Face_P0lluti0n's page

Hello everyone!

My long-running game has moved into the high-level phase where player characters are beginning to control entire factions and organizations within my campaign world.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with any 3.5 or Pathfinder products, either first or third party, that had rules for running organizations that might try to use influence against one another or to influence the population as a whole.

I've checked the PF hardcovers, but the only thing I've found are the kingdom rules and business rules from Ultimate Campaign, which don't quite cover what I was going for - something more along the lines of "I'm running a spy guild, what do I roll to see if they can manipulate public opinion or spy on my rival spy guild?"

Has any publisher tried to make a product for d20 that does this, or something similar to Greg Stolze's REIGN system?

Thanks!

Hello all, got a quick rules question.

I'm making a few powerful ghosts as a boss fight for my game. The way the ghost template is written, it seems unclear to me whether Corrupting or Draining Touch can be used as an attack that is a part of another type of action. For example, could the ghost of a Magus use Corrupting Touch with Spell Combat? Or could the ghost of a Martial Adept class use Corrupting Touch with the Maneuvers from Tome of Battle or Path of War?

I can't tell if Corrupting Touch is a special action or a type of attack. The template seems to indicate that it can't be used multiple times a round if the ghost has a high base attack bonus, but beyond that, the template seems vague.

It does also indicate that ghosts can use ghostly versions of their equipment, which does full damage if it's ghost touch or half damage otherwise, which seems that it would work like a normal character's attacks, with Spell Combat, Martial Maneuvers, etc, which is the back up option if Corrupting Touch isn't compatible with other types of special attack actions.

Thanks!

Good afternoon all,

For the first time in my long-running political/intrigue campaign, my PCs have saw fit to go find a dungeon of great legend in the campaign world, in the hopes of finding a unique magic item to help resolve their current predicament. Since the party usually doesn't do this, I'm aiming to make this dungeon challenging and memorable.

However, my PCs are 15th level and the optimization skill level is pretty high. Ethereal plane access, Passwall, Wild Shaping, Trapfinding with a high Perception bonus, Greater Teleporting, being undetectable to various senses, True Seeing, etc etc, are all on the table. If a 15th level character can theoretically do it, my players have probably thought of it.

So I'm just wondering if anyone has, or could point me toward, any collected advice, optimization handbooks, products, etc, that detail the sorts of traps, dungeon traits, or techniques a GM can use to create sufficiently challenging dungeon crawls at this level. Since this is an intrigue campaign, I'm pretty familiar with how an intelligent adversary might counter 15th level PCs, but I'm not entirely sure how a *place* can give the PCs a challenge.

Any advice or references would be helpful.

Thanks!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/804836187/nova-praxis-savage-worlds-ed ition

I'm not directly affiliated with Void Star, but I'm a big fan of the Fate version, so I figured anybody who is into slightly more traditional RPG rules might be interested. I like my rules on the medium-crunch side (Savage Worlds, White Wolf/d10, Call of Cthulhu/d100 system), so Savage Worlds looks like a perfect match for a fast, tactical style.

Personally, I'm very picky about my Sci-Fi RPGs, and I think the setting does a good job of being a believable work of modern SF and very game-able without compromising either side.

(First - If this has already been asked recently, I apologize, I've only been back a few months from a long Pathfinder hiatus)

TL;DR: Are there any homebrews out there for taking Beginner Box rules beyond 5th level, and if not, is anyone interested in collaborating on such a project?

Long version:

I know that by design, the BB only goes up to level 5, but I've seen a lot of people claim that the BB has become their "core rules" in order to keep the advantages that PF has over other d20-based fantasy games while avoiding the complexity creep.

I have a group with *very* varied rules expertise, running from "barely read the rulebooks" to "Would fit in with the hardcore 3.5 CharOp community". The optimizer likes to play complex strategic games and complains if I try to tone down the complexity in the game or use less complex systems for fantasy campaigns, and the other players tend to get rules wrong often or complain about increasing complexity. I'm fine with complex rules, I choose again and again to run 3.x/PF, but it's a strain on some players who are otherwise perfectly happy to play in campaigns run by myself or the other complexity-loving GM.

Since BB is compatible with the rest of Pathfinder, it seemed like the best option was to let each player individualy choose to build their character with the BB or use the full rules. Using BB only (though I also include the fantastic APG/UM/UC conversions from EdOWar) limits this to a 5 level game, which is nice for an E6ish game, but I'd like to include some high level adventure too. Which, for me, boils down to either "Homebrew the BB to advance beyond 5th level" or "Use Mythic Adventures in place of level 5+ advancement".

I don't mind using the Mythic rules in a campagin that supports it, but I'd like to see if continuing the BB to a level in the 6-10 range was something that had been considered or done by someone else on the internet, so I can keep that open as an option.

For intelligent magic items that have the ability to cast spells, I can't find any indication of whether they can only cast self targeting spells on the item itself, or if they can cast self targeting spells on the wielder as though the wielder was the caster.

Many spells that would be highly useful to give to an item's user don't entirely make sense when applied to the weapon - Divine Favor, Mirror Image, Divine Power, Disguise Self, etc., which seem like very good spells to give to an intelligent weapon that you're going to pass out to your church's champion, a wizard's head bodyguard, or something similar.

The Horizon Walker's Terrain Dominance ability gives the character a favored enemy bonus against creatures that are native to any of the terrains chosen for Dominance. For most types of monsters this makes sense (Outsiders are native to their alignment or elemental plane, most aberrations are native to underground etc) but humanoids leave me wondering how to judge their native terrain.

My first impulse is to consider the "PC races" native to urban environments. But it's unclear in the ability description whether a creature's native terrain is the one that it's entire race is native to (in which case Elves and Gnomes should probably be native to "Forest") or if the native terrain is the one that the individual is native to. It also doesn't really clarify whether a creature can be native to two different terrains if they somehow overlap (Would Elves be native to "Forest" and "Urban" if they live in treetop cities? Halflings native to "Plains" and "Underground" if they live in hobbit-holes in a grasslands region?)

Terrain Dominance gives some hefty attack/damage bonuses, so it seems possible to pick something like "Urban" for a Horizon Walker who works as an assassin, bodyguard, or some other profession in which battling humanoids is a regular part of the job. I'm just not sure how wide the definition of those terrain bonuses can get, and I can't find any clarification in the FAQs.

Thanks in advance everyone!

From a GMing perspective, Antimagic Field is a pretty scary way to turn off a large number of things. The only issue being duration and AoE - it seems like a combat buff, or possibly a means of securing important meetings against scrying, charm spells, and social-booster items.

However, if influential sorts with access to a lot of money and high-level hirelings/advisers/etc were worried about magical intrusion or attack on a space that needed to be permanently secure, I can't help but think that they would find a way to make permanent antimagic fields or similar zones, if such a means existed. The main problem being that Antimagic Field cannot be made permanent

Does anyone know of any rules, spells, abilities, etc, in Pathfinder (or 3.5) that allows for the creation of a permanent antimagic zone without any GM handwaving? (or, for that matter, hiring a Sorc/Wiz to stand in a room and use all of their 6th-level slots to keep the field up all day)

Thanks!

For reference: "Amazing Initiative (Ex): At 2nd tier, you gain a bonus on initiative checks equal to your mythic tier. In addition, as a free action on your turn, you can expend one use of mythic power to take an additional standard action during that turn. This additional standard action can't be used to cast a spell. You can't gain an extra action in this way more than once per round."

During my most recent game, I had a PC try to cast a spell with their standard action, and then use Amazing Initiative to activate a wand with the extra action provided by this ability.

There was a disagreement at the table regarding whether wand or scroll use counted as casting a spell for the purposes of being prohibited by this ability. My assumption was that while rules-as-written says that using spell trigger or completion is magic item activation and not spellcasting, the intended use of this ability did not include adding additional spell use of any sort, and I felt the rules as written were a bit murky regarding this issue because spell trigger and completion create spell effects and require that the item user be a spellcaster who is capable of casting this spell, or good enough at UMD to fake it.

TL; DR: Does Amazing Initiative allow you to use a wand, staff, or scroll, or are those close enough to spellcasting that they are also not allowed as part of the extra action granted by this ability?

I've re-started my long-running (2008-?) 3.5/PF hybrid Eberron game, and been catching up on the last couple of year's worth of books, optimization threads, etc.

I'm familiar with several ways in 3.5 for non-spellcasters to deal with invisible foes (either in combat or while standing guard against infiltrators) but I'm not up to speed on the most efficient ways to do so in Pathfinder, and I haven't really seen a consolidated guide or specific discussion thread about this.

Assuming that we're talking about people who know to expect invisibility (that is, PCs, or reasonably competent NPCs with PC class levels) and have access to level-appropriate mundane and magical gear, what are the best ways to mitigate Invisibility and/or Greater Invisibility without being a spellcaster? (assuming magic items, alchemy, and UMD-ing items is ok)

As far as mundane ways, I just finished reading Ashiel's thread of clever macguyver tricks, so chalk dust or flour is definitely on the table. NPCs guarding high-security locations in my world know well enough to cover the floor with sand or flour, make all of the doors noisy, and carry a pouch of flour or chalk dust to throw at enemies or on the ground in order to determine what square they are in.

Dogs or other animals with Scent works too, though the Negate Aroma spell, or a potion/oil of the same, defeats that method. Ditto for the Barbarian rage power that grants Scent during combat, or being a Half-Orc and taking the feat that gives Scent.

Carrying a scroll or wand of See Invisibility or Invisibility Purge would do the trick, but that would require being a spellcaster or having a reliable UMD, so it's an option, but not for everyone.

So I'm throwing this question into the ring for those who know more than I about Pathfinder-specific tactics, magic items, long-duration buffs that could be cast on non-spellcasters, etc

Thanks everyone!

Face_p0lluti0n's Guide to Weapon Finesse

It's still a work in progress. Continued from this thread

Taking advice, critiques, builds I haven't mentioned, basically anything you think needs added or changed!

So the general idea I've seen floating around the boards over the past few years is that melee characters that rely on Dexterity and the Weapon Finesse feat are still vastly inferior to Strength-based warriors, usually using two-handed weapons to max out their theorycrafted DPR. On the other hand, finesse combat is a popular fantasy archetype and I see lots of people who like to play characters who fight with brains and/or grace rather than brawn.

Yet with all of the Treantmonk-style guides out there and the popularity of fencers, duelists, ninjas, assassins, and other speedy/tricky archetypes of the fantasy genre, I haven't seen any that are dedicated to making finesse builds usable, either within the bounds of accepted theorycraft (damage > defense, combat healing is not useful, etc) or by challenging the established way of doing things.

TL;DR, finesse is really popular but there are no guides. Is anybody interested in collaborating on a guide to all of the ways to optimize finesse builds and listing the advantages that finesse styles have over straight strength builds?

I've been looking for a good gritty Sci-Fi game to try to hook my group on. They tend to be intrigue and roleplay heavy gamers, so when I saw that Ashen Stars was up for an Origins Award, I wondered if my group had found it's Sci-Fi match.

If anybody has played Ashen Stars, I would love to hear your opinions. It seems to be high-rated, but I'm new to GUMSHOE so I'm not sure how well the system plays.

I'm especially concerned about the system's ability to handle players who like to jump the tracks and force me to GM by the seat of my pants. Does anyone know if the system and game style can handle sudden changes in direction or spontaneous adventure creation?

Thanks!

According to Precise Bomb:

Whenever the alchemist throws a bomb, he can select a number of squares equal to his Intelligence modifier that are not affected by the splash damage from his bombs. If the bomb misses, this discovery has no effect.

Does this apply to effects that changoe how the splash area works, such as Stink Bomb?

I am contemplating creating a Magus for PFS soon, and I have been reading on some of the other posts on the boards that there's some disagreement about whether Arcane Mark, as a touch spell, can be used with Spellstrike and Spell Combat to gain a second attack. Is there a "rules as written" consensus on the issue for the purpose of sanctioned play?

I don't want to annoy any GMs if most PFS GMs consider using Arcane Mark for the extra attack to be going too far, but if it's generally seen as allowable, not factoring it into my build would let my fellow Pathfinders down.

Thanks everyone!

I'm thinking of going the Maneuver Master/Lore Warden route with a character, but saw something weird and wanted to know if anyone else had encountered or could clarify this:

According to the description of the Ki Pool class ability for the Monk, "By spending 1 point from his ki pool, a monk can make one additional attack at his highest attack bonus when making a flurry of blows attack." I don't see any text in the description of the Maneuver Master that changes this, yet I do not have the Flurry of Blows class feature. Would a Maneuver Master be able to spend a Ki point to add an attack to a Flurry of Maneuvers, or add a maneuver to the flurry, or does this ability fall off because of the loss of Flurry of Blows exactly as worded?

Thanks!

I just signed up for Origins, and accidentally got an event well above my characters' levels. I will need to play a pre-gen for that scenario. I cannot find the rules for using Pre-gens in non-module scenarios in the guide. Should I assume that they are the same as the rules for using pre-gens in sanctioned modules - that I may play a level appropriate pre-gen and apply the XP and reduced GP total to a newly created character?

Thanks!

I like to use background music in games, but I may be migrating from "meatspace" tabletop to online tabletop soon. Does anyone know of any software, virtual tabletop or otherwise, that would allow me to control and sync up the music playing on all of the player's computers? I'm worried that if I just use speakers in the background of my gaming space, it will sound grainy over skype/ventrilo/etc, and get in the way of my voice when GMing.

Thanks in advance for your help and information

EDIT: For the bonus round, if anybody knows any good, free voice-changers for my NPC voices, I would appreciate recommendations!

Thanks!

(Yes, I know I just asked about crunchy Sci-Fi games, but I wanted to expand the discussion to other genres and further define what I meant by crunchy)

My group recently had a big blowout and we're shelving some of the more RP/story based games like FATE in favor of games that are more tightly defined. One of the things I and my group finds fun is comparing character builds, overcoming tactical challenges, and otherwise treating RP as a tactical game that has a story behind it. We're looking for more games that fit that bill.

Simulationist games like GURPS, where accuracy is the key, are less desirable than games where character power and player victory is actually based on understanding the game mechanics and the lists of feats, spells, special attacks, and other abilities that a character gets (or clever use of equipment, in some sci-fi games).

Our #1 choice is d20/Pathfinder, but other genres aren't so well-covered, especially since 'rules-light' is all the rage these days. Shadowrun 4E fits the bill for us too, as does White Wolf's Exalted. What other games place emphasis on tactical challenge or careful character building?

Also, before anybody says anything, no, I'm not interested in 4E, I love me some Pathfinder and that's how it's gonna stay. I'm looking for tactical games outside of fantasy - modern and space opera games in particular.

Thanks, all!

Seeing the sub-$200 price tags on the latest generation of e-readers has finally convinced me to consider one. I was thinking about a tablet, like the ipad, but then I realized all I would do with it is read. The Kindle 3 and Nook 2 are cheaper by far than even a beat up, used since release day ipad 1 and with better battery life and outdoor visibility too.

Has anyone tried either of these devices? Are they usable for reading your average Paizo PDF? Does the lack of a backlight get in the way? Are there any reading lights that are non-clumsy and/or rechargeable? And does either device let you takes notes that aren't annotations, i.e. plaintext notepad style text notes?

Thanks everyone!

Does anybody know of games in the Space Opera or Modern genres that have as much crunchy optimization goodness as games like 3.5/PF and Shadowrun have for their respective genres? As much as I love FATE, sometimes heavily Narrativist games leave me wanting something a bit more objective (in the five-foot squares and precalculated DCs for everything way), and a bit more game-like. I've looked at d20 Modern/Future as an option, though the complete lack of sneak attack and the part where they are out of print lose some points with me. Any suggestions?

Tangentially, anybody know if Infinite Futures is any good? Does it cover Mecha? Modern Day?

I've been watching, off and on, the threads, debates, and complaints about the questionable viability of builds that max out Dex as the primary melee ability score instead of Strength. Without a feat that allows one to add a non-Strength ability to damage, obviously the 'DPR' of such Dex-focused melee builds isn't going to match those of Barbarians and Fighters with absurd Strength scores.

I've been out of the loop though. I wanted to ask the forums: What is the current state of Weapon Finesse builds? Aside from the Dervish Dance Magus (I'm afraid to play one until I see an official ruling stating that Spell Combat and Dervish Dance are compatible) are there any combinations of feats, equipment, and classes that can allow a Dex based character to have *acceptable* damage output and enough advantages from high Dex to make the drop in 'DPR' an acceptable price to pay for the benefits of high Dex?

Yes, I know if there's a Finesse-booster in UC, that could change everything, but we're not there quite yet.

I was hoping maybe we could collect all of the Wisdom and advice for Finesse characters in one thread. I've seen half-completed ideas and briefly mentioned build suggestions all over the place, never consolidated.

(Maybe I should write a Treantmonk style 'guide to Weapon Finesse'...)

Thanks in advance to all that reply.

Has anybody 'round these parts played or read this game? I've only heard of it a few times, but as a fan of mind-screw, conspiracies, and Thirty-Xanatos-Pileups (see TVTropes), as well as a big fan of all the people who worked on the game, I can't help but be a little interested.

Thumbs-up? Thumbs-down? Thumbs with tentacles coming out of them? Just wondering what it's like from people who have been there already...

Seeing the call for PFS GMs for Paizocon made me remember that Origins Game Fair is only 2.5 months away. My time with PFS at last year's con was the highlight of my weekend and I'd love to be able to help out this year. Is there anybody in particular that is taking charge of things this year? I can't find any official announcements, nor can I relocate the list of venture capt. appointments. I would really love to volunteer as a GM for at least part of the weekend.

Thanks

Andrew

Fantasy has Pathfinder and D&D, Cyberpunk has CP2020 and Shadowrun, and Horror has Cthulhu and World of Darkness - but I have had trouble finding any RPGs that really dominate or represent the Science Fiction or Space Opera Genres. The only one I can think of is Traveller - are there any other "big-name" RPGs that are synonymous with the old school Science Fiction genre?

The background: I'm running a 3.5/PF game (pretty much anything WotC or Paizo printed for 3.5 and PF respectively is allowed) set in Eberron. It's been an optimization arms race for several months now, and I'm ready to end it.

Originally, I allowed all of the 3.5 stuff in my game because I like variety, and I enjoy playing RPGs as tactical games sometimes. We're all video gamers who like overcoming challenges.

If I just start banning optimization resources, my players will mutiny, either walking out or replacing me. I also just happen to not agree with the "if you don't like it, ban it" school of anti-optimization.

What I want to do is scare them so badly they *beg* me to roll the "allowed books list" back to Core/APG only, or give them optimization fatigue as they search through 13 sourcebooks for a counter to a monster that is not even close to fair for a creature 2 CR below the party's level.

As far as humanoid NPCs go, I can, of course, just use the same broken builds and combos the PCs use, and I know there are messageboards all over the 'net for optimizing player characters. What I am curious about is if anybody has any tips, or links to resources similar to the Character Optimization boards I've browsed in the past, for monster optimization.

After the smoke clears, I'm going to start suggesting to them that we allow some of the PFRPG 3PP stuff to retain variety. I just need to start launching nukes so that the 3.5 stuff can be cleared off the table.

I'm committed to this course of action - banning is out of the question, and quitting for another fantasy RPG is not a desirable outcome - I've never liked a tabletop game as much as I like PFRPG. Quitting the group is impossible - the people I play this game with are close friends (incl. girlfriend of 5 years) who would take refusal to play as a serious insult.

I really appreciate the time you took to read this, and any time you take to respond.

I'm just trying to see how much combat capability can be squeezed out ofthe "fencer" archetype that is traditionally underrepresented in d20 and its predecessors. The PF Duelist is certainly much better than the 3.5 one, though the APG gave fewer options to finesse fighters than I had hoped. My ideas revolve around using either the Free-Hand Fighter archetype or the Weapon Master to get the most out of going Fighter 6 into Duelist or Fighter 7 into Duelist. The issue I keep coming back to is that as far as I can tell, the Int bonus to AC that the class provides counts as part of the character's Dex bonus, meaning, unless I have it wrong, that the Max Dex Bonus on armor will count against the combined total of the character's Dex mod and Canny Defense Int mod bonus. With a character of 7th level and beyond, especially considering stat boosting belts and headbands, that total could go well beyond +6, which is the best that you're going to get outside of Padded Armor (Leather armor or a Mithral Chain Shirt will give +6 Max Dex), and in addition, the character cannot equip a shield and keep the bonuses.

I am unclear though, whether a ring of force shield would count as a shield for those purposes, or if a Duelist could use a ring of force shield and keep the Canny Defense and Precise Strike abilities.

The only other defensive option I can find to keep Duelists' AC competitive with their more heavily armored companions is to use Bracers of Armor to avoid the Max Dex issue entirely, which is still pretty sub-optimal.

Does anyone have any suggestions or tricks for making Duelists, in damage-dealing or defensive capacity, even or near-even with more commonly effective strategies, like sword 'n board or two-handed weapon styles?

I just wanted to brainstorm with other PFRPG GMs - How do you deal with the party that has figured out how to milk utility spells for all they are worth?

I have ten years of experience playing and GMing for sub-10th level characters in d20, but only a handful of times have I played a character above 10th level, and recently was my first time GMing for a high-level party, specifically, a party of 14th level Eberron characters.

I've kept the story interesting by raising the stakes and the importance and power level of their opponents, but it's actually high level utility spells that continually throw me for a loop. It's easy for a role-balanced group of characters, as a group, to be invisible, flying, scentless, and able to pass through walls (all spells they'll have by 9th-10th level in a casting class), making the typical "dungeon" adventure pretty short (invisible-flying-passwall to the room the big bad is in, kill it, win) and even intrigue adventures are pretty tough when characters can be anywhere they want, for spying or assassination, anytime they want, and frequently have the drop of enemies that do not have the ability to completely cancel out PC abilities, like blindsense, or see invisibility.

It seems to me that any character worth their position is going to be hiding in a fortress of counter-divination spells and surrounding themselves with Wizards, Clerics, and monsters capable of cancelling out anything that the PCs might try, as well as lurking under a large number of false identities and conspiracies.

Are there any other solutions or considerations that have affected your high-level games?

I've just recently discovered Legends of Anglerre and Starblazer adventures, and when it comes down to it only the PFRPG has excited me as much as Anglerre and Starblazer. Apart from Dresden Files, Diaspora, and Spirit of the Century (all out of my preferred genres) are there any other FATE games in existence or on the way? FATE info on the web seems to incomplete, or maybe my google-fu is weakening...

Hey, everyone! I would like to humbly ask a small favor of the fine folks on these messageboards.

I've been contemplating a few different generic RPGs in my search for what I could truly and completely call my "Desert Island RPG". So far, while I've considered GURPS (too complicated to explain to a newb), Mutants and Masterminds (same complaint), Chaosium BRP (not enough Genre toolkits/subsystems, missing Mecha and Cyberspace rules), the two that have caught my attention and kept it are True20 from Green Ronin, and Pinnacle's Savage Worlds.

Both of these game systems are "Rules Lighter" (than, say, other d20 games) without being "Rules Light". I like to have *just* enough crunch that there's still a tactics/strategy game in there somewhere, and both systems have a really good selection of genre toolkits and easily-pillaged campaign settings, making it easy to do something like, say, a Space Opera/Anime Mecha/Cyberpunk mashup with Psionics thrown in for good measure.

As far as high fantasy goes, Pathfinder RPG is my system of choice and will remain that way. However, I'm lost as far as finding one RPG that can cover the whole range of Modern and Sci-Fi genres without breaking or scaring away newbs when I try to teach them the system.

My only problem with Savage Worlds at this point is that I feel, after reading the Core materials of both games, that True20 leads by a wide margin in the versatility of the powers sytem. I know the Supers Companion and Necessary Evil make a good set of Supers rules, but as far as building up a good set of powers for Psionic or Magical characters, on the same level of power as a low-mid level 3.5/PF spellcaster, Savage's power selection seems like it's going to be leaving me to do the lion's share of the work if I want characters to be able to do things like read minds, charm people, create illusions, teleport more than a few hundred feet at a time, scry upon distant locations, and other, similar tasks. The powers seem to be weighted towards direct combat powers with short durations, rather than the trickery/intrigue set of powers I'm interested in.

I want to avoid anything more than light house-ruling (coming up for stats for races that don't exist in the core materials, for instance), or else my game will never fly due to hours upon hours of arguments with my rules lawyer, balance-obsessed players (who are smart and pleasant people outside of the fact that they furiously demand consistency and game balance, but so do I to a certain extent).

If anybody has got any good reason to go straight for or stay the heck away from either of those games, or any other games to suggest that are either easy to learn, or have a large enough following that I am likely not to have to teach, it would be greatly appreciated, and thanks for the time you took to read my rambling. ( :

-Andrew

I would like to end my Adventure Path subscription after the final issue of the Kingmaker AP, and have the first issue of Serpent's Skull removed from my pending shipment. I thoroughly enjoyed Kingmaker, but from here on forward, my gaming budget is going into the mainline Pathfinder RPG subscription I just started.

Thank you for your time,
Andrew

Hi, just played in my first two PFS games today at Origins, and I just wanted to say, very awesome. I love the welcoming atmosphere and attitude of PFS GMs and players. I've had less than stellar experiences with unfriendly players and GMs in non-PFS OP campaigns in the past, so I was somewhat wary coming into this, but decided to give it a shot since everyone on the boards was so positive about PFS. I'm glad I did. This is above and beyond. I had a blast, and I'm going to try to squeeze into more games this weekend. This is what OP should be - friendly and organized. I and several other new players in the games I was in were treated very well, and everything was explained to me very patiently and in great detail. There is not enough room here to say all of the nice things I want to say. Thanks, guys.

I've been lurking for a while, and I was surprised earlier to run across a discussion that implied pretty heavily that the best thing a GM could possibly do for the sake of balance and rules is put his or her foot down and ban everything that came before that fateful day in August when 3.5 was fixed.

Not to criticize that approach: It has occurred to me as well, and sorely tempted me, but my group is rather fond of the nice, shiny set of completes, races of books, books of various extreme moral perspectives, and of course, the love-it-or-hate-it Tome of Battle, not to mention the campaign specific rules such as Dragonmarks and the Artificer in Eberron, and selling them on the PFRPG (as opposed to the big rules reset button that would be switching to 4E or a retrogame such as Hackmaster).

I'm even fond of a lot of the optional stuff - my game's GMPC/Main Villain was a Diamond Mind rapier fighter who went LE when he decided he wanted to force the rest of the world to be as disciplined as his diamond mind training had made him. There are some niches and non-twinky mechanical functions that aren't filled in the core. The Swashbuckler class and it's Int mod to damage bonus, some of the ToB fighting styles (especially Diamond Mind and White Raven, which as I see it are unique in marrying those concepts to functional, competitively balanced mechanics), and those few non-broken spells in the spell compendium that serve a logical worldbuilding function, not to mention that I'm still using my 3.5 monster books for those creatures that a certain company keeps all to themselves.

On the other hand, my game has a PC that by 12th level had abilities that could scare the pants off a mid/high-level Exalted PC and utterly destroy anyone who did not have several more class levels or some very specific magic items or spells, and some of the problems that PF fixed (nerfing the more brutal save-or-die/suck spells, banishing CoDzilla and making the Wizard-for-all-occasions balanced against the other classes). We're actually *playing* Exalted between d20 games, and I actually fear the power level of Dragon-Blood Exalts less than I fear the power of 12th level d20 characters.

As I see it, the three major options available to the beleaguered GM are to leave the d20 kitchen sink right where it is with all the risks and problems inherent, ban everything that doesn't have a PF logo or a PF compatibility seal, or spend weeks and reams of paper converting all of the Scary Coast-Dwelling Wizards' 3.5 stuff, or burdening my players and my free time with an "approved" list of spells, feats, etc.

Has anybody else found a more practical means of converting *some* of the 3.5 material forward? I'd be interested in any ideas...

Thanks for reading!