Damian Magecraft's page

I am starting up a new campaign and the first 4 players just showed up (the remaining 6 will show up later after they get off work... *grumble* stupid life getting in the way *grumble*) with their character concepts. I was not expecting this mix of characters I must admit.

(The setting is a home brewed version of the Palladium Fantasy World using a house ruled Pathfinder rules set)
Current Party:
Half-orc Paladin of Rurga (Goddess of Truth)
Half-Elf Cleric of The Dragonwright (Dragon Gods)
Dwarf Oracle of Stone (Tongues Curse: Terran)
Human Inquisitor of Utu (THE Death god)

All the challenges I had set up did not take into account this level of divine help...
This is going to be an entertaining campaign.
Any suggestions on where to take this since the original story (Undead Horde) is going to need heavy revisions?

I am developing my own setting using the Pathfinder system.
I have gotten to a point where I am developing the Pantheon(s) for my world. And as the title suggests I am wondering; at what point have I created too many?

Ok these are just some brain storm points that have been popping into my head for the last 2 weeks or so and I thought it was time I put some of them down somewhere. Here seemed a good place to share my ideas.

Location: Sea of Grass - A large prairie land
Common Races: Human, Elf, Orc, Goblin, Half-Elf, Half-Orc
Society: Tribal, Hunter/Gatherer, Largest is a loose collection of inter-related family clans (of all races) calling themselves The Kindred.
Gods of The Prairie:
Common Classes: Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, Bard, Oracle, Sorcerer, Druid, Witch

Location: The Iron Mountains - Western Border of the Prairie
Common Races: Human, Dwarf, Goblin, Kobold, Orc, Half-Orc
Society: Kingdoms,
Gods of the Mountains:
Common Classes: Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Cavalier, Paladin, Cleric, Inquisitor, Sorcerer, Witch, Alchemist

Location: The Wastes - Dessert Lands
Common Races: Human, Lizard Folk, Elf, Goblin, Orc, Half-Elf, Half-Orc
Society: Kingdoms, Tribes
Gods or the Wastes:
Common Classes: Fighter, Barbarian, Sorcerer, Wizard, Summoner, Witch, Rogue, Ranger, Druid, Oracle, Inquisitor

This is all I have so far.
I am still thinking on this...

A friend of mine after reading the PF core asked me the following...

What is the point in making a Wizard when a Sorcerer with the Arcane Bloodline is pretty much the same thing and can spontaneous cast to boot?

I had never really thought on this before but after looking the two classes over with a fresh eye I have to admit I cannot come up with any reasons... (And when it comes to casters I am a dyed in the wool Wizard fanboy).

Help me out here folks am I missing something?

A new House Rule I am contemplating has to do with exp and the "quadratic/linear" mage/fighter issue that many find problematical.

My Idea is to utilize all three exp tracks thereby adding another "balancer" to the mix.
Classes would be divided among the the three tracks giving the more martial characters a faster progression rate than the full casters.

Right now the breakdown looks something like this-

Fast Track
barbarian, fighter, monk, rogue, cavalier, ninja, samurai

Medium Track
bard, paladin, ranger, inquisitor, gunslinger, magus

Slow Track
cleric, druid, sorcerer, wizard, alchemist, oracle, summoner, witch

Thoughts? questions? flames?

Your choice to not accept Amex as a valid form of payment has forced me to re-evaluate my decision to support this company further.
I neither need nor desire to carry more than one CC and Amex is the most cost efficient and secure one offered.
If I cannot use my preferred method of online payment then I am forced ask if the company truly cares to have my business support.

In the past I have "adapted" plots from movies and minor novels occasionally a classic novel.
Because I have done this and my players were none the wiser (stronger education in literature or wider reading habits, who knows) I have been heralded as one of the "greatest GMs" ever. (well locally any way). This is a technique I teach to many budding GMs; especially those suffering from the dreaded Campaign Creators Block. That is how I first stumbled on it actually...
It was the day of the new game. The week before we had just finished a killer epic in D&D. It was a classic, Multi-level dungeon, traps, puzzles, monsters, and of course a dragon. (all in all a pretty typical campaign). Well the group wanted a break from the fantasy setting for a time, so it was decided we would play Space Opera (very old game how grognard of me eh?). I had never ran a Sci-fi game before so I was worried (the group refused to let me quit GMing). For an entire week I stewed and fretted and by game day I had... Nothing, zip, ziltch, nada.
What Am I a responsible GM to do?
Well with only 30 minutes til game I did what any GM in my shoes would... I "faked" it... I grabbed the first thing that came to my mind as a name for the Capt. of the spaceship the PCs would be crewing Bligh. Yup, Dad happened to be watching the Brando version of film on the tube when I walked by... so that was his name. Capt B. L. Igh. The plot was a forgone conclusion from there....
My players were enraptured by how much they came to despise that man...
And how he kept pushing them until they snapped and mutinied. (Yup, I ran Mutiny on the Bounty in a space setting). The Players declared me a genius. I felt cheap and dirty until I realized they actually had more fun and got more into character during that campaign than they ever did during our old "weekly crawls".

Recently I stumbled upon the movie Age of Dragons A retelling of Herman Melville's classic Moby Dick but with dragons instead of whales.
This was not a plot I had ever considered "adapting" for use with RPGs before (though now that I have seen the trailer for the movie I can see it).
But this movie has set my mind whirling...
What other "grand" tales could be retold/adapted for RPG campaigns?
I have done Bridge over the River Quai, Guns of Navarone, etc...
Anyone else have some "classics" they have "adapted"?

Title says it all...
Discuss.

I have been watching Hercules and Xena on Netflix lately.
And this has inspired me.
How would one go about setting up a Herc/Xena-esque campaign?
I am not looking to run Herc, Xena, Iolus, And Gaby in a game.
But a group on par to them. (perhaps "god" touched characters)
I am aware that a game of this nature has the potential to become OverPowered quickly.
Hence the reason I am asking for advice.

Title says it all...
Discuss.

For the past few weeks I have been involved in a campaign using the Pathfinder rules set. Having pretty much ignored 3.X since release. I find myself unfamiliar with the system. I have managed to grasp the basics (those have not changed since 1e days) but the nuances escape me for the time being. I have found the best way to fully understand a system is to run certain key class types. I decided to start with the Monk. The RP potential coupled with my love of classic HKA films makes this one of my favorites already. That being said however I feel that I am at an impasse with this character as she now stands. I have been play in systems that heavily front load the characters for so long that I find myself having troubles building a character as I level. I am unsure what direction to go when I reach my next level (which should at our current rate be in one or two more adventures). Any advice will be welcome.
note: Combat optimization is a secondary goal here as the campaign is more heavily geared towards the social/political than the straight up combat scenario.
Also: If I have made any calculation errors please point them out and walk me through where I made my mistake so I can avoid doing so again.
Thank you
Damian

Ever since I first played D&D (way back in the dark ages of the 70s) I found the mechanics of spell slots to be a bit ham handed in forcing balance. Especially since many spells (regardless of level) list their effects as being variable according to caster level.
This of course made no sense to me... Why does a fire ball have a d6/cl and 400 + 40 ft/cl setting when the earliest I can obtain and use it is 5th level? That means that the minimum amount of damage I will be able to do with the spell is 5d6 And has a minimum range of 600 ft. If the spell is scaled for lower levels why is my mage limited to casting it at only certain minimum levels?

Spell points were first introduced to me by a GM back in the late 70s. He started with just a maximum number of spells per day. This of course created more issues as play progressed; a 3rd level mage casting WISH and only burning a single spell slot was a bit over the top. (an extreme case but still...) so a spell point system was developed where each spell cost a certain amount of points to cost (based mostly upon spell level and not much else). This too had issues but cleaved closer to the concepts of resource management that spell slots encouraged.

Which brings me to my question.

Has anyone toyed around with the concept of spell points for the system?
I have a quick and dirty version that seems to work but still has its issues.
It does not take cantrips into account.
Nor does it (currently) take into account variations in power of spells at each level (Summon Monster V vs Teleport vs Wall of Stone for example.)

I am curious as to the reasoning behind certain design and/or layout choices the Paizo team made.

This question is probably not a big deal to many...
But for me it is a curiosity.

Why did you choose to only list the spell descriptions alphabetically and not also by level? Listing them by level as well would make it easier to locate specific spells much more rapidly (well for me any way). It would also make it easier to decide which spell of a given level too take since one would not be forced to flip back and forth through the book to find all the spells. (again it would be to me anyway... others may think differently.)

Cheers fellow gamers.

Well as the thread title says I am new to Pathfinder. But by no means am I new to gaming. I have been in the hobby for a very very long time. (30+ years, 25 of that in a GM capacity.) I left the D&D fold a long while back when my notes of house rules and adjudications (which I will commonly refer to as a GMs Bible) had reached (literally) ten times the size of the core rules set and no longer resembled the game we started with. I returned (briefly) with the introduction of 3.0 unfortunately for many of the groups in my area (I am one of the more sought after GMs) my experiences with the system at that time (many and varied for over a year) were less than stellar (very very bad GMs and players). These experiences colored my opinions of the system, the caliber and attitudes of new players, and the (at the time) questionable direction of the hobby in general to the point where I absolutely refused to entertain requests to GM or PC 3.X games of any stripe...

Until recently that is.

One of my current groups was tiring of our usual fair. We were getting into a bit of a rut... Palladium, White Wolf, Fate, Amber, and FASA. We needed a change. One of my players expressed interest in Pathfinder. I was willing to give 3.x a 42nd chance but not as GM. (Not yet anyway).

Well we are getting ready for our second session and even though the jury is still out for me (lots of old baggage to overcome); I must say that I am impressed with the direction Paizo has chosen to take the core rules set.

I am also unsurprised at the timbre and tone of the board posts...
Pretty much its the same stuff I find on other boards (just with a different product name.)

Why am I imparting so much information? I am an older gentleman and an "old school" gamer who is set in his ways, opinionated and quite vocal when the subject catches my interest. I have also been told I can be a bit abrasive. But no matter how much I may disagree with an individuals opinion as long as I am responding to their posts I respect the poster for their conviction. (I cease acknowledging those for whom I have no respect.) So I guess its a bit of a warning... If I should disagree with you I will let you know but I mean no disrespect when I do.