Thank you, Nightdrifter! I should have more carefully read the thread title.
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A search found this thread after this came up in my game. Specifically, a PC or more wants to train another PC in how to get better at both melee and ranged combat. In case anyone's interested in this for their own game, I'm posting my mechanic here. I'd love to hear any feedback, as well! PC Training PC for Benefits Outside of Usual Class Progression: Any prospective student must have an Int score of at least 12. Teachers may instruct students with Int scores lower than 12 as long as the Teacher has Profession (Teacher). Any negative modifiers are added to -1 and then made positive as a multiplier to the time taken to learn the training. The negative modifiers also count as a penalty on the Teacher’s skill check to shorten the training time. Teachers must have proficiencies one level higher than the student. In the case of training for combat bonuses, teachers must have a combat bonus (proficiencies included but not ability modifiers) at least one higher than the student. The teacher also must have weapon proficiency in the style of combat under instruction. If the teaching takes place while adventuring, without a specified teaching space and materials, the time for training (in Ultimate Campaign “Retraining”) is doubled. This time might be shortened with a skill roll in Profession (Teacher), DC determined by GM. The “cost” for the student training outside of usual class progression is three skill points upon attaining the next level. (This accounts for the time and energy the student has put into training outside of the student’s usual class progression.) This penalty can take away the single skill point a PC normally always gets. These points stack, so any leftover points must be subtracted from later skill levels as well.
On-Topic: I'm approaching this from a GM's perspective: I have one player (of 5 or 6) who I would characterize as an optimizer or min/maxer, and, yes, he does offer to "teach" the other players how to do it, too, and does. The problem I have as GM is scaling encounters to the group. The problem player can just blast his way through most encounters (and they can't even touch him because of his astronomical AC), while the other characters mostly watch (he hasn't taught them to optimize as well as he, I guess) or risk death. I've talked to the player and explained how this makes the game less enjoyable for the others, and he understands, to a degree. He made the analogy to heroes of anime shows, the heroes being the most powerful characters in the show, so the show ends up being mostly about that character. Actually, my game has gotten better, because I'm learning to design the encounters better (multiple foes, scaled for particular "targets"). Here's a second consideration, and I have give it up to my min/max player for not creating a character that makes no sense but POWER. The character's abilities mesh well with the character's back stories and motivations. But I've always thought of the negativity with optimizing as being in opposition to "storytelling," like the Munckining that one poster linked to. Some of the powers, the stacking, the synergies, can become ridiculous through a narrative standpoint, and, as GM, I'm trying to tell a meaningful story. What a GM wants, perhaps, are players who choose abilities according to character concepts and not one based solely on attack rolls, damage, and AC. Liane Merciel said something about this about her Isiem character in her novels -- and cringed -- saying she built him according to story and background and not according to play, which made him, in game terms, a poorly built character. So maybe this isn't what GMs really SHOULD want. So I guess what I've done is to show how this GM doesn't like optimization and min/maxing because it makes my job harder. I've read the rules more and I've agonized over encounters more trying to figure out how to REASONABLY do anything that might make my player/s hurt just a little. Yes, I can conjure things out of thin air, I know, but I want to hold myself to the same line that I wish from my players. And for the most part they stay in line.
Thanks, Weirdo and CBDunkerson. With your help, I'll rule the Drow action as legal, keeping in mind that daylight spells or the like could surprise him with a disadvantage.
Thanks, everyone, for the interest in this "resurrection". And thanks, zainale, for the humor. But I am the GM, and it's a rules question I have, specifically the application of a spell-like ability. My Drow player response to light sensitivity is to cast darkness on himself. He believes that this will negate any penalties and still allow him to see normally--as if he were wearing sunglasses, so he need not even spend 200 gold. I reviewed the Paizo blog entry on how light and dark work, hoping for guidance, but it didn't seem to cover this. My basic question is the legality of this solution or if I'm missing something. I guess the question is what happens when a character with light sensitivity looks through darkness to daylight? The only consideration I've seen given to this is in the novel Pirate's Honor, when the half-Orc Grogul, looking into a cave, says the outside residual daylight is messing with his darkvision. In short, if this Drow solution is allowed, daylight mostly ceases to be a problem at the Greater Drow Nobility feat.
Rucka back on Wonder Woman!? Oh please yes! Thank you for bringing this to my attention. That's certainly one (probably the only) I'll be reading! And you're right. Damage has been done. Azzarello was the worst, but maybe responsibility lies with the New 52 as a whole? And Finch hasn't been able to extricate the book from its quagmire.
Well, my Drow player with Greater Drow Nobility has proposed that he simply casts deeper darkness on himself, at will, to serve in effect as sunglasses, allowing him to see normally in daylight. Is this allowed, or should his sight range only extend to the edge of his darkness? What do you think?
I would love it! I don't know if there's enough of this sort of stuff out there (or if I'm just having a hard time finding it). I enjoy the Chronicles podcast and what recently has begun (in terms of GM advice) on the Trailblazer Network. I would love, love, love something I could check in with more regularly. The more the better. I wonder if a community of GM bloggers is possible. A full community of bloggers would provide the potential for a shortish article to be posted daily. Or maybe I'm imagining something slightly different than is suggested here. I would like a ring of GM bloggers who are sharing what is happening in their campaigns specific to rules questions/disputes and storytelling lessons that individual GMs are learning along the way. Does anyone know if something like this already exists? I'd be grateful.
Nice! Thank you! This was breaking the mind of one of my players. I'm definitely going to link our group page here for his edification!
Recently my Dwarf wearing Stoneplate Armor was reduced to 1 Strength. I'm not exactly certain how the lifting and encumbrance rules work out in this situation, but it appeared that the blanket rule that a Dwarf always can move 20 feet overruled any of these considerations. I let him walk right on out of the dungeon to see to his situation. I think this is hilarious, and I love it, but if I'm running the game right, it does seem like an illogical freak of the system.
Looks like I'm late to the discussion, but I came here because I searched "what to do with an overpowered Magus" and just so many of the "overpowered Magus" sentiments here line up with my experience so far. I'm an old GM. I just started running a homebrew campaign after a hiatus of many years from 3.5. A lot of my players are kind of new to the culture -- and really a lot of them are ROLE players, that is, building characters and not so much war machines. I suspect that the Magus in my group, who has a bit more experience than many of the others, was drawn to the class precisely BECAUSE of his tendency to Power Game. I did lose my cool with him during one session, after watching him effortlessly explode yet another of my meticulously created (and supposed to be intimidating) NPCs. My lack of cool wasn't a total meltdown, but it stuck with me so much through the week that I felt the need to apologize to the group. Now combats feel like this: everybody stay alive and do what you can until the Magus can explode all of the enemies. I know he only has so much spells, but he's unbalanced in relation to the rest of the party -- and when I say he's unbalanced, please note that one of my players is a homebrewed Barbarian HALF-TROLL with Barbarian DR and 1 point of Troll Regeneration. I like the Magus character for what he's bringing to the campaign in form of story though, and I won't be showing him the door. I'm heartened to hear one of the commenters say that the Magus tends to plateau at level 10-11. We're at 5 now. We'll see how it goes. |