Dolph Targbanger's page

We're testing out some combat options for Allu, and we want to know what you think about something.

Do you think it would be fun to be able to:

a) replace your full attack sequences (e.g., +17/+12/+7) with flurries (e.g., three attacks at -4 each) as well as...

(b) converting those attacks to energy (i.e., temporarily changing your weapon into fire/ice/lightning, etc.)?

Some other question:

- What kinds of options would you like to go along with that special attack?

- How often should you be able to do it?

- How would you want to determine the energy type?

There are some givens, here, because of how elemental energy works in this game world, but I want to hear your ideas before I bog you down with them.

Hi,

Myself and a group of designers are creating a Pathfinder game setting, one that'll be doing a kickstarter campaign in the near future, and we want to bounce some ideas off of you all to see how you feel about them.

There was one other thread about this already, which you can read here:

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q1pn?New-3PP-Campaign-Setting-Questions-Five-E lements

We've come up with a magical system that is woven into a five-element world (fire, aether, earth, metal, water) and where energy-based spells come out as one of those five elements randomly. However, you can use Spellcraft to try to wrench a given spell over to one particular element, which can be useful given that everyone in the game has an elemental vulnerability based on race. Also, we think it's just wicked-cool that you can make a forty-foot diameter Lightning Ball and a ten-food-wide Acid Bolt if you make your spellcraft roll.

Anyway...

What I want to ask you about in this thread is the idea of magic items that are so advanced and complex that they start to take on the character of technology. We call them "sourceforged" because "source" is our world's version of pure, unadulterated magic. Without going into too much detail, we're designing multiple historical periods into the campaign setting, and one of them is vaguely early 20th century except that instead of technology they have applied magic: ye olde winde-powered helicopter, and such.

What we're trying to sort out is the best way to create that option so that it's both more of the same "wicked-cool" that we're trying to create, but also over-powered. So far, we have the notion that sourceforged items, by definition, use multiple elements whereas everything has to use just one.

To use the previous example, the sourceforged helicopter summons wind to hold it up, has a canopy made of hardened water, and is held together by the strong will of the metal it's made of. That's just what there is to work with on this world if people want to make "technology."

The difficult bit is finding a way to make this kind of application take on the guise of technology. It doesn't have to, but that's the intention, so we're effectively looking for a way to get from A (sourceforged magic) to C (tech-looking magic items).

Lay it on me. Speak your mind. We'd love to hear what you think.

One thing that always seems to be missing from 3e games is the ability to toss a rope around someone from a distance, using one of various kinds of rope- or chain-based weapons. It's a curious omission, especially considering how common it is in action movies (Which I've always taken to be the real basis of RPGs).

So here's what I propose:

Entangling attacks can happen with specific weapons only (to be determined later). You essentially make a ranged grapple attack. So you use DEX to hit and make a ranged touch attack. Your target can resist the grapple as normal. Same rules apply.

The only tricky part is determining your bonus (or penalty) to the opposed grapple test. When grappling at a distance, you wouldn't use your STR to determine how tight the grapple is because your muscles are all across the room.

I'd suggest instead that this be based on the weapon. Only a few weapons can performed a ranged grapple, and some of them cannot do it very well. A whip, for example, can wrap around someone's arm, but it's not as good as a lasso, which actually tightens as you pull. So a whip can grapple, but grants only a +2 on the opposed test, while perhaps a lasso grants a +4. Note: these bonuses are instead of the STR bonus to the CMB.

Thoughts? I'm just making this up off the top of my head, so feel free to hack it to pieces.

I don't like the flat-rate of bonus for skill points because someone who takes a single skill now has more ability based purely on level. A 12th-level adventurer automatically is better at blacksmithing than a career blacksmith because she took one skill? Makes no sense.

That said, I understand the impetuous to make the system simpler. Here's my, admittedly quite conservative, suggestion: make skill points worth more individually. Halve the number classes get per level and make each point worth +2 to a Class skill and +1 to a Cross Class skill. That way, no more fractions and you're literally doing half the work to distribute your skill points.