Stinking Cloud is a pretty good one.
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As a player, I was in a session once where this exact thing happened. We had to cooperate to get free of bonds, ambush a jailer, and then sneak around to recover our equipment from under the chief bad guy's nose while looking for our NPC ally whom was also imprisoned. It was an enjoyable challenge, and far preferable to "you are all killed, new characters please".
No, what is it about? Is it good? Quite. The Witcher's premise is: A mutant sword-wielding monster hunter pursues a violent criminal organization, while trying to recover his memory and resolve his sense of self. I haven't gotten anywhere near completing the game (the plot is quite involved, with no shortage of characters, diplomacy, and investigation), but parts of the paragraph I quoted perfectly described one of the encounters I had while playing it. You'd probably love it.
Yeah, I'll take the one where the ghoul is evil because he's evil. Not because he's a ghoul, thanks. Occasionally a ghoul might pop up that is not hostile (may be evil, may be neutral, or heck may rarely be good) and might be able to offer the party something. Maybe the party ghoul is skittish of the party and sits atop a ledge overlooking them. Maybe the ghoul wants to be left alone. Maybe the ghoul was a witness to a crime that took place somewhere. Maybe the ghoul knows how to get into the tomb of Jarlxec the Bold. Maybe the ghoul wants to trade some of the trinkets he found on dead bodies he was eating for things more useful to him (maybe the ghoul has no use for a silver ring, but might love a set of dice to play liar's dice with his ghoul buddies). You've played The Witcher, haven't you?
You don't need to make an acrobatics check to avoid attacks of opportunity when invisible. Invisible creatures have total concealment, which makes it impossible to make an attack of opportunity against them. See this page.
I think there's also something lets you add Str for intimidate checks but I'm not sure off the top of my head. You're looking for Intimidating Prowess.
You won't get much mileage out of Spell Penetration by taking it at level 3. Level 7 or 9 are probably good points to take it. Consider Extend Spell or Spell Focus instead.
I've got a sorcerer who just reached level 11, and I'd like some input on feat progression here. She specializes in direct-damage, with spells like Fireball and Dragon's Breath being her bread-and-butter. Feats are currently: 1: Free Spirit
The character is Arcane bloodline, and possesses a Rod of Empower Spell. Additionally, she's gotten a couple of campaign perks, such as gaining one extra spell known per level by dint of extensive practice and research via her membership in the local mage's college, and the ability, granted to her as a boon for helping a deity, to recall a certain number of spell slots per day two levels lower than the maximum level she can cast. I intend to take Spell Perfection as soon as she reaches 15th level, but the question is whether the spell in question should be Fireball (which she uses in virtually every fight, space allowing) or Dragon's Breath (significantly more versatile, but relatively short-ranged), as well as which feats to take and in what order. The GM has stated that 3.5 material will be permitted on a case-by-case basis. Ideas?
As you said, there are no prerequisites, so I would say you can take it. Not as a Fighter bonus feat, though.
Dragon's Breath is the most versatile evocation spell around. Only drawback is the range.
Armoured Kilt: if you're any sort of sensible wizard, it will be useless since you're likely casting Mage Armour or have Bracers of Armour and armour bonuses don't stack. Mithral buckler: Shield (the spell) gives 4 times the AC bonus, applies to incorporeal attacks, and a wand of it is cheaper than the buckler. Ring of Freedom of Movement: Absolutely. You'll still be in a bad spot if an enemy gets into melee range, but at least you'll still be able to cast, and it makes you immune to spells like Web, Black Tentacles, Hold Person and the like.
I'm playing a sorcerer in a Pathfinder game set in the Forgotten Realms. The party was 9th level, and we were in Neverwinter trying to track down a crime boss responsible for raiding trade caravans between Neverwinter and Waterdeep. My character, after having picked up a lead the day before, goes by herself to do some reconnaissance around the target's house. After a poor attempt at disguise, she soon finds a group of four mysterious men on her tail. She decides to confront them and turns around, and they get aggressive. Combat ensues, in which they make judicious use of Dispel Magic to negate her defenses, and it turns out these four are our target's personal bodyguards, whom hired them specifically to deal with mages. All four are roughly 8th-level Wizard/Rogues. At one point in the fight, my character uses Dimension Door to hop onto a nearby roof, momentarily eluding them. Although spells were being burned left and right, she's only taken a little damage at this point and is far too proud to retreat. She tosses a Fireball at them, and they use Dimension Door to surround her. This was followed by the luckiest streak of rolls I've ever seen: A natural 20 on Acrobatics to move away from them (the GM houseruled that a natural 20 on skills confers a sizeable bonus), followed by all four of the mage-hunters rolling 1 or 2 on their saves against Stinking Cloud. My character, emboldened by this change of fortune, followed up by trapping them in a Wall of Fire, then used Fireball again -- and all four of them failed their saves again. Only one of them managed to escape with his life. That group was intended to be the ultimate or penultimate encounter of the adventure -- the GM admitted that he expected my character to flee the entire time. The mage-hunters were all decked out in PC-level gear, so my character came away immensely wealthy and with a great story to tell. And that's how my PC single-handedly won a APL+4 encounter. The GM swore off solo sessions related to the main adventure after that.
First, slavery is not a recent phenomenon, not by a long shot. Secondly, there's more to fantasy worlds than High Middle Ages Europe. I think the question to ask is: Does an incidence of slavery show disregard for sentient life and/or dignity? Is a slave-master who provides his charges clean living space and nourishing meals worse or more evil than the warden of a rat-infested, plague-ridden prison?
The only limit is cost. Adding an enhancement to an already-magical item costs 50% more.
And finally, do you know which 2nd level spells target fortitude saves? Consider Frost Fall.
So even if a spell deals slashing, bludgeoning, or piercing damage, RAW it ignores DR. DR itself says this. If the spell does not ignore DR, then the spell itself must specifically say this. If there is errata, that is one thing, but the PF devs say some silly things quite regularly; and their FAQs have directly contradicted the rules in the past. Feel free to show me in the PRD something proving this so. Pathfinder FAQ: General Info - Spells & Damage. (Scroll down to "I cant [sic] help but notice ...") Also see Pellet Blast. Something that should be made more visible, to be sure. I imagine the "Spells ... ignore damage reduction" line was an oversight given that spells causing physical-typed damage are quite rare.
Personally, I would, yes. Persistent Spell can apply to most of your spells, control and blast alike. Using it increases the likelihood of your spells taking full effect (and, by consequence, increasing the expected damage when applied to a blast spell). I just noticed you took Craft Wand -- a much weaker option for a sorcerer than it is for a wizard, since every spell you know is already at your fingertips. Is your goal to grant other party members access to spells you know that they need to use frequently? Which spells in particular do you have in mind for wand creation?
The Arcane bloodline arcana is +1 to the DC of any spells affected by metamagic feats, so Persistent Spell would mean the opponent needs to save twice at the increased DC in order to avoid the spell's full effect.
A Maximized, Empowered Fireball takes up an 8th-level spell slot but retains the DC of a 3rd-level spell. Under normal circumstances, any spell modified my metamagic uses the DC of the unmodified spell. There are exceptions -- Heighten Spell explicitly makes the spell count as a higher level, which includes save DCs.
Intensify Spell only applies to spells that deal damage in dice per caster level. Ray of Enfeeblement is not such a spell -- even if it actually dealt damage, there is only one damage die whether you're at caster level 1 or 10. At caster level one, the maximum number of damage dice is one, and at level ten, the maximum number of damage dice is still one.
I'd agree that an effective evoker/blaster can also be an effective controller. I would say about half of it is the actual power and choice of spells, with the other half being knowing what to use and how. In the previous session of a game I'm in, our 10th-level party was fighting an army of demons and undead, which involved personal combat against eight vrocks while holding off a few hundred more lower-CR enemies like skeletons and shadows. (Sounds like a set-up for a TPK, I know, but we had generous NPC help.) I used Dragon's Breath and a 200-feet-long Wall of Fire against the advancing army, and Black Tentacles to stop the oncoming 40d6 electricity damage from dancing vrocks (although they were about 15 feet in the air; casting this spell in mid-air was a point of contention). I followed up with an Empowered Fireball to take a large chunk out of their health before needing to make evasive manoeuvres. Going to need something stronger than Scorching Ray for single-target damage, though.
Not trying to be contrary here, but the environment rules explicitly state instantaneous-duration spells don't normally catch characters on fire. Since dry clothing and hair is generally much more flammable than green wood or grass, the issue of forest fires should almost never crop up.
If a GM takes care to note damage dealt to unattended objects, I would be completely fine with that -- because the corollary is that the enemies' weapons and armour might get destroyed too. Really, though, I've never recommended using fireball indoors.
Empower Spell isn't worth it at level 5 -- the spell level adjustment is +2, which means you could only apply it to cantrips at this point. In fact, the only metamagic feat I would take at that level would be Extend Spell, but only Sleep would benefit from the extension and DC boost. (Color Spray has an instantaneous duration). At level 5 I would suggest something like Spell Focus (Conjuration) or (Evocation) instead. Dice level caps aren't something you're going to generally encounter until level 10 or so. At higher levels, Intensified Spell is probably something you'll get more use out of -- for example, at level 14 you can spend a fourth-level slot to cast a 14d6 Fireball instead of using a 7th-level slot to do the same with Delayed Blast Fireball. For my sorcerer, I got a Rod of Empower Spell instead of taking the feat, for those occasions when I absolutely need something dead quickly.
So, Shallowsoul, first question: Do you require a Knowledge (Arcana) check to determine if a particular character is aware of a particular arcane spell? ("Aware of" being the operative words -- I'm not talking about a character identifying a particular spell as it's being cast, which is covered by the rules.) If so, what's the DC? Second question: Does an arcane caster need to succeed on this check in order to be aware of a spell's existence, and thus be able to add it to his spellbook or list of spells known? Assuming you answered yes to both of the above: Have you ever had a wizard or sorcerer in any of your games who were untrained in Knowledge (Arcana)? If so, were they able to cast first-level spells?
Ravingdork: 306 damage? The fireball(s) in that case should be 15*6 (90) from Maximize plus 15d6/2 (26) from Empower -- averaging 116 each unless I'm missing something. Also consider an 18th-level Sorcerer similarly built, with Spell Perfection (Delayed Blast Fireball) and a Greater Rod of Maximize. Use Time Stop followed with three Maximized Delayed Blast Fireballs delayed for the remaining duration of the Time Stop, applying any other metamagic feat known for free to each of them. Exactly 324 damage, +4 to the save DC, making the caster level check against SR at +26 (an auto-success for anything up to CR 15). Use Elemental Spell if necessary to bypass fire immunity, Persistent Spell if you want to cut down the enemy's chances of making the save even further, Piercing Spell to automatically succeed at the SR check against foes up to CR 20, or Empower Spell if you just really need that extra 94 average damage for some reason. What I like about this is that it doesn't rely on some opaque interaction of feats and class features obtained through level dipping -- the feats and spells mentioned are all completely reasonable and self-evident choices for any blasting mage. As such, if you've got a good blaster it's no stretch at all to make a great one, given time.
I'm playing a battle sorcerer in a game currently, so this thread has been useful. One thing, though: Spell Perfection explicitly states any set numerical bonuses from feats are doubled. So the bonus from Loreseeker (as a trait) might be out -- I'd consult your GM before taking it.
My 9th-level sorcerer made great use of Stinking Cloud followed by a circular Wall of Fire (followed by Fireball, natch) to single-handedly trounce four 8th-level wizard/rogues -- Wall/Pit spells in conjuction with rounds/level area disabling spells are the way to go. Food for thought.
I just had a thought -- my character in a game I'm in presently is loaded with gold, and I started thinking about how much it would cost to purchase or construct a dwelling. Perhaps we could see something like this in Ultimate Equipment? Price listings for houses, towers, palaces and the like, and/or the time and resources required to build one?
Bump. Is anyone still here?
Sorry, I was waiting to see if Nasir would make a post before deciding what to do, or a description of the people nearby whom I could ask about the situation.
A bit of clarification if you would, Mathpro: The GM in the original campaign allowed us a pack animal at no charge. Do we have one here as well, are we able to store our own supplies on one of the wagons, or are we solely responsible for carrying our own gear?
Hm, Mathpro, based on what you know about my character, would it be too much to ask to play an Aasimar?
Reporting in. My post in the original recruitment thread is here. It has a link to my character sheet and some additional background info for you in the spoiler section.
I'm still around, so count me in. I would be fine if you wanted to reboot the campaign by starting a new thread.
Most of those are right, but I wouldn't take it as gospel -- for example, as I understand it, "Geas" is pronounced more like "gesh" in the original Gaelic. I always figured "Drow" rhymes with "grow".
I think alignment is as much about the "whys" of an action as the "whats". Allowing a violent criminal to explain their actions, then administering vigilante justice and mutilating their corpse to send a message could be done by someone of several alignments: Lawful Good:
Gives the corrupt guards a chance to explain themselves, as a matter of honour. When they attack, LG character responds with lethal force, in self-defense and in administering justice, for the victim's sake and for the principle of justice. Notifies next of kin and prays for the poor bastards' souls. Castrating the bodies and leaving them to be found is reprehensible. Neutral Good:
May or may not give corrupt guards a chance to explain themselves -- their actions said enough already. When they attack, NG character responds with lethal force, in self-defense and in administering justice for the victim's sake. Notifies next of kin and prays for the poor bastards' souls. Castrating the bodies and leaving them to be found is distasteful at best. Will likely stick around to try to curb similar abuses by the town guard without too much violence. Chaotic Good:
Mostly the same as Neutral Good, possibly excepting the part about notifying next of kin. CG character didn't enjoy killing them, but they had it coming. Will either skip town or become a vigilante folk hero, fighting further abuses of the town guard by whatever means necessary. Castrating the bodies and leaving them to be found is distasteful. Lawful Neutral:
May or may not confront the guards; may or may not give them a chance to explain themselves. If LN character does confront them, it's likely to correct a miscarriage of justice or born from a personal code of ethics. Castrating the bodies and leaving them to be found is unpleasant, but also an effective way to let people know that corruption will not go unchallenged. Neutral:
May or may not confront the guards. Since neutral characters are somewhat hard to predict, it will largely depend on their relationship to the victim. Chaotic Neutral:
May or may not confront the guards, if only to drive home the point that they can't get away with what they did. Probably will not give the guards a chance to explain themselves, and may simply kill them out of anger or spite. Castrating the bodies and leaving them to be found is a good warning. Lawful Evil:
Will likely not confront the men at all -- members of the town guard legally getting away with rape and assault has LE all over it. If LE character does confront the guards, it's not for the sake of the victim or the concept of justice. Neutral Evil:
May or may not confront the guards. If NE character does confront them, it's likely because of a personal vendetta and not for anyone else's sake. Chaotic Evil:
May or may not confront the guards. If CE character does confront them, CE character will likely kill them for personal satisfaction or the pure thrill of it. Castration may or may not occur post-mortem, and leaving the bodies out to be found is a great way to inspire fear. These are just some of the probable actions and motives I could think of for various alignments in this particular situation. Naturally, no two characters are alike, even ones of the same alignment, so there are definitely other possibilities. My opinion? Lawful Neutral.
Let's put aside for a moment them being members of the city guard, because they were off-duty and made no demands to acquiesce to arrest. Punching out a group of men coming at you with fists and saps? That's self defense, not Chaotic Evil.
It depends on your character's level of faith, I suppose. Your character is not a Cleric or Paladin so there's nothing stopping him/her from worshipping whatever god he/she chooses; being at once cut-throat and devoted to Shelyn's ideals could indeed be the source of an interesting internal conflict. Sivanah would be quite appropriate for a Ninja, in any case. That aside, I wouldn't mind seeing some angelic forces similar to the nascent demon lords or infernal dukes to give some more roleplaying options for the good guys. Empyreal Lords?
Count me in! My character sheet can be found here: Beatrix. I created this character for a LoF game a few months ago which ended not halfway through the first book, and I've been wanting a second chance at it. The previous GM and myself collaborated on her backstory, which was ... For MPL8665: ... that she was originally a quasi-mortal aspect of Sarenrae who perished in an important battle against Rovagug's spawn, was entombed by her church, and divinely resurrected several hundred years later with none of her prior memories or abilities. I left the circumstances and details up to you to determine, but if this isn't to your taste, I can understand. In any case, thank you for reading this, and I hope you'll consider me for your campaign!
Saw this one in the "Hell's Pawns" novella in the Council of Thieves: "In Cheliax, murderers go to jail. Forgers go to Hell."
It's notable that the heralds of divinities themselves are CR 15 -- accessible to (and possibly beatable in combat by) mortals of sufficient power. In this light, there is hardly a need for "epic-level" rules; "epic-level" begins at the point one can go toe-to-toe with a divine herald, not five to seven levels after that. Not counting the gods themselves, a level 20 character is one of about two dozen of the most powerful beings in all existence.
Dotting. Putting aside the arguments and claims of "exploitation" and what have you I've seen so far (I honestly think some of you are making a mountain out of a molehill), I am enjoying the images -- keep 'em coming. I am actually playing a female Fighter in a Kingmaker campaign right now, whose typical combat attire is a wool shirt, trousers, riding boots and a calf-length armoured coat which is starting to show some wear. I want her to eventually commission a wicked-looking suit of full plate, so when that happens, some of these images will be a useful resource.
At first I thought those were pretty extreme, but then realized that Bestow Curse can effectively apply a -8 to all ability scores. Here's one that might fit well with Lamashtu: Curse of Perversion
One thing I wonder about, which is similar to this: What about casting spells unnoticed? Say a sorcerer meets the local baron in his office and needs to ensure his cooperation, and so casts a Silent Charm Person with observers present. Would that character be able to use e.g. Sleight of Hand to obscure or conceal the gestures involved? Or Bluff to make his odd speech seem harmless when casting a Still Charm Person?
I think they're referring to the morningstar. The picture in the book does not depict a flexible section, but real morningstars have chains between the head and the shaft (short chains, but still). Morning stars are essentially spiked clubs: A spiked ball affixed to a wooden or metal shaft. A flail is a spiked ball affixed to a chain attached to a wooden or metal shaft. See here.
There's something quite odd in the Fighter "flail" weapon group. Which of these doesn't belong? Flails: chain spear [APG], dire flail, double chained kama [UC], flail, flying blade [UC], heavy flail, kusarigama [UC], kyoketsu shoge [UC], meteor hammer [UC], morningstar, nine-section whip [UC], nunchaku, sansetsukon [UC], scorpion whip [UC], spiked chain, urumi [UC], and whip.
Fair enough, but I would prefer to just remove the unique regeneration and increase its DR and/or HP in the interest of simplifying the attack resolution process. The turn-by-turn regeneration means opponents hitting once will do less damage per attack than opponents hitting with multiple attacks. However, if you raise the DR a little (say, to 18 or so) and remove the turn-by-turn regeneration, it evens out. The only major difference is that the bar is set slightly higher on what can damage Slendy, and the math is simpler. DR is often explained as "instant healing", so it would work flavour-wise, too. If there are any more errors or oddities in the document, please let me know :D. Well, since you mentioned it ... now that the Slender Man is an Outsider: * Intimidate is no longer a class skill* It gains 60 extra skill points * Its base attack bonus is now +30 rather than +22 Also:
Lastly, again in Regeneration: "... healing a number of hit points equal to half of the total damage dealt to it during the round (max. 20) at the end of the attacker’s turn." -- During the entire round? This needs to be clarified: For example, Person A hits Slendy for 31 HP, 11 of which is absorbed by DR and 10 of which is healed (assuming DR is applied before Regeneration). Person B is next in the turn order and hits Slendy for the same amount, but this time 11 is absorbed and 20 is healed because Slender Man has taken 40 points of damage during the round. Unless this was intentional, I would change the phrasing to "... healing a number of hit points equal to half of the total damage dealt to it during the attacker's turn (maximum 20) at the end of the attacker's turn." Or just take the suggestion I made in the first paragraph. Special Thanks to Erich Norden for staring at a Slenderman stat block without going insane. Both literally and figuratively :). Glad to help, and thanks for the credit. I hope I'm not coming off as overly critical; I'm just something of a perfectionist and this project intrigues me.
I really like this so far. Some thoughts: First, Impossible Biology combines three different abilities into one: Can grapple four opponents at once without having the grappled condition, regenerates after every attacker's turn, and cannot be permanently destroyed. My humble suggestion would be to split the "grapple four opponents" and "can't be destroyed" into separate abilities, and remove the additional regeneration since there's not really a precedent for it (I could be wrong, of course) and it seems overkill, already covered by DR and normal regeneration. CR could be lowered to compensate, but Slendy can't be permanently killed anyway. Also, regarding this line in Impossible Biology: ... and it never gains the grappled condition while grappling foes this way (its victims, however, gained the grappled condition as normal). The Grab ability already allows this to happen, albeit at a -20 penalty to Slender Man's grapple check. It also gives a +4 bonus to grapple attempts, so this should be added after his CMB in the stat block. If the intent here was that Slendy can use Grab without penalty, I would replace the current "Impossible Biology" with the following: Impossible Biology (Ex): The Slenderman can grapple a number of creatures equal to the number of tentacles it possesses, and does not incur the normal penalty to combat maneuver checks made when using its Grab ability to grapple creatures with its tentacles. And add this as a separate ability: Regeneration (Ex): No form of attack can suppress the Slenderman's regeneration—it regenerates even if disintegrated or slain by a death effect. If the Slenderman fails a save against an effect that would kill it instantly, it merely vanishes from the current plane for 1d6 minutes, after which it can return at its leisure. Any body part cut off or removed from the Slenderman (including its head) crumbles into nothing and regrows after 1d4 rounds without affecting its ability to fight (though lost limbs may result in a fewer number of attacks). (The "can return 1d6 minutes later" is mine: Much scarier to let the good guys think they've won for a minute or two before seeing a horrible, familiar dark shape in the distance.) Second are just some other oddities about the stat block itself: * The claw attacks are +29 (1d6+7 plus eviscerate), but the "eviscerate" special ability is only listed as being used when Slendy uses his Constrict attack. This should probably be clarified in the text.
Third, owing to its teleportation and plane-hopping abilities, would Slender Man be considered an outsider?
It's a little odd that against an opponent in full plate, a katana is a better choice of weapon than a heavy mace. |