Conshey's page

Love the Thrallherd, one of the best flavor PrC in the game.

Simply substituting the additional 'powers' for spells and using appropriate levels for those spells. Burning higher level spell slots for the 'augmented' spells. The Thrallherd gains abilities to drop increased costs for augmentation this is simply treated the same concerning spell levels.

The conversion equation for power points to spell level is as follows.

Spell Lvl=(PP Cost*2)-1

So level 1 would be a 1 PP power and lvl 9 would be a 17 pp Power. Augmentations would be treated in such a way that +2 PP is equal to +1 Level for spells acting linearly (+4 pp would be +2 spell levels)

Other than changing the names of the 'powers/spells' to make it sound like it's coming from the enchantment school rather than the telepathy discipline. The PrC transfers quite nicely from Psionics to Magic because a lot of the abilities in the enchantment/telepathy sections are very similar.

Do to the nature of Psionics though I would highly recommend that you chose a spontaneous caster over the prepared ones because of the level augmentation.

@Lumiere Dawnbringer, I respect your knowledge of the game, you do seem to know what your doing when it comes to math and such. I very much doubt with the way that you present yourself that you understand the purpose of a role-playing game though. In the end, if number crunching is your thing, then fine I'm not going to stop you; but endless posts to mathematically prove one class over another, while most of the time they are based on personal preference and flavor, just seems like an overreach in my opinion.

I implore you to look past the numbers and 'min-maxing' to really grasp the way many of us in the community play this wonderful game. After GMing for over a decade I have found ways to deal with min-max types because they tend to make the game less fun for those people that they are playing with.

And to all those people that like to hate on me, please continue, it is quite interesting to see how you react to someone calling out a powergamer.

I see you forgot Half-Orc Ranger, seeing as this is my current favorite build, I'd like to see your take on this combination.

In games that I run, unless the NPC is a divine caster of an evil deity or has an 'evil aura' as a side effect (outsiders and such), Paladins must figure out who is evil and not the old fashioned way.

That said I would say that the actual ability of 'detect evil' executed by a Paladin is noticeable but not overtly identifiable. Basically the party notices that the Paladin is concentrating but on what and why is a mystery.

@Lumiere Dawnbringer: I'd love to have you in one of my games, I seriously doubt that you'd last more than 3 sessions (number crunchers rarely do)

The classes I'm least likely to play myself is in no particular order:

Paladin: The one exception to this is if I really trust the GM to work with me on handling the age old LG alignment issues that constantly crop up with this class.

Alchemist: All the basic archetypes I can think of surrounding this class don't appeal to me. Also I feel like it should be more of a variant Wizard rather than a full fledged class in it's own right.

Witch: I'm on the fence about this one, I might gain interest if one of my campaigns go in that direction.

I think that's all for now, good read so far, it's very interesting to see different peoples opinions on the classes and why.

One time I accidentally the party on a random encounter with an Ice Elemental that was intended to level them up. I threw out xp after that.

Player side I had a GM that loved to 'end' the campaign in a TPK once he got bored. Ironically my characters always survived and thus the party won the game!! :)

In my experience, side plots that evolve along side the main plot is a great key to outdoor encounters. If the party decides to travel into the Grim Forest of Doom and starts killing everything in sight, then intelligent NPC's might pick up on this and set up skirmish/ambush tactics to wear the party down and kill them. On the other hand if they make a non-aggression pact with a local tribe they might have an easier time passing through the area, unfortunately the next section of the forest is controlled by a tribe at war with the one you just placated...

Sometimes building in side plot instead of random encounters shows a depth and believability to the world that sometimes is lacking.

Good call on the XP thing too, it's the first thing I dropped when I started GM'ing.

DMNPC's can be a huge boost to the party and I'm glad to see that you're using one in this specific situation. In past experiences playing a pure support non-combat character has always fared well for me. An example would be an adept/healer that provided story to the party, she healed them between encounters and set up some epic role-playing. Unfortunately she died near the end of the campaign which really made for some epic reactions from the party as they had grown attached.

You seem to get the key point that this type of character cannot be allowed to overshadow the party in anyway. Keep up the smart thinking and common sense and you'll be giving more advice than receiving. Best of luck to you and as always, GAME ON!

I don't want my players writing any backstory out. I'm a very picky critic--every background I've ever read has been awful. I want them, instead, to have a conversation with me--in person, e-mail, whatever--about their background, and then I can work it in, make sure it works, and I don't have to read stilted prose, just ideas that will enhance the game.

Open ended backgrounds are the best kind because they work their way into the world without effort. Traumatic experiences, significant events, and anything specific worth noting is good to have details on. Anything beyond that is actually detrimental to campaigns as it forces the world to change to your character, which might effect plot or even other peoples backgrounds.

Just like your own past, specific significant events stand out, everything else is just fluff...

93. While setting up camp a group of travelers asks to share the site with them for the night. If the party refuses nothing happens, if the camp is shared the group of travelers dies in there sleep. Upon inspection of the bodies the party finds evidence that one of the men is a prince from a neighboring kingdom.

94. When the party sits around the fire they are surprised to find out that the log they are using as a seat is grumpy and doesn't like to be sat on.

Hello everyone, my name is Conshey I'm a recovering powergamer...

A few years ago I found myself in much of the same position that you are finding yourself in right now. Resisting urge to power up your numbers is the first thing you have to do. When I create a character now I have a set of rules. 1 high stat 16-18 2 above average 12-15 2 average 10-11 and 1 dump stat below 10. The purpose here is to simulate realism. But that's just loose guideline, what your GM is asking you to do is turn your creation process on its head to show you it's not all about numbers and bonus's.

Instead of thinking about abilities, start out with an archetype you like to play; start really really broad slowly move in with core abilities and then get more detailed as you go. As you do this write down ideas about how your character acquired each ability, the more powerful ability the more extensive the story. BAB saves and skill ranks should not be even a consideration at this time, you're still at pure concept.

Once you've finished this go back to your GM and show him what you've done, and he will do what he will from there. Remember to build in multiple weaknesses as they provide plot and story to the world.

An example of this is a recent character I've made, I started broad, I like to play the hunter archetype and I wanted him to be an outcast so I naturally gravitated towards half-orc if I were to stay within the core races. Notice I chose the archetype and then the weakness, this is a huge barrier for the character that I will make no attempt to minimize the effects. This outcast/outsider add-on to the archetype also indicates that Cha will be my dump stat (notice I determined this before numbers were involved). Next I want his story to be that of the redeemed villain (or in the process of being redeemed) with a grudge problem (again weakness). This puts the character firmly in the ranger class (I could have also chosen fighter, cleric, or druid).

I purposely chose large character flaws at every step to facilitate role playing and story development. Overcoming personal barriers is the key to good role playing.

I hope this helped a little, just remember make sure there is a logical reason for EVERY ability your character has, the more detailed the better!

Conshey

I'm glad to hear that so many people have the same mindset that I do when it comes to limiting time on turns.

I know that penalizing the player for slow turn taking might be extreme but unexpected things happen in any combat environment. They are meant to confuse and deviate intended courses of action, an instant choice (read: trying to force a mistake) is a fairly common tactic in combat. Allowing players to recover from such effects is counter-intuitive to the desired result.

If you're new and don't know your options then I'll be patient until you are more familiar with the rules, or you're are actively asking about the environment, then the time limit doesn't apply because this is information that you should know in the first place.

I do think I'll change my policy in light of some of the posters here, for intermediate and beginner players I'll simply delay there action until ready, for the experienced players that analyze every tactical outcome I will give no mercy, your turn is mine!!!

Thank you for all the great responses I can't wait to see what else people have to say.

One of my biggest pet peeves during combat is the people who take 5+ minutes figuring out the best tactical choice. Things like this drag the game to a halt and puts other players to sleep!

In the games I run I almost always have a time limit set on how long you can 'think' about what you're going to do during your turn. I find that this speeds things up quite a bit and players tend to pay more attention to what other people are doing so they can react to it when there turn comes around.

Generally if a player fails to declare an action within 30 seconds of the start of there turn, they lose a move action. If they take more than 60 seconds the character spent there turn gawking and it's the next persons turn. The only exception to this is if the player is actively inquiring or quickly double-checking a spells range or something.

I wonder how many other people set turn time limits and how effect they are at speeding up combat?

I consider the best GM'ing I ever did was when I did exactly what you are thinking of doing. There is A LOT of things that can and probably will go wrong so you are warned.

First don't go with the co-GM thing this only makes it more difficult for you to control the situation in either session. Start the Evil game 3-5 sessions ahead of the Good. The evil party are your plot generators and thus need to be well established before the good guys begin. Also run the Evil game before you run the Good game

Evil Party Suggestions that worked for me:

I would suggest starting the evil group at minimum level 5 and choose carefully who you have in your group. Players that are inquisitive and inventive need to be in your evil group because they need to create plot around then rather than react to it. With that in mind encourage the this group to take leadership type feats and abilities, having a healthy amount of NPC's between the evil group and the good allows you to control the plot on both ends, and also provides mini bosses for the good party.

Enchanters/Telepaths, Necromancers, and Diplomacy masters all make amazing plot generators. Also having a high skill and a high combat characters as guardians and scouts is a great idea.

Encourage the evil group to plot against the world as well as each other, this creates tension, story, and intrigue within the party so they don't get bored.

Good Party Suggestions that worked for me:

More direct action players need to be filtered into this group as they really are bad at being 'bad'. Allow them to here about the deeds of the evil group and even have them interact with the NPC minions that the evil group controls. Don't be afraid to allow the evil group manipulate the good as this is a really common plot arc. The good group is fairly generic when you run it so there isn't much more to say.

Other Advice:

Use NPC's as buffers between the two parties, try to have in game time between both sessions be similar and run them side by side. For example the midsummers day festival needs to happen in the same week for both parties. For greater interaction don't hesitate to bring 'guests' into the good parties session as the need arises. Having a guest evil boss appearance can be exciting for both parties, but I wouldn't have them square off in combat on the first go (of course this isn't always your choice). The evil players needs to be powerful enough to encounter the good party solo and be able to escape.

You'll find that the evil group will begin to be the major source of content for you good party after a while, and that other than managing the army of NPC's that you'll need, that running games becomes simpler as the antagonists are not controlled by you.

I really hope that this helped you and I wish the best of luck to you.

Edit: Forgot to add this, I used my own homebrew world for this as it was far less complicated to 'keep the flavor of the world' so to speak. With that in mind your world needs to be robust, your evil group will shake it to it's very core if they are doing it right.