I've considered a few possibilities to change her class to monk, but it's tricky to move all the points from charisma to wisdom without sacrificing dexterity, at least not while sticking to Kitsune and the Southbank Traditionalist.
So, while in game terms she is a swashbuckler, thematically for all means and purposes she is a monk (or a nun in her case, I guess), it's just that the skill set of a swashbuckler fit better to a nun devoted to Daikitsu.
I did type in a background story, too. Nothing too fancy, but solid and grounded, I think. To which Paizo.com did reply "You've backtracked too far!", of course. *sigh* Will do it again, just to post so that I can get the obvious idea on the board before anybody else does.
Character Image
(own AI creation using nightcafe.com. Unedited original [link] Yes, the Nightcafe AI has a series problem with drawing proper hands, so if there are hands, or worse the character is holding something, you'll virtually always need to retouch them.)
Miyoshi Kisa - Alias Profile Page
(by the time you read this it's hopefully fixed)
Pathbuilder Sheet
Ancestry: Celestial Envoy Kitsune
Background: Southbank Traditionalist
Heirloom: 2 minor healing potions and a repair kit.
Occupation: Temple Guardian / Cool Aunt to a bunch of nieces, nephews and the kids of Willowshore in general
Home: Nine-Ear Shrine (W9)
Religion/Shrine: Daikitsu / Nine-Ear Shrine (W9)
I acknowledge the "Horror & Consent" and the "About the Family" sidebars.
I would file my application with https://paizo.com/people/LotusTheNightWitch
I renamed the character, originally it was called "Wang Nyana".
The required information should all be on the profile page, but just to make sure:
Alias: https://paizo.com/people/LotusTheNightWitch
Background: Southbank Traditionalist
Heirloom: 2 minor healing potions and a repair kit.
Home: Silk farm, 200 ft. south of the Nine Ear Shrine (W9)
Religion/Shrine: Daikitsu / Nine-Ear Shrine (W9)
I acknowledge the "Horror & Consent" and the "About the Family" sidebars.
I am planning on a level 8 druid character and am trying to assemble a few defaults for wild shape, but I am having trouble backtracking where the individual stats for various animals come from.
I have no experience with using wild shape whatsoever, so I am a little unsure, could you check whether the following statements and conclusions are correct?
Let's say she assume the form of a viper.
1) The cloak of elvenkind and the belt of incredible dexterity would stay in effect, as they are constant effect items.
2) The stealth bonus for a default viper are composed as follows: 3 dexterity bonus + 8 size tiny + 4 racial = +15. Consequently a default viper has no ranks in stealth.
3) If my character assumed the shape of a viper the resulting stealth score would be:
8 ranks
3 class skill (due to silent hunter trait)
1 trait bonus from silent hunter
8 size
4 circumstance competence bonus due to cloak of elvenkind
8 dexterity bonus (20 Dex default + 2 belt of incredible dexterity + 4 beast shaped into tiny animal = 26 Dex)
No bonus from the natural stealth +4 quality an actual viper has
Which would sum up to +32 and she could speak a Blend she could get another +4 enhancement bonus for a +36 if she wanted to. Due to to Natural Spell and the fact that the spell only has somatic components she can do so even while already in a viper shape.
Unfortunately the advice for d) (taking another bloodline) clashes with a) (because then the tiefling Fiendish Sorcery trait would not be useful anymore, without which a malus on Cha is devestating)
Fiendish Sorcery works with the Infernal bloodline. While you don't get the spectacular Str boost of Abyssal, a flaming weapon 3/day is a good start, and the bloodline keeps adding nice things. You might want to trade Fiendish Resistance out for Scaled Skin, to get rid of fire resistance and another resistance in favor of +1 natural AC.
And if this Str boost still tempts you, remember that you can go for Improved Eldritch Heritage (abyssal) at level 11.
I might do that, thanks. What the character is in story terms and in rule terms does not have to be the same after all, as long as the actual powers she has make sense to her.
Well, you can always trade Fiendish Sorcery for Prehensile Tail (that's in the ARG) to grab wands out of your pouch. What does Fiendish Sorcery even do for a Bloodrager if it's ruled to work? It's not like Bloodrager Bloodlines key on Charisma like Sorcerer ones do.
No, but you will likely want to have a 14 on charisma, and you would require to buy a 16 for that using point buy. Given fiendish sorcery you can make do with a 12, buying a 14.
Unfortunately the advice for d) (taking another bloodline) clashes with a) (because then the tiefling Fiendish Sorcery trait would not be useful anymore, without which a malus on Cha is devestating)
As the inclined reader may have noticed I am in a state of "nerdrage" right now.
use one of the teifling variants that get str and cha
Yeah, well, Demon-Spawn was my first idea, especially since the character is a demon spawn in story terms, but that's not allowed in that game. Besides, if I did not have the +2 on Dex, I would run into trouble with the Dodge feat on level four, because the implied "Enlarge Person" on self while raging reduces the Dex by 2. I must start out with at least Dex 16 (whilst having enough points to spend on Str, Con and Cha) or live without dodge.
The only rule books allowed are:
PHB
Bestiary 1 &2
Advanced Players Guide
Advanced Class
Advanced Race
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Magic
Game Mastery Guide
The alternate racial heritages for tieflings are all in a book called "Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of Fiends".
I am just toying with a bloodrager, which I am creating on level 4 for a forum game. There are a few things funny when I consider the rules though.
a) A minor thing as the DM already ruled that in my favour, but the according to the rules as written, the fiendish sorcery trait of tieflings works only for sorcerers, not bloodragers. Given that in the game only the default tiefling is allowed (+2 Dex, Int, -2 Cha) that's a serious pain. Since the tiefling existed before the bloodrager class was introduced, that's an understandable oversight, but it should mention explicitly in the description of both the infernal and the abyssal bloodline for bloodragers that the tiefling's "fiendish sorcery" trait applies to them.
b) The weapon which is kind of implied in the abyssal bloodline is the claws of the bloodrager. How effective that is in rule terms may be debateable. I suspect a greatsword would have far larger impact, but, if you want to actually use the claws, you have the problem that you cannot enchant them using Magic Weapon, because it doesn't work on natural weapons. Magic Fang, which could be used, is not on the bloodrager spell list, however. Either Magic Fang should be on the bloodrager's spell list, or there should be a ruling that Magic Weapon applies to the fangs. (That is both the base spells and the more powerful versions such as Greater Magic Weapon)
c) I don't quite see the point of Rage as bonus spell for a bloodrager. Blood ragers can rage, anyway.
d) The various mali to AC accumulate -6 on 12th level (-4 instead of -2 due to Abyssal Bloodrage (Su), -1 due to size, -1 due to decrease in Dex). On top of that, depending on the base dexterity, they might be in trouble when it comes to fulfilling the prerequisits to dodge. I know there are severe benefits, but is that really balanced? -6 to AC?
And that all on top of the little detail that the bloodrager resistances overlap with the tiefling resistances, which is a serious waste. But that has been the same with aasimar and tiefling sorcerers, anyway. To pick the matching bloodline for the characters origin seems penalised by overlapping boni.
An Oracle cursed with "Powerless Prophecy" cannot take any actions during the surprise round. That makes sense if she's the one being ambushed but did notice the enemy - she can neither forewarn her companions nor do anything about it.
However, if it is the enemy who is not aware of the oracle's presence and she intends to ambush them, that leads to situation where she can't attack and there might be no combat, unless she makes the enemy aware of her presence first - she's laying in a hiding place, having a crossbow aimed at the enemy, but just can't pull the trigger.
So the question is: Does the Curse of Powerless Prophecy really prevent an oracle from attacking an enemy who is not aware of her presence?
That actually has a point buy value of 22, but I think I am going to use point buy 20 anyway, because there are too many uneven values and I find it difficult to make efficient use of it.
I've a concept of a character, no crunch yet, but I wanted to post what I have, to have a foot in the door.
Myrhea Windwhisper
CG female half-elf ranger
Appearance:
Myrhea is a honey blonde half-elf with green eyes. Her tan is bright, but both skin and and hair show a slight hint of red, betraying the undercurrent of rage in her other cultivated, elven demeanor.
Personality & Religion:
Myrhea is an unbound spirit, torn between the cultures which she belongs to and home mostly in the forest. She is usually friendly and direct, but rarely blunt; that would contradict her understanding of elven grace. She can be remarkably impulsive, though.
She is driven by the desire to connect her to peoples, to build bridges. As one who is not entirely home in either of them she also wishes to prove herself as warden in the wild and one who understands the forest. She does not necessarily desire to be a hero, she wants to be respected as a capable warden of the forest and even drive the art of being a rangers amongst humans further.
Even though Myrhea is pretty romantic and prefers Shelyn's ways in matters of love, she does rever Calistria as her patron deity. Calistria represents elven nature at a carnal level as far as she Myrhea is concerned and even though the goddess may not be compelled to the truth, she is the most honest of all deities, for she doesn't pretend to be anything she isn't:
Calistria's primal, she's impulsive, she's vengeful, she's beatiful, she is the living embodyment of elven grace, she takes what she desires, but she doesn't drive it beyond plain instinct, Calistria just is. And that's what makes her admirable and makes other deities seem affected and artificial in Myrhea's eyes..
Background Scene:
"Hollybrook", said Myrhea to the elf next to her as the town came in sight. The tone of resentment in her voice was not intended.
"I thought you liked it." returned Lendorin. It was sometimes amazing how his voice ab´nd his face seemingly hadn't changed since they first met.
"I like the forest, but there is a certain comfort to the Hollybrook. What don't like about it is that it's the place where you turn to leave."
He didn't reply at once so Myrhea turned to him. He had merely raised an eyebrow.
Once, almost eight years ago, she he had been her first serious "boyfriend", or so she thought. She had been wrong. Elves are... surprisingly casual with intimacy and have a different perception of time. She had been angry and frustrated when he skipped through the young, unbound elf maidens who, in turn, had not the slightest problem with that at all and were no different than he was in that regard. Lendorin had never wanted to hurt her, quite the contrary, he had wanted the young outsider with elven blood feel like any elf. As a half-human Myrhea had to realize that it was her who was a stranger in a game that she barely understood.
Over time the anger faded and the two became friends again, very anxious to never make the same mistake again. The problem was, Lendorin and Myrhea did have a lot in common and they were outstandingly effective hunting partners. As was proven by the goblin heads they carried.
"I... didn't mean to bring that up." She had to swallow to not think about the girl he'd be kissing tonight. She reached her hand out for the goblin heads. She made a gesture begging him to not persue the topic further.
"Do you think you'll be able to convince your people?" He indicated the bag. The problem was that goblins in the perimeter were becoming bolder and bolder, pushing more and more. The village was pretty isolated and usually went by by mainting a low profile, but it felt like something was stirring the goblins up and it was only a matter of time before it became a problem.
Neither elves nor humans seemed to willing to even take notice of the problem or push the responsibility to the respective other party, considering themselves the better warded. Only the rangers and hunters saw the real problem and Myrhea was right between everything, being neither pure elf, nor pure human.
"They aren't my people any more than you are, Lendorin. They aren't any more likely to listen to me the tribe is. I do have an angle - I am good friends with the mayor's daughter. Well, you know Sherida."
"Not as good as I may want to", Lendorin return and reaped a very fierce look from Myrhea for that. "Whatever else you may be, you are with the rangers. Midsummernight's for the clan, but the night before the wardens of the forest to celebrate our ways."
"I will be there. Unless we're out to fight whatever threatens my two peoples."
"Will you bring Sherida?"
Myrhea merely winked at him and walked with some attitude the narrow trail down to Hollybrook.
I am not sure how much sense it makes to contribute a character at this point, but I do like playing with the idea... so, why not?
Looking over your rules I was wondering how a half-celestial fits into all this. I definitely wanted something vaguely humanoid, but with large feathery wings.
I am not entirely sure how a template fits in. It adds +1 to the challenge rating of a human, but humans have a challenge rating by class. So I would use normal character creation, but let the character be level 5 instead of 6?
The idea I came up with after some flipping in the book was a daughter of a human paladin of Iomedae and Black Butterfly. They met shortly after the creation of the World Wound where Black Butterfly was personally scouting to find out what the blazes was going on, but her enemies got wind of this and pushed to slay the Empyreal Lord. The character's father was the last surviver of a band of paladins who fought to allow for Black Butterfly's escape. Picking an Empyreal Lord as mother might be stressing the idea of a half-celestial a bit, but I suppose this is a game for unusual extremes.
I just have a minor detail question regarding the setting:
Prince Aduard Odranti III. is the nominal ruler of Ustalav according to the Inner Sea World guide. The name "Odranti" means he is a member of "House Odranto" and actually rules the county Odranto from Castle Odranto, doesn't it?
I am trying to create an adventure according to the setting, at least as far as depicted in the Inner Sea World guide. I don't mind if there are contradictions to other source books, but it should be in line with that.
@Feuerrabe: Maybe not so much direct competition from her as you think :P As a dual-pathed character, you might fit better with us as a Champion/Archmage... to which, there is no mechanical difference ;)
Sadly, dual-path doesn't do much for Mouse. Trickster is so chock full of amazing and fun stuff, that in addition to taking up some universal traits, I'm actually burning mythic feats on more powers. And can't afford all the stuff I kinda want for her!
Hmm... I picked archmage because it seemed like the more relevant. There are a lot archmage abilities that seem outstandingly helpful to a spelldancer.
With champion it's mostly the things that help play out the high agility of a spelldancer.
Well, multiple conversations can get tricky, but it's mostly a thing of management. I've had threads with multiple separate conversations in a single one post in different time lines and that is not a problem, if managed and separated clearly. We used a wiki on wikia.com to keep track of the different time lines. I must say, I actually enjoy this.
Should we both be selected I would very much like to enter the starting scene together and I wouldn't mind if we you would assume I am with you, should you get to post first, unless the situation makes it impossible. (i.e. not in case our characters enter the game by being waked in their beds)
I suppose it would be wiser with such details until we know what the situation is... otherwise one makes a lot plans for naught... but the anticipation is killing me. :D
I removed the journal from Nathara's inventory and got me a cold weather outfit instead. I was considering to replace the chain shirt with studded leather armour to do more changes, but could not bring myself to it - I rather picture her wearing a metal armour.
Right. Let it be a fresh start then, should we both be picked (fingers crossed)!
They should call to our aid. Who knows what the two of us might be doing on our own in a village like Heldren? :D
Regarding the planetouched, I must admit I don't like where Pathfinder is going. I preferred the D&D 3 approach, that actually treated the base race more important than the planar bloodline.
Since I tend to get carried away on that topic - I had discussions about it before - I put the rest in a spoiler tag.
Further musings on planetouched in Pathfinder:
Story wise it can become really tricky to say that the planar trait might have skipped generations and manifests in a family seemingly random with the rules as is.
The average result for the random starting age of a planetouched of an intuitive class is 74. For comparison: For a human that's 17.5. If you treat those ages as equivalent that means that if a planetouched has human parents, they will almost always have died of old age before they are adults. To raise a single one aasimar would be a task for generations. That would make a planetouched always something like an elven forlorn.
In the case of my elven tiefling it would be even more ridiculous to use the planetouched ageing tables. That would mean she would age a lot faster than everyone around her, whereas a human tiefling ages considerably slower than a human.
You do not have that problem when you start treating planetouched as a distinct race on their own of course, set apart from their base race. In Tiferet's case for example the entire tribe was blessed and that works of course.
Personally I just don't feel comfortable with those massive difference - I like the idea of a planetouched as merely being touched by the plane, whereas the rules imply that a default aasimar, for example turn it around, they are really humanoid-touched celestials.
If you temper with the time it takes for a planetouched to grow up you set them so far apart from their base species that there is little resemblance any more, they would have a completely different outlook on life, death and culture than any human. It would be perfectly normal to them that people keep dying around them. A planetouched does not fit without causing massive into a human society anymore. While I am not much of a DM myself, I've heard in dicussions on that topic before that Paizo itself balantly ignores their own ageing rules for that reason: A twenty-five year old aasimar described as a grown up woman in an official adventure and things like that.
Thus I would prefer if:
a) There was no distinction between blood lines, but have variant rules for different base races instead. E.g. an elven tiefling might have low-light and darkvision.
b) The age goes unchanged or a small factor, such a 1.1 or 1.2 is applied, nothing that makes it impossible for an aasimar to grow up in a normal human family.
PS: Oh, I overlooked this errata you mentioned. Forgive me, but absolutely love it: Now a planetouched can be a normal member of a human society. That would be straight impossible if it took them four times the time to grow up and their parents would necessarily die of old age during their childhood.
PPS: Please don't change Tiferet because of the errata, despite my problems with the rules in general I like that character in particular. :D
I've added a quick character sketch to Eirikr's description and slightly clarified a few points in his backstory
--lazulin
Is that Character Sketch your own work? I admire it when people actually draw their characters... unfortunately my skill with the pencil is just good enough to draw a half decent map, but whenever I draw a face it looks a bit like a decomposing fruit.
I wrote a little story about the last day on Twilight Keep, the place in which Nathara grew up. It's not double read yet, I am going to do that tomorrow, but maybe it's a bit more interesting to read than the background.
I do prefer the idea that they just bounced into each other, actually and just liked going on together. That way they have more tell each other and the experience of having met a kindred spirit in a quite opposed creature is relatively fresh. Nathara is not going anywhere in particular, she just goes to wherever something inspires her curiosity or she smells "adventure".
Regarding the mythic stuff: Well, I just started playing my first mythic character ever, but I've never used one of her mythic abilities yet. But it's gonna be a while since we're actually going to be mythic, so I suppose it's not urgent.
In the vast majority of cases I write an actual story myself, depends on what comes into my mind first.
I have a good idea for a story of two and a half very short scenes for Nathara by now. Should not get too long. Not sure whether there is still much point to it though... when I don't have a good idea, I don't try to force it and once I have written something I don't have the patience to not post it.
I do like adding paragraphs with quirks, fragments of trivia, likes/dislikes and so forth, because they give one a good idea of the character without having them dig through loads of text.
Tiferet Odinsdottir wrote:
Of course. I've skimmed through Nathara's sheet and I believe there's plenty of compatibility. With her being a dancer and Tiferet's supplementing her income by performing in taverns, it's very likely they bumped into each other during Nathara's stay in Oppara sooner or later; and if she ever got into trouble because of her 'looks', Tiferet would surely have intervened in her defense even without knowing her beforehand, only to discover they're both magic-wielding warriors.
Well, I hope you're picking marshall or champion or so as mythic path... not archmage anyway, otherwise that would make us mutually exclusive.
I was thinking that Nathara witnessed the scene, stood in the background and, since she's curious about you and thinks you might be less inclined to shun her for being alien, tainted and armed than the average Taldan villager, she will likely address you afterwards. And if you play music she definitely going to dance. But that might have happened in Oppara as well, especially if she noticed you play.
I've changed a bit about Nathara's background and relocated the place in which she had grown up into the Kodar Mountains in close to the border of Irrisen. The place is called "Twilight Rose Keep", I've added a description, so that I would have a stronger connection to the theme.
I've also added an explanation for why she has white hair to the appearance description.
One of the characters I refer to, as well as the so called "Order of the White Rose" is a previous character of mine and I re-used that particular order, but to go into the details of that would drive it to far. Nevertheless, information is available in this PDF document:
Assuming that progression of point buy values below 10 continues mirroring those above 11 in the negative I suggest we extend the lookup table as follows:
pb(3) = -16
pb(4) = -12
pb(5) = -9
pb(6) = -6
Explanation (WARNING: Geek stuff!):
The underlying principle is that for every second score the cost of the next point in creases by one. Above 11 cost 1 plus the cost of the respective previous. The next two cost 2 plus of the cost of the respective previous, then 3 and so forth.
Meaning for scores below 10:
pb(n-1) = pb(n) - ⌈(10 - n) / 2⌉ | ∀ n ∈ ℤ, n < 10
I have once forged this sequence into a function and implemented it in C. It computes the point buy value of any integer with no more than a single step of recursion:
int pb(int n) {
int dn = n - 10;
if (!dn) return 0;
else if (dn < 0) return -1 * pb(11 - dn) + 1;
else return (dn * dn + 3 + ((n & 1) ^ 1)) >> 2;
}
Above 10 that means:
for even numbers pb(n) = (n - 10)² / 4 + 1
for uneven numbers pb(n) = (n - 10)² / 4 + 3/4
If you don't believe it follow the pattern and count through to 50. If the point buy value is non 401 there is something wrong with the function.
Here are some sample result to prove that is plausible:
10 0
11 1
12 2
13 3
14 5
15 7
16 10
17 13
18 17
19 21
20 26
21 31
22 37
23 43
24 50
I updated the application file with the roll results of Bengo, Gaming Ranger and Warforged.
I had to look twice, but Bengo was allowed to reroll, his original dice roll result had a point buy value of 13. (These now are worth exactly 15 points... sorry about that.)
I am not sure about the mythic path yet, I have to create builds when I have the time and think this through, but dual path 1. Archmage / 2. Champion sound good for my Magus.
1) Added Morrigahn's dice rolls.
2) Added Gobo Horde's character Mugwort.
3) Added Pathfinder Zoey's character Evelyn Starr
4) I added a new column for the intended mythic path (note to self: choose one).
5) "The Faceless GM" now has write access to the document.
I've just read Tiferet Odinsdottir background I must admit I am absolutely amazed. It's not just the story it tells, but the way it is told, the compassion the characters shows, the way she deals with the little girl, the way I would actually buy a high charisma score, because she simply is charismatic and the way it is fluent to read. The way she reflects, the way she uses her skills and the little girl reacts feels absolutely alive. On top of it, the character fits perfectly into the setting.
Can I be your sidekick, please? I hope you have no hard feelings about tieflings. :) A tiefling (even an elven one) would provide a good contrast for an aasimar skald like her to shine. There is a certain connection as they are both carrying the mark of their ancestor's actions, the one seeking to live up to their example, the other making up for their sins.
If I may make a few critical remarks (knowing full well that my own stories are not that good):
a) If I did not miss it the mother of the little girl does not say anything at all to the scene... even if you pat the girl's head while she is clinging to her mother's skirt she does not seem to react to Tiferet.
b) I would be curious what drove her to Heldren in the first place.
I think I should write a background scene, too, for now I have just a biographic iteration of events... and if you would not mind link it to yours. I have been thinking back and forth whether I should use an Empyreal Lord as deity as well - Ragathiel would make a lot of sense for Nathara, sense her story is one of a redeemed evil. But I am not so sure about Ragathiel's aspect of "vengeance"... That is not something that Nathara would condone, she'd rather stick with Sarenrae then.
Due to my intend to butter up and appease the DM, as well as the desire to keep the competition in sight unlimited altruism and compassion, I am working on application list. ;)
The player names in those list are the names of the alts that did the rolling, not necessarily the name of the root account.
On noting the rolled array I noticed three of you who either had a typo or miscalculated the sum of your rolls. Maybe you have already noticed it - Paizo does not let you edit anything more than an hour old, but just in case:
Dragonflyer1243, in this post, the first number you summed up is wrong. Your array is 16, 15, 13, 11, 11, 7.
lazulin, in this post the 5th and the 6th numbers you summed up are wrong to your disadvantage. Your array is 15, 14, 13, 13, 13, 12.
Moon Papa, in this post the last number you summed up is wrong to your disadvantage. Your array is 17, 15, 14, 13, 10, 10.
All right, questions answered... now comes the tedious part. Running the math.
I am also gonna elaborate a bit on her appearance once I know her equipment (lest people think she actually runs around like on the linked image), and I might add a little to the story why she came to Taldor and what she likes about it; I got some ideas already.
Tricky is the last of your questions. She comes from Kyonin, going out to explore the world in order to be on eye level with her betrothed and actually test herself outside of her shell, live her own legend. Why would she go to Taldor if she has interest in Irrisen? That's the exact opposite direction...
Thus, she was not interested in Irrisen when she left Kyonin (otherwise she would have went there), something peeked her interesting while she was in Taldor, even though that is the opposite end of Avistan.
Of course I can write something, but ... to avoid making it far fetched it's gonna be a story on its own, at least as long and probably more complex than the background.
Phew... I must admit I find that massive declaration of rules a bit intimidating. Especially the mythic rules which are first integrated, then nerfed and then taken out of the player's hand. Personally I am just looking for the game where it says "Core Rule Book" only, plus tiefling and aasimar in their most basic variant.
However, I cannot resist a game of chance and see what character might get out of this, plus, since Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, I am pretty fond of those northern settings. Thus, I roll and see where it gets me.
Erm, I am the player of Lluvia. I don't use the same character in two different campaigns, and Devana is already in an application for a Hell's Rebels campaign, so I am not sure whether I can do it.
But I agree with Izkrael. I'll post on what I have on Sivara and leave it at that. If I am chosen I will make the necessary adjustments. So, to have a concrete application and I am gonna stick with it:
Sivara Silkweaver, CG female human magus
Stats:
Sivara Silkweaver
Female human magus 1 (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 9)
CG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +0
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 9 (1d8+1)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +2; +2 trait bonus vs. fear, +2 Trait bonus vs. mind-affecting effects for 1 hour after drinking alcohol
Resist fortified drinker
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee longsword +2 (1d8+2/19-20)
Special Attacks arcane pool (+1, 4 points), spell combat
Magus Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 1st—frostbite[UM], shield
. . 0 (at will)—detect magic, light, read magic
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 15, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 11
Base Atk +0; CMB +2; CMD 14
Feats Combat Casting, Intimidating Prowess
Traits courageous, fortified drinker
Skills Climb +4, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +7, Ride +4, Spellcraft +7, Swim +4
Languages Azlanti, Common, Elven, Infernal
Other Gear chain shirt, longsword, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hemp rope (50 ft.), ink, black, inkpen, mess kit, pot, soap, spell component pouch, trail rations (5), waterskin, 13 gp, 1 sp
--------------------
Special Abilities
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Arcane Pool +1 (4/day) (Su) Infuse own power into a held weapon, granting enhancement bonus or selected item powers.
Combat Casting +4 to Concentration checks to cast while on the defensive.
Courageous +2 save vs. fear.
Fortified Drinker +2 save vs. mind-affecting for 1 hr after drinking alchohol.
Spell Combat (Ex) Use a weapon with one hand at -2 and cast a spell with the other.
Background:
Sivara was completely focused as she dodged the arm of the shaken troll and lashed out with her longsword. The corrosion spell channeled just in the right moment through the blade. The wound it caused was not so horribly deep but along with everything the monster had already taken it was enough. The troll crumbled. She rammed her sword deeper just to make sure and then it was over. Alright, to be honest it taken a lot to wear the troll down in the first place, and that final blow of hers was the only blow she had landed, after dozens from her comrades. She had been shaking and scared like hell when she had seen an opening that the others created for her and taken her first steps to engage before the years of training had taken over. But that would not be the way the bards would tell the story.
She raised her sword. "For Callansbrook!" she cheered, calling out the name of the village they had been defending. "For Cayden Cailean! For glory!"
The others joined her and touched her massive longsword with their own respective weapons. The slender elven longsword of Lerion, the elven wizard. The massive hammer of Bornak, the dwarven priest of Caydan Cailean. The slender rapier of Dorana, the ridiculously beautiful taldan woman with the long black curls and finally the oversized waraxe of Kerlon, her somewhat slower, but good hearted and unshakable husband. "For glory", they echoed.
They all looked so strangely at her, smiling as though they knew something she did not.
And then she understood. This triumph also marked the end of it all. They would never again be together like this.
Memories from her past which had lead up to this point overcame her.
From her mother Sivara had learned to be a fighter, to take care of her body, to not believe in what society told her but in herself and her family. That had been the biggest lesson. Her mother was a prostitute, and not one of those who could effort to veil themselves in glamour, but neither one of those who cracked under it. She was a tough cookie. She did her job, took care of her kids, each of which had a different father, took care of herself and her physique and always stood up when she took a blow, no matter how rough it got. She wasn't the prettiest, but she worked hard to keep her shape and fitness and in her late thirties Sivara's mother looked better and far less used up than most women in her line of work in their late twenties and she had a hell of a lot more experience.
In her childhood Sivara had burried in books to dodge the harassment from the other children, cowering in shame. When she grew up to be a teenager she started fights with her mother and blamed her for all the evil in the world. When she became sixteen she ran away and joined the city guard as recruit - it was very likely that her father was a Nord, given her physique and the physical discipline her mother taught her payed off. Two months later she was removed from the service in disgrace after almost killing another recruit in anger. He had it coming.
But she learned two things: She would never again be ashamed of her mother again, because that scum in the guard might think themselves superiour and look down on her for her heritage, but they would not know the courage and sincerity of her mother if it bit them in the back end. And that she was good with the longsword.
It didn't take long for Sivara to make another attempt to stand on her own feet, this time on good terms with her mother. Her mother even gave Sivara her first own longsword as a gift. Sivara tried for several weeks to find a mercenary band that was more than just glorified bandits or pirates which would take her as recruit. She did not find one, but she was found by one. She woke up with a terrible headache one day after a dwarf had drunken her under the table and found out that she was the adventurer party's new squire, flagbearer and mascot. That dwarf had been Bornak, of course. 'Never drink with a dwarf, never drink with a priest of Caydan Cailean' she reminded herself. "Lass, you're gonna be an adventurer. You're the finest stock! Now, make fire and get some water boiling, we dinna pick you up for nuthin!" She remembered his booming voice in her hurting head.
Even Lerion was her friend now, but it had not been always so. Shortly after the party adopted her she fell in love with him, her first serious crush. To him she had just been a plaything. She had been devastated when she found out and wanted to hit him where it really hurts. By his spell book. So she stole it and ran. It had been Dorana who found her, digging in the book, completely fascinated by the riddles it presented; being isolated in her childhood had its good sides after all. She brought her back and Lerion was condemned to teach her magic as penalty for toying with her heart for of someone who could barely be called a young woman. Unfortunately he even liked it teaching her.
Together the five of them had spend many years, teaching Sivara what it was to be an adventurer and created and art of sword and magic for her out of a mix of their own skills. This had been the first time they let her anywhere close to something so dangerous, and she had lived up to the task.
"You're ready, lass", grumbled Bornak. "You've slain a troll. You're a true adventurer now."
Sivara knew what that meant. She had been the only thing that kept the party together, she was their legacy. Dorana and Kerlon wanted to found a family before they became too old, Lerion wanted to study all the bits and fragments of artifacts and history they had found, apart from chasing after elf maiden's skirts and maybe even marry one, Bornak... well Bornak wanted to keep going with Sivara, but he knew it was time to let her go.
"But I barely..." even touched it, she wanted to say, but Kerlon interrupted her.
"Ah, I've seen how you single handedly cut its head off!" With his waraxe he aimed for the troll's neck and started to make sure there was no evidence to the contrary.
"We love you, Sivara, but it's time for your own adventure. A part of us will always be with you.", remarked Dorana.
A tear ran down Sivara's cheek. Lerion did not say anything, he just kissed the tear away. It was without any doubt the sincerest (and longest) kiss he'd ever given her. He was really good at showing women magic.
While born to a Taldan mother, she does not look particularly Taldan. While build is relatively slender and rather athletic than curvy, she is tall for Taldan and her bright blonde her hair, her round face and the position of her cheek bones rather high, but her features less pointy. It seems likely that her father was a nord man. She usually wears her hair taken tight back, to a pony tail which hangs relatively loose.
She usually wears a chainshirt and a blue linen tunic over it, with a stylized muskrat at one shoulder - the symbol the adventurer party that trained her, the "Mighty Muskrats". On her back she carries a relatively short, but well used massive longsword. Her clothes and armor aren't always exactly clean and orderly, but they are kept in good condition.
Personality:
Patron Deity: Cayden Cailean
When asked what drives her Sivara will likely give an answer that may come straight from the lips of a cleric of Caydan Cailean. But there is an certain unrest, a drive in her and there are moments when she seems strangely forelorn.
She doesn't truly like the drinking, she doesn't like violence, but she needs the drive, the stress and most importantly the comradeship. She doesn't really know where she belongs to, even though she does have a family she loves, but she feels she can only find her own way and she hasn't found it yet. She is always outwardly hearty and forthcoming, if a bit crude, but beneath the surface she does not trust easily and she spends more time thinking than she is willing to admit.
She shuns criminals, but she also despises guards and authorities and even more so nobility, as in feudal Taldor. She associates herself easily with the red led scene in a given city, even though she will make perfectly clear that she is by no neither a pimp nor a prostitute herself. She will stand up for all kinds of little people who need a voice and a sword.
Apart from that, she is really fond of the elven, artful take of magic and she would very much like to learn more of it (she is generally likes everything elven). But she doesn't admit easily that she does like beauty in magic and that there is a spark of Shelyn in her.
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The "fortified drinker" trait and the "intimidating prowess" feat are subject to reconsideration.
It's a shame that Lluvia would not fit. Imho Lluvia's story is the best I've ever written and she was once used in a Second Darkness campaign that died early when the DM disappeared... but... you don't need another rogue type (going for shadow dancer in Lluvia's case), I suppose.
I have a raw concept for a human magus from Taldor, background story only so far...
Sivara:
Sivara was completely focused as she dodged the arm of the shaken troll and lashed out with her longsword. The corrosion spell channeled just in the right moment through the blade. The wound it caused was not so horribly deep but along with everything the monster had already taken it was enough. The troll crumbled. She rammed her sword deeper just to make sure and then it was over. Alright, to be honest it taken a lot to wear the troll down in the first place, and that final blow of hers was the only blow she had landed, after dozens from her comrades. She had been shaking and scared like hell when she had seen an opening that the others created for her and taken her first steps to engage before the years of training had taken over. But that would not be the way the bards would tell the story.
She raised her sword. "For Callansbrook!" she cheered, calling out the name of the village they had been defending. "For Cayden Ceilean! For glory!"
The others joined her and touched her massive longsword with their own respective weapons. The slender elven longsword of Lerion, the elven wizard. The massive hammer of Bornak, the dwarven priest of Cayden Ceilean. The slender rapier of Dorana, the ridiculously beautiful taldan woman with the long black curls and finally the oversized waraxe of Kerlon, her somewhat slower, but good hearted and unshakable husband. "For glory", they echoed.
They all looked so strangely at her, smiling as though they knew something she did not.
And then she understood. This triumph also marked the end of it all. They would never again be together like this.
Memories from her past which had lead up to this point overcame her.
From her mother Sivara had learned to be a fighter, to take care of her body, to not believe in what society told her but in herself and her family. That had been the biggest lesson. Her mother was a prostitute, and not one of those who could effort to veil themselves in glamour, but neither one of those who cracked under it. She was a tough cookie. She did her job, took care of her kids, each of which had a different father, took care of herself and her physique and always stood up when she took a blow, no matter how rough it got. She wasn't the prettiest, but she worked hard to keep her shape and fitness and in her late thirties Sivara's mother looked better and far less used up than most women in her line of work in their late twenties and she had a hell of a lot more experience.
In her childhood Sivara had burried in books to dodge the harassment from the other children, cowering in shame. When she grew up to be a teenager she started fights with her mother and blamed her for all the evil in the world. When she became sixteen she ran away and joined the city guard as recruit - it was very likely that her father was a Nord, given her physique and the physical discipline her mother taught her payed off. Two months later she was removed from the service in disgrace after almost killing another recruit in anger. He had it coming.
But she learned two things: She would never again be ashamed of her mother again, because that scum in the guard might think themselves superiour and look down on her for her heritage, but they would not know the courage and sincerity of her mother if it bit them in the back end. And that she was good with the longsword.
It didn't take long for Sivara to make another attempt to stand on her own feet, this time on good terms with her mother. Her mother even gave Sivara her first own longsword as a gift. Sivara tried for several weeks to find a mercenary band that was more than just glorified bandits or pirates which would take her as recruit. She did not find one, but she was found by one. She woke up with a terrible headache one day after a dwarf had drunken her under the table and found out that she was the adventurer party's new squire, flagbearer and mascot. That dwarf had been Bornak, of course. 'Never drink with a dwarf, never drink with a priest of Cayden Ceilean' she reminded herself. "Lass, you're gonna be an adventurer. You're the finest stock! Now, make fire and get some water boiling, we dinna pick you up for nuthin!" She remembered his booming voice in her hurting head.
Even Lerion was her friend now, but it had not been always so. Shortly after the party adopted her she fell in love with him, her first serious crush. To him she had just been a plaything. She had been devastated when she found out and wanted to hit him where it really hurts. By his spell book. So she stole it and ran. It had been Dorana who found her, digging in the book, completely fascinated by the riddles it presented; being isolated in her childhood had its good sides after all. She brought her back and Lerion was condemned to teach her magic as penalty for toying with her heart for of someone who could barely be called a young woman. Unfortunately he even liked it teaching her.
Together the five of them had spend many years, teaching Sivara what it was to be an adventurer and created and art of sword and magic for her out of a mix of their own skills. This had been the first time they let her anywhere close to something so dangerous, and she had lived up to the task.
"You're ready, lass", grumbled Bornak. "You've slain a troll. You're a true adventurer now."
Sivara knew what that meant. She had been the only thing that kept the party together, she was their legacy. Dorana and Kerlon wanted to found a family before they became too old, Lerion wanted to study all the bits and fragments of artifacts and history they had found, apart from chasing after elf maiden's skirts and maybe even marry one, Bornak... well Bornak wanted to keep going with Sivara, but he knew it was time to let her go.
"But I barely..." even touched it, she wanted to say, but Kerlon interrupted her.
"Ah, I've seen how you single handedly cut its head off!" With his waraxe he aimed for the troll's neck and started to make sure there was no evidence to the contrary.
"We love you, Sivara, but it's time for your own adventure. A part of us will always be with you.", remarked Dorana.
A tear ran down Sivara's cheek. Lerion did not say anything, he just kissed the tear away. It was without any doubt the sincerest (and longest) kiss he'd ever given her. He was really good at showing women magic.
Personally I hate guns in fantasy almost as much as I hate edilons ;p
I once tried to adapt "The Witchblade" from said comic book into a fantasy character. I presumed that the Witchblade (or Wildfire as I called it) itself is chaotic neutral and a living manifistation of the first world and has a peculiar preference for choosing good aligned wielders. It wasn't so bad, but I soon had to figure out that everyone hates summoners (was a variation of summoner that uses its eidolon as symbiont - pretty much like the Witchblade).
How about adding a column to the document with the respective campaign trait one has picked? Little information in that, but this way it can be seen on first glance whether the character does have an actual campaign trait.
I would like to kindly request certain features for the forum, primarily with the intent to improve the possibilities of play-by-post, as well as posting Pathfinder Society characters into the character sheets. I really love the means that the system already provides, but in comparison to other forum systems I find other features that would make a lot of things simpler and easier to read.
In my personally perceived order of importance:
Tables
Obviously helpful for inventory lists and arranging stats such as ability scores. It is helpful to somehow discern between header cells and normal cells. I've seen different systems, some of which use a syntax close to HTML, other which lean towards Mediawiki syntax.
A relatively simple alternative would be to allow people to use blocks with a monospaced font in which multiple white spaces are not omitted, similar to a <pre></pre> block. However, not exactly like a pre-block because inside it further formatting (such as bold characters) must not be ignored and it must not exceed its boundaries, when a line becomes to long it must be broken into the next.
Horizontal rulers
The can be mimiced by several dashes etc. to split a single one post into logical groups (i.e. one in character, one out of character, or to indicate a change of scene), but that looks a bit awkward compared to actual horizontal rulers.
Footnotes
Can be helpful to keep ooc comments out of the floating text as well as offer "translations" for text spoken in elven, infernal, ulfen and what not. Those things don't really have to be spoilers, just need to be kept separate. (Some players like to provide such text as a google translation into a real life language none of the other players speaks.)
Possible example: "I humbly thank you for your welcome, milady. Might I request that our caravan might be permitted passage through your lands?"[fn][dice=Diplomacy|1d20+2[/dice|[/fn]
Multiple gameplay threads in a single one game
If the story breaks down into several threads, some players whish to continue a conversation of their characters that actually happened the night before and so forth the result is multiple time line in a single one thread which can get messy and notoriously difficult to understand. Thus it is helpful to have multiple gameplay threads in one game.
Beyond that a few additions the the dice rolling mechanism would be nice. Many forum systems have a mechanic to automatically omit the lowest roll from a set. For example "4d6dl1" might mean to discard the lowest one and thus sum up the three highest from the set.
If you forgive me for advertising an idea I once programmed myself for a different forum system: Progress bars to indicate health point levels and checkboxes to indicate the amount of available resources of a limited kind, such as arrows. See here for an example:
http://games.dnd-gate.de/index.php?topic=7858.0
Basically it adds: [bar]15/19[/bar] tags which allow one to have a hit point bar and [uses]18/20[/uses] which allow one to have a number of (Unicode, not HTML) checkboxes of which two would be checked in the given example. The prior can deal with negative quantifiers and qualifiers, but not currently with quantifiers that exceed the qualifier (even though that has been requested).
(This is based linear gradients from CSS 2, however, if someone comes around with Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6 it won't work)
And finally a a reversible "language garbler" for fictional languages would be nice. E.g. [elven]May the light shine on your path.[/elven] rearranges everything somehow to indicate that it is an actual strange language, but the result can, at least theoretically, be reversed into the origal, no information gets lost.
I've adjusted the previously linked PDF file. It now contains the fifth and last chapter as well a description of personality and appearance of the character.
I recently created a concept for the Raven. It kinda failed, because Raven's don't have arms and don't usually carry equipment around, and I absolutely didn't want that, but in Pathfinder, not carrying equipment is a bad really, really bad thing. But in this campaign it just might work.
I wonder whether I might use this concept play the tavern mascot. If there is a bust of Pallas Iomedae above the chamber door.
I don't wanna bore you with all the details now, but in rule terms it's a:
CG tiny male magical beast (intelligent raven) oracle.
He has a curse of tongues. Under stress he can only say "nevermore" and he has a mystery of time. He's actually a good guy, the story depicted in Poe's poem was really just a big misunderstanding. He wanted to cheer the old man up.
There's no bust, but you're welcome to hang out. Just don't cause any heart attacks or the staff will have to deal with you.
I won't be able to make it today, too many irons in the fire.
For example, you could take Heroes' Feast at level 1. Heroes' Feast I, would probably be a pretty limited buffing spell, maybe just a +1 bonus to Fear and Poison saves and 2 or 3 temporary hp. But it would be a nice little bonus that lasts all day.
Magic Missile I - 1d4+1/missile (max 5 missiles)
Magic Missile II - 1d6+1/missile (max 5 missiles)
Magic Missile III - 1d8+1/missile (max 7 missiles)
etc.
The point to something like this would be to ultimately allow a caster to cast any I-IX version of a spell they know; they could choose how they wanted to use their slots.
It would be a ton of work to try and develop balanced versions of every spell for every level, and it would probably eliminate the Heighten Metamagic feat as well as require careful examination for exploits. I guess it just makes more sense to me that a caster could use their spells this way.
Also, there's probably quite a few spells for which this idea makes no sense. Some things just don't scale. However, looking over the list of spells, I feel like I could think of a way to scale most of them.
Honestly, this seems like a pretty obvious idea and I would not be surprised if it's thoroughly been discussed before. Your thoughts are welcome.
I want to offer an alternative Robe of the Archmagi in the campaign I'm GMing. I would like a Robe that does not offer an Armor Bonus, SR, or Save bonus. The bonus to help overcome SR is fine and so is the alignment requirement, but I'm not married to either of them.
Basically, I'm looking for a Robe that is worth at least as much as this one, but does something different than just give a few defensive bonuses, but still fits well with the name. Any and all help/brainstorming/advice/suggestions welcome and appreciated.
This normal-appearing garment can be white (01–45 on d%, good alignment), gray (46–75, neither good nor evil alignment), or black (76–100, evil alignment). To most wearers, the robe offers no powers or has no effects unless the wearer's alignment doesn't match that of the robe (see below). Only an arcane spellcaster can fully realize this potent magic item's powers once the robe is donned. These powers are as follows.
* +5 armor bonus to AC.
* Spell resistance 18.
* +4 resistance bonus on all saving throws.
* +2 enhancement bonus on caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance.
As mentioned above, all robes of the archmagi are attuned to a specific alignment. If a white robe is donned by an evil character, she immediately gains three permanent negative levels. The same is true with respect to a black robe donned by a good character. An evil or good character who puts on a gray robe, or a neutral character who dons either a white or black robe, gains two permanent negative levels. While these negative levels remain as long as the garment is worn and cannot be overcome in any way (including restoration spells), they are immediately removed if the robe is removed.
They don't feel very random and their deadly if you step on one. I was thinking of ways to keep from having to roll them, if at all possible.
When I'm running a game, if the bad guy wields a Scythe or Spiked Chain, I usually just roll a d8. I'm giving up a half a point of damage, on average, but that's okay. Then I thought, I've seen blank dice before, maybe I could make my own statistically accurate dice and never roll a d4 again.
2d4: Number a d8 with 2-3-4-5-5-6-7-8
Has the same Range as 2d4 and the same Mean and Mode. It flattens the probability curve a little, but I think that's a good thing.
3d4: Number a d12 with 3-4-5-6-7-7-8-8-9-10-11-12
Again, same Range, Mean and Mode, just a flatter probability.
5d4: Number a blank d20 with 5-6-7-8-9-10-11-11-12-12-13-13-14-14-15-16-17-18-19-20
Skews the Mode, but the Range and Mean are the same.
The government writes a check to every adult citizen every month for over $200 each. More if they have children. More children = more money.
I'm not commenting on whether it's a good plan, or a bad plan. I'm just surprised.
I know several people, personally, who would like to see the FairTax proposal made into law, and all of them are very conservative and furthermore believe that Obama is a socialist (and they believe that is a bad thing.)
I'm just wondering if the vast majority of people who like the FairTax Proposal know that it redistributes the wealth and are cool with that. I'm not trying to start anything; I'm just genuinely curious about that.
In the interest of full-disclosure: I'm very liberal, almost socialist, on the social liberal/conservative axis. Pretty libertarian on the libertarian/statism axis. I would describe myself as somewhat fiscally conservative.
I've found spells for protecting from Negative Levels, Poison, Disease, etc. but so far I have not found and have not heard of one that stops ability damage and drain.
I've been letting my players have 1 full round after falling past negative Con in which to still use a Cure spell to get them at least above the point of death. In any case, because they died, all their buffs are gone after being revived in this fashion.
I'm considering, instead, to allow them to make a Caster Level check with a DC that increases for each round past death. Also, maybe allowing a Heal check with a similarly increasing DC to return them to 1 hp better than negative Con, and stable. This allows more time to revive a fallen ally, but the DC would soon become so high it would take an Epic caster or heal check to revive them.
It seems cinematically appropriate as there are often situations where a hero dies, but his or her friends just keep trying to bring him back.
I guess my questions are:
1) What do you think? Balanced? Too nice? Obsoletes important game rules?
2) How should I set the DC? Equal to current (negative) hitpoints? Maybe a flat starting DC, independent of their hitpoints? Something else?
I plan to offer my players an alternative to the existing magic item system in the next campaign.
I'm basing this off a few facts, opinions and other people's ideas:
Why and how and I'm doing this:
-There is a similar system to what I propose: Innate Magic
-About 75% of the loot handed out in an adventure path is in the form of what I call "+" gear. Sometimes called Big Six gear, it's all the stuff your character has to have to maintain the power curve. [AC, Attack, Ability Enhancement, and Saves.]
-The difficulty of an encounter geared towards the assumption that PCs spend 75% of their wealth on such "+" gear.
-It seems as though most people feel they are required to spend all of their character wealth on these items to stay above the power curve.
-Most people think that being required to buy gear is Not Fun, and I tend to agree.
-If these bonuses are necessary to maintain the power curve, then why not make it part of the Level-Up process rather than tieing power to wealth in this fashion.
-If the bonuses received from loot are instead earned during Level-Up, then it really doesn't matter how much or how little the PCs receive in treasure, their power is tied much more closely to level rather than treasure.
I plan to completely eliminate all Big Six Items, both as treasure and as purchasable items. This will reduce looting quite a bit, but I believe will help to thoroughly lock PC power to their level.
This table has been calculated from the Character Wealth Table on p. 399 of the PRPG. It is simply 75% of the wealth from each level, divided by 1000 and rounded to the nearest whole number.
Primary Melee Weapon: [+1/2] [+2/8] [+3/18] [+4/32] [+5/50] [*+6/72] [*+7/98] [*+8/128] [*+9/162] [*+10/200]
This enhancement bonus applies to any Masterwork melee weapon wielded in the character's primary hand or two-handed. PC may not have a bonus to attack and damage beyond +5, except as added special abilities.
Secondary Melee Weapon: Same bonuses, costs and limitations as Primary, but applies to Masterwork weapon held in the off hand.
Ranged Weapon: Same bonuses, costs and limitations as Primary, but applies to Masterwork ranged weapons.
Armor: [+1/1] [+2/4] [+3/9] [+4/16] [+5/25] [*+6/36] [*+7/49] [*+8/64] [*+9/81] [*+10/100]
Provides an enhancement bonus to any Masterwork Armor worn by the PC. The PC may only have a total bonus of +5, with the rest applying as special abilities.
Shield: Identical bonuses and costs as the armor enhancement, but applies to any masterwork shield worn by the PC.
Unarmored Armor Bonus: [+1/1] [+2/4] [+3/9] [+4/16] [+5/25] [+6/36] [+7/49] [+8/64]
This mimics Bracers of Armor and does not require the character to wear armor. Like that item, the character only takes the better of their existing armor or this bonus.
Natural Armor Bonus: [+1/2] [+2/8] [+3/18] [+4/32] [+5/50]
As an Amulet of Natural Armor.
Deflection AC Bonus: [+1/2] [+2/8] [+3/18] [+4/32] [+5/50]
As a Ring of Protection
Ability Scores: [+1/1] [+2/4] [+3/9] [+4/16] [+5/25] [+6/36]
The costs and bonuses must be paid for and applied to each ability score separately (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom & Charisma.) Unlike the standard magic items, this system allows PCs to purchase odd bonuses.
The Final Fantasy XIII thread and everyone discussing which were their favorites of the series left me wondering what elements keep people coming back.
-What would a Final Fantasy game have to be like to make you say, "Wow, this one is even better than my favorite!"
-What common elements do you like to see in a Final Fantasy game?
-What common elements do you think are a bad idea?
-Are there certain themes or elements without which the game does not feel like a "real" Final Fantasy game?
Since 3rd edition began, I've always been a little confused about the continued necessity of using percentages in D&D. I'd find it less confusing if there were sometimes unusual percentage amounts like 37%. I suppose that sort of thing still happens on the treasure tables and random dungeon tables, but everything in combat uses percentages that are multiples of 5. This could just as easily be modeled with a d20. Call it a luck roll.
Attacking an invisible creature? Make a DC 11 Luck roll (50% miss chance.)
Shooting arrows at opponents in shadowy illumination? Make a DC 5 Luck roll (20% miss chance).
It would make dice rolling more streamlined than d100s and possibly more accessible to new players. Old players can change or keep using the old mechanic, their choice.
I've seen a lot of discussion on players being all but required to stick to the Big Six magic items at high levels of play, unable to branch out into the more exotic array of items out there. In my experience, this has always been the case.
In case you don't know what I mean by Big Six:
Magic Weapons, Magic Armor, Ring of Protection, Amulet of Natural Armor, Stat-boost items, Bracers of Armor
Virtually all magic items looted that are not one of the Big Six, are immediately sold to fund the improvement or purchase of Big Six items. Lots of suggestions have been proffered, but the necessity is built right into the game.
I talked it over with my players and we've all agreed to try the following THREE house-rules in an effort to un-trivialize other magic items. I'll try and keep this brief so I don't lose people to boredom half-way through.
The following rules only apply to the Big Six, plus the Amulet of Mighty Fists, which is really just like a Weapon.
Rule 1: Static Cost vs. Power
There are no more +1 or +2 items, there are just magic items. Furthermore, the value is locked at the most basic version of each of the above items. For example, there are no +1 Longswords, there are only Magic Longswords. A Magic Longsword is worth 2315 gold, never more. The character using the item does get a plus to attack and damage, but it depends. This sounds weird, I know, but please read on.
Rule 2: Power is tied to Level
As a character's level increases, so do the powers of his Big Six items. If a 3rd level character wields a Magic Longsword, he'd get +1 to attack and damage. If he keeps using the same sword all the way to 20th, it would be a +5 to attack and damage.
Basically, there is a table for each of the Big Six items, giving a plus based on the character's level. I could list the tables I've worked up so far, but I figure most people might prefer to write their own. Essentially, the "plus" is loosely tied to what level Wizard would be required to create an item of that "plus" under the old rules, then modified as necessary.
Rule 3: Modularity
Each item above is modular in some fashion. This is the most complicated part to explain. All those weapon and armor abilities that are worth a "+1" or "+2", etc. are instead treated sort of like Augment Crystals. They don't have to be crystals, but the idea remains the same. A +1 ability like Flaming costs 6000 gold and is purchased separately from the weapon. If you loot a Flaming Dagger. You can remove the Flaming portion, add it to your weapon, then sell the magic dagger. You can add a total of 5 "plusses" worth of abilities to your weapon, or possibly you may want to rule that you can only add a number of "plusses" equal to your current weapon bonus. Armor works similarly to Weapons.
Rings of Protection can be stuck onto other rings. They are the one exception to the rule that says "Only 2 rings per character." Like weapons and armor, the bonus changes depending on character level.
Amulets of Natural Armor become Chains of Natural Armor. You can remove the amulet from it's chain and hang it onto this chain, instead.
The Cloak of Resistance becomes a Clasp of Resistance, any cloak can be held on with this clasp so you can have your Save bonuses and wear your Cloak of Arachnia, too.
Stat-boost items and Amulets of Mighty Fists are probably not modular except where the mix with other modular items. For example, you could hang either a Periapt of Wisdom OR your Amulet of Mighty Fists from your Chain of Natural Armor.
Similar to the Ring of Protection, the Armor Bonus could be enchanted onto other bracers, or added like an Augment crystal. Like the others, the bonus changes by level.
So what is this supposed to accomplish?
First of all, these rules remove the necessity to constantly pour resources into upgrading items. There is only so much upgrading you can do and it's less expensive than before. A character could acquire a set of Big Six items in the early levels, then possibly never bother to acquire anything else and still be able to keep up with rising Challenge Ratings.
Also, the modular nature of these items allow the players to actually use the items they come across, rather than sell them off because they don't want to give up bonuses to wear them.
Won't this just escalate power creep?
Only if the DM wants it too. Item power levels are tied to character level. The DM controls that table. It doesn't matter how much money or stuff the PC has, items can't have their bonuses upgraded any further. Things like AC bonuses can be directly controlled in a very fair way.
Won't this dramatically increase the amount of treasure the PCs have?
Not necessarily. Treasure is more useful and the PCs do spend less of it on upgrades. However, at the same time, items are worth less. If some villain is carrying a +5 Dagger, though that used to be worth 50302 gold, if the PCs loot it under these rules, it's only a Magic Dagger worth 2302 gold.
I'm running an AP and it calls for a monster with a +4 Vorpal Halberd. What's that mean in terms of all these rules?
Have the monster wield it like it's a +4 Vorpal Halberd. When the PCs loot it, it's just a Magic Halberd with a Vorpal Augment. That Vorpal Augment can be removed and added to one of their weapons (so long as they don't have any other abilities on the weapon, Vorpal is a +5), or sold (it's worth 70000 gold), then if no one wants a magic Halberd, they can sell it for whatever they can get for one. It's worth 2310 gold, regardless of the fact that it was +4 in the monster's claws.
I wrote way more than I thought I would. I'd like to hear thoughts on this, though it's probably too radical a change for most people.
Disclaimer: I'm posting this as a house-rule suggestion. It's probably too radical to consider as a genuine suggestion for Pathfinder RPG.
While at a game shop on Free RPG day, I got into a friendly debate about Paizo. Long story short, the shop owner is angry with Paizo for making Pathfinder RPG, though I was not able to suss out exactly why. He contends that Paizo is only making it because they are mad at WotC for various reasons ranging from the magazines to Star Wars. I pointed out that if people at Paizo are angry with WotC for anything, they're being pretty professional about it: advertising 4e in their newsletters, not trashing it in their message boards, etc. He's telling me all this after I have told him that I'm a Paizo fanboy and I'm holding the Paizo freebie in my hand. He went on to complain that a lot of publishers are going to start publishing under PRPG rules because of the new GSL as though this were somehow Paizo's fault.
Needless to say, this confuses me to no end. Okay, so there will be a product that competes with 4e a little. It should all just be sales to him. Why should he really care if someone buys PRPG or 4e core books. Heck, a lot of people will buy both, which just means more money for him.
I've seen a lot of comments on the boards here about run-ins, friendly or otherwise, with angry shopkeepers trashing Paizo. Can anyone explain this to me?
Is it safe to assume that treasure is sufficiently listed in the adventures such that it is not necessary to add treasure unless you add encounters?
More specifically, every time the adventure lists a monster that normally carries treasure, should I be adding some kind of reward for that encounter?
For example, regular ogres are CR 3 encounters and their Treasure entry in the Monster Manual lists "Standard". There are a lot of regular ogres in Hook Mountain Massacre, but all the adventure says is "Ogre, MM 199". Maybe that standard treasure is figured in somewhere else, or maybe not.
I'm probably over explaining, but I'd like to be clear with my question.
One thing I like about shopping on Amazon is that I can add things I like to my Wishlist. I'm not an impulse buyer, I like to think about things for awhile before I purchase them. Consequently, I think I actually buy a lot less from the store here than I would were there a wishlist feature. I forget about products that intrigued me so much before. Also, I don't buy things here and there, I wait a couple of months and buy a bunch of things at once to save on shipping.
If there were a wishlist feature or some kind of "Save your cart" feature on your store, I think it might really increase your sales, or at least it would increase sales to me. :)
In 3.5, Wizards can leave spell slots open in the morning when memorizing their spells so that they can add spells later as needed.
Can they still do this in Pathfinder?
If so, because Wizards can use Cantrips in an unlimited fashion, can they drop one to memorize another, later in the day?
My guess is no, unless they leave a slot open, but the unlimited usage makes me unsure. I figure a player will ask me this question at some point and I want to be sure.
Is anyone around here working on a Pathfinder-specific Heroforge build?
I've been studying Excel quite a bit over the last couple of months and have learned quite a bit, though I'm not to the level necessary to attempt to build one myself (or maybe a really crude one). I'm wondering if anyone else has the necessary knowledge and is already working on it, or planning to start soon. If so, I'd be happy to help out. I'd be happy to do most of the grunt work like data-entry. I've got some time (I'm a teacher and Summer break is almost here.)
Please return to the flat +4 Cover modifier. While I admit the varying cover seems logical, it's unnecessary. Here's why:
While minis on the table look so stationary, they're supposed to represent a lot of fluid combat motion. If someone is participating in combat at all, they have to come out of cover a certain amount to do so. Any difference in how much cover they have (so long as it's less than total) doesn't really matter. They're moving around and anyone attempting to attack them is assumed to be waiting for the most opportune moment to do so.
3.0 used variable cover rules. Ultimately they decided to go to flat cover in 3.5 for the reason listed above. It's simple and elegant, easy to remember, and really makes the most sense.
The following passage is in the description of the Dwarven Race from version 2 of the Pathfinder Alpha:
"Greed: Dwarves treat Appraise as a class skill when
attempting to determine the price of nonmagical goods
that contain precious metals and gemstones."
With the current rules for Skills, a class skill is basically the same as a non-class skill, except you get a +3 if you have ranks. Does this mean that a Dwarf gets a +3 bonus to Appraise checks in the situation listed above, even if it's not a regular class skill?
The wording is a little vague. As a DM, I'd probably rule that Dwarves get a situational +3 to appraise checks, but the wording could probably be a little clearer.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
I have the Pathfinder Modules subscription and I really enjoy being able to browse the PDF as soon as each one ships. I've started working on ordering back editions of the Gamemastery Modules, but I don't get the PDFs when they ship. I recently ordered several modules and they arrived a few days ago, but still no PDFs. Is this a mistake, or do we only get free PDFs when we receive the items through subscription?
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
Most of the things I'm about to say have been said many times on this message board, but now that the initial flurry of Alpha release posts has died down a little, I'd like to take a moment to "cast my vote" so to speak.
I'm pretty much committed to Pathfinder, so regardless of how it turns out, I'll still be buying a copy. I'd just like to write out my wishlist for the project for whatever that is worth. Thanks for reading.
Let me start by saying that I loved the changes. Every one of them. But I'm the kind of person who loves change for no other reason than to have change. I'm realistic enough to know that most people don't feel that way and, in fact, most people hate change. Therefore, I grudgingly vote to have as few changes as possible to maximize backward compatability.
Races - pp. 4-7
As much as I love them, I vote to scale back the changes to the races. Many seem to feel the half-elf is underpowered compared to the rest of the races, and I see what they are saying, but in the games I run, half-elf is the most popular PC choice for race for some reason. If most people really think it's necessary to give the half-elves a boost, then fine, but I'd prefer the races get scaled back to PHB 3.5.
I would, however, like to see some additional Pathfinder-influenced races added. PHB gnomes should probably originate from some other continent, but Varisian gnomes should have more fey-like abilities, like maybe a +2 to Charisma instead of Con and other, different flavor abilities.
I'd like to see some kind of Shifter-like race (a la Eberron) that originates primarily from the Lycanthrope town of Nybor.
I'd like to see some kind of Warforged-like race, recently discovered in a comatose state in ancient (Sloth) Thassilonian ruins.
I'd especially like to see an LA+0 Planetouched race or races. Devil-blooded people might originate from "Devil-haunted Cheliax" while Genie-blooded people might originate from Qadir. I've seen plenty of opportunity for other types as well. Nualia was an aasimar. There seems to be mention of Rakshasa crossbreed in Korvosa, so there are plenty of possibilities.
In all, I like the changes too much to throw them away, but I think it would be better to leave the races mostly unchanged, but include an Appendix at the back of the book or chapter titled something like "Option: More Powerful Races" with all of these changes in them.
Classes - pp. 8-19
Again, beautiful work here, excellent ideas. But also again, I'd like the classes left mostly alone, maybe with a few things added to fill out the "Dead Levels." Maybe give the Fighter just a little extra attention more than the others. Then throw in an appendix "Option: More Powerful Classes."
I would like to see additional Pathfinder-themed Base Classes. Really, the more the better. Not really a fan of Prestige classes. In fact, I kind of hate them, but a few carefully chosen ones may not be inappropriate.
Skills - pp. 20-31
The combining, adding and subtracting of skills that's been done seems fine to me. I don't see any reason to backtrack on that one. I don't see a reason for the fly skill, but then I don't think I know the full story on that one. However, I feel very strongly that the skill point assigning method of the PHB 3.5 is really the way to go here, but please include the skill assigning rules listed in the Alpha documents as an optional rule.
Feats - pp. 31-39
I haven't studied the feats enough to form an educated opinion on them one way or another. But I know I really like some of the new ones!
Combat - pp. 40-45
Many of the combat rules certainly needed some work and there's some good ideas here. The only one at this point that I wish was scaled back is the Cover rules. I don't really like variable cover rules and thought it was a good change when they got rid of them in the move from 3.0 to 3.5. If you are engaging in any kind of combat, you have to come out from behind cover to a certain extant to participate, so regardless of amount of cover, you just get a +4. The only exception to this is something like an Archer's slit. Okay sure, that should probably provide more cover, but I've always ruled that they still just get +4, but you can't really see them, so attacking them gets a %50 miss chance for full concealment and that pretty much balances out to a more realistic chance of missing an archer behind a slit.
Spells - pp. 46-59
Some of this falls under the purview of changes to Class. It pains me to say, but the domain and specialist powers may need to be relegated to optional rules, as much as I love them. I've heard several convincing arguments that spellcasters were nerfed in the change from 2nd to 3rd edition, so, I don't know, maybe keep them, but only after long and careful consideration of who might be alienated by such drastic changes to the class.
The Spells themselves certainly need fixing. I don't feel I've given sufficient time and study to what you've done here to say for sure that the changes are appropriate, but my initial impression is very good.
Conclusion:
I'm pretty much married to Pathfinder at this point, so almost no matter what's been decided, I'll come along like a good fanboy. I would love to see lots of new content added. However, I hope that great restraint is exercised when determing to change something to protect backward compatability as much as possible. Thanks for making a product that gives my passion for the hobby a renewed vigor.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
I just finished running the Skinsaw Murders for four players. I really loved it, but I have a few thoughts for DMs who have not yet finished it. I particularly want to share things that I wished that I had done.
I wish that I had made Aldern A LOT tougher. There's a massive amount of fun build-up to meeting him again as a ghoul and it was a real let down to my players when they killed him in 2 rounds. If I did it over again, I might add levels or give him potions to drink that would have extended his staying power so that he could have lived up to expectations.
There's some cool mechanics for fighting at the bottom of the Seven's Sawmill that my players missed entirely because they decided to enter the mill at the 2nd floor and work their way up. I think if I did it over, I'd redraw the map so that they would have had to go through every level. Also, I think I would have made the Cultists tougher. The party's fighter was killing two per round whenever they stood next to each other. If I could have gotten them into position, they might have gotten a few flanking sneak attacks in, but they just killed them too quick. Another level or two of Rogue might have been in order.
Xanesha was just way, WAY too hard. If I did it over, I'd either make her easier by changing her spell selection so that she had less buffs at her disposal and maybe more spells having to do with seduction. Or I would have given broad, obvious hints at just how tough she was going to be and what sort of tactics she would be using if she has time to prepare. It was a near TPK the firt time the PC's attempted to fight her (one PC death with the rest fleeing badly wounded.) They defeated her the next time with only limited trouble because of massive preparation that included lots of buffs, plus the use of the Silence spell and Invisibility potions to get them to her chamber without alerting her so that she would not have time to prepare.
I might have changed the way treasure is distributed throughout the adventure. There actually is enough treasure in the adventure, but the PC's don't get the better part of it until the end IF they kill Xanesha and get her stuff, plus the 6000 gold each from the lord-mayor. I think I would have spread that out a little more so the PC's would not have been a little bit poor when they went to meet the massively difficult final boss.
Thanks for reading, anything you wished you had done differently?
I like the changes to the hit die (attaching it on attack bonus.) That makes more sense to me. One suggestion I might make is to change the barbarian's hit die to a d10 like everyone else with the full attack bonus, but give them Improved Toughness as a bonus feat at first level. Statistically speaking, their hit points should be nearly identical over time, but maintains internal consistency with the system. Also, Improved Toughness fits the flavor of the barbarian nicely.
