Darby!'s page

Played the indie rgp, Dogs in the Vineyard. Very interesting, very different. Anyone else try it?

I played this game for the first time last weekend. I really enjoyed it. It is going to be our pickup game of choice when we can't play D&D.

The system is great for 3 people (GM and 2 "Dogs"). I think it would bog down quite a bit if you had more than 4 players (5 with GM). Sure, it could be done, but it wouldn't be as smooth.

Don't worry about the religious aspect, either. You aren't expected to know anything about the religion to play. There are some very basic tenants that you should follow that are described in the rulebook.

Unlike most RPGs that I've played, I found the character creation phase to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game. It's very organic and you are introduced to the dice/gamble mechanic when you are developing your background.

This game is best for those groups who favor role-playing over hack-n-slash.

Darby! wrote:

While at negative hp the troll would be staggered - meaning it couldn't do much but absorb more damage. It couldn't fight, it couldn't flee. It could only stand there and get skewered.

Huh?

"Staggered: A staggered creature may take a single move action or standard action each round (but not both, nor can he take full-round actions). A staggered creature can still take swift and immediate actions. A creature with nonlethal damage exactly equal to its current hit points gains the staggered condition."

It looks to me like a staggered troll could still fight reasonably well. It can move, attack, or make a partial charge. The only thing it really loses out on is rend (since it can't make two attacks).

It says in the feat description that "If you do not choose to act as if you were disabled, you immediately fall unconscious." The Disabled condition says "Unless the action increased the disabled character's hit points, he is now in negative hit points and dying."

The feat seems a bit circular to me. It says that the benefactor should behave as if disabled but they are in fact staggered.

To be honest I think you could read it either way. I only played the devil's advocate because I thought you felt this combination broke the rules (and was a bad thing).

I agree - the weapons would have to be made specifically to accommodate the elemental in question. I could see this happening more on their native plane than on our own, but you never know.

If you want to bolster your elementals, what would happen if the earth elemental was summoned on, say, holy/unholy ground? or you summoned an air elemental in the area of effect of a Cloud Kill spell? A water elemental made of holy water? A fire elemental made from Hellfire? Of course I have no idea if the rules would allow for such things but it would be fun anyway.

If you meant "weapons made by/for humanoids", I think that only humanoid-shaped Earth elementals would be able to wield them, although they'd prefer not to, since they wouldn't be able to use Earthglide (those weapons don't "meld" with earth). As for the others... Fire would burn/melt them while Air and Water would drop them.

If you meant "weapons in general" as opposed to Slam, feel free to explore the possibilities. Afterall, wouldn't it be possible for a whole Plane inhabited by intelligent creatures to build themselves houses and forge themselves weapons and armors? Meeting a fire-elemental-creature with a fire-elemental-greatsword and a fire-elemental-fullplate... that would be an Intimidation check all by itself.

While at negative hp the troll would be staggered - meaning it couldn't do much but absorb more damage. It couldn't fight, it couldn't flee. It could only stand there and get skewered.

The second it stops behaving as "disabled" it falls unconscious.

So, yes, it could continue functioning in a limited capacity indefinitely but it would effectively be out of combat as long as people kept doing at least 5 points of damage per round to overcome the regeneration.

As soon as the party smacks it with even 1 point of fire or acid damage that troll dies - literally falling to pieces.

That being said, it's still a great pairing of qualities. I can hardly wait to put one in my own campaign.

If I gave a troll the Diehard feat (keeping him from falling unconscious when below 0 hit points) does that mean he becomes essentially unstoppable (since he doesn't die at negative constitution mod due to regeneration)?

Check out http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems/intelligentItems.html

Specifically, there is a section on "Item Ego" and "Items against Characters" that should answer your questions but what it basically boils down to is: The stronger the weapon (number and strength of enchantments), the stronger the item's ego, the more difficult the Will save. This only comes into play if the character and the magic item are in conflict about something (alignment, personalities, and purpose).

Can any one point me in the right direction. I want to make an intelligent/magic sword in the campaign I'm running. A lot of the magic items in the campaign are rare or unique. Years ago (1E) swords and characters would have ego scores. Usually the sword granted some really great benefits to the character. If for some reason the characters ego score dropped below the ego score of the sword a save of some sort would have to be made. If the character failed the sword could take over and force the character to make bad choices and the like.

Is there anything like that in the pathfinder rules. I can't seem to find it if exist.

What happens when you attempt to teleport to a moving object like, say, a ship on the ocean or onto the back of a moving horse?

The only ruling I can find in the spell description is: "You must have some clear idea of the location and layout of the destination".

I imagine it's not a big deal if you can see the destination (through scry or whatnot).

Also, should the spell caster have to remain in the same position when they arrive? (Could a wizard teleport to his lab desk in a sitting position instead of the standing position that he was in when he cast the spell?)

I would love to see D20 modern get the Pathfinder upgrade. My hope is that it would be written generic enough to use in any "modern" setting - be it old west, modern military, future, whatever. I think magic and other special rules would be better served in splat books or campaign settings rather than consume valuable space in the core rulebook.

So I guess I'm in for the whole shebang - core rule books, splat books, campaign settings - provided the pricing is reasonable and the quality is held to Paizo's high standards.

You crack me up, Crystal!