CLufaS's page

Preamble: I have two main issues I would like reviewed: 1) is the concept itself, suggestions to make it more fleshed would be appreciated, 2) is actually streamlining the higher concept into something usable. I have bolded the few aspects of the character that I'm fairly set on but would appreciate additional views and opinions.

So we're starting up a new homebrew game which is inspired in part by the core themes of Game of Thrones: honor, ambition, loyalty and likely also betrayal. This is going to be a first for me as a player in a few ways; chiefly that I've never played in a low magic / low fantasy game before. There will still be the more urbane monsters, magics, and mysteries but to a much lesser degree. For example there might be a dozen proper wizards on the continent, the 'monstrous' races will be relegated to the far outskirts of human settled lands, there will not be much in the way of planar creep (demon incursions, Elder Things, etc.). This is also going to involve a great deal more politics, positioning and tact than my standard knife-psycho fighters. We'll be playing lorded nobles or adjacently positioned people who act as intermediaries for the king.

I have decided that the general feel of my character is going to be akin to that of the Dothraki, less horseman (mounted combat is a mess no one wants to deal with) more nomadic tribal leader with a flair towards the 'noble savage'. The hills and wastes are savage lands and I think that it'd work to run a half-orc, diluted through a few generations (pick up Skilled racial trait). So in keeping with the savage lands feel I've decided to go with a multi-class Barbarian / Sorcerer. The sorcerer would be the aspect that separates this character from the rest of his tribe and raises him to actual renown. I know there's the Bloodrager and it's a lovely hybrid but I think the Urban Barbarian fits the feel and direction of the character better especially since a lot is going to take place in city / court. The bloodline feels best kept to the Orc Bloodline, this means I get my Darkvision back but people will think he's stern or glowering from constantly suffering the dazzled condition but meh, builds flavor. This could also work itself into political leverage should someone find out his true linage.

I have not pinned down the weapon I intend on using and I think it speaks to the characters being. I'm trying to avoid the greataxe, greatsword, generic standbys. The thematic elements from GoT might lend itself more to something similar to a Kopesh or the War Scythe. I personally like the visual of the Gandasa (Bhuj) since it adds an exotic feel despite being a martial weapon. Ultimately I'm not worried too much about damage or any of the crunch, I want something that will speak to my character being an alien with regards to culture. I would prefer a one handed weapon since it lends itself more to the nomadic elements.

I've wanted to try out the Words of Power alt rules for a while instead of standard spells. The GM has approved and thinks the feel of 'word magic' is much more fitting of the setting. I know it's going to be a little nerfed in comparison and a bit more headache but cue cards should alleviate some of that and a non-tactics driven game should afford me some leeway. In keeping with the feel of low magic / low flash I'm probably going to be picking Evocation and Conjuration as my opposed schools. If anyone has experience with Words of Power I'd be grateful on ways to tackle it.

In a previous game I had a player take ranks in Profession (Sailor) to help work out his own back story as a member of the merchant marine. That said when skill checks came up for a variety of things he was otherwise untrained in (survival to find direction, some knowledges, climbing) I let him default to his profession. That might be very generous GMing to many but my reasoning and his being that yes; a trained sailor is likely to know which stars in the night sky can be used to find North, or that the moon is going to be New/Waxing/Full/Waning, or have some clue of how to move up rope. It got me thinking, rather than have Profession be the slot you throw a few dumped ranks into if they perform in the occupation they should probably be able to use their life experience in some advantageous way. If I were to develop this as something to incorporate into my own game I feel that I should know exactly how it works mechanically and what limitations it has so that a Profession doesn't end up eclipsing a preexisting skill.

Mechanically I see it working as either:
A) - A circumstantial bonus to the skill rolled (DC 10 Profession skill check grants a +1 bonus, bonus +1 per 5 over the DC).

B) - Treat it similarly to the Bard's Versatile Performance class feature where you can use the Profession skill in place of very specific aspects of skills. (i.e: Using Profession (Sailor) to interpret direction, as opposed to all Survival checks)

Does this resonate with anyone else? Does it seem to work mechanically? Should there be additional limitations (if so what)? Do you see any glaring downsides / flaws overall and if so how would you go about addressing them?

I'm currently running some homebrew and the path presented for my characters is going to take them through (or next to) a sealed shrine to a daemonic demigod. Inquisitive minds will likely want to investigate and see if the alcove of evil is responsible for some if not all the nasties they've encountered. As such I've prepared some particularly malicious items in store for them in accordance with the tenents of his worship: wither, blister, burn and peel.

Now the party tends to be pretty pantheistic in nature with two of four members primerily worshiping Calistria, one fairly uncommited, and one a paladin of Iomedae. The problem arises when they try to break in. None of them are slouches in the knowledge religion department and the wards won't trigger if they perform the proper rituals. Chances are good they might know the secret handshakes. The rituals themselves are fairly debilitating (willingly accepting a Bestow curse as an example) but act as a trial of the faithful. If they make it through the four trials they'll recieve a profane blessing and have their debuffs removed.

However the Paladin isn't going to pay even lip services to a daemon. I doubt he's going to just wait outside either. He most certainly isn't going to accept a 'blessing'. I wouldn't use this as an excuse to make him fall but it strikes me as very much a line in the sand for a paladin. If he's going to force himself through it may come across as targeting him explicitly, which is generally something I try to avoid.

Suggestions?

Currently playing a level 17 Vanaran Cavlier and we're winding down but we've done some cinematic leveling lately and I want to make sure that my math still comes out right on normal attack, normal critical, charge attack, charge critical. A total multiplier is also needed since I'll need to tab up the additional bonus from a challenge. All of this is considered mounted.

STR 28 gives me a +9 on damage. DM ruled that using a 2H weapon 1H doesn't give the 1.5 STR bonus.
Impact magical weapon makes the 1d8 lance a 2d6.
+1 Enhancement is +1 damage.
Power Attack gives me +8 on damage.
I have Spirited Charge which deals 3x on a charge (SC).
Lances deal x2 damage on a charge (LC).

Normal: 2d6 + 18 (+17 Challenge)

Normal Critical: Treated as a x3. 6d6 + 54 (+51 Challenge)

Now where everything gets confusing for me. This is where I really need peer review.

Charge: 8d6 + 72 (+68 Challenge)
(2d6 base, multiples add together 3x SC + 2x LC (1 increase) = 4x net multipler so we end up with 8d6)

Charge Critical: Treated as a [b]x6[b]. 12d6 + 108 (+102 Challenge)

(2d6 base, multiples add together 3x Crit, 3x SC (2 increases), 2x LC (1 increase) = x6)

I'm never sure how anyone else goes about applying names to their magical items. My general practice tends to be either longevity of use or practical application. I'm not huge on the flat +x enhancement bonus so I tend to add attributes to things, special materials, etc. This can make a description a mouthful for weapons with even a +2/+3 overall enhancement bonus. My DM tends towards the 'Rule of +4'. What naming practices do you have? What are the qualifications to give something a name?

As it stands I'm pretty garbage when it comes to names, be it PC, NPC, setting elements, and the like. I'll admit I'm a bit of a lazy hunter but how would you name the following?:

+1 Cold Iron, Impervious, Evil Outsider Bane, Greatsword.

+3 Living Steel, Evil Outsider Defiant, Buckler.

+1 Impact, Vicious, Valiant, Lance

+1 Called, Furyborn, Flail

+3 Living Steel, Rallying, Arrow Deflection, Spined Shield, w/ +1 Spikes

So our group is more or less coming to the close of our current homebrew, my character Fenvara is a Lawful Good 13th level Vanaran Cavalier with a literal take on Order of the Seal (prevent Planar incursion at all costs). She took Leadership waaaay back at 7th level as a means of setting up a base of operations and giving myself a roleplay excuse for an 'organization' and farm plot hooks through my DM. This amounts to her using her secretive Order having eyes and ears out there gathering whispers of Chaos cults and rifts between the planes that my character and our party then put the boots to.

I have yet to take a cohort, that however is changing. Fenvara's goal is to close the 'Nightmare Gate' an Abyssal rift formed by some serious evil shit my CE Hobgoblin did at the close of our last campaign. A serious cigarette burn on the homebrew campaign setting's history. If the gate can't be closed her goal is to rally her Order and establish a foothold on the Abyss so that the nasty things can't come through. We found what my DM revealed to me to be 'my characters ending' and gave me the option of getting that characters 'Good End' now or try to survive through the coming darkness. A Hound Archon with 4 levels of Paladin (ECL 11) would be PERFECT thematically to show up and rally with Fenvara to go, pardon the pun, "Give the Abyssals some hell".

So the reason I formed this thread, is it too on the nose to name said Archon "Jacques". My DM is a bit of an Adventure Time fan and is it too eye-roll-inducing to have adventures with Fen and Jacques?

I need a rules lawyer to help me out on this one before I present in to my DM. I've pitched him the idea and I've done my research on Symbol spells. For the ease of everything I'll use Symbol of Death as the example spell even though it's not my intended use since most of the other Symbol series spells refer to it mechanically.

Symbol of Death

It makes a note:

"You can't use a symbol of death offensively; for instance, a touch-triggered symbol of death remains untriggered if an item bearing the symbol of death is used to touch a creature. Likewise, a symbol of death cannot be placed on a weapon and set to activate when the weapon strikes a foe."

"You also can attune any number of creatures to the symbol of death, but doing this can extend the casting time. Attuning one or two creatures takes negligible time, and attuning a small group (as many as 10 creatures) extends the casting time to 1 hour. Attuning a large group (as many as 25 creatures) takes 24 hours. Attuning larger groups takes an additional 24 hours per 25 creatures. Any creature attuned to a symbol of death cannot trigger it and is immune to its effects, even if within its radius when it is triggered. You are automatically considered attuned to your own symbols of death, and thus always ignore the effects and cannot inadvertently trigger them."

Finally: "A symbol of death can be removed by a successful dispel magic targeted solely on the rune. An erase spell has no effect on a symbol of death. Destruction of the surface where a symbol of death is inscribed destroys the symbol but also triggers it."

All of that said it appears legal to apply the spell to movable object since the trigger area is all that's important. I should also be able to attune the party (except Gary, f!$$ Gary) to the Symbols during rest time.

Does this mean I could throw it on a covered shield and just take off it's cover in combat? As it's caster I'm immune to it's effects.

Would this work on something like a brittle clay plate? Could I use said plate like a discus on a square to 'break' the symbol and trigger it? If that converts it into a 'ranged attack' would dropping it at my feet/smashing it work?

Our DM is currently running us through the Rise of the Runelords campaign and I'm playing a male Elf Wizard Enchanter (Controller subschool). I spent one of my feats on Improved Familiar to get a Sprite who refers to my character as his "Queen", which is a jab at Elves and a thematic homage to "Inferno" from Beast Wars. The Sprite acts as defacto honor guard for the unappreciative wizard.

However I'm also planning on taking Leadership with a Monster Cohort (Pixie). To reinforce this Fey retinue I'm going to splash a level in Sorcerer (Fey bloodline) seeing as that gives the character a more realized RP aspect as unwittingly being (very) minor Fey royalty. I'll be honest that the Eschew Materials as a bonus feat and the +2DC to Compulsion spells is a very good reason to pick it up too.

All of that said is there any reason the followers gained from Leadership couldn't be minor Fey (Gricks, Sprites, Mites, etc.) seeing as they won't be used in combat? I'm not seeing any specifics as to them being 'human commoner NPC' and it seems like a flavor aspect more than a Rules aspect. I'm trying to sell the idea to the DM so I'll be linking him to this thread.

So I'm running some homebrew and building up an animate object that will function as a form of magical jukebox. I've followed the construct creation rules and need to add the last bit of flavor to flesh it out. To do so I want to give it class abilities without modifying it drastically all across the board.

If I only give the object the Bardic Performance class ability at 8th level (not BAB, or actual levels) what would be a fair adjustment to it's CR?

Apologies if the formatting is wonky, I don't post often and this is a three-parter.

I'm running a (Martial Artist) Monk 2 / (Dancing Dervish) Bard 3 with Mythic Tier 2. Sometime in this 'Season' of adventures we'll be hitting Tier 3 and I'm looking at having my character take Mythic Snatch Arrows as his 3rd tier feat. I already have Combat Reflexes and I'm aware that this sets up a few possible chains of needed feats which is why I want to check feasibility before I invest a lot of time planning this build out.

Snatch Arrows (Mythic) states:
Prerequisite(s): Snatch Arrows.
Benefit: When you use Snatch Arrows to catch a thrown weapon that can also be used as a melee weapon, you can make a melee attack with it as an immediate action against a foe within the weapon's melee reach. You can expend one use of mythic power to make this attack without spending an immediate action.

Question A:
If a party member has thrown weapons and a low Iterative Attack (less than my Attack of Opportunity) can they target me, trigger my SA(M) and then allow me to take the AoO on an enemy? To my knowledge AoO's are at full BAB and there isn't an Iterative penalty for additional attacks. Does this work?

Question B:
Can I apply this feat to improvised weapons provided they're hucked in my general direction? Ex: Party member throws a sword my way.

Question C:
If it applies to improvised thrown weapons could they shoot an arrow my way and would I be able to use it as an improvised dagger?

I'm currently playing a level 2 Hobgoblin fighter based primarily around throwing axes. He's dead set on reestablishing his peoples former kingdom and plot willing he'll be 'manifesting' aspects of the Great Kahn (a hobgoblin God-king) in that he'll be taking Synergist levels. The fluff has the DM's ok but I'm having some mild difficulty crunching down feats and what I should have set up for when he makes this shift.

I intend to start throwing levels in Synergist in at 7.
He's sitting at:
STR - 17
DEX - 17
CON - 17
INT - 13
WIS - 11
CHA - 12

Feats are: Quickdraw, Two Weapon Fighting (DM allows it for the purpose of 'throwing' as well as melee), Combat Reflexes.

The Synergist aspects are going to be geared on using the Eidolon as armor, bonus HP and combat skill amplification. The idea is for him to remain Medium sized and gain evolutions condusive to him keeping his equipment. I'm not considering him as a legitimate spellcaster.

My main questions are:
With six levels of fighter to work with what feats should I be focusing on?

His STR/DEX/CON are going to take the Eidolon's, however is there a way to minimize the penalties I'd be incurring?