DarkMidget's page

Huh. Wasn't really expecting this much resounding thoughts on them actually being underpowered or generally weaker than humans and others in general.

I might be basing my opinions purely on very specific combos people can make with these stat bonuses. At least on the part of the Aasimar. Generally when it comes to making Paladins or Clerics. I also had a slight feeling that the 5 resistance to 3 types felt kind of broken earlier on.

Then again, I'm not completely sure. I have a feeling a majority of it was based on RP alone.

Yeah, I actually had alternate Aasimar bloodlines made up too :)

Variant Aluen Heritages

Name/Typical Alignment | Ability Mod | Alt. Sk Bonuses -
Alternate SL Ability

Agathion/NG | +2 Con, +2 Cha, -2 Int | Handle Animal, Survival Summon Nature's Ally II

Angel/CG, NG, LG | +2 Str, +2 Cha, -2 Int | Heal, Knw (Planes) Alter Self

Archon/LG | +2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Int | Intimidate, Sense Motive Continual Flame

Azata/CG | +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con | Diplomacy, Perform Glitterdust

Garuda/CG | +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Con | Acrobatics, Fly
See Invisibility

Peri/NG | +2 Int, +2 Cha, -2 Con | Knw (Planes), Spellcraft Pyrotechnics

Hi everyone! Hopefully you're doing well.

So I'm going to be running Hell's Rebels within the next couple of months, and a couple of my players showed interest in playing Tiefling or Aasimar characters. Considering that Tiefling are already 3 RP higher than generally all base races on average, and Aasimar are an astounding 5 RP higher, I figured I didn't want to let them.

But instead, I opted to just make slightly balanced Tiefling and Aasimar variants to let players use :) Just wanted to see what people thought.

Checking what I actually changed, my Aasimar variant has:

- -2 Constitution attached to racial changes.
- Humanoid typing instead of outsider with native subtype
- Minor resistance in which one type is chosen instead of 3 types being given, balancing the type resistances

And my Tiefling variant has:

- Humanoid typing instead of outsider with native subtype
- Minor resistance in which one type is chosen instead of 3 types being given, balancing the type resistances

Seems about it, but it, from what I recall, lowers the RP value from 13 and 15 to 10 each. Just wanted to see what people thought :)

I'm just kind of hesitant to let one of my players play a Tiefling or Aasimar when they're generally good at being overpowered in general. Thank you all for your time and attention :)

Aye, that's very true. Well, at least so far nobody has said anything against them, but they sound very favorable for choices :D

Oh! I guess you are indeed correct on them having full BAB with flurry. Though the new one just gets a new attack at full BAB without a penalty, no? So now they just get an extra attack? Though that also means at higher levels they get far less attacks. So I suppose that does indeed balance out.

Thanks for the input, wraith :) Always a pleasure.

Hey everyone, hopefully your days are going well :)

I'm going to be running Hell's Rebels soon, and one of my players asked if I'd be allowing the Unchained classes.

I wasn't certain so I started looking into them. The monk already seems WAY better than it was and the fighter progression with Flurry of Blows makes me wonder if they're actually more powerful than I should allow. The unchained Barbarian seems good and more streamlined, to be honest.

It mostly just seems like the monk was given a HUGE buff. Curious on peoples' thoughts on if they'd allow for the Unchained classes or not. Much appreciated :)

Thank you very much! :D

Hey everyone, hope you're all doing well :)

Curious about something that I tried Googling, oddly with absolutely no results relevant to what I asked.

Just wondering if magic items that give stat bonuses affect the level of spells you can cast, based on the rule that the highest spell level you can cast is up to your spellcasting stat minus 10.

So for instance, if a wizard with Int 16 had an Int +4 item, could they then cast up to level 9 spells instead of just 6? I could have sworn I heard somewhere that after 24 hours of wearing a magic item like that, it counts towards stuff like that. Not 100% myself, so thought I'd ask you fine folks. Thanks for your time :)

Sounds fair.

The situation in the beginning is that for hundreds of years, there haven't been true "monsters" in the world. They only exist naturally on another planet that can be seen through a huge tear in the sky.

In the prologue, rifts start opening up in the city, unleashing a bunch of outsiders, aberrations, and whatever other monsters I might add into it. So the Zoog are just the first they run into when they enter a specific hallway on their way to exit a building.

I can throw more stuff at them outside the building too. I just wanna keep the intro dramatic and still slightly challenging without murdering them hahah

Hm, interesting... it has been said that Charisma is also the strength of ones' self and force of personality. So I'd picture is as not actively responsive, if at all, and if you DO try and communicate, you might make gargling sounds, drool, or just make odd grunting noises.

Or, as some had suggested, maybe very terse, socially ignorant, or flat out near-robotic. You have quite a few options as far as this goes. I'd picture your characters eyes generally being emotionless now, and whenever something happens that REALLY invokes feelings in anyone in a normal state of mind, your character MIGHT respond with "Oh."

Something like this.

o_O Oh, okay. I didn't know it could be that vague sometimes hahaha.

Okay, so Zoog in a hallway with nothing to really climb on to just leave, probably CR 1/2 each?

Wait a sec. I just noticed something. On the OGC, in their actual page, it says CR 1. In the page listing them by CR, it says 1/2. So now I don't even really know what their CR is.

I probably wouldn't make many more of things that do bleed. I'll probably try and do a few weaker things. Hm. Zoog make this a VERY hard thing to calculate. Because they are easy to hit with a fairly low amount of HP.

But then there's the gamble on the occasion if the party has no potions, healers, clerics, and keep rolling low that the party might just be in terrible shape after.

Though I could also make that cleric I had intended to help out a bit just show up after the fight and then take off to fight some other things.

I MAY have an NPC cleric come into the mix (He's a solid story character later on, so he isn't an out of nowhere NPC) IF the party has no way to stop the bleeding.

Though then that might feel hamfisted.

It is true though, though they can only do 1 damage per round, the bleed could possibly lead to death if not handled right.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking... in the Prologue (which is the part I'm working on), XP isn't a thing. After the Prologue, the party levels to 2, and THEN I instigate proper XP.

So I guess it's not really an issue of XP, but just how strong these things are considering it'll be a party of 4 level 1 PCs. What would be a good amount of Zoog to be an average encounter by peoples' opinions, as opposed to RAW.

So, I've been working on my campaign lately, and in my world, most outsiders and aberrations only exist in the outer planes. Though in one event, a bunch of rifts open up and pour into the city the heroes are in.

This is in the beginning as a special event where the PCs have to decide which fights to take part in and which to avoid. Though as the first real encounter, I wanted the party to fight a few Zoog. They don't LOOK that powerful, but apparently just 2 Zoog count as a CR 3 encounter.

Are they really that hard? They seem to have fairly low AC, and only a moderate amount of health for that level.

Just curious on peoples' thoughts on these? The main thing about this event is that most of the enemies will be low-level outsiders, aberrations, and magical beasts. Not including the high-level things that are intended to keep the players away from certain areas in the city.

Oh? I'll take a look into diversion and get back to you on that :)

Edit: Oh, okay! Took a look into that. So it'd be a Bluff check followed by a Sleight of Hand (Or even stealth, apparently) check. I'd probably have to lower the DCs to balance it though, yeah? Cuz doing two checks at a higher DC would be rough.

“Borrow” some from another contestant (DC 10 Bluff (Diversion) check and DC 10 Stealth check)

Perhaps?

Hey everyone!~ Recently, I started work on a cooking contest for a festival at the beginning of my campaign. The rules kind of start off with just a few skill checks, then it turns into something of a chase. Just wasn't sure on the balance of what skills I used, or the DCs for them or whatnot. So I'm gonna put what I have here and see what you think :3

It likely needs a bit of work, or at the least, a bit of tinkering. So lemme know what you think, thoughts, feel, etc :D

Cook-Off Rules

Tried copying here, but it doesn't enjoy formatting... this'll be easier :)

Almost sounds like the Profession would be more the logic side of it, and the Craft would be the actual making. I completely agree about the Craft one being able to maybe make a cake, or dish, or drink and if someone wants to pay them a bit of copper for it, sure, but they wouldn't make sustained income on it, or something similar.

I'm all-in for house-ruling that in as well. What type would it be? Social?

Adaptable Skills (Social): With this trait, you may select either the Craft or Profession skill. If Craft is chosen, you may use Wisdom as the related ability score. If Profession is chosen, you may use Intelligence as the related ability score. Once chosen, this cannot be changed.

Something like that?

XD That made me laugh pretty hard...

That's very true. Could do that both encompass cooking in and of itself, but Profession can deal with business practices and local knowledge about specific foods, and Craft deals with knowing the specifics of a physical piece of food or checking stuff with food as well.

Technically both work both ways... though I do fully understand that Profession Cook would involve more to do with businesses... But at the same time, a person can't really call themselves a cook without any cooking knowledge. But then craft food should also be able to cook a single thing with that skill without knowledge of the business, too...

Curse the double-possibilities.

Oh god, I love Yakitate Japan :3

Okay! I think I'm happy to have both included in the game then, with Profession: Chef being able to cook basic stuff easily, but have Craft: Cooking involve more complex stuff, or understand at a mechanical level.

Oh! Okay then :) Well, I could, just for sakes of Craft, make it that it's not so much a daily/weekly thing. Just make that for this particular case be for cooking particular things (Maybe cooking something you've never made before), or having some form of knowledge about food, but doesn't necessarily have to do with making GP. However, profession: cook will be more of a knowledge, and can involve other things. I might just do it on a case by case basis.

Though to be honest, Profession: Cook does seem more like a coverall, and kind of gets rid of the point of Craft: Cooking.

Oops! Thanks for reminding me, I should have clarified :) I'm the DM for this particular case.

I just wasn't sure how I felt about stuff for this. I suppose it is true that crafting food isn't exactly the same... though there was an old post I had seen before where someone made uses for the Craft (Cooking) skill that involved finding poisons in foods, or realizing if something is rotten (Though it may not look it). Stuff like that.

So I guess it's more for my own thoughts, though in the end, I can have the final say on it, luckily.

I keep kind of flip-flopping between the two, or feel I should have both as a skill. But officially, is one of these used over the other? I just ask because as far as skill checks go to make food, couldn't a person technically use Profession? Or is Profession mostly used to make money off of a profession?

Just curious how others handle it, or which is technically an official skill. Because technically, both work well.

Kill him. I mean the player.
Just kidding, but I couldn't resist for some reason.

Anywho! I've seen many, MANY posts like this one over the years. Many times, it seems like they just don't really seem to care as much because they kind of want to be overly silly or violent in-game. But it is very true, if it makes a game not fun for a lot of the others, including and possibly especially the GM/DM, it will eventually be the end of the game due to lack of people wanting to play, or even you not really finding the drive to work on it because you're not having fun anymore.

Though in the sake of fairness, maybe give him x strikes, or just instruct him that he's still doing what he had been talked to about. Then maybe sit down with everyone, get their opinions, and see what they all think. Basically just try not to bully the guy, but definitely let him know he's affecting others' fun. Sometimes people just don't know they're affecting others' fun.

Or you can always go with the in-joke me and my group uses. "An army of paladins crest the hillside".

Sounds right to me, from what I am understanding.

I love those last two ideas. I might make it a fusion of a modified chase to actually cook it while adding in the scavenger hunt part, along with a list of bonus tasks to get bonus points in the cook-off, like using Knowledge Local to know how the best chefs in the city cook or what is a known local favourite. Stuff like that. :D Thanks everyone! I think I'll try and get to work on this.

I just noticed the original post date :O Oh dear.

Um. I had another thought on the name too... Vengeful Vision works too :)

So maybe a roll of a few different skill checks? That could work. Was trying to think if there's any other active things the PCs could do to alter the outcome (I don't really mean through some form of cheating or anything, though with an evil character, that wouldn't be unheard of).

I mean if there's anything... well, the appraise thing works actually! If they go to the market or something and actively appraise veggies to find good quality ones or something. :) Not a bad idea.

Hey everyone! Hope everyone is doing well :)

Recently I've been working on my own campaign and I wanted to do some interesting stuff for a (running cliche) festival in the beginning. I was wanting to actually attempt at making a cook-off/cooking contest, but wanted something more creative than "Do a Profession:Chef/Craft:Cooking check". I was thinking a possible point system where a check might add a couple of points, or deduct, if they fail really badly. And maybe make a few different judges be of different races, nationalities, and enjoy different tastes to maybe effect how the food is judged. Something that really includes a bunch of stuff about cooking :)

Has anyone out there tried anything interesting like this or custom rules that worked well for a more complicated cook-off? I just don't want it to be one of those carnivals of skill checks, as it were. Though I don't mind involving them on occasion, I don't want it to be the pure focus. So just curious on others' experiences :)

Thanks for the time and attention :D

Or at least some possible things a metropolitan city may do for something like that... Sorry for the technical bump-reply.

Not sure if I'm 100% down with my own idea, but Vengeful Reflection might be good.

It seems a lot of people are mentioning that the Ecclesitheurge is missing an ability or something? From what I've seen of them, they aren't that great. Losing the ability to wear armor to be able to switch some spells with domains doesn't seem worth it, and the ability to bond with a holy symbol also doesn't fill me with enthusiasm. Not completely bashing them, but they seem like a nerf-type.

To be honest, I'd probably get really bored of them if I just focused on one stat and had that one stat affect that many things. Would get boring pretty fast, I'd think. I like spreading focus out, for the most part, but that may just be me.

And you really don't need to keep bashing on Paizo. As it has been said a few times, PF was designed to be easily compatible with 3.5 content. So the Archivist likely doesn't have to be redesigned at all, you can, or should be able to, just play one of those straight up. It likely doesn't need to be redesigned. The 3PP probably just made their idea for funsies and to make something like that, but it doesn't mean it necessarily had to be done to compensate for lack of Archivist or anything.

I'd say just play as the Archivist as is and enjoy how they work, or even add your adjustments as you thought may work and see if it indeed works well. Might be interesting to see how they compare.

Yeah. Was partially going the Rise of the Runelord way and

Though that is the long haul part of the intro. I want the party to be able to go around and do some fun stuff beforehand. Just trying to think if there's anything interesting that can be added to stuff for the Academae's Anniversary celebration.

Wait, what? Which feats are those? XD

And I guess in comparison to other 9th level casters, sure, but the Cleric isn't really JUST a 9th level caster. They're a caster-multi-purpose. It is true they aren't great for skills though. That I will never deny.

I dunno. I wouldn't really say the Cleric is under-powered. And oddly, nor would I say it is that MAD, either.

In a more recent campaign I'd been playing in, we only used the 20 point buy, and I had my stats right as I wanted them.

Higher strength, lower dex to wear the better medium armor, middle con to stay alive, lower int (Mighta been 10), good wisdom (But not ridiculous) and about 12 or 13 cha. So I'd say I focused mostly on Str and Wis with a middle-to-low in con and cha? I was able to utilize Channeling quite well by either staying further back and using something - I think it was either a feat or a trait - that let me use two channels to do it as a free action and THEN running up to deal with people, or just channeling when the bonus of healing my entire team vs one of the enemy definitely outweighed the risk.

I think it's just how you handle the class, but I definitely wouldn't say they're under-powered because they get channel and armor as opposed to being able to learn all spells.

My friend played an archivist a couple of times but we never got to a high enough level for him to become the broken type, so I'm not really commenting on the Archivist. Just kind of giving my two cents and defending the Cleric. I liked him, and he was able to stand at the front and fight with the best of them while keeping the party alive and supported.

I at least want to note though that just because a 3PP made something does not mean it was because anyone asked for it. I'm sure a lot of 3PP made things that confused people, weren't that great, or were just never thought of being asked for. So I still dunno. I think it's all either-sided.

But it does beg the question why you don't just ask your DM/GM/Whathaveyou if you can play an Archivist and see how it works. Would be an interesting play-test and show findings on how it still works in PF.

Hey everyone! Hope you're days/nights/etc are going well :)

So, I've been recently working on a campaign of my own (In my own world called Eblis), and am just working on the prologue right now. I'm trying to come up with a few things to start up the setting, and it seems partially bare.

Here's a link to what I have so far.

(For reference, blue text is spoken to the PCs, red is saves/checks, and black normal font is for DM reference. If anything looks really silly or the formatting is off, blame Drive. It seemed to take liberties with willy-nilly editing on my behalf.) Take note, it's definitely not done, and doesn't include all districts in the city yet. Umm, there are a few things not included here that are in other documents not on my drive at the moment, so if you have questions or want clarification, feel free to ask.

I'm still working on it. Just curious on what types of things you guys might include to make the intro last a bit longer, or give more creative and fun things to do until the inevitable part where stuff goes bad.

Any input is appreciated and I thank you for your time and attention :D

Could just go with "Oathtakers"

*Shudder* Cave spiders. Creepy. I think I actually saw some of these in Costa Rica years ago hanging on the wall near a waterfall. They are pretty big compared to anything we have here.

So I did check my reference. I did change Calistria to Orm & Nyoka.

Orm/Nyoka (Orm)/(Neye-Oh-Ka) Twin deities of lust, trickery, revenge, and greed.
Additional Notes: Male (Orm), Female (Nyoka)
Additional Titles: The Vindictive Twins, The Twin Snakes, The Hissing Twins
Alignment: CN Alignment of Clerics: N, CG, CN, CE
Domain(s): Chaos, Charm, Knowledge, Luck, Trickery
Subdomain(s): Azata, Curse, Deception, Lust, Memory, Thievery
Home Realm/Plane: N/A

Apparently a majority of snakes won't ever dig or anything like that, but may use the unused burrows of other animals to cool down if it gets too warm. For some reason I still like the bat idea, but then that'll likely lead to them just all being very vampire-esqe.

Hm, that's true. I think I'll have Naga/Nagaji/Serpentfolk. Probably not Yuan-Ti unfortunately. And yeah, good point. Not sure if I was going to make them underground or not. In theory, I could just change the basic structure of the snake itself and make some that live underground. Might be kinda silly/tedious though.

Though with the original Drow... stupid question, but do spiders usually live underground? (Or did they have a specific reason to be underground?) I can't remember... I just dunno if the caves/tunneling/underground thing should be a massive limiter. But that is true if snakes aren't going to be in their home regions, then why bother on that one lol.

Hm... they might see the naga as false-gods (since the Nagaji praise them as gods), see the Nagaji as fools, and work together with serpentfolk.

I'd have to check my reference when I get home. I think I replaced Calistria with the twin-snake goes Orm and Nyoka. I made them twin-gods of deceit, lust, poison, and some other such things.

Could make the drow worship the darker aspects of that and worship snakes.

Ooh. Formians are creepy XD That may work. For some reason though, ants seem to be something that drow may see below themselves. I know spiders are kinda smaller too, but ants are quite small. Though they are quite strong for their size, comparatively. Not sure.

Oh right, my world has some custom gods, and some of the originals are kind of changed. Not all of them were changed beyond their name though.

Would be kind of cool to have them use coal and such as necromantic fuel. Makes sense in a way.

As for an opposing god, I haven't though of that yet. OH! I do have a god that is made to destroy Eblis. I could say that they are going towards the center of Eblis to supposedly free this being. And it could be that the surface elves of a few specific cities praise the sun-goddess who is meant to slay that being. But that's if I want to keep it somewhat straight-forward.

Those are all pretty cool ideas. Them worshiping themselves and being thought of as a higher evolution seems to be the self-thinking way I'd picture them on occasion.

I'll have to give a read on the Mystara Shadow Elves. Makes me curious.

It'd be interesting to do a water-based Drow, but I think they'll be more the traditional underground style. And what sent them underground... perhaps they were searching for something, or are looking for their God inside of the world due to some prophecy.

Hey everyone! Hope you're all doing well.

Recently while working on my custom world, I was thinking I might take the drow in a different direction than what has been done with them before.

In the original, they worship spiders and Lolth as their goddess. In Eberron, they worship scorpions. In Golarian, they worship demons, which for some reason seemed more boring to me compared to the animal-themed religions.

So I was talking to a friend to try and come up with some ideas for my world's version of the drow. I was contemplating bats, or perhaps even snakes. My friend's world had a version of them where they were styled after the ancient Egyptians and worshipped scarabs.

Was curious if anyone here has played in a setting where the drow worshiped anything different or unique compared to the usual versions of them.

That sounds like a good idea. Kinda makes me wanna make a class like a Spelldagger or something that can make magical daggers at will, or something. And can use them as normal daggers, or throw them and blablabla. Though that might be broken, as it'd free up lots of money for other things... I dunno though. I could picture a class focused on one style of fighting like that. Almost like a mix of Rogue/Warlock from 3.5.