Elizaveta Vladimira's page

All right, we start in a few hours to give Victor Hughs some time.

Got the discussion thread up.

Post here when your characters are ready.

Victor Hughs is the final player, then. I'll post the discussion thread now, and we can start RPing when everybodies characters are finished.

Ridley Blix, Wesley Furfoot, Marius Hawk, and Desmond Valourous are accepted. We will start once I have one more player.

Count me in. Is it acceptable to have multiple bags of tricks?

Yes, but if you pull out a heavy horse or riding dog I'll ask you to re-roll.

Not to worry, I've run down a link on the Wizards website for the 3.5 version. Never did get around to reading it, but it certainly struck me as a heck of a free download.

There we are.

Thanks.

Now that I've got the adventure in my possession, who's still interested?

Yes. That's the party level.

No. I don't feel like dealing with LA. I loathe LA.

Take a couple days. My limits were too tight. Sorry.

Plus, I can't find my Tomb of Horrors books, so I need some time.

Stats are 20 PB, starting gold is 46000 GP, and 3.5 spells are handled on a one on one basis.

Excellent. I accept characters tonight.

No vampires please. I'm thinking of coming up with a system for monstrous PCs (My idea is to take all the monsters people want to play and balance them with each other so that we have a bunch of equal races), but not right now. That will be a separate RP.

...

would balancing the encounters to the party not be possible?

...It's Tomb of Horrors. It's supposed to be brutal.

We've agreed on giving everyone a limited number of lives, so that they can die a few times before they are screwed.

I want a party of 5, and we have 1 person with a statted character, so go ahead.

Although you can have 7 characters, you do not have to. You can have anywhere between 1 and 7, as when you die you get a choice between coming back as the same person and reincarnation as someone else.

Go ahead and roll up 9th level characters. We use the 3.5 version.

Any room for a female elf rougue?

Yes.

Lucky number 7?

I have several Tomb of Horrors adventures, from the 1978 original onward, and I'm about to play one using Pathfinder rules. In your guy's opinion, which Tomb of Horrors is the most fun? I haven't ran any of my Tombs of Horrors yet, and I don't know which to pick.

What if we went with a set number of lives, but you can have either true resurrection or reincarnate? If you go with true resurrection, you come back as the same character, but if you go with reincarnate you go come back as a different character of the same level (which you may design at the beginning of the game). Does that work?

How many lives should be handed out?

What about a nine lives sort of thing, where you get an immediate true resurrection if you die, but you only have so many lives, and die permanently if you lose them all?

I have a Paladin concept that I had in a ToH that never go beyond I think like first encounter. Apparently ToH kills D/GMs just as easily as it does PCs LOL

Anyways, the concept in mind would be akin to the WoW Paladn, very capable of solo surviving encounters(not ToH mind, just in general)

If possible, i'd like to be an Aasamir but otherwise I'll just go straight human.

There might be a few 3.5 magical items or feats i'd be interested in, but nothing too insane, I don't think.

Aasimar are fine.

Eidolons make my head hurt, so I don't like to work with the summoner class. Summoning spells are fine.

I'm open to suggestions on death. I'm considering either a 9 lives sort of thing (a limited number, not necessarily 9, of instant true resurrections upon death) or giving people back up characters. I think the limited number of lives would be best, but if you guys don't like it, we can try something else.

Look at it again, I removed the racial class part.

The Paragon classes are great, but need a little work to get up to pathfinder power level.
The Bloodlines are nice provided you tweak the rules about them a bit, as my group did when we used them.

It's more flavor than anything else with the paragon classes. I won't disallow them, but I don't plan on converting them myself, either.

The bloodlines are all right, but I just don't feel like tweaking them. If you can do it and your works looks balanced, I'll allow them.

As long as you don't pull out the monster classes, we are fine. Making monsters available as player characters. Excellent idea. I like it. Using classes to do the balancing? Horrible idea.

High chance of death/dismemberment? Action packed? Sign me up! I don't really have any clue on what the difference between the three versions is, so whatever floats your boat. As long as the challenges are actually possible to overcome and not "oh your character managed to say the forbidden secret magic word, he is now polymorped into a tomato" if you know what I mean ... :)

I feel compelled to give you fair warning: Tomb of Horrors is the ultimate killer dungeon, and I've heard of it taking waves upon waves of characters to defeat.

When you say racial class, do you mean Unearthed Arcana style racial paragon classes, or Savage Species style monster classes? I'm not a big fan of the racial paragon classes, but the monster classes are far, far worse.

Some classes require more work than others.

I'll be looking at feats, spells, racial classes, and templates.

Do note that I have 35 3.X books and have read next to all of them, So I have a lot of material to filter through for ideas

35 3.X books? That's all? (Meant in jest, not a condescending manner.)

I have far more than 35. I'm actually afraid to count them all. Hell, I have more than 35 AD&D books, and I never even played AD&D.

Gods damn, am I obsessed with D&D.

As you have guessed, I have been through all the versions of the Tomb of Horrors. Is that going to be a problem?

Not as long as you don't clue everyone else in (Including me. I have a few Tomb of Horrors adventures, but I have yet to use them.).

sounds slightly tempting.

would official 3.5 content also need review?

Yes, it would need review. I'd rather have 3.5 spells and feats asked for than 3.5 classes, as those require a bit of work.

I'm whipping out Tomb of Horrors, and the players have been fairly warned that I am whipping out Tomb of Horrors. As you all know, Tomb of Horrors is brutal, and PCs are going to die. How should I handle this in such a manner that the players who lose their characters don't have to sit and twiddle their thumbs while everyone else plays?

I am itching for a chance to whip it out, and for that I need some people willing to play.

For those of you who do not know what Tomb of Horrors is, it is a dungeon originally created in 1978 by Gary Gygax that has seen multiple reiterations over the years. What links all iterations of Tomb of Horrors is incredibly steep difficulty and lots of PC deaths. It is not a dungeon to be entered lightly or using characters one is highly attached to.

Now, if you guys want to play, I have three Tomb of Horrors adventures we can choose from. Regardless of which one we use, we will play with Pathfinder rules and I will adjust things as necessary. I have:

The 1978 original
Greyhawk Return to the Tomb of Horrors
3.5 Tomb of Horrors

The character creation rules will depend on which adventure you guys want, as they are designed for adventurers of different levels. Regardless of which we go with, stats are 20 point buy and traits are not being used. I plan to allow all classes and alternate classes from GRB, APG, UC, and UM except the Gunslinger, Anti-Paladin, Cavalier, and Summoner. Archetypes are allowed, but nothing involving guns or mounts, please. I do not wish to have guns or mounted characters. No evil characters, please.

The following house rules will be in effect:

Barbarians, monks, and druids do not have alignment restrictions.

Paladins may be of any Good alignment. If a paladin chooses not the be Lawful Good, they will be given an alternate code of conduct and switch out a few spells. The GM will write this code of conduct and decide which spells to add and remove. The same applies to anti-paladins and Evil alignments.

If a player wishes to use third party content, the GM will review it to see if it is balanced and fits the campaign. The GM is the final arbiter as to whether or not such materiel is acceptable.

Stark is banned because I couldn't figure out whether or not that was meant to be insulting.

Also, I think you left out korean vampires who hover ethereally near their victims draining their life-force as they sleep and willing to follow them anywhere until they kill them.

Please tell me more. I haven't heard of this particular vampire.

I've read a lot about psychic vampires and nothing hints at creating spawn. I have read about them being able to use remote viewing and can stun people with bursts of psychic energy. I think it would make a better class than template, personally.

Maybe a Wizard archetype or Sorcerer bloodline?

They have to be created somehow if I decide to make them a template. Plus, Pathfinder isn't exactly a bastion of truth to myth. Just look at the original vampire.

I don't know about remote viewing, but stunning could definitely be added.

EDIT: Hell, I could make a Wizard archetype, Sorcerer bloodline, and template, and put them all in the PDF for GMs and players to choose which they like best. Variety certainly cannot hurt anything.

More

And more

The lulz are endless.

You know what this needs? More abilities. Ideas?

I'm writing a PDF called Bite Me. It's all about vampires in Pathfinder, and it includes not only fluff, but some new vampire types. I have one ready for your opinions: the Psychic Vampire. I'm also making Leanan Sidhe, those creepy floating vampire heads, Wood Wives, Dearg-Dul, Strigoii (only some Strigoii are vampiric, though), a Chinese vampire who's name escapes me, a couple movie inspired vampires, feral vampires, Stokerian vampires, and a race of living vampires for this PDF, but at the moment the psy vamp is the one that's ready. Take a look:

Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?

Vinland Forever wrote:

Liz Courts wrote:

What jreyst is saying is that if you want them, you'll either have to get the Adventure Path issues that they are in, as they are not available separately from them.

Odd. Some AP stuff is on the D20 PFSRD.\

That's not the official PRD, I should note—D20 PFSRD has always picked up some parts of our products for inclusion on their site. I'm not sure that they do EVERYTHING though.

If you can find what you're looking for there, that's great. That's not something we officially produce, though, so I'm not sure you'd be willing to go with that or not.

They don't have the vampires. I'll either buy the PDFs of the issues you mentioned or write up my own stats.

What I do plan to do is make a psychic vampire template. This PDF I'm making really should have one. Psychic vampires are cool. I'm also making Leanan Sidhe, those creepy floating vampire heads, Wood Wives, Dearg-Dul, Strigoii (only some Strigoii are vampiric, though), a Chinese vampire who's name escapes me, a couple movie inspired vampires, feral vampires, Stokerian vampires, and a race of living vampires. This PDF isn't just repackaged stats. I've got plenty of my own stuff to offer.

Elizaveta Vladimira wrote:

jreyst wrote:

Elizaveta Vladimira wrote:

My understanding is that the monsters in the Pathfinder Adventure Paths are open game content. I would like to know where I can find the stats for these creatures. Specifically, I would like off of the vampires. It's for something I've been talking to James Jacobs about: a PDF that both contains all the official Pathfinder vampires and a whole bunch of new ones straight from my brain, plus pre-gens. I've found a couple on the D20 PFSRD, but that's it. Is there somewhere I can find the rest?

Yeah, in the Adventure Paths :)

I don't use prepared adventures. I just need the monster stats so I can recompile them in the PDF (which James Jacobs confirms is permissible).

There's a lot more in the Adventure Paths than there are just adventures. I suspect that even if you're just buying a few to get the vampire stats, chances are good you'll find more in there as well. Pathfinder #8 has stats for the Nosferatu, but also has a neat article on how plagues and sickness work in a fantasy setting, as well as an article about Abadar. And several other new monsters. Pathfinder #29 has stats for the vrykolakas, but also has a handy article about fantasy RPG thieves' guilds and a big article about Asmodeus. And several other new monsters.

Needless to say, two adventures. Even if you don't use published adventures, I suspect you're always in need of maps—using maps from adventures saves you time and lets you focus on creating your own adventure. Or at the very least, published adventures are a VERY handy place to grab pre-build NPC stat blocks.

Anyway... yeah. The only place I know of that has these stats are in those two Adventure Path volumes. Which more or less implies that you'd need to buy those two (or, at least, the PDFs) to get the stats.

Thanks for clearing that up. I can get the PDFs off this site, right? Depending on cost, I'll either buy them from here or just write up my own stats. Thanks for telling me which issues have vampires.

What jreyst is saying is that if you want them, you'll either have to get the Adventure Path issues that they are in, as they are not available separately from them.

Odd. Some AP stuff is on the D20 PFSRD.

Elizaveta Vladimira wrote:

My understanding is that the monsters in the Pathfinder Adventure Paths are open game content. I would like to know where I can find the stats for these creatures. Specifically, I would like off of the vampires. It's for something I've been talking to James Jacobs about: a PDF that both contains all the official Pathfinder vampires and a whole bunch of new ones straight from my brain, plus pre-gens. I've found a couple on the D20 PFSRD, but that's it. Is there somewhere I can find the rest?

Yeah, in the Adventure Paths :)

I don't use prepared adventures. I just need the monster stats so I can recompile them in the PDF (which James Jacobs confirms is permissible).

My understanding is that the monsters in the Pathfinder Adventure Paths are open game content. I would like to know where I can find the stats for these creatures. Specifically, I would like off of the vampires. It's for something I've been talking to James Jacobs about: a PDF that both contains all the official Pathfinder vampires and a whole bunch of new ones straight from my brain, plus pre-gens. I've found a couple on the D20 PFSRD, but that's it. Is there somewhere I can find the rest?

Elizaveta Vladimira wrote:

Ah. I don't buy the adventure paths, so I wouldn't know. Can't I get all the stuff from them from the SRD website? Are these creatures OGC? Let's say I wanted to collect them all in a PDF and distribute it (free of charge, of course) to other vampire fans so they have all the vampires in one handy document for easy reference? Is this allowed by the OGL?

With about 5 exceptions (out of about 300 or so monsters we've published in the Pathfinder Bestiaries since the start), all of the monsters are open content. They are NOT part of the official SRD (we don't really have the resources or time to keep up to date on ALL of our content there, and instead just focus on the rulebooks), but monsters from the Pathfinder APs do frequently make it into the hardcover Bestiaries.

Collecting them in a PDF and distributing it is legal, assuming you follow the rules of the OGL and PRD and all that... but it's kind of lame in my opinion if ALL you do is "redistribute vampires." A product like that would be MUCH more interesting to me if it also added to the game by presenting as many or more NEW vampires. That's what the open game movement's about—adding new content and building upon previous content.

There are some new vampires I have ideas for. Specifically, I want to make Pathfinder versions of the Leanan Sidhe, Wood Wife, and Dearg-Dul, a Psychic Vampire, and a living race of Vampires. I just want to redistribute all the existing vampires with it, because a Vampire PDF should have all the vampires in Pathfinder.

The OGL is seriously awesome. That's why I bought into Pathfinder instead of going 4E.

Is the Paizo PFSRD different from the D20 version? I use the D20 version.

Elizaveta Vladimira wrote:

Hmm. Why does there even have to be a single vampire in Pathfinder? There are lots of myths, so why not have lots of different types? You could put a whole bunch in Bestiary 3 or 4. Or publish a separate supplement filled with new vampires. You could call it Bite Me. Such an awesome name.

There's not. There's a single vampire in the Bestiary, but we've detailed variant vampires several times. The nosferatu is in Pathfinder #8, for example, and the vrykoloakas is in some later Pathfinder. There's a few more variant vampires coming in Bestiary 3 as well, and there's even more variants in "Classic Horrors Revisited."

Ah. I don't buy the adventure paths, so I wouldn't know. Can't I get all the stuff from them from the SRD website? Are these creatures OGC? Let's say I wanted to collect them all in a PDF and distribute it (free of charge, of course) to other vampire fans so they have all the vampires in one handy document for easy reference? Is this allowed by the OGL?

Dotting for interest. I do believe I shall play a human witch. I can have a character ready for you tomorrow.

Edit: Alignment is neutral good.

Have you ever considered becoming a vampire? Vampire Merisiel would be awesome.

Elizaveta Vladimira wrote:

Why is the Bestiary vampire so heavily Dracula-based, yet killed by sunlight? The Stokerian Dracula was not harmed by sun exposure. Come to think of it, what's with the running water thing?

There's about 340,208 different vampire myths. We chose to use 20 or so of them in building the Pathfinder vampire. Some were from Stoker's novel. Some from movies based on his novel. Some from other sources entirely.

The ones we chose to go with, as it turns out, are pretty much the same ones the game's used since the start, in any event.

Hmm. Why does there even have to be a single vampire in Pathfinder? There are lots of myths, so why not have lots of different types? You could put a whole bunch in Bestiary 3 or 4. Or publish a separate supplement filled with new vampires. You could call it Bite Me. Such an awesome name.

Why is the Bestiary vampire so heavily Dracula-based, yet killed by sunlight? The Stokerian Dracula was not harmed by sun exposure. Come to think of it, what's with the running water thing?