Cathedralsquares's page

What level will you start playing at? It may be really tough to do under level 5 (druid shapechange). Even so, under level 10 or so I would imagine actually dropping things for significant damage will be harder than flying and casting spells. A druid alchemist would fit the theme though, even if the damage might not be impressive for a while.

We're starting at level 8 with 77,000 starting GP to use. I wish I could get an alchemical golem to fly (and get a cockpit) that would be awesome.

Something combat capable that flies. Requirements: Can fly, can take a hit or two; alternative it must go really really fast for boom and zoom. It would be nice if it had some sort of ranged attack so it could strafe. This can be anything from a monster to a golem to a flying saucer.

My last character was killed. I've decided to do something so crazy, so unconventional, so nuts, that everyone will remember it for all time. I want to make a goblin fighter pilot. The goal is for him to fly around in something like a golem, drop bombs, shoot rockets, and kill people. His jetgolem can help too. How can I make this happen?

Why not give them both Target of Opportunity? It's an extra ranged attack every round and its not like fighters have anything else to use immediates on.

I'd take the feat Flagbearer. I think that Coordinated Attacks and Hard March are two of the best talents before you get into leadership, but eventually you're going to be able to take all of them just by the sheer number you can have.

Hirelings. You can pick up some hirelings a level or two lower than yourself and use teamwork feats that way.

I think you should be ashamed of yourself. Muskets don't need axes, they need bayonets! You can't affix an axe, but you can affix a bayonet! Can YOU affix a bayonet? Hell no! Use bayonets!

B-b-but Cath-kun what about the inability to fire your musket with a bayonet?

Nonsense! That just means you FIRE the bayonet! Maximum stab at all ranges! Stab in close! Stab at far! The bullet is a wily thing, only the bayonet knows what its about!

Now how to lure a group of PC's there without simply making them one of the units that were sent in...

Ten years ago, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Glithe underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team.

Trench Warfare is nothing without MACHINE GUNS! Unfortunately I can't see anything in pathfinder that fits the bill as well as a 3.5 Ranger's Arrow Storm spell that lets him fire once at everyone he can see. The next closest thing would be a high level magic missile.

Bump

So I'm playing a War Master and its time for me to choose a talent. I want to know how the Hold! ability works. Does it cost a standard action to gain the full round action or does the ready take up the entire turn of the person using it?

Hold!* (Ex): Whenever the war master grants benefits to his allies from any war master’s tactic, the allies also gain the ability to ready a full round action (rather than ready a standard action, as normal).

Wizards would make awful rulers. The only classes that would be any good at it are classes that can play politics; because when you play the game of thrones you win or you die. The wizard can be as smart as he wants to be. I hope he can detect that poison in his cup because his spymaster dislikes him for whatever reason. I hope no one slips a bomb into his bed chambers, or stabs him while he sleeps. The hardest thing about ruling isn't the day to day activities of the kingdom you have no part in. It's staying alive against the wishes of the people who want to see you dead. By far the most important skills are diplomacy, bluff, and sense motive. After that come the knowledges.

I imagine a CHA of 7-9 being a lot like Stannis Baratheon. Nobody likes him because he's very emotionless and doesn't seem to care about people so much as the ideals society is built around like honor and justice.

Longspear just confuses people more often than not.. it should be called what it really is, the PIKE.

A pike is not 11 feet long. That's generally considered to be an Arming Spear, which is still a one handed weapon. Pikes were generally 14-22 feet long, which the long spear is not. Then again Halberds were also 8-12 feet long and they don't have reach but long spears do so...

What are some good ways to maximize the damage of my minions without straying into magic land. Hobgoblins hate magic and refuse to use it.

Has anyone tried the Warmaster class?

One thing I considered for my soldiers was running a double rank with Tower Shield Shield Walled hobgoblins in front with polearms striking from behind their total cover. Unable to push past the shield wall and taking damage no matter how they move from one side or the other I'd be capable of beating anything that wasn't capable of flying. The party wizard could ensure that even flying creatures can be brought down to size.

My DM has given me the go-ahead to play a minor army captain, giving me control of six of scaling Hobgoblin warriors with the ability to call in more as we come across them. They'll always be half my level and I can equip them as I please. How can I make my band of goblin brothers the most feared martial sight in the land? It's a crazy 40 point buy and he's open to any class/feat combos provided I stick with my theme.

A Roman Legionary. Works in combination with two or three other players. Tower Shield specialists that make excessive use of teamwork feats and combined attacks to stay highly mobile, defensive, and strong.

The only problem that I have with cheesecake is the silliness of the armor. I can understand durr hurr magic but what if you wander into an anti-magic zone? If armor is common enough that you're willing to compromise its effectiveness for looks and make it up with magic anti-magic would be common enough to be a concern. Armor should make sense. If it doesn't make sense it isn't armor. I like the iconic paladin because her armor makes sense. The Barbarian's is leather and I don't really expect it to but a knight should have sensible armor paladins should have sensible armor etc.

You could always get a Hand Crossbow with the enchantment that gives it a 50 bolt magazine. Add the Force enchantment onto that and you've got yourself a plasma pistol. Combined with the snap shot feats and you've got an ASM, or a Black Templar Crusader.

Yet, Maximillian and Gothic armor and its derivations -- which is the "plate armor" we're discussing given the D&D context and connotations, at least I am -- enjoyed a peak of approximately one hundred years and fell out of style even before the popularization of the firearm. By the time period we're discussing (the transitional phase between the arquebus and the musket, and the rise of the flintlock, the mid-17th Century) combatants typically only wore a cuirass.

Now, I would love to hear your explanation of that, given as you put it, "plate armor was the s#~#".

It fell out of favor when it became cheaper to equip 100 men with muskets, bayonets, balls, and powder and they would have a greater effect on the battlefield. The Cuirass was good enough for its price. Getting hit in the arm or the leg wasn't as likely to kill you, and getting hit in the face would kill you regardless. Even the modern cuirass worn by heavy cavalry during the Seven Year War was reliable enough to stop a shot to the chest. What it wouldn't save it your horse and it wouldn't prevent you from flying out of the saddle and snapping your neck on impact.

Quantity over quality. Wins every time.

How does that negate my point (snarky or not, YMMV) that the rules are forcing you to target the armoured sections of your enemy every single time? It's the same point, be it 1 DR or 100 DR their armour gives them.

The old system had this too. I'm wearing a breastplate. This magically makes it harder for you to stab my leg/foot/face/arms.

Block applies to Ranged attacks as well as melee. Parry can only be applied to melee attacks. Given that you only have 1 immediate action a round (IIRC it also eats your swift) you have to pick and choose when and which you want to do.

Considering that the character is an underfed young woman whose chores included reading books and measuring powder in tiny pretty flasks while gentlemanly Dwarves did all the wrench-work, I think I'll be charging in the opposite direction after I've made my shot.

I do like neat red coats though.

Well you only get a neat red coat if you charge. The red is even free!

Now get out there and make me proud!

Assuming it isn't nailed down....

...on the other hand, evacuating a city and returning is a major enough endeavor that you will probably have time to grab a few things that are nailed down that would otherwise be impractical.

Spoken like a true adventurer.

I'm thinking about adding in a new action for my game. You can avoid any enemy attack as an immediate action. To avoid with a block/parry make an attack roll. If yours equals or exceeds the attack against you you've successfully avoided it. For dodge roll a d20 and add in any AC modifiers barring shield, deflection, and armor.

What do you think?

Because pirates like booty and booty is normally attached to bellies?

One think I'm having trouble thinking of it how to relate HP loss to cannon loss.

While we're all angsting about Guns, Skill checks and Misfire chance, can anyone spell out to me how I'm meant to use my skills to remove the broken condition from a firearm?

Playing as a level 1 Gunslinger with woeful reloading, I'm worried about how I'd fare against a large group of weak enemies. 5 goblins could down me as assuming 100% accuracy and killing damage with every blow, it'd take me a minimum of 10 rounds to kill them all with a musket master, while they'd get something like 25 attacks against me. Even a caster gets group spells that'd allow them to handle this encounter easily, but a gunslinger would need to forget their weapon and pull out a bow.

At levels 1-4 you really need to play your Musket Master like a Musketeer. Fire! Fix bayonets! Charge! All right everyone is dead. Time to reload.

Ramming is probably just driving your ship into another ship with damage based on how fast you're going. So speed x2 determines the amount of d6's used against both ship.s You can automatically board after ramming.

Which spells would need a rework? If it gives a deflection/abrakadabra defense it applies to your defense stat. If it gives an armor bonus it applies to DR. Most magic effects go into your defense stat by nature of not actually giving something solid to block the impact.

Any other ideas, critique etc?

Easiest way to detect traps? Thrallherd. Minion 1, run down that corridor.

Alright minion 2 you're up next. This time duck.

I don't know why you would nerf the Gunslinger but leave the other vastly superior DPR classes alone. Guns do have drawbacks. Their drawbacks is that the only thing they do is damage and a normal bow does damage better and doesn't have a chance of exploding in your face. Giving everyone a [Damp Powder] spell makes the Gunslinger feel shat on and everyone else just go back to shooting things in the face with a bow instead of a thematic gun.

Hm. I'm glad that I have a few months to work on this before my game starts. I intend on using Armor as DR, Wounds and Vitality, Called Shots, and Piecemeal Armor in the 17th century.

I want to start a second PFS character who is focused on archery. I can't decide whether to go fighter, the new magus archetype or zen archer. I am a fairly new player, so something with low reliance on spells or complicated strategy would be nice. Mainly looking for high DPR. Any suggestions on which class is currently leading in that or feat progressions would be great. Wouldn't mind seeing full builds either if people have time. Thanks.

Paladin.

Bump.

I want to make the rules for it fun while not being too complicated. I think that I'll make Tacking a Swift action so the Driver can do it every turn but it requires some effort to do so and its a harder check.

Broadsides are a little tricky but ships will have facing in naval combat. Broadsides can only hit a target on the corresponding side and a Master Gunner can only give commands to one side of the ship at a time. I have up to 6 players so there's lots of room for interaction with these rules. There will be multiple type of ships and even some further customization rules for when my players commission their own.

As for world fluff I've already got the skeleton and some of the muscle structure laid in. There are lots of subtle little details that will come up in game or when the players ask.

I didn't think of that actually. Good thing I asked for advice! How is this?

Weather Gauge: Ships moving with the wind find their sails full of winds. The speed of the ship is increased by 1 square. The weather gauge is the only way to increase a ship's movement past its limit. Ships sailing against the weather gauge have their speed reduced by 1 square to a minimum of 0. Ships sailing perpendicular to the wind suffer no effects.

I also added in another Drive action.

Drop Anchor(Standard Action): The ship drops anchor and rolls up the sails. It is reduced to half speed next turn and fully stops at the end of the turn afterwards.

Sometimes you just gotta stop, ya know?

Hi there, Pathfinder players. With the release of UC and Firearms rules I've finally gotten the opportunity to DM a game set in the 1700's. With that comes naval combat! With cannons! And lots of ships! So I ask for your critique on the system I devised for running naval combat in the Age of Sail.

Naval Combat
Naval combat in this campaign is a little different. Given that there is a great deal of potential for naval combat in this game I’ve come up with some new rules to keep everyone involved while the ships are blasting away at one another with cannon and shot. The important thing to note is during naval engagement 1 square becomes 20 feet.

A ship’s HP is directly related to the number of cannons it has on board. The lower the HP of the ship the less cannons it has to defend itself. The AC of a ship is the amount of damage it absorbs from Broadsides. Chain shot and Grape Shot do not target the ship and are not reduced by this. All actions have their DCs increased by 5 when taking fire.

Driving
Driving a ship is done through a profession (Sailor) skill check with a DC of 15+modififers. These actions can be assisted by an ally using Knowledge (Sailing) or Knowledge (Nature) so long as the assisting ally is 30 feet or less away from the driver. A ship moves its acceleration in the direction it is facing at the beginning of the round.

Accelerate(Standard Action): The ship accelerates 1 square up to a maximum of the ship’s speed. Success by more than 10 increases the ship’s speed by 2 squares instead of one. For example a Third Rate is moving at 1/round. It has a maximum speed of 3/round. Using the acceleration action the ship’s speed is increased by 1 more square for a total of 2/round.

Decelerate(Standard action): The reverse of Accelerate. Same rules apply.

Turn to Port/Starboard(Standard Action): turn the ship 45 degrees. The ship continues to move half of the distance it normally would (minimum of 1 square). Success by more than 10 increases the distance traveled by 1 square.

Hard to port/starboard!(Full Round Action): The driver makes a frantic attempt to maneuver his ship quickly. This is a DC 15+modifiers. The ship makes an immediate 45 degree turn then moves half its distance.

Close to Board!(Full round action): The ship moves into range to board the enemy ship. This is a special action used only when the ship are within a single movement of each other.

Driving Modifiers

Damaged Mast: Speed is halved until the mast is repaired and the ship cannot accelerate.

Destroyed Mast: The ship decelerates until it stops and can no longer move.

Damaged Rudder: The ship can only turn with a full round action. Hard to Port/Starboard is disabled until the Rudder is repaired. Turn to Port/Starboard has its DC increased by 10.

Destroyed Rudder: The ship cannot turn until the rudder is repaired.

Rough Seas: The seas are exceptionally rough. All driving and shooting DCs are increased by 5.

Stormy Seas: Stormy weather makes maneuvering almost impossible. All driving and shooting DCs are increased by 10.
Morale broken!: The crew’s morale is as shattered as the ship. All DCs are increased by 5. 

Shooting
Shooting actions are done with a DC 15+modifiers Profession (Siege Engineer) check and require the Siege Engineer feat. This can be assisted by an ally with Knowledge (War) so long as he/she is within 30 feet of the Master Gunner. A single Gunner can only fire either port or starboard cannons at a time. A ship can have up to 3 gunners at a time.

Broadside(Standard Action): The ship unleashes a full volley of cannonfire into the enemy. The attack deals 8d6 points of damage. Success by more than 10 is considered a critical strike consult the chart.

Chain-shot(Standard Action): The crews load chain shot into the cannons with intention of damaging the mast of the ship. Critical strikes destroy the mast of the target ship.

Grape Shot(Standard Action): The crew loads the cannons full of grape shot. Anywhere from 10 to 108 cannons can become lethal shotguns using this ability! Grape shot does no damage to the target ship. Instead it kills a number of enemy crew equal to the damage dealt. A critical strike with this ability kills twice as many crew. Roll 6d6. The number shown is the number of crew killed by the volley.

Explosive Shot(Full Round Action): Dangerous to both enemy and to ally alike Explosive Shot is the best way to take out the enemy ship, or your own. The DC for this is 20+modifiers. If this check is failed the explosive shot has a 50% chance to misfire, exploding and dealing 6d6 points of damage to the ship and the crew ignoring armor. If the check succeeds roll 6d6 for damage to the enemy ship. This ignores the ship’s armor and deals damage to the crew. This effect can crit if it succeeds by more than 10. Add +1 to the result rolled on the table.

Shooting Modifiers

Fire! Fire! Fire!: The ship is on fire! The DC for all shooting actions is increased by 5. There is a 10% chance that the fire will reach your powder stores sending your ship up in a great ball of fire! This chance increases by 5% for every turn the ship is on fire. The ship also takes 10 points of direct damage for every turn the fire is not put out.

Less than 50% cannons: Your ship has lost more than half of its cannons. All damage dealt is reduced by half until the cannons are replaced.

Damaged Powder Stores: A lucky shot has damaged the powder stores! Due to the extra care and difficulty the crew has to take to get powder shooting DCs are increased by 5.

Crew Stunned: The crew has been stunned by a remarkable volley of fire. You cannot fire until the end of your next turn.

Crew Killed: If more than 50% of your crew has been killed the DCs to fire your cannons are increased by 10.

Marine
Marines lead the boarding actions against enemy ships. Marine actions are a DC 10+modifiers Knowledge (War) or Profession (Sailor) check. The Marine can be assisted by an ally within 30 feet using Knowledge (War) or Profession (Sailor).

Board(Full round action): Half the crew and the Marine immediately board the enemy ship using grappling hooks and wooden planks. A melee starts on the ship. Normal combat rules apply. This ability can only be used after the Driver has used the Close to Board ability.

Snipe(Standard Action): The Marine orders the crew on the deck and in the mast to snipe enemy crew. Roll 3d6 to see how many crew members have been killed. A success of 10 or more means an officer has been sniped. This ability can only be used within 5 squares of an enemy ship.

Prepare to be Boarded!(Move action): The Marine prepares the crew to accept the boarding party with weapons drawn. The crew gets a surprise round on the boarding party. This action requires a DC 15+modifiers.

Surprise Attack(Full round action): The Marine and 30 crew members load up onto small dingys and row towards the enemy ship at a speed of 2 squares per turn. Upon arriving at the enemy ship the boarding party can toss grenades onto the enemy ship, killing enemy crew members. The DC to throw grenades is 10. On a successful check roll 6d6 for damage done to the enemy crew. Use of this ability means that the Marine cannot make other actions until he returns to the mother ship. The Marine can benefit from the Board action if another Marine uses it.

Leadership
Someone has to lead this ship. It might as well be you! Leadership checks are a DC 10+modifiers Diplomacy or Intimidate check.

Inspire(Standard Action): You inspire the crew to feats of greatness! Choose a Driver, Gunner, or Marine to give this bonus to. The target gets to add +5 to his roll on his next skill check.

Motivate(Standard Action): Your oratory and skill motivates your crew. They ignore the Crew Stunned effect this turn.

Rally(Move action): You rally your men and give them hope! This ability counters the Crew Demoralized effect.

Do You Want to Live Forever!?(Standard Action): The Captain inspires his crew to frenzied levels. All abilities receive +10 to their rolls and Marine actions deal double damage. This requires a DC 20 Leadership check.

Ship Critical Chart
When getting a critical hit with a Broadside or Explosive Shot action roll a d10 to determine the effect.

1-3: Crew Stunned – The crew is stunned by the volley of fire and cannot shoot again next turn.

4-5: Component Damaged – Roll a D6. On a 1-2 the mast is damaged 3-4 the rudder is damaged 5-6 the Powder Stores are damaged. If the result rolled has been rolled once already and that part has not been repaired it is instead destroyed.

6-7: Component Destroyed – Roll a D6. On a 1-3 the mast is destroyed

4-6 the rudder is destroyed. If the component rolled has been destroyed already the ship is now on Fire.

8: Fire! Fire! Fire! – The ship is on fire! There is a 10% chance that the fire will reach your powder stores sending your ship up in a great ball of fire! This chance increases by 5% for every turn the ship is on fire. The ship also takes 10 points of direct damage for every turn the fire is not put out. If this result is rolled twice the ship is now Sinking in addition to being on fire.

9: Sinking – The ship has begun to sink! There is a 20% chance per turn that the ship will sink; its crew clinging to flotsam or being sent to Davy Jones’ Locker along with the ship. The ship can only move at half speed and cannot fire weapons. If this result is rolled twice the ship immediately sinks.

10: Explosion! – The ship is blown apart by the devastating forces of its powder stores being ignited. All of the crew is killed and the ship is utterly destroyed.

I've gotten around this by adding an 'Armor Piercing' weapon quality to my game. Guns have it automatically within the first range increment and pierce all DR, but blunt and some piercing weapons also have this property. Really all it does is ignore half the DR granted by mundane armor.

This way weapons historically used to pierce or crush through heavy armor still serve that function in D&D. Now its worth taking a mace over a longsword if you know you're going into a place where armor is prevalent like a castle or a military camp.