Calling Durendal - are you still interested in playing? The main game thread is up and running now.
Egad!
Sorry...missed that somehow.Off to it then...
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I sympathize. I've been thinking it might be fun to try a superhero based game...but alas, I'm feeling 'system fatigue' as well and don't think I have the mental real estate to devote to another system. I did find this free, simple - although admitedly light-hearted system: Risus, so if I do take the dive into creating such a game I think I'll go thusly.
It's been a while since I've done any spellcasting, I think I'll take that slot. Sorcerer, Elf. Arrogant and shady, so we won't miss him when he goes. :)
...I think Durendal was thinking of playing a rogue the last time he posted. That's right, Rogue...but I've decided to opt for Elf as far as race. I'm working the char up now, and ferreting out info on elves in Golarion. Will post character as soon as it looks like something.
This is shaping up to be an interesting bunch... :) I have no idea what the module is about (Okay, I know it has something to do with a baron. The last one.) but it'll be fun to see how this party fits in.
Got room for a stealthy bruiser, a hard-knuckled get the job done type. Probably a beefy rogue...half-orc...at the risk of littering the party with half-breeds.
*stands up and walks up to the table* I will go.
I'm feeling an RP jones kicking in and think I'd like to run one of the Gamemastery modules as a pbp on the forums with some mods and different settings. I'm torn however between two interests and distinctly different flavors: Option 1: Swords and Planet
Option 2: The Camelot Fallen
Any preference? Discuss. Rules would either be vanilla 3.5 or PFRPG.
My Apologies for dropping from 'site' - had a couple of work-related distractions running up to the holiday and popped back to find things running along at a nice pace. Didn't think I could catch up w/o mucking with the flow. Enjoy the game, y'all doing some good gaming...
Thank you, Dark Arioch! There's always a better way than I thought..
When you're posting you'll see a little drop down under the text box - 'Post As' - your alias should be listed there. D.
Pssst. The adventure is titled 'River into Darkness'. Someone who could swim might help. Hint, hint. Point taken :) I'm thinking my Ranger is going to be a little more grizzled than I first imagined. A half-orc as a matter of fact, even though I'm not familiar enough with the Golarion setting to get the races and regions matched right. That said, I'm picturing:
On the last raid of the hot season, Fel betrayed his party...boldly making his way to the shoanti settlement with a warning and a plan that led to the total decimation of the orc raiding party. Fel wasn't entirely welcome among the tribesmen, and spent most of his time in the wilderness, hunting and trading with the tribesmen. In the passage of time he was befriended by a widow, who'd tended his wounds on the night of the last raid. They did not fall in love, but needed each other and it wasn't long before twins were born of their union. The children were more or less human, with his daughter having more of his orcish features, still they were accepted as the widow's young. Dreaming of better things for his young than his shoanti tribe can offer, Fel ranges far and wide risking everything to build an inheritance that surpases his half-orc ancestry.
Hey! Congratulations!
I'd like to sink my teeth into an Alpha game! A slightly grizzled ranger perhaps, a family man (for once) who is willing to dare anything to secure the future of his distant family.
I'll be going crazy...But I'll be here...online that is.
Oooh! A surprise in store? Sounds very cool, and happily I just discovered Invisible Castle made some changes that have resulted in it not being blocked by my local firewall. Nice.
Anyone else see these as a contradiction? Not at all. There is absolutely nothing contradictory about the two statements. Also, everything I say means something else.
I've never been particularly bothered by the non-medieval flavor...I think once I accepted a departure from Earth's medieval history, I was open to a wider influence. Anyway, that's my 2-pence.
...Two running steps and then nothing under his feet but air. He landed in the mud with both feet, an explosion of muddy water... Grimcleaver that was a particularly dramatic entrance BTW. Kudos!
Having played in a number of PbP games that started with a bang and fizzled after a handful of encounters...I thought it worth recognizing the uber-postage of a few of the longer running games on the board. Not for nothin' - but I'm impressed. Aubrey's Eberron campaign DM: Aubrey the Malformed
Heathy's Saltmarsh Campaign DM: Heathansson
Age of Darkness DM: Mothman
Aubrey's Rise of the Runelords campaign DM: Aubrey the Malformed
Dark Sun PbP #1 - The Fine Art of Reciprocity DM: mwbeeler
and of course there are quite a few others not far behind...
Woo_Hoo! I'll join the wiki tonight, can't access from the dream-killing office machine...ciao!
Nice! Bodes well for this game.
Work's been distracting from the fun, but I'm still spinning up a concept. I was leaning toward a skill-monkey, so if Snorter wants to cover whatever passes for divine in this setting that's cool. I ought to have something up in a short bit.
Interested in the prospect of a good story-based game. I'm spinning up some ideas now, but reserve me a spot on this one. Nice char - by the way - Grimcleaver.
In fact, some conifers require fire to reproduce. Jack pines have cones that will only open and seed with the heat of a fire. The fire burns away the old growth and opens the cones, reseeding the cleared area. Now that - is simply amazing...gotta love nature, eh?
Wow, great response - thank you, all. Looking over the suggestions and especially the considerations about the impact that a raging forest fire would have on the adventure, I think that I'll go through pains to give them - and their adversaries who are native to the forest - time to extinguish any flames that may begin to grow. Early on in the game I made it a point to indicate how dry the passing summer had been, so that's were we are as far as climate. It may not come up, but after going on and on in my description of the foliage and how dense it all is, if a flask of alchemist fire goes awry I think I'll have to have a little drama around it. Thanks again for the input.
I've got a party heading toward an encounter in a dense forest, and one of the party members has recently stocked up on alchemist's fire ...so in the eventuality that one of his attacks misses and hits the grass I'm trying to figure out how long they'll have until a little splash becomes a true forest fire. The SRD covers the speed of a moving forest fire, but not how long one takes to get going. I'll be glad for any advice you folks can offer.
Yeah, it does sound as if this is the case. This sort of thing leads me to lose interest really quick. This kind of thing taken to the extreme is the revolving door of the afterlife you get in games like WoW. Once I found myself running back to my body for the umpteenth time to finish a fight that I just lost...the flavor of the game just went flat for me.
Maybe drop the poison. Other than that, great job! Thanks! The poison was an afterthought...no problems putting it back in the toolbox.
I needed a gang of fey without damage reduction, and instead of just dropping it from an existing breed in the SRD (which is all I had access to) I decided to come up with something new. I wanted something I could drop on a small party of 3rd lvl characters for a fun encounter. Now I'm concerned I overdid the little buggers. Should I drop the pipes, or the poison? I'd appreciate any input...
Detail Spoiler: Tuilí Tuilí are cruel race of forest-dwelling, nocturnal fey. Their appearance is that of small half-satyr elves, possessed of an otherworldly beauty. Tuilí are wholly corrupt, using the occasional captured traveler as food for their crop of witch trees, after 'playing' with him to their satisfaction. Tuilí spend their days sleeping and their evenings cultivating their crop, hunting for food and holding moonlight revels. Tuilí are unable to procreate, and propagate their kind by forcing ‘favored’ captives to eat the fruit of the witch tree, and undergoing transformation in to new Tuilí. Forest-born (Ex): In a forested environment the tuilí can use their Dexterity modifier instead of their Strength modifier for the purposes of climb and jump checks, and suffer no penalties for their speed while doing so. Pipes (Su): Tuilí can play a variety of magical tunes on their pan pipes. Usually, only one tuilí in a group carries pipes. The effects of the tuilí’s pipes continue only while the pipes are played. Playing the pipes is a standard action that requires concentration to maintain a tune, which means the tuilí playing the pipes must take a standard action each round to maintain a particular tune. A creature that successfully saves against any of the pipe’s effects cannot be affected by the same set of pipes for 24 hours. : When it plays, all creatures within a 60-foot spread (except tuilí) must succeed on a DC 12 Will save or become shaken, taking -2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks while the tune is played.
Poison (Ex): An opponent hit by a tuilí’s poisoned blowgun needle must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or be sickened for 1 round. After 1 minute, the subject must succeed on another DC 13 Fortitude save or become nauseated for 1d4 rounds. A typical tuilí carries 1d4 specially prepared poisoned needles. Note that tuilí have no special ability to apply poison without risking being poisoned themselves. Since this poison is not a magical effect, tuilí are susceptible to it. Spell-Like Abilities: - 1/day Longstrider, Pass without Trace, or Shillelagh Wild Empathy (Ex): This ability works like the druid’s wild empathy class feature, except that tuilí have a +4 racial bonus on the check. Skills: Tuilí have a +2 racial bonus on Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Perform, and Spot checks; as well as a +4 racial bonus on climb and jump checks made within a forest environment. Witchtree Fruit
Thanks for all the input and suggestions. At will orisons & cantrips sound like fun, and I may give them a try before long. For the sake of completeness here are the changes made to the original idea. Changes from previous version: Charges lowered to 20, damage type clarified – subject to damage reduction, non-magical bludgeoning, staff now takes full round to fire to match damage output of heavy crossbow, prices brought closer to the pricing of sling, & crossbows, while reflecting the advantage that their nature is easier to conceal (up a sleeve in the case of the wand, which NPCs would probably suspect was more than a stick anyway).
Size: The physical size of these items have an impact on their effectiveness, small versions.
Feats
Weapon Details Spoiler: A blast wand can be made by a character using the Craft (alchemy) skill DC 15. The physical qualities of a blast wand are the same as a magic wand. A blast wand is an alchemical weapon that allows an arcane spell caster to fire raw arcane energy through it as bolts of bludgeoning force. Only arcane spell casters can use the blast wand’s ranged attack. The color and thematic appearance of these blasts are set by the user upon acquisition. Treat this attack as a ranged attack with a range increment of 50 feet. Each blast wand has 20 charges when created, and each bolt fired from it expends one charge. A blast wand that runs out of charges is just a stick until it is recharged. A blast wand can be re-charged by use of the Craft (Alchemy) skill, DC 12 at the expense of 1 gp in materials. A blast wand cannot hold more than 20 charges at a time. Attacks with a blast wand deal 1d4 points of bludgeoning damage and deal double damage on a critical hit. It has a range increment of 50 feet. Even though blast wands use the spell trigger activation method, firing a bolt from a blast wand is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. A blast wand used as a melee weapon is treated as a light improvised weapon (-4 penalty on attack rolls) and deals 1d2 points of non-lethal damage. Qualities Cost: 5gp, Dmg. 1d4 (bludgeoning), range: 50’, 1 lb. (re-charge cost: 1gp) Equivalent weapon: Sling (Dmg 1d4, range: 50', Cost: 1sp/10 bullets)
A blast rod is an alchemical weapon that allows an arcane spell caster to fire raw arcane energy through it as bolts of bludgeoning force. Only arcane spell casters can use the blast rod’s ranged attack. The color and thematic appearance of these blasts are set by the user upon acquisition. Treat this attack as a ranged attack with a range increment of 60 feet. Each blast rod has 20 charges when created, and each bolt fired from it expends one charge. A blast rod that runs out of charges is just a smooth club until it is recharged. A blast rod can be re-charged by use of the Craft (Alchemy) skill, DC 12 at the expense of 5 gp in materials. A blast rod cannot hold more than 20 charges at a time. Attacks with a blast rod deal 1d8 points of bludgeoning damage, with a threat range of 19-20 and deal double damage on a critical hit. It has a range increment of 60 feet. Even though blast rods use the spell trigger activation method, firing a bolt from a blast rod is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. A blast rod used as a melee weapon is treated as a club for the purposes of melee combat, and crafting masterwork or otherwise special versions of them. Magical enhancements to a blast rod only affect its ranged attack. Enhancements to the melee capabilities of the weapon must be made separately. Normally, firing a blast rod requires two hands. However, you can fire a blast rod with one hand at a -4 penalty on attack rolls. You can fire a blast rod with each hand, but you take a penalty on attack rolls as if attacking with two one-handed weapons. This penalty is cumulative with the penalty for one-handed firing. Qualities Cost: 40gp, Dmg. 1d8 (bludgeoning), range: 60’, 5 lbs. (re-charge cost: 5gp) Equivalent weapon: L. Crossbow (Dmg 1d8, range: 80', Cost: 35gp + 1gp/10 bolts)
A blast staff is an alchemical weapon that allows an arcane spell caster to fire raw arcane energy through it as bolts of bludgeoning force. Only arcane spell casters can use the blast staff’s ranged attack. The color and thematic appearance of these blasts are set by the user upon acquisition. Treat this attack as a ranged attack with a range increment of 120 feet. Each blast staff has 20 charges when created, and each bolt fired from it expends one charge. A blast staff that runs out of charges is just a quarterstaff until it is recharged. A blast rod can be re-charged by use of the Craft (Alchemy) skill, DC 12 at the expense of 5 gp in materials. A blast staff cannot hold more than 20 charges at a time. Attacks with a blast staff deal 1d10 points of bludgeoning damage, with a threat range of 19-20 and deal double damage on a critical hit. It has a range increment of 120 feet. Even though blast staff use the spell trigger activation method, it takes a moment for a charge to build up, because of this firing a bolt from a blast rod is a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. A blast staff used as a melee weapon is treated as a quarterstaff for the purposes of melee combat, and crafting masterwork or otherwise special versions of them. Magical enhancements to a blast rod only affect its ranged attack. Enhancements to the melee capabilities of the weapon must be made separately. Normally, firing a blast staff requires two hands. However, you can fire a blast staff with one hand at a -4 penalty on attack rolls. You can fire a blast rod with each hand, but you take a penalty on attack rolls as if attacking with two one-handed weapons. This penalty is cumulative with the penalty for one-handed firing. Qualities Cost: 55gp, Dmg. 1d10 (bludgeoning), range: 120’, 6 lbs. (re-charge cost: 5gp) Equivalent weapon: H. Crossbow (Dmg 1d10, range: 120', Cost: 50gp + 1gp/10 bolts
I would go with unspecified damage, making it subject to DR and also clarify that it not be a ranged touch attack. For some reason it never even occured to me to go unspecified, sounds good. Good point to call out that it's not a ranged touch attack. The other balance issue that I see is that crossbows and slings require reload times, and these blasters don't seem to. I'm not sure offhand how the weight stacks up either, but many players ignore encumberance anyways. Yeah, this kind of bothered me too - obviously not enough - but I suppose I could write in a cooldown time between firings???
Blast Wand, Blast Rod & Blast Staff
Here are a trio of ranged weapons, wand, rod and staff that are equivalent to some basic ranged weapons. I’ve factored in the cost of the equivalent of 50 rounds of ammo to each. How'd I do with these, so far I've been told they're really under priced. ~ thanks in advance... Feats
Blast Wand
A blast wand is an alchemical weapon that allows an arcane spell caster to fire raw arcane energy through it as bolts of magical force. Only arcane spell casters can use the blast wand’s magical force attack. The color and thematic appearance of these blasts are set by the player. Treat this attack as a ranged attack with a range increment of 50 feet. Each blast wand has 50 charges when created, and each bolt of force fired from it expends one charge. A blast wand that runs out of charges is just a stick. A blast wand can be re-charged by use of the Craft (Alchemy) skill, DC 12 at the expense of 5 gp in materials. Attacks with a blast wand deal 1d4 points of force damage and deal double damage on a critical hit. It has a range increment of 50 feet. Even though blast wands use the spell trigger activation method, firing a bolt from a blast wand is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. A blast wand used as a melee weapon is treated as a light improvised weapon (-4 penalty on attack rolls) and deals 1d2 points of non-lethal damage. (1 lb., 5 gp) Equivalent weapon: Sling (Dmg 1d4, range: 50', Cost: 1sp/10 bullets) Blast Rod
A blast rod is an alchemical weapon that allows an arcane spell caster to fire raw arcane energy through it as bolts of magical force. Only arcane spell casters can use the blast rod’s magical force attack. The color and thematic appearance of these blasts are set by the player. Treat this attack as a ranged attack with a range increment of 80 feet. Each blast rod has 50 charges when created, and each bolt of force fired from it expends one charge. A rod that runs out of charges is just a smooth club. A blast rod can be re-charged by use of the Craft (Alchemy) skill, DC 12 at the expense of 10 gp in materials. Attacks with a blast rod deal 1d8 points of force damage, with a threat range of 19-20 and deal double damage on a critical hit. It has a range increment of 80 feet. Even though blast rods use the spell trigger activation method, firing a bolt from a blast rod is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. A blast rod is treated as a club for the purposes of melee combat, and crafting masterwork or otherwise special versions of them. Magical enhancements to a blast rod only affect its ranged attack. Enhancements to the melee capabilities of the weapon must be made separately. Normally, firing a blast rod requires two hands. However, you can fire a blast rod with one hand at a -4 penalty on attack rolls. You can fire a blast rod with each hand, but you take a penalty on attack rolls as if attacking with two one-handed weapons. This penalty is cumulative with the penalty for one-handed firing. (5 lbs., 80 gp) Equivalent weapon: L. Crossbow (Dmg 1d8, range: 80', Cost: 35gp + 1gp/10 bolts) Blast Staff
A blast staff is an alchemical weapon that allows an arcane spell caster to fire raw arcane energy through it as bolts of magical force. Only arcane spell casters can use the blast staff’s magical force attack. The color and thematic appearance of these blasts are set by the player. Treat this attack as a ranged attack with a range increment of 80 feet. Each blast staff has 50 charges when created, and each bolt of force fired from it expends one charge. A staff that runs out of charges is just a quarterstaff. A blast wand can be re-charged by use of the Craft (Alchemy) skill, DC 12 at the expense of 10 gp in materials. Attacks with a blast staff deal 1d10 points of force damage, with a threat range of 19-20 and deal double damage on a critical hit. It has a range increment of 120 feet. Even though blast staffs use the spell trigger activation method, firing a bolt from a blast staff is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. A blast staff is treated as a quarterstaff for the purposes of melee combat, and crafting masterwork or otherwise special versions of them. Magical enhancements to a blast staff only affect its ranged attack. Enhancements to the melee capabilities of the weapon must be made separately. Normally, firing a blast staff requires two hands. However, you can fire a blast staff with one hand at a -4 penalty on attack rolls. You can fire a blast staff with each hand, but you take a penalty on attack rolls as if attacking with two one-handed weapons. This penalty is cumulative with the penalty for one-handed firing. (6 lbs., 110 gp) Equivalent weapon: H. Crossbow (Dmg 1d10, range: 120', Cost: 50gp + 1gp/10 bolts)
3. Dialog - Compare: Spartans, tonight we dine in Hell!, to Tonight we dress our wounds. If that was the best they could find to put in trailer then I'm pretty sure I'm passing. ...Yeah, that's pretty damning right there.
Yeah, some stuff to consider there, (page count, negative level) but on the whole not the flavor of ancient knowledge uncovered that I'm looking for.
Thanks for the input. I guess I could lower the check to 10+spell level, I see your point. I don't want it to be pointlessly difficult. As for the caster level, I used the same assumptions as for a scroll, but I'll look closer at that...maybe double the minimum CL? The Cha mod I'll just remove, I had my particular group of players in mind and I guess I had an attack of 'beneficience' :) As for how often you can cast from the book...there's the pitfall I knew I missed. I'll put some thought on how to work that out. Incidentally, it occurs to me that I should cap the number of spells the tome holds. Thanks again.
Homebrew setting
I would appreciate your thoughts on this in general, and specifically regarding any pitfalls I may come across. Spoiler: Ancient's Magic Tome:
Activation: To activate a spell from a spell tome, a spell caster must know the page of a desired spell and read the spell written on the given page. Doing so involves the following steps and conditions
Activating a spell from a tome requires no material components or focus. (The creator of the spell tome provided these when scribing the spell tome.) Note that some spells are effective only when cast on an item or items. In such a case, the spell tome user must provide the item when activating the spell. Activating a spell tome spell is subject to disruption just as casting a normally prepared spell would be. Using a spell tome is like casting a spell for purposes of arcane spell failure chance. CASTING A SPELL FROM A SPELL TOME: Step One: FIND THE DESIRED SPELL
Step Two: ACTIVATE THE SPELL
Step Three: DETERMINE EFFECT
If the spell activation fails due to a failed check or spell interruption (but not arcane failure due to armor) there is a 25% + spell level chance of a mishap from the failed attempt. See TOME MISHAPS below. Whether the spell is successfully activated or not, the magic of that particular spell is temporarily drained from the spell tome and is not restored until 3 + spell level days have passed. TOME MISHAPS: When a mishap occurs, the spell in the tome has a reversed or harmful effect. Possible mishaps are given below. Roll 1d8 to determine which mishap takes place.
You would need to seriously limit magic in general -- not just items. That's true. I'm trying something like this with my group, and I've limited spellcasting to the bard class. It can be done, but requires more planning along the way as you balance specific threats.
Thanks for the clarification, seems to have satisfied my player...
Aside from the AoO, and the opposed strength check...is there some way to avoid a bull rush...tumble...or something. After reading the SRD there doesn't seem to be so much as a touch attack.
See my previuos posts for some details any help i give please ask I weary of searching for a thread that only directs me to an even earlier thread... *faints away* *sniff* Huh! Seriously...maybe you could post a concise summary with setting details and character creation rules? - Durendal the Impatient
I agree as well, a specific code is kind of the meat on the bones of this class's RP potential. Seems to me that it ought to be the very thing that separates the paladin from LG characters of any other class.
An interesting hook that one DM started us off with, but ultimately never got to play due to real-life issues was a Suicide Squad idea, with a party of criminals and I think one or two monstrous humanoids being coerced into a do-or-die mission. I don't know what kind of coersion he was planning...but I for one was really jazzed about unleashing my paladin of tyranny upon the world.
Interstesting, this is cool. Definately going to use this in my low-level game.
Well, that's it then. The joke is dead. Too bad, in occasional 30-second doses it was quite good.
There's a lot of Sci-Fi out there, and I love my Sci-Fi...but sometimes I just want to dive into a short-story in the old sword and sorcery vein... I know there are many novels out there, I just picked up The Dreaming Dark books, but I'm also a fan of the short story. Any ideas?
In addition, a +10 bonus to a skill check would generally cost 10,000 gp (bonus squared x 100 gp) so the pricing for the intelligent item seems out of line. >smacks self on head< That makes a lot of sense. Thanks. Love the rapid response on this board...that, and the fact the office firewall doesn't seem to mind it.
When an intelligent weapon has skill ranks as one of its lesser powers, say 10 Ranks in Bluff. The character wielding it attempts a feint...do those ranks get added to the Character's roll straight away? Or are the ranks really the weapon's ranks and simply permit the weapon to 'aid' in the feint? I've not been able to find anything specific in the SRD... Also, this is the first time using Intelligent weapons in a campaign. Anyone have any caveats or suggestions for DM'ing a game with one of these in a character's hands?
My sister plays (alas, 2000 miles keeps us from playing round the same table...) she's a buddhist, her husband is Methodist in background...dunno about the rest of her gamers.
Christian lay-minister (me) and 1 other Christian, 1 Bahai, 1 non-orthodox Jewish and 1 staunch agnostic.
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