Elias Alexander's page

The past couple years I've been having some trouble coming up with the type of stories that can keep my player's attention between multiple sessions. My campaigns have slowly devolved into tours of local lore and culture between whatever setpieces I can devise, and my games are suffering for it. My players have lost interest in DOING anything in the game rather than just being interested in the chance to game, and I've found myself having trouble keeping things moving once I've fleshed out the world. ( Partially because I build a campaign starting with culture and aesthetic design rather than a cool narrative that I can base things on)

So I'm wondering if any of you have advice about building a really awesome narrative start to finish that can help keep both me and my players engaged. Any help would be vastly appreciated.

Hey there all. It's pretty late where I am, but I've been up all night trying to sort out a problem that I've been working at for some months.

Simply put, I don't like How vancian magic boils down. There are a million different ways to set people on fire if you use 3rd party stuff ( which I use a lot of), but relatively little in the way of high level utility magic. Plus, if you take it to it's extremes, you get get into a whole world of issues like clerics irrigating the desert with create water spells, or the errant character with wish ruining economies.

I've tried numerous fixes. Initially since I disagreed with the idea of casters running out of 'magic juice' silly, I invented a system that required spell checks. The more you successfully cast in a short period of time, the more likely it was that you would fail. Fail hard enough and the spell backfired, usually in hilarious and/or deadly fashion.

This all seemed great until one of my characters discovered that he could just spam 'save or be knocked out' spell and zap any non-immune characters instantly. needless to say, a problem.

While this was going on I also created two or three other casting systems that worked right along side the first, but had a lot of randomness to offplay the resource that infinite magic could get. " Your spells known are a deck of cards, you 'draw' one new one each turn, and regain your spells by reshuffling the deck" , " Build a chain of spells based around a similar theme, roll some dice based on your level to determine what level of spell you cast. Sure, you might get a lvl 3 spell at lvl 1, but if you're very unlucky that meteor swarm you were planning to cast at 18 comes out as burning hands."

Needless to say, as my play testing party got up in levels, there grew to be more and more of a problem. the pure casters ended up relying on their ' easy KO' spells and while the characters with lesser spell casting didn't seem like much of an issue, I had to give out a small sigh every time one of my big threat monsters or key political npcs were taken out by a silently cast knockout spell or simply whisked out of existence by a bolt of hot plasma.

My real problem came when I ran a one shot this weekend and one of my players decided to play a blaster caster. Now, I know it's strange, but in 10 years of Dming and 4 with playing with a vary competent group, I've never had a blaster caster in my party. BOY WAS I SUPPRISED when he offhandedly tossed off a fireball and barbecued a room full of mooks. The next round: he lightning bolted the boss. The other people in the group were still getting into tactical positions and he had already ended the encounter. Needless to say there were some grumbles, and it got me thinking about Spellcasting systems again. Heck, I've even allowed a trickle of 'Book of nine swords' into my campaigns from time to time ( not the classes though, but that's a rant for another post) and I've never had a raw damage problem like this.

I'm not sure if many of you folks know about the 'Spheres of Power' system but it was on kickstarter a while ago. Simply put, it was a replacement for vancian magic that included a lot of neat ideas but removed the old spells in favor of talent tree like schools which improved in various ways as you invested points in them. There were a lot of other neat ideas in there that I'm interested in keeping, Like the DCs of all your spells being set by your ' caster level' a variable stat that scaled like a character's BAB, or how you got more ' talent points' by pinning on flaws to your caster like armor check failure, somatic components, or the need to shed blood.

My players were quite hesitant to switch to this new system when told about it, and I'm having second thoughts as well. I've decided to keep all the vancian spells in just as items. Even then however Players don't like the idea of giving a lot of their spellcasting versatility, just like I fret and worry about the ever increasing stockpile of encounter and game ending spells that's building up in each caster's back pocket.

This is why I'm asking for advice: I'm pretty much stuck at this point in time. I want to keep the utility that low level spells are so good at, your short range teleports, your Illusions, your useful buffs. Heck, I'm not even opposed to the low level damage dealing spells like shocking grasp, or even scorching ray, as they turn casters into the magical equivalent of the person in the squad with the grenade launcher: requiring a bit more skill for more pay off, and an appropriate amount of damage too.

My problem as my group climbs into higher and higher levels, those utility spells are going to go out the window in exchange for the biggest boom, or the thing that can just make their problem pop out of existence.

What say you good people? Is there any way I can give my spellcasters a steady diet of bread and butter without worrying about the growing cache of nukes in the wizard's back pocket?

Right, so, I'm going to keep this short and sweet:

Over the years I've collected a LOT of 3rd party and backwards compatible products ( one of the reason I love pathfinder so much)and it's given me an overwhelming amount of equipment, feats and spells to sort through. As part of my attempts to consolidate all this disparate crunch, I've noticed a lot of things that don't really make any sense:

A regular crossbow is a simple weapon, but attach a mechanism that saves you time and effort reloading, and suddenly it takes a jump to exotic?

A person can specialize in short blades all their life, knives, kukuris etc, but all of a sudden they're about as well off as a commoner the moment they pick up a swordbreaker dagger.

The sheer number of weapons that are only considered 'exotic' because they come from a non-european culture, rather than any needing any special training.

As such, here's my system. You divide the weapons up into various families, much akin to the fighter's weapon groups, though with a little more specificity: Sword, pole, short blade, etc, as well as families that have to do with cultural influence. Dwarves get a dwarven weapon weapon family people from a meso-american setting get one with obsidian weapons and so on.

The family itself is divided into levels of simple, martial and exotic, with your access determined by your class's proficiency, With martial proficiency ( not just the class ability, but the feat too) opening up all those weapons in the martial level of that family. Exotic weapons are chosen on a one for one basis, as par normal, but out of those families you are skilled with ( unless it's really off the wall).

A player gains access to a number of weapon groups based off of 1+ con modifier, representing the amount of time and effort they have put into training, as well as muscle memory etc.

Most feats that apply to a weapon now apply to all weapons in that weapon group ( so if you take weapon focus axe, you get bonuses on everything from greataxes to throwing axes) though others ( like greater weapon specialization) can only affect one. Much like the bastard sword, or dwarven war axe, If you are using an exotic weapon, you only take the penalties for it if you are using what sets it apart form the base weapon of the group. the aforementioned swordbreaker dagger could still be used as a dagger, but without it's nifty sunder ability.

So that's my budding system as it stands, feel free to let me know what you think, or any advise or suggestions you may have. The main reason I wanted to post this was to see if anyone had any ideas for weapon groups I might have missed, and just how finely I should be dividing them.

Thanks much!

I’m sick of colour coded dragons, I’m sick of dragons who’s sole defining feature is alignment with an environment type. The dragon that lives by the water must have powers relating to the water itself, rather than abilities that would help with it survive and fight in a semi-aquatic home. I’m tired of players knowing what to expect with just the smallest glance at a dragon’s sourcebook. Dragons that are red have fire and fire based abilities, dragons that live in cold climates have ice related abilities, etcetera . Last time I checked, dragons are their own creature type, not a sub-breed of elementals, so logically, why would they have abilities so closely tied to the terrain or elemental type. Plenty of monsters can have elemental affinity, or elemental attacks without basing their whole existence around them, showing the same level of creativity usually reserved for kid’s shows and videogames from budget videogames.

Take Hydras for instance: Large, lizardlike, something nasty in their bite and blood that fits with both the mythology/the area that the creature lives in, and a mechanic that spices up the combat encounter.
The Primal Dragons from Bestiary 2 are a step in the right direction, but they still come across as too focused in some cases. Compare the magma dragon in the 2nd bestiary to the red dragon in the first. Both have a few unique abilities dealing with the fact that they’re obviously volcanic inspired creatures, one able to melt rocks, and the other breathing actual molten magma, and having a couple of abilities dealing with that. Other abilities, like the Red dragons being able to reposition the effects of fire spells seem silly to me, and just seem to tie into the narrow focus that we’ve applied to some of the most iconic creatures of Fantasy lore.

Part of the problem I think Is all the power potential that’s tied up with arcane spellcasting. I know in 3.0, dragons were closely tied with the magical powers of sorcerers, but entwining the concept of “ dragon” and the idea of “magic” too closely is what led (in my opinion) to all the super-saturation of dragons in the later 3.5 products. You have to admit. there were more than a handful of draconic player races and classes, and enough dragon variants and knockoffs that you could run an entire short adventure with them, even more so when you’re a monster book collector like me and you get into 3rd party stuff.

Dragons with spells have always irked me, I can understand that a dragon should be a match for an entire party, but allowing a high HD dragon to cast spells just like a sorcerer just seems like throwing all the eggs in one basket. I want a dragon to act like a dragon during combat, not just a sorcerer with high AC and a massive pool of hitpoints. Spellcasting is a system that’s designed to work on it’s own, or for particular “ caster” role monsters, like the naga. Having such large spellcasting capability not only distracts from a dragon’s role in combat, but also takes up power potential that could be used to supplement the dragon’s natural abilities.

Here’s my Solution, making up a “ build your own dragon” system. With physical abilities acting a lot like an eidolon, and special abilities working much like an oracle’s mystery( selecting 1 special ability per point of CR, with higher abilities unlocked at higher HD.) This would allow you to make as physically diverse a dragon as you wish, Then slap on set of abilities suitable for whatever flavour fits.

So then, here’s why I brought this up. Do you think I should do this? It’d be a big project and my friend and I ( who are already trying to get into the RPG publishing game with OGL content) are already kinda swamped. Do you think there needs to be a system like this in place? And if so, is there anything you think it should include?

Hey there Everyone, I was just getting started on building my summer game, and The thought occured to me how different an underground city would have to be from one on the surface.

I thought I'd ask around the Forum's, getting people's advice on how exactly I could A) make a city under a mountan work B) How I can make it unique.

plotwise, the game is going to have some political stuff, overlaid with exploration. there are two factions battling for political control of the city itself, one more defensive and traditionalist, the other more expantionist and industrial.

Anyway, Just wanted to see if you all had any ideas I could use, Cant wait to hear from you,

Thanks In advance.

Elias.

Hey there everyone.

For a little while, it was tradition in my house that before every game of pathfinder we would sit down and watch this awesome Web series, Journyquest.

http://www.journey-quest.com/

being fan supported, I thought I'd bring it to these forums and try to get some support.

Hope you all enjoy it!

Hey everyone, I was delighted when I saw the playtest, I've been wanting an alternate magic system for my dnd game for so long, yet I was worried about breaking the game.

I Love the system, I Love the level of mixing and matching that it brings to preparing your old spells. It did however worry me when I saw that you had to choose between Power word magic and the classic magic system ( we need a name for that, but for now i'm going to call it "rote" magic).

part of the problem I have with the system is that it only covers elements from the more basic spells. worse yet, the spells seem to have even less flexibility than the usual spell system. I understand that this is only a playtest, and what we are getting is only a small slice of what will eventually be in the book, but it's worrying to see some of my favorite, more versatile spell elements missing.

to put my problem into words, look at it this way. you've got plenty of ways to throw lightning, acid, or whatever other element you please.... But how do I replicate spells like stoneshape, animate objects, or

so I'm making a list here of elements I'm sorely missing, and invite you to do the same.

Teleportation (from short jumps to world spanning, would be a great addition to the word system. I've already got a spell brewing in mind where the player teliports a short distance and unleashes a nasty explosion at either the beginning or end of their trip)

Shaping ( from shaping and manipulating elements around them to creating material on the spot, shaping spells, when combined with the power word system would be even more versatile then they are now)

Force of movement ( different than say, a force effect.... this category includes pushing and pulling objects, yourself(flying)and knocking foes around. Imagine a spell that pulled/pushed a foe, combined with the short range line...... you could pull someone towards you, push them away, Pull a low flying creature down to the ground, or throw someone up in the air and let them fall.)

Negative space ( words affecting negative space would allow you to create self contained spaces, like the rope trick or the secret chest spells, and at higher levels, would allow you to negate physical objects. )

The last one I have is hard to name, but these sorts of words would summon objects into being. Perhaps creating a temporary item, or an attack spell with a duration like Mage's sword.

anyway, those are my ideas for now, I Look forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with.

Hey there everyone, Elias here, .... I've Posted on the Forum a few times looking for help or handing out my two cents...... but today I'm looking to build something from the ground up with all of you.

My current pathfinder setting has a very simple rule, stay above ground, and in the light, and you're ok..... go underground in the dark.... and your sanity is fair game. I've had Ghoul Nests and Derro dens... and mindflayers in alien ruins.

I really want to hammer the dichotomy home with this next adventure... I haven't gotten many ideas yet, but i know i want it to be dark, unforgiving and claustrophobic. so far, the only Concrete concept that i have is that the entrance to the dungeon in this adventure is in a well.... it will be dark and wet, and not many ( if any) direct combat encounters.

so then friends, Have any ideas for me?

Hey there everyone.

due to a general lack of being able to plan four days ahead, My Players Have left me with a lot of free time on my hands, and as such, I've decided to start laying out our next little foray into my Homebrewed setting. This time is on the remote country of Mardan, a place where, before it's settlement by humans, Great empires of Shifters fell into thousands of years of animal savagery, then rose again to even greater heights.

Like humans do, I'm planning for the human race to have spread out across the Contanant a long long while ago, and have taken all the good land for themselves.

The reason I reached out to you all, is for help with one particular group of humans, a small country in the area that has long remained isolated. Now, caught between the mountains and the sea, this little country borders a much larger, and stronger one, that has long been just a bit hostile towards it's neighbor.

Now, part of the reasons this little country has remained to independent, is it's unique access for ( whatever reason) the plane of Mirrors. Now, Inspite of the name, The Plane of Mirrors is an original creation that allows those with access to it to walk into one Mirror frame, through the worldlet, and out of another frame big enough to support them.

To be plain, I need help with the rules, systems and creatures for this Mirror world, and I could think of no one better out there to ask.

so then, anyone got any ideas? any help you could offer would be Great.

Pretty much what the title says, I've been detailing the races for my home setting, and I find that there needs to be something around to build all those mazes that the Minotaurs live in. I'd totally be ok with using 3rd party sources. What I need is something smaller, that the players can chop through before coming to fight the slave drivers.

anyone got any ideas?

Thanks.

Hey there everyone, Alexander here.

A little while ago, I finished Bioware's " Dragonage: origins" and aside from a lack of voice acting on my character's part, I had a lot of Fun.

That however Is besides the point, What I'm really interested in is a way of using a system of magic that involves using the blood of living creatures as a power source.

This system, while powerful, needs to not be unbalancing, and though I hope the rules I've got here will suffice, I'd Love some feedback from the Community before I bring it into my game.

With that said, Let's begin!

Feat: Bloodmage

Prerequisite: caster level 1, ( only people who can do magic can use bloodmagic)

Special: this feat may only be awarded by the DM after appropriate plot development, It is impossible for someone to learn Bloodmagic on their own.

Benefit: The character may now begin the journey on the long and painful road of blood magic. This process begins by either creating or finding a grimoire. In order to create a Grimoire, the Player must, over one week, collect the grisly materials that will go into the construction of the tome. this process involves dealing a total of 2d6 damage to living creatures(this can include yourself) as you harvest skin, carve bone, and stitch with sinew. There is no setback if the creature dies during this process.

To finish crafting the Grimoire, the Aspiring Bloodmage must make a Bookbinding check, DC 15, paying 50 sp for needed materials. This check represents the week's worth of effort, culminating in an hour long ritual where the bloodmage deals 1d6 damage to themselves as they let their blood flow into the bindings of their new Grimoire. If the check fails, all the specially harvested materials are wasted, and the Grimoire fails to hold together. the 50sp worth of bookbinding materials may be used again in further bookbinding checks. If the check fails, the Bloodmage must begin to harvest materials anew.

If the bloodmage wishes to Bind a Grimoire constructed by another, they must undertake an hour long ritual, during which they make a spellcraft check = 15+ the highest level bloodspell in the Tome, as well as dealing themselves 1d6 damage per the highest level spell in the book. If the attempt fails, the secrets of the book remain hidden from the caster for another week.

If the bloodmage finishes either of the rituals, they find themselves able to recall and record the dread secrets of blood magic from their new tome, which functions exactly like a spellbook, except for the fact that bloodspells may be inscribed inside it. A bloodmage may have a number of Grimoires equal to their HD.

to write a bloodspell into a Grimoire, a mage follows the same rules as inscribing any other spell. however, in addition to paying the material component, they must also use an ammount of their own blood, spilled during the hours of inscription.

a bloodmage may inscribe any spell they know that is on the bloodmage spell list into the grimoire. They may also do this with any spells on scrolls or used in the creation of magic items that they have determined with the usual spellcraft check.

A bloodmage may prepare a number of bloodspells per day equal to their usual base spells per day ( not including domain spells, or bonus spells). Regular spells and bloodspells do not stack for the number of spells prepared per day,

However, in order to prepare these blood spells, a Bloodmage must consume life energy equal to the energy used up by the spell. This is represented as a " blood pool," a floating tally of points that the bloodmage has access to when preparing spells.

when preparing spells, the bloodmage enters an hour long trance, in which they must sacrifice a number of living creatures. for every HD of creatures the Bloodmage sacrifices, They add a point to the blood pool, and at the end of the ritual, they may spend a number of blood points to prepare each spell, equal to that spell's level. When this ritual ends, the bloodmage mage loses all bloodpoints from the blood pool, but may set aside a number equal to their level into a bloodpoint reserve.

the bloodmage may keep a total number of Points in reserve equal to twice their HD, either saving them for later, or calling upon them to aid in times of need.

At any time, as a standard action, a bloodmage may shed their own blood in order to gain access to the bloodpool.

the bloodmage may deal themselves 1d6 damage per blood point they wish to spend, in order to cast a spell, with the spell's level being the number of bloodpoints needed in order to cast.

alternitively, a Bloodmage could apply any metamagic feat they know to a spell, by dealing themselves 1d6 damage per level of the spell after it's modification, and paying the number of bloodpoints equal to the spell levels added.

well then, that's it everyone. That's my prototype, I'd love it if i can get some comments, or any advice on how to make it better.

Hey there everyone,
For the last four months, I’ve been building my own Champaign world from the ground up. Political strife between elementals shatters mountains and creates rivers in the desserts in the south, while in the grasslands to the east, the veil between the Waking world and that of dreams is almost unnoticeable.
I’ve got plenty of little hacks to spice up adventuring, from pools of points that are used to accomplish the impossible, to materials that can be scavenged from monster carcases to make better items.
Magic however, is just as it is. I can’t think of any way to change the base system (Which I find quite balanced, when Held up over all,) without unbalancing it. I want a little bit of verity in how magic is performed in different areas. Fluff and Flavour wise..... I’m all over it, I’ve got some mages who use complex arcane formulae, others who use magically charged thread to weave their spells, and a group of centaur necromancers who channel their magic through songs played on flutes made of willow and bone.
What I’m stuck with is the actual mechanics; I want the flavour of the magic to pour through into game play.

ON a completely different note, I was interested in somehow making some sort of pact system with spirits. Yes, I know of Binding magic, I love it, but it’s not quite what I’m looking for.
These spirits exist on some of the overlapping planes in my cosmology, they are strange, alien, and have their own motives for these deals. Some might play out like Faustian bargains, granting large amounts of power or wealth in exchange for the character’s soul (inability to be resurrected in game terms). Others might involve the opposite, great sacrifices of gold and blood in exchange for immaterial things. My challenge is like the one above... creating a concrete system that won’t break the game, while creating a system specifically for breaking Reality.

I’m going to keep thinking about this, but any help would be Greatly Appreciated.

Hey there everyone,
For the last four months, I’ve been building my own Champaign world from the ground up. Political strife between elementals shatters mountains and creates rivers in the desserts in the south, while in the grasslands to the east, the veil between the Waking world and that of dreams is almost unnoticeable.
I’ve got plenty of little hacks to spice up adventuring, from pools of points that are used to accomplish the impossible, to materials that can be scavenged from monster carcases to make better items.
Magic however, is just as it is. I can’t think of any way to change the base system (Which I find quite balanced, when Held up over all,) without unbalancing it. I want a little bit of verity in how magic is performed in different areas. Fluff and Flavour wise..... I’m all over it, I’ve got some mages who use complex arcane formulae, others who use magically charged thread to weave their spells, and a group of centaur necromancers who channel their magic through songs played on flutes made of willow and bone.
What I’m stuck with is the actual mechanics; I want the flavour of the magic to pour through into game play.

ON a completely different note, I was interested in somehow making some sort of pact system with spirits. Yes, I know of Binding magic, I love it, but it’s not quite what I’m looking for.
These spirits exist on some of the overlapping planes in my cosmology, they are strange, alien, and have their own motives for these deals. Some might play out like Faustian bargains, granting large amounts of power or wealth in exchange for the character’s soul (inability to be resurrected in game terms). Others might involve the opposite, great sacrifices of gold and blood in exchange for immaterial things. My challenge is like the one above... creating a concrete system that won’t break the game, while creating a system specifically for breaking Reality.

I’m going to keep thinking about this, but any help would be Greatly Appreciated.

Hey all, I Was just looking through the Corebook, and i found that apparently you can add Treasure maps as part of a Treasure horde.

I usually just slide a map into the villian's loot, as it sometimes makes for some great plot advancement. ( congradulations, you've found the deeds to a castle in a town not to far away from here.... badnews... it's in ruins... and secretly full of illithids)

I however wanted to give the party a little taste of this before all the brain slurping goodness with a map that leads them to a completely non-essential dungeon crawl.

This being a non essential dungeon... i want to give the party an option of selling the map to this dungeon for some gold if they dont want to actually do the Crawl.

I was just wondering how much a map would go for, so i'd know the selling price, as well as how much it should be worth in the horde.

Alright, I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to find an appropriate race of humanoids to fill this one part in my game world. They need to be something alien, but something that can be played from level 1.
Let me break down the scenario.

Throughout the campaign, the players have been dealing with the creations of a long gone Alienist named Grinning Zeke. (In my world, an Alienist is someone, usually a spell caster, who is obsessed with the inhuman forms of aberrations, and attempts to summon, create, and breed such creatures)

Grinning Zeke created an aberration that, when it was fully grown, it would be able to devour worlds, but since it was too dangerous to let grow on his own plane, he sent it to a smaller, alternate material plane. More specifically, he sent it into the past of that world, so that it would be fully grown within his (unnaturally extended) Lifetime.
He was however defeated by a group of adventurers, who then went on to their individual lives. One of whom, (the wizard) kept his spell book, and was very interested in this so called “empty world” that was mentioned in the alienist’s notes.

Two centuries later, The Wizard’s order (and descendant) has cracked open a portal to this new plane, and has decided to go exploring..... With my party in tow.

The plane they discover is a black, barren world with no sun, no moon, and no stars in the sky. Just a white dessert full of precious stones, and in the distance, a massive tower.

It’s the people in this tower that I need help creating. I need a humanoid race (not monstrous humanoid) that can be used just as well as any other basic race in the main book.
I might create one from scratch, but if anyone knows anything that would fit, it would be very, very grateful.