I'm a big fan of the ARPG Path of Exile (lot of fun and totally free to play if you wanna check it out)
In the game, there is a spell called Righteous Fire, that causes you to burn for a percentage of your health as fire damage and in turn it burns all foes around you for fire damage based on a percentage of your health as well.
I really like the flavor of the ability, shrouding yourself in fire and slowly burning to death while also burning your foes around you.
Anyone have any ideas on how to translate that theme into a custom spell for pathfinder?
So I have a plan for an upcoming game where I want my party to basically have to pull off sort of an Ocean's Eleven style game. They will be tasked by an important contact to steal a powerful artifact from the castle vault of a powerful and evil lord's castle during a grand ball event.
I'd rather this be an overall combat light encounter as well as we just did a rather long dungeon crawl not that long ago and players have expressed desires not to do another one for a while.
The problems I've run into:
1: I've never run a game like this before
2: Being at the level where they are at, they have a lot of magical tools at their disposal that defeat more mundane obstacles like locks.
3: A few of the guys playing have a fair bit more roleplaying experience than me, so I don't want them to just steamroll the stuff I throw at them.
We use 5 foot squares as often as we can and as often as it's appropriate... but in the cases where you see us use 10 foot squares... that's the right choice for the map. Especially when we're trying to provide maps of particularly large locations that at 5 foot squares wouldn't fit on a half page or full page map. (And printing multiple pages of maps isn't an option, really, since that reduces wordcount and increases the amount of words we need due to there being more encounter areas...)
Would you at least consider making digital map packs with 5ft scaling for those of us that use programs? It's much easier to utilize the map when it's 5ft because it means I don't have to re-scale it in a photo-editing program. And honestly I'd pay for the convenience.
As someone who uses tokens/minuatures as well as plays often on virtual tabletops, I've gotta say that every time I see a map in a module with 10ft squares I cry out in utter frustration. Every time you do this, it's so much extra work on my part as the GM to go and try and scale this map properly so that I can use figures or use it on a virtual tabletop and not run into countless problems trying to figure out spacing, reach, token size, ect.
Paizo, I love you guys, but please, you're killing me with the 10 ft. Maps. I just spent the past 5 hours just trying to perfect the maps from Jade Regent 4 when it should have taken like 30 minutes.
So I made a thread yesterday with a powerful item and it was suggested I split it up into multiple items. Since then I've come up with additional ideas for stuff I wanted to do and incorporated them into the items presented.
These items are HEAVILY inspired by the lore of the Monkey King Sun Wukong from the Chinese novel Journey to The West.
The items, with the exception of the whistle, are all part of a set called The Regalia of the Sun Wukong. Wearing the full Regalia grants additional powers to the wearer.
Heandband of the Monkey King:
Headband of the Monkey King Aura Moderate transmutation; CL 5th
Slot headband; Weight —
Description
This headband grants the ability to speak with monkeys and apes as per the spell speak with animals. All monkeys and apes are automatically neutral to the wearer and his allies.
This item is part of the Regalia of Sun Wukong
Great Sage's Robes:
Great Sage’s Robes Aura Moderate transmutation; CL 7th
Slot body; Weight —
Description
This lush robe is covered in thick fur. The wearer grows a prehensile monkey tail. This tail can retrieve any stored item as a swift action. The wearer can also use the tail to hold an item just like an arm, but the tail cannot manipulate the item (it cannot wield a sword, defend with a shield, activate a wand, ect.).
Once per day, the wearer can pluck a hair from the robe as a standard action and summon a swarm of monkeys as the spell mad monkeys. The hair plucked grows back the next day.
This item is part of the Regalia of Sun Wukong
Somersault Cloud Boots:
Somersault Cloud Boots Aura Moderate transmutation; CL 5th
Slot feet; Weight —
Description
The Somersault Cloud Boots create a small cloud in the air as a platform for a increase the height of a jump. They provide a +10 bonus to acrobatic checks made to jump. Once per day, the wearer can gain a +50 bonus on a jump check.
This item is part of the Regalia of Sun Wukong
Nimbus Whistle:
Nimbus Whistle Aura Moderate transmutation; CL 5th
Slot none; Weight —
Description
The Nimbus Whistle summons a small, flying cloud to carry the user that can be directed at will. This functions as the spell fly. The whistle can be used three times per day.
Ruyi Jingu Bang:
Ruyi Jingu Bang Aura Strong transmutation; CL 10th
Slot ; Weight —
Description
This +2 Ki Focus Adamantine Quarterstaff was gifted by the Dragon King to Sun Wukong. As a swift action, the wielder can give the weapon the reach property or remove the reach property.
This item is part of the Regalia of Sun Wukong
Beads of 72 transformations:
Beads of 72 Transformations Aura Strong transmutation; CL 7th
Slot neck; Weight –-
Description
This chain of massive prayer beads hangs around the neck; each bead adorned with a kanji symbol for an animal. As a stardard action, the wearer can transform into any animal per the spell beast shape II. This transformation lasts for 1 hour.
This item is part of the Regalia of Sun Wukong
Regalia of Sun Wukong:
Regalia of Sun Wukong Item Set
If all of the items of the Regalia of Sun Wukong are worn together by the same person, that individual gains extra powers:
The wearer gains a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength and Dexterity.
The wearer gains the ability to detect evil constantly in a 60 foot cone. This ability pierces spells and affects that would otherwise hide/alter alignment.
Once per day, as a standard action, they may create a magic circle against evil using the Ruyi Jingu Bang. This circle lasts for 10/minutes per level of the wearer.
Looking for criticism, suggestions, and other comments.
I'm not really good with the pathfinder pricing rules.
The black raven wrote:
Also, I feel that making monkey/ape immediately helpful is too much. Great potential for abuse by a cunning player AND deprives you of great NPC interaction (ie, negotiating with the monkeys).
Good idea.
Brutu wrote:
How about instead of 1 multipurpose high CL item, divide it into a couple of low CL magic items?
You can divide it.. let's see... Sun Wukong's Circlet for the monkey talk, Sun wukong's belt for the monkey tail, sun wukong's boots for the jump (yeah, a monk surely need another boost for his jump check), A whistle for the cloud, Sun Wukong's staff, etc. Plus, give these items a bonus if the monk wears them all, that is, the beast shape ability.
Sun Wukong wields the Ruyi Jingu Bang, a magical rod gifted to him by Ao Kuang, Dragon King of the East Sea. It is an iron rod that weighs thousands of kilograms and can extend/shrink to any size Sun Wukong wishes
He also has his 72 transformations that allows him to turn into other animals and objects.
He has his Somersault Cloud with allows him to leap thousands of miles in a single leap.
Idea was to distill down some of these ideas into a powerful artifact.
I've also been thinking about making it so that when wearing the beads, if you burn a ki point to give yourself a +20 to your jump it doubles it to +40
I'm currently running Jade Regent for some friends and I like to give my players custom magic items to play with.
For my monk player I've been toying around with the idea of the Monkey King Sun Wukong and I came up with this:
Beads of Sun Wukong:
Beads of Sun Wukong Aura strong transmutation; CL 20th
Slot neck; Weight —
Description
This set of massive prayer beads confers upon any monk who wears them the powers of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong.
Upon donning the beads, the player grows a prehensile monkey tail. The monk can use this tail to retrieve a stored item as a swift action. This tail can be used to hold items but cannot manipulate them (The tail cannot activate a wand or wield a weapon or a shield). The monk also gains the ability to speak with monkeys and apes and any monkey or ape is considered helpful.
While wearing the beads, any quarterstaff in the monk's hand is considered a +1 adamantine weapon. As a swift action, the wielder can give the weapon the reach property or remove the reach property. The quarterstaff loses these properties the moment it leave's the monk's possession.
Three times per day, the monk can transform into any animal as per the spell beast shape II. The monk can maintain this form for 1 minutes per monk level. While in animal form, the monk retains his prehensile tail.
Once per day, the monk can summon a cloud that will carry him. This ability functions as the spell fly and lasts 1 minute per monk level.
Looking for thoughts/suggestions/criticism. I'm trying to keep the item in line with the lore of Sun Wukong.
I guess can someone provide me an example of what they think is a rule in Pathfinder that is holding them back from having a more narrative game? Because I am wondering if perhaps we are meaning two different things.
I think that's fanart, but it's good enough for my purposes. I was hoping maybe I could pick up the facecards as PDFs to extract the images, but doesn't look like the cards are available in PDF format which is a shame because Paizo's PDFs are so great to work with for Virtual Tabletops.
I'm looking for one for my Roll20 game's character archives but I can't find one. I've found pictures of all the runelords, but nothing of Emperor Xin. If there doesn't exist an official one, does anyone know of a good fanart?
I wanted to purchase one of these for my PFS ninja, but I don't think it's PFS legal. I don't see it listed in Additional Resources, anyway, and it would require buying the AP book, regardless.
This sounds like it's for a home game, though. I would say no, it doesn't count as armor, since it's (apparently, I don't own the book) listed under clothing, and it does not provide an armor bonus. It's more like a masterwork tool for Stealth.
The shozoku of the night wind, however, is a little less clear, since it does provide an armor bonus. It takes the body slot, though, and is also, I think, not listed with armor, so that might be a must have for a monk. Except that mage armor is still a larger bonus.
Well, Omoyani the Monk/Ninja wears the Shozoku of the Night Wind and still has her using her monk Abilities in her stat block, so I assume that it does not count as armor. But I wanted to crowd source opinions before I did.
I have a play in my game that wants to know if the Shinobi Shozoku counts as armor for a monk's abilities. If so, is that different from the Shozoku of the Night Wind from Jade Regent, as that is a body slot item that is worn and used by a monk.
This is funny. I'm actually playing in a Gestalt game where everyone starts with an 18 in all their stats before racial mods (familiars/animal companions/eidolons/ect as well). The only restriction is that we have to be martial/spellcaster mixes (with spellcaster defined as anything that gets 6th level spells). It's absolutely crazy fun.
Anything that is a Charisma caster combo'd with Paladin is just insane. I get my main casting stat to my saves.
Yeah, that's generally how I feel. Just because the two died in the last fight doesn't mean they contributed less, so I think they still deserve the EXP.
But ultimately it's your call.
Well, it's not so much that they "deserve the EXP" as they're dead, it's more I feel that giving all the EXP to the surviving two is unjustly enriching them. I decided to take your advice and divy it up by 4 except for the last fight.
We were finishing up the end of the 1st Jade Regent module and the party went through about 4 major fights, but by the end they were pretty well tapped out and Nindinzego ate two of their faces off.
I don't really have a lot of experience doing regular EXP awards, I've typically done story based exp or PFS style EXP, but I thought I'd give it a shot for this game.
I just don't know that it's fair to award two players all the EXP when pretty much all the fights were a 4 man effort.
I ran a game a few days ago where I had two characters die in the last encounter. How should I go about awarding EXP now? Do the two remaining PCs get all the EXP split between the two? Or do I divy up the EXP by 4 for all the fights but the last one and then the EXP for the two dead characters just goes to waste?
Dan, I swear to Iomadae that if you murder my paladin with your doom cleric of Calistra and her channeling I will haunt you until the Runelords raze all of Avistan.
Also, I am under the impression that as a cleric, you can always exclude yourself from your own channeled negative energy and selective channeling allows you to exclude ADDITIONAL targets.
Hmm, after reading the Bane weapons closer, I guess I'd agree that those don't work.
Holy Water, however, should work just fine.
Hmm...that's an interesting point. Holy water does say evil outsiders not Outsider(evil).
At the same time however, I thought the point of that was because Outsider(evil) is literally made out of pure evil essence. That's not the case with an Outsider(native).
I'd point out that the main antagonist of Burnt Offerings (at least in the updated Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition) is specifically called out as being immune to a Yeth Hound's bay - the character in question is considered an evil outsider, despite not having the evil subtype.
Not being an evil outside is probably why they specifically called out the NPC as being immune. That I'm fine with. The AP author is free to modify the rules and NPCs to suit the story.
Yes, I'm aware, but as far as I can tell, they won't be getting any use out of them in the 2nd module either (haven't looked through the rest). Admittedly, I missed the subtype difference as well. As it stands, I killed two players in the fight in question because the monster is just absolutely brutal for a party of 4th level PCs and my party was sadly not well equipped to deal with any of his abilities. I was just expecting the AP to have something in there to even out the fight a bit, and when I had first looked at the arrows in question, I thought that was the case. Then I got to the fight today and re-read the stat block and went "ooo..."
Wouldn't a knowledge check reveal the subtype. (With a bit of leniency from the GM.)
I would have allowed it, but the party is light on knowledges and planes is one of them sadly. I let them commit to firing one arrow before informing them the bane property didn't trigger.
I'm a little surprised to be honest:
Jade Regent:
The two big bads of the AP, Kikonu and Nindinzego, both are evil and are outsiders, but are both typed as Outsider(Native) For the purposes of Bane weaponry. Thus I was surprised that Brinewall Castle contained those +2 Bane Outsider(Evil) arrows because the party got them and was immediately of the mindset of "oh, we'll I guess we'll be using these." Well apparently not. I'm aware that sometimes loot like this is handed out for intent to be used later in the story, but it is somewhat atypical in my experiences. Especially considering how powerful Nindinzego is.
My party was playing the end of the 1st Jade Regent module today and we ran into a rules snag.
Jade Regent 1:
The party had found a number of +2 bane evil outsider arrows in the castle. Later, the party was fighting Nindinzego, the half-fiend decapus in the basement of the castle. They thought he was an evil outsider, and used the arrows, only to be sadly told by me that he was in fact Outsider(Native) not outsider evil. They presented the argument that since Nindinzego is a CE evil giant evil tenacle monster of doom, it doesn't make sense for him to not be evil. I explained that the bane rules don't care about alignment, but rather your type and subtype, and he was not subtype evil.
So what would you guys have done there? I feel as if I made the correct rules call, but I can see why they were confused.
Spoiler:
Especially because from what I can tell, there are no actual evil outsiders in the 1st AP to use the Bane arrows on, which is somewhat uncommon for an AP to put in such specific items like that and never give an opportunity to use them in that module. A misfire of Chekov's gun.
If a creature with the grab ability initiates a grapple from a distance, the rules say to move that creature to AN adjacent square. The rules however do not say which adjacent square the creature must be moved to.
Therefore, if a huge creature is facing the party in front of him, can he reach out, grab a creature, and then place him lets say in an adjacent square behind the huge creature, effectively separating the grappled PC from the party?
In the Player's guide, the section that talks about unrest says that the caravan gains unrest whenever a wagon is destroyed, but the rules lump the caravan's HP into one big pile and you don't lose anything unless your caravan loses all it's life, and then you lose everything.
I'm just curious as to why they chose to isolate fear as a separate descriptor from mind-affecting effects. The only reason I can think of is because of Paladins.
Elamdri, are you trying to figure out what creatures will be immune to Dazzling Display?
Well I'm honestly trying to figure out if ANYTHING is immune to Dazzling Display. If fear is not a Mind-Affecting Effect, then ultimately the only thing immune to Dazzling Display as per the rules are Paladins, because they are the only thing in the game explicitly immune to fear.
I've seen a lot of posts doing google searches stating that their is a difference between magical fear and non-magical fear; that it is the magical nature of the fear effect that makes it mind-affecting, otherwise it is just a condition like any other.
I know it sounds like a stupid question, but hear me out. I'm working on a Dazzling Display build and I've run across kinda a tricky question: is fear a mind-affecting effect?
The problem is that there is a lot of conflicting info out there:
For example: The CRB section on fear: No mention of it being a mind-affecting effect.
CRB Glossary:
Fear
Spells, magic items, and certain monsters can affect characters with fear. In most cases, the character makes a Will saving throw to resist this effect, and a failed roll means that the character is shaken, frightened, or panicked.
Shaken: Characters who are shaken take a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.
Frightened: Characters who are frightened are shaken, and in addition they flee from the source of their fear as quickly as they can. They can choose the paths of their flight. Other than that stipulation, once they are out of sight (or hearing) of the source of their fear, they can act as they want. If the duration of their fear continues, however, characters can be forced to flee if the source of their fear presents itself again. Characters unable to flee can fight (though they are still shaken).
Panicked: Characters who are panicked are shaken, and they run away from the source of their fear as quickly as they can, dropping whatever they are holding. Other than running away from the source, their paths are random. They flee from all other dangers that confront them rather than facing those dangers. Once they are out of sight (or hearing) of any source of danger, they can act as they want. Panicked characters cower if they are prevented from fleeing.
Becoming Even More Fearful: Fear effects are cumulative. A shaken character who is made shaken again becomes frightened, and a shaken character who is made frightened becomes panicked instead. A frightened character who is made shaken or frightened becomes panicked instead.
But then if we look at the Beastiary section on fear attacks and frightful presence, it says fear attacks and frightful presence are mind-affecting
Beastiary:
Fear (Su or Sp) Fear attacks can have various effects.
Fear Aura (Su) The use of this ability is a free action. The aura can freeze an opponent (as in the case of a mummy's despair) or function like the fear spell. Other effects are possible. A fear aura is an area effect. The descriptive text gives the size and kind of the area.
Fear Cone (Sp) and Ray (Su) These effects usually work like the fear spell.
If a fear effect allows a saving throw, it is a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 fearsome creature's racial HD + creature's Cha modifier; the exact DC is given in the creature's descriptive text). All fear attacks are mind-affecting fear effects.
Format: fear aura (30 ft., DC 17); Location: Aura.
Format: fear cone (50 ft., DC 19); Location: Special Attacks.
Frightful Presence (Ex) This special quality makes a creature's very presence unsettling to foes. Activating this ability is a free action that is usually part of an attack or charge. Opponents within range who witness the action may become frightened or shaken. The range is usually 30 feet, and the duration is usually 5d6 rounds. This ability affects only opponents with fewer Hit Dice or levels than the creature has. An affected opponent can resist the effects with a successful Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 frightful creature's racial HD + frightful creature's Cha modifier; the exact DC is given in the creature's descriptive text). An opponent that succeeds on the saving throw is immune to that same creature's frightful presence for 24 hours. On a failed save, the opponent is shaken, or panicked if 4 HD or fewer. Frightful presence is a mind-affecting fear effect.
Format: frightful presence (60 ft., DC 21); Location: Aura.
But then if we look at what the Beastiary called a mind-affecting effect, no mention of fear:
Beastiary:
Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
Furthermore, if we look in the Core Rulebook under Magic, it lists fear and mind-affecting as separate descriptors
CRB Magic Chapter:
[Descriptor]
Appearing on the same line as the school and subschool, when applicable, is a descriptor that further categorizes the spell in some way. Some spells have more than one descriptor.
The descriptors are acid, air, chaotic, cold, darkness, death, earth, electricity, evil, fear, fire, force, good, language-dependent, lawful, light, mind-affecting, sonic, and water.
Most of these descriptors have no game effect by themselves, but they govern how the spell interacts with other spells, with special abilities, with unusual creatures, with alignment, and so on.
A language-dependent spell uses intelligible language as a medium for communication. If the target cannot understand or cannot hear what the caster of a language-dependant spell says, the spell fails.
A mind-affecting spell works only against creatures with an Intelligence score of 1 or higher.
However, despite that whenever we see a fear spell, we see the following:
Any Fear Spell:
School necromancy [fear, mind-affecting]
Which makes me ask, does the fact that all fear spells are mind-affecting mean that fear is mind-affecting or are they separate descriptors for a reason? If fear was a mind-affecting effect, why not just include it and leave out the fear descriptor.
It's all rather confusing because the rules as written don't make a lot of sense. However, if you think about it logically, it doesn't make a lot of sense to be able to intimidate say a mindless construct for example.
So ultimately I'm left asking is fear a mind-affecting effect and it was just oversight that it was left out of mind-affecting effects? Or are Fear and Mind-Affecting really two separate descriptors? For example, since the spells list both Fear and Mind-Affecting, does that mean that the condition (The Fear) is not a Mind-Affecting effect normally, but the way it is being imposed (The Spell) turn it into a Mind-Affecting effect?
Or I guess put another way, is non-magical fear not mind-affecting while magical fear IS mind-affecting? Or is all fear mind-affecting?
As written in the first module, Ameiko puts up 2000 GP explicitly for caravan expenses before the caravan starts traveling, so another wagon is covered. And, yes, you need to have them buy another wagon at least, probably another cargo wagon, too. Not to mention that, if you properly assign roles in the caravan, you need more drivers, a wainwright, a cook, etc.
Ah, I missed the 2000g. Any suggestions on caravan composition/useful stuff that I should let my players know about?
I'm currently running a game of Jade Regent with 5, sometimes 6 players. I've done the math, and the starting Caravan comes with 10 spots for travelers but has 6 NPCs in it.
My party is already over capacity for the starting caravan and they haven't even gotten it yet. Should I force them to buy another Covered Wagon before they start? What if they can't afford it? Should I just given them another one at the beginning?
Fighter(Two-Weapon Warrior)/Monk. I know it sounds stupid but think about it.
Ranger/Fighter. Chose a Fighter Archetype that synergizes with the Combat Style of the Ranger Side.
Fighter/Cleric(Crusader). Take a Domain such as Glory with a Deity such as Gorum or Iomedae and Holy Crap on a Cracker. You can get a lot of Feats via the Fighter and Cleric levels. Now it doesn't require to much beyond.
Wizard/Sorcerer(Wildblooded: Sage). Use One Class for your Combat Spells and the other for your Utility and Buff Spells. Or the Reverse depending on the number you expect to Cast over the Campaign.
Oracle/Cleric. Same as the Wiz/Sor. Though less Stat Synergy.
Don't worry about stat synergy. Assume you have the stats to make your build work.
I like Small Cavaliers because it means you can use your mount in more situations. Taking the strength penalty sucks, but so does not having your mount a ton of the time.
Depends on the situation, I'll make due with whatever full cover I can get.
One time I was playing a game where we were fighting some dudes in a courtyard and I was in a 2nd story window overlooking the courtyard. Casted a spell, fell prone so I couldn't be targeted through the window. Next round, stood back up, casted another spell, fell prone again.
Was amusing to hear "Some ***hole is sniping us with a wand of magic missile from the window"
