Changeling Jack's page

The Ritualist prestige class from the Player Companion: Chronicle of Legends is really cool, as I've been wanting to play an occult ritual-focused character for a while. Its fifth level ability, expedited rituals, reads thusly:

The confusion that I'm having comes from the fact that the level of the ritual is equal to the number of checks required, and the casting time is equal to 10 minutes, or 1 hour, times the ritual level.

If you have to make one skill check per time period, what benefit does the expedited rituals class ability give? Do we just assume that the very last skill check is performed at the very beginning of its 10-minute casting block and you get to shave off those last 10 minutes?

I've done that, it just doesn't look great. Also that sketch of Karzoug's head in the mountain looks like the lovechild of Sinestro and Beavis and I can't unsee it.

Does anybody know of a clean (no outer page/table of contents information on the side), large version of the map of Xin-Shalast? I have the map folio and the interactive PDF from the digital AE, But I have no way to display it for my players that really shows the scale well. I'm hoping to put it up on my television via PS4 during tomorrow's session.

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere, but I didn't find clear answers after combing the boards.

A question about permanent and temporary ability score bonuses of a non-stacking type (say, enhancement bonuses) and odd ability scores:

If a creature with an odd-numbered ability score has an odd-numbered permanent bonus to that ability score (resulting in an even-numbered ability score and a higher ability score modifier), and then gains a higher, even-numbered temporary bonus of the same (non-stacking) type to that ability score, "For every two points of increase to a single ability," does the creature "apply a +1 bonus to the skills and statistics listed with the relevant ability", or does the fact that the permanent enhancement bonus is already providing an overall numeric increase override the "+1 bonus to skills and statistics" that the temporary enhancement bonus would normally give?

(note: I am aware that enhancement bonuses should normally be an even amount, but I'm trying to write a formula in a custom character spreadsheet that can handle uncommon situations)

Example:

Strength score 11 (+0 modifier) +1 permanent enhancement bonus =

Strength score 12 (+1 modifier) +2 temporary enhancement bonus (which does not stack with the permanent +1 enhancement bonus, but as it is a higher bonus, it would then supersede it) =

Strength score 12 (+1 modifier), with a +1 bonus to Strength-based skills and statistics

or is it just:

Strength score 12 (+1 modifier)?

To further clarify what it is that I am trying to puzzle out here, if:

Strength score 10 (+0 modifier) +1 permanent enhancement bonus =

Strength score 11 (+0 modifier) +2 temporary enhancement bonus (which does not stack with the permanent +1 enhancement bonus, but as it is a higher bonus, it would then supersede it) =

Strength score 11 (+0 modifier), with a +1 bonus to Strength-based skills and statistics

not:

Strength score 11 (+0 modifier)

I am working on a Shattered Star Weal or Woe article submission this week. Sorry if it seems like I'm stealing your idea, Isabelle. It's the only one of the APs I am familiar with and/or not currently playing in and avoiding spoilers.

This is James Jacobs game and it's one of the hottest tickets, I think. I asked about the experience requirement in his thread and he said that it's only important to be an experienced role player. He said the rules are simpler and it's not necessary to have CoC experience.

If you don't want to play, though, you'll have no trouble trading this for another high demand game.

That is great news, thank you. I will keep the event and devour the quickstart rulebook in the days leading up to it.

So, I signed up for and won a lottery event (Night of the Crimson Moon) without realizing that it is a game system with which I am completely unfamiliar (Call of Cthulhu), and experience required is veteran (The quickstart rules are 50 pages long so I couldn't even fake it). I thought I had it sorted to only Pathfinder RPG games. I've put up a trade for it, so far with no takers, and no one else has created a trade looking for it. Worst case scenario, is there a way to drop the event to free it up, or give it to someone else who really wanted to win it in the lottery?

On the topic of this particular game (not trying to step on anyones toes or anything mind you), By a show of hands, who among you already have a concept of where you are going with your Eidolon? I have read a few of the backgrounds and see that some have even decided on what it will look like and so on. I was just curious on how far you have planned out your characters and Eidolons in advance.

I personally want to "play it by ear" so to speak... I am really interested to see (if selected anyway) how my character grows through this campaign and was thinking of determining its form and abilities through RP experience. I am curious if anyone else had a similar idea of if you have a map of what you want by the end of the campaign.

I have my Eidolon written out to 20th, feats and all. Not saying I don't think I'll end up having to change half of it, but I built it, with evolutions, to resemble the outsider of which it is an aspect.

Yeah it's going to take me some time to differentiate the two.

When you date things, the timing on all the failed APs was the year they were released. So, 4706 for Karzoug's release (AP from 2006), 4710 for Carrion Crown (released in 2010), etc.

Deriku was the poor dead kid son of a b+@#& that Shinoro pretended to be so people would not know that he was a general for an undead-spewing fiend-king. That guy's probably living it up in Ustalav.

The Backstory has been polished, and the Personality has also received a cursory buff.

Deriku: I should have seen this coming from you. I just should have. It looks great, I love the attention to detail with the Shoanti tribe, you nailed all the information and setting; meshed it very well with the Ruins timeline.

Keep in mind that this is Deriku and not Shinoro Nanohana. No crazy snaky harems, no band-saws, no throwing wives out windows even if they deserved it.

I said this in the last post, but I will be working on the backstory for him a bit so that it is cleaner. And with fewer giants maybe, for variety. Maybe a date or two for reference.

Garret Wilson The Keep (Half Elf spear guy)

Aemelya The Survivor (Fetchling Orphan)

Zanithane The Lost (Tiefling slave)

Anlessa Kowan The Survivor (Human Runaway)

Alyona Elvanna The Betrayal (Human evil princess)

Yaz The Tangled Briar (Half-orc, raised by orcs)

Vathan The Forge (Aasimar prisoner)

Madai The Twins (Human varisian with imaginary friend)

Cassandra norst The Eclipse (changeling adoptee with teddy bear)

Shen Hua The Dance (Human bastard princess of Tian Ja)

Taeo Oneshape The Joke (Aasimar fey born)

======================

Think I got everyone. Let me know if I missed you or misrepresented your character. I didn't read them all in detail.

Why everyone forget Deriku? Deriku's tears are once again flowing like waterfalls.

@Robert Also, I'm going to polish that backstory up a lot. Same basic idea, just more gooder.

Fiiiiine I'll write up a character. No archetypes for this guy. Maybe.

I take it there has been no movement on this front? I would really like these files for my ownself.

Changeling Jack wrote:

I am going to run an NPC (stop reading here, Lucent, I know your tricks) in my upcoming RotR campaign, or possibly Shattered Star. The plan is this: A pre-collapse Thassalonian Inquisitor (Sin Eater) of Lissala. He is lawful good, coming from a time when his sect of her church was combating the slide from the Seven Virtues of Rule to the Seven Mortal Sins. When he arrives in the modern day, his deity is now lawful evil. He adds the Heretic archetype so he can continue to gain levels in inquisitor.

The question is, Being a LG Heretic of a LE deity/philosophy, can he cast spells with the Good descriptor?

Thanks much.

That's pretty far-off from canon and the world assumptions that Lissala is an evil deity, so you're firmly in the home-brew realm at this point, so do what's right for your game. That said, it's not your deity that determines if you can cast good spells as much as it is your alignment.

I may have mislead myself with older ambiguous quotes about Lissala and her relationship with the Seven Virtues of Rule and the Thassilonian slide into venerating the negative sides (Sins) of those Virtues.

So she was always evil?

[Edited for typo]

I am going to run an NPC (stop reading here, Lucent, I know your tricks) in my upcoming RotR campaign, or possibly Shattered Star. The plan is this: A pre-collapse Thassalonian Inquisitor (Sin Eater) of Lissala. He is lawful good, coming from a time when his sect of her church was combating the slide from the Seven Virtues of Rule to the Seven Mortal Sins. When he arrives in the modern day, his deity is now lawful evil. He adds the Heretic archetype so he can continue to gain levels in inquisitor.

The question is, Being a LG Heretic of a LE deity/philosophy, can he cast spells with the Good descriptor?

Thanks much.

Ego Shroud
Aura moderate varied; CL 11th
Slot none, body; Price 60,000 gp; Weight 5 lbs.

This embroidered cloth-of-silver band can suppress the mind of an evil item, making it safe to transport, or, usurp.

Upon wrapping one medium or smaller evil, intelligent magic item in an ego shroud, the wielder must make a Will save against that item’s Ego score. Failure means that the intelligent item shrugs off the effects of the shroud, rendering it useless for 24 hours. An item with a special purpose gains a +4 bonus to its Ego to resist this activation. An item that is aware of the shroud’s properties may do anything in its power to avoid being enshrouded. An ego shroud has no effect on artifacts.

A character gains no negative levels for wielding an evil item while it is successfully shrouded, and can activate its powers normally as though it were a non-intelligent magic item of the same type. She can also activate any available intelligent item power, though each try requires another Will save. Failure has the same consequences as failing the initial enshroudment of the item, as well as afflicting the wielder with the appropriate number of negative levels for holding the item.

If used to enshroud a melee weapon, the wielder cannot deal damage with that weapon without also damaging the shroud, which has a hardness of 5 and 5 Hit Points.

Alternately, when worn on the body, an ego shroud grants a non-evil wearer a +2 resistance bonus on saves and a +2 deflection bonus to AC. If the wearer has a personality conflict with any intelligent item, she may roll her Will save twice and take the better result.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, antimagic field, magic circle against evil; Cost 30,000 gp

P.S. I realize I should have posted this earlier (before the new round of judging), but I am both lazy and forgetful, which is not the subject upon which I wish to be critiqued. The item, though, you can critique in whatever way seems most appropriate to its status as not good enough. I'm just funnin'.

Dear James:

Do you ever find it weird that your first name is the Greek version of your last name?

:D

I agree, the arisen Angel (anti-Fallen Angel) is extremely important, but I'm not so sure about the 5 wings or fire. Obviously fire is part of his heritage, but otherwise basically no mention of this at all in anything I've read, and he does not have any cleric related influence over fire.

The five-wings thing is mentioned in his very short blurb in Inner See World Guide (page 234) "This five-winged being..."

The firy part is from Faiths of Purity, where he gets a whole paragraph on page 21. "Your colors are red and silver, with flame-colored ornament or sigil worn somewhere on your body". There's also what looks like a prayer/incantation there that would read like "May Ragathiel's eyes fall upon you, and his wings shield you."

So that is what I was basing it on. Not a lot to go on, I know.

But thank you everyone for your many nice words!

I interpret "respect legitimate authority" as "I won't resist the local officers of the law (and similar) if they question me, fine me, or arrest me".

I don't interpret it as "as long as the laws were created by someone with legitimate power, I have to follow those laws".

Why? Because following the second interpretation and following your other codes of conduct can very easily conflict. Say a law in an NE society says you have to sacrifice a slave every year. The paladin can't do that and remain a paladin, so he has to break that law.

That does make good sense.

Except for when you are arrested and executed for killing a corrupt guardsman.

I see it thusly: If you'd known the local laws, you could have used them against the society trying you for guardsman-murder, and by using their own laws against them prove yourself to be innocent.

I have a feeling I'm not presenting my point very well, sorry.

Plausible deniability for when they violate the laws?

I like it.

Lucent, that's what I'm doing. You will rue this day.

It just seemed to me that, as a class morally bound to "respect legitimate authority," the paladin would as a matter of course receive training in the only Knowledge skill that applies to the laws of the land. I realize that as a religious institution they are not a policing force, and have no legitimate authority in a realm (unless it is a theocracy of their specific faith, I suppose).

It seems like working for a hamburger joint, as a grill cook, and not learning how to shape the meaf into patties. "Just put them on the grill and roast 'em, Son, that's all you need to know."

Paladins, which are champions of good and law, have access to Knowledge (religion), which covers their good, but not Knowledge (local) which covers laws? Here's a link to the skill description:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/skills/knowledge.html#_knowledge

Wouldn't it make a whole lot of sense is paladins were trained in the laws of the society they are operating in, in order to distinguish between legitimate rulership and, say, corrupt policemanship?

Hello, all. I made this holy symbol of Ragathiel for a peri-blooded aasimar paladin of Ragathiel I'll be playing in Council of Thieves (Yes, I know that this is a terrible idea).

He is described very little (he has "five fiery wings"), and his holy symbol even less (his followers wear "a fiery holy symbol"). Since he is the child of Dispater and an unnamed goddess of the plane of fire, I saw him as a sort of reverse fallen angel. And since seraphs are angels with six wings, in my imaginings he had six but lost one doing something suitably epic, like beating up one of those creepy fez-guys with the dancing monkey and the organ-grinder.

So, the idea of this holy symbol is to represent his six wings, with one of them missing, and instead of outright fiery, I went with just red (because I made it in MS Paint and am not good at it). So, with no further distractions, here are the two versions I came up with:

Star of Ragathiel

Star of Ragathiel with Flourish

Sorry I can't figure out how to display them directly. The second one kind of makes me think of a Gothic stained glass window.

What do you think?

I had similar fears, but didn't know which bugs to work out or how. Take 2 is more closely modeled on the thassilonian schools of magic, like the wizard specialization. I changed it to only being able to pick one "thassilonian focus school", and like the wizard specializations, your prohibited schools are chosen for you.

So, here's take 2:

Thassilonian Magus
A thassilonian magus can eschew knowledge of spellcasting in order to expand their arcane pool. By focusing their mind on one of the archetypal thassilonian “schools” of magic and shedding knowledge of its prohibited schools, the magus’ arcane pool is increased by the amount listed in the focus school’s description.

A thassilonian magus can never prepare a spell that is in a prohibited school—he treats these spells as if they were not on the magus spell list. If using a spell trigger or spell completion item to cast a spell from a prohibited school, he must use the Use Magic Device skill to do so.

As an immediate action, when targeted by a spell from one of their taboo schools, a magus can expend 1 point from their arcane pool to gain a bonus on that save equal to their Intelligence modifier.

A magus may only have one school focus.

Envy Focus: An envy magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 4 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are evocation and necromancy.
Gluttony Focus: A gluttony magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 7 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are abjuration and enchantment.
Greed Focus: A greed magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 6 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are enchantment and illusion.
Lust Focus: A lust magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 2 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are necromancy and transmutation.
Pride Focus: A pride magus increases their arcane pool by 1 arcane point for every magus level he possesses. Their prohibited schools are conjuration and transmutation.
Sloth Focus: A sloth magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 3 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are evocation and illusion.
Wrath Focus: A wrath magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 5 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are abjuration and conjuration.

[/end of all that]

Does that seem any better mechanically, while keeping with the theme of monk vows for magi?

Thanks

Hello, all. I’ve been working on a magus version of monk vows, and would appreciate an unbiased opinion. The restriction is to a specific school of magic, as though the magus had a wizard’s specialized school (or, closer, the thassilonian wizard’s prohibited school). I did not remove a magus class ability as a monk with vows loses the still mind class feature.

I counted the amount of magus spells, per school, from all books, and tallied them up. Based on the amount of spells a magus would no longer be able to access by picking one of those schools as taboo, I increased the amount of points to their arcane pool. I don't know how to make a nifty table on here, so I will list my number haphazardly below:

School: 0th/1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th/6th - total - percentage
Abjuration: 0/4/0/2/3/0/1 - 10 - 5%
Conjuration: 1/7/9/4/5/6/3 - 35 - 17%
Divination: 2/1/1/2/0/0/1 - 7 - 3%
Enchantment: 1/1/2/0/0/0/0 - 4 - 2%
Evocation: 5/6/11/9/12/4/5 - 52 - 26%
Illusion: 1/4/4/2/2/1/1 - 15 - 7%
Necromancy: 1/1/1/2/0/0/0 - 5 - 2%
Transmutation: 2/15/13/15/7/10/12 - 74 - 37%

Based on this nonsense, I humbly developed the following rules for your review:

Magus Taboos
A magus can eschew knowledge of spellcasting in order to expand their arcane pool. By selecting a school of magic as taboo, the magus’ arcane pool is increased by the amount listed in the taboo school’s description.

A taboo magus can never prepare a spell that is in a taboo school—he treats these spells as if they were not on the magus spell list. A magus must attempt to save against spells and spell effects from his taboo school, even if those effects are harmless or beneficial. A taboo magus that makes a successful save against a spell takes reduced or secondary effects as normal. If using a spell trigger or spell completion item to cast a spell from a taboo school, he must use the Use Magic Device skill to do so.

As an immediate action, when targeted by a spell from one of their taboo schools, a magus can expend 1 point from their arcane pool to gain a bonus on that save equal to their Intelligence modifier (based on other magus arcana, this seemed too weak to make into its own arcana, so I made it a base ability).

A magus may have multiple taboos. Their effects and increase to their arcane pool stack.

Abjuration Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 6 magus levels (minimum +0).
Conjuration Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 3 magus levels (minimum +0).
Divination Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 7 magus levels (minimum +0).
Enchantment Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 8 magus levels (minimum +0).
Evocation Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 2 magus levels (minimum +0).
Illusion Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 6 magus levels (minimum +0).
Necromancy Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 8 magus levels (minimum +0).
Transmutation Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 arcane point for every magus level he possesses.

The taboos that give points every 8 levels were originally every 11 levels, but i figured no one would take them. Anyway. I would appreciate your thoughts, even if they are mean or stupid.

Thanks

Hit points!

I have a guy in my group who has 18 CON, is a fighter and has rolled "1" for hit points for levels 2,3,4 and last night 5! He has less hit points then the Wizard (16 CON). We have a policy that you roll in front of everyone and you get what you roll. The fighter is mechanically optimised in every way, but given his hp's he's just crap. Don't heal in combat the 'experts' say - well without the cleric dumping every thing on the fighter every round he goes down like a sack.

yada yada yada

Thoughts,
S.

I have only just now come up with an amalgamation of some of the models shown earlier in this thread that I will probably be using with my current campaign. Feel free to use/ignore this suggestion.

This gives the character a hit point roll of somewhere between 1/2 HD and full HD. The lowest possible is lower than an average roll on a die (in which an averaged d6 would be 3.5, and you can add up the point-fives when you get another one).

d6: 1d4+2 hp. Average = 3-6
d8: 2d3+2 hp. Average = 4-8
d10: 1d6+4 hp. Average = 5-10
d12: 2d4+4 hp. Average = 6-12

rolling a d3: assuming the player does not have one of those nifty six-sided d3s, the player rolls a d6, counts 1's, 2's and 3's as normal, but counts 4's as 1's, 5's as 2's, and 6's as 3's.

So that's that, hope somebody can get some use out of it.

- Jack