DrowVampyre's page

Hi all, I've been away for awhile but am just about to start up a new game, and I'd like some advice. I've never really built a fighter before, but I'd like to play one in my upcoming game so I could use some help...

The idea would be that she's a single 1h weapon user. I know, bad idea, but I intentionally want to lower my killy factor because my GM gets annoyed when I slaughter things too easy and I'd rather her not get irritated this time. That said, I want my character to still be good and extremely survivable, as we'll be playing with just 2 characters most likely.

Right now, I'm trying to decide between a lore warden or a swordlord to pull this off. Either way would be fine, and I can go str or dex based either way, though thematically I'd prefer my character to be dex based (she's the agile fighter sort), just not enough to burn a ton of extra feats and gold to bring to an even playing field. I'd like to keep a decent bit of damage, although I know she won't be a damage monster - the AoO generating things would be really good, though, if possible. I've been looking at the swordlord guide, and the retributive build looks interesting, but I'd like to get some opinions on other options as well (also, why MoMS as the monk dip there, if anyone knows, rather than Maneuver Master?). Thanks in advance!!

So I'm looking at the bard archetypes, pondering what would work well for a melee sort...I've only ever played a bard once, for about 2 levels, and while it was fun, it didn't exactly give me a lot of expertise building them. <_< I'm currently playing a magus (a cabalist bladebound magus, specifically) and really liking her, but it got me thinking of other ways she could have potentially been built, and that led to bard.

Anyway, I'm wondering, since the bard guide is core only...what are people's thoughts on these archetypes? Which is best for a melee bard (preferably a dex-based one), namely one that would not be focused at all on buffing a party, because I play almost exclusively with only 2 characters in the group?

The two dervish types look, to me, to be a fair bit better than arcane duelist (and dawnflower + sound striker seems like it would give extra options with Weird Word), but I may be missing something...also, it reads to me like the dervish dancer's dances are all mutually exclusive (like performance usually is), but I saw someone mention that rain of blows adds on to inspire courage, and I'm assuming they weren't talking about a multi-bard party.

Heya everyone, I've seen a lot of nice autocalculating character spreadsheets for Excel around, but none of them are compatible with OpenOffice, and since I don't feel like paying Microsoft a couple hundred dollars for Excel, well...I'm left to make my own!

So...what would you want to see in an autocalculating character sheet? I'm not super good with Calc, but so far I've been able to figure most things out. But if I'm gonna do this anyway, I may as well do it right and in a way other people will get some use out of it! So, thoughts? Opinions? Requests? Let me hear them!

Ok, I feel kinda silly for asking this here, but I'm not really sure where else to do so, so...yeah... >_> <_<

Anyway, I've been curious about reading the Tao Te Ching for awhile now, but am quite a slacker and was burned out on reading much of anything for some time after finishing my degree. I've recently returned to regular reading, so I want to go ahead and get a copy of the Tao to read for myself.

However...I want to make sure I get a good translation. In other old works I've read, I know, the translation of it has been absolutely vital both in how accessible the contents are and how much i enjoyed it. What I'm looking for is something that's very readable, but at the same time accurate to the original. That may sound confusing...but basically, something that reads well, using modern language, but without the actual contents changed (I've heard, for example, of an edition that is very readable but changes things to use modern references - warheads instead of swords, and the like...that's no good).

So, fellow Paizonians...any recommendations?

Heya everyone! It's been quite awhile since I've had a chance to play and I've fallen behind on things, but have a new game starting soon and I'd like some help.

We're gonna be playing Serpent's Skull, but here's the trick - there's only 2 of us, myself and my friend who will be playing a magus. I know that I want to play a spontaneous caster (because I hate dealing with memorization), but sorceress or oracle is proving to be a difficult choice. My idea for the character is an Osirian sorceress-type (or oracle - the image is of a caster, not specifically what power source) with a sort of snake fetish. Think Egyptian sorceress stereotype and you're in the right place, basically.

Now, here's the trouble...if I go sorc, we have no healing in the characters, only in wands/potions/etc. If I go oracle, I have no idea which bloodline would fit this image but also be useful. Additionally, I'm horrible about buff spells - long duration stuff (10m/lvl or longer) I'm fine with, but if it's an in-combat or immediately-before-combat cast, it's troublesome for me (especially when we have no scout). I'd also, if possible, like to have a snake familiar to fit the theme - if it's not doable, I can drop that, but it'd sure be nice.

So, fellow Paizonians...does anyone have any ideas? She doesn't have to be the most optimized character ever, obviously, but I want to make sure she's at least useful in a party of 2, while still fitting the concept...

So just for fun, I'm making an inquisitor character to compare to an arcane duelist bard I made for an upcoming game (reading the "how do they match up" thread made me curious), and I've come across an...interesting problem.

The book says that with GM approval, you can have an ideal-focused rather than deity-focused inquisitor, and pick your domain based on your inclinations. That's all well and good...but what do you do about the "favored weapon of your deity" proficiency, then? Just...pick any weapon? Not get a proficiency with one? It's kinda related to deities too, being that some of them, have simple weapons that the class is already proficient with, but I assume those ones are just out of luck...but it's not so clear with the ideal-focused ones...

Ok, so strangely enough, I have this sudden urge to make a couple of wallpapers, and since none of my friends had any pictures they wanted made into one, I thought...well, why not do a Pathfinder one or two (or possibly more, if people like them and I enjoy doing them ^_-).

Which raises the question, however...is there an archive somewhere of artwork that's eligible for use for something like that? I won't be selling them or anything, just posting them here, but I certainly don't want to cause any trouble. And what kinds of guidelines would I need to follow?

OK...so I'm trying to make a new character for the last 3.5 game I'll probably ever do (DM wants to finish out the big FR adventure series), but I've run into a major problem...I can't find a good sheet! So I'm turning to you, fellow Paizonians...please point me in the right direction.

Things the sheet needs:

Editable. I have to be able to type into it and save it to my computer.

Free. I downloaded the Hero Lab demo, but I can't save anything and I'm broke...

If in spreadsheet format, must work with OpenOffice. See comment about being broke above - I don't have Excel, but I do have OpenOffice.

Must be compatible with psionics. It doesn't have to have all the stuff in there, but it does need to have a place to put power DCs, power points, etc., as well as to list my powers known.

Doesn't have to be autocalculating, but that is, of course, nice. If it is, it needs to have either a way to add custom equipment, or the psi9onic equipment in there already.

So...is there anything like this that someone can point me toward? I was trying PCGen but ran into a bug/snag/not knowing how to use it (no ability to take Weapon Focus (ray) as far as I can tell).

Hey all, I haven't been reading much for the past few years (or rather, i have, but it was for school and I got burned out, but am recovering enough to be able to want to read for fun more again), so I've fallen a bit out of touch with the books that have been coming out. That said, I'm looking for suggestions - I have a bit of a backlog, but I always like to keep my eyes open for things that may catch them, too.

Thing is, I've gotten...annoyed may not be the right word, but anyway, annoyed with the seemingly widespread "main hero must be male, take focus away from strong female characters" trend I've seen in what I've read before. Now, that may just be because of what I've read - not that I didn't enjoy those books too, but I really want to read stories with female leads (and not female leads being rescued by a male sidekick constantly -_-). So...what suggestions can you give me, Paizonians?

Now, as for what I've read and liked, ignoring the little caveat above: some of the Forgotten Realms series (particularly those by Paul S. Kemp, Richard Baker, and Troy Denning), Wheel of Time, Sword of Truth, Raymond E. Feist's Midkemia books (primarily the Riftwar Saga)...I know there are others but I'm blanking on names. Anyway, I tend to prefer more high fantasy than super dark and gritty (sometimes I like that too, but I like magic to be fairly prevalent), and am looking for entertaining more than for meaningful or profound - I can always read philosophy for that sort of thing. ^_-

I hope that's not all too specific...but I have faith in you!

Hi all, I'm just starting a new character in Second Darkness (I know, a bit late, but the DM wanted to run it instead of one of the newer ones), but instead of starting from the first, we're starting in Armageddon Echo at 7th level.

So I'm wondering...what would be the best favored enemies and favored terrains for my ranger? And I know, I could just do it based on character background, by my background can be altered to fit the campaign, and I don't want a useless or near-useless feature as a major thing for my class. >_> <_<

For enemy I'm leaning toward humanoid (elf) and outsider (evil), just cause I know drow feature heavily and evil outsiders are common mid-high level foes, but I'm not sure if drow feature heavily in the later adventures of the AP or not, or if evil outsiders are as common as usual in this one...