Cranerat's page

I hope it's not going to change the game like the progression from 3.5 to 4th and 5th ed. did. I loved how you all have continued to support the 3.5 mechanics.

I have some spots open in an ongoing campaign (35 years now) for players. I use Pathfinder core rules and 3.5 where Pathfinder doesn't cover (Above 20th lvl and I use Starjammer/Spelljammer rules for travel between worlds on the prime material plane).
Send me a PM if interested.

Current players have been playing for 5+ (one since 1979) years and starting level isn't an issue. I use the base books for starters and don't use 3rd party books. I find them unbalancing for normal gaming. All players are currently adults from 20-65. Nothing is impossible! :)

I've been running this campaign since 1978, started 2nd ed., and migrated through 3.0, 3.5 and now use Pathfinder rules as the main ruleset with the others to augment the game and allow players to pretty much do anything they want to with characters. Contact me if you are interested. Mature gamers only please, and need to keep the swearing to a minimum since I have family that can overhear.

Game is usually every Sunday from 11AM - 5PM Mountain time. Most of the time I get on between 9AM and 10:30. Many times the game runs till 6/7PM if everyone can stick around.

I use Pathfinder as the main rules with missing feats from 3.5 (all books) and use spells all the way back to 2nd ed. since some were dropped over the years (cacodemon, enchant an item, and the true "wish" spell).

Role playing is pretty much required as is creativity. I don't do very well in a straight hack-n-slash campaign since players must figure out puzzles, politics and power plays by major factions and NPC's. I do use the Epic rules from 3.5 since many of my players have been playing over 4 years straight (at least) and have broken lvl 20 (quite a few) with multiple characters. Some have been playing in this campaign setting for over 30 years.

The campaign setting is of my own creation based on a mixture of Greyhawk, Pathfinder, Spelljammer, Planescape, Eberron, Dark Sun, Forgotten Realms, Gamma World and even some T20.

Contact me for details if interested.

The way it was wielded by Maori and others who adapted it are very different.

Also the Mayans & Aztecs have a Similar weapon that is used exactly how this weapon is suggested to be used.

Heck the Mayans used it one handed with a shield and would steal be able to TWF the danger thing do to the fighting style.

Now that being said:

The Mayans would probably be Fighter(Phalanx Soldier)
When used in Aztec Honor duels their version was used 2 handed.

My Homerules: It is an Exotic 2-Handed weapon.

P.S.: the Mayan and Aztec version has been shown to weigh upwards of 15 pounds.

Sounds like this one may have been the "Example" for the Taiaha in the book.

So, you don't like how the Taiaha is statted?

Where is the Rules question?

No, it's way off. Further than most just by being a single handed weapon when it is in fact a two handed weapon.

Lucky for me my players haven't found this weapon, but I would have to rewrite in in my campaign also based on personal use and knowlege.

Aeshuura: Aye, I had to contribute what I knew for accuracy. Paizo has been pretty good about correcting quite a bit. Better than the other company so I figured "Nothing ventured, nothing gained". The other weapons they took from the Maori were pretty good, but this one was way off. Another weapon that took quite a bit of skill to use was the Patu, especially the greenstone ones. Weilded like the Fillipino escrima (double weapons for both striking, blocking and disarming) sticks but heavier and able to be twirled around the wrists on the cords for rapid grip changing. They were rumored to be able to decapitate a person by striking them in a thrusting motion above the eyes, inserting into the skull and twisting to remove the top of the head. This would be interesting to adapt to game terms. Especially as a “Fragile” and exotic two weapon skill stone weapon.

Lucky for me my players haven't found this weapon, but I would have to rewrite in in my campaign also based on personal use and knowlege.

Cold Napalm: Yea, but this one I had a personal interest in :) And many of the weapons haven't been too unbalancing. Giving this one the damage of a bastard sword AND a spear as a double weapon weilded one hand was a bit far-fetched.

Guys,

A bit of constructive criticism here. Whomever did your research on the New Zealand Maori weapon the “Taiaha” for the book “Ultimate Combat” must have not looked into this fantastic and intriguing weapon.

A Taiaha was/is a wooden weapon made of hardwood (usually ironwood) and was the main "Two-Handed" reach weapon of the Maori’s for both offense and defense. It is true it is a bludgeoning weapon, but it was never intended as a piercing weapon. The point on the handle side was actually a facial carving and the point was the tongue representation of the warriors ancestors who crafted it. This side (point) was never placed on the ground as it was a sign of deep disrespect to one’s ancestor(s). True, you could put a point on one, but that wasn't the original intent.

One of these wooden weapons would be passed from generation to generation and was believed to hold the ancestral spirits of the family’s warriors to aid them in battle. The taiaha was a very fast weapon and the bladed end could actually “cut” the opponent and since the Maori’s didn’t have access to iron or steel at this time, it was never thought of as a slashing weapon. The taiaha was more of a short staff than a club or spear. The sharp end was usually dressed with feathers, string and fur to the shoved into the face of one’s opponent to distract more than anything. The point is purely coincidental and claiming the taiaha is a double ended weapon with piercing qualities is a bit far from its actual use. Also, being light and hard (fast) is shouldn’t be gifted with a d10 damage for a medium sized weapon unless you redo the staff to also do a d10 damage. This makes the taiaha better than a mace for damage. A taiaha would have a hard time denting armor (could but wasn’t intended) and damaging the person encased in it as a mace could. What it should get though, is a bonus for disarms as (a whip or even other weapons) plus it is not a single handed weapon, it’s a two handed weapon.

Also, a taiaha doesn’t weigh 10 lbs. Your heavy mace weighs 8, the light weighs 4 and you’d be lucky to have a taiaha weigh 5-6 lbs. The ones I make are in the 2-4 lb range and are still a bit heavy and I’m using ash. The ironwood ones were smaller in diameter and the blade ends carved way down due to the wood quality and weight of the hardwoods available in New Zealand.

Again, a taiaha is a speed weapon for both offense and defense, not a club or quarterstaff weapon that relied on weight to do damage. Sorry, just had to submit this info since I have done quite a bit of research into these extremely unique weapons that were greatly feared by any who ever met the Maori’s on anything but good terms (including other Maori tribes).

Cheers! :)

Currently have the three players needed to fill the empty party slots in this campaign. If anyone wishes to submit for "standby" status I'd be happy to review the characters and put you on the list of players to get regular e-mail updates.
Appreciate the feedback and interest.

sorry, still not finding it

I posted on the other page, I am betting there is something wrong with your account. Contact the Paizo Webmaster at customer service and ask why you can't sent or receive a PM. I can't find any tags to send you a private message so there is something hosed on your account.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/psychopomp/psyc hopomp-nosoi

my new familiar. much cooler and much less evil than an imp

There's a problem with your account. I can't find any way to send you a PM so I am betting that situation is reciprocated to anyone you want to send messages to. Contact Paizo Webmaster and ask why you can't send PM's.

question, are we still doing adjustments for levels? such as the stat increase at 4, 8, and so on? i'd happily drop some of my other stats so i can get one stat higher

Yes, the base stats were as if you rolled a 1st lvl character. Now apply +14 levels of Skills, Feats, Stat increases etc.

And you get to start with 240,000 gp worth of non-epic gear.

I have been shown the path to righteousness!!

For a starting character, lvl 15 I had written "using the Lvl 15 starting NPC wealth table 14-9 NPC GEAR on page 454, from Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplay Game "Core Rulebook"."

Instead, use table 12-4 on page 399 which will give your character 280,000 gp. starting. And no epic items can be purchased. Those have to be made by another player character. The NPC's don't trust anyone not to use what they may make (epic items) a PC, against them or their guilds. :)

Cranerat wrote:

CampinCarl9127 wrote:

ok counting the free 18 you get i just rolled a 64 point buy...that'll do hahaha

Huh?

i rolled stats for the wizard i was making. got two 14's, two 16's, and two 18's (one you gave us).

doing that math that's a 64 point buy lol

Ahh, true, in that sense it would be. Like I said, the potential is there for truly epic stats. Had one person get 18, 18, 17, 17,17,14. The did the racial mods on top of that for a 20, 18, 17, 17, 17, 14.

People may laugh at these stats, but when a two legged insect looking critter 30' tall and 48,000 pounds comes barrelling at you swinging two sets of razor sharp, adamantine reinforced single talons 8' long, backed by a Str of 48, with an AC equal to a tank; Stats will be the least of your worries. :)

ok counting the free 18 you get i just rolled a 64 point buy...that'll do hahaha

Huh?

Sorry for double posting just want to get your take on race selection. Since Advanced Races Guide came out last month may we have access to the Featured Races section? It contains races like Sylph, Drow and Fetchling.

At this time no, not until I can evaluate those races and how they'd impact the game.

Answer to your previous question: Because I'm allowing it.
Reasoning: as a 15th lvl character you were probably not on a plane or were at a location far from the causes of the Cataclysm. One of my players already found a location he could buy potions at and did, then took them to an area that was hit hard and made a tidy profit.

i couldn't find a way to private message you, sorry. despite not knowing exactly what the gnome player is, what do you think of me submitting a wizard? he'd be conjuration, and at this level using Gate and other spells to normally speak with high leveled outsiders (Balor anybody?)

Interesting to me for sure. Especially under circumstances that may involve another long-time player that is developing a "Celestial" character trying to rise though the hierarchy and eventually become a Solar. He's been playing this character now for 20 years :)

But I digress; go to the "Gameplay" tab to see my basic rules for characters and send tome via the "Private Messaging". Send your e-mail also so I can add it to the campaign list for updates and messaging in case something happens. I send out e-mails weekly to remind players of the game on Sunday and to take care of any "Admin" that it's possible to resolve through e-mail.

I am interested in knowing a bit more on the rules for character generation.

• How are attributes being handled?
  
• Which alignments are not allowed?
  
• What Races & classes are allowed?
  
• What level do we start at?
  
• Is money being handled as per WBL?
  

Just a few questions before I get into things.

I currently have a full players license for D20 Pro. No issues there. I also have a skype account. I find ventrilo or teamspeak to be far better for bandwidth usage vs skype though.

If Ventrilo or Teamspeak is free, we may have to change as we (the group) sometimes have bandwidth issues (we had one person playing from a little village in Iraq over a satellite connection for a year while he was deployed:D). For the most part though, we occaisonally get breaks that drop one or more due to the network flapping. This breaks the connection with D20 even. So far we have always been back up and running within 5 minutes.

I can answer all those questions easily.

How are attributes being handled?
If you mean how are you rolling for attributes, I answered that on the “Gameplay Tab; but I'll re-post it here:
In order to play in this campaign (It won't be on paper/posted, it is live on Sundays, 11AM-5PM Mountain) send me an invite request with a copy of your proposed character created at Lvl 15 using the Lvl 15 starting NPC wealth table 14-9 NPC GEAR on page 454, from Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplay Game "Core Rulebook" via. "Personal Message".

My starting character generation rules for stats are as follows:
One auto 18, then roll five sets of numbers with three dice taking the highest two and adding six to generate (Hopefully) epic stats.

HP: First level is maxxed with HP/HD and Con. The rest of the 14 levels, roll 14 time re-rolling any 1's. If you re-roll a 1, you HAVE to accept it.

Send me a private message with the subject "Sunday LOA Submittal" for me to look over. If I accept, then you will be sent an e-mail with the connection information for D20 Pro and Skype.

I will close this campaign after I have accepted three players. If in the future I drop below 6 (again) regular players, I will reopen this campaign and again solicit for players.

Which alignments are not allowed?
All are allowed, but beware, you will loose a level after a period of game play if you are not following, or want to change your level. Also, Evils tend to get themselves into trouble with both PC's and NPC's. Especially the CE. Although the CN seem to be almost as bad :). But, all are allowed as I fully encourage role playing. Also, the medium of communication (PMs in Skype) allow people to say one thing and secretly develop other agendas without anyone being the wiser. Unlike Face-to-Face play and passing notes of walking out of the room to discuss personal strategies away from the others in the party.

What Races & classes are allowed?
Only standard player races (Pathfinder, 3.5, 3.0), no monster races. I've had too many problems with non-standard races trying to mix into cities (semi-dead vampiric race in a human city tends to get NPS pretty nervous which results in a witch hunt and a party at a bonefire). Not saying you would never be the recipient of a reincarnation or a controlled reincarnation, or even a baleful polymorph.

What level do we start at?
15th, and see the “HP” reference above.

Is money being handled as per WBL?
WBL? Sorry, too many acronyms in my line of work and I refuse to memorize many of them. but, as answered above, use page 454 in Pathfinder Core Rules for starting gear, money and whatever. Magic is currently RARE in my campaign as there has been a “Cataclysm” 156 days ago that destroyed most magical items that weren't created by a 15th lvl or higher (CL). Potions are currently rare but anything is available to starting players as long as they have the cash.

If any more just let me know.

i couldn't find a way to private message you, sorry. despite not knowing exactly what the gnome player is, what do you think of me submitting a wizard? he'd be conjuration, and at this level using Gate and other spells to normally speak with high leveled outsiders (Balor anybody?)

Found it, can't say it was easy!

To send someone a private message, go to their profile page and click "Send Private Message."

In order to play in this campaign (It won't be on paper/posted, it is live on Sundays, 11AM-5PM Mountain) send me an invite request with a copy of your proposed character created at Lvl 15 using the Lvl 15 starting NPC wealth table 14-9 NPC GEAR on page 454, from Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplay Game "Core Rulebook".
My starting character generation for stats is as follows:
One auto 18, then roll five sets of numbers with three dice taking the highest two and adding six to generate (Hopefully) epic stats.
HP: First level is maxxed with HP/HD and Con. The rest of the 14 levels, roll 14 time re-rolling any 1's. If you re-roll a 1, you HAVE to accept it.
Send me a private message with the subject "Sunday LOA Submittal" for me to look over. If I accept, then you will be sent an e-mail with the connection information for D20 Pro and Skype.

I will close this campaign after I have accepted three players. If in the future I drop below 6 (again) regular players, I will reopen this campaign and again solicit for players.

Be aware that the current set of players are high level and have all been playing this campaign for years (one over 30) and know my style of DMing.

I will post my "House Rules" so potential players aren't blindsided when they start playing. You may not like my house rules, if that's the case, no time wasted on both our parts.

Play will start for any new recruits on 9/3/2012 with the other players whom you will meet on line.

Happy Trails!!

Looking for two to three people wanting to play a high level campaign that pretty much has been home grown since I started DMing. Power gamers need not bother applying. This is an actual role-playing campaign and there are times exp. doesn't get awarded in a session.
I currently have three players in the party (Sub Epic to epic Female Elf/Druid20, Dwarf/Fighter20 and Gnome/Heinz57(Lvls 21) in my own campaign world I created a while ago. I have been playing (DMing) this campaign since 1st ed. I have one player that started with me back in 1978 and everyone since then has played from 2nd ed. all the way to the current Pathfinder rules.

To play: Submit requests to me via personal message (not sure yet if this is possible on these boards) or here on the board in this section.
Required: Pathfinder Rules understanding and use. I will accept 3.5 when Pathfinder doesn't cover what one want's to play.
Rules: Pathfinder first and foremost, 3.5 where Pathfinder doesn't cover, Spelljammer, Eberron, Traveller T20, and a document I provide of “House Rules”.
When: Every Sunday (Most anyways unless something personal comes up with the family) from 11AM-5PM Mountain (US) time.
How: We use Skype and D20 Pro. I have a couple of extra licenses.
Limits: I can only handle a max of 6 people playing due to technology (Bandwidth for D20 and Skype) and I currently have three regulars with two others showing up rarely. So I am looking for 2-3 more players interested in a long term (Years) campaign.

Background: Currently the party was hired to deliver an Elvish Armada back to the elves in the Forgotten Realms sphere by a troll buccaneer that is creating his own secret harbor (base) in the Greyhawk sphere and currently has 6 spelljamming ships in his fleet. As an example the trolls basic stats are; Goondag “The Destroyer” Troll8/Barbarian14/Horizon Walker8 (Yes, this is an epic campaign after 34 years).
Goondag hired the party to deliver the Elvish Armada after he retrieved it from a port on the world of Greyhawk (Scuttleport, which was both a normal and spelljamming pirate port in my campaign) after the port was subject to a a pearl from the “Dungeon” series from “Savage Tide” that turned most everyone into “Savage” creatures.
The party was joined by an Grey Elf ambassador “Silias”, to take the Armada back to the elves sphere for 10K gp each. It was supposed to be an 85 day trip. 56 days into the trip they were sucked through a rift in the prime material, made when another captain attempted to destroy an attacking ship as a last ditch effort by putting a bag of holding into a portable hole, to another crystal sphere that encompassed an entire galaxy instead of just a system.
They are currently trying to find a way from their galaxy back to where they came from. There's a few things that prevent them from using normal gate or greater teleport spells at the moment. They are attempting to gather enough resources to repair the armada and continue their search for a way out of this universe (They have a few rumors and ideas learned from locals).

Thanks for the info people. No, I didn't notice it in earlier issues since I don't actually run the series as an adventure. I read through the Adventure Path volume over the week and use them (the books scenarios) as inspiration on my game days if needed or happens to coincide with what the players are doing at that time. Currently the Skull and Shackles series happens to fit well as I am running high level characters on a mixture of a "Lost in Space" (Spelljammer)and a 40K flavor (planet in the first stages of a Tyranid invasion) with the players needed a lot of resources to repair their Elvish Armada before trying to find a way back to their crystal sphere. (Magic and technology does mix if done with moderation :))
I just don't remember seeing the missing stat blocks in earlier issues. And I will agree if they are readily available, I would rather have more penned adventure descriptions than a page of stats on a creature that is available to me.

I guess if I do use parts, I'll have to download the stat blocks from the web before hand (actually put some more prep time into the games). Actually didn't know about that area (the web based content on the creatures and rules)either. Guess that's what happens when you have less time to devote to long time hobbies when the kids and family demand more involvement over the years.

Thanks again everyone for the help. Like I said before people of Paizo, keep up the good work on the Adventure Path series. I continue to subscribe to them because of the excellent content.

Guys,

I have a complaint about your adventure path series that I just noticed finally reading through the Skull & Shackles series, specifically the last installment; "From Hell's Heart".

First I want to praise you on the quality of the product up to this point. It's been great and a real help at times for me to grab a scenario to add-lib in my own campaign setting that has been running now since 1978. Where I used to have lots of time for prep and to create scenarios for the players (when I was single and no kids) I now have very little time and am surprised I can get in 5 hours a week of play for some old and new friends that still find my campaign setting amusing, challenging and still good enough to continue to develop characters for long term goals.

I am disappointed in the direction the Pathfinder Adventure Setting books seem to be going. What I mean is: In past volumes, the writers included all the pertinent data for encounters that a DM wold need to run the scenarios without needing extra books for reference to get the creature stats. This issue I am noticing that it wasn't included on both the iron golem and the canon golem. What gives?? I am used to not needing anything but the published book for the adventure unless a specific rules question came up that was outside the actual activities covered in the adventure. Not sure why these creature stats weren't included but if this is the direction the publishers are going to be continuing on, I will have to say that this will be an inconvenience and I will consider the adventures to be incomplete, and needing more than just the basic rules manual. This seems to be the ploy that WoTC used to get people to purchase additional publications and tends to get a bit pricey for just a few additional bits of information to complete a written adventure.
Please, if you are going to use specific creatures for encounters, include them in the adventure path so I don't have to purchase additional publications for the stats of those single creatures. It's not complete otherwise.

I have had a few of my long time friends from starting D&D (Yes, 1st edition) complain about the ease of characters being brought back to life. In the 1st/2nd editions we had Resurrection Survival based on the Con score. In today's AD&D/Pathfinder rules players tend to take ridiculous chances as they know they can usually be resurrected or brought back with no penalty for dying. Unfortunately I have to agree. There is no penalty for characters dying and getting brought back. Yes, the lower level "raise dead" does penalize. But when you are playing epic level characters (a couple of my players are playing characters they started back in 1978-1983 and converted from 2nd edition) with no real fear of death, encounters with what should be exciting, dangerous opponents don't get that "My character may die and not be able to be brought back" feeling.
And for those of you who know of the old "Arduin Grimore" critical hit tables you also know that even a 2nd lvl character had a chance of "one-shotting" a 20th lvl character, making for a truly "Epic and memorable battle if they happened to get a "Brain Pierced, Immediate death" result.
There are rules I have implemented for both dealing more damage in an encounter to speed up some fights, and for reintroducing truly "Critical" hits without having a set of extraneous tables that sometimes created more administrative recording than was worth. I am sharing these for those that may have the same wish of older players. SO far, they seem to be working very well, even with lower level parties.

These are included in the rules and description of my self created campaign world, as written in a document I provide all my players when they choose to play in my campaign world.

Character Death

When a character dies the following will happen:
The character's original Constitution (Con) will be forever recorded as the Base Con Score or Original Con Score. If you add CON points due to ability increases this will also add to the CON score. Wishes, books and any magical means short of Divine granting of a Con Point will not increase this base score, but can increase the Con (Game Con Score) past the original BASE score. This will be known as the "Game Con score" or the "Playing Con Score".

1. The player will loose a Con point, no save upon death. True Res and Wish will regain this Con point back for the "Game Con score", but not the "Original Con Score".
2. The player will make the equivalent of a “Resurrection Survival” roll (1st and 2nd ed. Had these based off constitution) to see if they want, or can come back to their corpse: The player may not make the decision outright. For all we know the player went crazy after death and LIKE being dead.

The Resurrection/Survival roll will be a percentage roll (or even a D20 roll, yes, action points can be used at this time also) equal to or less than 5% x the characters current CONSTITUTION attribute after they died. For example; If a character dies with a 19 Con, then after death they lose a Con point, making the Con now 18. 18 x 5% = 90% or 18 or less on a D20 roll. If the player rolls a 19 on a d20, or 91% or more on a D100 roll, then they are forever dead and cannot be brought back. Roll a new character!

*GRANDFATHER CLAUSE: Those characters that were started before this rule implementation will have a special advantage over all newer characters. I will allow you to compute your Original Con Score as follows:
Original base Roll for Con = 15. Then 1/4 of all attribute mods (whether you used them or not for Constitution modifiers) gained over ALL levels will be added to this Base score (assumed DR) for Constitution whether Con was added or not.
*Special Bonus for melee types. You will be able to add 1/2 of all attribute increases to the base of 15 for a higher starting "Original Con Score".

New Damage Rules

Since 2nd ed. Character progression has sped up considerably. It no longer takes years to reach 15th level. The new rules from 3.5 and Pathfinder have introduced the concept of creatures with hundreds, if not thousands of hit points and AC's that can reach further than even most epic level characters can hit without a natural 20 on a d20. Because of this, and the fact that I personally think a 15+ level character should be able to dispatch a lower level character with 30 or less HP (for a 5th lvl character with reasonable Con score, a fighter would have an average of 50HP at the least). Because there are no feats, or game mechanics to both speed up the combat, i.e. do more damage without unbalancing the game too much, I have decided to implement the following rules for damage dealing with both melee weapons, and spells without adding home-grown feats. This is also being implemented so that there is incentive to use strange and new weapons that are never used in the game due to their inadequate base damage. This will hopefully encourage the use of different weapons as a Signature Weapon for the characters.

Signature Weapons: A signature weapon can be any weapon the player chooses, and must be in possession for a week of game time or more. A Signature Weapon is a specific weapon type (long sword, ranseur, glaive, long bow), not a specific weapon (+2 Long sword, +3 Composite Long Bow, +5 dancing rapier of flaming burst). Any weapon of that type becomes the signature weapon and will deal the damage from the new damage rules being implemented below. If the signature weapon is lost, destroyed, or lent to another character, as long as the player picks up another weapon of that type (Almeda lends her +2 Sickle to Proddim for a fight and instead, wields her +1, flaming burst sickle) she will still benefit from the BAB damage bonus rules below. If a signature weapon is no longer desired of a specific type, another can be chosen and the wait will be a week before it is active once again. During this time the previous weapon chosen as a “Signature Weapon” will no longer benefit from the signature weapon bonus. This means a week without any signature weapon bonus damage.

Home Plane above ground: To gain the signature weapon BAB bonus damage in an encounter, a player must make a “Survival” skill check outdoors on the pane that the player is a native on equal to 10 + HD of the creature encountered. If this succeeds, then the player will gain a damage bonus to both melee attacks and spells against the creatures race for that encounter. Player should keep track of ALL the creatures encountered and on the specific planes or locations as they will gain a +1 bonus to survival skill check DC for every encounter.

Other Planes: Planes the character is not a native of, the DC increases to 18 +HD of the creature encountered. Knowledge Planes Ranks only will apply to this Survival DC check. Not the bonuses that a player receives for attributes or magical increases more than once on the base Survival check.

Underground: In this case, the Knowledge Dungeoneering ranks will be added to the die roll to achieve a DC of 10 + Lvl of creature on the native plane, and 20 + lvl of the creature on on native plane, underground. All ranks would stack in this case, the Survival with bonuses, the Knowledge Dungeoneering ranks and Knowledge Planar Ranks would all stack.

BAB Damage Bonus from Level of Character
1. The characters Base Attack Bonus (BAB) will be added as damage to any hit “Provided” that character can make a survival skill roll at the beginning of the combat equal to 10 + the creatures HD. The players are encouraged to keep a running list of creatures encountered as they will receive a +1 bonus every time thereafter if they encounter the same race of creature. The BAB damage bonus is to award those classes that use BAB as their main source of damage dealing, i.e. Melee classes (Fighter, Monk, Ranger, Paladin etc.), with added damage as they increase their BAB. BAB bonuses from the 3.5 Epic Levels will also be considered BAB damage bonuses for all classes if this rule set is used.
2. In underground encounters a “Knowledge Dungeoneering” DC skill roll will need to be made upon the above dependencies.
3. On other planes other than the players native plane, and “Knowledge Planar” DC will be needed based upon the above dependencies (10 + creatures HD) to benefit from the BAB bonus to damage.
4. This Damage can be applied to spells based on the casters total levels in casting classes of either Int, Cha or Wis casting.

Critical Damage Bonus (Melee/Natural Weapons)
1. Critical damage will now be the following for melee weapons and natural attacks (Yes, the critters get it too): The weapons base damage (long sword is 1d8 base damage + BAB modifier) x the characters level (all levels of all classes) x the weapon critical modifier. Using a long sword above, wielded by a 10th lvl character we get the following damage for a confirmed critical; 1d8 for weapon damage, x10 = 10d8 for critical done by 10th lvl character doubled since a long sword has a critical multiplier of x2 to make the damage a Base 20d8 damage for a confirmed crit. Str mods, feat mods, and magical bonuses get added on top of this AFTER the base crit damage is rolled for.

Magical Critical Damage: Is basically the same as above except, you use the spells BASE damage dice to figure the total critical damage.
1. Example: a scorching ray, cast by a 15th lvl character does 15d6+15 damage, BUT the base damage of the spell is 1d6 per level of the caster to a max of 15d6. The base damage of the spell is 1d6. A 15th lvl caster achieves a critical with a scorching ray they would get the following for a crit: base damage is 1d6 x lvl of the caster + Lvl Modifier for damage =15d6+15. This 15d6+15 is added to the original 15d6+15 of the base spell making it 30d6+30 (not 15d6 x15), this 30d6 has a x2 multiplier for a critical so final critical damage is 60d6+60. There, you now have something to fear from ALL criticals!!

May seem difficult but I understand what I wrote and may not have conveyed the ideas very well. I'm open to opinions and possible suggestions. Especially if you try them and find something broken in the rules that I haven't encountered with my gaming group.
Most of this is taken care of creating characters and running games with D20Pro (strike if not able to ID outside products) since my gaming group lives in different areas of the USA.

Thanks ahead of time for any input/decent criticism.

Has anyone else experienced faulty bindings in their adventure path copies or any other book? Thus far, half of my Council of Thieves adventure path has started falling apart. Entire sections of the books have just come loose and started falling out. Customer service was generous enough to send me another copy of The Sixfold Trial when I brought it to their attention, but this seems to be a recurring problem. I saw mention of similar circumstances in the Council of Thieves forum and the Second Darkness forum.

I've noticed The Twice-Damned Prince seems to use a different glue to bind the pages. I am just wondering if this is a known issue that has already been addressed or if the new glue was just coincidence.

Not with the smaller books (Adventure Paths) but yes, my Core Rulebook bindings are starting to come apart. Book gets heavily used but not mistreated. I even cover them with book covers to preserve the book.

Should pc's be given experiance for an encounter if a monster runs away?

Ad-Hoc if you plan on having it return to plague the party/characters. This can be very fun as this creature/NPC continues to advance in olevels as the party does. May even discover others who have been "Wronged" by the party and unite against them.

Full if it was a non-intelligent beast that crawled away, never to be seen again.

There is always the option by the players to attempt a retreat to return at a later time when they advance in power/levels after they learn they can't touch the dragon. Followers, hirelings could be the ones sacrificed to ensure the actual players get away.

I think I saw also, a suggestion to let them earn their way into the dragon's "Lair" by going through minions and prepared areas (Traps) that should be there anyways. Unless the dragon is caught out in the open on a foray from it's lair, it should be difficult or even impossible for a ill-prepared party to take down a dragon of age and intelligence. Dragons and NPC's won't fight to the death unless they have a reason to or are cornered trapped.

I have done the same thing a few times. I have even allowed a randomly generated encounter that the group had no way of defeating occur to "Test" the players game sense. Sometimes players get into a habit of attacking everything because they have had no defeats and think this is just another creature to steamroll.

Defeats can be as memorable as epic successes.

Main suggestion for this is:

Prepare the encounter for the session ahead of time with everything taken care of.
1. Encounter description.
2. Number of creatures/NPC's encountered with all stats, hp, available powers/spells, equipment and wealth. Make sure you know the spells abilities before hand to avoid having to look them up again. Cut/paste into a cheat sheet for reference if able.
3. Layout or encounter location. (Terrain, buildings, trails, streets etc.)
4. Specifics if you use them of the: time, weather, visibility, traps DC's for detecting these and any one of 3-6 standard responses by the encounter created (not players responses).
5. Results if leaders or smart creatures get low on HP. This could be any of 1-6 ideas if you wanted to continue with a recurring "Bad" guy/leader creature.
6. Separate character cards (I use 3"x5" index cards) of each character with general info (Attributes, name, name of player, levels, class(s), alignment, AC, HP and any major equipment they may be constantly carrying to remind me what the character looks like. I use these for initiative order and quick character reference. I also have common skills on them of Perception, Stealth, and maybe a couple "Knowledge".

This procedure has allowed me to run 1-2 encounters every session where we play only for a couple of hours with up to 12 characters (And I have players playing over Skype from California to Iraq).

If you throw role-playing into the mix it drops it down to a single decent encounter, but memorable.

And keep a log of each session to remember what happened, encounter results and possible outcomes if NPC's get away. Amazing what will crop back up a year later when everyone has forgotten the bullywug with the great-axe that was the only survivor of a massacre that got away. :)

I agree with the majority, "No", too much like the changes to 4th ed.

With the Heal skill I allow anyone to do a self (or heal other) heal/patch/bind woulds up to their total heal skill level in points regained with a skill check of DC 15+ if lightly damaged (no more than 25% hit points lost) DC 20+ if no more than 50% lost and DC 25+ if more than 75% lost.
They make the first DC to see if they succeed, then a second DC to see how many points they heal. Yes, sometimes a whole ten charge kit is used to heal just a few points because the skill check is so high and they don't have the skill points available. It also gives a cleric the ability to heal additionally after a fight without using valuable spell power.

You can attempt this as many times as you want but a healers kit has 3-10 charges and each try uses one charge. I usually charge a base of 50gp for a 5-10 charge kit (depends on availablity and local econnomy GP worth), and for DC modifiers I charge and extra 50GP per plus (+) up to a +5 modifier for 300gp. They weigh 10 lbs each.

Healers kits are more readily available than cure potions as they are common materials.

We started playtesting the new rules last night and a person who had taken a prestige class (Dread Commando)to make the fighter he wanted actually re-created the character as a fighter dropping the Dread Commando levels. He could now get the abilities he was looking for from feats available to the fighter with the increased number of feats for all characters. He was estatic and I allowed the revamping of the character (Fighter/Rogue/Dread Commando to Fighter/Rogue)

The fighter now does what they are supposed to do REALLY well, soak up damage and deal damage out (Dual weilding bastard swords with just the -2 penalty on both weapons due to feats allowing 1 handed weapons to be used in the off hand, his next feat will be; and I don't remember what it is, one that removes the -2 penalty for the weapons) to the point, now I have to re-adjust my DMing style to make up for the increased abilities of ALL players enough to challenge a party.

It seems the fighter rogue is dealing an average of 60+ points (sometimes 90+) per full combat round with 5 attacks. Dual weilding and the improved Dual weilding.

So far your plan to bring back the draw of using the core classes is working. The benifits are just way too good to give up to multi-classing or even to branch out to prestige classes unless a player is developing something for the story and not power-gaming.

To me this is like comparing apples and oranges. Both rule sets are easy on the people who are used to them but they basically do the same thing. I personally use the 3.5 rules for sizing as it seemed to be "More" descriptive. But it still does the same thing.

(3.0) You are hit by a fire giant giant weilding a large Greatsword (Standard greatsword is Med doing 2d6 base, size changed to large now does 3d6)

(3.5) You are hit by a fire giant giant weilding a Greatsword. Both are considered Large size
(Standard greatsword is Med doing 2d6 base, size changed to large now does 3d6)

I never saw the difference except in description or wording.

I also agree with the size penalties if they are larger, but smaller shouldn't affect the penalties. Why? This I have no answer except it just never "Felt" right. A smaller weapon shouldn't be penalized as it isn't affected by your Strength or Dex, except to get easier to use. Larger on the other hand, eighs more, and is affected by Strength and Dex and therefore should be penalized until you train with it enough (take a feat) to where it becomes natural to adjust for the extra weight and length.

A pick would make great sense to add to a Dwarf's repitoir of racial weapons since they were eventually used in great numbers to defeat heavy armor, being able to pierce the sheets of metal where slashing weapons wouldn't.

For those who don't like the idea of suddenly becoming an expert in something (which is possible with skill points since you could go from 0 ranks to +10 in one level depending on what class you leveled in and where you spent your ranks) I have a suggestion.

When the character recieves a new skill at later levels (every even level under the Pathfinder system) it is always applied as a cross-class skill, even if you buy a class skill with it. When you go up another level if it is a class skill it advances to the full bonus. If it is a cross-class skill it remains unchanged.

So if a rogue picked up Escape Artist at 6th level he wouldn't have max ranks in it until 7th level.

One thing that happened between the interpetation of 3.0 and 3.5 for my group relating to skills was the misinterpeteation (this might have been a good thing) of how to apply skill points.

We all thought the way to apply skill points was this: Whatever class you had just acquired the skill points in was the class that wasn't penalized as cross class skills. ALL other classes (whether you were multi-classed or not) were cross class skills and would cost double the points to raise a point.

I guess we only considered class skills, skills that were bought when you advanced in that class at that level. All others were cross class. It made for a difficult time keeping track of how many points were spent when but also kept your ranks in check.

Okay seeker, FINALLY! We can finally disagree on something... snicker!

I'm still all for the rank system. I want a buy skill ranks still.

I have to agree, I was always a great fan of the Traveller system from the start (early 1980's) and was estatic when AD&D went to a skill based system for resolving actions that weren't available in 2nd ed.

I will always support this sytem, and to streamline it is a good thing, (to a point) but be careful to include as many aspects in a skill set that are related as possible, hence: your acrobatics, rolling the balance and jump skills together. And why not add climb to this group? Jump,... Climb, both are strength and somewhat dex skills as is balance.

My opinion and suggestions again.

Stay with the old ones. My players rarely used them, but when they did, they needed the extra damage they could produce at the risk of a miss.

Same with the AC bonus on combat expertise. Rarely used, but when the risk was great, they attempted to maximise the AC bonus and take the hit on attack. Since when does a fighter or fighter class have a decent INT bonus to use your proposal for the change to Combat Expertise??

Sorry, even though this isn't used much in my group, I think the original write-up are fine.

I have explained my path of thinking for the half-orc race getting the +2 wisdom is they are supposed to be resilent, this equates to a +1 save bonus and is the least they could do. Bit as stated on another thread, there is a possibility that maybe it could be a players choice. Give the player two points to put/divide between Wis and Con. They are supposed to be tough.

I have been extremely unhappy with the 10% rule to stabilize since it came out and once tried, almost gauranteed that a player would not stabilize. I always figured a CON modifier should aid this roll. Hence, for each positive bonus modifier to CON I added 5% chance to stabilize. High CON characters were rewarded and low CON characters tend to die if not helped.

But as pointed out before, at higher levels, the damage that one could recieve, didn't usually make much difference. -67 points from a lightning bolt when you were at 10 hp is still dead.

It would be beneficial to the overall game design if this were some sort of sliding check, or even going back to the "Resurrection/Survival" roll based on CON that was present in 2nd ed.

I just got the Alpha last night and started looking at it. I must say I jumped right to the race section eager to see what had changed. I did like the majority of what I saw, however Humans loosing their Skill points I think is bogus! Every other race gained something or a few things and it seems all humans got was an Ability Adjustment. Then they HAVE to pick a favored class...I prefer the 3rd edition rule where they do not have to pick one, all are considered a favored class for the human.

Now for the Half-Orc...gaining a +2 to Wisdom?? I just don't see this, Orc's are not inherently wise by nature, nor are humans (hence humans get the bonus to place where ever), Since the general description of the Half-Orc hasn't really changed I would suggest moving this adjustment to Con. Why? The reasoning I see behind it is the Orc is a warrior race, a violent race, they are used to living on the wilds and/or traversing difficult terrain? Orc's also love warfair, hence they will march for days in an organized fashion (of Orc sorts) to arrive at the conflict. Because of these normal factors in an Orcs life he does get a decent Con score and Str score. So why wouldn't this traverse over to the Half-Orc as well?

Just my opinion/thoughts.

Oz

I tend to agree (mostly) with Oz here, but offer a option on the Orc +2 Wis bonus. This is ok as it does help saves and as Oz stated, orcs are heaty, resilent etc. This could be modified to give a +1 bonus to Wis and +1 to Con. Or give the player the option to place two +1 attribute points to either of those attributes, not to total more than two points. If +1 is given to both attributes, they don't give a total +1 bonus to any related checks. But later in level progression it could help with character creation, to plan when a player will modify these scores to get the +1 Bonus to skills and saves.

On the side of human characters: I agree with the proposal to allow humans to place the +2 bonus wherever. This takes in to account the desire of the young human to progress in the trait they would like to have the best, when they finally leave the nest and begin their career. Hence, extreme versatility for humans.
I also agree that the removal of the +1 skill point per level for humans should be returned. Again, humans are versatile and this reflects this instead of racial preferences for specific skills and classes of the other older races.
I can live with the rule that a human player must choose their preferred class at creation. This is more in line as a rule than allowing a human to have no preferred classes. Either way, they are penalized if a 3+ class character (not counting prestige classes) does not keep the two (or more) lower of the classes within +/- one level.

I also tend to agree with a Cha modifier of a negative number for the half-orc race. Maybe not +2 but still, this attribute should be penalized as they usually have a bad rep, and their facial features are sometimes, monsterous.

Just my adds to this discussion.

I have put it to my group running through an ad-hoc Savage Tide campaign. They will be starting conversions where thay can and will progress with the other character classes as they are released. For now, I see it only making the present characters a bit more powerful/versatile in the game. But when you play the old way of AD&D 2nd ed. (Random encounters could be anything from a few kobolds to a Ancient Red, at 1st lvl. Learn to run or be eaten) this is actually a good thing.
My players have learned not to get too cocky and maintain a semblance of restraint until enough information can be gathered about an encounter. Then whatever happens, happens.

My only concern is the prestige classesp; how the base characters will affect the prestige classes and their hd. But, we will give it a try. This should quickly point to problems integrating with existing 3.5 rules and abilities.

An answer to the subject title, I'd have to say no. As others have said, what may offend any of my players will automatically be toned down or pulled out as I have a very diverse group in both age and experience. I also can add my hand in the air to one previously that said it seems that the older you get the less tolerance you have for really evil type of behavior, descriptions etc. But in this case it helps convey the tru horror of what should be the backdrop of the adventure.

I do have to commend PAIZO on the series for being a monthly publication of an ongoing adventure. I think it's freaking great! Especially with all the descriptions and background it gives. That really helps to keep the players actually "Afraid" of things implied instead of always feeling a bit insulated from the implied horror of what ogres could do int he game.

Very good and I am completely sold on both the quality (despite the few nagging grammatical errors I keep running across while reading) and the content as an ongoing module. Thank you!