The most fun class.... hmmm.... I think that I have had the most fun with my Bard. As I mentioned in the 'Why should I play a Bard' thread, Bards not only pass out goodies to the rest of the party, they get to write the ballads telling of the party's adventures (if you want to, of course)! That's pretty d*mn cool.
Plus the fact that you can have believable over-the-top backstories. Evard (the bard I'm currently playing) started his first game being chased out of town by a noble who had caught Evard in his bedchamber with his wife - and part of his backstory was that this was not the first time it had happened. Which is why his initial first-level spells included featherfall, grease, and expeditious retreat. :-)
Dotting... I've enjoyed this, and my wife has been making noises about an AP not being the right vehicle for her as GM, so Elspeth may not get to become Amieko's Marshall.
Tacticslion - it seems like what you're trying to say is like Clarke's Third Law (Arthur C. Clarke): Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. And a lot of our current technology is 'sufficiently advanced' from a Golarian adventurer's point-of-view.
I would have to say my 3.5 Githyanki Psychic Warrior who had an amazing backstory - she was the current next body for Gith, and had also been kidnapped by Ravel Puzzlewell and subjected to several years that she could not remember in a fast-time demiplane (both the GM and I were huge fans of Planescape: Torment). Unfortunately, the campaign imploded to InterPersonalBullshit before I could launch my civil war for leadership of the Githyanki.
I only have the description from the Inner Sea World Guide, so you may well be aware of details that I am not. But I'd have jumped on Calistria, eh, well, picked her. Why would the PC be an outcast?
I'm introducing a new player race, dogfolk, to my campaign, and I'd like a good look-see. (PEACHing, maybe? I don't know what that means.) The party will be encountering members of this race very soon, so I will appreciate all the help I can get on making the race balanced, flavorful, and fun.
The idea is that there's a lot of variety in possible traits, to reflect how many different breeds of dogs there are. I'm hoping that the alternate racial traits see serious use, for instance.
What of there being a group of humanoids who take advantage of a dogfolk biology by creating a potion which forces a female dogfolk to stay in heat if they are made to continually drink it? Were they have essentially enslaved these dogfolk for breeding as well as for other purposes? Where the potion makes them docile and willing, submissive and eager to the needs of others.
How would a party react to this, especially one that happens to have a member of the dogfolk among them? Perhaps expecially with a player having female dogfolk in the party?
Heh, I always had it in my personal headcanon that once a species gets sapient and sentient, stuff like being "in heat" wouldn't really be applicable unless the species is a "willing participant".
That whole stuff about the potion of "heatingness", though, does kind of remind me of those urban legends of the "Spanish Fly" aphrodisiac (went the way of the Dodo, thanks to Viagra being invented). Which does lead me to wonder if there's even a possibility of reverse engineering such a concoction to work on any given humanoid race, not just dogfolk; it'd be quite the nefarious tool for the wicked... not to mention being a delicate subject that some folks may have to vet with their players in RL. ;)
(I cut my ct out as irrelevant.)
Yes, I agree that a sentient in heat would still be discriminating. Normally. However...
I still remember a couple of ads I saw in my youth, back when I was so desperate for reading material I read the ads in the back of magazines. It was worth it, sometimes. There was some product advertising that you should buy it because it had the "scientifically proven Placebo Effect." I kid you not!
Well, there was also an ad for a pheromone a man could use that would make women instantly eager to have sex with him. There was a personal testimony of a guy who approached two women he didn't know in a restaurant, asked one of them out to his car, and had sex with her then and there -- all because he was using this product. Once I got done gagging at the idea of a man who'd want to do such a thing, I noticed the "Money Back Guarantee." It seems likely that they were counting on their customers being unwilling to admit that they were such losers that they couldn't have sex even with this sure-fire product! LOL!
So I'm betting that the potion Jonathan speculated about would actually be something a shyster would sell...
~~~
On second thought: If the potion exists somewhere, it would NOT make the drinker "docile and willing, submissive and eager to the needs of others." There's a reason "b*tch" has become the metaphor it did, you know. I've had a b*tch in heat in my home, as a foster. Nice dog, but NOT "eager to the needs of others." She wanted what she wanted, and she wanted it now! Now! NOW! (It didn't help that we also were fostering a male dog who'd come into rescue and been neutered at the age of 8. He knew full well what a guy should do for a lady friend in this state. He simply couldn't... well... He could get started... Never mind.)
I've got two docs up on dropbox! (If this link doesn't work, please let me know.)
One is my take on a multiple-breed dogfolk.
The other is the SBP -- Selected Bonus Progression. This is a consolidation of Wraithguard's & my ideas for a point-based version of the ABP, with a healthy dose of Sir Gauntlet's, besides. This is technically, two docs, the Word doc and an Excel sheet for playing around with builds. I have a request: if you do a build, please get it to me. I'm still working on equivalencies to WBL.
Ohh, that lore is definitely something I can work with as a DM and keeping in mind how humans use actual dogs at times I actually have an idea that could come to a shock to many players but also provide opportunity for them to actually do something about it.
What of there being a group of humanoids who take advantage of a dogfolk biology by creating a potion which forces a female dogfolk to stay in heat if they are made to continually drink it? Were they have essentially enslaved these dogfolk for breeding as well as for other purposes? Where the potion makes them docile and willing, submissive and eager to the needs of others.
How would a party react to this, especially one that happens to have a member of the dogfolk among them? Perhaps expecially with a player having female dogfolk in the party?
Oh, the reaction would be strong! And sure, there might be an individual that evil around, who needs to be stopped! (I understand the GMing style. I'm not fond of "Oh, I see a monster! Kill it!" games either.)
OTOH, for Golarion, I personally am specifying that that sort of thing has stopped among the Ulfen. If the Chelish have started with it... I don't know.
I'm more or less back! And working on my doc; I'm down to the functional traits.
Jonathon Wilder wrote:
Careful now, you turn "man's best friend" into a humanoid, sapient race you may have players wanting to romance the characters or be one themselves for some fun. Laughs, unless that is was something you were expecting and considered? =P
All joking aside, this is an interesting idea and I look forward to you getting something more finalized in order. Though I am curious on how you plan on working out the lore and how the race came about. It looks interesting so far so I will keep an eye on this thread.
Glad to have you lurking! If you have ideas to contribute, I'll be glad to hear them. In terms of PCs playing dogfolk, that is indeed the point!
SorrySleeping wrote:
Bitter lily jumped on the lore, and glad she did because I don't know a whole lot of Pathfinder lore.
As with any half-breed, is there a 25% chance that two dogfolk could end up having a normal dog as their baby?
Sleepy, thanks for answering & linking while I was away!
As for the 25% chance thing, I didn't think there was such a thing for half-elves. Is there anything in PF lore to suggest it? In any case, the odds would vary considerably by couple.
Racial Sensitivity Alert:
I don't want to hurt anyone by bringing a shameful period of American history up; my point is simply that a "half-elf" has the same range as black-white Americans do. And language that is terrible to use for humans (all of us of one common race) may well be useful for fantastic creatures who are actually crosses between two distinct races.
Any "half-elf" individual might indeed have 1/2 & 1/2 human-elven blood, but might be as low as 1/8 for either race. (The threshold for Indian tribe membership, I believe, for instance.) There used to be terms like mulatto for 1/2 black, quadroon for 1/4 black, and octaroon for 1/8 black. ("Black" in this case means full-blooded African.) I doubt that there are many "quadroon-elves" that would truly have the full suite of racial traits of just three grandparents, let alone "mulatto-elves" who have only two grandparents of either race. It would be a fluke, not a 25% occurence.
Even octaroons or those with much less ancestry would likely have at least one racial trait of the other race, although mechanically the character would have to gain it via a character trait, rather than as a racial trait. There was also -- although I didn't know it till I wikied -- the term hexadecaroon for 1/16 black. In this case, you'd probably make up the character as a member of the major parent race and just put the great-great-grandparent of the other one in their backstory.
I'm sorry to have backed off from this thread. Unfortunately, I am ill with vertigo right now. I have been unable to look at gaming things or spend time with reading/typing on the screen since Tuesday the 20th. I hope that treatment will be successful next week.
The newest version isn't complete, yet, but I'll come back!
I'm sorry to have backed off from this thread. Unfortunately, I am ill with vertigo right now. I have been unable to look at gaming things or spend time with reading/typing on the screen since Tuesday the 20th. I hope that treatment will be successful next week.
I have a player who is itching to play Albert from The Count of Monte Cristo. The son of a true villain, who believed in his father and challenged the man his father had wronged to a duel. After his father's dastardy was revealed, this character dragged himself off to a temple of Sarenrae and became Her paladin. Luckily, we're not far from Nybor, the location of what I said was the only temple to Sarenrae in Varisia. He'll be coming in at 4th level.
Unfortunately, that's my sense of this huge story he's dying to tell. Well, I can also tell you that it closely involves who deserves a noble title, and who is a traitor. There's slavery, too. I'm confident that it's not a Varisian story. So I've been perusing the Inner Sea World Guide, and it sure looks like Galt and one of the River Kingdoms are where the player would want to set his backstory. But that's many, many leagues from Varisia!
I had first thought of Cheliax. The civil war & takeover by the House of Thrune seem like it should lend itself to at least part of the story. And it definitely has nobles and slavery. Unfortunately, Thrune has been in charge for 70 years (it's 4710)! So any shenanigans that the PC's father had gotten up to would have been within a diabolical order, not in response to turmoil.
I admit, it's a home game, so I can make changes if I want. Maybe I'm best off altering Molthune to be run by outcast noble houses from Cheliax. (That's what I thought it was, before I read up.) Or maybe there's a better alternative yet.
I'm hoping that someone who knows the novel can help me come up with good locales near Varisia for its key events & characters.
Have the people inside the world become aware that they're doomed? Or is this discovery awaiting the PCs? Because if no one else knows, I'm not sure it would be that different from a typical PF world.
Sorry, Atalius! My "Dot" meant I wanted to see what others said. But, you can choose not to move them... and the grapple fails... sounds right. Octopuses don't get enough love from PF rules. They can't even grapple multiple foes with all those tentacles they've got.
Well, Morte pronounces it teef-ling in _Planescape:_Torment_, and Annah's a main NPC (so she gets referred to a lot), so that's always been canonical for me.
Let me start out by saying that my belief is that twisting wishes into pretzels (or, as seems to be the case with some of these suggestions, Klein bottles) is one of the most effective ways known to end a campaign.
Now, having said that, the players are certainly being greedy. They are trying to jam at least three wishes worth of effect into one Wish. My breakdown is:
1) Removal of the Insanity effect from all three players. This can be done with one Wish, assuming that the event that gave them the condition was a singular thing (unspecified by the OP, and I'm not familiar with the scenario).
2) Recovery of the lost companion. As stated in the Wish spell description, revival of a companion whose body is inaccessible requires two Wishes. In this case, it sounds like Reincarnate would only take one.
3) Recovery of the lost companion's gear. This would take a separate Wish from recovering the body, but only one, as nothing the OP said seemed to indicate that any gear was lost from the other two companions.
Now, I would not have a problem with a being such as the one described accepting the request, and then detailing the number of Wishes it will take, and demanding payment for them. And not allowing them to modify what they asked for after the fact.
@Reksew_Trebla: Your wish number 2 is so far beyond the stated limitations of the Wish spell that it should either expend the Wish with no effect, or cause the creation of a small demiplane where the effect would take place, but nowhere outside of it. Or, of course, call down the direct, undivided attention of the chief God(ess) of Fate, Magic, or whatever would be appropriate for the campaign. And do you know what the worst thing about having the undivided attention of a Deity is? You have the undivided attention of a Deity!
I'm sorry, I'm not the person to help here. If I were a player in your game, I'd promptly release the prisoners, kill or release the helpless dragon (depending on a conversation), and so on. And then I'd go about figuring out the back-door way to fulfill the larger mission.
FWIW, for my Golarion-set game, I use...
golar ==> cp
lunar ==> sp
solar ==> gp
stellar => pp
I find that these are fairly easy to remember.
And at one time, I loved the idea of a standard for coins that at least came closer to a RL medieval or Renaissance standard. Right up until I read an article that Steve Jackson wrote about medieval currency, where he said something to the effect of...
If you want a game where you can carry literally a king's ransom in a backpack, use historical values for money.
He wasn't advocating one standard or the other, mind you. Just pointing out that players' expectations have been spoiled, and they're not prone to be impressed when a recent patron hands each PC literally a handful of gold coins for their troubles. Even though the PCs themselves should be!
{EtA:} Rather than finding a metal to use below copper, I've broken the copper coins into quarters: 1/4 of a golar or whatever is a "bit."
My intro on coins:
In case this sparks something for another GM, this is what I told my players on coins:
Coins in Varisia typically were minted in the dwarven stronghold of Janderhoff. While one sees Chelish coinage as well, it’s more suspect of being debased. (The Varisian terms for types of coins -— such as solar -— are used for both mints.) The dwarves mark the front sides of their coins with Torag’s symbol, a dwarven hammer at rest, and the reverse side of copper coins with a mountain (golars), of silver coins with a crescent moon (lunars), of gold coins with a radiant sun (solars), and of platinum coins with a pentacle (stellars).
We’re used to having the size of a coin demonstrate its worth, but here it’s reversed: golars are roughly the size of a quarter, lunars the size of a nickel, and solars the size of a penny. Stellars are significantly thinner and smaller than a penny!
And that host kept all the Nereids and Satyrs to itself- tha' cadful scoundrel. ;p
@bitter lily: Heh, why to have a horde of hoards of free swag, of course. :)
Well, that and... ** spoiler omitted **
In actuality, it be this ingrained habit to points out all that wonderful free swag from Paizo; from there... third-party free stuffs; and now, homebrewed free things (mostly downloadable...) also gets lumped in there. :)
<grin> Thanks! And yes, shockingly bad form to leave your own party going and depart with the pretty girls... and boys!
I was wondering; if anyone or someone be willing to come up with some background stories for this character. The GM is allowing me to start with a specially made melee weapon. basically like the Greatsword,but with a 2d6 (19-20 x3) crit modifier instead. Also I spent 300 gp to make the weapon MWK.
I've add these to the character:
Homeland: Unusal (Moiuntains),
Parents are still alive,
She is the 1st of the 5 biological siblings,
Circumstance of birth: Heir to a Legacy,
Parent’s Profession: Artisans,
Nobility: Regent,
Major Childhood Event: The War,
Barbarian Backgrounds: Champion of a God,
Conflicts: Destruction,
Conflict Subject: Gangster or Underworld Figure,
Motivation: Love,
Romantic Relationships: One Significant Relationship,
Relationship With Fellow Adventurer: Friend of a Friend,
Character Drawback: Safety of Security,
I'm riffing in a different direction. There was a war & destruction in her past, leaving her family nobility but also artisans. (I'm wantonly dispensing with regent.) And she is heir to a legacy.
Hmmm, sounds like a bitter usurpation to me, whether national or local. In any case, her parents got dispossessed of their home & fortune, and forced to go to work as humble weaponsmiths. Since they are dwarves, of course, humble isn't exactly humble, and her parents designed a unique and powerful weapon, gifting their eldest daughter with a masterwork version as her only inheritance. (Until she can regain the noble status due her as her parents' eldest, that is.) She's motivated by genuine love for her family, even though she cannot be obedient, as they are, to the laws that the new but unjust ruler/noble is imposing. Her rebellion led to trouble for her family, so she has left home. She'll never forget that her parents trusted the person who dispossessed them! Evidently, this person is nasty and connected to the underworld in some way, and may have strings out even now to hunt her down. She has only two reasons to hope that she can find a way to right this terrible wrong -- her faith in Torag, and her new-found friends in the party.
Magic Missile doesn't have an electricity descriptor, it won't benefit from the bloodline.
But if you change it to electricity damage with the elemental spell feat, doesn't it gain the electricity descriptor?
No, which is the mistake I made earlier in this thread, too -- and then caught. And houseruling that Elemental Spell changes the descriptor as well as the damage opens up Rimed Elemental (cold) Fireballs, which would be terribly nasty. See my post here for quotes.
Racism is having expectations about someone based on their race. And expectations aren't conscious. They filter into a story through cracks & crannies in your design process, unless you consciously give the story a good once-over. It's the air every single human raised in the US breathes, regardless of what race we have. At least, I contend that minorities are racists, too, and not just towards other minorities. Having expectations of a white person based on the color of their skin is racism, too.
The first and easiest expectation to have is that people of a different race aren't around. Just as it's easy to say, "I'm not sexist," and still design a society where all of the important people are male -- because men tend to take over in our cultural expectations. Similarly, white people tend to write stories about science-fiction futures or fantasy worlds where everyone is white. It was racism when Lucas gave all of the good roles in Star Wars: A New Hope to whites, and had to scrape together something decent for a black man in The Empire Strikes Back. (I still hate it that Lando starts out a minor villain, and is backgrounded as a hero.) I honor Paizo for attempting a world where humans of different races can be found, but all so naturally, most of their material focuses on the places where Caucasian (err, Taldan) people live.
{EtA: But then you go to the next step, and look at someone and assume you know something about them because you can see their race.} When I dated a black man many, many moons ago, I as a white woman had to acknowledge my racism. I didn't dump him, no, but I did have to confront inner expectations & feelings about him based solely on his race. I didn't act on my racism, I didn't tell him he was inferior to me, I didn't want to be racist. I just was. And am. In fact, over the years since we did break up (for other reasons), I know I've become more racist. I deplore it, but the best I can do is to acknowledge it and try to avoid pandering to it in my fantasy. And to commend people who genuinely want to avoid incorporating theirs into a campaign world.
TL;DR Worrying about whether a campaign world incorporates racism is a perfectly reasonable step to take when the designer grew up in our saturated-with-racism world.
The next step for the OP, therefore, is to make all of these races & cultures multi-faceted; to find ways that they're each admirable and other ways where they're regrettable. The thing is, D&D gets away without taking that next step by changing the race of their "monsters." Monsters are ugly and nasty and irredeemable, donja know? Worth killing at first sight. Racism is HUGE here in D&D-land.
In this new world, the OP's world, they should have good points. And there sure should be some goblin babies to be encountered.
I've had the joy of finding out that the Power Word system is extremely powerful for a spontaneous caster, but I'm confident it's horribly clunky for a prepared one. So I hope rune-smithing works better.
But if you come back to Power Word magic, I'd allow your rune-blade to cut runes spontaneously. Or at least, to prepare a bunch of runes, including meta-words, ahead of time as separate runes, and then combine them spontaneously. (You'll have to come up with a limit for how many meta-runes they could prepare ahead of time -- those are where the system takes off and flies high.)
My blaster sorceress doesn't get to one-shot very often. I play with a big party, so I don't mind. To comfort myself, I look at how much damage I do total per round (adding up all the damage for AoE spells), not how many foes I kill per round. It's not how most people on the boards define effectiveness, I know, but honestly, this approach makes for more fun for the other players, who get to kill something I've wounded. Especially since you want combats to take multiple rounds and give everyone a chance to pile on. (A goal I'm sympathetic with when I put on my GM hat, btw.)
That said, I've ruefully learned a LOT since coming to the boards. There's some fabulous blaster guides on this board that you really need to consult. I had a lot of consternation when I read them, because I'd built my already-10th-level half-orc sorceress very inefficiently -- she has focused on fire spells, since that's her FCB and she's got an Ifrit bloodline. Ooops! All I could do was get Elemental (cold & acid) rods.
Your player can retrain now, though, and do it right. He needs the feat Elemental Spell (electricity) and a NON-electricity blasting spell per spell level -- especially Fireball. That will give him the flexibility to deal with foes not conveniently lined up or who have resistance to electricity (by not converting). Selective Spell is IMHO a must feat, too. Speaking as a GM, I don't care for the Magical Lineage trait, to be honest, but since you're so concerned, you should probably allow it in his retraining -- for Fireball! Or should I say, Voltage-ball? :)
And then you get to rods for other metamagic feats like Maximize Spell to boost the damage. (Note: Maximize Spell and a lot of other metamagic feats are IMHO not worth learning as feats, but are great as rods.) A Selective Lightning Bolt -- or Selective Voltage-ball -- given Empower or Maximize via a rod is potentially very near. That should one-shot an awful lot of mooks, even with your houserules as is. (If you want to help him out with a new houserule, simply get rid of the silly full-round action for meta-magic that sorcerers face, even with rods.)
Once he starts pulling all of this together (VSN), he should be holding his own as a blaster. But honestly, he does need a variety of spells he can draw on. He certainly needs the Dex & spells to be able to do single-target blasting -- Scorching Ray is I believe the best, after conversion to electricity, of course. And he absolutely has to start considering spells that don't involve SR -- spells that do acid damage, or physical, or that do a non-damaging effect. And then we have to indeed include some battlefield control. Wall of Current (err, Fire) is a great spell for him to look forward to, but he also needs at minimum a Fog & Pit spell in his repertoire. Really. Tell him that a half-orc mad for FIRE told him so. :)
PS: As for wands, the problem is that only wands for spells he can cast before battle are going to have an effective action economy. And Fireball is a complete waste as a wand, since he needs to manipulate it with metamagic. (To deal with action economy for all of the metamagic rods my blasty sorceress just bought, she also took Quick Draw and bought a Scabbard of Many Blades. It would be nice if you allow an Efficient Quiver to do the same things.)
TL;DR: I don't think that you have to change your houserules, beyond maybe a minor addition or two. You certainly seem to need to give your player some guidance in retraining to create a great Blue Dragon sorcerer, but I'm convinced that it can be done. And if he looks weak in action, suggest that your player add up all of the damage he just did in an AoE spell, to cheer you both up!
I love racial FCBs, but I have to admit, it's power-creep. I've looked at race/class combos and rejected them purely because I didn't like the FCB. And when there isn't a racial FCB even specified, it's downright disappointing. Having the choice of only 1 HP or 1 skill rank just isn't fun, even if you end up picking one of those.
It would be simplest if when designing a new race X, they put in a statement that said something like, "An X is most like a Y when it comes to Favored Class Bonuses. However, an X has a unique approach to the following classes..."
Meaning, "Here's our specified FCBs for this new race X; otherwise, use the ones for Core race Y." Although, come to think of it, there's nothing stopping a GM in a home campaign (not PFS) from figuring out a specific Core race to use as a fill-in for a sparsely-specified race that a player has an interest in.
I am not as worried about the additional DPR. The player that would have this is more likely to place a Fortune hex on an ally or Evil Eye an enemy than he is to cast more damage on the enemy.
Meaning that the enemy would be stuck staring helplessly upwards as the eagles dive-bombed.
Btw, if we're going higher level, are we still limited to suicidal eagles? Why not... something more suitable? I want to see numbers on a 7th-level Roc! Both what a falling roc would realistically do in damage (and 2d6 for a mere eagle really is persuasive, you know), and whether it would survive. Just imagine a repeat-action bomber!
But then, if you're going with a 6th-level spell, why not simply suggest Cone of Cold?
So what are folks thinking, now? That the eagles have to be summoned on the ground/clifftop/etc. and spend any necessary time getting to 200 ft up before they can dive-bomb?
And why a CMB? Which maneuver? Why not a simple ranged-touch attack? (At that -12.) After all, if the eagle simply touches the target, their weight gets dropped on said target. Either way, the ground gets dropped on the eagle, poor thing, but it may have urgent personal business to get back to.
{PS: I'm voting for good or evil eagles. Well, celestial or infernal eagles, or any others you can dredge up from other planes. Doing this with truly commanded-to-suicide eagles is a heinous act in my eyes, although let me hasten to add that I'm not necessarily talking about mandatory alignment shifts.}
Forgive me for sounding so curmudgeonly, but I'm sitting here on the sidelines figuring out GM-craft on a bad day (personal stuff).
@ bold...exactly,even eagles have business to attend to,it ain't just all flying.
I am uninterested in taking a side on whether this would be an Evil act or not. The summoned creature does not actually die so suicide is not actually real.
I like what I'm seeing about the damage done being just 2d6. It makes me a lot less itchy to figure out the rest.
But I am curious, nonetheless: Do the birds have to be summoned "at rest" and take to the air, or can they be summoned up high? And if birds can be, why not an oliphant?
Secondly, why would ordinary eagles not die the true death in this maneuver? Am I remember 3.5 stuff that material creatures that die while summoned just die? (That's why I voted for celestial/infernal versions, you see.) Did PF change this?
So what are folks thinking, now? That the eagles have to be summoned on the ground/clifftop/etc. and spend any necessary time getting to 200 ft up before they can dive-bomb?
And why a CMB? Which maneuver? Why not a simple ranged-touch attack? (At that -12.) After all, if the eagle simply touches the target, their weight gets dropped on said target. Either way, the ground gets dropped on the eagle, poor thing, but it may have urgent personal business to get back to.
{PS: I'm voting for good or evil eagles. Well, celestial or infernal eagles, or any others you can dredge up from other planes. Doing this with truly commanded-to-suicide eagles is a heinous act in my eyes, although let me hasten to add that I'm not necessarily talking about mandatory alignment shifts.}
Forgive me for sounding so curmudgeonly, but I'm sitting here on the sidelines figuring out GM-craft on a bad day (personal stuff).
I WANT my players to learn Knowledges, and I suppose Appraise fits under that umbrella. I try hard to reward them if they put ranks in one. And yeah, I insist on rolls.
But I have come to greatly appreciate the Background Skills option from Pathfinder Unchained. The option gives everyone an extra 2 ranks/level to put into the skills that are least likely to absorb precious ranks from classes. I've seen good stuff coming from the option so far.
I fiddled with Unchained's list, I admit:
> adding Climb, Knowledge (local), Ride, and Swim;
> removing Perform and Sleight-of-Hand as too class-oriented. (I don't mind SoH so much, but Bards can do really impressive stuff with Perform!)
And yes, Appraise is on the RAW Background Skills list, for obvious reasons.
So my rec to the OP would be to run over and check it out, and consider implementing it retro-actively if the party isn't of too high a level. While announcing that a bonus of at least +8 in Appraise would be a very useful thing to eliminate tedium! (On the theory that someone could provide a +2 from Aid Another.)
Midnight Anarch, I feel for you, since this is apparently not a theoretical discussion but a "how do I keep my player from taking over my game" discussion. What did you think of my Int mod of -5 proposal?
I'm trying to come up with a monster that doesn't exist in the Bestiary index. At lowish levels. I've got a draft, but something needs fixing...
Drawn Curtain:
Ferny Bloodsucker -- CR 6 This appears to be an odd garden of moss, ferns, and spongy growths.
XP 2,400
N Gargantuan plant
Init –2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +9
< Defense >
AC 13, touch 4, flat-footed 13 (–2 Dex, +9 natural, –4 size)
HP 59 (7d8+28); fast healing 5
Fort +9, Ref +3, Will +5
CMD 29 (can't be tripped)
DR 5/magic; Immunities amorphous, plant traits
< Offense >
Speed 5 ft
Melee 4 tentacles +17 (1d8+12 B)
CMB +21 (+4 on grapples; 2 tentacles necessary)
Space 20 ft (5 ft tall); Reach 10 ft
Special Attacks blood drain (1d2 Con) + distraction (DC 17)
< Statistics >
Str 34, Dex 6, Con 18, Int 3, Wis 8, Cha 3
Base Atk +5; CMB +21; CMD 29
Feats Improved Grapple [and 3 more]
Skills Perception +9
Languages [any one] (cannot speak)
< Special Abilities >
Amorphous (Ex) Immune to critical hits, flanking, or additional damage from precision-based attacks.
Blood Drain (Ex) Drains blood at the end of its turn if it grapples a foe -- inflicting 1d2 Con damage and causing targets that fail a DC 17 Fortitude check to be nauseated for 1 round (Distraction).
< Explanation & Questions >
What I want is a monster that can easily be avoided or run away from -- unless you happen to need to get to the other side of its room, when it should become a nasty hazard.
The AC is really low, but then it's got other defenses. Hopefully it balances out correctly?? The Con is lower than base for the size, too, which leads to lower HP, in deference to the fast healing 5.
I want the high CMB & CMD, but the melee attack bonus & damage (even after arbitrarily reducing the size of the tentacles one step) are way too high. (And given that there are no other melee/ranged attacks, tentacles do apparently count as primary.) What to do?
At least without a grab ability the ferny bloodsucker has to pick between slamming and draining for each pair of tentacles. Yes, I want my monster to be able to grapple two foes, but is blood-draining and nauseating them both too OP?
I'm picturing medium-size characters or smaller as moving among the foliage of this creature, just as they would hack their way through foliage in general. What do I need to allow this?
I've put together the concept of a unique item to be offered the PCs as loot, based largely on inspiration from folks in the Jade Regent thread. My version, however, calls for chapters of magnificently bombastic arcane or philosophical meanderings, each followed by utterly absurd metaphysical exercises. (Except that the final chapter consists only of blank pages.) The players will get the following explanation:
GM wrote:
Despite the absurdity of the prose, you each do feel drawn to read a different, specific chapter -- other than the final one on Universal. Please choose a unique chapter now. Let me know if you do study your chapter; it will take 24 hours in increments of 4 to 8 hours a day to master the material. And if you ever choose to read a second chapter, by all means let me know!
Top Secret Key to the Book, for non-players only:
PCs who study a chapter will gain a bonus feat of their choice, from within a specific category related in concept to the school of magic that the chapter theoretically concerns. In other words, each chapter's category of feats should benefit a PC of any class. (Even if some would be of greater benefit to a given character than others.) The feat chosen may not have another feat as a prerequisite and the character must meet all prerequisites by their next level-up at latest.
Fine Print: The GM rules on whether a particular feat fits a chapter’s category and may rule out some feats arbitrarily, specifically including metamagic feats that boost the spell level by more than 1. PCs who try to study an unread chapter after even starting on a different one must make a Will DC 30 save or find themselves permanently drained of one level--while not benefiting from a second bonus feat. (Restoration will restore the level, as usual.)
Feat categories:
Abjuration ------ Defense
Conjuration ----- Skill Focus for 1 physical skill (any Dex or Str)
Divination ------- Skill Focus for 1 knowledge skill (any Int)
Enchantment --- Skill Focus for 1 interaction skill (any Cha or Wis)
Evocation ------- Class ability
Illusion ---------- Dice roll bonus or reroll (no saves or skill bonuses)
Necromancy ----- Damage (melee, ranged, or spell)
Transmutation -- Statistics (a save, movement, etc)
Universal -------- N/A (This will eventually offer an advanced bonus feat in the same category as the first.)
I'd appreciate, first of all, SPOILERED comments on the feat categories I've got. (The players shouldn't know what the chapters will teach until the PCs have all chosen a chapter.)
Secondly, I don't know what the book will radiate: Strong Universal???
I also would like some help on meeting the high (or low, depending on your point of view!) standard of "magnificently bombastic arcane or philosophical meanderings." Fortunately, I'm only writing two snippets from the Prologue, and the diverse chapter titles. I believe I could put these in the clear, but I'm spoilering them anyway, just to save on screen space. I'm really wordy, but this is bombastic, remember? :)
Wordsmith forge:
The prologue reads, in part, “The deepest mysteries of magic are subjacent to the elven soul at its basest roots -- indeed, not just the elven soul, but the sentient soul. One need not cast magic in its conspicuous form -- its many forms, that is, each a distinct fragment divorced from the solitary all -- to be able to work it upon the world. For the proof of that, one need only watch an innocent child at play, creating a unique world never to be glimpsed again, yet discovered in the depths of a simple toy; or else listen to a couple quarreling bitterly, lacerating both of their worlds with pain and shame, even as they seek greater weapons in the merest mist of words with which to ravage the other; or in fact witness this very philosopher as he humbly pens this brief and inadequate treatise.…” [A margin note reads, ‘This copy has been penned by a far humbler translator, who merely transmits the magic of the lost ages, and is responsible for none of it.’ Despite both claims, of course, the copy detects as quite magical.]
“… Nonetheless, to expose what is subjacent to the soul is to bend it ever so slightly, to twist it toward a greater light, certainly, but still, to create in that soul a specific helix that abounds with power. Returning to gain more power is ever so attractive, undoubtedly, but nonetheless a danger that the humble author, who has pondered these mysteries so deeply, who has delved into them with abandon, who has stripped his soul bare in order to explore the veriest roots of being in the solitary all, must warn the gentle reader against. He must beg the reader, above all, no matter how his prose moves the reader to explore the full volume of his research, not to read more than the tiniest whole contained within that volume, being a single chapter. Indeed, the humble philosopher who will act as the reader’s guide in exploring what is subjacent to his soul has provided a full treatise only in the hopes that his poor research will draw the attention of many readers, each of whom will undoubtedly be directed by his inner being to the mystery most pertinent to that reader’s deepest need, his greatest drive, the thirstiest sink in the basest roots of his being. It must be said, in short, that reading more than a single chapter of this book -- most fortunately, not including this very prologue that falls upon the reader’s eye at the moment of reading this warning -- is to be considered a danger to one’s sanity. Even so, the author of this work must beg the reader to persist in plunging into the solitary all for the space of that one chapter that will offer that reader the best glimpse of true magic, if only to contrast it with the shabby trappings of it found all too often in this world.”
Proposed chapter titles:
On stepping subjacent, not aside: Abjuration
On finding the plenitude in the solitary all: Conjuration
On envisioning what is ere it becomes: Divination
On how the solitary all is subjacent to all: Enchantment
On when the meaning of ‘is’ is too fleeting for being: Evocation
On when what is is what is not: Illusion
On detaching another from the solitary all: Necromancy
On seeing your subjacent face in the glass: Transmutation
On finding all in the solitary, and the solitary in all: Universal (blank)
I especially would like help on the chapter titles.
Thanks so much for making this item even more memorable!
On the Winter's Gatehouse landscape: I wanted to explain the point of some of my changes. It seemed obvious that the pock-marks in the snow bottom right were from the watchtower, which meant that the PCs had arrive down there. Obviously, I didn't want them to just climb some steps on that side of the ice-fall and arrive at the cabin directly. OTOH, there had to be a way for planned traffic to get from the pocked area to the cabin. This necessitated two ways to cross the river, one below the cliff and one above it, and the stairs. I do feel strongly that some consideration as to how locals come and go should be made.
The 20 feet of snow up top were simply to give my nasties a place to pop up from -- and to give my ever-so-practical privy a place to drain into! I don't even know how easy it is to represent such a thing artistically.
The curtain of mist around the edges of the place would only be necessary if this map is being used for a demi-plane, and even then I wanted more territory available on the right & top off-map, so really just on the left and bottom, to convey the sense of a bounded reality.
Changing the indoor map to provide supports for a loft were to give me room for more than one defender indoors. (Plus, of course, my pre-established plot had the PCs looking for two villainesses.) I feel like it adds a lot of functionality for anyone. (OTOH, the privy is, of course, completely frivolous as changes go.)
The Unicorn eating comeuppance has not come up yet. The PCs have finished the Unicorn side adventure and moved on in the campaign with that sword hanging over their heads. But I expect they will find out quite soon
As I recall, only one PC was actually un-queasy enough to munch on the barbecue. It will be interesting to find out if the comeuppance comes up for only the one PC, or for all of the confederates, too...
We're still working our way through the Winter's Gatehouse landscape LOL -- I'm sorry I panicked about needing the Hag Cabin interior so early! But the map you created has worked very, very well for us. I wanted to post a description of the game in a couple of weeks, but this is too good of a prompt to ignore! :) I'm bolding parts where I tweaked the map as we played. (This was btw easier for me to do for this game than it might have been; one of the players has to play long-distance over the phone, and I decided not to send her the map ahead of time. In short, I was using it as my prompt for describing the area, rather than simply putting it down in front of the players.)
Approach to the Winter's Gatehouse:
This part of the adventure started when the party decided against sneaking in after fighting the frost drake guarding the gate to the demi-plane they needed to reach. Instead they arranged for a remote conference with the Queen of Ice and Darkness (a minor goddess) and made an agreement that included getting Her to gate them in with Her leave. So She communicated telepathically with all of Her loyal (sentient) subjects in the demesne, and told them not to hinder the party. OTOH, Her idea of gating someone into the Plane of Winter involves a blizzard doing 4d6 cold damage! This was especially troublesome because they had had a difficult day before they faced the conversation (funny, that), and had exhausted all of their spell-casting. (A wand of Cure Light would have been very helpful, but this is a low level party.)
I had the party arrive in the area in the lower right; the McGuffin they're seeking is, naturally, in the hut in the upper right. I stressed how bitterly cold it was; 30 degrees below 0, Farenheit! The party looked up at the stars in a moonless sky, and decided to camp till morning. As I've rewritten heatstones (an alchemical item), they can provide up to 60 degrees warming for 8 hours, but only in an enclosed space. So the players got to describe how they were creating a shelter, etc. Naturally, a pack of dire wolves attacked during their rest. (They had people on watch, but there's not a lot you can see from the slit of a tent.) They fought the lupines off, but noticed something dire: the stars hadn't moved. The sun doesn't rise and time doesn't pass in the home of the Queen of Ice and Darkness! The good news is that because of their agreement with Her Majesty, the yeti manning the watchtower weren't peppering them all night with giant boulders from the twin, large-sized catapults on the watchtower roof.
Once they had rested enough to regain their spells, the party walked to the river on the map. I said that the cliff bisecting the upper section from the lower (geographically as well as cartographically) one is 100-feet tall. And that the river flowing from the north and spilling down the cliff is not a river of water at all, but a river of flowing ice splinters that tinkle and chime musically, 35-feet wide. (Obviously, a feature of a deeply magical landscape!) The players quickly assessed the ice river as deadly to try to ford or swim. (Especially with the wider size, which would be more than a single move action to cross.) And yet the giant-sized stairs up to the upper area, naturally, were alongside the ice-fall -- next to the watchtower, across the river. So how to cross?
Well, I was by now wondering the same thing LOL! After all, yeti serving the Snow Queen come and go from the pocked area regularly. Hmmm. So I moved the watchtower closer to the river and oriented it parallel to the bank. It functions not just as a platform for the catapults, you see, but also as a drawbridge tower. Since two characters had limited flight for the day, they crossed in that manner and talked to the yeti on the tower. A bit of negotiation later, the drawbridge was down, and the barbarian got some help with the last stage of pulling the two dire wolf carcasses from the party's camping spot to the tower.
Now the stairs were fairly treacherous: slick steps on two-foot tall risers. The smallest members of the party, fortunately, were the ones with the limited flight capability, so they flew up top and buried themselves in the snow up there to escape detection. The other two, between their equipment and their Climbing ability, were able to make the trip without incident. I told them that the last 20 feet were climbing up a solid hill of snow. (That is, the cabin on the map is resting above 20 feet of snow.) Once reunited, the party was exhausted and hungry and ready for another night's rest. Eager for a peaceful shelter from the cold, they very nearly headed to the cabin I mentioned that they could see across the river!
I had a bit of a mental conniption, but once I thoroughly described its size and stonework architecture, the players realized that the "cabin" must be the Gatehouse. To confirm this suspicion, two ice trolls came into view, saw them, and opened the door to the cabin to report. There was a bit of an obvious argument, and in the end, the ice trolls apparently went off to patrol behind the cabin, where the fairy-tale ice palace of the Queen of Ice and Darkness lies. (They left thanks to their mental orders from Her Majesty, of course. If the party had been purely intruders...)
So the party went the other way, to the left on the map. They quickly came to an area of dense, icy mist. Deducing (correctly!) that this might be the boundary of the demi-plane, and that penetrating it might be very BAD, they decided they were far enough out of view of the cabin that they could afford to dig a burrow in the snow. And so the party has rested and regained spells, and are ready to dare the Gatehouse's defenses!
First they will have to cross the 5-foot-wide bridge that I've stationed over the ice river running 20 feet below. (Remember, there's a 20-foot-deep bank of snow up here.) The bridge is treacherously narrow for the Snow Queen's yeti & ice troll servants, but should be manageable for small- and medium-sized creatures. Except, of course, that the winter hag will have summoned ice mephits, and made sure her mist drake "pet" is on the scene. When the party gains the bank in front of the cabin, the ice elementals buried into the snow will emerge.
Indoors, it's "just" the winter hag, her changeling daughter, and her winter wolf (warg) companion. For a 6th-level party, it should be intense! Btw, the big change I've mentally made to the indoor map was to position a support pole for a loft to the immediate left of the fireplace, with another of course in that far corner; then 20 feet down from those I've imagined another pair, creating a 10x20-foot loft. A ladder leans against the loft's edge in the square immediately next to the door. Well, having a practical eye, I also wanted an indoor privy in this wintry plane, so I'm converting the chest in the lower left corner to a wooden seat with a black-colored hole in the middle. There's no privacy except for the storage room itself, of course. And only a bucket of water hanging on the rack in there to use to wash your hands afterwards. (Toilet paper? Uh, no, there isn't a Sears Roebuck catalog in the universe yet.) Still, a lot more luxurious than it might be...
I adore the map; despite all the changes I ended up making, it really made the adventure pop! I mean, I wouldn't have come up with even half of this demesne without it. Thank you soooo much!
I have just one tiny complaint: a technical one, actually. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to print your graphics. For this game, verbal description (based on memory and consulting the computer screen) was good enough, especially given the mental editing I did. But I'd like a print-out for my file. And I'd really like a print-out of the Bellflower map, too! And probably others, as well. You do such great work, Saint Caleth.
If I go into the image and click on the printer icon, I quickly get an "Error - Printing" message in the printer control panel. Might that be a memory issue??? So I've tried using Snipping Tool to grab pieces of the graphic and save them to disk (as PNG images), and then print those. That just hangs there. It never resolves as an error or anything, but it also never prints. Frustrating!
