Czar's page

Anyone tried Spotify for this? I just signed up and it seems you can make playlists there and then have your friends subscribe. I'll click around more when I have time and report back!

Quick tip - My players were sure vorstag ang grine created the beast, and totally werned getting the skin stealer angle.

One could have the words "skin stealer" or "wears the skin" in the burned safe at Dr. Brada's place if your players are having a similar misunderstanding.

This was a great battle. I had 5 players. All hell broke loose when the party's alchemist threw a firebomb into the first room off of the courtyard ---- the one filled with crates of alchemists fire --- ya. KABOOM ! That brought V out to the patio to toss a few bombs on the fighters still dealing with the golem hound.

So - both grine and vorstag laid in wait inside and then threw everything at my PC's all at once. I added 4 more Mong.Menz as well. It was a tough fight and my players loved it. This was the first real battle that they could sink their teeth into - they were sick of fighting ghosts!

My Vorstag made an escape, and the party dropped Grine into negs, tied him up then dropped heals on him so as to drag him into the courtyard.

Oh - and there was NO WAY any of my players were getting on the planks between the vats. They saw death in that move from along way off.

I'm finding the trial a day schedule a little taxing. Game feels a little rushed. Foe example, the PC's didnt feel they had time to wait around until night fall to investigate the "night ghosts" - after encountering two of the "children" and investigating the in bed death, they felt they had enough, or were running out of time.

Also, they would also be faced with a choice -investigate vorkstags or go to the sanctuary if I didn't delay the trial schedule.

If I ran this again I would either stress time and push for all night rides and no sleeping, or space the court dates out by a day or so. As it is, I'm using the mob attack as a reason to delay the 3rd day of trial. Which seemed to make sense, esp. since the party prematurely torched the punishing man....

Overall the players are loving it.

Kinda Cheezy - but I rocked the theme from Law and Order for the trial scenes in ToB and my group really got into the cout drama. Pretty good for guys who walk in the door at the beggininsg of session and declare "Imma F*@k all your monsters tonight bro!" Bunch hack n'slashers. lol

Thinking on the lopper - Maybe he heals from the bleed effect on a 2 for 1 basis - he gets 2 HP for every point drained? Just an idea to keep him in the fight longer.

Yeah, I'll probably have to go with RAW in this case, though if it was a table top game I'd probably rule it was burned away.

At MYYYYYY table (haha) I tend to tweak RAW to simulate my conception of reality and impose what I think would be realistic.

Think about the physics along with RAW. I don't think a tangle foot bag would hinder a molten chunk of rock. Can you think of any glue that would bond molten surfaces? I cant, and I spec out various crazy strong adhesives as part of my line of work.

Even super awesome "magic" glue would have (it seems to me) to interact with the mundane aspects of chemical bonding at some point. In the interest of not upsetting Rules Lawyer type players, I might let the bag hold the creature for a round before the awful stench of the burning glue filled the area.

You could even impose a obs. mist type effect, with or without a mild poison effect. Maybe the burning smoke even grants a boon - a rage effect or a competence bonus. But that's just me, and probably dates me back to my 1st ed roots where DMing was more improvisational. Some players really like unpredictable magic outcomes, and off the cuff bits of situational flare, while others want a cut and dry rules system. Bottom line is make it fun for you and your group and you are golden.

FYI - I started a "Large Party" thread for TotB here:

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/adventurePa th/carrionCrown/tOtBLargePartyIdeasSPOILERS&page=1#1

I have enjoyed this thread quite a bit, looking forward to your insights for the next installment! You guys rule!

Continuing the thread of running large groups (6 - 8) players into "The Trial" here.

As with the same thread for HoH - we are looking for experiences and ideas helpful to other DM's running parties that run over the Adv. as written like a SWAT team. ;-)

Bear in mind bumping CR's dramatically increases the odds of individual PC death as discussed in the HoH thread and various DMing advice publications.

As always more monsters of a given type help to keep the party busy, but in addition to areas where adding more mooks works we are specifically looking for creative rules tweaks, appropriate min/maxing of baddies, and any other off the cuff bits of DM'ing genius from the community.

I'm currently bereft of ideas, but will be sure to add to this thread as I get my head into this adv.

Looking forward to seeing your brilliant/deviant/nefarious and ultimately FUN ideas here!

Discuss..... :-)

Nath - I like your approach to the monster as more of a thinking entity, however I feel there is something in the "child like" aspect of his persona. Perhaps he is a thinking being, capable of reason and logic, but has never been taught the social expectations of society. This coupled with a innate inability to sort through feelings (becomes emotionally overwhelmed and incapable of restraint) might be the ticket.

Perhaps the Beast played as intelligent creature, but ruled by emotions and impulse would touch on all bases and provide a more memorable character for your group? I'm leaning toward this rout myself. Starting the adventure this Wed. so I'll check in and let you know how my group reacts to this interpretation.

Oh - forgot to mention - I had a wight hiding under the collapsed porch the first time the party left the prison at 3rd level, followed up by a skele blitz up the stairs from the courtyard.

I think this would have been a fun fight, but the party alchemist critted the wight.. one shot drop on the poor ole wight.

Fleanetha - Cheating is not really possible as a DM, it's your game and your decisions about what is going to make the game more challenging and MORE FUN for your players is your own. If your players keep coming back you know you are doing a good job.

I maxed out all the common skeletons HP throughout this module and it went over fine, this was not overly lethal in my experience.

TSM went down much more easily than the Lopper (last night) - I think if TSM could "call" come ecto creatures that would help make him more of the boss he's supposed to be.

And yes - started TOtB last night - so this thread for that adventure will be a good Idea if we keep it going.

I made one of the hands in the torture chamber grow onto the giant CR5 type. That kept them on their toes.

Blaaarg - The lopper was pretty tough IMO - I fear your 3 stage idea might be overly fatal - unless you party really works together... Also - if the figure out that he is "affected" by fire, as my party did, they might be able to keep him on the defensive. If you play up his incorporeal-ness and play him somewhat "smart"(flying through bars and letting any bleed effects heal him) I believe he can be a challenge RAW.

A better possibility if you have a lot of positive energy is to throw waves at them.

Ya. I like this - Very Diablo video game like, I'm doing this with the lake.

I ran the Piper Haunt last night...party of 5....

Threw about 10 skeletons at them, all the stirges (giant and smaller ones)and the Piper.

Players were frustrated with the holds and the fear effect, but they just kept firing area burst positive energy until the skeles dropped and the Piper stopped.

Breeze....

You could give Gurtis his own head as a beheaded, which would remove his blinded condition until destroyed.....

Don't have the book in front of me, so not sure if he would be too buff if he had sight.

Maybe the Lopper gets the equiv. of a spiritual weapon spell - same damage and attack bonus as his main weapon? Or maybe a swarm of small handaxes similar to the P-Geist in the hospital room above, giving him more smaller attacks...

oh oh - or maybe some beheaded, former victims now in his thrall, to aid him?

Thanks Darkstrom. This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to see on this thread!

Windspirit - I knew what you meant ;-) My novice GM comment was an open letter statement, and a caveat to newer GM's. Your ideas seem sound to me. I'm going to try them in my game. I may need to watch it though - I only gave the PC's a 15 point buy.

Evil, Paul

You make a good point - novice GM's be warned - throwing higher level CR monsters at a party increases the odds of PC fatality quite a bit. Theres much written on this including a god example in the Gamemastery Guide.

More of the same type of monster specd is a great way to up challenges.

Also note - not every fight should tax the PC's to the point of death or rest!

These ideas are just for souping up the threats so that a large party dosent just cake walk the whole darn thing!

Hi. I'm running a 6 player game, so the module needs beefing up. Besides "more" creatures in each encounter I've had a few ideas to increase the threat for a big party. I'm interested to hear any other ideas too.

Idea #1 ****DIABLO video game like re-gen lake****
I have the lake spawn skeletons and zombies at will. This works great - as every time the players enter or leave Harrowstone they either have to deal with a minor threat.

Idea #2 ****Entry Gate****
The initial entry has a full blown fear effect instead of shaken. Also the gates slam shut and lock. (no haunt, just slam and lock) I set the DC to open the lock at 22.

Idea #3 - **** INFARAMRY POLTERGEIST ****
Give him full telekinesis as opposed to just the 1d4 surgical implement attack. I had the poltergeist push a PC into the pit into the lower dungeon, wrestle the war hammer from the cowardly priest. Player really didn't like getting beat down with his own hammer! HA HA!

My summoner playing PC retired his character for the AP - citing that the thing was just too over powered. And he's a power gamer. Maybe we were missing something, but our entire group thinks the summoner class is broken. I no longer allow that class in my game, Ustalav or no.

Anyone else playing a summoner feel a little Uber powered?

Scythe was no problem for my players - the monk was able to "pin" it to the floor, whilst the rest of the party administered the beat down.

Running a large party? I have a group of six, so I decided id do a Diablo esque skeleton re-gen out of the lake on the right of Harrowstone. Had the courtyard gates slam shut and lock too.

Threw about 20 skeles at them in two waves of 10 (who's counting I use story award XP...lol) and then backed off. I think if they are having a too easy time I'll just keep having the lake spawn undead - I figure there had to be at least a hundred prisoners in the collapsed section, so the story rationale is there too.

HEADSMANS SCYTHE

http://www.reapermini.com/figurefinder#detail/02846

This is perfect - the scythe and hands are separate from the fig, so you can just use the scythe!!

Another vote for layered PDF's!

I'm setting up a tabletop projector, so I have to use image manipulation software to remove text and secret door and such..... pain!

Is there any reason not to layer the PDF's? Seems like an easy thing to do for graphic design pros.....

Ah - A general repository for GM information. I agree - a lot of useful stuff here, just wondered about the format. I guess I'm just a "one thread per subject" kinda guy! :-)

Carry on --- Just ran my fist HoH session last night, so I'm sure I'll be back!

What is the deal with this thread? It's a sticky, so it seems important, but going through it it seems like one threadjack after another - Splatterman tactics, XP accounting, Lorrimors motives....

I mean - a lot of good stuff here, but wouldn't this be more concise and easier to find if there were several threads?

Thanks Windspirit. good Stuff there.

Part of what I like about running AP's is that you don't have to track XP. Every module tell you what level the party is supposed to be at each milestone. I've switched to purely story awards and it works fine.

Hey pop n fresh - if you have converted NPC's handy I'd love to see them...

I'm starting P-finder AOW this week. ( finally running this 5 years after the series started coming out....)

Also - any background / ragion from the campagin setting that makes sense for this build? I have only skimmend the setting book.

Thanks! I will look into both of these options, although I have a feeling my DM will want to stick with the core PFRPG rules for this first campaign.....

I like the necromancer idea the flavor is right - but this would leave the party cleric-less which is always a tough work around from a mechanic point of view.

Hi - My group is switching over tp PFRPG. I want to make a "Voodoo Priestess" build for the upcoming campagin.

I'm looking for any suggestions as to background / build that would be along the lines of this type of PC. I had a chance to skim the campagin setting and thought the "sodden lands" may be the best point of orgin for a PC of this type. Probably human (for an extra feat to help bolster energy channeling) or maybe 1/2 elf.....

I want to try the new "command undead" feat mechanics - so I'm pretty sure playing a cleric is the only way to go. Perhaps a diety with a nature / divination / curse / necromancy flavor? I dont know the PFRPG panthenon very well yet......

Also want to incorporate poision use somehow (profession or craft skills?)

Thanks in advance for any help!

Thanks to all of you graphic design and spreadsheet wizards! You make the world of RPG's a better place!

Hello - I downloaded several of these sheets by verious authors, but none contained any area for the CMD total. I suspect CMD came out in the core book and not the beta? Anyway - I would love some of these custom sheets with a sopt for CMD........

thanks Q. Went back for a quick re read........

Question:
What effect, if any, does magical enhancement of weapons have on CMB and CMD?

Does my +2 whip have a +2 to make trip attacks?

Does my +3 sword resist bieng pried from my hands by someone using the disarm special manuver?

Does an item's bonus roll into CMB / CMD? It appears that it dosent but....
Looking at the RAW it seems unlikely that my cleric (whos diety's favored wpn is a whip) will ever be able to trip or disarm anything other than a drunk gnome commoner!

Keep the mother ! Why are you thinking of abandoning our mother? My players druid used that spell and wasted her also, but the players had sooo much fun taking her out. There was a huge build up to the battle and when the druid dropped that and iirc a "antiplant shell" type spell the party was so relieved. They thought certain death was upon them.

IMHO the path has PLENTY of demons already and the mother just makes sense! I vote for the mother! Hand them the hard fights on the Iod!

Good point about the displacement - and ships are kinda loud.
You could use a variant whole ship invis spell to hide the ship and then a major image of ocean water to mask the displacement. Add an area silence spell or two and you should be pretty well cloaked.

Thanks for the ideas. As far as explaining the presence of powerful pirates in the area i think it makes sense that the C Fleet would have some toughs lurking about Scuttlecove or the the other fort (the wreck ? iirrc) I think players might actually find it odd that there are no other ships that can even rival their power, given the scope of the C Fleet.

what about an entirely invisible ship? some high level illusion a ala Klingon birds of prey? Also - water and air elemental could GREATLY increase a ships advance / escape / RAMMING SPEED !

Just what would evil demon pirates do to be a naval power?

OK - so I agree with the rules reiteration and the conclusions drawn from them. What I would like to brainstorm about is a NPC ship / naval combat encounter that would challenge the players. I'm talking about a good fight on the seas.

The NPC ship could be staffed by a NPC group as well as a bunch of blood thirsty mooks.

So - assuiming they:
Have a cleric -
there are all kinds of resist spells that would make the mooks and the ships more able to deal with the dreaded fireball. Maybe even a custom spell the grants resist fire to the ship itself. This could be prepped before medium range easily enough.

NPC wizard -
well maybe hes got some fireballs of his own! IMAGINE THAT! Also cone of cold will swiftly put out any shipboard fires. Mass fly for a boarding party? Sonic orb spells? Dispel magic? anyone? Bueller?

NPC druid -
tasty summoned water elementals pulling apart the partys ship from below? Nasty summoned flying things harassing the partys rigging?

NPC fighters -
maybe a group of archers with str longbows and the farshot feat? A crack squad of swashbucklers with mass fly dropping in to say hello?

NPC monks -
yes please

NPC bards inspire courage too!

What I'm saying here is that a group of pirates who live in a dnd universe will have developed PLENTY of ways to be menacing badguys. I'm sure i have just scratched the surface here - i dont have any books here with me.

I'm with the OP - I would love to see a truly bad ass and challenging ship to ship fight sometime during this path. Can I get some more ideas from you fine fellows for making up some really nasty and clever pirates?

Ran this last weekend. My players had a good fight in the blood pool room. Heres some on the fly ideas I had that were fun (for me)....

Have only 2 of the mates engage the pc's at first. The third can stay invisible and use telekinesis to wrest the players swords away and fling them into the blood pool, dispel magic and summoning to harry the players.

Also - once a mate gets beat down to 15 Hp or so - have them teleport into the naga room for healing.

Bear in mind the fiends are immune to electricity and that the naga can cast lighting bolt......

I used different minis each time the mates emerged from invis and teleporting - my players thought they were fighting 6 or 7 of them!
I spent some time describing the vines as having heart like pulsing fruit and the players were sure that the vines were "assassin vines"
As a DM I like using metagame mind tricks to enhance in game confusion!

there's a whole other thread or two that covers the mirror trap. I think its called "inappropriate touching" Good stuff there.

Thanks for the input. Keeping O's motivations in mind helps me out somewhat. But even if the motivation is sacrifice; that doesn’t preclude the harem monkeys from going to grab O straightaway. Maybe they don’t want to interrupt his sacrifice of the gnome?

And the climbing idea is a great one. I'll use that. And yea - teleporting the PC's across the isle is ridiculous and really not much fun, but the strategy does fall in line with their capabilities. It's right up there with teleporting 2500 feet up, dropping the pc then teleporting back to safety before they hit the ground, leaving the PC to wish Patrick Swayze was below them with a parachute.

Prolly some cutsie hello kitty panda things at your local teeney-bopin mall accessory store.........

OK - So we have some teleporting monkey demons here. I <3 them. I have been thinking about how they might better use their abduction abilities. Help me Rhonda.

The adventure as written suggests the demons will abduct PC's to the top level of the blood pool room ( to fight 2 on 1 )and into the shaft below the throne room. No problem.
But the abduction ability can do so much more......
Why not abduct the a PC into the room with the big O?
Why not teleport into the room with big O and alert him to the threat, Bringing O into the fight earlier?
Why not abduct a PC into the surrounding forest? The range on this ability is pretty darn huge.
Why not put a PC into the shaft - then teleport up to the throne room and pull off the grate to allow the MOB into the shaft.

Now my concern here is twofold -
1) I don’t want to make things not fun for players ( I see players being very disgruntled with being teleported 4 miles into the forest alone, even though it's a sound strategy on the demons part )
2) Making the encounters too deadly. (having the MOB funnel down onto a lone PC while the rest of the party is otherwise occupied)
Who has run this and how much trouble did your PC's have with the challenges as written?
Any other ideas?

thats neato. any chance you have #4 and #5 ?

Hey Dio - nice work - if you are sharing include me please! joshua4242 at hotmail dot com

http://www.coolminiornot.com/store/product.php?xProd=2497&xSec=23

Well - she's bald.

1. Do you currently like pathfinder 1e? (I know it sounds loaded, but please bare with me.) yes

2. Did you once like pathfinder 1e but now find it troublesome? (feel free to give details.) yes, too much added afterwards

3. Do you like 4th or 5th edition D&D? (Also sounds loaded but again no judgments) 4th no, 5th better. I didn't play 4th. I played a little of 5th

4. Which are you looking for class balance, smoother high level play, more options, or even all of those things? (Small edit: these weren't meant to be mutually excursive, I just want the gist of what you're looking for, feel free to add additional thoughts/desires as well.) all of them

5. How do you feel about making the game more accessible in general? Yes

6. Are you willing to give up on accessibility if you can still gain all of the benefits listed in question 4? Yes

7. Would you be willing to play an alternative rules system then what we have been presented? (A different version of pathfinder 2nd edition if you will). Yes

8. And if you said yes to the above question what would you like to see in that theoretical game? (Most of you will see what I'm doing here, I'm finding common ground) pf1 and pf2.

In general, pf1 was good in a lot things, but some things needed redone. From pf1 I would use the races and skill system, probably the feat system. From pf2 I would the spell system and character generation system. But all of the systems would need some work.

What about lifting and bulk?

18 strength is 18 strength, just because I am a foot shorter and 50lbs lighter shouldn't change that. It's shouldn't make a difference on lifting. It should only mean things that fit me weigh less because there is less material.

A goblin with 18 str and a giant with 18 str can carry 9 bulk before being encumbered. They both wear plate mail, the goblins weighs 2 bulk and the giants 4 bulk due to size.

It comes down to some things are learned, some things are genetic. If it is genetic, ie darkvision, immune to sleep, resistance to poison, you should just have it. If it learned, racism, racial weapons, able to better fight giants, then it can be an option and learned later in life. Pretty simple if you ask me

Found this running around through the wilds.
What the hell is it ??

They only flag I have seen working has been the attacker and the aggressor flags.

@Cheatle

Trolls aside, it was fun and learning. We did what we could with the current mechanics. Your tactics in getting a defense up was a good idea. It just happened we couldn't continue even if we wanted. Rep reasons. You came and did what I would call a safe fire training exercise. We made sure to not "farm" any one on our attack and you all did the same. Although we did kill D. Brutus a bit because we didn't want scouts in our area. His stubbornness did win out and we relented.

Now tomorrow, war is on!! Death to you all

Right now as a melee character you cant catch anyone who is just willing to run from you. If you give a bow man an ability that hits for 10 damage but lets him move at full speed he will use that to kill everyone he meets very slowly. Except other range people.

Right now u can't kill any one who wants to run from ueven if u are ranged.

I remember fighting for anonymity for reasons of ambushes and assassination. I had an in depth idea but it would be some thing for later down the road. For now, it would be nice to company mates, group mates, and a raid group interface.

Targeting should be a bit easier. A bigger area to targe etc. As for identity, mouse over mini map for a name. You should remember names or have a list, its not that hard.

Half the problem I see is you all are worried about leveling stuff. I have played 8+ hours each day. I don't feel like it's a grind. We conquered an escelation, striped mined a hex, and built up a store of resources for our people. We have had any where from 3 to 7 or 8 people together to do things. We are TS having fun. We also been about killing ppl. Sorry if that was one of you. There was plenty to do with out worrying about what I need to level. I think doing other things will take some of that boredom away.

But I also think that healing should help you meet those gates. Also, healing needs a little range. 10m or so would be good in my eyes.

Player friendly crafting sheets Crafting 9-19-14, Refining 9-19-14

Welcome to the forums! A lot of us have been here for quite some time, years for some. We love to see new people and hear new ideas. We are glad to see you.

With that said, please remember this is Alpha. This game is far from finished. Things are broke, things aren't in game yet, some are temporary. Of you are unsure about the way it is working, ask. There are a lot of well informed people around.

One thing we have learned is, Goblinworks listens. But being negative won't get you much attention by them. If you don't like the way some thing works, state why and purpose a solution, or ask if there isn't a better way. For over two years we have been going back and forth with them to come up with waits to get this game to work as intended. New ideas are welcome and probably needed.

Also, we as a community have strived to keep negativity and toxic behavior out. A good debate is great and needed. But the negativity isn't. Our current community is awesome, but we are going to be getting tons of new faces. Please help to keep things going in the right direction.

It is alpha, it is a test! Enjoy.

silence at least means that it isn't put off until tomorrow yet

KarlBob wrote:

That's true, but it doesn't address the extreme disparity between short bow and long bow.

Not having tried out the longbow, is there a large difference in the damage between the two?

There is a huge damage difference between the two. I run a rogue with daredevil and bow specailization along with the long bow, 1-shot 75% of the normal mobs. 2-shots <sometimes 3> the smaller yellows. The ogres. yellow or orange take several shots. For short burst DPS, long bow is the only way to go.

As sustained DPS, I haven't tried a short bow on any thing that big.... kiting for 3 minutes straight to kill one mob isn't on my to do list. Especially if long bow downs it in 6 or less shots. Sp I am not sure if stamina drain is going to even out the DPS in longer fights, but rogues aren't going for long fights anyways.

All-in-all, I think short bows need a little boost.

Long bow <35m>
Primary, Overdraw -- DF 4.25 @ 3.2s cool down, 51 stam
Primary, Pinpoint Target -- DF 1.62 @ 2.0s cool down, 33 stam
Secondary, Impact critical -- DF 2.54 @ 5.7s cool down, 52 stam

Short bow <20m>
Primary, Basic Attack -- DF 1.96 @ 1.2s cool down, 21 stam
Primary, Running Shot -- DF 1.05 @ 1.2s cool down, 21 stam
Secondary, Deadly Aim -- DF 2.81 @ 5.7s cool down ,52 stan

So either 4.25 DF at 3.2 CD or 2.8 DF ar 5.7 CD... I know what one I have been choosing. Especially since overdraw makes target flatfooted for the next shot so I get sneak attack damage. Then you have range in case they dont go down in one shot... just saying.

KarlBob wrote:

Rogue attacks deal extra damage when enemies have conditions like flat footed or unbalanced, not when the rogue is behind the enemy or another player is targeted by the enemy.

Minor correction, but the Rogue Feature "Cut-Throat" grants "Sneak Attack on Untargeted", which I'm pretty sure means the Rogue does extra damage if his target is targeting someone else.

Minor correction, extra damage if the rogue isn't targeted by the target. The target doesn't have to have some one targeted for this condition.

FREE ICECREAM !!!!!!!!!

Hold on, its not made yet.

Scarlette wrote:

To stop the unaffiliated gatherers, how about limiting them to how much they can harvest in claimed hexes. If a gatherer needs bulk or a lot of materials he is likely to belong to a settlement, company or something, otherwise why does he need all that material? Belonging to one of those should get you the ability to use PvP to protect your resources. That limited can be lifted next to the starting settlements to allow gatherers to start working on their skills before heading out into the world.

Scarlette, just because the character is unaffiliated, doesn't mean the player is.

Does it really matter if the player is affiliated? Rep isn't based on the player, its based on the character and their in game actions.

Bottom line is, you as the settlement controlling the hex, either losing an amount of resources to these Ninja Harvesters or you turn your settlement into NBSI. That will open your settlement up to more corruption and more PVP.

Some of us have played in alpha now, so think about the answers to these questions:

1. Can anyone really control who is harvesting nodes in their lands?

Given the proper tools we can try.

2. How many players do you really think will be willing to take rep losses, now that they realize the extreme cost of low reputation?

Not many, which is why I said limited the amount the unaffiliated gatherer can harvest. That way he can't do enough harvesting to cause a problem.

3. Every harvester, even if criminal flagged, may be bait just waiting for an attack. How long do you figure before the NBSI turns a settlement's controlled lands into a PVP playground?

If gatherers must be affiliated to do enough harvesting to cause your settlement a problem, and they come and do that, it is an act of sabotage and your settlement should declare a feud/war.

Ninja Harvesting is Risk and Consequence free banditry, just in a new form. Even if you limit the amount, that will have a timer on it and Ninja Harvesters can rotate out. Besides, I don't think GW has the money, time or wants to devote the effort to stopping this emergent game play that their own system creates.

And once again, if they are affiliated you can take action. If they aren't, then they can't harvest enough to worry about.

Oh, I forgot to mention... It was totally enjoyable and can't wait until next session.

I started this thread to gather information on the resources needed to be up to date on the Crusader Roads starting area for the beginning of the game. Whats happening in the story line, the history leading up to it, the faction that will be active, etc.

So I could win an alpa player?!? Cool, I'll take nihimon so I can torture him.

<Magistry> Toombstone wrote:

APersonOnAComp wrote:

I'm a little iffy about them putting recipes on monsters and the like. I was wanting to go pure crafting and become a kind of merchant since I remember they do reward players more for specializing in one area over spreading their skills around in multiple classes. So, wouldn't that really restrict the kinds of skills I could really work at improving without having to hire on a group of people for a chance drop?

I imagine recipes will be saleable on the markets, so your pure crafter could simply buy the recipes. Whether or not the better recipes will be readily available in the manner, or whether they'll be so rare that it'll be extremely difficult to find them on the open market, I guess we'll see.

If *every* recipe were discoverable purely through skill unlocks and never-leave-town crafting, everybody could learn everything given enough time which wouldn't be that interesting, so it does seem appropriate to put them out in the world.

I suppose my main issue there is that if you're a crafter you need refined materials from the people who have refining as their class and recipes from the PvE people out there. There's less of a means to generate wealth to start with. Seems like it requires quite a bit of an initial investment of some kind. Whereas if you are of the class that harvests quite a bit, you can sell stuff. If you PvE, you can sell stuff. There's a way to create some sort of starting wealth to work with from those avenues. Does that make sense?

Didn't see you get an answer for this so here's my take on it.

Networking will be key to this. Let people know you will be a dedicated crafter and as soon as some one gets what is needed, you will make one.

An old discussion for referencing sake.

Avatar Display Range vs. Audio Range vs. Identification Range vs. Targeting Range

Assassin Identity Concern

Just a few more

With the new blog out on PoI's, I started this thread to get ideas flowing for my "Bat Cave". We can assume that hide-outs are a PoI much like a watch tower or inn. They aren't resource producers and are more permanant than a mine etc.

So let's start the process of building my "Bat Cave". First thing is to clear this hex of its monsters and claim it. Once that is done, the first group of questions come up. With my "Bat Cave" active, will monsters respawn? This question is important due to the fact that the absence of monsters would be a give away that the PoI has been claimed. If it has been claimed, people are going to be curious what's there, probably leading to discovery. Monster would provide some cover as to the "Bat Cave" being in that area. If so, how many should there be? This could be considered an upgrade possibly. Do you have to keep the balance so you aren't over run or possibly have this controlled by upgrade options also. They could be considered your gaurds, non aggressive to you and named allies by default.

Now my "Bat Cave" is established, it has two outposts nearby. A second group of questions come to mind. Can other people use those outposts? If some one else tries to use it, will it notify them of my presence? Would I be notified of thier presence? Can they be used as an extension of my "Bat Cave"?

Whats going to be available for my "Bat Cave"? Is it going to be considered a watch tower with stealth for all intent and purpose? Will it have a storage and power regeneration properties?

Just some questions and ideas I have. Put some input and suggestions in.

The whip is a really cool utility weapon with the feats, trip, disarm, 15' reach etc.

A friend and I started playing WoW together, his first MMO. One time when we were playing together he gives away this 1% rare purple drop. I was like, "Holey crap dude, you could have sold that on auction for a boat load !" He thought it was blue. Come to find out he is color blind. Red and orange, blue and purple look like the same color to him. He didn't know they had a color blind setting.

No dot= White item <common>
One dots= Green item <magic>
Two dots= Blue item <Rare>
Three dots= Purple item <Epic>
Four dots= Orange item <Legendary>

Monsters levels etc were done in the same fashion. And of coarse the name plates also had a different design also for type, rare, elite etc.

So my question is this, now that I finally got to it... is PFO going to add a setting for this ?? I truelly hope so.

I am choosing PFO as my main for a few simple reasons.

1> I heard of it first.

2> I have been playing DnD for a long time. My uncle has the original 3 pamphlets it was released as.

3> While I loved RvR in DAoC and DAoC itself, I tend to spend alot time playing and need more than just PvP now a days. Although in WoW I leveled via BGs.

3> I already like this community and believe we will make this game a lot fun.

While every one loves the 3 faction PvP, I think it was more fact you could happened on to two sides going at it, and it was a free for all for you. I would love picking off healers of the winning side to see it the encounter turn out equal. Then when it gets down to the last few, cleaning them all out. 8v8(v1 that they didn't see lurking in the shadows>, and I am the winner. That or our gank group runs in and PBAoEs them all. We had a 75% win average, the other 25% we just had our ass handed to us. But that was the fun. I can see that type of potential in this game. Maybe not the exact same, but the feel will be there.

I'll play CU, but I am more of a one game person. The will be PFO

I am also just a hobbyist. I build AMD rigs. The one that bugs me is that they been stuck on DDR2 instead of DDR3. Some thing to check into if you build one.

10 set of eyes are better than one, and brains to go with it only helps to see things from different views and helps keep things from being missed. It could help inspire an idea that makes what we all want possible.

My favorite game for a lot reasons was DAoC. The combat system included reactionary combos, position, and poisons. PvP combat included rams, catapults, trebuchets, and climbable walls for stealthers.

[edit] The one thing I didn't like about it was the sleep and stuns. I had a gank group for PvP, we AoE stunned, spammed PBAoE( point-blank area of effect) every one to death in about 5 secs. Speed buff, AoE CCer, group heals, 2 PBAoE casters and gone in 6 seconds. Hit and run.

@Qallz

I agree that being seen at 30 feet away is too far for some one who is maxed out in stealth against some one who has no perception. In its current state, perception is an equal counter to stealth. I believe this needs to change some what. I don't believe stealth=invisible, but I do believe that some one trained to get close with out notice should be able to stand next to you before you notice if your not trained to notice that. It is a specialized type skill. While perception is the ability to see things, it isn't specialized the same way. Sense motive seems to be a more appropriate skill. Any "class" that would have stealth as a class skill should go against that instead of just perception. That or get a bonus to those percentages. Some form to show that its an innate feature of the "class" role, not just some thing they picked up. The ordinary perception shouldn't be on equal footing.

@Qallz

Having playing DAoC when it was just Shrouded Isle, at RR7.2 my shadowblade was one to be feared. I loved it. But in DAoC stealth=invisible. In PFO it doesn't. In PFO you are visible, so in open area sneaking up to some one as close as 20 yards is extremely hard. Now add terrain into the mixture. You have trees, bushes, grass, etc. to help conceal you. You also have distractions going on. Its not likely some one is just standing out there looking for a stealther(not that they couldn't be.)

You also interchange yards and feet, which is a big difference. 20 yards is 3 times further than 20 feet. So when we get down to percentages, its huge difference. 10% of a 100 yards is about 33 feet where 10 of 100 feet is 10 feet. All this aside, remember that the percentage has no context in distance yet. There is also modifiers we probably don't know about yet.

All in all, I have been worried about the stealth mechanic. This last blog has a lot of stuff I like in it. While Qallz may be extreme, his reasons are not to be discarded. But I'm sure after play testing GW will do a great job.

Loving the ideas in this thread. I don't like the idea of one guy being good at everything. I believe if an item is worth using, that it has to come from some one who has put training into it. The inverted pyramid style is the best set up imo, and PF already has the weapons broke down into weapon groups. Hopefully it will be equally easy to break down alchemy, buildings, siegecraft, and others.

+1 Decius

@blud

I was talking about making the influence cost be high enough, that you couldn't afford to pay for an ambush more than once every couple of days. But I like the idea of a timer better. A cool down that is for every one in the ambush. Some one in the group targets the caravan and uses the ambush option, group members get a pop-up asking if they are ambushing also. Saying yes starts your cool down. Saying no(or your ambush on CD) means you are taking full penalties.

Caravans are rarely just one merchant, and thus shouldn't be considered one unit. Merchant A may want to try and run while merchant B would rather stay and defend his goods. The cost of a caravan should only be materialistic in the form of wagons, guards, and drivers. Caravan routes shouldn't be restricted to road only, but to terrain that can support the weight of loaded wagons. A caravan going off road takes more time to reach their destination and thus are vulnerable for a longer time.

SAD also shouldn't be the only way to confront a caravan as PvP sanctioned. Ambush should also be included, but with a high enough influence cost to keep it from becoming an everyday thing. But if you are willing to pay it, you only take the alignment hit, not the rep hit.

I agree totally with this. They should only get information of people who you grouped with, traded with, made contracts with etc, not an OOC tool use for convenience and fun.

I Truelly hope theres a "Display" name other than just your true character name. This goes back to getting to know some one before you know there life story. If we meet out on the street and I tell you my name is Bob, how do you know the its not unless you have some other information. I mentioned this before in other threads, have several levels of identification. Instead of the name depending on the target, make it depend on the observer. Heres an example:

<Target> Server ID = player 392
Level 1 ID = what ever name the observer gives you
Level 2 ID = the display name the <target> made
Level 3 ID = true name and general info on <target>
Level 4 ID = true name plus all info on <target>

Then you make what level ID the observer gets dependant on the interaction and other variables, Observation skill, disguise etc. Yes I understand this may take quite abit of resources on the server side but it wsould be awesome to see.

Heres the blog on contracts

I hate over the top spell animations. All the blinking, flashing, and other animations from 10 poeple casting at the same guy clog up my screen, making it really hard to see what the target is doing. Gestures and motion are alot better. Less is more

Seriously though, its an awesome idea. Considering economy is a main focus, they will want thing to drive it. Thus I see caravans, horses, mules and wagons to convey your goods from place to place.

I will put it simply as I see it. The merit badge is the important thing. It's what gives you access to abilities, skills, equipment, etc. It takes the appropriate skills to unlock the merit badge. The real time skill learning is only a tool used to control progression rate. In this way, they keep every one from being max levels in a couple weeks. This will make the games life span longer, with out being pushed for more content.
@Pheos -- (Disclaimer:Fictional example incoming) If you want the 5% armor bonus, you need the merit badge "Armored Knight" which grants it. "Armored Knight" will require a strength score of 12 and armor skill 3, and will require you to have wore plate armor through 5 encounters taking at least 2 hits that lowered your HP by 15% each. Now armor skill level 3 takes a total of two weeks worth of training, if starting at skill level 0.
In this way, it will take you at least two weeks to get this bonus. It also requires you to play the role, wearing the armor and actually taking the hits. It means it will probably be a benefit to you, and that your character is experienced in taking hits and would know how to utilize the armor better. Like I said, this is a fictious example and the names and requirements just off the top of my head.

@Mel -- I also dislike the infinate advancement, but I think it has relevance. I think though it should come at the cost of taking more time to learn. I will use class levels as an example, and capstone ability as 20th level. Say a player has reached level 15 towards a capstone ability, it should take longer than normal to learn a skill not in his skill tree. If a rogue wants to learn arcane spells, at level 15 is pretty set in his rogue ways, and would be a little tougher to learn magic. Also consider that he would have to keep in practice in his rogue ways and have less time for study. Just my opinion

Love all that this game seems to be evolving into. As for a LFG system, I would say very limited, because content isn't static or permanant.

Dungeons could come about a couple of ways:

A personal dungeon for some reward or achievement a character made. Therefor he recieves a map with a location. This would be an instanced private invite group only.

A general dungeon for any one in the area. A broad cast that announces a landslide that opened some caverns. this would be a noninstanced public group.

Either way, a group starts. So then you post on the message board you are looking for people to help you. The message has a list of people looking for a group. The board could be in the inn or in the town square and should be only interactive with in the same town. A bigger event needing more people could be announced by a NPC town crier in several towns.

As to group limitations I would have to say no also. A dungeon should have a recommended level and and numbered, but not limited to it. If 8 level 7 characters go into a dungeon for 4 level 5's, then they get less loot and XP. The rewards are less. But 4 level 5's go into one for 4 level 7's, they they get more loot and XP. You could have fast travel for the personal dungeon via the map and you should have to actually travel to the public one. But leave group size open.