It's a bright and shiny day in Sandpoint. The late summer sun is hot on your brows as the time inches closer to midday. The town is on end, as the Swallowtail festival is in full swing. In the shadow of the new cathedral, a number of booths and stands have been raised, and seemingly everyone is out, enjoying the party. Music and laughter rings across the plaza.
As for entertainment, there's lots to be found. Exotic and inviting smells vaft from snackstands, townsfolk roar in excitement as they bet on the lizard races, proffessional dancers draw the eyes to the stage. There's a fortune teller, and an illusionist who showcases incredibly detailed visages of far-off lands and exotic architecture - there's even a dancing booth.
What passes as the town council is due to give a speech come midday - and it will pretty soon.
Feel free to RP, alone or amongst each other. I might throw in some stuff, but you should have your actions resolve at the end of the post yourself. Inventing and God-modding some NPCs is perfectly okay prior to the scene start. I'll have the 'real' first post up pretty soon, or maybe tomorrow. We'll see.
As the Swallowtail festival is about to begin in the quaint coastal town of Sandpoint, something stirs in the deeps - something that has lain dormant and undisturbed for millennia. With revenge, greed, and evil intent as the catalysts for events about to unfold, shadows gather over Varisia.
Player Count: 4
Starting Level: 1st.
Starting Gold: average or roll for your class. If you roll, you're stuck with the result.
Statistics: Use a 25 value point buy.
Allowed Races: I greatly prefer core races, and those applicants will have an easier time of getting in.
Allowed Material: Anything published for pathfinder by paizo. No third party material.
Banned Starting Classes: Any classes which do not cast spells or use an equivalent, like the alchemist or the Kineticist does. Note that you may multiclass into these classes at after level 1, should you want to.
House Rules: Background Skills from unchained are in use, you recieve two traits, one of which must be a campaign trait, and 4th level casters start off with 0th level spells - See below.
So I had an idea. This will be a game set in an alternate version of Golarion, where magic is really common. The vast, vast majority of people and vaguely people-shaped creatures can cast spells, at least in a minor way. Animals often have minor, innate magical talents that helps them survive.
There's not much in the way of houserules in play to facilitate the setting change, just an adjustment of expectations. The majority of people change from being 1st level commoners, to being 1st level adepts. A city guard might be an Adept 1/warrior 1 instead of the warrior 2s you usually see in golarion, etc. Conceptually, this is because becoming an adept is easy: either you pray to your deity of choice, and observe their holidays, or you forge small pacts with minor spirits, who lend you their power in exchange for minor sacrifices. A spirit of a nearby creek might let you cast Obscuring Mist or Cure Light Wounds in exchange for a biweekly offering of bread crumbs spread over the water in a ritual that takes a minute to do, stuff like that.
There aren't any single-class rogues, instead you get Vivisectionists, bards, investigators or arcane tricksters. Barbarians don't exist, instead there's bloodragers or skalds.
Fighters are the odd man out here, in that his conceptual role is pretty much scrapped. The closest we get is magi and warpriests.
One houserule though, is that 4th level casters(paladins etc.) start off at caster level 1, and recieves 0th level spells off of the list of a related class. The paladin can cast cleric 0th level spells, and can prepare a number equal to that of a cleric of his level, -1. The ranger can do the same thing with the druid list, and the bloodrager can do it with the sorcerer list. (knowing 1 fewer spell than a sorcer of his level would have.)
Sounds interesting?
For those familiar with the AP, there won't be much of a change to the story. The changes might make it more difficult, since spellcasting on the enemy side often makes for more unpredictable encounters, so I won't discourage optimizing as much as I normally would in a game like this. It's probably not going to be enough of a change froom a prior playthrough, so it might not be much fun to do the same thing again this time around.
So, I had and idea. It takes root in the insight that bards, when it comes right down to it, aren't that reliant on charisma.
Basically, she's meant to play like you'd play a barbarian, but more versatile.
Statline: Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 7, Wis 7, Cha 11.
NG Dawnflower Dervish bard of sarenrae.
Race doesn't matter, but one of the demi-humans could be nice for the extra strength. If you absolutely must play something with a penalty to charisma, make sure it has a bonus to one of your physical stats so you can reroute points from there to make up for the loss.
Feats:
1 - Combat Reflexes. If you're half-elf or human, EWP(Fauchard) is a good idea here.
3 - Iron Will, becuase will saves are annoying to fail.
5 - Power Attack
7 - Improved Initiative
9 - Arcane Strike, maybe?
11 - Improved Critical(Fauchard), if you're not proficienct, Toughness is fun too.
Stat Boosts
4: +1 to Cha, so you can cast 2nd level spells. Perfect level, too.
8: +1 Str, because you're here to wreck faces.
12: +1 more Str.
Essential Gear: Reach Weapon of choice (longspear or fauchard), and a headband of +2 charisma acquired before or at level 7. Slightly before is better.
I think she'd be a fairly effective warrior. She winds up with a strength somewhere around 26 at level 12, assuming a +4 belt. She also only uses two things from out of core, namely the Dawnflower Dervish archetype, and the Fauchard, so she's nicely simple, too.
Spells provide a tonne of versatility that a barbarian would have a hard time copying. She can teleport, fly with phantom steed, become invisible, immune to grapple, cast haste on herself, speak any language, and reveal invisible creatures.
The Fauchard probably isn't PFS legal, it's from a pretty obscure sourcebook, but everything else should be.
What do you think? Is this something painstakingly obvious, that people have been doing forever? Is not going charisma-focused shooting myself in the foot? Is it heresy of the highest order, for playing against type?
What could I do to make it better? I made it mostly from the CRB, with a few things I remember thrown in as extras, so I might be overlooking some very obvious tricks.
When battledancing, she deals 1d8+11(1d10 with the fauchard) damage at first level with a to hit of +7, which is nice. Reach and Combat Reflexes too, so they get hit if they try to approach.
What I'm really interested in is if you think she could replace the barbarian in a party. That's pretty much the role I intended her for. It trades some hit points and base attack for alternative defenses, (Mirror Image at 4th level, for example) and uses heroism and inspire courage/inspire greatness to do what I hope is comparable damage.
It's possible for a person to make it big, here in Kavail. Possible, yes, but unlikely. Each year, hundreds of people flock to the city, in hopes of fortune, fame, or just a better life for themselves. The city sucks them all up, chews most of them down, and shit them out in the gutters. A few manage to rise above the rest through wit, skill, and no small amount of luck.
You're the new meat. You've recently joined up with Soren's Tradehouse, as low-ranking members of the smuggler's guild.
You're untried, untried, and, possibly, ready to take the city by the horns and make it your own. But to the guild, you're expendable. Do you have the guts to survive?
So I'm going to be running an evil 'sandbox' campaign, set in the city of Kaival and surroundings.
Setting info:
The World at large.
Kavail sits on the southern side of only pass through the Sarial Peaks, which bar the Ternan Empire from its southern coastline. As such, the pass is a highly active trade route.
The city of Kavail.
Thirty thousand people call the city home. Or at least, they live there. Trade is its lifeblood. The politicians are corrupt, the city guard is both far too small, and far too easy to bribe. Although nominally part of the empire, and owing fealty to the provincial Empirator, the city is effectively run by four Thieves' guilds, who jockey for power and wealth. The nobles don't interfere with the guilds, and the guilds leave the nobles alone; it all works out, except for the smallfolk, who're generally caught in the middle.
The thieves' guilds -The Headsmen.
This is the most powerful guild in the city. They're proffesional and deadly, and rivaled in wealth only by the Ordo de Rosaceae. Their leader is a mysterious figure known as Cowl. As far as you know, no-one has ever seen him, but rumour persists that he runs the guild from the shadows. The day-to-day leadership is handled by a scarred, grey-haired fellow called Argus Slint.
Uniform: These guys don't wear any sign of allegiance, but they do tend to favour black clothing, even though, strictly speaking, a good matted green and grey cloak would be more practical for concealment.
Sigil: A black glove holding a dagger.
Territory: The better part of the market district.
-Jok's Enforcers
These view themselves as the good guys. They started out as a gang of workers; coachmen, off-duty guards, apprentice millers and blacksmiths, that sort of thing. They'd gotten tired of the guilds exploiting the common man, and decided to do something about it.
They've eeked out a good-sized territory. In the proccess, they've also taken over a couple of less savory businesses, but run them 'clean', making sure no-one who didn't sign up for it gets caught in the middle. They take care of their own, and the people under their protection. Although they're regarded as somewhat strange by the other guilds, their fighting force is well respected.
Unique in that they're the first gang in living memory to rise to a position of power - the top guilds usually come down hard on newcomers trying to muscle in on their territory.
Uniform: They wear red barrets.
Sigil: Don't have any.
Territory: The slums, and a bit of the market district.
-Ordo de Rosaceae
They buy and sell information. Wrought in shadow, rumour and mystery, they keep their own secrets tightly guarded.
By any account, they are not warriors, and most of them seem to view violence with a mixture of disdain and fear. When they do exert their influence, it's mostly in shape of blackmail and manipulation.
Uniform: They wear a flower in the pinhole of their jackets as a sign of allegience.
Sigil: Perhaps unsurprisingly, a rose.
Territory: The edges of Hightown, the temple district, and small but wealthy part of town where clerks, lawyers and paper-pushers of various stripes ply their trade.
-Soren's House of Trade
The runt of the litter so to speak. Run by Lara Orogdraur, a thirty-something human woman. They hold dominion over the labyranthine tunnels under the city, and use them to ferry goods into and out of the city unseen.
Uniform: None.
Sigil: A merchant's scale, with a coin balanced on one side, and a bear on the other.
Territory: Not in the traditional sense. Instead, there's a bunch of hideouts all over town, warehouses and the like. It's all kept hush-hush, as many of the places are Their prescence is strongest in Old Kaival, and the other guilds avoid it for that reason.
Other Factions -The Imperial Army.
As Kaival sits in a strategically important position, there's a garrison there. It's not situated in the city itself, however. Instead, there's a small city outside the walls, a little further up the foothills, close to the mountain pass. Currently, there's something like a full legion of a thousand men stationed there, but in the past, the place has held five times that number. People who care about that stuff say it's because the empire is at war, and the home garrisons have been sent to the frontlines.
Regardless, the army keeps mostly to themselves.
-Silas Ludd
He's the city Viscount. He collects taxes for the empire, and runs various businesses across town. The guilds regard him as stupid and decadent, but easily bribed, and thus he has remained in power for a long while. It's fairly common knowledge that he keeps most of the tax income for himself, delivering only a small faction to the empire. He also owns many brothels and gambling halls, and uses what influence he has mainly to crack down on competition on that front from the various guilds.
Deities
The Golarion deities are worshipped in the Ternan empire.
Character Creation:
-Level: 1, 0xp, Fast advancement. 1 feat is gained for every 5k xp after sixth level, per the E6 rules.
-Stats: 2 rows of 4d6b3. Any rows that do not contain 1 stat of at least 15, and any row of which the modifiers do not total at least +4 may be rerolled for free. If you dislike either of your two rows, you may go for a 20 point buy option instead, but you may not lower more than one stat below 10, and even so, it may not go below 8.
-Races: Come one, come all. Monstrous races and races of outrageous RP values (EG. Driders, Centaurs and Gargoyles) are generally not allowed, but Ogres will be allowed, so long as the characters in question are at least fourth level. This, of course, means that they will only be availible to people who die at a later point, or retire their current characters.
-Starting Gold: Average for your class.
-Traits: Any two. No campaign traits allowed.
-Sources: All first party pathfinder material is allowed. Even the tech-stuff. Further, you may poach official 3.5e material, if you want to. If something exists as both pathfinder and 3.5e, the 3.5e version takes prescedence. I reserve the right to ban and/or modify 3.5e materials as I see fit.
-Alignment: Okay so you don't absolutely have to be evil. Uppity paladins are likely to be ganged up on by their teammates unless they keep their fool heads down, however. Also, stupid characters are likely to die horrible, gruesome deaths. Appropriate alignments run the entire gamut from Lawful Neutral to Chaotic Evil. I may accept extremely well-written good characters, but don't count on it.
-Number of Players: I'm looking for 8 pcs.
-Make sure to read the houserules section.
Fair warning, and a note on my style
I like combat. I like difficult combat too. Expect there to be a fairly high turn-over rate of dead characters, compared to what you might expect from an official adventure path. Also, sometimes you might encounter things you can't beat. The appropriate response to that is to run. Failure to do so will result in you dying. I don't particularly care about 'level appropriate' and other such nonsense. I have npcs statted up already, and if you anger the wrong guy, he will kill you. And then you will be dead, end of story. That said, people are always welcome to roll up new characters.
This also comes with the potential for you to get stuff you have no business getting, and that's okay too. If you manage to swing killing a great wyrm, well, then you get 204'000xp to share, and a treasure hoard worth ~200'000gp.
The game will be fairly sand-boxy, but with rail-roady bits too. If you want to jump off of the rails and go do something else, that's fine too. It will have consequences, though. Note that sometimes you'll be handed a task - This is railroading. However, I do solemnly promise that I'll never dictate how you attempt to solve the various tasks at hand.
Houserules
-Guns and related gear are availible at the listed prices. Technological items are availible at twice the listed prices, and a single battery costs 500gp.
-A cannon weighs 500lb.
-You recieve the benefits of Variant Multiclassing for one class of your choice at an accelerated rate, and with no feat expenditure required: The first benefit comes at 1st level, the second at 4th level, and the final one at 6th level.
-I run mostly freeform stealth. You'll never make more than one stealth check to overcome a particular obstacle.
-I'm sure there's more to it, but I can't remember more, so I'll call it good now.
If you use Channel Smite and variant channeling, is the target affected by the special effects of variant channeling, or does it just take damage from a channel?
Great trait. Great enough to make most other traits dubious choices, in fact.
But that's not why I'm here. I'm here because I'm confused as to why it is called reactionary.
That doesn't have anything to do with what the trait does, like at all.
It sounds like it should be giving a bonus to diplomacy checks when arguing that change is badwrongfun, but really, a character's political beliefs is a pretty weird thing to describe with a trait - those are usually reserved for things you're able to do, like being more stealthy.
The proposed fluff is all wrong too. Bullying and reflexes don't have anything to do with reactionary beliefs.
I'm playing a warpriest in an e6 version of CotCT. Sheet is here, but nevermind that, what I want to know is what is some good feats that require +5 or +6 base attack? I know I'll be wanting Cornugon Smash, but what I'm really interested in is what to put in the 6th level warpriest feat slot. It'll be a little important, as I'll get more feats later, but due to the e6 rules, I'll only get 1 opportunity for a feat that requires +6 bab or 4 or more (up to 6) fighter levels, and sticking Cornugon smash in there would be a waste of that opportunity.
I've thought of Vital Strike, but as I'll be using a longsword for fluff reasons, I'm thinking that'd be a bad idea.
Other ideas of mine are Weapon Specialization (meh) and Disruptive, which I like better, in theory.
That seems a bit thin, so I turn to the infinite collective wisdom of the advice boards - Which feats that require BAB +6 are good for a melee, non-TWF character?
So, what it says in the title. Mithral medium armor counts as light for 'the purpose of movement and other limitations.' Note that it doesn't simultaneously count as medium for those things, otherwise a ranger in mithral heavy armor would be wearing medium and heavy armor for the purpose of his combat style, and it would cease to function while he's wearing it. Obviously this is not the case. Mithral heavy counts as medium, and only medium for the purpose of 'movement and other limitations'. Thus, if an ability has limitations on what sort of armor it can be used with, the armor counts only as the lighter category.
Defender of the Society is clearly limited to function only in medium or heavy armor. This is a limitation of the trait, and thus sorts under the 'other limitations' clause. This, of course, means that mithral breastplate counts as light armor for the purpose of the trait, so it doesn't function.
Yet I've had multiple players who insist that this works, and that it is officially allowed in PFS, even. They failed to dig up somewhere that verified it, but they seemed to believe pretty ardently that they were right, and they're not stupid people.
You set out from Fort Westwatch three weeks ago. It's been a long and thus far uneventful journey, through first northern Andoran, and since through Isgerian countryside.
The air is stale and dusty, the sun glares like an angry eye from the clear sky. You're prodding along the track as you've been for weeks now, kicking up dust when you walk. Your necks are sticky with sweat as the summer heat makes traveling almost unbearable. The state of the road doesn't help - it's packed dust, and you've been stirring it up as you walk, getting it into your lungs.
But your're nearing Isger proper now - The Aspodell Mountains loom to your left, grand and imposing, and the first Isgerian town, Drellin's Ferry, should be less than five hours ahead.
The vista of rolling hills would be stunning, if long exposure and the small aches of the road had not taking their toll. As it is, you know you will sleep in a proper bed tonight, and that is a small favor.
As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power and pick any one metamagic feat you know that increases the slot level of the spell by 0 or 1 levels. For the next 10 rounds, you can apply this metamagic feat to any arcane spell you cast without increasing the spell slot used or casting time.
You can also use this ability on an arcane spell you cast from a scroll, staff, or wand. You can't have more than one use of this ability active at a time. If you use this ability again, any previous use immediately ends (though this doesn't affect spells already cast). You can select this ability more than once. Each time you select this ability, the maximum spell slot level increase of the metamagic feat you can choose goes up by 1, to a maximum of 4.
How many spells can you get off with this?
Could you quicken whatever the hell you want for 10 rounds? (It'd cost you 4 of your path abilities, but still...) Or is it the first spell only?
The fact that abilities like this usually say 'the next spell you cast', not 'any spell you cast', the fact that it has a duration of 10 rounds, and the second paragraph talks about multiple spells cast with the ability, which implies (I think) that you should be able to do so with one use.
On the other hand, 'any spell' is singular, seems like it should be plural 'any spells' for the above interpretation. Also, the second paragraph pertains to multiple uses of the ability, so even though it's weird, you might argue that it was supposed to mean you'd already cast multiple spells with multiple uses of the ability, then activated the ability again, didn't cast a spell, and then used it again, resetting ending the prior use without getting a metamagic feat out of it.
The Aspodells shook with the thunder of ten thousand screaming hobgoblin soldiers. From the phalanx emerged a single champion. One by one the tribes fell silent as the warlord rose up, blue scales gleaming on his shoulders, horns swept back from his head. A hundred bright banners stood beneath him, each marked with a great red hand. He stood upon a precipice and raised his arms.
"I am Azar Khul, Son of the Dragon!" the warlord bellowed. "Hear me! Tomorrow we march to war!"
In preparing for a solo game, I've come to the decision that I also want to run a public game of Red Hand of Doom. There's a general clamoring on the boards for gestalt games, there's been a lot of games not getting off the ground, and even then, a lot of people who haven't gotten into the scant few that did. I figure we need a few more games run.
As for the backstory, you've been approached by one Commander Gerregne, of the Andoran army, who has handed the party the deed to a place called Vraath Keep, in Isger. He wants the party to head over there and re-establish the keep, using funds you're to liberate from the vault of the place. It's a bit of a clandestine operation, as Isger acts as a sort of demilitarized zone between Cheliax and Andoran; Cheliax keeps their troops within one mile of the northern trade road, and Andoran keeps their military and operations out of the country entirely.
Once you've set things up, under the pretense of having inherited or bought the deed to the place, Gerregne wants to use it as a base of operations from which to gather intelligence on the borderlands.
Character creation guidelines.
-Starting level 5, gestalt.
-30 point buy.
-Standard wealth by level.
-Max hp at first level, average rounded up at subsequent levels.
-Two Traits.
-Variant Rules: Commonplace Guns, although advanced firearms can only be bought in cities. A good few years has passed, and the musket is now the weapon of choice for foot-soldiers in large-scale conflicts. At least, that's the case in civilized lands. Expect most enemies to try to stab you regardless.
-Material allowed: Anything paizo official. Most 3pp material, if its accessible online. No 3.5e material though.
-Specifically allowed 3pp classes: Mystic, Stalker, Warder, Warlord (All from Path of War.), Dragonrider.
-Specifically banned 3pp material: DSP Psionics, including the Zealot, Harbinger.
-Regarding alignment and backstories: I'm down with people running what they want to. That said, you're hired by Andoran military high-ups, who are reasonably certain you'll be loyal to them, and keep who hired you secret, at least to a point. Beyond that, the adventure assumes you're willing to be embroiled in a long and bloody, dangerous war to save the people of Isger, instead of running off to relative safety across the border. If you can make that fit into a chaotic evil character, by all means submit that guy.
I think we might hit 12th level, when all is said and done.
Favored Enemy Advice, for those as require such:
As you might have gathered from the blurb up above, Dragons and Humanoids(Goblinoid) are going to be the thematic ones this time around.
Given the close proximity to Cheliax, and other factors, Outsiders(Lawful) or (Evil) might not be a half-bad idea either.
Beyond this, Magical Beasts Humanoids(Giant) and even Undead are going to make decent choices as well.
So a friend of mine is going to be starting up a new game, going for the mummy's mask AP.
My pickle is, what order should I take my favored enemies in? I gather from the description that undead is going to be the big one, but what about my other picks? And should I grab undead from level 1, or is there another configuration that works better?
So the unchained monk is probably different enough from the standard one to merit a guide. I kind of want to make one, but I'm sure I'd miss a lot of things if I just started writing. So here's a brainstorming thread, where I'm hoping people will share their thoughts.
Things that should probably be in there;
-This thing actually combines flurry and mobility fairly well. Color me surprised.
-It is also really good at hitting stuff. Multiple attacks! At full base attack! Without penalties! Means that you are more accurate than for example a brawler.
-This extra accuracy should be traded in for damage, as you lack that. Power Attack, Pirahna Strike or Deadly Aim* are all golden, depending on your setup
-That said, if you want pure unarmed melee power, go grab the brawler or the sacred fist warpriest instead, probably with a dip into master of many styles. The guide will be for people who want the sweet wuxia flavor offered by actual monk class monks, not for filthy optimisers.
*Though if you like ranged attacks with your monk, pick the zen archer instead. It kills things really, really well.
Ki powers:
-Slow fall is for chumps. Grab a ring of feather falling instead, it's almost free.
-The ones costing 4 ki points are almost never worth it.
-Formless mastery is like having Favored Enemy(Humanoid: Strix). Do not pick this for PFS, nor for an AP, unless your GM likes to rebuild all the creatures and NPCs. Some GMs like style feats though. If yours is one of them, it might be more like having a holy weapon.
-Wind Jump is awesome. Having a ring of feather falling gives more mobility with it. Taking slow fall does not. See a theme here?
-Ki Visions: Divination is a powerful spell. This is not a bad ability.
Style Strikes
-Flying Kick. Take this. This is borderline mandatory.
-Shattering Blow. I wonder how this interacts with Pummeling style. If it lets you
That's all I have at the moment. I'm especially looking for feats and magic items I might not know of.
It seems to me that having spontaneous casting off the cleric spell list won't be much fun. Most of it is speciffic to various situations, and maybe has to be used once in an entire adventuring career - take remove curse, or ressurection, for example. Dedicating a spell slot to one of those means that you won't use it most days, effectively wasting your spell slot, while not taking it means that you can't do anything about dead or cursed party members.
Is it that the various revelations are so nice that you build your character around them, instead of the spells?
Reading through the various guides for the oracle, it doesn't seem like they devote any thought to solving this problem.
Maybe it's geared towards pfs or something, where curses and ability damage doesn't stick around between sessions?
Anyone in herer have a good idea what the cannon listed as 'cannon' under siege firearms would weigh in pounds?
Wikipedia suggests a wide variety of cannons have a huge difference in weight, and I've trouble figuring out which to go with.
It's important for this ogre gunslinger I was thinking of making.
Might have to go centaur for the extra carrying capacity. Although that runs into the problem of them using undersized weaponry, which is a silly rule, by the by.
It is not actually misfortune, but the mechanic is the same - the character who has perfect strike has to roll twice and take the lower result when he attacks.
What happens if he uses perfect strike?
The intuitive places to look up the rules have failed to provide me with answers, at least at first glance.
So I've been tinkering, and I think I could make an excellent campaign out of this, if people wanted to play it.
It'd be a little more high-magic than even Urban Arcana games usually are, but more low-magic than Pathfinder.
What do you think? I wanted to check if people are interested in the idea before I started devoting time to work on it, but it's been humming in the back of my mind for a week or so, now.
The First of Lamashan, 4711AR, 11:00pm Just outside the Restlands of Ravengro
Zokar Elkarid was kind enough to lend Rosalind and Henric each a room to change in, if they wished. It seemed they would be attending the funeral as well. Once he and his son were done closing up the inn, the small party set out for the Restlands. The night was quiet, the face of the full moon clear in the sky. Zokar's lantern illuminated a cone-shaped section of the path ahead.
The only sound was the crunch of gravel under their feet. As they drew near the entrance to the cemetary, the houses thinned out and gave way to a well-maintained field.
Across the field, a whitewashed wall rose out of the ground, standing roughly the height of a grown man.
The path continued through the wrought iron gate, currently swung wide open, into the Restlands beyond.
Before the gate, the funeral procession, such as it was, had gathered. They were talking in hushed voices, the flickering light of their torches, lanterns and, in the case of Adivion, floating, disembodied point of illumination bathing the congregation in an eerie mix of stark black shadows, and soft, golden light.
Few locals were in attendance. Beyond Adivion Adrissant, Zokar and his son, Pevrin and the six black-robed acolytes, who had taken position around the coffin, only four people were there. Two of them were women, roughly twenty-five years of age. The first was somber, but clearly felt somewhat awkward. She had short, spiky hair that was clearly being held in place by some sort of grease.
Both of the men were middle-aged, both wore a mourning attire that spoke of wealth and a high social position, but whereas one was pudgy, with a well-developed belly and a combination of goatee and trimmed, pointed moustache that might well have made him look quite sharp in his younger days, the other was fit, well-muscled, the lines on his face indicating a penchant for laughter and rogueish grins. His salt and pepper hair was short-cropped, whereas the fat one wore his slicked back in a tied off ponytail.
The other woman steps forward to greet you. "Hello. I'm Kendra, daughter of," She chokes, but clears her throat "Petros Lorrimor. It's... I can't say how grateful I am that you came. I know he wanted you to be here."
She's young, and dressed as befitting for a funeral. She has dark hair, and her eyes are dry, but puffy and irritated.
She took a closer look at Henric, and furrowed her brow as if trying to remember where she'd seen the man before.
Henric remembered - his hand on his best knife, cutting off another piece of scalp, tossing it across the room to join the growing pile of chestnut hair and bleeding tissue - seeing her as a young girl, playing outside Lorimmor's house in Lepidstadt, years prior.
Nidoran:
Rosalind may have spent time with Kendra, when you were small, if you want her to. Lorimmor left Lepidstadt for Ravengro fifteen years ago, but with Kendra being twenty-four, you could easily have been childhood friends, or very much *not friends*. Regardless of whether you met, she doesn't seem to remember you right now. It's up to you if you want to make something out of it.
So. In the the Trial of the Beast, the party's goal is to prove the beast's innocense. However, the book is written in such a way that the events go on in the same way regardless of whether they succeed or not. That galls me somewhat.
Also, breaking free seems rather out of character for the beast, as I understand him.
Would it really be so terrible for the plot if I just let the beast get offed if the party fails to defend him? It seems a more natural course of events.
What consequences do the rest of you see in letting him get burned?
This thread makes me wonder, how is it common knowledge that barbarians>>fighter when it comes to killin'? It seems to me that mcfighter should outscale the barbarian at some point.
At lvl 1, the barb has +2 hit/+3(2) damage.
The fighter probably has +1 to hit from weapon focus over the other guy.
At fifth level or so however, it seems to me that the fighter should have caught up? I know rage powers provide utility, but killing-wise, it looks to me like
+2hit/+3dmg vs +1/+0 at first level. Barbarian is in favor.
+2/+3 vs +1/+2 at fourth level.
+2/+3 vs +2/+3 at fifth level. Fighter has caught up
+2/+3 vs +3/+3 at 8th level. Fighter is edging the barb out.
+2hit/+3dmg vs +4hit/+4dmg at ninth level.
+3/+4 or +5 vs +4/+4 at tenth. I'd prefer +4/+4 over +3/+5, but YMMV, depending on the ac of the thing you're fighting, and how much damage you deal per swing already.
+3/+4 or +5 vs +4/+6 at 12. level. The fighter is objectively ahead.
+3/+4 or +5 vs +5/+7 at 13. level.
+3/+4 or +5 vs +6/+8 at 17th level.
+4/+6 vs +6/+8 at 20th level.
I've observed the belief in myself as well, but it seems like obvious nonsense, once I really think about it. Am I missing something here?
Maybe we on the boards are just biased because we play more in the 1-4 level space than the 5+?
There are also some problems. I've assumed two-hander style for both characters, as it's widely held as the best thing. However, I think the fighter would gain more from being an archer. The barbarian can take rage powers. The fighter can take feats. The barbarian can take Weapon Focus. The fighter has Armor training and gains weapon mastery when the barbarian gains its last rage bump.
The first of Lamashan, 4711AR - music.
It had been a beautiful day on the road. The sun shone from a clear sky, here and there a fluffy cloud drifting by. Were it not for the vivid colours of the falling leaves, one could almost imagine that summer had decided to stay beyond its time - the light was warm on your skin, although the shades held cold, promising a cool season to come. The hills rolled on, and as you travelled, gave way to fields, brown and freshly tilled. The farmers were hard at work; it was time for sowing.
The fields gave way to the town; you made your way into Ravengro as the sun drew near the horizon. The town was a quaint affair: single story half-timbered houses with blue brick roofs abounded.
The funeral procession set out at eleven tonight, which left plenty of time to kill. Eventually, you found your way to the one inn which was open for business that evening; The Laughing Demon, run by one Zokar Elkarid.
You made your way west from the town square, just as the sun was setting on the horizon. The sunset was quite spectacular.
stopping to take in the scene:
Bells rang in the distance, hailing the passing of day into night. Somewhere nearby, children were playing; their laughter, shouts and singing filled the air. The merest hint of laughter of a more rowdy sort could be detected from the inn up ahead. Evidently, there were some as had ended their workday early. The smell of freshly baked bread and roasting meat hailed the imminent supper.
All the while, the sky was an explotion of colours, yellow, orange and red all bounced off the clouds; the sky itself was steel grey, in places broken by the clear blue you only get at sunset.
The inn itself was a black silhouette, broken only by the golden light shining from its leaded windows
Walking up the stairs and into the inn, you noted a marked drop in volume, as the patrons got in a good stare at the new arrival. For a few moments, the only sounds are the clangs of pots from the kitchen, the clicks of spoons hitting plates as people were eating, and the cackle of firewood burning. The fireplace was the only source of light in the room, beyond an eerie blue glow coming from a table in the back. The cieling rose high above the rafters, night was falling outside, all conspiring to lay the room in a cozy sort of darkness.
A boy ran about, lighting candles at the table, removing empty mugs and plates he went.
The boy:
He looked to be between twelve and fourteen of age, buck teeth, and an unruly mop of light brown hair on his head. He looked at you frankly as you came in, stopping by one of you. "New in town, ehh? Ain't got time to talk much now, but if you need someone who knows who's who and what really goes on around here, I'm the guy you need! Pevrin's me name! Take a seat! Pa'll be out in a jiffy if you need anything!" He spoke fast, all exclamation marks and no breath, before he running off again.
Most tables seated locals, stout men, mostly, enjoying a pint after a good days work. Others were just enjoying a pint. There were a few empty tables, as well as a couple of sparsely populated ones.
One of the empty tables, the biggest in fact, sat squarely in the middle of the room. It was round, and had room for eight people. Others were spread around, three clustered near the back.
The other patrons had shied away from the occupant of the backmost table. He seemed unfazed, perusing a book in the blue light of a glowing sphere that hovered over his right shoulder.
The magical loner:
He was probably in his late thirties or early forties, but as noblemen are wont to, didn't look it. There was a bored grace to him as he sat there, reading, with a glass of wine seemingly forgotten in his left hand.
K.(Planes, Religion or Arcana) DC20:
This is Professor Adivion Adrissant. You've attended some of his lectures; from hearing him talk, you'd estimate he is the most intelligent person you've ever met. As a professor, he is something of a dilettante, conducting research in a wide array of fields, often making impressive headway before moving on.
Across the room, another patron had a table for himself. Instead of reading a scroll however, he was staring into a mug, although no less intently.
The other loner:
He wore a brown cloak, that had been patched and patched over, to the point that it was more patchwork than cloak. He had greying hair, and was going bald. His beard, like his clothes was quite unkempt. Suddenly, as if feeling you watching him, he looked up from his mug, and stared right back. He kept his gaze locked with yours, wrought with delusion more so than threat.
By the table window table sat four young people, playing cards.
The 'gamblers':
They four of them were using a harrow deck to gamble with. It seemed mostly a game of leasure; the pot was currently a few coppers. There were two women and two men. One of the women were a half-elf, fair of hair and pretty, if of very strong features; the other was a halfling. A loud halfling. "Damn, Vrodish!" She half-shouted, as one of the men threw down the winning hand. "If I didn't know you any better, I'd say you were cheating!" The a man, who was built like a bull, apparently didn't take this kindly "I'm not a cheater. You lost, fair and square!" "Easy there big guy; I know you're not." Her voice went from teasing to soft.
The other man didn't seem all that interested in the exchange; he was looking at the half-elf, who was studying her cards. The smaller of the two men was quite handsome, really. His skin was light brown, and he'd shaved his head, leaving only a patch of short curls covering a triangle on the top of his head. All four of them had swords leaned against the wall or hung on the back of their chair, easily within arms reach.
Eventually, the inkeeper made his round, taking orders and filling mugs.
The Inkeeper:
He's a big man, and hairy. Coming into the room, he's laughing at something that happened moments before. He slaps his hands together as he greets the newcomers. "Welcome! I'm Zokar! Feel at home! What would you like? We've got wolfballs, vampire steaks, and of course, my famous corpse chowder. For drinks, hmm, or maybe you're only here for drinks? We've got virgin's blood for them fancy types as fancy that, and liquid ghosts for everyone else!" It's easy to see where Pevrin got his exclamation marks from.
listen based perception dc 12:
There were other patrons elsewhere in the inn. From beyond the kitchens, you can her boisterous laughter and loud voices, muffled by walls and distance.
The letter appeared on your desk as if by magic, which was indeed a probable cause. It bore your name, inscribed in a spidery hand.
Dear ____________
It is with my deepest sympathies and regret that I must inform you of the passing of Professor Petros Lorrimor. It is by his request that I invite you to his funeral. Arrangements have been made, that the internment of the deceased might be delayed untill the first of Lamashan, that you, and others likewise named in his will, might have time to participate in his last rites.
As mentioned above, you have been named a beneficiary of the deceased's last will and testament, the reading of which has likewise been delayed untill after the funeral rites, at your convenience.
Please make haste to Ravengro, that this matter might be resolved in a proper and timely fashion.
My heartfelt condolences,
Sir Vashian Heartmount, Acting executor of Law
I'm currently running Carrion Crown for my IRL group. Unfortunately, said group is really big. As such, I don't manage to get in as much roleplaying as I'd like. I'm hoping to remedy this, by running a pbp campaign alongside it. I figured I'd be doing most of the prepwork anyway, and this forum always needs more GMs, so here we are.
Without further ado, let's hop to it!
What I want in a Player:
-First and foremost, I want you to be able to move the game forwards with your posts. I've seen many games grind to a halt, in many cases because everyone was waiting on everyone else to make progress.
-Second, you should be able to have fun and stay on a rail-road. It probably goes without saying, but I'll say it regardless, that the adventure paths are giant, blatant unrepentant railroads, with a big red Hogwarts-express style engine pulling it along. If you have to be able to build sand castles to have fun, this is not the game for you. That, however, is not to say that I won't tailor the game to your characters; I certainly plan to do so. I will, however, be mildly put out if I you manage to make enough uncounted for waves that I can't use what's in the books mostly as written.
-Third, I will ask you to refrain from applying if you have read the AP, or played beyond the Haunting of Harrowstone. Normally I don't do this, but I will for this campaign.
-Fourth, I require a measure of literacy in my players. That is not to say that you should master english to the degree of someone with a master's degree in english, (and the gods know I'm guilty of more than a few counts of Cruelty towards the Common Comma) but if I spot consistent spelling errors, I'm less likely to pick you.
-Finally, on posting rate. I will commit to a minimum of three good length posts per week, (here is a good example) and ask that you do the same. I also ask that you inform me if you will be unable to post for a period of five days or longer. I will extend the same curtesey to you.
Before you do anything else, I advice you to take a look at the player's guide; you can download it for free on these very forums.
What I want in a character:
-Beyond the character's personality, background and appearance, you should do some thinking on the character's motivations, goals (even if they're vague) and opinions on various matters.
-I'd like for you to write down two secrets of your character's, one of which is aware, and one which it is not.
-If you can manage it, I'd like for you to weave in some potential plot hooks. I'll work with them, but please be general rather than specific, so that I can more easily adapt your input to the plot.
-The character should fit within the theme of action horror. We're shooting for a mix of medieval and gothic horror here, and I'd like for the characters to reflect that, at least a little. I like to provide potential playeres with a list of popular culture characters that'd fit as protagonists in my games, and I'll do so here as well. It goes like this:
Sherlock holmes, of the 2009(I believe it was) movie. Most of the supporting cast would fit in as well.
Van Helsing.
Dr. Jekyll/mr. Hyde.
Abhorsen, of Garth Nix' the Old Kingdom stories.
Some of the human protagonists of Lovecraft's short stories fit the bill as well.
Strangely enough, a necromancer could fit in well.
-Your character should be mechanically effective. That is not to say that you should optimize to 100% capability, but keep in mind that this AP contains fights that have been reported as difficult for a party of four non-gestalt characters to handle.
-Finally, once you're close to done, please make a post with your main profile, containing a link to your character's alias, along with a roll of 1d54. When this is done, I'll look over your character.
Mechanical Information Starting level: 1st, slow xp advancement.
Stats: You'll be using one of the following arrays; 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 8 or 16, 16, 15, 15, 14, 8. They respecively equivate 36 and 37pb.
Hit Points: Max at first level, rolled thereafter. (Mnimum half hd, i.e. d10 becomes 5 if you roll 1 2 3 or 4.
Starting Gold: Rolled or average as per your highest-starting gold class.
Variant Rules:
-This game will use gestalt rules, as described here.
-In urban settings, you can buy early firearms and ammunition, excluding gunpowder, at 1/5th the normal price. Further, firearms are martial weapons. You can get this discount on guns bought at character creation, if you have the funds.
-You will recieve a harrow card as described in the Player's Guide once you're chosen. You will acquire these at a rate of 1/book, with the option of earning bonus cards now and then, which provide team-wide benefits.
-You can choose two traits, one of which must inform or be informed by your relationship with the Professor. This may be a campaign trait, or it can be another trait you like, as long as you use it to explain the connection.
-There will be custom rules for surgical procedures. You can obtain these by reading notes and descriptions, which will be availible in game. There will also be books of forbidden knowledge, which allow the reader to wield the power of... Well, they're not from around here. Once again, you'll know these when you see them.
Allowed Content: Any and all 1st party material is allowed, with exception of factions, guilds and their bonuses, and material specific to PFS, i.e. the wizard exchanging Scribe Scroll for Spell Focus. Additionally, all Dreamscarred Press third party material currently available on d20pfsrd is allowed. Other third party material may be allowed on a case-by-case basis; link it to me here in the thread and we'll see. Preference is given to stuff on the d20pfsrd.
Once I'm ready, I'll launch a pre-game RP in the discussion tab. It'll probably be sometime tomorrow. Anyone can post there; use it for fun, profit or for fleshing out your concept, as you like. I'm unlikely to look at it very closely when picking out characters.
So I'm going to be running an e6 campaign of dragon age. I've got most of the foes down, the vast majority will be npcs, but there are a few monsters I need to create, demons notwithstanding.
I have rage demons, hurlocks, genlocks and ogres already covered. Ogres use hill giant stats with some modifications.
So I'm looking for something I can use as shrieks, either an existing creature that needs relatively few modifications, or an entirely homebrew one.
A headsup on what they're all about: They're extremely stealthy, with claws and savage teeth that they can tear apart their foes with when striking from hiding.
In combat, they emit high-pitched screeching noises that are almost painful up close. This isn't damage, but it might be stun or fear.
I gave him 20 pb, and I don't know whether his gear is appropriate, so That might push the current incarnation to CR 5. Fixing him to 15pb and normal loot if he has too much/too little is easy to do though, and won't inhibit functionality at all. Still, it goes like this:
NOBLE (HUNTMASTER CAVALIER 5) CR 4
1200 XP
LN Medium Humanoid (Human)
Init +2; Senses; Perception +8
DEFENS AC 19, touch 12, flat-footed (17)
hp 47 (5d10+15)
Fort +6; Ref +4; Will +2
OFFENSE
Speed 20ft.
Melee Longsword +8 (1d8+5) and shortsword +8 (1d6+4), or Longsword +10
Ranged Longbow + (1d8+4)
Special Attacks Challenge 2/d.
STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 13
Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 21
Feats Boon Companion, Huntmaster, Two-weapon Fighting, Double Slice, Precise Strike
Skills Diplomacy +9, Handle Animal +13, Sense Motive +8, Perception +8, Survival +8
SQ
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Bestial Challenge (Ex)
Hunting Pack (Ex): Five hounds, ECL2*4+ECL6
Tactician (Ex): 2/d.
Takedown (Ex)
Animal Trainer (Ex)
Swift Tracker (Ex)
Order of the Flame
Glorious Challenge(Ex)
Foolhardy Rush(Ex)
GEAR +1 masterwork longsword, masterwork shortsword, Masterwork longbow +4 str. Masterwork breastplate +1, potion of bull’s strength, cloak of resistance +1
EDL 2 ANIMAL COMPANION (DOG) CR -(There's four of these)
No XP
N Small Animal
Init +3; Senses; Perception +5, Low-light Vision, Scent.
DEFENS AC 16, touch 14, flat-footed (13)
hp 19 (3d8+6)
Fort +5; Ref +6; Will +2
OFFENSE
Speed 40ft.
Melee Bite +5 (1d4+1)
Special Attacks
STATISTICS
Str 13, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD (15)
Feats Weapon Focus(Bite), Power Attack
Skills Perception +5, Survival +5, Stealth +7
SPECIAL ABILITIES Low-light Vision, Scent
EDL 6 ANIMAL COMPANION (DOG) CR -(One of these, boon companion)
No XP
N Medium Animal
Init +4; Senses; Perception +6, Low-light Vision, Scent
DEFENS AC 20, touch 14, flat-footed 16
hp 45 (6d8+18)
Fort +8; Ref +9; Will +3
OFFENSE
Speed 40ft.
Melee Bite +9 (1d8+6)
Special Attacks
STATISTICS
Str 19, Dex 18, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +4; CMB +8; CMD (22)
Feats Weapon Focus(Bite), Power Attack, Improved Natural Attack(Bite)
Skills Perception +6, Survival +6, Stealth +9
SPECIAL ABILITIES Low-light Vision, Scent
He's created to be a noble in a game where my players are planning to break into his estate soonish. They're level two, and I've got 6-8 players showing up on sessions.
Disclaimer: My experiences is anecdotal evidence. People playing under other conditions will have drastically different experiences.
That said, I've played a kineticist for the duration of my home campaign's final arc, alongside my regular character.
The campaign was an e6 campaign, meaning we never advanced above 6th level, instead gaining a feat every 5k xp above 6th.
I think we do things very differently from AP's and PFS, encounters here are notably more brutal. You'll see what I mean. As such, my findings probably won't reflect what people playing pfs and ap's find, and that's just fine, but I'd like for these classes to be usefull to me, myself, hence me giving you the data. I believe it usefull as a stress test of what a kineticist can do.
The party consisted of 9 players. We were all level 6 by the time I added a kineticist, and at the final battle we all had 5 additional feats. I'll give an outline of the party in the below spoiler.
Spoiler:
-A str 22 barbarian who used invulnerable rager in conjunction with stalwart and fighting defensively to get DR 8.
-A str 22/dex 20 tiefling(some variant with a str bonus) fighter who had a mithral full-plate and dual-wielded shortswords(she had 2 pairs, one silver and one cold iron) AC in the high twenties.
-A gunslinger who used various rule tricks to dual-wield double-barreled pistols and full-attack every round for a shit-ton of damage. He had trouble dealing with DR though, on account of thinking cold iron bullets didn't exist. Eventually died and made a half-orc barbarian who was made to have as many hp as possible, and continue fighting while in the negatives.
-A tiefling(standard) vivisectionist alchemist, dex-based, used mutagen to give himself claws and a bite, relied on . When fighting foes with DR, he two-weapon fought with dual cold iron or silver daggers.
-A blaster wizard who eventually died and made a summoner. The wizard was a blaster & buffer, the summoner's main job was haste dispensing.
-A dwarven 20 wis, 16dex, 14str cleric 5/monk 1. Had started his career specialized in crafting, his main combat contribution was buffs. His AC was sort of low for the party.
-Me, an archer bard6. I had really good stats and used many different sorts of arrows to pretty good effect. I teamed up with the barbarian and used feromone arrows to give him +2 to hit and damage on top of my other bonuses.
-A master of many styles monk 2/mutagen brawler 2/bloodrager 2 who joined partially through, he used a high strength, rage, mutagen and dragon style/ferocity & pummelling style/charge to deal devastating damage. His defenses were a little weak, but not entirely shabby.
-A paladin who joined partially through. He had a mounted build, but didn't get to use his mount all that much. Still, various stuff made him kick-ass as hell. He died eventually, and his player didn't roll up a new character.
The Build
Carrie:
CE Human Kineticist 6
Offense:
+6 initiative
+10 ranged, Aether blast(+11Point blank, +9 deadly aim), 3d6+12PBS, +16DA & PBS
+10 melee, kinetic whip or kinetic dagger, +8/+8 both, 3d6+11
30ft movement
-----------------
Burn (Max 9)
Element Focus: Aether
Telekinetic blast
Force Ward 6+3/burn
Feel the Burn +2
Infusion Specialization(Kinetic Whip)
Metakinesis(Empower)
A note on the build: We interpreted that you're allowed to use both kinetic blade & whip in the same round if you're prepared to deal with the burn, and that using daggers made from special materials for throwing allows you to bypass DR (after the first time encountering demons)
Whip & blade was included mainly in order to capitalize on the haste that always got laid down in combat.
I'll be breaking down the combats in the following posts.
So the new technology guide is out. It has lots of stuff in, and some of it has ambigious rules text.
Technology guide wrote:
This bulky bracelet is covered in blinking blue lights and pulsing holographic emitters. A hard light shield produces a translucent but substantial holographic barrier when activated. The shield bonus counts as a force effect and applies to the wielder's touch AC against beam and ray attacks (but not other touch attacks). As a transparent force effect, a hard light shield provides no bonus against lasers. A hard light shield can be used to deliver shield bash attacks like a heavy shield.
When turned off, a hard light shield provides no AC bonus and imposes no spell failure chance. Activating or deactivating a hard light shield is a move action. This item occupies the wearer's wrist slot.
Does the hard light shield occupy a hand as well as the wrists slot?
A shadow looms over Riddleport. The blot, recently appearing in the sky, has drawn the attention of scholars and cyphermages from all over varysia, who has arrived to investigate this new phenomenon. The inhabitants have wasted no time in robbing the new arrivals blind, as befitting of the way of life in Riddleport. This is not a story of scholars and tomes, however.
Our story, like all proper adventures, begins in a tavern. For the first time in a decade, the Golden Goblin Gambling Hall draws a crowd. With their great event, "Cheat the Devil and take his Gold" the Golden Goblin offers customers a chance at a grand prize; they might even get their souls back...
I'm recruiting four player characters for a second darkness game. I'll be picking players based on the quality of their applications, and on the need for a somewhat balanced party. Recruitment will probably run for two or three weeks.
Backgrounds:
I'd like to know what you're doing in Riddleport. You should end up just outside the Golden Goblin casino on the evening we start our game, with the intention of going in there.
Please include a personality, and your character's outlook on the world.
Crunch:
25 point buy for stats. Most NPCs will be generated on a 15pb.
Races allowed will be any from core or the ARG below 15 RP. While psionic races are unavailable, characters with a psionic favored class get the option of extra pp as if they had psionic races.
I will be more inclined to pick characters with core races than non-core, if the quality is otherwise equal, though. Note that drow aren't allowed.
For sources, anything official paizo goes, as does psionics by dreamscarred press and path of war from dreamscarred press. For other 3pp and 3.5e material, feel free to ask.
Characters will start out with average starting gold for their class. In addition, they will start with 25gp in coinage that they may or may not be planning on spending at the Cheat the Devil and take his Gold tournament.
Evil is mildly discouraged; so are paladins.
A note on railroading.:
There's lots of railroading going on in this AP. If you don't stick to the rails, it won't be Second Darkness, but rather the Dragon, freestyle, which is fun, but not really what we're aiming for here. That said, I will of course adapt to creativity. I love creativity.
I've been wanting to roleplay in the dragon age setting lately.
I'm aware that a Dragon Age RPG has been published, but as I have neither the resources to acquire new books, nor the time and energy to get acquainted with a new system, I decided I'd ask if there was anyone out there willing to DM a dragon age game using either Pathfinder, D&D 3.5e, or d20 modern. That last one would probably need heavy modification to work, but I think it could wind up being great.
I feel that E6 would fit the setting well, but that would be entirely up to the DM.
As for the story, I would love to participate in an epic journey that included moral and ethical dilemmas, interesting adversaries, and characters devoted to the completion of their task. And Flemeth.
So, I took a 10th level hunter out for a spin in my regular d&d campaign this weekend, subbing the char in for the ranger I've been playing.
It was a strange experience.
My build was AoO-centric, going with paired opportunitist and broken wing gambit, with myself going with dervish dance, weapon finesse, and power attack.
When the combo worked, it was pretty great. My hunter and his tiger managed to take apart a giant pretty quick with it.
The more cunning opponents could easily avoid our tactics with 5' steps, though, leaving them to take advantage of a free +2/+2, which they did in the combats that followed.
My combat style was this, with few deviations:
0: Cast buffs on me and my tiger pre-combat, in the two cases we were given prior warning.
1: Activate animal foci,
2:Tiger charges,
3:I move up and cast a buff, or whack an enemy.
4: If the enemy is stupid, we take an AoO when he attacks. The giant died at this point.
5:repeat.
Overall, the character felt plenty powerful, but also plenty bland.
If you're familiar with the tier system, I'd probably put it in tier 3.
I had some nice beastmaster RP going, but the various class features, well, let's just say I felt way overshadowed by the party druid.
He likes to wildshape and beat stuff up together with his animal companion. He likes to throw down some CC spells beforehand.
I suffered a little from MAD, although I had enough animal foci to have one up in every combat.
I had less skills than I'd like though, it got a little hard to use the great list. 6sp/level would be appreciated, although maybe not neccesary.
The discount free money from not buying STR or Dex gear more or less went into getting magical attacks and protection for my tiger. (Con belt, armor, NoMF+2.)
Overall, meh.
The class is powerful enough. But it lacks the feel, the distinction.
As it stands, it is just a testament to the fact that druids can still function just fine if you take away some of their toys.
When played alongside a druid, like I did last night, it just feels bad.
You'll note I haven't talked much about spells. That's because I focused mostly on buff spells, as I couldn't afford the wisdom to cast them offensively effectively.
Also, I didn't feel like competing with the druid on this point as well, as he'd be obviously superior to me instead of vaguely superior, as was the case when we both set out to do close combat.
While constructing a Warpriest for a playtest game, I noticed that the various 10th level of the blessings that summon things are totally worthless. This is, of course, the Animal, Law, Chaos, Good and Evil blessings.
They get to use SM/SNA IV at level ten, meaning that a full progression caster could use SM V when they get it. This is very important, because the SM V list is designed to summon things that can contribute to a fight with level 9-10 adventurers. When the party levels to eleven, the Warpriest uses SM IV while the full casters uses SM VI.
Now, I'm aware that this is anecdotal evidence, but every time my Sorcerer summons creatures from a lower-level list, they more or less always get taken down in a round or with a single attack by the opposition. This doesn't really matter, as you get multiple, meaning they can take at least a round or two of hits for your party. They never really contribute towards damage, as their to hit is geared towards easier encounters.
Now, the warpriest using his blessing is at least one spell level behind in the potency of his summons, half of the time it's two spell levels.
This means that what he can summon is never level appropriate. This means using his blessing power at level ten is more or less wasting an action.
To fix this, I suggest you make these abilities function like a SM V or SNA V initially, and let them progress like a primary caster's, that is to say Summon VI at level 11 (or twelve if you really want the warpriest to feel the pain of a sorcerer) VII at 13(14) and so on.
But it really needs fixing. Making a warpriest means I'm not making a cleric. The only reason I could see not making a cleric would be to get the class features of the warpriest. I need to care about having said class features. I really don't care about getting an ability that is not even level appropriate on the level I get it.
I made a character for another kingmaker campaign, and I really feel like using her for that purpose. So I thought I'd post a thread to ask if anyone might want to DM and play such a campaign play-by-post on these boards?
