to heavily specialized. If only a Cleric Healer will do, and a party will fail if there is an oracle healer, a paladin healer, a rogue healer, an alchemist healer, or an arcane healer... Then the system should be changed. As roleplayers, we are creating stories around our characters and they should be characters we love, not characters we were forced to play because if it wasn't a CLERIC healer then we couldn't have enough healing and everyone would die. The same is true of all the other roles.

Boojum the brown bunny

OK, it seems like I just can't stay away.. I tried, but I keep coming back and reading threads. I apologize for saying I was leaving and then not being able to.

I love the discussion on the magical economy and scaling, and the discussions on feeling heroic. I would like to bring up another problem I have with Resonance that I hope will be fixed.

My characters don't feel magical anymore, and I feel like all the color was drained out of the pathfinder universe. And it has nothing to do with the healing economy and playbalancing the combats, it has to do with the flavor and the fluff.

I enjoy my characters, even my non spellcasting characters, living in a magical universe. I like having the tengu jug for one of my characters with it's unlimited booze, or the disguise hat that makes almost human character look human, or a fun token of fill in the blank.

Resonance cuts us off from the FUN magic that fills the universe, not just the combat oriented magics. If it were me to fix resonance (rather than remove it) here is how I would change it to help keep magic in the universe.

1. If it is a consumable, it costs no resonance to use. Currently wands are a consumable and people have problems with wands. Either raise the costs of wands OR make them less available OR make then run of resonance INSTEAD of charges so they aren't consumable. Don't create hybrid items (like staffs) that require me to do complex math at the start of every day to figure out what I can do with it that day.

2. The crafting of items is flat, which increases the problem with things like wands. Separate the wands (and other items) into common, uncommon, and rare with different prices for each because some wands require hard to get materials that costs more, and put the wands you want LESS of in the rarer categories.

3. Allow characters to take feats that increase their resonance so that players who have fun with magic items can select that instead of an additional bloodline power/attack type/extra cantrips/etc. Also, by making this a feat then it is easy for GM's to not allow it in the game. If you build extra resonance into character classes then the GM has to block the whole class, not just the feat.

4. For items that the character should be using throughout the day (like a bag of holding) allow a scaled approach for use. 1rp to retrieve an item once, 2 or 3rp to equip the bag for unlimited retrievals during the day. This includes magic sword/armor/shields that have extra powers. So you spend 1RP to use your magic sword for the day, spend another 1RP to make it flame for a combat, or spend 3RP at the beginning of the day to both equip the magic sword AND use flaming whenever you fight.

5. For low powered fluff items, allow 1RP point to be used for a multiple of them. For example, let us say that 1rp point enables 5 "cantrip" level magic items. If you spend 1/5 a point on the magical seasoning spoon, you don't have enough left to power a 1RP magic item, but you could use the seasoning spoon another 4 times, or use the tengu jug 4 times, or however you want to split it up.

6. Charge 1RP to use magic armor for the day. Right now you are going to charge non-fighters 1rp for their armor (amulet of nat armor, cloak of prot, etc) so the same should be true for magic armor. If you don't, then you are really breaking your own magic system.

7. Allow for there to be items that do not use resonance, but add a large cost multiplier (like is done for exotic metal armors) and make them rare. This allows for higher level, more rich characters to buy armor (or the like) that doesn't take from their resonance, but costs a lot of money.

8. If you want to get people to use high powered healing wands rather than low powered healing wands, fix the cost/HP as healing items increase in power! When you have time, right now, it is always less expensive to use a low level wand a dozen times than use a higher level wand once.. so of course people are going to buy low level items for when they have the time.

At any rate, those are some ideas to add to all the other idea's being suggested. :)

Boojum the brown bunny

Sorry, I will do one more post because I think I was sort of abrupt when Stephan was talking about how they are going to work on Resonance. I also appreciate they are working on it and hope they improve the game a lot...

But before Playtest came out I had some concerns about what was happening to magic in the world and was told "Try it first" from people. Now that it is out, I've tried it, and discovered that my book keeping for magic using characters has ballooned, and that it just isn't fun for me. I'm sure there will be a lot of people who enjoy the game and will buy it... but rather than write my own rules for the new rules I just think I will bow out. I may change my mind, like I did when D&D 3.0 became D&D3.5.. but since the design seems to be moving away from what I enjoy I think its better that I allow the forum posts for the people who will be buying the game when it comes out.

Boojum the brown bunny

So I'll go ahead and drop out of the playtest forums since Pathfinder 2e is not a system I'm going to want to play. I purchased the playtest materials and tried it out, but the low magic design combined with the addition of resonance has simply made it unpleasant. I'll leave 2e for people who want to play in this system.

Boojum

I think this is more of a "You should listen to your players to make the game more fun" than a "You shouldn't do/play x." If your players are having fun while the dwarf is a bigot about elves... then that's ok. If they have a problem, then the GM should listen and modify their game so that more of the players will enjoy it.

Boojum

Also, I think we need more things for adventurers to spend money on, not less. There are players who like their characters to be able to buy things, even silly things, that are in keeping with their character. Things like the Tengu Jug, or a hat that makes you look different, even though they aren't much use in combat.

What kept magic wands in check at low levels was the cost of the wand. Every charge spent cost you gold pieces. At the higher level, our group really never used wands of clw because the healer was powerful enough to keep people healed during the days adventures... and by the time the healer was low on healing pretty much everyone was ready for a long rest.

I understand that some GM's have had a problem with clw wands when they want the pacing of the adventure to be tight, but the simpler answer is to limit the availability of problematic items rather than to make book keeping more complex and rewrite how magic items work.

Boojum

The thing is.. if charged/consumable items were really a problem for your pacing the GM (or even the module designer) can just say they are not available in the town you are in... and or only in limited quantity. That restores your pacing without adding all the resonance book keeping.

Boojum

I called and got my card number updated. Thanks for the info, Joana

If a sword doesn't have resonance because it is "in hand" and not in a slot, then I would expect wands to also not have resonance, because they are in hand and not in a slot. I don't think they left resonance off of swords because it is in hand, I think they did it so Fighters don't have to spend points in Charisma to use magic swords. I expect Magic Armor will also be exempt, but I haven't seen that stated either way... yet.

This is starting to get off-topic, since your biggest gripe is with Resonance mechanics and not Sorcerer mechanics. While the two are meant to work together, nothing from the Sorcerer has anything to do with basic Resonance mechanics on rechargable items, and is mostly anecdotal in application (any spellcaster would suffice in this example).

My gripe is how resonance mechanics affects arcane and divine casters.. but you are correct it has deviated from the original conversation. I still stand by my statement that the further you get from a warrior, the more complex they are making things... and the closer you get to a warrior, the simpler they are making things even to the point of waving resonance for magic weapons. I think the inherent depowering of low level controllers and healers turn off players of these sorts of characters. I know that I sort of am.

Boojum

Well, in our GiantSlayer game, the Cavalier was able to pump out about 75pts of damage per round if he charged with a lance (over a hundred if he crit.) The archer was pumping out around 150pts per round (lets hear it for abundant ammo.) And the spellcasters were hitting with a whole lot less and were limited by spells per day. If the cantrips scale to the point where they do as much damage as fighters at the higher levels and orisons so they can do as much healing as fighters need.. then I will take it all back. I'll have to wait until my books arrive to check. I am hoping they will ship mid July.

Boojum

Personally.. all I have to go with is what is in the blogs so far. I admit that there may be other things happening that balance out my complaints, but a holistic view implies you can see the entire system, which I can't.

Hopefully my view will change when the playtest documents are published.

Boojum

I would have less objection if that complexity made them more powerful, but in this case the complexity was added to make them LESS powerful. Warriors in our group already way out damage the spellcasters in combat, but that's ok because spellcasters are more versatile in what they can do... except that in the next edition will make them less versatile.

I think this is going to come down to people who don't play spellcasters very often going YAY! They are going to be nerfed! And people who play them going "Wait, we are getting nerfed? That's no fun!"

Boojum

Yeeeaaaahhhh.. so I just read the part in the blog where warriors get a pass on resonance while spellcasters have to pay it for their magic items.. and all my enthusiasm for the new version just sort of drained away. Add reading about how charged items work (in the case of the staff) and there is an overwhelming amount to track.

You are a 3rd level sorcerer with a +3 charisma bonus, giving you 6 resonance points. Your day begins and you pick up your wand of healing, investing 1 resonance point to sync with it (which also increases the wands charge by 2 (highest spell level castable), apparently.)

If you use no other magic items that use resonance points, you can use your wand another 5 times that day. Ok... That IS quite a bit of healing at 3rd level (5d8+5 split through the party) so now your wand is at +2 but then -5 charges for the day.

A new day, ok.. +1 resonance point on your wand, you get +2 charge, but then you use the wand twice during the day, so now subtract two charges from the total.

A new day, +1 resonance point to equip your wand, you get +2 charge and didn't use it at all, so it stays at +2 charge.

This is NOT making tracking things easier. Worse, they are giving warriors a pass on the items they end up using.. so spellcasters have to track fluctuating charges and points for everything in addition to the points they track for their spells and the math for each charged item changes depending on the max level spell you can cast.

I'm sorry, but this is looking less and less like something I want to play, and this is from someone who was excited enough to buy the hardcopy of the playtest materials. Worse, since they are going to be shipping the books in mid july, it is really to late for any changes to be done. I think I'm going back to bed and just call today a loss.

Boojum

Each character has a limited amount of things they can put their feats/powers/skills into. This means that if you increase your healing abilities, you decrease your melee combat abilities. If you increase your combat abilities, you decrease your healing abilities.

At low levels, this doesn't make as big a difference. At higher levels it means your character generally doesn't have the DPS or AC to stand in front line combat. The feat you spent on getting more healing didn't give you the ability to wear heavier armor or a better attack. Mind you, this is also true of blasters (such as archers) where the feats they put into the bow reduces their front line abilities, but increases their dps.

Finally, you come to "what you can do in a round." Let us say you are a character with some healing ability and some melee ability and some armor. You don't heal as much as someone who dedicated their characters upgrades for healing, and you don't hit very often, and you don't do much damage.. but you do a bit of everything. You are in the front line fighting a monster and a nearby companion has taken a lot of damage. You can either attack a monster and do a bit of damage.. or you can shift out of combat and heal some of the damage on your companion, but you can't do both... and sometimes you can't shift to do the healing. Also, the amount of healing you can do may end up doing just 1 hits worth of healing because you didn't ramp your healing up using feats.

That has been my experience, anyway. As it is, it seems that they are shifting the balance over to limit the usefulness of the dedicated healer/buffer roles. I am not sure how this will work out in real life, but I do not find it to be a good thing. That role is already having to use magic items at lower levels to fulfill their role and it seems they are trying to take that away.

Boojum

So, I will give my take on these points.

See, I don't think "the healer" is something that Paizo are supporting. There is no healers class. There are classes that can do more healing than others, but it seems like a large number of the classes can bring some healing.

*lots of snippage*

Healer is a role, not a class.. just like dps, tank, blaster, controller are roles. Does your group play with no magical healing? In my experience, playing with no magical healing results in total party kill. Also, playing without a character who is designated "The one who will advance in healing skills/magic/whatever" results in total party kill at the higher levels when you can't dish out enough healing to keep up with the higher DPS at the higher levels.

If you pick one portion of one class and say "See! That one person can heal AND hit things!" Except that the priest who kits out as a healer really CAN'T hit the higher level monsters, and don't have the AC to stand on the front line with higher level monsters, and when they go down because they ARE in the front line, no more healing. That just happened in our last game. The Healer (in this case an Oracle Healer) put himself in the front line in our low level game. One hit, down and unconcious. No more healing for anyone.

The person who plays a character (not class) dedicated to healing is useful when healing. Taking a tool away at low levels that helps them to keep up with healing because their personal powers can't keep up yet results in them being left out of the game once their healing is used up... because they can't stand in the front line.

Now I am sure that you can come up with one class/power/feat combination that can both stand in the front line AND has enough healing. Wonderful, as long as that is the only character one player is allowed to play so that the group has healing.

Myself, I don't believe this is a good thing. Just as I like that there are multiple classes that can be DPS, and multiple classes that can be blasters, I believe there should be multiple classes who can be healers. I also think that rules which leave characters out of play because they "run out of power" are bad for overall enjoyment for those players.

Boojum

I think they are playing whack-a-mole with a really annoying mechanic. At low levels, healing wands are being used to make up for a lack of power, particularly when a non-optimized healer is being played (or no dedicated healer.) They are applying this annoying mechanic to ALL magic items to fix one magic items problem.

I also feel a bit bitter that it seems to be targeting divine and arcane spellcasters to make them less effective. You are the healer. You spend your time healing, until resonance says you can't use the backup wand you got in case you ran out of healing in an encounter. You are a fighter, your job is hitting things.. you can hit them with YOUR magic item all day long without having to worry about resonance.

A 1xday resonance charge for a wand would seem to be reasonable to me. A 1xCharge resonance for a spellcaster is like a 1xSwing resonance cost for a fighter. Gee, I'm sorry, but you cant swing your magic sword anymore. This was done so that you feel the attrition and the excitement. Are you an archer? I'm sorry, but every arrow you shoot costs you 1 resonance.. you are all out and you can't shoot any more arrows.

It seems silly when applied to the fighters, doesn't it? But this argument is seriously taken for spellcasting classes. For the healer, the spot of excitement they get IS doing the healing. They are generally kept out of combat other than that. For the arcane caster, the spot of excitement they get IS casting spells. They are generally kept out of combat other than that.

I'm sure there are characters who take advantage of these items between encounters... but I think it is wrong to nerf spellcasters for the sake of attrition and intensity. If you ARE going to nerf spellcasters, then you might as well nerf all the classes for using magic, including fighers. Think how exiting it would be for them to have their sword stop working in midswing because of Resonance.

Boojum

HMMmmmm... This is sounding a lot like "People are pushing through encounters by using wands instead of our nicely balanced power system" vs "Our spellcasters run short on power so that our other characters can't push through." So they are limiting the use of magic items to reduce the power boost that characters can get... which also feels a lot like "Characters can only own X gp worth of gear at their level." rules.ddd

I do not like these rules in general, because in an attempt to homogenize the character power levels they put artificial restrictions.. "Yes, you can loot the entire keep and sell the furniture in the market, but you can't spend the money 'cause that would put you out of capacity for your level."

Does anyone know if they will be applying this resonance use to multipowered magic items? Thus a breastplate that also has a "You can enter an otherdimensional space" like in Giantslayer uses 1 slot to wear plus 1 slot every time you hide in the space? If so, what about a sword that has 3 +1 enchantments on it? Does it take 3 slots to use? A sword that has 2 +1 enchantments and a Bane?

I suspect they are using this to nerf spellcasters while fighters will get to use their magic items (armor, weapons, etc) while spellcasters will be limited... because they certainly aren't going to charge you resonance every time you swing your +1 sword.. they are going to charge you once in the entire day. But a spellcaster will be limited in uses per day with the magic items they use the most... which puts the rest of the group left waiting on spellcasters AGAIN.

Boojum

I have been unable to find a definition of "In Space" for when a Star Shamans fly in space ability manifests. For example, taken from the current game I am in, my character is in a space ship and gravity in the space ship has gone out. I am not on a planet, I am in a vehicle in space with no gravity. Would I be able to fly? Or is only when the ship is gone and I am in vaccume that I can fly?

Boojum the brown bunny

I would suggest 32GB of ram for your system. RAM is inexpensive right now. The nVidia 760 is a good, solid workhorse that supports the nVidia Shadowplay so you can record your game sessions.

When you buy fans for your case, buy the low noise fans... It makes a HUGE difference in your gaming experience when you have a quiet machine and don't have the whine of fans and airflow ringing in your ears. I like the big fan cases because they can move more air with a slower fan speed, keeping things quiet.

Buy a plug in sound card rather than using the motherboard sound. I have never found a motherboard sound circuit that didn't pick up hummm from the motherboard. The sound cards seem to have better isolation.

One thing that shouldn't have to be said, if your going to have more than 4gb of ram then install the 64bit version of the operating system. :D

Boojum the brown bunny

Well, I've been playing MMO's for a VERY long time; paper and pencil games even longer. I've discovered an interesting format to encourage me to play with others... and that is to design for weakness not for strength.

Design for weakness, you might ask? But your character will get chomped/attacked/killed/destroyed through it's weakness! Well, not if you're with other people.

Sure, I have the occasional character for solo play who I attempt to make as well balanced as possible.. but they only occasionally get played because my fun comes from playing with others!

So an important point in an MMO that is skill/training based rather than class base is to design your character with a deliberate weakness that causes your character so seek out other characters with particular skills to play with.

Why do I mention this? Because oft times people design a character to have as little weakness as possible, spreading out their lower trained skills to keep them all on a par with each other. If your character is going to travel with others... say a group of like minded people who like to go on adventures together (to be called an adventuring party) then design your character to need to travel with others and you will seek out others to travel with whenever you are logged in as that character!

The side benefit is that you will find yourself spending more time on your characters personality and roleplaying with others.. at least that is the way it works for me. So my suggestion for group play is don't design for ballanced strength with little weakness. Embrace your weaknesses, design them for your character, be aware of them and use them to promote social gaming!

Boojum the brown bunny

Oh gosh, the elves in Pathfinder Online are really not very good looking. They have tiny little eyes, chubby cheeks, and no chin... and they stand with their chest way out and their shoulders way back. They just look very wrong. I hope they improve them before the game comes out. I'm not sure if I can play an ugly elf... I'm afraid I like pretty elves. I might have to switch my character concept to a gnome instead.

Boojum the brown bunny

I happen to love crafting.. finding recipe's and building items. How cool would it be if when you examined a crafted item it included a "Crafted By: Character Name" in it's description?

Also, what would people think of being able to name crafted items of above a certain quality? If the name is blank just call it by it's device name. Also, allow an owner to select weather to use it's crafted name or the or the device name so that the owner can choose what name appears in his inventory mouseover?

I think that taking pride in the things you can create is one of the things that drives the crafting communities and think these additions would be totally cool!

Boojum the brown bunny

Or maybe your stealth could come in with regards to escaping combat... The old halfling vanishing into the berry bushes and not coming out trick.

Boojum the brown bunny

Well, lets see now.. in the Pathfinder rules the Halfing gets -2 STR, +2 Dex, +2 CHR, Slow speed: 20, +1 AC, +1 Attack Bonus, -1 Combat Maneuver, +4 Stealth, +2 save vs fear, +1 all saves, +2 Perception, +2 acrobatics/climb,

So lets us say that the +2 Dex counters the -2 STR (a bit better defense vs a bit less damage). And the -1 CMB countering the +1 attack bonus.

So for the reduced movement you are getting +2 Charisma, +1 AC, +4 Stealth, +2 save vs fear, +1 all saves, +2 Perception, and +2 acrobatics/climb. That is quite a list for your reduced movement, but it has to be in a game system where those other things can help you.

Then the question becomes, how important are those bonuses in the Pathfinder Online game? If they are all useful in the game (not necessarily just in combat) then I would say I'm well rewarded. My halfling sorcerer gets more powers, my halfling rogue spots traps better, I tend to take less damage from things that have saving throws.

So I don't agree that all races have to be equal in standing next to each other and bashing each other with swords provided there are other benefits that they can get in the world. Pathfinder seems like that sort of a world.

Honestly, I'd rather see them try something like this and then have to reballance after people complain during the alpha/beta than not even try it.
Boojum the brown bunny

I was actually leaving out checking that until after I had designed my character. Then I can catch up on whats going on in the Talking Head Tavern. ;) Also.. I wasn't sure if those were characters people were planning on playing in the game or not. After I get my character fleshed out I was hoping to peek in there and take part.

Boojum the brown bunny

The mechanism for protecting the livestock would probably be the same as protecting your gardens and farmland. Besides, there really should be something for Bandits to get when they raid a settlement. :) And we hang horse thieves in this here town...

Boojum the brown bunny

OOOoooo.. AvenaOats, that's some interesting idea's. I wonder if we can also engage in horse breeding? Have a stable of horses, breed a grulla or an appaloosa? Specialize in breeding heavy war horses that we can then sell to adventurers! After all, they are going to have a robust economy in the world, I wonder if that could include an economy for where horses and mounts come from? Maybe mounts WON'T be available at your local grocery store, maybe someone has to breed, raise, and train them first! A task handled by NPC's at first, but available as a profession for player characters!

Boojum the brown bunny

Ok, I have to admit that when I'm excited about something I tend to create characters. By that I don't mean choose what weapons they can use and what feats they have, I mean who their parents were, why they are traveling, what is their personality like?

So now I'm starting in on this for my Pathfinder Online character, so that when the time comes to reserve my characters name I have a name (or three names) to enter in. Since I'm a Tabletop Pathfinder RPG player I figure I can use a lot of the source books and then tweak things when the Pathfinder Online Canon comes out.

How many others are doing this? Have you designed your first character for Pathfinder Online yet? What personality quirks have you chosen?

Boojum the brown bunny

Pretty much every fantasy game system has some sort of mount system, and lets face it, then NEED mounts. Otherwise travel simply becomes a doggedly boring thing to do.

On the flip side, I've walked into a shop in some games to find myself staring at 20 horse butts because people ride their mount into town, then into the shop.. never leaving it as they do their shopping.

I don't want to prevent people from riding horses in the street.. I certainly don't want to stop small folk from riding dogs in the street.

What would people think if, when you hit the door to go into a shop, if your mount was put at a hitching post until you emerged? Thus you can see how busy the shop is from the outside AND the inside of the shop won't get cluttered by extra animals? Maybe the same can be done with a necromancers undead pets?

But at very least I hope they derez pets when someone goes into a shop so they aren't riding around on a horse, banging their head against a chandelier.

Boojum the brown bunny