CezarJ's page

Thanks, that already helped a lot!

Hello!
I'm looking for tiefling characters for a friend to play. Are there any? Is there a database i can look up all the characters or do i need to rely on the deck box descriptions (which are lacking such descriptions) and the experience of other players to find that out with other character types and descriptors?

Thanks!

Thank You. This helps.

In my CotCT Campaign I use following rule:

Minimum HP:
d6=2
d8=3
d10=4
d12=5

Iron Heroes had the following rule:

d6=1d4+2
d8=1d4+4
d10=1d4+6
d12=1d4+8

This way you have a chance role, but get a flat base bonus for hp.

But Iron Heroes is a system that supports low-fantasy heroics, and the character classes are more powerful, because of magic items being either evil or minor artifacts.

I am trying to use the Harrow Deck for Tarot.

Has anyone tried using the Harrow Deck for the normal Tarot Cards?

I tried to assemble the Major Arcana on my own but would need some help:

The Fool - The Idiot
The Magician - The Hidden Truth
The High Priestess - The Owl?
The Empress - The Queen Mother
The Emporer - The Rakshasa/The Tyrant?
The Hierophant - The Vision/The Inquisitor?
The Lovers - The Twins/The Betrayal/The Marriage?
The Chariot - The Teamster
Strength - The Bear?
The Hermit - The Desert?
Wheel of Fortune - The Dance/The Bear?
Justice - The Midwife?
The Hanged Man - The Waxworks
Death - The Tangled Briar/The Lost?
Tempreance - ?
The Devil - The Fiend
The Tower - The Keep
The Star - ?
The Moon - The Eclipse
The Sun - The Big Sky
Judgement - The Trumpet
The Tower - The Keep
The World - The Tyrant ?

Thank You

If the archer steals the day with his marksmanship every single time, it's normal that the other players will be pissed after a while.

From the POV of the ranger: he built a good archery build for this adventure path, so why should he be penalized? He plays a hero famous for his skill with the bow, and that is what the game is about.

I for one would recommend bringing this topic to they players, and confront them with the problem together. You can also try talking with him first before talking with the whole group, to solve the problem. Maybe the ranger sees the problem and is persuaded to choose some other feats, or swap some of them. Maybe the group gets a redo of the characters they are playing, so they all at the same level of effectiveness. This way, you don't have to actively work against the ranger, and he doesn't feel punished for choosing the right options for his character.

From my expirience, creating L5R characters/NPCs is very easy, as you just take a school,place attributes, place skill points, 1-2 advantages/disadvantages and youre finished.

So the system is very good for converting something to it.

Thank you for those good answers, they are helping me very much preparing my next session!

Scroll down if you want to get right to my questions.

I am in the middle of DMing Escape from Old Korvosa and my group consists of following characters:

DM: Me
Chelaxian Paladin of Iomade 7, Antonor
Half-Elven Shape-shifter of Shelyn 7, Quinta Arkonas
Gnomish Investigator 7, Theodric (was missing the session)
Elven Air Elementalist 7, Seldlon
Shoanti Cleric 5/Fighter 2 of Zon-Kuthon, Thom

Last time the party entered Old Korvosa by water walking invisibly to the island. On the way to Orisini's Academy they've encountered a mob who was mugging Tesh Zobberdin. They've rescued him, slaughtering but one of them. He was still determined to get the emporer, but the party clearly saw it as a suicide mission. He bolted, as the party tried to hold him from his vengeance, and all but the paladin went after him, grappling him down, and bringing him to tears, as he was too helpless (not a single social check succeeded).

The paladin was all alone at the bodies of the mob, because some urchins tried to rob them. He clearly was against it, and convinced them of following him for a better life (even if he didn't have a plan what to do with them - only faith).

They went for Fort Korvosa, and after the gate guards got some convincing (bribed), they entered and brought the children to a abounded stable, After which they left for the academy. Seeing it burned down, they entered the house of Orisini, and getting ambushed at the second floor. The assassins weren't that effective, because the party wizard thwarted their plan of burning down the house with 2 ice storms (which hit pretty much everyone ;) ). Seeing that their fighting wasn't very effective (only 1d8+1 in melee, without any flanking oppurtunities), the assassins made a slow reatreat. One of the went out of the window into the darkness, and got followed by Quinta (who acquired darkvision with aspect of the beast). Unlucky for her, she was the only one following him, as the other three went at the other one (most of them in full plate, except the wizard, so they couldnt move a lot on the ice produced by the wizard).

Anyway, Quinta got mesmerized by the red mantis, and at the last round, Thom went to help her, didn't know how to resuce her, and tried an attack on the assassin, which missed, and she got executed. The round after that, he was alone in the darkness with the assassin, and 4 attacks, with each +3d6 sneak attack were the end of him.

So the paladin and the wizard were left. They chased the other assassin, but after not hearing from the other two, they deceided that it was better to check for them. They saw the corpses (the red mantis waiting on the roof for them to go out) picked them up, and dimension doored to the stables.

There they encountered the student of Vencarlo, who recognized his rescuer from EoA,told them about Scream, and promised to raise the children to be able to protect themselves with honor. Antonor and Seldlon went to investigate, leaving the corpses at the stables.

They've met Laori, who the paladin thought of being very suspicious, but the party wizard convinced him of letting her help, as she only needed to speak to Scream, didn't lie to them, and even offered to help to ressurect the companions (as they alone probably wouldn't be able to rescue Scream). The paladin grudgingly accepted, as she showed no obvious evil intentions, and he couldn't just do something against her, only because of her wrong faith-and her evil aura.

As she encountered the dead players, she was able to ressurect Thom without any material components (Thom had a vision of Zon-Kuthon about him meeting her after the third harrowing, as the Vision card came up), but for Quinta I am not sure what to do.

Here the session ended, and here are my questions:

-How does a Zon-Kuthon cleric (Laori) react to a follower of Shelyn? Laori saw Quintas holy symbol, so how should I react to that? Are they allowed to ressurect Shelyn followers?I just know they have a weird family relationship.

-What are the Red Mantis doing, after they were detected? Are they going to finish their job and hunt down the PCs, or are they still trying to wait for Vencarlo? I am not sure what to do there...

-Should I let the paladin have any consequences for working with Laori?

-Quinta was raised as a child in the Elven Embassy, and she only knows her family by the name. Quinta and her player don't know that she is of Rakshasa blood, and I am not sure how I should let the Arkona family react to Quinta? Will they try to charm her into helping the family after hearing of her talents(champion of korvosa), or will they try to get rid of her, as she might prove to dangerous? What do you guys think would be the best way of storytelling it to my player?

Thank you for the long read, and sorry for my bad writing style. I hope I'll get some answers until sunday, as then is our next session.

As a player and Storyteller of L5R, it's a realy nice read of creativity.

Thanks for posting!

The half-elf ranger in my current is of the shapechanger archetype. As the GM I deceided that his background is from the Arkonas family, without him knowing what awaits him in the 4th adventure >:D. Anyway, he showed interest in the first adventure, joining the sabel company, and it was the reward if the last session for being a champion of Korvosa. Now, I was wondering how to combine the shapechanger archetype and the sable company marine in one archetype, as the shapechanger takes away all the favored terrains already, as does the marine.

He got currenty into his 4th level.

My ideas:
pay a feat, pay hunters bond, pay 5th level favored enemy.

What do you guys think?

+ for iconics in the series
+ for short stories - Arcana Unearthed and Arcana Evolved had a book each, for representing the setting, and it was a nice read to get into the feel of the world

I hope you do up some old covers as wall papers! Some of the AP covers have been phenomenal!

+1

Wallpaper is awesome, we demand more awesomenessess!

A very unusual date of the blog post. Probably someone posted this from a parallel universe.

CezarJ wrote:

Monte Cook's Mageblade from Arcana Evolved has the Arcane Weapon special ability with lvl 1, and it levels up every 4 levels.

Maybe they just didn't want to copy it completely.

Fortunately, that is open content, so it wouldn't really be much of an issue.

Also, the "athame" power of the Mage Blade does diverge in many other ways, providing sentience to the weapon, day long ritual to create it, etc. The Arcane Weapon description is much more meat and potatoes mechanics.

Yes, fortunately it is. But I can undersstand that from a creative point of view, you don't want to copy an ability, but try to do it your own way.

Anyway, it's not so important. :)

Monte Cook's Mageblade from Arcana Evolved has the Arcane Weapon special ability with lvl 1, and it levels up every 4 levels.

Maybe they just didn't want to copy it completely.

Thanks for the reply!

To think something up for throwing was realy tough, as I never played such a character. Maybe I'll come up with some ideas later the day.

Feel encouraged to post your own ideas of how you think different Spell Combat trees should be!

This thread was exactly what I was looking for, making variety in the Magus class.

Here is a suggestion for the Spell Combat ability:

Spell Combat(Ex):
At 2nd level the Magus must select one of four spell combat styles to pursue: single weapon casting, shielded caster, two-handed weapon casting or thrown weapon casting. The selected spell combat style increases in efficiency with the Improved Spell Combat and Greater Spell Combat class abilities.

If the magus selects shielded caster, the magus learns to cast spells with a shield in his hand. While wielding a buckler or light shield, the magus is able to cast spells, without suffering arcane spell failure from the shield. Furthermore, all spells he casts with a shield in hand and himself as a target are treated as though his caster level is 1 level higher +1 for every four level after his 2nd level.
With Improved Spell Combat his ability to casts spells with a shield in hand is extended to heavy shields.
The Greater Spell Combat class abilities allows him to treat all spells he casts as though they were effected with the still spell feat. This still requires that he wields a shield.

If the magus selects two-handed weapon casting, he adds half his intelligence modifier to every spell DC he casts that does hit point damage while wielding a two-handed weapon.
With Improved Spell Combat the magus adds his weapons enhancement modifier whenever he is making a caster power check to overcome spell resistance.
At 14th level (Greater Spell Combat), whenever the magus casts a spell that does hit point damage, he adds +1 damage to each damage die rolled.

If the magus selects thrown weapon casting, he deliver his spellstrike with thrown weapons on a ranged attack. He can also imbue a thrown weapon with a spell that requires a ranged touch attack.
With 6th level the magus is able to hits his mark at greater distances without problems.With Improved Spell Combat he no longer suffers ranged increment penalties when using a thrown weapon. This doesn't effect the maximum distance he can throw.
At 14th level, a magus with Greater Spell Combat can copy a spell he deliver's with spellstrike to effect another target. As a full round action he attacks his target normaly. If the attack hits, he can attack another target no more than 30ft. away than the first target. If the second attack hits, the spell delivered from spellstrike is copied on the second target. He can copy a spell only once this way.
A magus with thrown weapon casting adds the distance, returning and throwing weapon properties to the arcane weapon list of properties.

If the magus selects single weapon casting, he learns to cast spells and wield his weapons effectively at the same time. This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is being cast. To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free, while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand. As a full-round action, he can make all of his attacks with his melee weapon at a –4 penalty. He can also cast any spell with
a casting time of 1 standard action from the magus spell list. He must cast this spell defensively, and he takes a –2 penalty on the concentration check. If the check fails, the spell is wasted, but the attacks still suffer the –4 penalty. A magus can choose to cast the spell first or make the weapon attacks first, but he cannot cast the spell between weapon attacks if he has more than one attack. Casting a spell in this manner does not provoke an attack of opportunity. The magus must have one hand free to use this ability, even if the spell being cast does not contain somatic components.

I was very happy when Paizo announced the Magus class, as I always wanted to play a gish from 1st lvl to 20th. The Mageblade from Arcana Evolved was one of my favourite classes, and the Magus seems to be a combination of the Mageblade and the Duskblade.

Until now, Paizo did a very good job of overworking the existing classes of 3E, by giving them more options of choosing in which direction the player wants to take the class. To be more precise, I will list the aspects that made the classes more flavorful to choose roleplaying wise, and so added depth to the game, not only through storytelling their abilities, but also mechanically:

Barbarian
The choice of rage powers has changed the barbarian, letting the player deceide if his barbarian will go from a savage offensive barbarian, to a dwarven battlerager who shrugs of damage more easily, or maybe an elven bladedancer, who enters a trancelike state with his deadly dance of blades.

Bard
Through the perfomance skill changes, the bard has gained a major change of personality. He doesn't need to be using an instrument, he can act, make jokes or dance to use his abilities.

Cleric
With adding more active domain powers to each domain, the clerics from different gods can distinguish themselves more easily in combat.

Druid
The druid didn't need more versatility, but she still got the choice to change her animal companion for a domain.

Fighter
Through his weapon training, he gains a good versatility of different weapons he can use. And so opens up a lot of feats he can select. He got the best bonus though with the combat feats themselves, paizo released.

Monk
Through the adding of bonus feats, the monk is also able to distinguish himself a little more than before. He is one of the least flexible classes, roleplaying wise, but I would be happy to be corrected :).

Paladin
The palading can change her mount into a cool weapon. Her lay on hands also got the class individuality between paladins.

Ranger
Different weapon styles, favorite terrains, class ability instead of an animal companion. Do I need to say more?

Rogue
The rogue talents help to define the specialisation of the rogue.

Sorcerer
Bloodline is a heavy aspect of the sorcerer now, being realy fun to roleplay!

Wizard
The wizard and his schools of magic define his class abilities. Also his familier can turn into a magic item with the arcane bond.

Alchemist
Do I go around throwing bombs like a maniac, or will I buff myself with mutagens into a fighting machine? 2 full pages of different discoveries!

Cavalier
Bonus Feats, teamwork feats and different orders give him the flexibility of making different Cavaliers. Shoanti riding a dire Tiger, wielding a magic Greatsword. I dont have to play the tune to get you thinking of the old series ;).

Inquisitor
Not only can she define herself by choosing a domain power, als she has teamwork feats that grant her the ability to distinguish herself.

Oracle
The Oracle's curse and her Mysteries can add a wide array of different oracle's to your game.

Summoner
Google the computer game "Spore", and you can see how different this class can get.

Witch
2 pages of hexes and a patron that defines her spell list can get her flexible

Magus
Magus Arcana seems to be the main focus where the Magus is able to define himself:

-He can buff himself (attack bonus, AC bonus, haste, critical strike,maneuver mastery)
-He can get a familiar
-He can apply metamagic on the run
-He can act as a mageslayer (dispeling strike, reflection)

Personally I think this is only a start, but not enough that you can have different variations of the Magus.

Some improvements to variation:
The limitation of one-handed weapons melee weapons should go away. Making it a feat or a magus arcana should allow the magus to wield a 2handed weapon. Maybe there should be a specific magical melee style, depending of what kind of weapons you have equipped:

-Two-weapon Fighting: Same as Spell Combat
-Two-Handed Weapon: You can cast damage spells through your weapon more effectively. They deal more damage, or the DC is heightened (e.g. treat your INT modifier 1+1/2 when calculating the DC)
-Weapon and shield: Protection spells last longer, or give more bonuses
-Throwning weapon style: Your weapon gains returning ability, and you can cast a ranged touch spell and deliver it immedietaly
-One handed Weapon: All nondamage spells have their DC increased. Buff spells last longer
-etc.

I know these things aren't balanced, but the idea is there to have.

From other people's suggestions I liked the 'prepare spell x to get a bonus on skill y'. Also I liked the idea of a magical Ki-pool for use.

Gotta go now, or else I come late to my training.

PS: I didn't include the Class Variants from APHB as the New Base Classes in that book didn't get any Variants either. Excuse grammar mistakes. Also be tolerant with my writing, as english is not my native tongue.

CezarJ wrote:

What happens in the following situation:

The rogue/sorcerer suprises 3 duergar. Can he use his 3 rays of the scorching ray to do full sneak attack on each of them, or does he only get the sneak attack on one of them?

Well, the wording of the spell is rather quirky...firstly, I would suggest that since you do not threaten an enemy from range, the knife would be unable to set up a flank with you unless you had reach and were within reach range.

On the other hand, the spell also does not say that it has to be flanking with YOU. If you fire a bow at someone who is in melee with an ally, it might be able to get into a flanking position with your ally. There is the issue of the knife's move-speed, though. From the looks of it, it might be able to travel any distance in a round as long as it remains within range.

Still, I'm not so sure how effective this spell is...

Either you quoted the wrong person, or I haven't wroten clear enough. In my case you would suprise them in a suprise round, and they would be flat footed, so you can sneak them from the distance of no more than 30ft.

What happens in the following situation:

The rogue/sorcerer suprises 3 duergar. Can he use his 3 rays of the scorching ray to do full sneak attack on each of them, or does he only get the sneak attack on one of them?

Thanks for the information, but please stay on topic.

As for Quick draw, it doesn't allow to sheath a weapon as a free action, only to draw one.

Zasha, paladin of Iomade, is sacrificing herself defending a small corridor from a tribe of goblins, so that the party can safely get away and survive. Whenever she cuts a goblin down, two more emerge to take it's place. While she cant hold much longer, she does as best as she can by:

-using a heavy shield to pump her AC
or
-using a light shield/buckler, so she can use her lay on hands ability on herself

As a player of mine wants to play a paladin in my new group, he looked for an optimal classical build. While the archetype from the books looks like she wields a full plate, longsword and heavy shield, we wondered why she uses the heavy shield. It is very impractical for the lay on hands ability, as you always have to use an action to either get your shield off, or get your weapon sheathed.

If you have played a paladin, tell me from your expirience the solution to this situation.

Our party just hit an unhallowed site last playing sessions, and we were wondering if there is a way to dispel it.

Thank You!

Hello!

Can an Alchemist combine Force Bomb and Frost Bomb into a single bomb?