Fin.F.Hardy's page

Hi Folk,

I have been out of the pen and paper RPG scene for about 2 years. The last pathfinder books I picked up were around 2012 (runelords aniversary and bestiary 3 ).
What supplements between then and now do you think are must haves and pretty good books to pick up?
I often end up as GM and enjoy bits of background and setting reading for fun.
I also have picked up the starfinder release stuff

Any advice would be much appreciated so that I can catch up with the game, the world and releases? I have always liked paizo products so all of them may be true but I would need to spread that over a longer time period.

Thanks

Personaly i don not like putting a bottom floor on characters, i enjoy playing the low con low str wizard, even the weak and but nimble fighter.

Generaly i geuss it matters on the game you play, but i find that being mr awsome for me is just abit lame.

(i personaly love 15 point buys)

When I am hosting i generally have a three stage rule on negative behaviour:

1st time - its me, perhaps i was not clear ok well were clear now.

2nd time - its you, were clear on the topic, it was covered the first time
you have to be responsible for your actions and adhere to our standards.

3rd time - were through, I gave you 2 chances where I subtly pulled you up on the issue and you ignored it. To bad bye.

I am not an evil host either as i tend to sub and prepare the food, but you take crud without asking that is just lame (the fact it was ok last week, it does not cost much to ask again this week).

Personally i am generally against punishing players for lack of attendance if they give some form of notice, you can plan for it and its all good. I generally find that people put to much pressure on you have to attend every week and it tends to either work and form a long term group or start causing tension and fractures that never recover.

Our general rules that floated around were that players would be set back if they gave you same day notice. As a GM the only 2 players i have had the urge to set back was a pair who had to be tracked down 30 mins after session start time to get a generic funzie answer, such as 'Oh well Ii went to Whoevers's to play cards' or 'oh sorry i am playing Magica maby ill come later'.

Punishing casual players tends to make there commitments even weaker and has no gain in game or away from the table.

Separating my hands from the cuffing position and yelling "Wait!" to the agitated town guards who were counting down to 0 while pointing many crossbows in my direction.

Technically killing the store owner, due to the fact i couldn't afford the master-work fiddle(my previous one broke) and then changing shape to impersonate the owner. While forgetting the story to the specifics that my husband was away at a festival.

The story of the character is probably alot better told by my old GM. Who felt that i was to be banned indefinably from playing any cat/catlike characters ever again.

Oh yes...they died that evening.

Then I absolutely would not ever support eschew materials working for it.

Why on earth would the designers put one component that didn't have a listed price and then another with a 25gp price and expect that eschew materials would work?

That is silly.

I would side with this, if one component has a cost and one does not i would go with it requiring the costed component unless you happened to bleed a devil before hand.

But that is just me, I enjoy components having a feel to them rather just being part of the auto-run of life.

The White Necromancer, out of KQ#19 may also fit the idea, similar to the witch they are an arcane caster who uses semi clerical spells.

I tend to play characters slightly unhinged in one way or another.

Such as the Illusionist who believes there illusions are real and trying to kill them.
Generally i fall into Bard or Rouge(int) playing a sudo diplomatic role or logistics guy. Always preferring a character who has interactive background motives, such as the pirate who would destroy the world to get his own galleon (and one who got damn close if it wasn't for that meddling wizard!).

I enjoy the 15 point buy in general for all classes, especialy with having to 'dump' to reach higher stats giving a feel of characters not being all round perfect. I used to find in our groups in 3.5 (based on the 4 d6 drop one method) players often used to end up with 2 18's and be a bit to op and never roll under 10, because people, dice and love of fiction seem to create less than believable results. We tried to use the array system which worked better but it always limited our none combat builds or players image of what there character should be.

The points buy system my group all found a great relief, it gives the players the choice of being a min max character or well balanced and it gives the GM control of the power of the characters to scale there game against.

I relay do not like the basic concept of this max stat + points, as it seems to add an imbalance both from the DMs perspective of managing characters, and the players perspective of fairness. Although in your eyes it brings a balance perhaps mechanicaly, although i doubt that personaly. In my eyes it brings unbalance and removes the image of fairness from plays as at level one the guy who has a 22 point buy in will have a definite edge over the lower buys.

Each group to there own, but me and mine are happy with point buy and don't want to mess with it.

A middle way i would think is to highly limit magic rather than fully removing from the system. So players cant play magical classes, simple enough.
We used to manage healing via herbal potions of one kind or another, lycans-bane potion or something i think it was which healed d8 +x but also carried a low effect DC 10~ risk.
There may still be very rare magic users in the world who are not common in any way, a long term BBEG could be a wizard or witch or the kings advisor could be suspected to have powers. Else just having things that still exist from 'the old times' which is where magic items and monsters come in.
Generally trying to stop the 'power explosion' without having to totally overhaul. Magic could just be a word for the unexplained.

Our group was 20/20/Confirm which landed a death attack which was a fort save or die (roughly as death by massive damage, i think). We had a variant slant where it increments the crit multiplier which worked well in a less mental way, for BBEG fights.

DM: So, you guys ready for the new campaign? What did you guys wind up making?

Me: I rolled up an Elf Ranger. He gets...

DM: Sorry, can't be an Elf in this game.

Me: Um, ok, are there no elves? I wasn't aware...

DM: Oh there's elves, you just can't play one. They all left civilization for their own land.

Me: Every single one of them? None of them wanted to stay?

DM: Nope. There's elves, but you can't be one.

Me: Okay, fine. Well, I'm thinking Gnome Sorce...

DM: No Gnomes either. They left too.

Me: Seriously?

DM: You can be a Goblin! You guys are starting in a Goblin city...

Me: *tableflip*

GM Withholds Valuable Yet Obvious Information

Example:

GM: You come out of the woods to a riverbank. It's about fifty feet across.
Player: Is there a bridge anywhere nearby?
GM: No.
Player: How deep is the river?
GM: It looks like it's only two or three feet deep at the deepest.
Player: I probe the riverbed with a stick. Does it feel like the bottom is really muddy, like I might get stuck?
GM: No. the bottom is rocky, not muddy.
Player: Okay, I wade across.
GM: *giggles* You get about ten feet out. The bottom is very slippery. Roll a Reflex save. DC is 30.
Player: 30? That's a really high DC!
GM: Yeah, that's due to the slipperiness of the algae, and the sheer force of the rapids.
Player: Rapids? You didn't say anything about rapids! I thought it was a normal river!
GM: You didn't ask how fast the water was flowing. What was your roll?
Player: Gee, with a DC 30, I need a natural 20 to succeed. *rolls* Hey, what do you know: I failed!
GM: Okay. You get swept over the 100-foot waterfall.
Player: What waterfall?
GM: The waterfall that was 30 feet down the river.
Player: You didn't say anything about a waterfall, either!
GM: You didn't ask what was downstream. *rolls handfull of dice* Take 68 points of damage from the fall. Roll a fort save to see if you die from massive damage. And make a swim check.

I have to laugh, not in a cruel way but just wondering whether there is one game master who tours the realm to annoy players as i have experienced both of these incidents nearly word for word.

We once had a GM infect 4/5 party members, 2 with lycanthropy and two as vampires, by setting DC25 saves to level 1's and setting the mobs on us at bestiary level. We suggested that it was imbalanced but he said it was the players fault for being stupid and not optimizing there characters.
This became worse as he then took control of players and ran them as npcs when combat was going south generally forcing then tank or healer to flee or engage the party.