Ender_rpm's page

REginald.... I like it :)

Why do I get last call? It's YOUR Game :)

on vacation this week will try and pop in when I can

Would help if we updated what is "legal" :)

20 point buy, 3rd level, Paizo only book wise. I think APG, ARG, and the Ultimates are in play now, but we read the char op boards too, no breaking anything :) Average wealth for level, no more than 33% on any one item. I think that catches us up.

What are the pre-reqs?

Just posted an update, not as definitive as some may have wanted, but its' not "my" game :)

Ok, so topping out at 6 PCS
Grandfathered from previous session
Numair Alazario (Male Human(Chelaxian / Kelesh) Wizard 3)
Makin ibn Fahd (Male Human Rogue 2)
Faysal Ibn Ahmad Ibn Aziz (Male Halfling Cleric of Irori 3)

Blessed by DM
Nasir ibn Al'Said (Male Human (Keleshite) Paladin (Sacred Servant) / 3)

Newbs
Right now I think it will come down to who can post a legal build the fastest. Well, except for Keyva, sorry, we don't need another rogue right now. The ranged combat focus Vonna brings is good, as is the mounted/melee focus of Fawziya (if I read her Backstory right). With 2 clerics i would be afraid of a lot of overlap, though it appears Rashid and Faysal couldn't be more different otherwise. So yeah

Vonna the Huntress (Ranger)- Post legal build
Rashid al-Gahiji(Male Dwarf Clerc)- Post legal build or new character
Fawziya bint Abdul-Wali (Female Human fighter?)- post build
Keyva (Female Human Rogue)- Maybe try another concept? Caster or something else more complimentary.

Flame on :)

Also catching back up after a heck of a week. Will update soon :)

hah, nope, works for me :)

Keep you posted. it has some neat stuff for halflings, but Faysal is already pretty established, so it may go too deep to change now .

I am definetly interested. I have an idea for a female rogue....

Hey, are you following me? ;) (I'm Willis in the S&S game)

Advanced race? Faysal may need some tweakin :)

In history, there is no longsword like the one presented in D&D. It is an D&D invention, or a distortion of the arming sword.

Respectfully, this statement is bull-pucky. The late Roman Spatha, Viking Sword, Celtic War sword, Straight bladed Arab and Turkish swords, all fall under the single handed "longsword" category. Later in european history (10-13th centuries) the hand and a half sword became more popular as plate armor improved, and much later than that the 2 handed models (13th -15th iirc?) were used to break up pike formations. A light, fast, single handed sword was the single best weapon for almost a millennium.

But yes, the overall weapons classification is a bit muddled, but I find it works best that way. one handed, long straight blade, slashing weapon? LS. Done

He played a character he enjoyed. There is nothing better. :P

Sorry, should have been more clear: Was MY character, and yes, I did have fun. Well, except for the evil part. Raiding farming villages is not for me :(

I played a short series of games with an Orc Barbarian shield fighter. He had Throw Anything, and that was his MO: Kill something with his shield, throw its weapon at next foe, rinse repeat. Was kind of fun, but Def not the damage dealer of the band. Which, being a Barbarian, was kind of odd :)

Sweet!!! I could never run two games at once, your skills are most impressive.

This may not be new, but it is still an interesting topic.... Another idea that I saw in a different game system was that weapons had minor modifiers to them based on the type.

Welcome back to 2nd Ed. :)

The reason there is that D&D is not a simulation of real combat.

yeah, I agree with all that, just saying shields could be mo'bettah :)

Only in the mind of the addict. I could MAYBE see an outside correlation based on choice of table games (ie Craps) but even then, its a stretch. Addiction is its own motivator, you didn't enable this guy.

I think this is less an indictment of the long sword, and more of the relative weakness of the SHIELDS in this genre. In most historical circumstances, if you had to choose between a weapon or a shield, you took the shield. Even a fairly small shield spelled the difference between life and death. Protected from missiles (held over head), most melee weapons, and could be used as an offensive weapon as well. Make shields mathematically more effective (say double the current AC bonus for anything but a buckler) and you would see a lot more Sword and board style fighters.

Ah, the Saturday AM pick up games pre-deployment were always so entertaining :)

"What is the range on a thrown stingray?" - Zhandouji (AKA John Dogy) the Monk

Not only did he hit, the stingray also hit with its tail and the crab failed its save versus the poison.

haha, thats awesome.

I once had an enlarged Dragon Sorceror Orc use an unconscious hyena to beat a small group of gnolls to death. It was one of the better "you do WHAT?!?!" moments in that campaign :)

I'm in Fairfax, but those are the worst possible nights for me. Free bump for you though :)

Put me down as very interested. Been a while since I played, but I'm thinking Halfling gunslinger, lots of sailing skills, escaped slave turned buccaneer, but too hot headed for command, yer basic bosun or first mate type. I imagine a great deal of swinging from ropes and shouting ill advised comments about an adversaries choice of mate :)

Sadly, I must bow out. Changing jobs/hours, which is great for me personally, but really messes with my internet time :P It's been fun, and I wish you all the best of luck as you go forward.

Caster is the easy choice, but rogue works almost as well. Well, a skill monkey rogue, not a 2 handed DPS rogue. Rog/Wiz is a nice synergistic combination, and lets you use wands without having to spend points on UMD. Use spells for mobility and defense (Exped retreat, spiderclimb, mirror image, etc), and a crossbow for ranged sneak attacks from the ceiling, at least until you get a wand that uses ranged touch attacks (Acid Arrow, Scorching Ray). Rog4/ Wiz2 for now, maybe 3/3 if you want 2nd level spells but are willing to be a bit more fragile.

Earth Elements have Tremorsense 60', so that's how they "see", but as far as effecting another creature? I have no idea.

Could, but the best buffs are self only, and in PF only selfish casters are supported by the system.

I don't see this at all. I think it comes down to play style.

And encounter design meaning what? Nerfing all the enemies? That's a concession.

Longer reply to follow.

Who said nerf? Just make it interesting- mix up enemy types, modes of movement, terrain, intelligent foes vs waves of bruisers. My prepared casters often spend a lot of time maneuvering, because my bad guys make them. And not in a cheesy "must kill the caster" kind of way, EVERYONE is moving and trying to avoid being hit while dishing out as much as possible.

Again, I tend to play mostly int he low-mid levels, with the occasional one-off at higher levels, so YMMV greatly. I just try to make sure that at least once per session the players have to deal with something they have never seen before.

Wrote good stuff...

See, the in this case, you just have good, smart players. If they played it smart, conserved their energy, and saved up for the BBEG, let'em have the cookie :)

Hitting the weak point is common sense. The problem is martials can't. Also, Fireball isn't a weak point of anyone, not even low Reflex Cold subtype creatures.

Not to mention, creatures use whatever resources are available to them. Casters can buff themselves easily. The warrior guy? Potions, and not a lot else.

Don;t forget, Allied casters can buff the martial types too. Though I agree that the main things martials target (AC and HP) are things most Bad Guys have in abundance. Which is where encounter design comes in. Something for everyone to chew on :)

I play with good people. Good people, particularly good gamers are hard to find. Why would I switch? So I can deal with people that can't even decide what words mean, and who will, more likely than not just cause me, and us headaches? Where I recruit from changes the odds of finding bad players a little, but it's still a very high chance no matter what....

Just saying, play styles differ. If you are locked into "one way" thinking, it could be instructive. But hey, you seem to be VERY happy with things as they are, so....

I removed a series of posts. Please don't act like children.

Aw, but Daaaaadd, I thought silly threads like this this were explicitly FOR acting like children?

You know, I've never seen this happen with anything but maybe blasting spells, and of course you have melees to do that. I've just never run into a case where two castings of the same spell were required.

I see this all the time, especially with 3.5 era stuff like the Transposition spells, wall spells, area control spells especially.

@ CoDzilla- Sounds like you need to play with new people. Not that anything you are doing is "wrong", but differnet groups have different approaches. It may be fun for you to try a new play style. I have to do this every year or two myself, just go out and get a new group at the FLGS, here, or Meetup. Keeps it fresh.

... A few sessions earlier, however the PC's did battle his Dracolich general of a slightly lower "CR" (that terrible CR system) who nearly TPK'ed the group. Perhaps I'm just better at building casters, but I believe it to be because casters are better equiped to dealing with members of PC classes, but I would hesitate to say that this makes them a superior choice.

You could be better at building casters, OR you could have sub-consciously chosen spell that made your party cry- ie you hit the fighter and rogue with will saves, dropped a fireball on the casters, and had enough "time" to stack 3-4 buffs on your Dracolich, where as you just threw the warrior out there without any support at all. That BBEG Caster should have been there to support his boss, no? Or at least SOME other lower level casters should have been there as a personal body guard? So not "character" building problem, more of an ENCOUNTER building problem.

IMO, anyway.

Maybe its because my weekly group plays mostly low to mid levels (5-9 seem most common) that I don't see this disparity. In fact, most of my groups end up running Wizard-less (Unless I am a player), and heavy on the martial types. Druid is probably the most commonly played full caster, then cleric, an even split between sorc and wizzy (again, usually only if I'm playing). For some one-offs or the monthly campaign, there are a couple casters, but I think it has more to do witht eh amount of prep-work and research a player has to do between sessions, as opposed to in game power.

I see all these "god wizard" builds here and on other boards, and chuckle a bit- most of them, if played in one of my weekly games, would have been dead LONG before they got so strong. Selfish players see characters die fast IME, while team players get and give lots of help. Sure, the Wizzy COULD use spells to duplicate the rogues efforts, but 90%* of the time, they're more likely to cast Silence on a pebble, or Invis on the rogue to let them do it and have their moment to shine than be a "ball hog" and ruin everyone's day.

*The other 10% breaks down as follows: 7% Rogue is in prison, and they are trying to get him out, 2.7% No rogue in party, 10.3% butter scotch ripple.

Could someone explain this backpack thing to me, really?

Summoner rides in a backpack carried by the Eido-

It's a silly tactic, but it's the conceit PB wanted to run with.

Narf.

Sorry, had to.

Not absolutely certain of this but I think a mounted fighter doing ride by's with a lance and lunge or a good polearm standstill build could easily kill the thing by preventing it from ever getting full attacks.

It has 15' reach. Large + Reach evolutions. IMO, best way to go is to get in close and kill the Summoner, or at least Sunder the backpack and get him out in the open.

Then have the rest of your party gank him. This IS a TEAM sport after all :)

Pinky's Brain wrote:

Stuff about the eidolon taking on a fighter.

I thought the goal was to see if the eidolon could take the fighter's place-->do its job better.

I think the Eido CAN replace the 2 handed smashy dumb fighter very easily. But then again, so can a buffed druid pet. What it can't do is replace the versatility of a well built, well rounded Fighter, especially a switch hitter style. If I were a fighter, seeing this thing come down the pike, I'd hide and pick it off from range, since I ALWAYS carry a bow/crossbow. Maneuver it into tight spaces where it's reach isn't as much of a factor, attack it from above/below etc. And once I determined it was a Eidolon, whacking the Summoner would be job #1. Even if I can't kill him out right, the fewer HP he has, the less the Edio has, and he is FAR squishier.

I think your GM is being a dick.

Then count me in the "Dick" camp as well. I've done this in games in the past, where players roll to determine starting levels, generally 1d4+ something. They stay in a "band" of levels and, after a few sessions, start to even out, to where the lower level guys are usually only 1 level behind most of the time. It gives more of a "Aragorn/hobbits" feel, and my players seemed to like it.

The issue here, me thinks, is that the DM has a story in mind, and it may go badly for the group as a whole if the story goes off the rails.

Ender_rpm wrote:

do you need multi-attack or do Eidos get to use all of their attacks "for free"?

Well I have multi-attack ... but all natural weapons become secondary (ie. half strength bonus).

Sorry, didn't see that, thanks!!!

Honestly, I would never send another melee type against this thing. Be like 2 hammers striking each other. Sun Tzu would NOT approve :) I'd probably swarm it with summoned critters, SM/SNA IV would get me a ton of good choices. Or put it to sleep. debuf->debuff->kill (dispel magic->slow->lightning bolt). Or sneak attack it from hiding. Or use archers.

Hell, at this things size, use TREBUCHETS :)

I have claws for my legs, I have claws for one set of arms, I have 2 sets of arms without claws. One set for the greatsword, one arm for the shield and one arm to pick his nose.

do you need multi-attack or do Eidos get to use all of their attacks "for free"?

Actually, other than the lifelink, I think he is making the best use of it overall. I mean that IS the point of the class, that the Eido IS the character, no?

The key is the Large evolution. Without it, a melee Eido is meh. With it, it can really tank very effectively. In my current group, the Eido IS the main melee guy, with a mounted fighter serving as positional DPR. It works really well actually, but leaves a totally different flavor to the trad 4. Which is kind of fun :)

For example, hit an APL 5 party from every direction at once with 12 standard orcs (CR 5 for 1,620 XP). Sure, the PCs are likely going to win, but it can still be a hoot.

See, I would approach this in a MUCH different fashion. All of the fights you designed would be so easy for a melee centric party that they're almost not worth playing out, IMO. 12 book standard orcs? Ok, that's one round.

Now 20 book standard orcs, with 3-4 4th level barbarian heroes, 4-5 wolves, and a 6th level Witch or Oracle? THATS a fight. I'm in Kingmaker myself as a player right now, though only at 3rd level, and the AP encounters seem super weak. We are an "optimized for fun" party of experienced players, so that does tilt the field in our favor, but CR=APL we tear right through. CR=APL+1-2 is fun, CR=APL+3-4 is pretty challenging. If you have individual critters that are CR=APL-4 or less, you almost can't throw enough of them out there, they're like confetti.

IMO, of course. I really like the new drakes from Bestiary 2 for this sort of thing- they're dragons, so flying, fire breathing engines of death, but manageable for this type of party. A mated pair would be a cool encounter, possibly after one makes off with a party horse or mule.

IMO Grippli are fine.

+1. I played a Grippli Witch for several months, and he was awesome. The race added flavor, but no real compelling or overpowered mechanics.

One word: Retainer- He stands behind you and just hands you reloaded crossbows. Buy him a Pavise (Free standing tower shield) and he'll be safe enough.

Well, for a while anyway :)

I agree with Sean FS- Dwarves + Wizzy always seemed to fit to me, I mean, they already HAVE the beard :) The Earth focused Wizard in APG is pretty awesome- I mean Earth glide at 8th level? how is that NOT cool?

Con and Wis bonus to saves, leaves more points for INT. You can go in just about any direction, except maybe necro or enchantment, IMO, and be on solid ground.

Did this for an All-Orc one off. The idea was to bash the first enemy with my shield then take his weapon to kill his buddies :) Spiked shield, Power Attack, 2 handed (hvy shield only), it worked pretty well over all.

Power attack is only -1 at level 1.

Ah, forgot about that, thanks!! I so rarely play the bruiser :)

To the OP- I actually like the monk/rog route you are going. Maybe focus on Comb Exp/Imp Trip/Disarm? Drop TWF, you have IUS and don't need it, IMO. Be the scout/trap finder, climb walls, get some smoke sticks, go all Ninja-ey :)

re: DPR-

True.

re:armored speed

+1 a billion. Mind you, I LIKE the fighter armor training, but I really do feel it robbed the dwarf of one of its primary advantages as a fighter.

Then again, encumbrance rules being what they are, if most humans were honest, they'd still be moving at 20' due to all that crap they have in their "back pack".

Ok, I have to ask. What makes you think that? Just because people get into character and play as their character, instead of as some gamer looking for the next 'quest' doesn't mean their 'dicking around.'

A character is more than a vehicle to use to adventure. It's a living, breathing, thinking fictional entity created by the player's mind that allows them to experience the game world in all it's facets.

I get that, I do. You're talking to THE frustrated role player in my group of hack and slash fiends :) BUT When you are playing an AP, there is a Story Railroad you agree to board. If the party is no longer interested in where the railroad is going, they could be just killing time (in a fun way) waiting for the DM to introduce something interesting (to them) to do. And obviously, not everyone in the group is happy with how that is going down, or it wouldn't be an issue. So how does the DM balance the "want to fondle all teh butterflies" players with the "Huh, I'd like to see where this AP goes" players? Both groups can be roleplayers, but both do not share the same goals in game. Claro? (and all IMO, of course)