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Organized Play Member. 24 posts. 1 review. No lists. 1 wishlist. 3 Organized Play characters.


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Liz Courts wrote:
Now available!

Thanks, Liz!


Thank you, Liz!


Thank you, Liz!


Thank you, Liz!


My favorite that's developed recently is that if I, as the GM, make a pun or cheesy joke in or about the game, I get a piece of candy thrown at me. If it's a bad joke, I get it thrown at me hard.


Axolotl wrote:

I hear Abysmal Bloodline is just the pits...I'd choose Abyssal Bloodline. Abyssinian Bloodline is great, but it turns you into catfolk.

And you'd have to be MAD to do this sort of dip.

LOL! Word play, I love it.


xanthemann wrote:


I can't say I'm 'looking' for anything. This is more of a therapy session I guess. I mentioned the friendship the GM and I had was on and off for 30 years...I know I did the right thing, but it still weighs on me. (He's not heavy, he's my brother, kind of thing...I think I finally understand that saying...)

Addict may have been the wrong word, but most people understand what is meant. I know you understand Davor. I suppose I used the word 'addict' seeing as how 'committed' to the cause he was.

Hey, xanthemann, I feel you. When I said that we all know someone like that, I was speaking of a pretty close friend of mine. Similar situation, it hasn't been as extreme, but most of my other friends and I have had to distance ourselves because our priorities have changed. We've spoken to him about his gaming habits and his level of absorption. He's acknowledge us and our concerns, even agreed that he uses his gaming to ignore issues that he's left unresolved for years. But he won't seek help for these issues and continues to game life away, to the determent of his health and relationships.

I'm sorry that you're seeing a friend do the same thing but all that you can do is remind him that you care.


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Just as a fellow gamer, not as any kind of a professional, I think that there's nothing wrong with the call that you and this other player made.

My friends and I have a saying "Everything is more important than D&D, even D&D". The philosophy being that your life, your family, your job and even your gaming group are all more important than the game itself. Life happens and that needs to be respected. Without respect, you don't have friends and without friends, you don't have a group to game with. Even if you start as only acquaintances that play the same game, friendships grow from that and all the lastly gaming groups that I know of are made up of people that think of each other as friends.

Your GM that you left behind has a different set of priorities than you and this other player. His priorities are his own to have but to enforce them upon others is unfair at the very least. He's not respecting his players and the lives that they have chosen to live, possibly extending his perceived control within the game beyond the table and into the real world. Or at least trying to.

Does he have a problem? I would say so. Is there anything that you or another player can do about it? Not much. You can voice your concern as a friend, point out that you still would like to play with him but that his intolerant attitude makes that difficult. Beyond that friendly comment, you can't really do anything but take care of you and yours. Your GM might have an addiction, he might have a hang up on something else in his life that makes him absorb himself within RPGs and GMing, he might have a God Complex. I don't know him, I can't say. But that's for him to figure out and seek help if he feels he needs it. You can't solve his problem for him any more so than he can tell you to choose a game over your wife.

I hesitate to say it, but I think that we all have encountered someone that is like this with one game or another. It can be sad to lose a friend as you move on in life, leaving behind your friend at the game table. But truly, what can you do? As DM_aka_Dudemeister said:

DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
This is only a game after all.


Quote:
I actually hope that because i don't enjoy playing an evil character (or even neutral characters) that this will ruin them for me.

Put in your shoes, I would hope that doing this "un-ruins" evil and neutral characters for me, at least so far as I would open new options for me to have fun in the game while keeping the spirit of teamwork alive.

Teamwork is what keeps these games fun, as you build a story and, to a degree, a community that tells this story without actually having an opponent that you must defeat. Characters come and go. As long as the game stays fun and everyone is enjoying themselves, it's all in the name of good roleplaying.


Ok, I'm going to go completely against the grain here and say, I think that you have a great idea of how to close the book on your paladin here.

I played in a campaign where the opposite happened (the paladin and other good players abandoned the elven fighter/wizard in Undermountain, where he was turned into a vampire and became an NPC). The DM let the player run his former character, killing my cleric with his bloodthirsty vampire. In fact, his PC has turned into recurring NPC in all Undermountain games since.

What it looks like here is the classic "Rogue vs. Paladin" party conflict. Now, I haven't read your other post about the above mentioned events but I don't see why letting you have closure with your "beloved" character should cause party division. People above are saying that you're being childish by creating party conflict, which might be the case, but what I see is you're trying to conclude a story arc in a dramatic and interesting fashion. If you run this encounter as a guest GM, not as an angry player, I think that it has the potential to be a very memorable event. But all this depends on the motivation of both you and the other players in your group.

And hopefully concluding this will allow you to enjoy your next character.


Call me old school, I use a screen. And my reasoning for this is a little different than what I've heard from others that do. See, I roll "like a player".

In my experience, DMs that I've had roll low on average. I know, dice are random but my DMs roll poorly, like, 95% of the time. I can't explain it. Unlike them, I never lost my "player luck" and roll above 15s a good chunk of the time.

So, I use a screen so that I can fudge my rolls, and I always fudge in favor of the player. Last session alone, I rolled three critical hits, that confirmed, in a row against the same first level PC. On the flip side, none of my eight players could roll above a 5 for four rounds in a row. To me, crap happens and PCs die but who wants to play when the only one that can hit anything is the enemies and the PCs look like a joke.

Also, it's great for rolling those reactive checks that PCs make. I keep a note card for each PC that has all the modifiers for "reactive" checks(Perception, Sense Motive, Knowledges) behind the screen with me. Then, I roll dice constantly, playing it off as a nervous habit. This lets me roll checks for the PCs that the simple act of rolling them would contaminate "character knowledge" (Me:"Roll a Perception Check." Player rolls and fails. Me:"You don't notice anything." Player:"I search for traps.").

Also, good to keep books like Bestiaries behind so that players don't see what I'm running when I set the book down. Try as they might, even the nicest players meta-game when you throw temptation in their face.


Zippomcfry wrote:

Great advice to a rook;)

I really like the way you think.

Could someone give me an example of how to put my thoughts in paper form.
Just a cut out from one of your previous adventures.

I think I see what you're asking for here and quite honestly, I think that you're putting in a lot of effort. Which isn't a bad thing, I applaud your passion and work ethic.

But as far as structuring your notes goes, I would say it depends on you and your group. If the party follows DM "carrots" like prize winning ponies, you can afford to heavily flesh out your NPCs, locales, monsters and combats with pages upon pages of narrative. If they are more likely to do the least expected thing, you're going to need to keep things vague and in a clear outline format so that you can modify and adjust on the fly, keeping your story rolling while your PCs think that they're driving the plot in a different direction. Personally, I think the best DMs let their players think that they have total control over the story while they're actually being herded like unsuspecting cattle.

The APs that Paizo is so well known for producing have a great format for how to write adventures in their entirety. Of course, these are professionals that can dedicate at least 8 hours a day over a series of months, working as a team with editors, artists, designers and writers to make a quality product. I DON'T suggest trying to write your own AP like that. It sounds like a painful way to kill yourself with stress.

But another option is the Campaign Workbook from Gamemastery. It's good to make notes ahead of time about what you want to have happen in a given session and then add notes about what did happen, keeping a good running log.

All that said, I normally go with a simple bullets list-style outline for my campaign planning. For complex connections between nations, people or adventure events, I'll use a web-style "thought map" to visually represent the connections and possible "flow" of information or time.

The key is adaptability, if you ask me. Even the most helpful group of players that is enjoying your story will make a call that you didn't expect from time to time. So, you can't be too structured and be ready to change as needed.


To play off of this "too many evil outsiders" theme, what about a dragon hunting campaign? Kobolds and Trogs as your low level baddies, graduating into half-dragon this and half-dragon that, with one true dragon villain per adventure.

Of course I'm not saying every enemy is of the dragon type but dragons are a core element to most fantasy RPGs and I feel that there hasn't been that much focus on them in the APs. Dragons are as intelligent, imposing in combatand have as many spells and spell-like abilities as outsiders, if not more so.

Whatever happened to the classic dragon antagonist anyway?


I, unfortunately, have to agree and say that I do not read the fiction. I read just about everything else in a given volume but just can't bring myself to read only one chapter of a novella at a time. For me it's not that the fiction wouldn't add to the over product or that I don't like short format fiction, simply that I don't like reading only one of portion of it said story and then have to wait a month for the next short installment. I think even the most patient person would be driven mad by immersing themselves in a good story and then having to basically watch the characters and events transpire under a strobe light that pulsed once every three weeks. I just find it frustrating.

Not that the fiction will be dropped, I honestly don't think it should be, just wish I could think of a less frustrating format, but if pages were somehow freed up, I'd ask for a monster or two more. Give us a wider range of mobs, with a wider range of CRs so that the bestiaries themselves would tie together across the AP. Just a little something that would make me happier with a produced I'm already well satisfied with.


Call me crazy but I'd like to see a high level adventure path, one that can play off of any of the existing APs but starts at 14th or 15th and takes you all the way to 20 (but not beyond). You know, an "epic" campaign.

Otherwise, +1 to a planet hoping campaign, ala Stargate.

And just my two cents, please, no psionics. I personally feel that adding psionics to a game is like taking that nice patch of lawn with nothing there, bathing it in gasoline, torching your own yard and then watching it spread to your house, destroying everything you've worked so hard for. That is what psionic does to d20 RPGs. In my opinion.


1) The Blind Sisters, a nymph paladin and medusa ranger that have taken the village under their wing. Both wear blindfolds at all times to protect the villagers from their own powerful gaze attacks but remove the blindfolds in the heat of battle where they fight in perfect back-to-back symmitry.

2) A group of phase spider inquisitors that protect the village but not the residents. They serve an unknown power that seems benevolent at first but takes on a more sinister air as the mostly unseen protectors, watching from the ethereal plane, begin to abduct townsfolk as punishment for abstract and confusing infractions.

3) Fey that previously served as unseen helpers of local craftsmen have realized that they are the only hope for their home, the village they share with the large folk. Picture the elves for the "The Elves and the Cobbler" marching off to war with tiny pitchforks and torches...and powerful fey magic.

4) The half-fiend offspring of the very dragon that is attacking the town as come back to redeem himself. Somehow, the naturally evil mix of fiend and dragon blood combined to create a creature of compassion and kind-hearted (or simply out to spite and seek revenge on their parent).

Could probably keep going but there's some ideas.


Best suggestion that I can make is to talk to these players outside of the game and ask them to rein it in, at least a little. The most important part of these games is to have fun and it's your "job" as a GM to make sure that everyone is having fun (that includes you!).

If you're Chaotic Evil players are overshadowing your other players in power-level, power-gaming and rude role-playing (which is how this form of "chaotic evil" is coming across), that might be a part of why your other players are less committed.

So, talk with these two players and ask them to keep it fun for everyone or talk to the group as a whole and ask the group, not each player, what they want to do as a unit to keep the game fun for everyone. Force your players to work as a team, even if they're characters don't.


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mordion wrote:
Generally speaking do you consider it easier for a well built PC to grapple or trip level appropriate monsters in Pathfinder or D&D 3.5?

Generally Speaking, easier in Pathfinder. 1d20 + CMB vs. CMD of your target, provoking an attack of opportunity if you don't have the corresponding "Improved" feat.

3.5: Grapple - touch attack roll, provoking attack of opportunity if you don't have Improved Grapple. If the attack of opportunity hits, your action has no effect. If you aren't hit with the A of O, you then make a grapple check, opposed by the targets grapple check. If the targets result is equal to or higher than your result, your grapple has no effect. If your grapple check is higher than your targets, you establish a grapple and move into your targets square (you do not do grapple damage on the check that establishes the grapple unless you have an ability that says otherwise). If you have more attacks remaining in the current round (base attack above +5, haste spell, etc.), you can make more opposed grapple checks to inflict damage, pin the opponent, or make an attack within the grapple.

Pathfinder: Grapple - see first statement.

Trip, trip's a little easier in 3.5 but still requires an opposed Trip check on both characters' part, cancelling your trip if your opponent meets or beats your roll and an attack of opportunity that could cancel your combat maneuver if it hits.

Pathfinder: Trip - see first statement.

In short, one of Pathfinder's strengths is its simplified combat maneuver system. One roll, one effect, one chance to take damage from your opponent. Clean and quick and makes combat more interesting.


Dirlaise wrote:


(Spoiler so as not to step on the toes of those submitting corset designs)

Spoiler:
I agree that in most cases a player won't choose to play a character with obesity, degenerative disease, or any number of serious health concerns. But that's only most cases. I had a particular player who intentionally shot himself in the foot with every character he ever created for my games. He tended towards low Con scores because he smoked cigarettes at the gaming table, and wanted to play smokers. He emphasized flaws in judgement and role playing (the character developing kind, not the disruptive kind) unique to his characters. Honestly, I learned a lot about creating engaging NPCs from the way he put his characters together, and in particular the way he capitalized on flaws.
There are precedents in fiction - even D&D fiction - of characters who are at least partially defined by their flaws. Raistlin Majere comes to mind immediately. Even the Pathfinder Bestiary includes the occasional monster who could use a diet. The Con boost was added for the same reason that it takes more poison to kill an elephant than it does a man - the reflect the significance of mass on those kinds of substances. Within reason, fat can act almost like muscle, hence the Str boost. Let's not forget about sumo wrestlers, after all - an entire martial arts style predicated on the mass of the combatants.

I want to start off by saying that I wish more players had the attitude towards role-playing that your smoker friend does. It gets really tiring dealing with every player being a super B.A.M.F. But I do disagree with some of your reasoning behind your obesity bustier .

Spoiler:
I'm not trying to argue that obese characters should make up a large portion of the adventuring community. I simply lament any instance in which an option is unavailable that may be appropriate to a particular concept. Indicating that most players wouldn't want to do something suggests that some players will.

Dirlaise, I agree that flawed characters are more interesting, both in literature and RPGs. In fact, I don't think that anyone will disagreed. But there is a difference between encouraging players to make interesting characters and rewarding your player with a bra that makes them fat.

Are there obese adventurers? Yes (Mirt the Moneylender, a.k.a. Mirt the Merciless jumps to mind). Do you need to represent this mechanically? I don't really think so. Sure, it can take more poison to kill a larger human but does it take more or less poison to kill someone of equal weight but a higher body fat percentage? Which ability score determines body fat? Someone that is overweight generally can't run as far or perform physically demanding tasks for as long, implying a penalty to Con. Someone with extra weight can't lift as much, move as fast, or have as complete a range of motion, implying a penalty to Str and Dex. Or does it? The rules don't say.

I think that what you are representing here is role-playing and storytelling, both very important in PF and any other RPG, but something that should stay in the abstract and not try to become mechanics. Some players will want to wear an obesity bustier, you're right, but no one in any of the games that I run. My feeling, and anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, is that RPG Superstar is about designing aspects of the game that will have mass appeal while being original and interesting.

And a total aside on smoking...

Spoiler:
On a separate note, I am a smoker and I have to say, my Con score is probably better than the average human's. I walk everywhere and work at a fairly physical job. I'm not as fit as I could be but I am in pretty good shape. So, does a lower Con score represent someone that smokes a pack a day (I smoke that much)? Sure but lower than what? Just based on the expression of rules in the Core Rulebook, I have about a 12 Con as a smoker. Just saying, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't need rules to make it work from a role-playing stand point.


Corset of the Boneless Art
Aura faint enchantment and transmutation; CL 3rd
Slot chest; Price 6,000 gp; Weight -
Description
Vertical white slashes decorate this black corset, seeming to represent an unnatural second rib cage. Any creature wearing the corset can contort his body into all manner of shapes, becoming double-jointed and extremely flexible, and allowing him to fit into impossibly small spaces. The wearer gains the compression ability as per the Universal Monster Rules.

Once per day the wearer may attempt a truly fantastic act of contortion as a standard action. All creatures within 30 feet must make a Will save DC 13 or become fascinated for 5 rounds. If this ability is used when not in combat, all targets take a -2 penalty on their saving throw. Creatures fascinate by this effect must be able to see the wearer. If a creature under this effect loses sight of the wearer (the wearer becomes hidden, invisible or breaks line of sight) the effect end. Blind creatures and those without eyes are immune to this effect.

While wearing the corset, the wearer can only hold his breath for a number of rounds equal to his Constitution score (as opposed to twice his Constitution score normally).

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, hypnotism, reduce person; Cost 3,000 gp

Taking Neil's input, this is a thematically different but mechanical clone of my earlier corset. Just trying to clean it up and make it "pop" a little more.


Thanks for the feedback, Neil. I'm putting your notes to work right now.

Just a note for everyone working on this, the first definition of corset according to Merriam-Webster is as follows:

1: : a usually close-fitting and often laced medieval jacket

Point being, looks like men would wear this item as well.


Snake Charmer's Corset
Aura faint enchantment and transmutation; CL 3rd
Slot chest; Price 6,000 gp; Weight -
Description
This black leather corset is embroidered with red cobras that seem to weave and sway up the length of the garment. Once per day you may attempt to fascinate all enemies within 30 feet as a standard action. Each creature affected can make a Will save DC 12 to resist this effect. All targets that fail their saving throw become fascinated with you for 5 rounds. If you are not in combat when you activate this ability, all targets take a -2 penalty on their saving throw. Creatures fascinate by this effect must be able to see you. If a creature under this effect loses sight of you (you become hidden, invisible or break line of sight) the effect end. Blind creatures and those without eyes are immune to this effect.
Additionally, while wearing this corset, you gain the compression ability, as per the Universal Monster Rules.
While wearing the corset, you cannot hold your breath.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, hypnotism, reduce person; Cost 3,000 gp

(Word count: 185)

A little bit of the math behind this:
((1 (spell level of reduce person)x 3 (item's caster level)x 2000 gp) + (((1 (spell level of hypnotism)x 3 (item's caster level)x 2000 gp) x1.5 (for being the second spell ability on the item))/5 (for only having one use per day)) - 1,800 gp (ad hoc reduction for drawback of not being able to hold your breath)
So, ((1x3x2000gp) + (((1x3x2000gp)x1.5)/5)) - 1,800 = 6,000 gp

So, let the feedback begin.


Gruuuu wrote:

In order for something (nonmagical) to float in air, it's usually got to be hydrogen or helium. Make it hydrogen, aka flammable gas.

Then, if the attack that caused the death burst was fire based, it could burn off all the poison spores before they infect anyone, but cause 1d6 fire damage in the same radius?

That is a possibility. If the sporehawk were to do fire damage with its death burst, I think a vulnerability to fire would be in order. You know, burning hands this thing and it's going to go up like a Roman Candle. Makes it a bit more frightening to have around ships too (with lighting off the powder mag, and all that).

Thanks for the suggestion, Gruuuu.


After the Designing Monsters Seminar on Sunday, I had to take a crack at designing a monster to go along with the inspirational piece of artwork that Kieran Yanner created while the seminar was going on.

The basic concept was a flying plant creature of a CR other than 6 (apparently, plants like being CR 6) that is native to tropical environments, namely jungle islands that pirates might want to explore or bury treasure on. So, here is what I came up with:

Sporehawk
This brightly colored creature floats through the air suspended by two large gas bladders, its hooked beak and long stinger-tipped tail belies its predatory nature. Numerous tendrils hang limply below the creature, waving erratically.
Sporehawk

CR 1/2

XP 200
N Small Plant
Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +5
DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 13, flat-footed 12; (+2 Dex, +1 natural, +1 size)
hp 4 (1d8)
Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +1
Immune plant traits
OFFENSE
Spd 10 ft., fly 30 ft. (good), Air Jet
Melee sting +3 (1d3-1 and poison) or bite +3 (1d4-1)
STATISTICS
Str 9, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 7
Base Atk +0; CMB -2; CMD 10
Feats Weapon Finesse
Skills Fly +12, Perception +5 Racial modifiers +4 Perception
SQ death burst
ECOLOGY
Environment warm forest
Organization solitary, pair, flock (3-12), cloud (13-32)
Treasure none
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Air Jet (Ex) Once per hour, as a full round action a sporehawk can move four times its fly speed in a straight line. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Death Burst (Ex) When killed, a sporehawk's gas bladders burst, showering those near by with poisonous spore. Any creature adjacent to a sporehawk when it dies must make a DC 10 Fortitude save or be affect the sporehawk's poison.
Poison (Ex) injury or inhaled; save Fort DC 10, frequency 1/round for rounds, effect 1d2 Dexterity damage, cure 1 save

A sporehawk is the immature “seed” of a prismatic palm, hunting along the coastline and waterways of jungles dominated by their “parent” trees. Hunting in packs, sporehawks lie in wait among the leaves and vines at the edge of the jungle canopy, floating down from the treeline to stab exposed prey with its poisonous stinger, preferring this attack form over all others. If a foe proves too challenging, a sporehawk doesn't hesitate to use its air jet ability to run away. The flock carries paralyzed prey back to the waiting roots of their prismatic palm for the larger plant's consumption. The sporehawks themselves feed on the morsels and bits that fall away from the trees, slowly growing in size.

Most sporehawks are roughly three feet in diameter, the majority of their bulky form made up of the two large gas bladders from which they hang causing them to weigh only a few pounds. With their short, hooked beaks and bright, multihued coloration, some early explorers thought that sporehawks were somehow related to macaws because of these similar traits. Sporehawks have been known to linger around macaws and their nests, posing as one of the birds to lure in unsuspecting prey. Macaws tolerate their presence, even allowing sporehawks to rest in their nests, as the flying plants protect the parrots' nest from would-be attackers. More than a few poachers have thought to capture a macaw or steal one's egg only to become a meal to a flock of sporehawks and their rainbow palm.

Sporehawks grow slowly, gaining about an inch in diameter per year. Once a sporehawk reaches large size, it begins to change, its gas bladders swelling and a fiberous stalk starts grow from between them. Over the course of a few months, the sporehawk continues to grow quickly and mature into an adult prismatic palm. Because of this maturation process, sporehawks larger than medium are unheard of.

About one in twenty sporehawks is an alpha, gaining some of the powers of a prismatic palm while retaining its shape and size. These alpha sporehawks have the advanced simple template, can use color spray three times a day as a spell-like ability and have a Charisma of 12. An alpha sporehawk's caster level for spell-like abilities is 3rd. Alpha sporehawks are CR 2.

I'm working on the Prismatic Palm (an enormous floating predator that uses many of the same tactics as deep sea jellyfish but above the jungle canopy) and see this as a set of monsters that could work in well to a game where jungle exploration is key, especially if the PCs are unfamiliar with the region and its ecology.

Please, feel free to give feedback and critique. I'm posting this here to make my work better after all.