I was not sure where to place a session recap, but I recently started a Carrion Crown campaign with myself as DM. I had a preparation thread for it here.
And now, the recap itself!
Haunting of Harrowstone:
Our tale begins as the four player characters, all either friends or at least acquaintances of Petros Lorrimor, arrive at Ravengro in the evening to attend to his funeral. While getting ready to bring the professor's coffin to its proper place, the four were asked if they wished to help carry him. All but one (Maeve) volunteered as pallbearers, carrying the coffin until the group runs into a bunch of rowdy locals telling them not to bury "that necromancer bastard" in the graveyard. Celeste managed to solve the issue peacefully, appealing to sense and respect for the deceased with a Diplomacy check. Gibs Hephenus, the ringleader of the bunch, was confused as the crowd dispersed, but reluctantly left the scene as well.
Father Grimburrow and his gravediggers buried the dead professor, while a tiefling priestess named Sotiria gave the last rites to the man before stepping aside and letting the people in attendance give a speech. The four saw a man in fine clothes give a speech, respectfully referring to professor Lorrimor as a good man and an even better teacher, informing the group that he must depart to attend to something right after. Kendra holds a speech of her own, and then explains that the man they saw was Adivion Adrissant, a nobleman and wizard who was a student of Petros back in the day. She seemed as confused about his presence and sudden leave as they were, but then invited the four over to read the professor's will.
While waiting for Councilman Vashian Hearthmount to arrive, the player characters had some food and drinks while introducing themselves to each other. Dampérenovich insisted that he simply be referred to as Dampé due to the length of his name, but Malthazar remarked that if they learn his name well enough, he shouldn't worry about needing to have it shortened every time. As the councilman arrived, he found himself bemused by the fact that all four of these guests were clearly not human, but then proceeded to read the will, letting the four pick up the key while he kept reading. After finishing the job, he bows and takes his leave. Kendra then brings the chest that the key goes to to the table, letting the four check its contents.
They open the chest to look through its contents, with Malthazar picking up the professor's journal and reading the circled entries. Funny enough, Lorrimor's handwriting caused people to take turns reading the journal, with Celeste and Dampé taking turns while Maeve glanced through the other books, putting them away in disgust once they realized the contents of the dark tomes. After they had checked through them all, Kendra decided to call it a night, as she had run out of steam by that part. Maeve did the same, and the other three soon followed after trying to do some research concerning the Whispering Way.
Once dawn arrived, the four wasted no time and quickly went to do some more research on Harrowstone, the Whispering Way, and the Five Prisoners, making good use of the Temple of Pharasma as well as the Town Hall, both of which they got to with a bit of luck and rolls. Not only did they get the last bits of info they were looking for, but they also discovered the name of Warden Hawkran's wife Vesorianna, which coincided with the mentions of a bloody smear in the shape of a "V" letter marking the local stone monument to the guards of Harrowstone. They then proceeded to fetch the items from the False Crypt, having received permit from the clergy of Pharasma. While one of the giant centipedes managed to surprise Maeve, nobody was seriously harmed in the encounter. As evening began to set in though, strange things have begun to occur, a song about murder related to the five prisoners echoed in the wind, and many have noted that the air around Ravengro feels strange.
At the end of the session, the four inheritors of the professor's will had found a locket that belonged to Vesorianna herself, and decided that they will try and find who's behind the blood ritual (since they realized it seems oddly similar to the Splatter Man's method of killing and Vesorianna's the only person who's name starts with a "V" associated with Harrowstone), as well as perhaps preparing for the trip to Harrowstone itself.
...and I planned to add an NPC Wizard who has a history with the dhampir, but who isn't exactly a DMPC due to not being with the party all the time.
My main question is roughly how much should I keep the campaign going by the letter of the books? It seems that running it as written has the party chasing around a very thin trail of evidence to find a surprise enemy at the end that they've never even heard of before (I ran into the same problem with Legacy of Fire, and my other group was not happy about it). Are there any other potential downfalls for the Adventure Path I should be aware of? Are there any popular additions people have made to make this AP even better as an experience? I just want to make sure I am properly prepared to run this, since I haven't been on the DM seat for a while now, and I have a new player in the group as well.
As of late, I've seen a lot of talk concerning so-called "monster campaigns", where people have Player Characters like Succubi, Ogre Magi and other such things instead of the usual "Core Rulebook" race such as Elf. How common would you guys say these are, and how many of you here are willing to try such things out with your group? I only tried one once with one of my gaming groups. It was a lot of fun, even though we were playing 4th edition D&D and not Pathfinder for said campaign. I've actually gotten a few ideas for such campaigns in the future, but I have no idea which side of the table I'll be sitting at when such a thing occurs.
So, I checked out the difference between the old and new versions of the Iron Cages of Lust a few days back, and noticed that they present a possible way to survive getting "offered" to Delvahine. Now, considering both the Life Drain AND the Agonizing Touch abilities, is there really anyway to survive the "encounter" with her? I imagine a Death Ward would save you from the Life Drain, but what exactly can protect you from a Supernatural source of non-lethal damage? Would be amusing to see someone actually pull it off.
I've been looking at this Prestige Class for a while now due to the rather interesting fluff and abilities it gives. However, from what I've overheard it's actually less useful for a Druid than it is for other classes that could qualify for it. What's the best option, from an optimization stand-point? Here is the class itself, and as you can see, Rangers, Wizards and Sorcerers can also qualify for it.
Okay, so I had another random idea after reading a small description of what those who worship Tsukiyo usually do in Champions of Purity. Basically, those who are at least somewhat knowledgeable about anime and Japanese video games know that shrine maidens can be pretty darn awesome. What I thought of was this Dark is Not Evil, elegant yet subtly scary lady dressed like a fusion of a goth and a shrine maiden.
What I was wondering was that which one fits the miko image better, a Cleric or an Inquisitor? I have never played the latter and rarely has it fit a character concept I've had, so I have a feeling I might strike for gold with this one. If I do decide that I'll make this character for a game, what kind of domain choices and stats, feats and such would I want to focus on if I make the Longbow my weapon of choice. Ranger is an option, but it's not as fitting thematically IMO.
I'm also debating whether to go with a Human or Samsaran, but for once the former seems more viable for a character of mine. Thanks in advance!
Rambling:
I should also try and see how I can make an old character idea work.
She's basically a shrine maiden gone youkai hunter who is good with swords and has some limited fire magic.
I wondered if Oracle or Inquisitor would work as thematically fitting options, though a Ranger does get the Sun Metal spell...
I recall an old thread where someone asked "why don't the PCs send someone else to do it" when it came to all the fetch quests and such starting from the second book of Kingmaker. So, if you don't mind sharing, what drives the players in your table to still doing quests despite them owning the land? I recall someone making mentions of merchant guilds, but my memory on that is hazy...
So, I have an idea for an Aasimar who believes that she is the chosen one of Lissala, considering her bloodline traces back to the goddess. I thank Set for coming up with the racial appearance for that idea, as a side-note! I do not know which campaign I will player her in, but if it is Kingmaker (as me and my pals had planned) or another where she can establish her rules over a nation, she plans to create an empire where she could welcome her blessed ancestor and reinstate her worship properly back on Golarion.
She believes that the seven sins approach of the Runelords is a perversion of the arts of rune magic, and the seven virtues should be reintroduced, since she believes Lissala always was Lawful Neutral (or even Lawful Good)* instead of Lawful Evil. What I wondered was that which option would work best for her, stat and story-wise. Should she be a Cleric of Lissala, a Wizard who studied the ways of her cult among the Cyphermages of Riddleport, or an Oracle of Lissala? I know the least about the third, and I wonder what Mysteries fit the goddess and are worth taking from a game mechanics view.
So basically, which class would work best with the basic stat bonuses of an Aasimar? No alternate bloodline.
If I go Wizard, what school to specialize in? Divination is going to be a restricted school for fluff reasons, but which other one to scrap if I do make her a specialist Wizard?
If I go Cleric, which domains to take? I thought to take Leadership and Thought sub-domains since others didn't seem so good.
If I go Oracle, what mystery would fit the deity and make her useful? I know nothing about building an Oracle.
Apologies for the borderline TL;DR of this thread.
* = Considering that the The Virtues of Rule were generosity, love, humility, temperance, charity, kindness, and zeal, she really doesn't SOUND evil.
So I've scrapped the Kingdom Building rules as per request from my fellow players, but the kingdom itself growing as part of the story hasn't been handwaved aside. Now one thing I've noticed only passing mentions of is people having the kingdom separated into vassal states or similarly divided by multiple aristocratic houses. Anyone done anything similar? I just got a few ideas for extra NPCs who might be of help (or possibly of hindrance) to my group, as well as being able to provide some more RP opportunities.
On a side note, I should bring Akiros and Kesten back from the "Land of Forgotten NPCs" as well...
I was partially inspired to this character concept thanks to a certain person on these boards playing this combination (I forgot who it was) and the fact that I had the idea of my Tiefling Paladin having the blood of a Shadow Demon in him. So what I wanted to ask was...
1) How much do I lose by taking this class instead of going pure Paladin?
2) Aside from the RP experiences of playing this combo, what abilities do I gain?
3) How would I go about taking my feats, assuming I take four levels of Shadowdancer as soon as possible?
Having looked at the various LG deities for a Paladin, I came across Ragathiel while thinking about my recent character. Anyone have an idea if his worship is common in Mendev? I've been wanting to make a Demon-spawn Tiefling who survived living in Mendev and took his mentor's religion (and alignment) up as his own after said mentor sacrificed her life to save him from a demon outbreak. I'm considering him either as a Paladin of Iomedae (would make sense considering the region), or as one of Ragathiel.
And I just realized I could have thrown this one to the Ask James Jacobs thread instead...
Kinda wanted to branch off from my earlier thread as I thought about it, but why is there no existing guide to the Mystic Theurge? I'm really not even sure what spells one is supposed to pick, and thanks to some advice I got, I feel heavily tempted to play an optimized one for a Carrion Crown game I'll be playing in after my run as a Kingmaker DM. I'm especially interested in all the potential uses for the final ability of the Prestige Class, since it allows you to cast two spells at the same time with some restrictions applied.
I am not sure if this is the right place for this thread, but I was wondering if anyone could give a hand with something.
One of my homebrew settings features a True Neutral Goddess of Blood, who has both aspects as a healer and as a warrior due to blood being related to a lot of stuff. Anyway, I wanted to run the game using 3.5e D&D rules, but I realized there's no such thing as a Blood Domain in those. Anyone got any advice on how to create my own domain? Which spells would go with it, and what should the domain ability be?
Okay, so I've had this Gunslinger NPC show up to help the party last time I played Kingmaker, and one of my players plans to make a Gunslinger for the Carrion Crown game we plan to run after that, but we've both run into a certain problem, which is reloading.
I checked the Pathfinder SRD about Weapon Cords and it says you can only pick up a dropped weapon as a Swift Action, not a Free Action. How will I be able to reload two guns when you need a free hand to reload a gun? I know that the combination of Rapid Reload and Alchemical Cartridges reduces it to a Free Action, but I still need a free hand. One Third Party Feat seemed like an option if nothing else works by the rules.
So, what I need to know is my selection of feats, traits and domains for the start of the game, and possibly some good builds. I also don't recall if a Good Cleric of Pharasma can channel Negative Energy when she wants, or if she's limited to channeling Positive Energy.
Okay, so I have a new character ready for the Carrion Crown campaign I will most likely run (or be a player in), but I have one problem.
After a little chat with James Jacobs, my character's alignment sort of became an issue. What kind of alignment fits a person who generally does her best to help those in need, protect people from harm and avoid unnecessary fights aside from those made to banish undead? Said character is a Tiefling Cleric of Pharasma, but the problem comes from a certain aspect of her personality.
She secretly takes immense pleasure in the suffering of others, especially when death is involved. When everyone else cries at a funeral, she's trying her best not to start laughing there. However, she herself is aware of how wrong it is, but her troubles stem from that fact that while she enjoys being a nice person, the sheer pleasure of watching others get hurt just feels better for her.
So, what is her actual alignment? I argued Neutral Good, James said Lawful Neutral.
Icyshadow wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Sotiria Spiros wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Sotiria Spiros wrote:
Do you think a person can be good despite taking immense joy in the suffering of others?
Last time I had to read the last rites to a dead child at a funeral, I felt like laughing out loud.
Not because the situation was absurd, but because the sight of the people mourning amused me.
I do not. To me, "taking immense joy in the suffering of others" is pretty much the definition of evil.
So, I'm cursed into a damned existence in spite of my insistence of protecting others from harm and helping those in need?
I wouldn't personally say she registers as Evil, since her behaviour is all Neutral Good while her thoughts are pretty Evil on occasion.
The only active hurting she does is against undead, and when she jokes about something exceptionally morbid. And of course her earlier example.
In Golarion, yes, you'd probably end up being damned in the afterlife unless you managed to outweigh the evil of taking joy in another's suffering with good acts. Keeping that joy hidden and not acting on it certainly helps.
But a character who enjoys the suffering of others but who protects others from harm and helps those in need isn't neutral good, unless the character's insane. If the character is not insane, that alignment feels more lawful neutral to me; someone who enjoys suffering but has a regimented focus on helping others despite the fact that they're secretly a sadist.
It's not so much insanity as it is the natural drive of a Tiefling to be Evil, which is canon in Golarion too.
However, just because she enjoys sadism doesn't mean she lacks a conscience, on the contrary actually in her case.
She dislikes the fact, and she does enjoy helping others too. The problem is that the sadism kind of is more enjoyable for her at times.
Okay, last time I made a thread like this hardly anyone gave me any useful info. So, here's the thing. I've houseruled the Mysterious Stranger / Pistolero as a legal one, and so have the other DMs in my group. Now, what would be some good feats for that kind of build, and for Gunslingers in general? I'm having one as an NPC in the Kingmaker I'm currently running, and I might make a character like that some day.
And no, do not give me the super-optimized Alchemist multiclass with multiple arms nonsense again. I've got a character concept to stick to.
Okay, so for quite a while now I've had an idea for a somewhat unusual character.
The addition of the Champion of Irori Prestige Class revived my interest in this concept, which I now need help with.
The basic idea is an Elf Monk (Flowing Monk archetype), who takes levels of Paladin (Archetype unknown) and then moves to Champion of Irori.
Which stats should I focus on? Which feats should I take to make the most of the Flowing Monk's special little Combat Maneuvers as well as the Paladin abilities? Should I go for Core Paladin or pick some Archetype to make this character even better? Which traits should I take, assuming I get to take the standard two traits? Before anyone asks, I already have an idea on how I'll RP this character for the most part, and the Paladin code for a Champion of Irori is going to affect that anyway. Now I just need the build advice, and a group where I could play this character. I'll also most likely roll stats for this MAD build.
From Ciretose clashing with Ashiel to me and Gorbacz bashing heads on occasion, it seems as if some of us have our designated "rivals" of sorts around here. So, as silly a thread as this is, anyone you would consider a rival to yourself around here? Even though I wouldn't mind seeing a bit of snark from you guys, please try your best to remain civil and not be jerks to one another here, assuming anyone bothers checking this thread out :D
Was that combination allowed by RAW, or is it still on shaky ground?
Even if it weren't, I still plan on making one since I am the DM and I need an NPC, who is the older sister of the party's badass Ranger. How would one go about building a Catfolk Mysterious Pistolero Gunslinger? The racial bonuses to Perception, Stealth, and Survival have been replaced with bonuses to Bluff, Diplomacy, and Sense Motive as per an alternate racial trait from the Advanced Race Guide.
Her traits are Slippery (Stealth as class skill) and Heirloom Weapon (Aldori Dueling Sword). Basically need to know what feats to take.
So I've had my two Tiefling characters (who were discussed in another thread) more or less figured out, but one little detail might need a bit of refining. What would you say are good spells to use on a small group of civilians or a single one that wouldn't kill them but would instead serve as a good punishment for angering a Wizard? One example I found to be thematically fitting was Disfiguring Touch from Ultimate Magic, but I wouldn't wanna limit my Wizard's wrath to just one spell.
For a while now, I've had the idea to play a Daemon-spawn Tiefling Wizard (possibly an Earth specialist or Shadow Illusionist) very loosely based on a character I wrote up for a random story. Her D&D/Pathfinder counterpart happens to be the child of a fallen Chelish Noble House, who with some luck as well as with help from her powerful Wizard father (who was mentioned in another thread a while back) managed to escape to Varisia via Nidal.
Now she's either busy plotting her revenge on the nobles that ruined her life, or brooding and studying the arcane arts in hopes of finding something to live for, all the while openly displaying an arrogant pride (like a true Chelaxian) and a diva-esque demeanour to "lowly commoners" (especially those barbaric Shoanti and thieving Varisians) around her. I planned to have her as my PC in Rise of the Runelords, but I left the DM who would have run the AP, so that's on hold until further notice.
I'd want to know, how would I be able to play up some sympathy for this character, as well as the fact that while she's Neutral Evil*, she has potential to turn Neutral or even Neutral Good? She's lost her family, she's mocked for being a Tiefling and had to go through some pretty rough training just to survive all the way to Varisia. She's clearly gotten her vices (mostly of the Pride, Envy and Wrath variety with a side-dish of Lust) but she's sympathetic to those less fortunate than her (she would give a coin or five to a beggar) despite always being in denial of said kind side of her.
* = She's selfish (when among peers), shows next to no mercy towards enemies, tends to be a bit sadistic and has no qualms about using Evil spells.
Okay, my party for the Kingmaker game (which I am starting at Saturday) voted for the DM PC, to my surprise. The only problem is, I have a hard time picking the one I am supposed to play. My choices are a Paladin (Sacred Servant of Abadar) and a Monk (Ironskin Monk/Brother of the Seal), both belonging to my homebrew race (which I can play since I am DM) that gets +2 to Str and Wisdom with a -2 penalty to Dex for those curious.
Anyway, I am not sure which one to pick. The party so far consists of...
1 - Human Necromancer from Iblydos, Lawful Neutral
(Played by the most experienced and RP-wise invested player)
2 - Dwarf Cleric of Torag/Angradd from Brevoy, Lawful Good
(Played as a Battle Cleric, might take Holy Vindicator levels)
3 - Catfolk Ranger with family roots in Tian Xia, Chaotic Good
(Played by the newcomer, a strong switch-hitter with possible Rogue dip)
If I do pick the Monk (who would have been on a quest to prove her skills until she ran into the group), I'd wanna know how to get a good build going if I choose to specialize in hitting hard, rolling well on Sunder checks (unless told to use my bonus feats on something else) and making good use of the Prestige Class' Awesome Blow ability. The Paladin (who'd be the second local alongside the Dwarf) I already have more or less figured out when it comes to stats and abilities.
I've heard a lot about some fixing and tweaks to the Kingdom building and certain encounters in Kingmaker. Anyone know where I can find them and what kind of fixes are we talking about? I'm being forced to step up on starting the actual campaign after calling quits on one guy (the DM who's been causing a lot of grief for me), so I at least plan to dump Kingdom building because the players (two veterans and one newcomer) who are left didn't seem very interested in it.
After kicking off the Human Wizard, the group now consists of a Chaotic Good Catfolk Ranger, a Lawful Neutral Human Necromancer and a Lawful Good Dwarf Cleric. I also wonder if I should include a DM PC as a fourth party member. I'll ask my players if they are okay with it before doing so, though.
So, I've gotten this idea recently to get at least two Kitsune characters with nine tails (using this feat), one of them being inspired by a character named Hakumen from the fighting game series Blazblue. Basically, the idea is to play a wandering kitsune samurai (most likely Chaotic Good) who is on a zealous quest to do good and purge evil, though my character is quite a bit less a jerk about it than Hakumen happens to be.
In other words, I plan to play a Kitsune Samurai of the Sword Saint archetype, who is most likely a Ronin. How do I optimize this build, even with the feat tax of gaining the Magical Tails as soon as possible? What items should I take, and how can I maximize the usefulness of the tail feats?
Let us assume I am allowed a 30 point buy, since we usually roll stats instead.
Okay, so I've noticed that some of the people around here have their own homebrew races. I've also noticed the some of them are rather unusual, mine included. Now, anyone wanna tell me about their creations? I'm curious about such things, and might even pick up one or two for future campaigns if my interest gets piqued. I could also tell of mine after gathering the guts to do so.
And I think I've made a thread like this before but it died rather quickly, or then I phrased it poorly last time.
For a while now, I've had the idea of making a character, who'd be a Paladin of the minor deity Kurgess, but a few problems have gotten in the way. First would be taking into consideration the code. What kind of philosophy would fit a Paladin of Kurgess? Would I need to develop some custom Paladin code of conduct for him, like the ones that other deities have? Also, if I played a Sacred Servant of Kurgess, which domain should I pick?
I'm pretty sure the thread title says it all to those who know what the Whispering Way is, but after reading up about it from Broken Moon (the third part of Carrion Crown), I got a bit confused. Weren't these guys supposed to be villains? They way their philosophy is explained just makes it look like their goal makes sense, but "because undead are evil and shiznit", they are always going to be evil. Here's a little quote that reinforced my confusion.
"Yet more than just seeking a path to personal power, the Whispering Way seeks to change the world, viewing Golarion as a chaotic, dangerous place, besieged by its own diversity of creatures, cultures, and possibilities. Under the rule of worthy undead princes, all the world might be cleansed, leaving it an ordered realm of death, but not of quiet rot. Rather, they see an eternal world unified by a united state, purpose, consistency, and peace."
See how the highlighted part comes up? All the villains so far associated with the Whispering Way seem to imply that's the ONLY part of the philosophy. After reading through this, I feel very tempted to make a small edit to the Agent of the Grave prestige class and make them "Any Non-Good". Honestly, it fits better than a Razmiran Priest not being restricted to LE, LN and NE as alignments in Paths of Prestige. Also, anyone who goes with the whole "the path to Hell is paved with good intentions" quote can just look at how Evil works in Pathfinder and then rethink about that, because I have NOT really seen too many examples of that in the APs so far.
(My own theory is that Tar-Baphon corrupted the original teachings with his focus on Evil and his own little quest to beat Aroden to the punch.)
How good idea is it to play a Sacred Servant Paladin? None of the guides I know of ever explore the option, just as none of the caster guides seem to analyze the pros and cons of the Harrower prestige class or the options a Blight Druid has.
So, how good IS the Sacred Servant archetype for the Paladin exactly? And how good is it to take the Trade Sub-Domain? I plan to play a Paladin of Abadar, crossing to Balanced Scale of Abadar (updating Hit Dice to d8 since it's a 3.5e Prestige class and whatnot) for fluff reasons.
Okay, so I've decided to make a Blight Druid after thinking through what kind of character she'd end up being. The problem here is that the only Druid guide I know that goes to any detail on the archetype didn't even go in-depth on it (making it a lame guide :D), merely dismissing it over the Miasma ability that makes it such a hassle to play, at least RP-wise. I made a separate thread on that for those curious about it.
Anyway, the gist of it is that my character is a Changeling (Annis) Blight Druid, and I need to know what kind of feats and other choices to make. Do I take the Mist Child alternate racial or stick with Hulking Changeling? Do I take a familiar, or a domain? Out of the initial familiars, the centipede makes the most sense given where she is, and the Darkness domain looks very tempting. Also, even though we roll the stats on the games, I'd wanna know what stats to focus on. Should I go for a pure caster build, or try to make the best of the racial melee bonus and be a spell-flinging wildshaped cloud of disease and death?
I happened to spot the regional accent thread on these boards and they got me inspired all of a sudden. Instead of just going for accents, why not hunt down all the real world analogies for most of the known languages on Golarion? I'll probably start with racial tongues first.
Aklo = Insert Lovecraftian language here (same with Aboleth)
Common = English
Draconic = Gaulish
Dwarf = Irish (Dwarf) / Scottish (Duergar), can be done vice-versa as well
Elf = Gothic (High Elf) / Breton (Drow)
Giant = Old Norse
Gnome = Welsh (Gnome) / Manx (Svirfneblin)
Goblin = No idea (suggestions are welcome)
Halfling = Faroese (it's distantly related to English, and Halflings do hang around Humans a lot)
Orc = Black Speech (bite me, I just had to make the reference!)
Sylvan = Proto-Celtic
I don't think I can wrap my head around any more languages and their equivalents. Anyone with more (and better) ideas than these here are welcome to contribute.
Looking at the Miasma ability of the Blight Druid archetype, I get more than a little worried.
Miasma (Ex)
"Starting at 5th level, if a blight druid is adjacent to a creature at the beginning of its turn, the creature must succeed at a Fortitude save with a DC of 10 + 1/2 the druid’s level + the druid’s Wisdom modifier or become sickened for 1 round. A creature of the animal, fey, or plant type that fails its save is nauseated for 1 round and sickened for 1 minute thereafter. If the creature makes its save, it is immune to this effect for 24 hours, as are creatures immune to disease."
It says nothing about shutting down the ability in any way. The druid is just surrounded by a tangible disease-ridden "mist" that he/she has no control over. How are you supposed to play a Blight Druid and NOT get everyone hostile towards you when you just suddenly start to sicken everyone? Solutions and suggestions are welcome, since I actually want to play a Blight Druid some day (I have the character ready and all) and not have to spend 99% of the time away from everyone else.
So, I realized I unwittingly managed to make an interesting PC or NPC for a future game, who just happens to be the rather unlucky father of two daemon-spawn tieflings. However, he and his wife (who may or may not be alive) still cared for said children in spite of all this.
Now the thing I am thinking of is the fact that he's willing to do some REALLY extreme things to keep said family safe, even at the cost of other people suffering death or even worse (such as being fed to a daemon) but is otherwise a decent, even friendly fellow. I'm having a hard time deciding whether he is Neutral with a heavy leaning to Evil, or Evil with a leaning towards Good. He cares for his family and friends, but is willing to damn others (himself included) if it means they can be safe and at least somehow capable of living a happy life.
I'm just willing to hear opinions on this guy's alignment while also trying to work out how one would RP this guy. To add some Golarion fluff, he is of a minor Chelish noble family that gets dismantled anyway as some other family slanders their reputation and uncovers the past dealings with Abaddon's fiends.
Okay, so I've got a group consisting of an Old Human Wizard (Universalist, Arcanamirium Crafter), a Human Necromancer, a Dwarf Cleric of Angradd (Smoke and Tactics domains, battle cleric) and a Catfolk Ranger for an upcoming Kingmaker campaign with me as the DM.
The Ranger's stats are all excellent (lucky rolls for the new guy) and he's kinda going for a switch-hitter build as a result. However, the one thing is that we lack a person who can disarm magical traps (the Trapfinding ability), so I considered letting him pick the Trapper archetype for the character. However, is it worth the trade-off of losing all spellcasting abilities? I'm also worried that it might not fit a former mercenary to be only good at laying traps either way.
So yeah, either Trapper archetype or he takes a few levels of Rogue. In terms of optimizing, which one is the better idea?
If both ideas are not good, anyone got a third option?
My last option is to just to set down the house-rule that Wizards and Rangers can disarm magical traps as well.
Okay, I've been digging around the whole darn Race Builder looking for guidelines to update my homebrew race (which is sorta based off the minotaur), but there are two problems that I've come across on the way. Two important racials I want to use seem to be missing from the actual book.
1. I can't find the Minotaur's Natural Cunning ability anywhere, nor did I find the RP cost of said ability.
2. I'm still not sure if 6 RP is too much for the Powerful Build racial that may or may not be familiar to some people. In Pathfinder, it gives is a +1 to CMD (not very impressive) and the ability to wield large weapons without penalty (some Tiefling variant racial gives this too) and the target with the racial is treated as Large for the purposes of stuff like Swallow Whole (semi-useful, but rather situational). The Psionic Unleashed section of the SRD has the Half-Giant, and they have this racial.
For the first part, I just want to know if I missed this or is it really not there. As for the second, just wanting to hear your thoughts on the matter.
While thinking about what kind of hobbies could a Chelaxian Wizard have, I ended up with another question to ask. Are there any chess-like games in Golarion? What actually ARE all the possible hobbies a noble could have aside from studying and reading? Thanks in advance, hopefully this thread will help others in fleshing out their characters a bit more as well.
...I've heard a lot about Director's Cuts concerning the whole Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path. What exactly ARE all the things that have been cut off from the final product?
All the way from Burnt Offerings to Spires of Xin-Shalast, I'm interested in seeing some stuff that I may or may not suggest for the DM to use. Then again, from what I've heard, it's mostly needless grimdark fluff, which in my opinion is a load of bull excrement but that's just my opinion, and it doesn't make me any less curious about these removed segments of the Adventure Path.
Okay, so I have this idea for a Tiefling (Daemon-spawn to be exact) Wizard, specializing in Illusion spells, specifically the Shadow sub-school. She's basically a former Chelaxian noble, who later turns out to be of foul blood (we all know that Cheliax does not like its Tiefling population much despite their advantages) and her family crumbles to dust over a political battle against the House of Thrune while she escapes to Varisia via Nidal.
Now, what kind of traits would be good for her, and wouldn't seem too out of place for a somewhat hedonistic, proud and vengeful tiefling of noble descent who has taken time to learn the art of wizardry in detail? Also, would it be a bad move to put Evocation and Enchantment as Opposition Schools? I don't wanna drop Necromancy, since it's too fitting for the character concept. Also, some ideas for feats (and the levels to take them in) would also be appreciated.
Do Alchemist levels count as Caster Levels for the purpose of taking feats like Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Magic Arms and Armor or Craft Construct? I just got another cool idea for a character of mine, but I fear the rules might be limiting my options.
Is the Brightness Seeker a good prestige class, or a total waste of space? I had an old idea for a Monk / Brightness Seeker Elf, who's basically mixed the teachings of Irori and those of the elven pantheon into an odd philosophy revolving reincarnation, harmony with nature and the defeat and/or banishment of the unnatural.
Okay, so I have a player who plans to play a Ranger, but plans to take levels of Arcane Archer later on. Due to the racial bonuses of his race (+2 Dex and Cha, -2 Wis), wouldn't it technically be better if he took a level of Sorcerer instead of a level of Wizard to qualify for the Prestige Class?
Thanks in advance. Also, I think he plans to take the Arcane bloodline if he goes Sorcerer instead of Wizard, optimization be damned.
I just realized something earlier that's driving me crazy. Night hags are not only hags, but they are also evil outsiders and thus count as Fiends. The problem is, the child of a humanoid and a hag is usually a Changeling, but the child of a Fiend can be (apparently) either a half-fiend or a tiefling.
So, would there need to be an alternative racial for a changeling who's mother was a Night Hag (maybe a magic-related one), or should there be something else for such a being? Is the child a half-fiend Changeling with the bonus from an Annis bloodline, or a tiefling with a bonus if it takes the Accursed bloodline?
Okay, I have no idea how this class is supposed to work, but I got curious about building an Inquisitor of Norgorber who'd probably have the Deception Sub-Domain from Advanced Player Guide and the Infiltrator archetype from Ultimate Magic as well as some fitting traits.
So, my questions:
1. What stats should I focus on?
2. Which spells should I take?
3. Feat recommendations?
4. Is there an Inquisitor optimization guide that could answer these questions?
Thanks in advance to everyone. Unless I can build a good Inquisitor (stat-wise, at least), I'll just run this character as a Cleric of Norgorber instead, hopefully with enough of an Intelligence score to place a few skill points here and there. (The groups I am in usually roll stats instead of using point-buy, so it might not be too much of a problem)
Not sure if this belongs in this category here in the forums, but here goes.
I have had it with the senseless bashing of the people who prefer to have some examples of non-evil Orcs, non-evil undead and other such things in their campaigns. Hell, I had an alignment argument concerning Orcs with my group yesterday, but instead of bashing left and right, we came to the conclusion that orcs aren't naturally inclined to evil, but they are naturally inclined to aggression. Their cultural upbringing makes a majority of them rather evil, but even if it didn't, they'd still grow up to be violent and somewhat frightening. That's why Orcs in the 3.5e books were "Often Chaotic Evil" and not "Usually Chaotic Evil" or "Always Chaotic Evil", though I am quite sure the other part of them was either Chaotic Neutral or Neutral Evil, depending on the tribe in question.
Some people have cried about Mass Effect 3 having the option of a homosexual male Shepherd. You know, to those who have complained, I say that said option WAS NOT MADE FOR YOU. It was for the people who wanted it. You can be a straight or a lesbian Shepherd if you want, but unless you want those things to be judged, don't judge the ones who wanna go for the male-on-male love option. Nobody's forcing you to take it! The same damned thing applies here: You can have your Evil Orcs and I can have my non-Evil ones (or even a Good-aligned Orc!), but you can't complain as if we were forcing these things down your throats, especially when you do the same thing for us. You like what you like, we like what we like. Neither has the right to complain to the other, which seems to be the thing that some people here just don't understand.
Anyway, to wrap this up, let's just all try to get along, regardless of race, gender, class or sexual preference, okay?
I have a good concept and build for a Shadowcaster Conjurer/Infernal Binder (both can be found in the SRD if you don't know what I am talking about) in case my current character dies in an on-going campaign but, I noticed just one problem. Since the character I want to play is a Tiefling, she already has Darkvision, so the 5th-level ability from the Shadowcaster archetype would basically be useless. Should I just live with the wasted feat, or could I ask the DM if he'd houserule it so that I get the normal Wizard bonus feat instead, or an increase to the distance of my Darkvision instead?
