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We are talking about Racism in a game where Orcs are killed on site, Goblins are all thought to be crazy psychopath, and a Demon will be robbed and killed just because?

Try Harbor Freight, you would be amazed at what you can get there at times.

+1 To all saving throws if you buy the GM pizza.

One thing I don't like is dire weapons and the Dire flail in particular . I have practice with both Nunchuks and the three section staff and can point out you do hit yourself when you use them. Put two spike pointy ball on both end of a stick with chains attached is more of a messy way to commit suicide and take your friends with you then then an effective fighting weapon.

1) Buy a copy of "Becoming a Lich for Dummies".
2) Ordering your copy of "Becoming a lich for Dummies" from Amazon.com istead of supporting your local bookstore is in itself unspeakable Evil enough to become a Lich.

First a Fighter should not need to spend feats and have to have a magic bow to hit a monster. They are a full BAB class. And running flying Monster whose BAB so high that a fighter cannot hope to hit it with a Bow is the same as running a flying monster with so much magic resistance that he will bounce all spells and make Arcane classes useless. And at these levels a fighter and other martial should have magic bows, or Javelins of Lighting, or Dwarf throwing hammers, Or a way to fly. That the way the game is designed to be played. Heck fighters have enough feats that its nothing to spend one just to be able to use a black powder weapons.
I might point out I like fighters, and play them often with no big problems. but before you say fighters need X, think about how is X is going to work out on a fully buffed well equipped fighter.

Ancient Hebrew word for Witch can also be translated as Poisoner. So verse can be translated as Suffer not a Poisoner to live. Translating something from one language to other often leads to confusion.

I hate that despite a gazillion pages of rules, there no facing in Pathfinder. We have house rules for facing and it makes the rogue class very dangerous and improves the monk quiet a bit.

First Martial are pretty much about gear at higher levels. At 10 level and higher your fighter should have a golf bag full of weapons and have as many potions as Bevo has wine. So if that dragon is out of melee range just grab your bow of speed and your dragon slaying arrows. Problem solved.
Also best way to counter Arcane caster is is don't play intelligent bad guys as if they never heard of magic, which many GM seem to do , and have your bad guys bring their own casters or monster that have spell like abilities. I tend to run lots of Drow/cultist as villains. And if your arcane/Martial don't co operate , well my monster do and a group of Arcane/Martial working as A TEAM will defeat a more powerful group which do not co operate as a team. An Arcane running by themselves after a retreating Drow Priestess is going to have a messy death. Or if an evil Wizard cast haste on his gargoyle minion and orders him to attack the squishy types in the back rank , your fighter better be ready and able to intercept.

Im proud of the fact I can roll three 1"s in a roll. Yes I toss the flask of Burning oil , On the mule, that belong to the Gunslinger, which was carrying supplies of blackpowder to the garrison at the pass.

Well if an adventurer is successful, he/she will have enough money that his/her children can work at nice safe jobs like as a wealthy merchant. If an adventurer is not successful, well its hard to have children when you are monster chow.
Might say one of the character in my current game is a half elf fey sorcerer whose Dad is a retired human Ranger and Mother is a Dryad.

Ventnor wrote:

If you're going to have aberrations and dinosaurs as a theme, I cannot recommend throwing in a Horrorsaurus highly enough.

My bad post above yours.

at my local dollar store I picked up a number of skeleton dinosaurs awhile back. Why use a gnome skeleton for your undead when you can use a T Rex.

Eltacolibre wrote:

Dinosaurs + templates = your players mind blown. Priceless.

Cool idea. Dinosaurs from the lower planes with the Fiendish Template sounds fun. I could see Devils/Demons/Daemons bringing them to the material plane in preparation for an attack on the surface.

Or maybe the dino's on that world always were Fiendish and these are the last remnants. Maybe millions of years earlier the evil dino's on the surface were wiped out by an Angelic army rather than an asteroid.

Well If I remember right they where large size but not overly strong for their size( Heroes could beat them down easy in hand to hand combat) They where said to be very intelligent and had telepathy but where also deaf. And like most pulp bad guys lacked common sense.

This has never been a problem in our game because we use Nurture over Nature and Goblin and other can be raised not to be psycho.
To me Goblinoids are like Danish Vikings. The Danish Viking where evil as people come, as they Murdered, raped, enslaved and pillage people had never harmed them and in some cases never even knew who they where, just because they where stronger and meaner.But where the Danes evil by nature? No today Denmark is a peaceful friendly country.

People who think its a good idea to set off traps by just walking in to them has never seen Grimtooth traps.

You know your gm is out to get your party when he asks 'have you guys ever heard of grimtooth?'

which one? I believe there was three written.

You know the GM out to get your Oracle with clouded vision when he sends horse nomads with flight arrows on an open plain against you

To me there something more Heroic and interesting about some one who is surrounded by evil but decides to do the good and right thing despite those around them pushing them to be evil too. Lets face it evil is easy and the rewards for being bad are quick, while the rewards for doing the right thing often are long in coming.
And if human elves , Dwarves etc can be evil, why not have Drow, Orcs and Goblins be good?

Now, Pirates, that's an entirely different kettle of fish

here some unflattering facts about real pirates.

And who say bandits have to be the bad guys anyway.
We all I sure know of the Story of Robin Hood I bet. A good movie I a few years back was the the Bandit Queen, based on a real Indian woman.who when she went to the Police to report some high caste men where bothering her including grabbing her in public, was arrest and raped by the police and and when released became a bandit as revenge. She was later pardon and became a member of the Indian congress.
so you have a family kicked off the land they farmed for generations because the daughter refuses to become the mistress of the local Baron and turn to banditry to survive. How does your lawful Good players handle that?

How to have high level bandits ? Easy Couple of ways. After the English Civil war many Royalist officers took to banditry, as having fought for the losing side, they where outlaws with no legal way to make a living and became Highwaymen. Both Rob Roy and Jesse James are other examples of people who fought for the losing side and turned to banditry after their side lost.
Or some one could be outlawed for some other reason. A powerful Sorceress lover dies. Did she murder him as the local sheriff says or was it a tragic accident as she maintains. Either way she has turned to banditry to support herself.
Also many of the larger and more successful Bandit group work more by extortion then by mugging, setting up illegal toll booth and charging a fee to use their roads. perhaps the local merchants even support such a bandit group because they keep the roads safe while the local Lord is too much of a fop to do so. Might point out the Ming Dynasty of China started out as such a bandit group and grew large enough to rule all of China.
And of course there always Bandits as Nationlist /Freedom fighters/ oppressed minorities .

Here's a question for you. Imagine that you are up against a rival party consisting of two fighters, a wizard, a monk and a bard. Who would you attack first?

If the Bard is playing Kenny G he dies first, even if I have to take an AOO from a T Rex, a Grave Knight ,a Cloud giant and a horde of Orcs.

It makes little sense that anything smart enough to cause attacks of opportunity to go after an enemy in a dress instead of the big ugly armor-clad big guy in front of them. Unless he has a backup team, a backup plan, or some sort of contingency plan.

The guy in a dress could be a noble, a farmer, could be a woman.
You will expose yourself to danger (big melee guy) simply to get the chance of wounding the guy a in a dress. Congratulations, you are sentient.
You will accomplish nothing other than force the group to spend a few of their resources (healing potions or spells), which is a metagaming knowledge.

Most "creatures" arent simply stat blocks or miniatures in the hands of a hateful god (the gm), but actual living beings, that have desires, fears and things they hate. And unless they have some trauma against women, they shouldnt rush head in against mages or wizards.

If said creature has ranks in spellcraft, knowledge arcana or even knowledge religion, i would allow him to identify a "caster" instead of just "someone on a dress".

If you start metagaming like that against your players, you will see everybody on your group wearing robes in no time.

Well let me say this. This evening I have 4 tieflings I plan as the main event tonight.2 of the figures are in heavy armor, a third is wielding duel weapons and is In leather and the last is a scantily clad female with a bone staff. Now since the female tiefling could just be a bargirl along for the ride should I accuse my players of metagaming if they attack her first?

for those who dont know
One of the biggest users of Greatsword in History where the Landskenchtes, who used them mixed in units of Pole arms. So I can see the Great sword being classed as a pole arm

Does Gamera count as an animal companion?

That is what Hags are for.
Have him sleep with a Hag that is trying to get pregnant and then let the player know he has a changling daughter

Lets say a party comes across 4 drow. One is wearing plate and carrying a two handed sword, another has mace, is wearing chain and has a holy symbol on her shield, the third has two scimitars and is wearing leather and the last has a staff, a bat on his shoulder and is wearing everyday cloth.
Now who is the party going to try to turn into a pink cloud on turn one?
So should not the drow try the same thing if they get the drop on the party?

Diplo as stated only works if they understand you. Im a nasty and mean GM who owns 6 hippopotamus figures.Diplo does not work on a herd of irate hippos

I started Playing D&D way back in 1975.
And so far Pathfinder is the best version of the D20 system produced so far.
Is it perfect ? No there are still bugs that can be worked out.
Are Arcane caster too powerful? Maybe but the class balance if far better then in earlier edition where after 8th level most classes where just there to provide a cheering section to the Wizard.

Kthulhu wrote:

What this thread really proves is that a player can beat anything if his GM is spineless enough.

Yeah, it takes no spine to follow RAW. A GM with a spine is illiterate so he can't follow RAW. When players say, "but look at book", he laughs and says he can't read. Right?

For the really big bad guys book stats are just suggestion. And for this reason. No one should really know what the Stats on the big guys are, what their weakness is or what spells and abilities are. Should players really know x boss has resistance 30 against one attack 20 versus a second and zero versus another attack? How would a player know if Cthulhu int score was 30 or 31 or 35. Did some one give Cthulhu an IQ test and publish the results?

Always remember this. Any tactic players come up with this week CAN and should be used by the GM on the party next week.

Couple of problem with the explosive runes.
First is one of Cthulhu abilities is that he is non euclidran which means they have a 50% chance of missing. And since Explosive rune have to be placed near Cthulhu you are going to use magic to place the runes as I dont see anyone getting with in 10 feet of Cthulhu without a major beat down. And I would rule its an All or nothing. so either all your runes all hit or they all miss. And even then they will not be close enough that Cthulhu does not get a saving throw.
Also Cthulhu has an Int of 31 and has lived a long time so he should be played smart, not like a dimwitted Zombie. And he is a God to a host of nasty and powerful races, which means the FIRST time you knock Cthulhu down he going to be prepared for that trick the second time.How hard would it be for Cthulhu to get his minions to make a few tentacle rings to protect him from explosive runes. I would not be surprised if he has a few stuck in his sock drawer just in case.
Also 20 level characters are forces of Nature and the Big Bad guys are going to keep an eye on them. There a VERY GOOD chance on of Cthulhu minions will brief him on the favorite tactics and equipment of all 20 levels in the next 1000 miles

I have a Summoner I started and was thinking of a Fey Eidolon. this has given me an Idea. Having the Summoner and his Eidolon act like an Old Married couple. having the Eidolon say things like What you got soup on your shirt again, how am I supposed to wash it out here in the woods, and Not tonight Hun, my Back still hurts from being wacked by that Ogre.

As stated Fey are capriccious and have a sense of humour.. Have the Fey award the player with a Nice magic item that the Fey "borrowed" from an Evil cult who consider it a Holy Relic or a magic sword that a powerful Barbarian chief thinks is his are a couple of ways.

If you want to at legendary people, John Henry, Paul Buynan, Jack in Jack an the bean stalk,the woodsman in little red riding hood etc are example o fhigh level commoners.

James Jacobs wrote:

Nope. We actually don't have an iconic paladin. At least, the one we illustrated in the APG was never intended to be an iconic.

He's pretty much the Nameless Iconic by default. :) He'd be kind of hard to become part of the family, as the Iconics are supposed to get along and it looks like Seelah pretty much sent him to his just rewards.

Seelah sent him to New Jersey?

As far as using a Wizard to perform a Rogue job goes.
beside taking up a spell slot as mention before.
Most Spells have a VERBAL component.. Which means the bad guys will have a chance to hear you casting said spell unless you have taken silent casting feat.
And Detect magic is one of the easiest defenses to set up. Far easier then it is to detect a Rogue sneaking in. So going through some area with spells up is going to be like going through a metal detector wearing plate armour.

Been awhile since I played a Paladin.
But I been playing and having a Lawful good inquisitor
And while I have no problem burning some one evil at the stake, I have to find them doing a deed that calls for capital punishment first before I break out the barbeque. if I find out some one is evil I first have to try to redeem them and have them repent their ways and its hard to redeem some one after you cut off their head, unless you want to waste a rez spell. and being evil is in itself not illegal in most good area. its evil acts that are illegal.
If I detect evil on some one , I going to keep an eye on them, I might even let them know I am keeping eye on them, but until I catch them performing an illegal act I am not going to act
Another problem is many evils are lawful evils and for the most part you cannot kill them for just being evil.For example you could have a lawful evil merchant. He obeys the law but has no problem tossing a widow with 6 children out of their home in the middle of winter with not a bite to eat.. And while a chaotic good could play Robin Hood and rob him and hand the gold over to the widow, a Paladin going to have to sit back and fume .
Is there anything worse then a lawful evil with a good lawyer?

Agreed. I would also like the maps to show the trunks of trees instead of (or in addition to) the leafy canopy. While the leafy canopy looks great, its not as useful for combat.

As an example, the Woodlands map shows one huge dead tree trunk, but none of the trunks of the trees in the actual woods along the paths (you know, for use as cover).

I would even like to see a reprint of the Forest Map in the newer lighter colors (Like those of forest path, woodlands, swamp). Its a great "Go To" map, but its to dark to be generally useful.

Swamp is another great day-to-day map, and agree that it would make an excellent candidate for reprint.

Ancient forest map pack shows tree trucks( I think its one of the better packs)

Here the problem with using spells and magic items to help in social situations instead of skills.
NPC(Well at least mine) are not dumb and Know magic things exist.
using magic and magic items to get past the guard at the front gate, on a Tavern wench or the leader of a goblin scouting party , but if you need to borrow a Copy of the Book of Hidden Darkness from the local Monastery, and go in with a couple of spells and magic items to help you make your case , The Head Monk attitude is going to go from indifference to hostile and he is going to toss you out before you can say a word.
Try going in front of the local Count presence glowing of magic like a nuclear reactor with out his permission , and he going to send you to visit the Dungeon to see if you are a thief or a assassin.

Dont know if they have a skeletal Dragon, but Arion games has a wide variety of paper figures and the quality is good. You used to be able to pay for a custom figure if you where interested, dont know if that is still true.
http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=667
Might want to check out their free sample page.
http://www.arion-games.com/arg000.pdf

And as to the scantily glad females in gaming.
I really dont care much for them. First is the fact that I prefer to keep my games as realistic as possible.Yes, I know playing a game with multiton flying reptiles that breath fire lacks a lot in realism. but I prefer to keep the fantasy elements down to those needed to play the game. Traveling across a vast wilderness , with Poison ivy, thorns and monster, wearing a costume more suited for a honymoon night is not needed for game play.
the second is I taught my two daughters to game. having one of my Kids or nieces pick up one of the female figures and give me that eww look is something I can live with out.
I wont refuse to play with some one who brings a fighter that is dressed like Res Sonja to the table, but I will not buy them myself.

As far as the Evil races versus good thing goes.
When I started playing Runequest, I stop using the they are evil we are good mentality and never went back. in Runequest for those who never played it, there is no good evil alignment. The "bad guys" just have a different view point on how thing should work, which might include you being a good lunch.A troll in Runequest might eat humans, but then that trol will point out how is that any different then a Human eating a pig?
And in Pathfinder I run my Orcs and Goblins like Vikings and Mongols, which means they are not all that pleasant to have visit the local village, but they dont torture puppies and Kittens for no reason. And they can have a personal sense of honor, can show great kindness to their families, if you befriend one you can have a loyal ally.

Best way to handle players with too much money is go Medieval on them.
The local Count( Or King, church etc)comes asking for a loan. And of course telling the local power that be NO can lead to serious complication( Go check out What happen to the Knight Templers when they got too rich and refused to loan the King of France money)
And of course to pay you back for all that gold you lent the Count he is going makes you Lord, Of an Orc infested swamp where a local Hag thinks she the Boss.
Might point out in Ancient and Medieval society with wealth came responsibilities. For example wealthy merchants in Italy and the Cinque ports of England where required to pay for the outfitting and maintenance of a Warship in case their country needed to go to war.The wealthy guilds where also required to give the king money or provide troops for the King and pays for the City guard. And your Local wealthy adventurer, after being made Lord of Swampwater the Count informs you of your duty to have a hundred armed and equipt men at Arms and they need to be ready by Tuesday as the King is going to war.
And heads of Religions, Guild master of Thieves guild,your Old master who has fallen on hard times, family members, Clan Chieftains, The bar maid who announce she having your baby etc, can all drain a character of money if need be.

D4: A dice that when rolls off the table is lost until wife walk barefooted into Kitchen next morning.

As far as sling range goes
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the current record for the greatest distance achieved in hurling an object from a sling is: 477.10 m (1,565 ft 3 in), using a 127 cm (50 in) long sling and a 62 g (2.2 oz) dart. This was achieved by David Engvall at Baldwin Lake, California, USA on 13 September 1992. Those of a more traditional bent may prefer the Guinness record for slinging a stone: 437.10 m (1,434 ft 1 in), using a 129.5 cm (51.0 in) long sling and a 52 g (1.8 oz) ovoid stone, set by Larry Bray in Loa, Utah, USA on 21 August 1981.

As far as alchemical bullets go. Allowing a gunslingers musket ball to be hurled from a sling should be a fairly easy house rule as Musket balls are in fact a little lighter then sling stones. A cartridge for later guns might be a problem though.
Another house rule , and one that is historically accurate, would be to allow slingers to use larger size ammo at a reduced range( say -10 per size difference), instead of the usual -2 to hit . Many slinger would start off by using smaller sling bullets at long range and then switch to larger ones as the target got closer.. Some sling stones found in Spain weigh over a pound and I dont think I would want to get hit by one that size. The Balearic slingers, consider the best in the Ancient world, carried three different size sling, which they wore like headbands when not in use, and used sling stones from 2 oz, to the up to one pound.
It was said Rome did not pay the Balearic slings in silver but in wine and women.

One thing to remember is slings are simple weapons, which means almost everyone can use them, while bows are martial weapons.And in pathfinder Simple weapon are supposed to be inferior to martial weapons which are inferior to exotic weapons( Not always true I know)
In reality as some people as said the sling was a difficult weapon to master and should be an exotic weapon and a boost in its power.
Might point out during WWII, the Finns, who still use the sling for hunting, used slings to toss hand grenades and Molotov cocktails.
And for those who want to add more variety , The Romans used slighstone of heated clay to start fires, while the Persian where known to coat their sling bullet in pitch and light them before they where tossed.

Im with those who consider such action evil.
If they where a threat then he should have found another way to handle it besides mass murder.
Might state my Barbarian (Chaotic good) recently became Chief of an Orc Village that was raiding Human and elf settlements. he killed the Old Orc chief, a good number of his guards, declared himself the biggest meanest thing around and and thus chief and if anyone wants to dispute his claim they can join him in the fighting pit. Now he has the job of teaching his Orcs how to act in acceptable(Well to his barbarian standards) behavior.

Important point: lichdom is the only one of the methods for gaining immortality that can be done in a hurry. If you're a level 14 wizard and suddenly decide you don't want to die, how do you go hunt down 6 levels in a hurry to stave off death? Heck, you're likely to die while trying to gain that experience.

If you discover that you're dying, or suddenly decide you no longer like feeling that your life is one lucky swing of a sword by some brainless barbarian away, how are you to free yourself from such concerns quickly and (kinda) safely?

Lichdom!

Also, while I'm sure there are many evil wizards that seek out lichdom, because they're evil, I like to think that there are plenty of people who AREN'T evil, but who get twisted while by the process of attempting to stave off death.

Hey, my Barbarian has a very good brain. In fact its in mint condition , never been used.