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Liz Courts wrote:
Moved thread. :D

Thanks for the re-location :)


I was not sure where to post this, but if the community doesn't know about this video it is a must see. All I can say is it is one of the best DnD spoof songs/video's ever made. If I posted it in the wrong forum feel free to speak up and tell me where it needs to land. Good stuff, the video crew deserves a kudo's for this. Check it out Here

Support all fans, hook these creative people up, download their song!

Regards
Dredan
Metal & Myth LLC.
Dredan Website


Good Morning!

Metal & Myth LLC is pleased to announce that we are starting to ramp up for the summer season and the first 3 of many maps are for sale in PDF form here at Paizo and DriveThruRPG. These PDF's are high resolution maps of a single world. Each map includes:

1) An exact scale of the world size compared to earth
2) Popular cities in the world as well as known landmarks
3) 1 page PDF (average size 9"x 5")
4) High resolution 600 dpi with zooming capabilities of 600% showing the small details
5) Each world is referenced in the Dredan Campaign setting but can be used for any world.
6) System independant (d20, Pathfinder, Traveller), these are world maps, nothing else, implement them in your game.

To celebrate the launch of the Dredan Cartography series of maps, the first 10 people to contact me (author@dredan.com) will receive a free map of their choice. The only thing we ask is that you write a review of the maps because your honest opinion is what we are looking for.

You can find the new PDF's HERE.

Whats new this summer:

The first Dredan Campaign Setting Errata (2 years of playtest), some things will be changing

The first Dredan stand-alone adventure featuring a single world (Humog), "The Mind of the Mine".

Thanks to the wonderful community we have here, I hope someone will be able to put our materials to use and be happy with it. In the end we all just want to play the game.

Best Regards,
The Metal & Myth Team


Metal & Myth wishes to thank Paizo Publishing for the spot on their website. Whether or not we make a blog or are highlighted does not concern us. We are a two man crew that does this for fun. For a full time publishing company to allow the little guys to even be on their website, and also allow them to use the website to sell their material is huge. My heartfelt thanks to Paizo for keeping the system alive and adding a renewed spark in what used to be a dying game. We thank you, and to Rite publishing, very commendable for being the first to speak up in thanks of what should be voiced everytime you sell a PDF from Paizo.

Selling PDF's isn't a revenue stream, just a way to get the ideas of how we see the game in print and perhaps help someone else enjoy their game a little more.

For this is what we aim to do.

Have fun, after all it is a game.

Metal & Myth LLC.


Everyone is focused on Vital Strike for fighter types, what about sorc's and wizzies, case point:

Wizard with BAB of +6 uses shocking grasp + vital strike.

10d6 damage instead of 5d6. Why? read the rules on spells using touch attacks, the spell is cast as a swift action and then the wizard must make a melee touch attack, per the rules (touch attacks from wizard spells are treated as Armed "unarmed attacks", therefore satisfying the make an attack action (unarmed) of the feat and doubling the dice damage, so instead of 5d6 no save, you get 10d6 no save for taking this feat. Could also be used with touch of idiocy. You would double the amount of drain dice you roll. Who cares about a weapon, the wizard pretty much gets a free intensified spell, not costing higher spell slot and can do it every round.

My opinion (broken)

another point, why use weapon focus, weapon spec, burn two feats to get +1/+2 damage for a single weapon when you just take vital and apply it to all weapon types.

Feat should be re-written for a specialized weapon, IE vital strike (longsword), or vital strike (touch or specific spell) better yet.


Neil Spicer wrote:
Jared Goodwin wrote:
This is a badly-statted gargoyle with some plot device powers. I have little interest in Golarion and this makes no effort to speak to anyone but someone steeped in Golarion lore.
I'm a little curious about this statement. Seeing as how you made it into the RPG Superstar Top 32 yourself, Jared, what would you have done if you'd made it to the end...even won the title...and then been asked to write the winning adventure module (which would presumably be set within Golarion)?

Just because he said he has no interest in Golarion doesn't mean he couldn't write about it. He is correct however, this is a monster stat block which is supposed to be world neutral so it can be used in many "other" settings. I agree 100% about not making Golarion specific stuff since it is a just a stat block. Setting specific monsters are used with adventures and have flavor text in their description to assist in running said monster during the adventure. Core bestiary monsters for a game that is based off of OGL should stay world neutral. I digress anyway thats my two copper.


James Jacobs wrote:

Here's my take. Templates are neat, but if you can do what you want with your template with a new monster, I almost ALWAYS prefer seeing a new monster.

I put templates in the same category as prestige classes: a GREAT new mechanic introduced and formalized in 3rd edition that got overexposed and done to death to the point where a simple fighter or a plain old purple worm starts to feel like the exotic one.

What I believe 3rd edition did with Prestige classes was a good thing, left the base classes alone, and if you want to do that new cool class ability stuff meat the pre-requisites for this new prestige class. However, they have SOOOO many prestige classes out there it is over-done, and for that I agree. Honestly I would have rather seen the base classes stay the course of what they were orginally designed to do and introduce a bunch of new feats. Basically all prestige classes are advanced class abilities from your base class. You could easily have done all the special abilities with feats and customize your characters with specialized feats. Paizo gave a feat every other level instead of every 3 which would allow for a now broader customization. Personally I think that giving a base rogue the class ability to cast spells kind of defeats the purpose of a rogue. Yeah I know I am not jumping on the bandwagon and stating wow the best thing ever, but honestly, thinking about standard fantasy, rogues were, thieves, melee, hiding, shadows, dark past types of characters, and not spellcasters. However they are good at figuring things out, magical traps, locks, scripts in weird languages and they gave them use magic device which allowed them (if the player wanted) to use magic items. Same thing for Sorcerer bloodlines.

My 2 copper


It does seem to me that the theme evil and gross go hand in hand this year. I will be interested in seeing how the votes play out. Some very solid monster "themes". Best of luck to you all.


In particular order:

1)Jesse Benner—Chaitrakhan (nicely done with the heat senses)

2)Matthew McGee — Ossuary Golem (possessed golem nice)

3)Matt Goodall — Churjiir (nice low level boss, interested in how you will keep the CR down with all of the abilities stated)

4)Alexander MacLeod — Ardorwesp (Wasp with metal...oh the ideas I have for this one..gnome's familiar?? hehe)

This year there was a lot of undead, constructs and gross monstrosities (must be because of the influx of "Saw" type movies out). I am a firm believer that a monster doesn't have to be nasty looking or gross to strike fear in the PC's. I voted for these entries because they set up the environment or habitat that each creature lives in effectively. Very easy to incorporate into your world because the environment description was nicely done.


I like this one, it has potential in the sewers of a city and great for a boss of a low level campaign. I would like to see the stat block of this creature, it has my vote (#3).


I like the hornet angle of this creature, however, you state they are flecked with metals, much like Charles Evans stated earlier. I would clarify do they actually have metal or does their body look like that type of metal. I'm sorry if I seen a bug made out of metal, especially precious metal my character would try to "harvest" the materials. I could even think of a few weapons that could be crafted out of the adamantine extremities of this creature. Something new, I liked most of what it could do.


I like adventuring in cold environments, and I like this creature. One of my top 4. Nice job.


Xaaon of Korvosa wrote:
And to make up for the fact that most players don't choose Knowledge skills...?

Well that is more of a DM thing, Int check or Knowledge check we use ALL the time, if a character is trying to roleplay and figure some sort of information out, if he doesn't have the appropriate knowledge skill, then it is up to the DM to figure out whether or not he can acquire that information. Knowledge, perception, diplomacy and even linguistics are skills that are used to get information by a character be it from an NPC or figuring it out or noticing it. If your characters never use these skills, how does your DM handle when your trying to get information. Unless he is just reading from a module and everything is set in stone or you run a hack-n-slash campaign. Nowhere does it say you can't just make a straight up Int check to figure something out.


Bats Kabber wrote:

Hey Clark, thank you so much for your time. Everyone else can also feel free to tear this one up. One of my players really wants to use it, so I need to fix any problems with it.

Meditation Beads of the Shocking Fist:
Aura Moderate evocation; CL 5th
Slot --; Price 4760 gp (type I), 9520 gp (type II), 14286 gp (type III), 19040 gp (type IV), 23800 gp (type V)
Weight
Description
Meditation Beads of the Shocking Fist are prized by students of The Order of the Shocking Fist and the beads bear their emblems. It is tradition for mentors to bestow this prize as a gift to a favored student upon reaching a desired level or completing a sacred task. Any monk wearing these enchanted meditation beads has truly earned the respect of their elders and should be considered a force to be reckoned with.

These special beads have been enhanced by magic to do more than simply help with daily meditation. When used by a character with points left in their Ki pool, these beads can store up to 5 Ki points when a character meditates using the beads for 1 hour (per point stored). A Ki point can be drawn from the beads at a later time for immediate use as a swift action. There are 5 variations of these beads, each determined by the maximum number of Ki points that can be stored.

Additionally the beads can be activated to sheath the wearer’s fists in sizzling electricity. This effect functions the same as a shock weapon and lasts for a number of rounds less than or equal to the number Ki points stored in the beads, as chosen by the wearer. Activating the beads in this way will expend 1 stored point of Ki per round and is also a swift action. If there are no Ki points currently stored in the beads, this ability will not function.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Ki Pool, call lightning or lightning bolt;

I liked this item, first thing I noticed is you didn't put the gp price in the requirements, so that is another thing besides your word count, but on to the item, it has simple yet a nice function, adding to Ki for the monk. One note, I would use shocking grasp as a requirement instead of the lightening bolt or call lightening to keep the cost of the item down. However the creation requirements needing a Ki pool makes these very hard to make because you technically would have to be a monk/3rd level caster to make the item. Functionally as an item I see nothing wrong with storing up Ki points to be used later. I would definately state that a Ki point has to be used to charge the beads. Its kinda vague on whether or not you lose the 5 Ki points if you charge the beads in that hour. I think if you had left out the first paragraph fluff, you would have been definately considered and in the keep pile for them to look over more closely. Solid design and concept. The shocking aspect isn't over the top because you have to use a stored Ki point to activate it. Good idea.


James Thomas wrote:

Here's mine Clark. Please give me feedback. It can only improve my submissions. I'd like to hear from others as well.

Kerchief of Vanishing
Aura moderate Conjuration; CL 13th
Slot -; Price 23,400 gp; Weight —

Description: This beautiful 3 ft x 3 ft silk cloth resembles a lady's scarf or a gentleman's fancy pocket handkerchief. When an object is wrapped up in it's folds and the command word is spoken, a diminutive or tiny object can vanish to another location as per a teleport object spell. User cannot teleport living creatures or magical forces nor can he send objects to the ethereal plane with a Kerchief of Vanishing. Since usual mishap chances apply, owners of these magical kerchiefs will typically vanish valuable items to locked chests in familiar locations.

Construction: Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, teleport object; Cost 11,700 gp

Author's note:  I adjusted the price of this item dividing it by 7 due to the restricted use of the teleport object spell.  Here's my work: 7 (spell level) x 13 (castor level) x 1800 (command word effect) = 163,800 / 7 = 23,400 gp. This makes it on par with high-end medium wondrous items -- which is about the calibre appropriate for it. 

Here's my 2c, since you are using a command word item with teleport objectas many times as you want, your costing is way to low, I seen what you were trying to do with the divide by 7, but costing even for the cape of mountebank was figured as follows: spell DD 4th x CL 7th (minimum CL)x 1800 = 50,400/5 because you can use it once per day which gives you a cost of 10,080gp which they halved for creation price. Your item is as stated correct 163,800gp, and dividing that by 7 (is equal to .7 charges per day, or in per day useage you would get 1 useage every other day, or 1 use every 2 days). So using it unlimited even with a restricted use should be much more expensive, which is the problem with costing permanent items using high level spells. Neat idea for an item, I almost submitted an item this year called the Thieving hand that essentially used teleport object on anything the user touched, but I couldn't keep the costs below 150k, so I scrapped it instead. I like the idea.


caith wrote:

This is an atrociously long thread! Good to see =D.

Clark Peterson: Rip me a new one!

Lorekeeper's Lexicon
Aura strong divination CL 12th
Slot --; Price 8,600 gp (new); 44,000 gp (aged); 150,000 gp (legendary); Weight 4 lbs.
Description
This hefty tome is a well kept secret amongst the greatest bards and storytellers. Created to catalogue legends and vast histories, it's ability to record and retain copious amounts of knowledge is unmatched. Older tomes contain the histories of entire civilizations, and are prized collector's items. Brand new books are blank slates - capable of absorbing nearly unlimited information by listening to nearby creatures and reading their thoughts. A lorekeeper's lexicon can be used to recall this information almost instantaneously, providing it's owner with a number of benefits:

- A new lexicon contains no entries, and must travel to learn about the world it inhabits. An aged(100-500 years old) lexicon provides a +5 Insight bonus to Knowledge(history) checks, while a legendary(500+ years) lexicon confers a +10 bonus.

- Upon entering any population center, the lexicon immediately begins to record important facts from overheard conversations and the pasts of nearby creatures. This provides a +3 Insight bonus to Knowledge(local), (nobility), and (geography) checks regarding that particular area. The book must spend d3 days in the targeted community absorbing rumors, thoughts, and facts from the local populace to gain this bonus.

- The information the tome stores provides a writer with all the inspiration one would ever need, and is considered by most the true function of this item. The book provides a +3 Insight bonus on Perform(sing) and Perform(oratory) checks.

Construction
Requirements Scribe Scroll, detect thoughts, legend lore, older books must experience history, an “aged” or “legendary” tome cannot be crafted; Cost 4,300...

I am not Clark, but I gave your item a once over and first thing I noticed is that you didn't have "craft wondrous item" under the requirements. Pulling straight from the template every entry should at least have that put in there since it was given as a template. Since this item can't be crafted and older ages, IMO you could actually take out the costing for the other age categories of the books. Very unique idea, however the costing for the new book IMO is still low, your dealing with permanent continuous effects on the book, such as detect thoughts. Detect thoughts minimum CL 3rd continuous would be 2x3x2000gp x2 (continous effect with a duration of 1min/lvl) 24,000gp, just for detect thoughts only, add legend lore and your price will be way more expensive.

Good points, very unique item that I am going to use in a campaign at a few of the local gamestores here. I can think of a ton of adventures just by having PC's use this tome. The ancient and older tomes could almost be minor artifacts with all the knowledge they could contain. I would even go so far as to say that if a player picks up a book, I would make them do either a straight up knowledge check or a perception check to find specific information they are looking for since the book itself doesn't automatically give you the information your looking for. Very nice item.

my 2c

Regards
Dredan


Wicht wrote:


Wizard’s Portable Lab
Auramoderate conjuration CL 9th
Slot - Price 150,000 gp; Weight 3 lbs.
Description
Though it looks to be a spellbook filled with arcane script, this book actually contains four connected rooms suitable for arcane research and item creation. Each room is ten feet wide, ten feet long and ten feet high. The first room has shelves upon which components can be stored. The second room contains a fully equipped wizard’s lab and the third contains an alchemist’s lab. The fourth room is a carpeted library, complete with shelves and a fireplace.

Anyone who touches the book and speaks the command word is transported into the rooms within the book. Speaking the command word again causes one to exit the lab. A person can transport up to an additional fifty pounds of weight into or out of the lab in this way. Read magic allows the caster to discern from the pages of the book both the contents of the rooms and the command word necessary for entering and exiting the lab. If the book is destroyed, any living person within the lab book is immediately expelled along with anything they are carrying; all else is destroyed with the book.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Secure Shelter Cost 75,000 gp

Wicht,

I am biased when I write about your item because the first name of my item was called Mage's portable workshop, which I ended up changing it to Craft Consortium of The Gypsies. Your costing looks spot on, basically a permanent secure shelter which you added equipment, which is what I did with mage's magnificent mansion. Clark mentioned on mine it was one of many mansion items, wonder if they thought the same for yours. I think it is short, clean, and doesn't do too much stuff, problem is the costing like mine, not many but save a "few" players would ever spend that amount of money on a crafting place. Good solid item IMO, and this years contest I think everyone tried to do too much mojo which ended resulting in some really different stuff. I wonder how many mansion items there actually were.

Regards
Dredan


Clark Peterson wrote:
Dredan wrote:


CRAFT CONSORTIUM OF THE GYPSIES
This was one of our many mansion items. Plus, we noted that you spelled your item name one way in the caption and another in the body--consortium and consordium. Yes, its just a typo. But it set the wrong tone.

Thanks for the feedback, typo is one thing, mispelling your item name...well BOOM! delayed blast auto-reject, guess I was so focused on design, paragraph flow, item ability vs. cost factor I totally missed a fundamental thing of writing. Was everything else ok? If you don't answer that fine, thanks for taking time in responding to all of us.

I double checked my word doc I submitted, I don't see consordium anywhere in it, was it in the title of the post? Is that where I missed it?


Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Are contestants free to do whatever they wish with items which were rejected? I suspect we will be seeing quite a lot of that phrase 'good enough for an item book but NOT for Superstar' or variations thereof in the next few days.

So may I submit a rejected item to an item book (or other publication) should such an opportunity arise, or do I have to file off the serial numbers and rename it a 'helm-spear of troll-laughing' first?

Yep all intellectual property once you hit submit is now property of Paizo.


Clark is my item, Tear it up interested to know, pretty sure it was not "awesome" enough, but I think the mechanics and word count was not the reason for "not kept"

CRAFT CONSORTIUM OF THE GYPSIES

Aura strong conjuration; CL13th
Slot - ; Price 120,000 gp; Weight -

Description
Upon first glance the consortium looks like a standard portable hole. Opening the consortium is the same as a portable hole except when unraveled the cloth transforms into a 4 feet wide by 8 feet high door. Inside the consortium all magical effects become visible as per the spell detect magic. This function is always on and anyone within the consortium can benefit from the spell. Whoever activates the consortium receives the following benefits while inside: +2 morale bonus to all skill checks, +2 enhancement bonus to Intelligence, and a +10 enhancement bonus to Spellcraft checks. Once per day when the workshop is activated, the activator can cast the spell make whole per the spells description. Whoever activates the consortium has full access to the 26 servants to command and assist in whatever tasks are needed as per the spell mage’s magnificent mansion. The consortium’s shops dimensions are as follows:
• Bedroom (10’ by 10’)
• Main workshop floor (30’ by 60’).
• Leatherworking shop (10’ by 20’).
• Store room (10’ by 30’).
• Tailor shop (10’ by 20’).
• Carpentry shop (10’ by 20’).
• Alchemy lab (10’ by 20’).
• Smithy (30’ by 20’).
Each room is equipped with the appropriate equipment and masterwork tools for operating each shop. The consortium replenishes food and mundane supplies like the fuel for the blacksmith forge, once every 24 hours. Any equipment, if broken, must be replaced. The workshop does not provide construction materials for making any items.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, detect magic, fox’s cunning, good hope, identify, mage’s magnificent mansion, make whole; Cost 60,000 gp


It's pretty funny, but Wicht's item and my own item were pretty dang close to doing the same exact thing, costing was similiar, but we used different spells. I will be curious to see what Clark has to say about the Craft houses... I don't think there is enough interest in the crafting side of the house to make these items shine. I am more of a roleplayer and less of a hack and slasher. Plus my own constructive critisicims is that the item is not wow superstar category. It may also be a mage's magnificent mansion in a can =)


Best of luck to the top 32 in the next round. Thanks again to the community and the judges for making a great start to this years contest.


Power Word Unzip wrote:
Dredan wrote:

We run our home campaigns a little differently, our GM, and I love his style which he has a huge EPIC story plot going on in his head and we can barely fathom what he really has planned, however the encounters are the best things ever. This is how we run our encounters, and amazingly enough you would be surprised how the complete randomness of the monster generation really fits right into the campaign. So now to really confuse everyone.

He has us roll a d6, whatever the die roll, that is the number of the 6 monster manuals he selects from. Then its random dice depending on page numbers, did I mention we run away or die alot?? :) Seriously though it makes for very interesting encounters. Especially if you start pulling monsters from the 3.5 MM3 and MM4. You know the ones that have the EPIC beasts in them hehe.

I've played in a game where a similar encounter-building method was used, even spanning across the six separate MMs. While it didn't make for the best plot structure, I'll say this: I fought things that I'd never before encountered as a player and things I'd never before run as a GM. It also shows how much variance there is in a given CR. Abyssal Dragons? Not as tough as you might think. Friggin' redcaps? Now THEY'RE scary. Had to burn a village down to get out of that one alive.

It is funny how completely random, some of those encounters actually fit in the big scheme of things. You definately the strengths and weaknesesses of your character. He always found a way to incorporate whatever into the big plot! Scary as some of those things you want no where near the plot.


We run our home campaigns a little differently, our GM, and I love his style which he has a huge EPIC story plot going on in his head and we can barely fathom what he really has planned, however the encounters are the best things ever. This is how we run our encounters, and amazingly enough you would be surprised how the complete randomness of the monster generation really fits right into the campaign. So now to really confuse everyone.

He has us roll a d6, whatever the die roll, that is the number of the 6 monster manuals he selects from. Then its random dice depending on page numbers, did I mention we run away or die alot?? :) Seriously though it makes for very interesting encounters. Especially if you start pulling monsters from the 3.5 MM3 and MM4. You know the ones that have the EPIC beasts in them hehe.


Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Zurai wrote:
+1. For the record, I'd love to be one of the top 32 and get to continue, but I already feel like I've "won" because I introduced my item into my current campaign and my players are enjoying finding all kinds of uses for it.
Along this line, there's at least one Top 32 submission that made us say, "we need to include a suite of items like this in the Advanced Player's Guide!" :)

Interesting, just a few more days and all the speculations will be done!!


The Fool wrote:
Eric Stipe wrote:

I don't really have a problem with the splash part of the bomb damage as much as i do with the range, 10' increments. If i could throw it more than 10' away without taking bigger and bigger penalties it would work better in combat.

I still like the idea of using the evolution pool from the Eidolon (from the summoner) for the mutagens. drink a potion, gain an arm! ;)

I love the poison abilities, but they should be turned into discovery's and optional.

Yes! That's exactly what I was trying to say! Thank you! :D

I wish Paizo would go into further detail on poisons personally. Right now we house rule poisons if you want to make more potent or better poisons then what is in the book. Basically we have to find the ingredients, still spend the cash, but when making your own poison, for every 5 points over the craft (alchemy) DC you roll, the save DC of the poison goes up by one. So it is completely scaleable to make better poisons at higher levels. We also combine multiple doses into a single more potent dose that has a higher save DC also. So your basically paying for three doses of Drow poison, brewing it into one effective more concentrated dose.


Dredan wrote:
Is Alchemy (Su) or (Sp), and do the extracts behave just like potions? If so then they are subject to mage's disjunction.

Anyone..Bueller...Bueller?


Xaaon of Korvosa wrote:
varianor wrote:

Patience please.

All will be revealed at the appointed time.

Which is when Sebastian sneezes and downs a belly shot of grapple juice.

See Grapple Juice is what you get when an Ogre grapples a halfling...

LOL, I'm going to use that one in our campaign!! Oh and I am a binary type of guy, so obviously top 32 means 0-31, so obviously whoever is #1 isn't the winner!! I volunteer to be top 0 for 2010.


Round 2 : Design a game designer, complete all aspects including what snacks and how many Mountain Dew's you drink during one session. I am partial to the cheese balls!


There was a ton of information on what to do, what not to do, how to build, and even a REALLY cool template to assist the design of a wondrous item. In the end, I didn't try to make my item fall into a niche that nothing else was in, pour through the boards to see what the judges liked and disliked from previous years, because no matter what, everyone has their own play style and one item might be awesome to one person but plain to another.

My main focus was on design, editing and delivering what exactly was requested and an item that over the years of playing we always said "this would be so cool to have". Superstar or not, the whole process was fun, as every year and I look forward to seeing what the judges rule as "superstar" material this year.


Gamer Girrl wrote:
Hydro wrote:
I suppose they could just skip the middle man and give the top 32 beer money.
Make mine Root Beer :)

Beer made from what root??

That could be a fairly potent concoction given the right ingredients

says the aspiring Alchemist :)


Akalsaris wrote:
and then 20th doesn't matter because nobody really plays at that level.

Doesn't mean that you should just ignore it and not worry about it, most of the campaigns we play we have been playing for over 5 years, so we barely play under 20th..but then again we have a GM that at lvl 1-3 you fight stuff other then goblins, orc's and kobolds. So if you have a bad class that doesn't have all the levels sorted out, it will be another class that everyone just overlooks.

The way I look at the Alchemist is

A. d8 hit dice..nice
B. Able to "cast" arcane and divine spells...not many arcane classes can heal themselves without dual-classing
C. Your an Alchemist, not a fighter, you craft stuff, the role is support, your not going to be showing up the fighters, rangers, and barbs. So you can throw a few bombs, and you run out, so don't all wizards that have spells run out of their most damaging ones, they aren't sorcerers.
D. You can make poisons, apply poison FAST and with the stacking rules for poisons, even at low levels you could ensure that your saves would be failed.

Alchemists would be situational, but with what they can do with potions and poisons they are very utilitarian. If you want to make everyone in the party say wow your awesome..don't play the alchemist. I always play casters, and at lower levels, especially 1-3, your going to get a few magic missiles out of me and thats it. But starting at 9th level the real threat of a caster starts to show.
Personally I wouldn't take the bombs, I would take feral mutagen, sticky poison, and use my extracts for bull's strength, with 3/4 BAB and those buffs, the alchemist would be better than a monk, with poison on the claws also.

My 2cp


Is Alchemy (Su) or (Sp), and do the extracts behave just like potions? If so then they are subject to mage's disjunction.


Scipion del Ferro wrote:
Hrmm, unless it was intended that Extracts not be dispelled? That would be an impressive ability on their part.

Just needs clarification, since their effects are spell-like effects that can be dispelled like any other spell, and the extracts "act" like potions, they could be subject to dispel magic.


Morgen wrote:

You guys should probably have just flipped to the Damage Reduction section and read it completely, you missed a sentence which is very easy to do in a 500+ page book. It's just a quick line in the description of Damage Reduction that reads:

"Spells, spell-like abilities, and energy attacks (even nonmagical fire) ignore damage reduction."

Alchemist bombs deal fire damage, a type of energy damage, and thus they are not subject to damage reduction. They are of course subject to resistances and immunities to the type of energy damage they deal with, fire in most cases.

As for the other effects the bombs are indeed a Supernatural Ability from their entry. That means that the following comes into effect:
"Supernatural abilities are magical but not spell-like. Supernatural abilities are not subject to spell resistance and do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated (such as an anti-magic field). A supernatural ability's effect cannot be dispelled and is not subject to counter-spelling."

So no DR or SR comes into play for Alchemists. They just need to watch out for fighting monsters that resist or ignore fire damage, assuming they don't take something like the Acid Bomb Discovery.

I think the extracts should NOT be (Su) abilities of the Alchemist. This specific post shows the contradiction.

1. (Su) cannot be dispelled, which it specifically states that extracts CAN be affected by dispel.
2. (Sp) They should be spell-like effects, because spell-like effects can be affected by dispel, and the alchemist is putting his spell energy into his bombs and extracts.

I think a clarification or a change of the abilities of the Alchemist to state either:

Alchemy (Sp) instead of (Su)

I know it is kind of offtopic for this thread, thread hi-jack not intended, but this post specifically addresses problems that could be future arguements. Or at least a rules clarification or adjustment.

Previous comment on bombs is correct, but the Alchemy (Su) is an oversight.


The pdf specifically states that extracts are created much like potions and follow the rules of dispel magic. I think if the Alchemist makes all of his extracts in the morning, (playtest btw 17th alchemist vs. 17 wizard), he is very vulnerable to losing his extracts if hit with a mage's disjunction. I think you might want to clarify the difference between extracts and potions for this spell specifically. If a wizard casts disjunction on another wizard, he may lose items, spells in affect and a few other things, but he won't lose the memory of the prepared spells he hasn't cast yet. If the alchemist fails his saves vs. mage's disjunction he is crippled. He effectively loses his "alchemy" spells on the extractions that failed their save. No extractions, no potions. Shutting down a 17th level character for 17 minutes is very costly. You might not negate all of the extractions but you can sorely hamper his ability. You might want to specifically state that extracts are not magical items or potions until they are activated or imbibed. Otherwise as a DM I would rule they are potions and would require a saving throw against disjunction. This could severly cripple an alchemist, and as a wizard, the first 9th level spell I learn is mage's disjunction.


Canons of at least MW quality could be enchanted to have an enhancement bonus (ie +1 enhancement) put on them and special abilities (flaming). If I was to have a ship with multiple canon's and had access to a wizard (ship wizard) then I would most definately spend the time and money to have those weapons enchanted. That what is all boils down to, do you have the money and the time to enchant your weapons. I could even see a druid on a ship firing a flaming sphere from a special canon that once it hits, the druid starts to roll the sphere around =)

my 2cp


Jason Nelson wrote:
Clark Peterson wrote:
Helm of brilliance. No questions asked.

Amusingly, same here.

Not that I've ever actually SEEN one used in a campaign, though I did place one as a treasure in an adventure I wrote when I was like 12 or so (but never actually ran). One also appears in Tiamat's hoard at the end of H4 Throne of Bloodstone, though it has a rather large chance of being destroyed before you ever get it, and even if you do it's literally the last encounter of the campaign, so it's not like you even get to use it.

I think that's where our campaigns are different. We have never ended any of our campaigns....I have way to many characters from lvl 1-34 who are all in the same 10 year campaign..LOL it will never end until we all die at once so there isn't anyone left to take the bodies back to the church for a rez, and even if we do all die, we have contingency's to plop our dead corpses on the church's doorstep heh.

...and we do die ALOT.


I forgot the most important item all my characters have, the ring of nine lives. Not a wondrous item, but well it has saved my characters....well 9 times!

Can't argue with the portable hole and the bags and haversack. I think its good we don't have the haversack around, you know how the women can fill up their purse....imagine the mess that would be inside the haversack!!!


I just wanted to clarify one thing about Dredan, Dredan is not a core rulebook, it is not a rulebook that is Pathfinder Modern, future or Traveller-Pathfinder. Dredan does not change the systems of gaming. Dredan utilizes the rules from the Traveller20 (Travellers Handbook) and the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. I have not changed either system to make something new. Dredan is nothing more then a setting that you can play either of these systems in. I provided the means to help a GM assist in dealing with a campaign that may have aspects of both systems in their campaign. If you have no knowledge of T20 system, about 50-60% of Dredan will not make sense to you. There are a few rule additions that are setting specific, IE Jusay crystals as power/fuel for spells and or equipment.

Mandorian race, is a race of humans that have developed and are entwined with technology. If your a Mandorian then you were grown in a labratory much like cloning. You will not have access to the fantasy side because your race has no clue about magic and the term magic is that which can't be proven by science. If you want to wield magic then you will not be a Mandorian from the planet Mandor, you will be a Pathfinder core race "human" from a planet that has a lower technology level. If you want to play a standard Pathfinder "human" race you can, you can even be a standard Pathfinder "human" and live on a technologically advanced planet with access to that technology. But you would need the Travellers Handbook and Pathfinder Core Rulebook to build your character because your going to want some of the tech feats for your character.


Vic Wertz wrote:
I've modified the product title and added a bit to the description to make it more clear that the T20 rules are required in addition to the Pathfinder RPG.

Thank you Vic, much appreciated, this is our company's first attempt at a full blown book/setting. We have a lot to iron out and which is one of the reasons why I gave away free copies to get the exposure and helpful comments from the community. We will be doing a second edition with all of the fixes stated.

That being said, I really appreciate the constructive feedback from the posters in this thread. I take all comments professionally and not personally and hope you do the same. Very good points, comments and suggestions. Dredan artist and myself are looking at putting in bookmarks on the PDF to assist in navigating the book. I am not 100% sure on how to do this but we will work at it until the product is 100%.

As Vic stated, Dredan relies heavily on temporary hit points and a better way to say it is to be lost and not drained. I have made not of that and I will update the text to read that. As always I appreciate the feedback and even the comments from Vic. I think the setting is solid and there are tweaks that need to be done.

About the T20 skills and the Pathfinder skills. All the references about the skills are not replacing each other, but the chart merely lists all the T20 high TL skills and their Pathfinder equivalent if they have one. IE there is no driving in Pathfinder but you need that skill in T20. But heal and T/medical is basically the same thing, just T/Medical uses equipment to assist. Same thing just one is technology based.

Once again thanks for the wonderful feedback.


Epic Meepo wrote:
When wielded by a moderator, it gains an additional +1 enhancement bonus and any creature it hits is forever unable to activate the endless thread.

That should be "deity" instead of moderator LOL


Dredan wrote:
In 1992, when I started to play AD&D, my very first character was the Witch class, and you were able to receive 1500XP points worth of magic items given to you by an otherworldly source, that 1500XP was my first magic item and to this day is my favorite, the Figurine of Wondrous Power (Gold Lions). I am not even sure if they are used now, going to have to look them up and see after I post this.

Yeah from the Pathfinder book..

Figurine of wondrous power, golden lions, those lions saved my Witch caster booty so often!


In 1992, when I started to play AD&D, my very first character was the Witch class, and you were able to receive 1500XP points worth of magic items given to you by an otherworldly source, that 1500XP was my first magic item and to this day is my favorite, the Figurine of Wondrous Power (Gold Lions). I am not even sure if they are used now, going to have to look them up and see after I post this.


Endless Thread

Aura strong conjuration; CL13th
Slot - ; Price 120,000 gp; Weight -

Description
The thread is an actual invisible network of wispy lines that live on the etherial plane. Wizard guilds, scholars, and many arcane casters throughout the realms know of the thread and the command word to activate the thread. Upon saying the command word the thread appears from the etherial plane as a large scroll showing current notes, comments and other writings from scholars all over. Upon activating the thread the caster may write his comments and or debates, personal feelings on any topic that other arcane casters are discussing on the thread. (Fluff for Clark) Some say the deities partake in the conversations or even remove flagrant scripts from casters who are posting non-factual subjects of the arcane matter. Once the caster has finished writing his script on the thread he can speak the command word and the scroll disappears, anyone accessing the thread can read the comments once the final command word is given and the thread dissappears.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item arcane mark, plane shift, sending; Cost 60,000 gp

HaHa I couldn't resist. Make way for the Pathfinder arcane web!


Standardization always wins in the long run. If the market is so divided that you can only maintain a tight focus on a small group you will lose out. If they figure out a way to make them standard so that anyone can buy the product and download the correct rule-set you have a goldmine.

my .02


I would like to thank Paizo for the chance at exposure and allowing the community to be a part of their Pathfinder series, and also I would like to thank the judges that Paizo recruited to put in the long hours needed to run an efficient contest. The staff addresses problems quickly and professionally and as always the Superstar contest is a lot of fun.

Best of luck to the community on round 1.

Dredan


I have been looking for a while and thought I would post it here, does anyone here know of any good figure/model companies? Much like the WOTC figures, guargantuine dragon, were are looking at getting some of the two legged vehicles, figures and starships from Dredan represented for our setting. Anyone attempted to do this or have contacts for companies that can do fantasy/Sci-Fi models? I have been talking with different local companies at the con's and realize this is a very costly endeavor but we are weighing all of our options and any ideas and or contacts would be greatly appreciated.


For us, we went small and did POD for our first book. The PDF's are nice because of the costs it takes to print and actually make money on the sales of your printed product. We worked with solid publishers on our campaign setting and ended up wasting about 3 years worth of work on our project trying to get them to get a final product that matched the other books in print. We ended up self-publishing and putting our own product out which it was a full blown campaign setting. Doing this with two people on a part-time basis took us over 3 years to complete. RPG is a very small market in a world full of books. It has to be a labor of love because you will not get rich off of PDF's and we are not expecting to. There is a lot of good advise on this thread and take it because it is a hard thing to do and get an avid following from the community.


The free copy review has completed, we (Metal & Myth LLC) appreciate all the feedback we have received so far about our product and look forward to reading the reviews that have not been posted yet.

I wanted to thank the community and everyone that is involved with Pathfinder and the 3P's out there for continuing to provide quality products to enhance your own tabletop game.

A few notes about Dredan Realm of Metal & Myth:

We are not a full time publishing company and do not have the resources as some of the other 3P's. Having said that, Dredan was originally produced for the OGL 3.5 system and converted to Pathfinder when they released their compatibility license (much thanks to the Paizo staff for doing this wonderful thing). There are a few minor glitches that I did not catch after reviewing the full 235 page book for the umteenth time =). The wonderful reviews we received bad or good is helping us produce a much cleaner product for the community. Keep in mind, many statements were this book lacked the Pathfinder compatibility flair. This is trully a first attempt at combining Sci-Fi and magic in one complete setting. This isn't Pathfinder Modern, or Pathfinder Future, this is Pathfinder DnD with rules that we have created and playtested in our small area. Some corrections are being made (wonderful suggestions from the community) with a few details of the book I missed, and since I am designer, layout, formatter, editor, publisher and marketer on a part-time basis I will not get everything right, but we are striving to give you a ton of useful material to be used in your game. If you don't like a few of the rules in the setting great (that's what DM's are for), we just provided different options. This is a Sci-Fi tech heavy setting and does follow the Traveller20 (T20) system of rules that we have played for years. This project took us (Artist and myself) over 6 years to complete and it is definately a labor of love. However, at the price of $9.99 for a full blown PDF with over 235 pages of material to us it is well worth it.

One final note, we are not a full time publisher, but we love this community and if anyone likes our setting and has ideas, wants to become involved, send me an email, we would be happy to work with anyone to give you exposure to your ideas or put your talents to work, we are working on many small Dredan based projects in 2010. I have worked with full-time publishers and self-published myself so I would be happy to work with anyone who has ideas or wants to put their creativeness to use with us.

Sincerely
Bryan Wilkins
Author/Publisher/Co-Owner
Metal & Myth LLC

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