Electricmonk's page

or whatever its called.

Our ruling was that when you use a magic item to raise your intelligence score, you can pick one skill per modifier raised and henceforth you get max skill points in that skill. I've searched the rules and i can't find a better way than that, one that doesn't force you to keep track of what LVL you were when you gained the Magic item. Is there an official ruling? Any help would be hot.

i'm actually playing two gestalt games right now. In the one, we had to roll on a chart to pick classes, races, gender et al. I ended up with an gnome Anti-paladin/Cavalier that kicks much goblin when charging, but is little use for anything other than being a meatstick. Fun to roleplay though, think of the most vicious little bastich you know, now as a result of his Cav class he has to brag about it too. Hilarity ensues. My other game's restriction was every gestalt char had to be half rogue. I added Gnome wiz illusionist to it and got the closest thing to a beguiler that i've seen in pathfinder so far. I can flank you without being in the same room. Best. Character. Ever. But i don't get more actions, and i need to choose from the six different ways i have to catch flat footed. Yes, it does make for survivability over multiple encounters, but i don't consider myself more powerful than a simple wiz or rogue. Our problem is that our Wend night game has ballooned to 9 players, meaning that there isn't time for more than two encounters a session. What i'm saying is that i agree, my Teus night game with four gestalt chars is much more fun, and better suited to the gestalt concept. Just don't let it get ridiculous. Gms can (and mine has) limited this by seriously making magical items scarce, and tailoring encounters that force one to choose what skill set they need most. He also recently gave us max HPs per level, as he found that when the Cr goes up for gestalt chars he was whupping us easy.(he tpk'd us with Bison, a random fraking encounter). It's up to the Gm to allow Gestalt, and if he's good it can be a rewarding experience for everybody involved. But it requires work on the GM's part. If you've got such a Gm, i highly recommend it.

We're playing a gestalt game where we had to roll on a chart for everything- classes, races, alignment, even gender. Long story short, we all ended up evil, and i ended up as a Cavalier/Antipalidin gnome. Yeah, it was that or halfling, and i thought gnome was the more ridiculous option so i ran with it. How cool can my mount be, and what exactly is rules for trading up on a mount? At third lvl i'm using a wolf, but in the future i would like to gain a Worg, or even a medium dinosaur. Do i just train a new mount and then get to add the animal companion lvls retroactively? Is it totally at the Gm discretion? The wolf is fine for now, and i don't want to be accused of power gaming, but the rules aren't really clear about what to do if you want a mount with a higher starting CR. Any help would be hot.

I was under the impression that you could not stack the stigmata sacred bonus with the Vindicator's shield, which is also a sacred bonus. am i wrong here?
And the stigmata takes a standard action, as does casting the buffs..how many rounds of combat does it take you before you actually get to take a swing at something? My HV usually only has time to cast a buff or activate his stigmata. And by then he usually has to spend the rest of the combat healing our front line fighters, so it's a wash anyway. It's nice that his 39 AC keeps him from getting hit much at all, but my DM can't have that, so we fight things that can hit my Ac, meaning the rest of the party gets missed on a 1. So even being the party's secondary healer, my awesome HV can do little else but to heal, and this awesome character is wasted. Don't concentrate on you Ac is what i'm saying here.
Or do, it's your game. But try using you stigmata to up your saves instead. I find that works out better in the long run.

Dragons are not innately immune to fear, irregardless of their size.

"Irregardless" isn't a word.

The English language is all of our responsibilities.

-The Trollin Grammar Nazi.

that is awesome advice, and i wish i had gotten it last week.

Session five is tomorrow (Wednesday) and as they didn't finish the Hell town quest yet, i will be using some of that. My PCs were so annoyed to be fighting demons. "We're Eeeevil, Th demons should be heeeeellllping us!". It was such delicious revenge. I've been setting it up to allow them to control the demons, if they figure out where the final key to the tower room with the codex in it is. This was to be session five, but it's looking like i may have to extend the story an extra session to accommodate it.

There is one problem i'm having with one of the players, an 8th lvl witch. It's a feat called "Dazzling display" and it's ability to shake even a high lvl demon. Gods, this thing is broken. No save, just a lvl check against an intimidate score of, like, 35. And he whines if he can't use it. I'm all for letting the players use their Chars to their full potential, but this means that i have to figure every encounter to a -2 to everything, meaning that they either own on anything i throw at them, or are fighting things well beyond their APL, giving them more Xp then i planned on advancing them so soon. Any advice on mitigating this before they end up 3 lvls ahead of where i wanted them to be at the climax of this story? Or should i just keep adjusting my encounters and roll with it? The angels were going to get wind of their activities for the finale, but if this continues i'm gonna have to send the Gods themselves...

oh wait..i get it..Deeper darkness only makes already dark areas supernaturally dark, which then affects darkvision. So the area around the torch would still be dark, but those with darkvision could see normally(for them) Ok. it pays to read it through thrice.

And holy crap did my Pc's get powerful quickly. I started them on 6th, and asked them to be evil. That was mistake number one, but i'm dealing with it, and even giving out hero points for truly evil acts. So they cut the antagonists throat in his sleep before he even got to fight them. So their solution to the dissidents is to burn the town to the ground and salt the earth. So i had to go to extraordinary measures to prevent them from killing their superiors outright. It's all good fun.

Anyway, now that i'm starting to get really annoyed, i want to send them to hell. Not literally, but a botched demon summoning is going to bring hell to them, with all the trimmings. The river will turn to blood, darkness over the land, moon as of blood, ect... what spell rules should i use for the mist that spreads over the town? Fog cloud seems too limiting. Should i just make an effect up, one that maybe allows them to see ten feet instead of five, or one that allow the ones with darkvision to see, but sucked all the light out. The Shadow Demons they will be fighting already have something like that-DEEPER DARKNESS. But that limits darkvision, and i don't understand how that wouldn't affect the demons themselves. Any help would be hot.

where can i find a list of deities? Sorted by Alignment would be hot?

so the drow whose HD is its CL gets a CR for every CL when it's NPC, but A PC gets a LA? If the PC's LA = the CR and the CR is the CL shouldn't the PC have CL = to NPC's CL?
I failed algebra. I was an English major...

Ok so we're going to arbitrarily allow the Noble Drow at a LA of two, and around Level nine we have the option to reduce that to and LA of one if he sucks...

I think i can live with that... and considering hes gets another starting CL out of it he'll be alright with that as well.. Thanks i think...

Yeah, i'm having trouble finding the rules for Level Adjustment.
The Noble Drow Says it's CR is defined by it's class levels. And the CR 3 example has three levels of Cleric. Monsters as PCs contains an example of a CR 4 minotaur Only getting 2 Class levels but the Minotaur has 6(?) racial HD. How bad am i messing this up?

Should i instruct my player to just make his Character a Drow Cleric 5 then?

Now i'm really confused.

The Noble Drow doesn't have racial hitdice, so if it starts at 6 it gets all 6 class levels in Cleric plus all the racial benefits of being a drow?
Is there any way to mitigate that? I may have to disallow that if that's the way that works. That would be a huge imbalance. We were under the impression that it's CR took the place of it's first three class levels. I was fine with the cost to benefit ratio there...

Well he doesn't need the advice, but it really is appreciated...

PC's submitted for pre-approval, and i looks like there will be a dearth of frontline fighters. I got a strait rogue, a ranger, a Close combat w/ a bow ranger (i'm interested in seeing how he does that), a sorcerer, and a Noble Drow Cleric.

Guess which one i'm most confused about.

They're starting at 6th lvl. Drow is CR3+Cleric3=6. But in the "monsters as PC" section it says that for every three lvls of Class gained by the group the monster PC should gain an additional Lvl. Assuming that to include the "free" lvls i've started them out with, should the drow technically be starting Cleric 4? Or should that bump hit when he dings 7? Am i reading this right at all?

I'm also wondering how to best adjust encounters for a finesse heavy group. Combat is the centerpiece of our play and i realize that this calls for more traps and situational adjustments playing to the strengths of their classes. How should i adjust the combat proper? More, but weaker monsters? Hide&seek maneuvers in the dark? More saving throws?

This forum has been a well of good advice for me so far, so i look forward to your suggestions. Any help would be hot.

first time Gamemastering.
My story limited to six sessions till our regular gm gets back from holiday, and the story i want to tell just requires higher level PC's. I hate playing a low level character, and I'm sure they want to start at a higher level. I have limited them to core classes.
As for the NPC- i've found that it's way easier to steer the party with an NPC at the wheel. And she's a story element herself so best to combine the beats. Plus she let's me increase the CR so i have more options with encounters.
Good point about positioning. I was going with 4 S&S Warriors and 2 Ranged. It would be easy to add additional ranged guys if the party takes care of the originals too easy. Thanks for the help.

Great name mantis.

I'm counting on 4 PCs at lvl 6 + my Lvl 6 NPC giving me an Apl of 6 (5x6/5=6). The chart has the 6 NPC warriors at CR 1 per. We are all as experienced at PF as people who didn't do actual playtesting can be. But I'm not experienced at GMing anything other than Storyteller system. Thus the doubts. But that is good advice. the first encounter should be easy, if anything to allow me to get the feel of their Characters so i can hit them with more tailored to them challenges later. Yeah, i'm gonna go with the easy guards first, with the option to call off the worgs. And the second session is where i'll start trying to murder them.

cool beans thanks.
Any advice on balancing the encounters? the first battle i have for them is 6 NPC warriors (lvl 3) for a CR of 6 (APL 6). I'm looking at them here and thinking they're gonna get creamed really easy, even if i add a couple of CR2 Worgs. Am i wrong, or overthinking this? I have a story device for calling off the worgs if it turns out that it's too much for my PCs. My worry is that it will be too little.

Do i add in my NPC's lvl when i calculate APL? She's a bard who will cast buffs but wont fight unless she has to. I just want to avoid a TPK on the first encounter here. Any help would be hot...

The Story is only to be six sessions long, thus starting my PC's at a higher lvl. In my experience the first three lvls of any class are boring as Hades to play. Staring at a higher lvl allows for more challenging encounters, and thus more fun for my players and myself. We've been playing Pathfinder since the week before the Core came out. I've also limited the selection to Core classes only.
Basically the story i want to tell requires PCs at, at least, 6th lvl.

Yeah, you've confirmed what i expected. I do plan on being stingy with the magic items. With the exception of the ability boosting item, you pretty much just listed the starting package i was planning to give them. My story will have them working for a paramilitary organization, where the cool swag they find will belong to their employers, and the good stuff handed out according to rank. In this way i can give the the monsters as many boosts as i want, without worrying about them unbalancing the players once they're defeated.

I'm starting my PC's off at 6th lvl. What bonuses should their starting weapons and armor be? For convenience i'm starting them at +1. Am i under powering them? Will they complain? Well. ok they will always complain, but am i being fair?

thank you, it did help.

my story takes place in a cliffside town, at the junction of two rivers (like Pittsburg, only smaller), with a major port city much further downriver and dwarven mountains upriver. Is there a actual place in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting like this, or should i just make it up? I'm not using any campaign setting source material. Any help would be hot.

yes, that was a concern. I think i have a way to beat that drama, but i am relying on my players to hold off on that interparty hostility. The key is to give little hints- she waits to be invited into a home, she declines hits off the Cure wand, she claims her talisman gives her the ability to cast Gaseous Form at will. The real trick is that she will be disguised as a man, so if the players figure something's up i can reveal the little secret to cover for the bigger one. Onions, dude, layers within layers.

you know whats also helping? typing this to somebody. Thanks again for the help. I'm fleshing out my story more just by talking about it.

so wait..
first thanks for the advice this is really helping me.

do i add the ability scores listed in the vampire entry to the scores my bard already has? won't this make her way more powerful than the PCs? As an NPC her role is more to just lead the Characters along the story path, and just hit them with a Performance effect while they do the real fighting. Should i dial down her class lvl to balance her vs the PC's lvl (i'm starting them at Lvl 6)?

And i was totally on that nondetection angle. The amulet i described is going to counter all her creature weaknesses and allow for that same effect, it's an evil campaign so it won't even be questioned- perhaps i just answered my own question..i could have the amulet also depower her as a result of it's beneficial effects...hmmm..

oh..awesome..thanks.. i was using a...different site. That's really handy. The more i use this site, the more i like it. Thanks..

So..our regular Gm wants to take a break, and our backup is out for the foreseeable due to family obligations. I've volunteered to fill in for a six week period. I have a great little story developed all mapped out in six parts with two encounters per session, and have instructed my players to make characters. Now it's time for me to get down to it and really do the work...

The problem: I've never done this before.

Yes, I've have run games...Ten years ago, for an entirely different system. (Storyteller system, White Wolf games.) I've been playing d20 off in on since the red box, and playing Pathfinder weekly for the past two years, so i know my group, what they expect, how they play, the flow of a game session. It's the technical aspects of GMing that's throwing me.

Example: my "white rabbit" NPC is a bard that will travel with the group and help them, but has a horrible secret- She's a Vampire on the run from the Master vampire from which she has stolen a mystical talisman that allows it's undead owner to shed the limitations of it's condition and have the semblance of life. (See, the story writes itself!)

But how do i do that? I really don't know how to add a vampire template to a Bard. or any monstrous template to any character for that matter. or how to calculate the appropriate CR lvl for my encounters. Exacerbating this is the fact that i don't actually own the rulebook or bestiary and have to turn to internet resources in order to plan out or add anything. So that's what i'm doing here. Any help on these two questions to begin with would be hot..

Yeah we played last night and my DM let me train Holy Vindicator back a lvl, so i'm Cleric/10, HV/2. We also just killed a dragon and surprise there's a good +3 Vicious Scoimitar in his hoard, Very Handy for someone who just took Weapon Focus on that type of sword, and some halfplate that i can suddenly use. (Hooray!) Then he immediately regretted it when his monsters couldn't hit my 40AC once i used that Vindicator's Shield power. The main problem i'm finding now is that like i said, he doesn't allow time for more than one buff per encounter, and i'm still in a party of front line fighters that require healing more than another sword arm, even with the Outflank and Gang Up feats. But now i have the OPTION to jump in the fight, and really that's all i wanted. Now i do need Quicken spell so i can really smack it down, but I'm way more pleased with this character presently, and even if i still end of channel-healing every round i'll be having more fun on Wednesdays. So, there's that.

My domains are Healing and Sun (Sarenrae). And yeah that wis score was pretty low to start, as a said i was focused on channeling, which uses Cha for it's DCs. The reason was that I was the party Cleric for the first part of the campaign, and we were fighting Vampires. Now we have a second Cleric, and no more undead. So time for me to get my fight on.

I was intrigued By the Vindicator Prestige Class suggested by Firstbourn, so I've checked it out, and pending DM approval i think that's the way ill be going. Thank you all for the feedback, i will be using this forum again thanks to the intelligent and thoughtful people i've found in it's populace.

That's four feats that i can retrain, including one i never took at 11th. And believe me when i say that the cohort was built mostly because i was bored with my cleric. I am aware of the divine spells that make me a better fighter, and use as many of them as my Dm will let me before we roll initiative. (He doesn't believe in buffs, but that's another grip for another time.) The problem is that My Cleric was channel focused-with the Improved, Selective, Extra, and Elemental Channel feats. Added is Greater Spell penetration and its Prereq, and i have a bunch of useless feats against anything other than undead. I want to keep the Extra and Selective Channel feats, but i can retrain all the others to combat feats. I have decided on Outflank, because two in our group use that one so it would really help in melee. What i want is suggestions for the other three.

He he is with Ability score items added: Str-14, Dex-14, Con-16, Int-14, Wiz-18, Cha-18. He fights with +1 Flaming scimitar. He's lame. Not with a gimpy leg, just not a lot of fun.

(you know, now that i've written this down, it occurs to me that what i need is a new character. If i wasn't sure that the party would totally fail without my timely channels, even with the cohort, i would just suicide this dude and make a witch.)

I got to the session late, so got stuck playing a cleric. That was cool, as we were fighting Vampires, so i got to make a channel heavy undead ash kicking machine. But we've moved on, got a new arc, and someone took leadership so we have a cohort who is a dedicated healer. Now at lvl 12 i have a cleric who amounts to little more that a secondary healer, and a game flow that follows as fifteen minutes of everybody smashing the foes, then i roll 6d6 to channel heal everybody. Then the cohort does the same thing only better. Is there any suggestions on how i may retrain my Cleric to actually do something useful using the four feats i have available? I do have a lvl to play with to muliclass, but i'm shying away from that as my physical stats are weak. Any help would be hot.

I lose, i guess. Now that we've moved past the vampires in our campaign it's a moot point anyway. but thanks just the same.

Any suggestions for adding feats to a cleric to make him a better fighter? Now that our group has a cohort that's a dedicated healer,my cleric just buffs and flanks, but hits like a stormtrooper.

Ok i caught it, edited it, but too late. I meant the wording on "Numbus of Light" but thanks for the quick reply..

I have a similar problem with the "Nimbus of Light" Domain power. My Dm has ruled that because it fails to address this in the text, it takes one standard action to "activate" the effect. I say that because it doesn't have to be used on consecutive rounds than it can be used spontaneously. Like a litebulb-instant action. I know you shouldn't argue with the DM, but that's what we do. Any help?