Boren's page

Definitely agree with the above posts, the only time you should dip magus is if you're planning and building into it from the beginning; not as a attempt to create a stop gap mid game. Talk with your wizard and see about trying to compliment each other's spell lists I think a good roster of battlefield control and buff spell should have your enemies lined up upside down flanked by your glass cannon and bsf who have turned into an adamantine chain gun and a colossal stupid fighter on crack respectively and see if this makes things a bit easier

So I'm prepping an old character to re emerge in a new game, I'm rather excited for this as it was one of my favorites but I have a few things written down in a modified form and I'm trying to track down the sources just to make sure i did the conversion right
Important note, this was done when my group converted from 3.5 to pathfinder and so some things are carry overs from 3.5

Feats
Initiate of winters breath
I believe this is a conversion from a feat that let you rebuke plant creatures

Ritual of winters heart
Converted Feat that had your character needing to survive alone from sundown to sunup on the winter solstice after being tossed out naked in the snow, I can not for the life of me find this

Items
Pipes of Necromancy
I believe this was out of a module but I can't find any Google listings for them

Yeah I get most of what's been said above here's my thing, if I have a store front I'm no longer selling a magic item for half price to a vendor who's going to re sell it, I am the vendor and I'm selling it at full price. Yes no am I crazy?

Greetings all,
So our GM just decided to add the downtime rules into our current game and I feel like I must be missing something
Form my calculations if I build a magic repository, forge, and storefront to create and sell magic items, let's say a +1 longsword for this example, I first generate the capital, pay the creation cost for said capital in this case aprox 560gp, so far so good, then move it to my store front to sell, wait 3d6 weeks for it to actually sell and I get aprox 250gp for all that time. That's a net profit of -110gp... what?
Somebody please tell me I'm missing something important here

Absolutely loving all these answers, keep em coming :D

So in discussions for a new game my table has been laughing at some very odd party composition ideas. However some of them have a very good chance of being frighteningly usable.

What's the oddest workable party everyone can think of? To make this more interesting let's say no classic iconics (fighter wizard cleric Rogue) 4 member parties

My first thought was a double double trouble party two Summoners one original one master and two Gravewalker witches
The master summoner uses a skill eidolon the normal a standard murder stick and the Gravewalkers have necrostich minions at the ready and support with hexes.

That's my entry what you all got?

Haste for days. Cleric, Swash and Fighter benefit a lot from it.

That was definitely my first thought, maybe something CCish too, slow?

Hello all,
So I'm currently running an Artifacer (Ebberon) in ES. Thanks to us squeezing every copper till they scream our party is somewhat reasonably equipped and I've got a pair of humunculi even. As we go into 5th level and I pick up craft construct I'm looking at my options for adding SLAs to them and wanted to get some thoughts other than my own. Haste seems a top tier choice as does lesser restoration, or possibly some healing spells, but more minds are better for going over such things so here we are.
For reference party is a tower shield fighter, a blossoming light cleric, a swashbuckler, a winter witch and me a hordifacer
Thanks in advance the ideas

Might suggest a human half giant for that massive size SMs are well known for

The eclisietheurge (or however I am mispelling it) or evangelist archetypes could do some nice things here. I don't know the mythic rules well at all, but I am currently playing an alchemist and noticed several alchemic items that have mythic uses, so maybe alchemy skill could be nice?

Edit: also the feat 'bless equipment' could be real nice if you have a situation where the short duration can be utilized.

Evangelist is never a bad idea, but holy crap Bless Equipment Bane would get ridiculous as they should always know what they're going to fight before they go; I thought they learned from the Ebberon Artifacer about giving flexible bane abilities but guess not.

Boren wrote:

Actually it's called thread hijacking and it's very rude especially after the original poster asked you to stop.

It was not my intent. Meirril asked my rules source. I like to provide rules based opinions, so I quoted my source.

I do agree with him that these threads get looked at later, and so having the relevant quotes is not a bad thing.

As you have the XP issue covered, I see no problem with your proposed use of a cohort.

/cevah

I have no issue with this being brought up and pointed out as a possible concern I simply did not want this to become a back and fourth about a topic that deserves it's own thread in the rules section for proper debate. Thank you for understanding.

Actually it's called thread hijacking and it's very rude especially after the original poster asked you to stop.

Cevah and Meirril
Please do not turn this into a debate on how cohorts gain experience. That has already been settled with my DM and is not relevant to the question at hand. If you both wish to discuss the issue further please create a new thread.
Thank you

Really the only change needed for an artifacer into pathfinder is swap the exp craft reserve to gold 1 exp = 5 gp and done.

That still leaves the XP problem, Without a way to have the cohort gain XP, they will never level. If you can get the GM to level the cohort without the XP, then it can work.

/cevah

My DM and I have already agreed on this, and my cohort will level from her own actions independent of the party. Kinda like a mission system from a few RPGs that have come out. Sorry if that wasn't clear in my last post.

Cevah the bigger issue is the non mythic part, many mythic monsters have powers with no save if you're non mythic so trying to bring her anywhere near a real fight for us is just short of a certain death sentence. Plus our group is kinda over the top for direct combat power, so the role that most needs filling in the party is an admin role lol
I've spoken with my DM and we've agreed on them mostly focusing on side quests and things that don't warrant the parties attention but will be helpful to us or the friendly NPCs in the city. This is also partly because while my DM agrees I should have leadership for story reasons he's not so keen in adding another body in the combat rotation, and I agree it's simply not needed.
This is another reason I'm looking for advice as all the standard advice assumes a standard "with the full party" setup.
Thanks

Encouraging spell, that's one I hadn't seen, thanks.
That's the kind of thing I want to make sure I don't miss, so why I posted

So...what assistance did you want? And what level would she be? You want a full 20 level build? Also you might want to say what religion you and the rest of the party are and/or what you hope the cleric would be. Or at least any religion or alignment you want to avoid.

Oh, actually its important what your alignment is since there is a penalty if it doesn't match yours. Also any budget in GP you'd look at for helping her with equipment and/or anything special you happen to have lying around that she could use.

Looking for build advice, such as suggested feats for the roles

So I'm building a cleric cohort for my Wrath of the righteous character and I've been looking over several guides but want to ensure I'm not overlooking something new that these guides aren't covering. First a few basics of the what and how

•I'm not going to be bringing her into combat; being non mythic and 2 levels short, she's going to stay back in our stronghold

•Her main combat contribution will be pre buffing NPC combatants before they fast strike in using teleportation magic

•Her primary role will be organising and directing our NPCs while we're out doing things, also some item creation would be nice to fit in but is secondary to the above roles.

Thanks in advance all :)

Stealing pictures off deviantart, or for the well-heeled commissioning them is the usual way.

Yeah that's typically my go to as well, but I'm looking to expand my options

So with the hundreds of RPG PC games and all their different character creation screens, plus thousands of mods for said hundreds of games I would think a character picture generator would be a quick easy find, but not so it seems. Can anyone recommend a good picture creator for a no artistic talent person like me?

First, check out DMDM's Guide to Planar Binding for ideas on what to bind. [He has other guides: DMDM's Guides.]

Another is Dalucaray's Guide to the Outsiders of Planar Binding, which is more about what you can bind.
These guides can help you choose what to take into your service.

Next, given what happens at high leadership levels, you can really cheese it up. My 14th level char has a score for followers of 26. That nets me 163 followers with a total HD of 220 HD. There are two items that I know of that double followers. I don't have either.

By those rules, at 26 you get to spend 110 HD on demon service.

/cevah

Neat I didn't know of those guides, thanks

So we've currently just finished book two of Wrath of the Righteous and my DM offered my PC a very interesting mythic path option that he home brewed based on my powers and backstory.
Short background summery tiefling Occultist Arcanist with the Rift Warden orphan trait is fighting fire with fire by summoning demons to fight other demons as he believes the only way to hold them back is to "Fold the shadow against itself."
The path option he's given me is called Dark Pact:
Consult the leadership chart and calculate the number of followers you would have, convert this into follower hit dice and divide by two you gain the service of that many hit dice worth of demons. You may not have any demon in your service whos hit dice exceed the highest level follower you could attract plus your mythic tier. Selecting this again at 6th tier gives me a demonic cohort and again at ninth removes the 1/2 hd limiter.
Now the logic behind all this being that as my PC is gaining power the way he is fighting is making waves and attracting the attention of some very powerful parties, most notably at the moment Nocticula; who have begone to drop his name around as a potential new demon lord around those demons dissatisfied with their current station. This is happening partly for the lulz and partly because Nocticula is hoping to use him for her own gain eventually.
Naturally as this is clearly an incredible option both power and flavor wise I'm taking it, however figuring out exactly how to make use of this is proving to be quite the research exercise and I was hoping for some spread suggestions, currently thinking some quasits as fetch boys, a few succubi for handling "delicate" matters, and maybe some guards and research assistants, but not sure what to use
Current Limits are 9HD max and 110 total HD templates may be added at the cost of 2hd per CR advance 3rd party stuff is reviewed case by case ex Demonic Knights were already ruled a no

cheese-its and thanks everyone

Neat ideas, I definitely missed that extra standard action trick, that would be a good one that wouldn't kill the rest of the game. Next session is going to start with me in an insane OP "God killer" body that's just for the next fight and once that's over the crazy body gets sacrificed to her patron to become a guardian of time and I make what I'm actually going to use for a good while

The set up:
I've just gained my second mythic tier and decided to go with mythic Eldritch Heritage this boosted the powers up to my option of picking a spell off the Sorc/Wiz list up to 7th level. The choice was obvious, new disposable bodies of anything I want up to the HD limit (currently 30). The only question is what to make; my Witch is currently in the body of an erinyes and my DM approved the Assume Supernatural Ability 3.5 feat so Su and Ex abilities are part of the equation but Sp and casting are not. I would like something with a good dex score and would like to not lose physical points but if I take a hit on Str or Con for a good enough trade I'll take it.

So suggestions...?

Mostly after the level 15 power for the bloodline to summon two demons at once, and by combination I'm talking about stacking the ability of Bloodline Development to bring the bloodline powers online at an earlier level

So what I'm trying to put together is a summoning arcanist for wrath of the righteous
What I'm trying to pull off is finding a way to incorporate the occultist archetype alongside some method of getting the Abyssal bloodline. I thought I had it with mythic Eldritch Heritage and combo Bloodline Development Arcane Exploit till a friend pointed out that even mythic Eldritch Heritage doesn't *actually* give you the bloodline, just the powers so Bloodline Development can't trigger and boost it. Is there something out there I've missed or is this as close as it gets to this potentially awesome combination

So I started up a game where I advanced the Tech level a bit, to around US Civil War starting base, now I fully expected the PCs to take full advantage of this new setting, however one thing I did not take not of was a little feat I hadn't read before I started this

Clustered Shots...

See while I fully expected to have the PCs putting out enough lead to re sink the Titanic the downside was always going to be that DR was applied to each bullet individually and not as a big lump sum of damage this would help balance out the inevitable advance to full auto capacity that I knew they would make over the course of the game.
However this one feat completely negates that and in this particular setting has swelled in power to the point where I have to nerf it.

I'm tossing around several ideas right now such as making it into a feat chain similar to the Vital Strike chain or some other method, however I thought I would take this here to the boards to see if any one could perhaps come up with something I hadn't, fresh eyes on the problem if you will. So with that, anyone have some good ideas?

Ok follow up, I'm afraid I can't actually post his build as he is rebuilding the character right now. I'm not sure what happened but when we got together for our usual session the other day he actually started listening to people's suggestion, I don't know what triggered this but I'm glad for it, because it seems as though it will greatly help things around the table. Hopefully this will continue and all will be much improved from here on out.

Yeah, auto correct strikes again, and in my games I don't really care how strong my PCs get, there is no such thing as a broken class because you are the DM your resources are infinite, and there is no PC you can not challenge, the sole exception to this statement is Pun-Pun

You know what, after reading through everything here, and all of you asking great questions to help me get it all out I think I just had an epiphany, I think what he really wanted is to build a anime sword user the did the whole "we still use swords because we are too fast for bullets" from so many series and the problem is it's not working, he's not superior to the gun users of the party like anime has told him he should be, and I really think that's what's really bothering him. This making sense to anyone else or should I drink my monster before doing any more thinking?

Hey! Some people are old school who feel pathfinder and tech don't mix. I'm one of them! No bombs, no guns, no robots for me!

The more serious part is - is there a way without being tech capable to be viable in your campaign? Else that might be infringing into railroading players into particular builds kind of stuff...

Yes build a well optimized character there's plenty of room for magic in this world, however just as in real life the avaliablity of firearms makes certain things less useful, that's just this world and everyone was told the same information before the game started

Guys with guns, bombs, and robots making a guy with a sword feel useless sounds pretty reasonable actually.

In all fairness to me as the DM I warned him about this before he made his character, I strongly advised him to use something more tech capable in this setting, however once again he did not take the advice given to him.

I've seen this kind of player before. He wants to run a character and use certain abilities because he thinks they are pretty cool right? Typically this means an average PC and not an above average. Not much you can do, but I have seen one gm do something to help these kinds of players along.

Have the entire party face mirror versions of themselves... that you've built. Build them all around being a solo character or one that doesn't need help. When the kensai magus gets creamed by his doppleganger just respond with "This guy accepted the advice of the GM rather than play on his ipad."

I am 95% sure he would quit if I did that, partly because I would use the little mailman build and it would mop the floor with him

I'm actually pretty interested in the other player's characters.

Kensai Magus is usually a pretty balling build.

Are the other guys all lion totem barbarian/frenzied berserkers or something?

Or are we talking a party of 3.5e druid, a DMM Cleric and a Malconvoker wizard? Because I can understand how he might feel small in the pants compared to that. Not much a kensai could do to catch up.

The other players are a ratling artifacor and a alchemist that has the mechanic verient I don't remember off the top of my head what the name was.

Are there any other factors in play?

1. How far does he have to travel to play in your game?

2. What kind of financial considerations does he have doing so?

3. What sort of food is typically available if any during game sessions?

4. Are there regular 'break' periods for everyone to get up and walk around and get the blood flowing?

5. Does anyone else use electronics at the table?

6. Are there personality conflicts between one or two players who are tempting to mentor this one?

7. Are the mentoring processes condescending? (ie, NO, no, you HAVE to take THIS THIS THIS AND THIS to kick butt!)

8. Does the player in question have a personal life that is in crisis?

9. How long has this player been playing with you?

10. What level of trust do you have between your players and you as GM?

11. How would you describe the gaming environment (aside from the electronic media issue)?

12. When the player does the dramatic pronouncements of ineffectiveness, what kind of tone is in his voice? Frustration? Irritation? Mirth?

Apologies for the rambling questions, those are just the ones off the top of my head...

That's a long list but I'll try

Boren wrote:

Well as of his most recent idea he wants to gain four arms so he can two weapon fight and spell combat as well as making all his melee attacks to AoE while having a permanent spell effect to give him flanking at all times.

That is a lot of game mechanics where I was expecting more of a fluff description.

In any case, for most games that would be overpowered. It may be alright in a mythic game if that is what you are running. If it would be unbalancing for your game, then you need to point that out and (as Ghray described above) enlighten him to the group story elements that are supposed to be part of Pathfinder.

Keep in mind that the conversation may end with "I'm sorry, but I'm not looking to run the type of game you want. Have you looked for a different group that has a more compatible play style?"

Fluff wise his description went along the lines of "I want to leap onto the battlefield swords in hand stab a lot of things with one attack and have them fall over dead" keep in mind that I can only explain as best as he has explained it to me I can't read his mind; also in the three conversations I've had with him sense the last game he's given me three different sets of ideas for his new re build so in all honesty I'm not 100% sure exactly what he really wants.

Boren wrote:

I, and the other player in this game have spent hours looking for spell, item, and feat combos that can give him the feel and effect that he wants.

And just what is it that he wants?

Well as of his most recent idea he wants to gain four arms so he can two weapon fight and spell combat as well as making all his melee attacks to AoE while having a permanent spell effect to give him flanking at all times.

How are you at handling out of the box thinking?

You said he has come up with some good ideas that would have worked "if this were an anime episode." Have you gone back and looked for ways to allow him to achieve some of those using the "cold hard Pathfinder number crunch" as you see it?

He may be a lot less rules oriented than you are. That sort of mismatch can be difficult and frustrating on both sides as each sees all their good ideas dismissed. If you're previous attempts were all in terms of number crunch rather than flavor, that may be why he never showed any interest. If there were ways that his ideas could have worked with a different build of his character, perhaps you should help the numbers match what he is trying to do stylistically.

Spend some time thinking about some of those out of the box solutions he has come up with. Try to think of how best to represent that in the rules. Then try talking to him about it.

You said that he is a decent guy, gently point out how rude you consider his current behavior at the gaming table. Realize that not everyone sees it the same way.

Basically see if there aren't thing on both sides that can be adjusted so everyone has more fun.

It might be a case where he isn't a good fit in that game. If so, talking about it has a much better chance of ending the issues on a friendly basis.

I, and the other player in this game have spent hours looking for spell, item, and feat combos that can give him the feel and effect that he wants.

Simple solution, give him a piece of gear or unique 'ability' (granted by a god, why not?) that brings him up to the rest of the party.

If he isn't into using obscure rules combos for min-maxing, and the rest of the party is... that is what I would do.

In my last campaign I literally gave (for free, no quests, just a dream sequence) TWO of my PCs similar 'items'-one had their heart replaced with a chunk of magic coal (granted regen 1/good and +2 CON), the other got a wooden dog face embedded in their chest, granted fast heal 1, +2 WIS I think...

It made them viable characters (the one I gave regen to was a non-melee optimized cleric the player insisted on bringing into melee).

Actually I already gave him a construct suit that gave him most of the powers of an assassin demon including the 30 dex and 5d6 sneak attack damage to help him keep up.

As far as thinking outside the box, that's actually part of the problem, he comes up with all kinds of combos that would work incredibly if this was an anime episode, but in cold hard Pathfinder number crunch they just aren't very good.
As to why he won't take the help, I'm not entirely sure, I've really never gotten a response that made sense. He's said that some suggestions were too complicated, or he didn't want to use some because it was "OP" yet he has about 50 conditional modifiers on his build, half of them he forgets about during combat.

Erh. This one is hard. Can you tell him, one-on-one, that he could change his character around so it's less useless?

I've let him re build twice already

did you start out at a lower lvl or right at lvl 12? how long has he played the kensai? starting out at lower lvl and working to a high lvl gives you time to figure out how to play your character. and a low level game can be just exciting as a high level game. just less rampaging dragons.

Yes the game started at level 2

So I have a player in my game that I'm trying to help, I'm running a Pathfinder based homebrew world and I allow a large amount of 3.5 to be brought in with this.
The problem I'm having is the player is falling way behind the power curve of the game, he's playing a 12th level Kensai and he just can't keep up with the DPS output of the other players and he gets extremely mopey and moody and makes a big show of playing other games on his ipad because of this. Now we have tried to help him out I have given him a lot of suggestions and pointed out a lot of combos he could use to ramp up to a competitive level, and one of my other players has put so much effort into trying to help him I think he's worked more on the Kensai then his own character.
The problem is he won't take the the paths that will make him competitive. For example when I informed him of the feat Arcane Thesis and explained how it worked and how it would help him his response was and I quote "That's silly, I'm not going to use that" and that has been his general response to all the suggestions given to him.
Now I'm not trying to tell him how to play his character but his "Hey look at me I'm useless" (another quote) attitude is getting disruptive; and everyone at the table is so focused on trying to help him it's becoming a drag on the game. I'd really rather not kick him out as he's not a bad person but I'm really starting to be at a loss for what to do here. I've even tried putting the high power game on hold for a bit and swapping out to a lower level and power game but he didn't want to play in a "boring" low level game.
Thoughts and suggestions please I'm out of ideas

So I've been running my own setting for a while now; it started out as 3.5 and morphed over to Pathfinder when our group made the switch.
The big difference in my little world is the technology level, the base game started at American Civil War level industry while keeping the traditional high level of magic, this has brought about some interesting applications as having steam engines without the need to haul tons of fuel and water (just use a magic item enchanted with create water and heat metal) makes them far more practical for all kinds of things.
Now as to my actual question one of my players in this campaign is playing a crazy smart inventor (almost mad) scientist device builder, I don't recall the exact name of what he has but it's an alternate Alchemist class; he has been doing a lot of experiments with magnetism and has the skill checks to back up his ideas(he has on occasion and with help broken 100). Already he has been able to develop magnetic rail runs and is well on his way to several other developments including a line of developments that that could bring his character to discovering plasma. Now all of this is fine by me, I run a living world and welcome (and in fact expect)the characters to change it in some way by the end of a campaign. This however is a drastic advancement far beyond what I have implemented before. If things go where I see them heading, I see the logical path being to bring this world into a setting that holds a very "Blade Runner" feel to it, but I'm looking for ideas on how to present the transition, so it feels real as this new advancement transforms the society.
Also worth noting that all this development is taking place in the middle of a cataclysmic war touched off by a planer invasion of mechanical creatures.