Charlie Bell's page

Please reach out to those with degrees in Philosophy (particularly logic) and English who play. I can name quite a few. We need more consistent language to avoid those RAW vs. RAI arguments. Hopefully some of the great work done in Starfinder will rub off into PF 2.0!

...or a good lawyer! We have that same skill set.

Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.

But also, I hope PF2E does the following:

1. Jettison any complexity that gets in the way of play. The challenges in the game should be bugbears and green slimes, not navigating the rules!
2. Fix character creation. Make the PC rules robust enough that it's virtually impossible to create either a) a PC so gimped they can't contribute, or b) a PC so powerful they overshadow the whole group. You are smart designers and can figure out ways to differentiate without making them all mechanically identical! Get rid of trap options, feat taxes, and must-haves like Power Attack. Get rid of things that make 1 statistic do the work of multiple stats (e.g. oradin Cha shenanigans)... but let statistics do the work they should (e.g. rogue weapons should work using Dex without Weapon Finesse/Fencing Grace/Dervish Dance/etc.). Never make a class wait until mid-levels to "come online" - classes should function as envisioned from 1st level (e.g. druid shapeshifting).
3. Fix high-level play: get rid of the buff-stacking and rocket-tag games.
4. Give us a robust conversion document so we can easily convert past content to PF2E.
4b. Make that conversion document robust enough that the community can convert and share past PFS content converted to 2E, and run it for credit. Don't abandon the old content! Crowdsource conversion so your PFS designers aren't trying to tackle it alone.
5. Don't try to make adversaries play by PC rules. There are some things boss monsters need that should never, ever be in PC hands. In particular, absolute immunities (e.g. freedom of movement) and things that affect action economy (haste, dazes, etc.) should be really, really hard for PCs to get.
6. Fix magic items. No magic item should ever be "required" for a PC's "build" to function. Make magic items feel special again. Put control over magic item acquisition back in the GM's hands, not the PCs'. It sounds like you've got a great start already on this one.

I've been with PF since alpha, but in the last couple years I have largely moved on to other games. If your team can pull off these things, you stand a great chance of getting back my business and time. I'm rooting for you!

I wonder if Starfinder will be to Pathfinder what Star Wars Saga Edition was to 4th Edition--an experiment with new mechanics as prelude to a new edition of the core product.

CALLED IT in 2016 :D

You had me at "verbally sniping" with Zarta Dralneen.

Runelords is the definitive classic AP. About as railroady as you would expect from the archetypal AP.

I just bought Owen's RGG Bundle. 200 PDFs for $30 is great. Downloading each PDF one at a time on My Downloads? Not so great.

I'd like a way to download multiple files in one big batch rather than downloading singly. Maybe through a check box mechanism that would batch watermark them and put them in one big zip file.

Another solid option would be a button to deliver the file to a Dropbox account instead of downloading it directly. As an example, DTRPG/RPGNow has this function, which I find quite handy.

Finally, fwiw, the thing that auto-initiates a download after 5 seconds is annoying. I don't want to automatically download a thing to my default downloads folder, I want to right click a link to download it to the place I keep all my Pathfinder stuff. The auto download function makes me either cancel it or navigate to a different folder every time. Which is not a problem if I'm downloading 1 file. If I'm downloading a whole AP, or Owen's RGG bundle, a bunch of extra fiddling for each download gets old fast.

I wonder if Starfinder will be to Pathfinder what Star Wars Saga Edition was to 4th Edition--an experiment with new mechanics as prelude to a new edition of the core product.

The rest of my graduating class is now 20 years younger than I am. #level20problems #createdemiplanegreater #timelessplanartrait #allthetimeintheworld

Lost initiative. #level20problems #notevenonce

6 staves and only 1 glove of storing #level20problems

Beat random encounter. Accidentally the whole ecosystem. #level20problems

Rumors of my demise are, sadly, no longer exaggerated.

Dervish Dancing shocking grasp magus with a string of pearls of power
Kitsune fey sorc
Any zen archer

Go asymmetric, go Hard Mode. Rogue and stealth pull/kill all the things a la original Baldur's Gate.

Crypt of the Everflame is the classic new players' module.

bye felicia

Well at least the fixed the prices of the Mithral Pot and Mithral Waffle Iron.

Ninja'd so hard. That mithral waffle iron has really caused some serious disruption in my game.

:p

Even under Run As Written, GMs have the leeway to softball scenarios for an effective easy mode--far more leeway to make it easier, in fact, than to make it harder. That's why hard mode is useful and easy mode is not.

Yes please, somebody live tweet or FB post this! GREEN BLOOD! BLACK ROCK!

This entire thread is a catastrophic case of people talking past one another. Note to self: Alignment threads BAD.

Would you say that alignment threads are... [evil]? YEEEAAAAHHHHH

Charlie Bell wrote:

b) WBL wasn't a constraint, and c) no custom magic items, spells, etc.

Okay, here's another chain-gate, if this isn't an issue.

Grab an N/I number of candles of invocation with a lawful good alignment (Core Rulebook, any page). Follow the instructions I wrote in my first chain-gate post in this thread. ENJOY~! :D

You couldn't activate all the candles yourself in time, but your 163 followers +cohort could each gate-burn one. That'd give you enough of a head start on the power curve to get it done.

I'm amused that objective morality would shatter anyone's verisimilitude in a game with literal gods and demons.

There are essentially 2 methods. 1) stopping the nukes, 2) protecting the targets.

1) 15,000 nukes / 30 rounds = 500 nukes per round. Impossible under given parameters. About as close as you could get would be if you had max Leadership, 163 followers +1 cohort, all of a race with flight and rings of telekinesis. You spend all your rounds teleporting them into low orbit to use their rings of telekinesis to kinetic kill the nukes and hope fratricide will destroy more than one nuke per follower per round. Problematic because 3 minutes remaining means that the nukes are way close to detonation, therefore more dispersed geographically, so fratricide is less likely. Also fallout would prob still wipe out all life, it'd just take longer.

2) 15,000 nukes with MIRV warheads = 15k x ?? targets. Also impossible.

But tbh reacting to a worst case scenario is not how wizards operate. Preventing it is. The earlier you can prevent, the easier it is. For instance, the followers-with-rings-of-telekinesis kinetic kill tactic works much better if you can hit them at launch, thus destroying the other nukes that haven't yet been launched from each launch site. Also less problem with fallout in that case because launch sites tend to be fairly remote, afaik. Even easier if you can get them before launch; it doesn't take much imagination to see how something as simple as charm person in the right place could prevent the whole mess.

Judaeo-Christian view of Good and Evil ...

Being surprised to find JC-based morality in Pathfinder and similar games is like being surprised to find warp drive in Star Trek games or samurai in L5R.

It's true that PF and its D&D forebears were grounded in JC (and, as I called out upthread, Aristotelean) concept of evil as a perversion of good.

It's also true that PF is equally grounded in classical and Norse mythology, and, e.g., Moorcock, which represent a much more dualistic view of good and evil.

This tension is evident in the alignment system. Because culturally we are more intuitively familiar with the tropes of the JC concept of evil (easy temptation, difficult redemption), we find certain aspects of the dualistic alignment system... perhaps unsatisfying? Insufficient? Counterintuitive? Bottom line, they cut against some fundamental cultural assumptions.

Nonetheless, dualism (especially as a corollary of polytheism) makes for great heroic fantasy. Good vs. evil, the stuff of legend. Adventuring isn't interesting if you know the side of the angels always wins in the end, right?

IMO, I find the game most satisfying under an approach that combines the two. Start with the core dualistic approach, and all it entails, but deal with alignment changes based on the JC approach. You can have angels enlisting bold heroes to fight against the demons, and also Faustian temptations and diabolical bargains. This approach is possible under the rules because they are mostly silent on the topic of alignment changes.

It has to do with the CR system. For a bruiser type monster, having a lower BAB allows it to have a higher STR score for the same expected to-hit value, meaning it also has higher damage. Having a smaller hit die allows it to have a higher Con for the same hp value, which also increases Fort saves. If you had full BAB and larger hit die, you'd need lower STR and CON scores, which would drive down your damage per hit and Fort saves. Take a look at Table: Monster Statistics by CR and it will make more sense.

I think the discombobulation over aligned spells comes from the basically Aristotelean and Judeo-Christian idea of evil as a deviation from good, rather than a thing with its own independent existence. PF evil is the latter because PF alignment is a dualistic system. So you have this common trope of the moral temptation of power that is modelled quite well by casting evil spells being an evil act. But it seems counterintuitive that casting good spells would tempt you to the side of good, because culturally we tend to see good as what you get tempted away from, not toward. Evil is easy. Good is hard.

Kobold Cleaver: I submit that the very high standard Superman who would rather die than kill Zod isn't good at all, if not killing Zod means Zod is going to go kill other people. That's squeamishness, not good. It's an example of the fluffy Hollywood morality like "if you don't do what I say their deaths will be on your hands" and the hero actually morally agrees with that preposterous statement.

Funny how alignment threads pop up and suddenly everybody's an ethicist. Game morality has about as much to do with real world morality as game physics does with real physics.

One man's homebrew is another man's RPGSS or Wayfinder entry.

I used to homebrew more, but as I've grown older and more involved in my professions, I have less time to do so. That's why I mainly do APs and PFS. The quality is there and it's pre-packaged, so it cuts down on how much I need to come up with on my own. Even so, when running (or playing!) an AP, I'll usually come up with some of my own content, even if it's just a magic item or spell. Or I'll come up with some mechanic to fill a hole in the rules.

I am a little leery of homebrew races, because a race implies that somewhere in the game world there's a bunch of these people running around and somehow you've never heard of them until just now. It's not impossible to fit a homebrew race into an existing world, but it does take some shoehorning; sometimes I'm willing to do that and other times not so much.

The higher point buy you use, the less powerful summoned creatures are by comparison.

At lower point buys, they are effectively more powerful.

Original Crane Wing!

I'd dig it. Maybe even narrow it a step further, to Armies of the Inner Sea, with four-page sections on 10 or so nations and their forces, and an appendix of Golarion-flavored class and rules options that shine in kingdom building and mass combat. Hell, eight pages on whatever's going on between Molthune and Nirmathas would make it worth it for me.

See my articles in Wayfinder #11 and the upcoming Wayfinder #15 for 4-page entries for Cheliax (in #11) and the River Kingdoms (in #15).

I'll keep writing them as long as Tim keeps printing them!

My dream freelance assignment would be to collaborate with Brandon Hodge on a book full of Golarion armies, including both Mass Combat rules stat blocks and troop subtype stat blocks for various nations' forces.

Fortune's Blight.
Elven Entanglement's reputation is imo not entirely deserved.

If you think deBeers ads for engagement rings drove up diamond prices, think about how they'd rise if they could actually bring the dead back to life.

10k gp diamond in that market is probably tiny, brown, and murky.

Being decapitated still kills you, even if you instantly get a replacement head (and it's not at all clear from the cheetah flips you want the spell text to do that it actually can make a phantom head).

You are decapitated and die > contingency triggers > instantaneously casts phantom limb.

not

You are decapitated > contingency triggers > instantaneously casts phantom limb > you would die but don't.

Because die happens at the same time as decapitated.

I really should do a blog post about this so I can link to it somewhere...

Basically what you need to do is find some way to perform these steps:
1. Get the image out of the PDF
2. Scale the image appropriately
3. Print the image out on a bunch of sheets of paper

It's a little harder than it should be; Photoshop, for example, doesn't like printing a single image across multiple sheets. And not all of the maps are easy to extract, depending on season and scenario.

My strategy was mostly developed by my wife:
1. Get a good, high-res copy of the image. This is a lot easier on the newer scenarios; prior seasons have some problems. With new scenarios, you can right click, copy, and paste into an image editing application; if you have problems, you can get a specialized image extraction tool, or zoom in in Acrobat and use the screenshot (maybe snapshot?) utility under the Edit menu.
2. Save this copy as a new image. PNG works well as it's lossless; JPG can serve okay if the quality is at maximum.
3. OPTIONAL: edit out secret doors, labels, etc. when appropriate
4. Open up a spreadsheet application, Excel or LibreOffice Calc
5. Set width and height of every column to be about 1 inch; I usually do a little larger, 1.1 inches
6. Import the image from #2 and stretch it until the grid on the map matches the grid you've created on the cells
7. Print!

OPTIONAL
8. Trim off whitespace
9. Laminate sheets
10. Tape together in such a way that the map can be folded up for transport. Packing tape is pretty good for this. Stay away from invisible tape.

The big hack--and also timesaver--is in using the spreadsheet application to print a big image across multiple sheets of paper. It's dumb, but they're way better at that than almost anything else, and it's also a handy way to make sure your image is the right size. An alternate approach would be to convert the image to PDF and then print like that, but I find that takes more time than it saves.

And one final note: if you can print at tabloid size, your...

The technique I use is to paste the image into Powerpoint, turn on the grid, and scale the map squares to it. Once you get the image sized right, you:

I like the idea of a tie-in to the summer hardcover. So for this summer's Ultimate Intrigue, why not a city-based intrigue type adventure? Obviously nothing too in depth due to the short time limit, but certainly you could do a short murder mystery, or stop the king's assassination type scenario. Those always have good opportunities for skills and roleplay, and if you design them well, enough combat.

It may go without saying, but low level--nothing higher than 3--works best for Free RPG Day adventures. Players have enough on their hands learning the basics of the game without having to learn mid-level class abilities.

And Free RPG Day should be, if anything, easier than normal. Risen From the Sands was way beyond the appropriate level of difficulty.

Depends on your perspective. I was an artilleryman, so my job was to shoot the enemy from far enough away that they couldn't shoot back. If they were shooting back, I wasn't doing my job well enough. Hitting something you can't see with indirect fire is enough of a challenge that I always found it pretty interesting.

For sure, RPG fights are usually more fun if the odds are a little closer. But of course, some RPG fights are extremely lopsided when one side has some overwhelming tactical advantage like flight. You don't want that all the time, but it's not always bad. Season to taste, I suppose.

But the idea that good guys are supposed to fight "fair," when "fair" means letting the bad guys get their licks in, is an extremely naive view of life or death combat.

Boomerang Nebula, a great deal of warfare centers on putting yourself in a position such that you can destroy the enemy without them being able to destroy you back. There's nothing evil or dishonorable about that unless you are a total pacifist. In fact, there's a term for exactly the idea we're discussing--the ability to attack the enemy from the air when the enemy has no ability to attack your aircraft. It's called air supremacy, and most modern nations will not send in ground forces unless they have it.

This is a matter of personal preference, but I like a game in which flight doesn't become an option until much higher level. But that isn't this game.

Crane Wing was nerfed because people complained that it allowed you easily to beat any enemy that had only one attack.

Flight is much worse. It allows you easily to beat any enemy that can't fly and doesn't have ranged attacks.

Likelihood of fly getting changed? Zero. It's too tied into legacy. But it's definitely pushing the boundary of too good for 5th level.

I concur and support this request. Increased availability of class skills makes a broader variety of character concepts possible and helps prevent niche characters from dominating certain kinds of non-combat encounters.

I'm with you. You can pick and choose what you want to use in your games. There are two conditions where it's more of an issue. 1) Organized play, where if you are GMing and not running Core, players may show up with some weird thing you don't know about, because there's so much out there it's impossible to have an encyclopedic knowledge of every feat, archetype, alchemical item, etc. This is mitigated by the Core campaign and the rule that players must have source material on hand. 2) If you are GMing for a player that insists you allow any player option. This is an extremely common sentiment among players, especially on these boards.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you are a fairly new or inexperienced GM. That's not a bad thing--in fact, it's a great thing, because we need more people to step up and GM. But you may have bitten off more than you can chew with high level play. I would guess that your campaign either started at higher levels or that your PCs have leveled up quickly. They might also be over WBL, using a high point buy or a generous stat rolling method, or be using some other high power rules like mythic. Or there might be more than 5-6 players. Any of this sound familiar?

The issue is the game gets difficult to balance and run at higher levels. The CR system breaks down. PCs outgrow their limitations, gaining formidable offenses and defenses.

1. Every fight feels like a boss fight.
If this is what you're shooting for, go ahead. But maybe consider bringing it down a notch. This is only half your responsibility; if you are in an arms race with the PCs, the other half is their fault. Run a good mix of encounters: some below APL, others near APL, some above APL. If your players find it too easy, they should dial back their super-builds so that the game is challenging again. It's blindingly easy to build characters that can roflstomp CR=APL encounters; IMO, it's more fun to play characters that don't. Your players will either enjoy the roflstomp or adjust their playstyles.

As for worrying about them having enough XP to face the CR 21 boss, if they're easily beating CR19s, don't worry about it. They'll be fine, and if they aren't fine, well, that's what raise dead is for.

2. I need to be constantly reminded of PC abilities.
This is not your job, it's theirs.

3. I announce things but not all players hear me, sometimes no one hears me and they deny I ever said it, making me question if I said it at all.
What the GM says is your only way of knowing what is going on. If they don't listen when you talk, don't repeat yourself. Move on. You wouldn't talk over a judge in a courtroom, don't talk over a GM at the table. I'm not above a stern reminder if I think players aren't paying attention to me.

4. I forget abilities of my own monsters.
High level problem, also partially a Herolab problem (though I love HL and couldn't play without it these days). I recommend printing your statblocks and highlighting things you need to remember. Sticky notes or index cards on your screen also help. Sometimes you just forget, and that's OK, happens to the best of us. Don't rewind, just fix it going forward: "dang, I forgot this monster has a gaze attack. Starting next round, everybody needs to make saves."

5. I hide all of my rolls, sometimes I roll for a PC and they don't like it.
Players are not supposed to have all the information. You are. This is your prerogative. "one player refused to tell me his AC so I just started to use what was on my copy of his character sheet and gave him the damage and he refused to take it." < This would get that player booted from my table in a heartbeat. That's not only cheating, it's flaunting it in front of the whole table.

6. I'm too slow.
Trim down the props to what you can manage. Personally, I'd start by cutting the sounds and music. They don't add enough to the game to warrant the constant attention they require. The fact that you assigned them to a player and he isn't keeping up with them should tell you that they aren't that important to your players.
Also, use analog battle tracking. HP tracking in HL is great for a PC, not so great if you have 4 monsters who you constantly need to switch back and forth. I just write it out on index cards. That also saves you the trouble of putting in the base numbers every time, since you can just line through the last set of monster hp on your card and reuse the same base numbers.
When rolling monster saves vs. AoEs, just roll as many d20s as you need and arbitrarily pick which one goes with which monster before applying their save bonuses. The players need never know.
PROTIP: have the encounters in HL open in advance. Use breaks to open the next few encounters. You can open multiple instances of HL if you open portfolios from Explorer rather than the menus in HL.
Bottom line: just because you HAVE all these digital tools, doesn't mean you have to USE all their capabilities if that's not what works best for you.

7. If I create my own monster, or create my own ability they feel cheated.
I have no sympathy for the players here. If they have a problem with this, they should step up and GM.
I loved the old 3.5 mob rules. PF has similar rules for building swarms (swarm subtype in Bestiary) and troops (troop subtype blog post).

In conclusion, sounds like you are suffering from high-level-itis. High level play is not completely untenable, but it is more difficult to manage. I would recommend starting back at level 1 after this campaign is finished, and using a medium or slow XP track so you don't rocket to the high levels so fast. That gives you more time to get acquainted with and adjust to the increasing power levels of both your PCs and monsters.

Unfortunately, I had to skip most of the Gallowspire fights. But they are well-built enough to stand on their own.

I did revamp the ravener fight--added the giant simple template so I could use the Gargantuan ravener Battles mini for it. My best recommendation for all of Adorak is to remember and enforce the windstorm-level wind effects. They have zero impact on the ravener and the nightwings due to their size, and zero impact on the incorporeal undead because they're incorporeal, but the winds severely hamper PC ranged attacks and flight.

My wife's PC died in Renchurch. She was a life oracle. I had the haunt that she turned into basically do a reverse life link. It established a life link with one PC each round, and every round siphoned 5 hp from every linked PC. It became a race to do more positive energy damage to the haunt than she could recover as her ability to recover hp increased with every life link she established.

I love the soul haunting effect--what a great, thematic way to ramp up the difficulty and tension in what should by rights be a seriously deadly location.

I've established a lodge in the Kho-Rarne Pass. This location should afford me ample opportunities to continue my explorations of both Osirion and the Mwangi Expanse.

Also it's so remote the Decemvirate are unlikely to bother me there.

Elves get an Int bonus. Which means they will be more likely than most humans to make DC10 Knowledge checks for "common knowledge." The Int bonus accounts for the accumulated experience of their longer lives.

Me too. And also Fifth Element.

Charlie Bell wrote:

Critical Successes and Failures: For skill and ability checks, a roll of 20 is not an automatic success and a roll of 1 is not an automatic failure. If you roll a natural 20, it counts as if you had rolled a 30 on the d20. If you roll a natural 1, it counts as if you had rolled a -10.

You don't even really have to say the first line, as it's already not the case. "Automatic Failures and Success" is only listed in Attacks and Saving Throws, and doesn't apply to Skill and Ability score checks anyways.

If you wanted to boost skill and ability score checks, then you could have the 20=30 and 1=-10, but it's better than what's already in place.

.
I like the one-handed spear though! Seen that in multiple media (books, shows, etc).

Yeah, but so many people get confused about 20s and 1s on skill checks, I like to spell it out in house rules even though it's actually a book rule.