Who thinks a Seoni t-shirt would sell better? :)The only problem is half the pictures of Seoni are borderline NSFW.
Well, I DO have a high-quality picture of Seoni somewhere in my computer. If Paizo is interested... ;)
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Yeah, I think that works. I mean, in real life we have 6-8 year-old children riding full-grown horses, even if they are of the smaller breeds, and the Mongols rode pretty small horses themselves, so the difference in size wouldn't call for different stats. A halfling or gnome paladin would ride a horse a couple of hands smaller than a human paladin, but the stats would remain the same.
My suggestion is that the Paladin's Special Mount be given its own stat block, which would be independent of actual shape. It'd be a celestial spirit in encased in physical form, which could look like a horse, lion, shark, lizard, etc., without affecting its abilities. The additions for higher level Paladins would already be included in the stat blocks for that level. A Paladin could take feats (or maybe talents, or bonus feats) to alter those stats, like having a feat called "Winged Mount" (Requirement: Paladin 10th) that gives the Special Mount a fly speed, or "Steed of the Sun", which allows the Special Mount to deal fire damage with its attacks.
Two things I'd like to propose: 1 - Alternate to Spellcasting: I'd like to see an option for those who don't want Paladins (and Rangers) casting spells. 2 - Special Mount: instead of making it an "Animal with adjusted stats", I'd like to see it get fixed stats, regardless of its shape (so a Special Mount that looks like a warhorse has the same stats as one that looks like a dire lion). Make it a celestial spirit (just like the one that bonds to a weapon) that takes the shape of the animal most appropriate to the character. If the Special Mount's hp drop to 0, the spirit dissolves back to its home plane, and takes 30 days to recover (instead of the paladin calling another one, he calls the same spirit, either to bond with a weapon or to shape into a mount).
Great art Claudio, do you have a deviantArt profile or anything like that? If not you should, we'd love to see more of your work.
I just submitted this to EN World as a Pathfinder scoop. Lo and behold, it's on the front page, verbatim.
I just submitted this to EN World as a Pathfinder scoop.
Yeah, Seoni's breasts aren't "small" by any means, they're just "realistically big". Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I got a little sidetracked illustrating two adventures (for Fiery Dragon and EN Publishing), but I devoted the past two days to working on Seoni. She's 80% done (a lot of the black lines won't be black in the final picture), but I had to share (you can also see a bit of Merisiel).
I like the idea of favored classes, but I'd like to see the benefit more diversified. Each class would get an entry such as this: "Favored Benefit: if [CLASS NAME] is your favored class, you gain [INSERT BENEFIT HERE]". For instance: Wizard
Rogue
Fighter
And so on, and so forth...
So Wayne Reynolds' designs are great. So much so that I whipped up a quick (oaky, maybe not so quick) picture of Seoni and Marisiel (or is it Merisiel?). I plan on colouring it, and that's when I'll be adding Seoni's tattoos, so for now she goes tattooless. Anyway, here it is.
So, Mr. Pozas... When do we get to see your interpretations of the Pathfinder iconics? *hint hint*Also: We've settled on our artwork. We've been more or less consistent on the look of the races when we get them illustrated for coming up on a year now. We're not going to be changing their looks until we blow up Golarion and move on to some other planet, and I hope that won't be for a LONG time.S'okay, James! I can work under a style guide! <nudge, nudge, wink, wink> As soon as I finish something I'm doing. <wink, wink>
Well, to be fair, Avalanche Press is (in)famous for those covers.
She looks awesome, and I've been advocating for druid to be the gnome's favored class for a while. The snow leopard looks a bit small, though, when you resize the druid side-by-side with the other Iconics.
- "Pathfinders" Comic Book Comic Books too expensive? Not really. Get decent, up-and-comming artists and writers that known the medium and you're all set.
Erik, Two suggestion for the Iconics: - "Pathfinders" Comic Book - Action Figures/Busts/Figurines
Also: We've settled on our artwork. We've been more or less consistent on the look of the races when we get them illustrated for coming up on a year now. We're not going to be changing their looks until we blow up Golarion and move on to some other planet, and I hope that won't be for a LONG time. S'okay, James! I can work under a style guide! <nudge, nudge, wink, wink>
Indeed, the earliest firearms were no better than a heavy crossbow (and took longer to reload, not to mention the higher rate of misfire). What both weapons (firearms and crossbows) could have is a special quality to ignore armor and shield bonuses at 10 feet or less.
Opyion #4: Hybrid seems to have the best balance between granularity and simplicity. And with it, you can get rid of Skill Focus and the endless +2/+2 feats. You could, if desired, keep in a "Skill Rank" feat, allowing you to add 1 rank to a skill of your choice. And as the character advances, he can bump new skills to Mastery level, or keep them merely Trained. And you could have more powerful uses of several skills available only to Experts and Masters. Imagine a Master Weaponsmith creating masterwork weapons with bonus greater than +1 (essentially, nonmagical "magical" weapons).
If the "born out of violence" bit is kept, I'd suggest including the line "While many are born out of violence, some come from loving couples who tend their offspring in a manner best suited to their lifestyle" to the half-orc entry. There's no reason a human and an orc can't genuinely fall in love (or at least lust), when a human and an elf can. Here's what I wrote on half-orcs for Fiery Dragon: Spoiler: Orc Blood!?
by Claudio Pozas Let's face it: half-orcs got the short end of the stick when it came to assigning racial traits. All other non-human races get bonuses to skills, weapon proficiencies and more, while our boys get what? Orc Blood? C'mon! So what follow are not one, but TWO half-orc variants. Half-human orcs (which are half-orcs raised by orcs) and half-orc humans (which are those raised in human society). Enjoy! Half-Human Orcs Half-human orcs are orc-human crossbreeds raised by their orcish kin. They suffer from most of the cultural drawbacks of orcs, such as a lack of education, a poor sense of hygiene and a tendency to hate everyone else. Since they're not as strong as full-blooded orcs, half-human orcs must make up for it through sheer cunning and malice, as befits a kill-or-be-killed society. Half-human orcs generally become the scouts and hunters of orc tribes, since they have keen senses to balance their (relatively) reduced physical prowess. For a half-human orc, chiefdom is virtually unatainable, but they may become advisors and hidden masterminds among the even cruder orcs. When away from other orcs, half-human orcs usually feel the call of their human side, which manifests usually as a sense of wanderlust or curiosity. But when meeting strangers they tend to show all the usual orc prejudices (specially hatred against elves and dwarves). Half-Human Orc Racial Traits: - +2 Strength. -2 Intelligence: Half-human orcs are physically imposing, but have a hard time reasoning.
Half-Orc Humans Half-orc humans are orc-human crossbreeds raised by their human kin. They endure a great deal of prejudice while growing up, and that tends to toughen them up to face the world. At the same time, their faster growth rate ensure that they are larger and stronger than most humans of their age, leading to a sense of personal power. Unless reared by a loving parent, half-orc humans tend to become bullies. Half-orc humans tend to work where their savage features go unnoticed and their great strength is appreciated, becoming blacksmiths, sailors and hunters. They tend to be either too reserved and wary or too boisterous and imposing. But once one gets past that defense mecanism, the half-orc human shows all the personality ranges of a human, even if a bit short-tempered. Half-orc humans don't have any special attitude towards elves and dwarves, but are so often treated badly by such individuals that they develop a dislike for them anyway (but mostly geared towards the individual than to the race as a whole). Half-Human Orc Racial Traits: - +2 Strength. -2 Intelligence: Half-orc humans are physically imposing, but have a hard time reasoning.
(hey, we have the same avatar! :D ) IMHO, Use Rope's uses could be accomplished through any of these: - Climb (mountaineers learn how to secure ropes)
Re: Racial: make them "scale" up with level, or have magical effects increase the racial bonus. Re: Divine vs. Profane/Sacred: that was precisely my point. You can use a Divine bonus from one source, not two (let alone use Sacred AND Profane... those two should cancel each other out).
I'll add another YES! to the list of modifiers. The current list is: Alchemical
I'd pare it down to:
Enhancement modifier simply alters an existing bonus.
Something along these lines? If you'll notice, the halfling "casually" looking at the weapons has a small pot of glue nearby.
Is there an application thread? I sent e-mails to the Art Department of Paizo, but got no word from them yet. This was pre-Pathfinder, though.
Level Adjustment: a great idea that sparked unending confusion. What does it add to? What does it modify? Instead of being a flat number to alter other numbers, why not let it work like every other character-building block in the system? When creating a PC from a level-adjusted race, make it mandatory to add a level of Commoner per point of LA. What will this accomplish? - Character level = HD - XP table will remain the same - Token additions to hp (d4), BAB, saves (all poor) and skills (2) - Max skill modifier will remain the same Being the most subpar class in the game, the Commoner will balance out the additional benefits of a LA race. As an option, you could replace "Commoner" with a new class created specifically for this purpose, making it subpar, but still better than getting nothing. Opinions? Suggestions?
Level Adjustment: a great idea that sparked unending confusion. What does it add to? What does it modify? Instead of being a flat number to alter other numbers, why not let it work like every other character-building block in the system? When creating a PC from a level-adjusted race, make it mandatory to add a level of Commoner per point of LA. What will this accomplish? - Character level = HD - XP table will remain the same - Token additions to hp (d4), BAB, saves (all poor) and skills (2) - Max skill modifier will remain the same Being the most subpar class in the game, the Commoner will balance out the additional benefits of a LA race. As an option, you could replace "Commoner" with a new class created specifically for this purpose, making it subpar, but still better than getting nothing. Opinions? Suggestions?
I think adding additional dice instead of a flat number helps prevent massive damage through a critical or class ability. For kicks, I once statted out a Paladin 10/Cavalier 10 who did over 200 points of damage on a charging smite (even more on a crit).
Decipher's Lord of the Rings RPG has a very yoinkable "feat" called Grace of Heroes (or somesuch) that increases the character's "AC" when he's not wearing armor. I think it wouldn't be hard to include "level-based" AC bonuses this way.
I really like this idea, too. How about something like: Smite Evil (Su): As part of a melee attack, you may channel holy power to deal more damage to an evil creature (if used against a nonevil creature, the smite is wasted and has no additional effect). You may add your Charisma modifier (minimum +1) to your attack roll. If you hit, you deal +1d6 holy damage per two paladin levels (maximum +10d6 at 20th level). Your attack counts as good-aligned for damage reduction purposes. You may smite evil once per day at 1st level, and an additional time per day at every 4th level (up to six times per day at 20th level). You may only smite evil once per round. Favored Enemy (Ex): Select one creature type. Against creatures of that type, you gain a +2 bonus to Listen, Search, Spot, Survival and Knowledge (as appropriate to the creature type) checks, and you deal an extra 1d6 points of damage with a successful melee attack, and ranged attacks within point blank.
I'd love for the Bard, Druid and Ranger to be moved closer thematically. And I'd love to see the Bard draw more spells from the Druid list. But then again, I remember a time when Rangers used to cast Druid and Magic-User spells... :)
I like Reynolds work a lot. Using his style and art as the core visual style reference seems like a fabulous idea. My only concern is Pathfinder and D&D4E (not to mention Eberron) both using Wayne Reynolds as a core artist. I like his work, but that can be a bit much.
IMHO, Paladins shouldn't be forced into being servants of deities. That's for clerics (and the D&D cleric is militant enough for that). Paladins, in D&D, represent something higher, something better, a greater ideal of behaviour. The Paladin doesn't get his powers from a deity, but from his own righteousness. If he chooses to follow a deity, it will be a deity that reflects his ideals. He won't follow the code because of the deity, he'll follow the deity that spouses the code.
For some reason, I can't see my previous post, and the boards don't register this as a thread I replied to, so I'll re-post it.
Since you asked for it, here's what I started doing when I toyed with 3.75ing D&D: PALADIN Celestial Cavalier Talent Tree:
Celestial Destrier – Your companion grow in power and motes of light around it coalesce into a beautifully forged set of plate barding. Any piece of barding removed disappears instantly. Requirement: Celestial Charger, 7th level. Unicorn Charger – Your companion becomes a bit slimmer and motes of light on its forehead coalesce into a graceful spiralled horn. Requirement: Celestial Charger, Lay On Hands, Remove Disease. Winged Charger – Motes of light encircle your companion and coalesce into powerful feathered wings. Requirement: Celestial Charger, 9th level. Hospitaler Talent Tree:
Remove Disease – Ritual. Once per day you can remove a nonmagical disease from a non-evil creature. If you have the Remove Curse talent, you can also remove magical diseases. Requirement: Lay On Hands. Remove Curse – Ritual. Once per day you can remove a curse or magical from a non-evil creature. Requirement: Lay On Hands. Beacon Talent Tree:
Aura of Light – Aura of Protection – Aura of Life – Templar Talent Tree:
Healing Smite – Blinding Smite - As for Alignment, I prefer Paladins to be *Good*. Most Paladins would be LG, and uphold just laws. But a Paladin that lives in an land ruled by Evil can instead be CG.
I think the unorthodoxed fighting is way too powerful. You allow players to pick their most important stat and turn every other stat into a dump stat. And why is that bad? If a player wants to play an Intelligence-based fighter, he could take 3 feats and use Intelligence as a basis for melee, ranged and AC. He wouldn't need to make class-juggling to play the character he wants, and it'd really help classes with MAD (a Paladin could focus on Charisma, or a Monk could focus on Wisdom).
I was just thinking about this in the Paladin thread over in General Discussion... Ride-by-Attack, Trample and other maneuvers should be expanded uses of the Ride skill, accessed through the "Mounted Combat" feat. You choose to be trained in Ride, take the Mounted Combat feat, and you gain all those nifty options while riding (like the feats in PHBII that opened up new uses for Balance, Diplomacy and whatnot). If needed, scale up the abilities gained (like saying "At 9th level, you deal triple damage on a mounted charge (quadruple with a lance)").
Unorthodox Fighting Your have learned to use your best qualities in place of bruteforce or raw speed when performing combat maneuvers. Benefit: Choose one ability score. You may apply that score's modifier to melee attack rolls, ranged attack rolls, to your AC (your choice when the feat is taken). Strength - Your blows connect through sheer power, or you push your opponents out of the way. Dexterity - You dodge through opponet's defenses and attacks. Constitution - You won't give up an attack, enduring lesser blows to get into position. Intelligence - You have memorized thousands of martial stances, and adapt within moments. Wisdom - You read your opponent's movements and is keenly aware of your surroundings. Charisma - You feint, bluff, intimidate and generally mislead your opponent into opening up for you attack or into missing you. Normal: You add your Strength modifier to melee attack rolls, and you add Dexterity modifier to ranged attack rolls and to your AC. This lets you create a swashbuckler that uses Charisma to attack, or a wizard that uses Intelligence to defend, etc.
That's a neat idea, but I'd rather see it done as Combat Options more than feats. Or maybe have the actual iterative attacks be the feats (it certainly takes more training to swing a sword effectively three times in a 6-second span than to swing it once with extra force). Maybe, under Full-Round action: Full-attack: you can perform extra attacks, at lower accuracy.
Since you asked for it, here's what I started doing when I toyed with 3.75ing D&D: PALADIN Celestial Cavalier Talent Tree:
Celestial Destrier – Your companion grow in power and motes of light around it coalesce into a beautifully forged set of plate barding. Any piece of barding removed disappears instantly. Requirement: Celestial Charger, 7th level. Unicorn Charger – Your companion becomes a bit slimmer and motes of light on its forehead coalesce into a graceful spiralled horn. Requirement: Celestial Charger, Lay On Hands, Remove Disease. Winged Charger – Motes of light encircle your companion and coalesce into powerful feathered wings. Requirement: Celestial Charger, 9th level. Hospitaler Talent Tree:
Remove Disease – Ritual. Once per day you can remove a nonmagical disease from a non-evil creature. If you have the Remove Curse talent, you can also remove magical diseases. Requirement: Lay On Hands. Remove Curse – Ritual. Once per day you can remove a curse or magical from a non-evil creature. Requirement: Lay On Hands. Beacon Talent Tree:
Aura of Light – Aura of Protection – Aura of Life – Templar Talent Tree:
Healing Smite – Blinding Smite - As for Alignment, I prefer Paladins to be *Good*. Most Paladins would be LG, and uphold just laws. But a Paladin that lives in an land ruled by Evil can instead be CG.
Author or co-author of Fiery Dragon's BattleBox, rules bits of Counter Collection 2, 3, Summoned Creatures, Undead and Counter Pack 3: Eldritch Horrors & Occult Investigators. Article published in Dragon 273.The BattleBox is really an inspired gaming accessory. You should be very proud of that contribution. I truly am. Thanks for the mention!
Remember that D&D operates on an exponential power system. That is, characters two levels higher are supposed to face challenges that are literally twice as large. As such the game hands out Cohorts at level - 2 and Apprentices at Level - 4 and doesn't even blink. If you're getting power at level divided by 2, you are falling farther and farther behind the curve. In four levels you are your own cohort. In eight levels you are your own apprentice. In 10 levels you seriously don't even have an ability that is even worth writing on your character sheet. I know, but it's still better to get 5 spellcasting levels out of your 15 levels of fighter than none at all, right? It'd be like spreading the feat Practiced Spellcaster (Complete Divine) throughout the class levels. Plus, if you're a cleric 10/wizard 10, your Magic Rating would still be 20, just like a Wizard 20 or Cleric 20, so no need for a Mystic Theurge.
Can't say I'm familiar with that feat. But I was thinking... what if races gave a one-time boost to the Magic Rating? Elves and Gnomes could give, say, +1, whereas Dwarves and Half-orcs would give +0, or even -1 (minimum 1). So an Elf Fighter 1/Wizard 1 would still have an MR of 3, while a Dwarf wizard 3 has a MR of 2. Just thinking this stuff up on the fly.
So it has been said before that spellcasters multiclassing in 3.x are screwed royally. So what about adding a "Magic Rating" to all classes? Wizards, Cleric, Druids, Sorcerers, Bards => MR = class level Paladins, Rangers, Monks => MR = 1/2 class level Fighter, Barbarians, Rogues => MR = 1/3 class level No matter how high the MR, the character can't cast spells unless he has levels in a class with the "spells" ability listed. MR cannot be higher than character level. ... or something to that effect.
Author or co-author of Fiery Dragon's BattleBox, rules bits of Counter Collection 2, 3, Summoned Creatures, Undead and Counter Pack 3: Eldritch Horrors & Occult Investigators. Article published in Dragon 273. I like the rules, but I think the classes could be made closer to each other in terms of structure (based on the structure of the Rogue Talents).
I'm with Fatey as long as it allows people to fly normally without making rolls. I don't see why a creature that is native to the air needs to use the skill though. Dolphins don't need to make a swim roll, and I've never seen a bird blow his fly roll. Then you don't see many birds closely. Just by tuning in on Animal Planet, you can see those "Funniest Videos" thing and witness birds missing land spots, crashing into tree limbs during windy days and whatnot. And dolphins have to make Swim checks to avoid hazards.
We may not have a skill for "Walking", but we certainly have skills for "walking special maneuvers" (Balance, Jump, Tumble). We have a skill for "aquatic special maneuvers" (Swim). As for "burrow", it is a matter of breaking through the earth (damaging it to open a tunnel), then use a skill for "underground special maneuvers" (Escape Artist). My point is, whenever there's a special obstacle to be overcome, we have a skill to do it. It stands to reason that flying, with wind, updrafts, thermals and gravity, warrants the same treatment.
I'll have to mention that those weren't meant originally as a line-up, but were assembled from separate pictures, which is why some of the feet don't actually match. Here are a couple of pictures I did for Tunnels & Trolls:
Hey, thanks for the mention! I think the racial description should reflect the racial statistics. As such, that elf is far too Herculean for a -2 Con race. That being said, i'd love to take a stab at them. Jason? Sean? Erik? :D
I love the Fly skill. Been thinking of something like this for a long while. If there wasn't a Fly skill, I'd say use Acrobatics for maneuvering. I think creatures with an innate Fly speed should get it as a bonus Trained skill. Creatures that fly with no wings should get a bonus. |