FoolNamedFreedom's page

I however disagree with all undead being evil because many are self aware, self-awareness leads to the ability to make choices. Choices may need to be made to determine survival.

example: does the undead have to feed on intelligent life to live? If yes, can it feed on willing participants? If yes, it can choose to only feed when necessary and be as "good" as it can. Insert Hollywood tropes here.

Also, is there a reason for not wanting to play a campaign of evil undead? Being a hunting party of nasty ghouls or wights or spooky poltergeists? Maybe an attic whisperer looking for an eternal playmate?

I think what Garion wants to know is how to build a party in session 0 without putting too many restrictions on creative characters?

How can he bridge the gaps between Player 1 and Player 3 without having to rely on me to be the adhesive?

How can he persuade PCs to join forces with new characters in the event one of us dies or requires a hiatus? (Player 4 had some personal issues that required several months to clear, and I mentioned that I often play witty risk-takers right?)

An elaboration on Garion Beckett's post in the same order he used:

Player 1: likes to build badasses. Isn't happy with playing any character that isn't a half-elf wizard for extended campaigns will only role play with npcs/pcs that are smart or magical

Player 2: me, I prefer Finesse characters or Charisma based characters, I enjoy playing witty risk-takers. I easily build bonds with the other players and I don't miss sessions.

Player 3: builds characters with in depth backstories and role plays based on her character's experiences. Likes non-standard races and limited or non spell casters

Player 4: builds totally random characters and hopes the party will deal with it. Literally rolls for race, background, personality, class and it's specialties

Seriously though, all the things to discuss are super helpful, I read a thread on session 0's written in February and I couldn't glean as much information on what I wanted to know about.

I know he was thinking about the starting us a commoners but we have at least 1 stubborn player that may not fly with and another player that is like an old dog and learning commoner then learning level 1 may over complicate things. Writing how she got to level is no problem for her though she's super creative and builds wonderful backstories. She wrote me novella on her evil kitsune bard that wants to rule world.

Dungeons and Dragons Ebberon setting has the Undying that are healed by positive energy, I don't know if anybody else posted that. But the court of the Undying are good aligned deities

I'm assisting my GM in how to run a session 0 for his next campaign. I've never needed to to run a Session 0 cause my players always have an idea as to what/how they want to play. My only question to them is do you wanna be heroes or villains? And I run with thier desires.

My alternate gaming group don't necessarily build off each other's weakness/or strengths and they don't really adapt to the party. So we really need a session 0 and I'm wondering if there is maybe a guideline on how to run one, like what questions to ask players and about party building not just character building. I always end up in the position of party glue to bridge the gaps in the party so the GM can build the adventure.

Yes, magus is a powerful class but with the Kensei build I sacrifice 1 spell per spell level and armour proficiency, I've been playing for a long time and I don't generally like building character's that are super ridiculous, I really just make characters for the flavour and katana really isn't the same flavour, It appears similar as a large size to a nodachi but the Kensei restricts weapon choices and the nodachi offers interesting versatility like slashing/piercing and brace.

I'll also look into mind blade with my gm, the alter self would work too, I didn't even think of that.

Wow, that's really awesome, thank you Ambrosia Slaad!!! You just made my day.

Lol, my GM is pretty lenient so he'd probably allow a round about path because he knows that I just build characters I like not characters to break games. I just really like the fluff based around the nodachi weapon and its actual stats like p/s, 1d10, and brac are just added awesomeness. It's a bit saddening that I'll have to deal compromising for something I don't want to wield...

I want to build a magus Kensei that wields a nodachi. My problem is that I waste the spell combat ability by using a 2 handed weapon. Is there an option that I may not be aware of for a magus that wants a 2 handed weapon that isn't a bastard sword or katana? Like perhaps a feat or trait?

Team work feats sound like a fun way to deal with the monster-hunting without taking over the party. I may end up purposely making a mistake like "forgot to re-cast Mage armour" and just let my character die. Then I can create a new character and back story.

Our GM is insistent on keeping this, her first campaign, alive for our Slayer who is the focus of this campaign instead of killing it and letting us build a new campaign with characters that already know each other or have similar goals in the game.

Are there any suggestions of 2 classes that work extremely well together? Because if we're both building a new character as my character has a high chance of dying due to uselessness vs undead and/or plants.

I'd like to have some sort of adventuring background with Garion Beckett's character instead of more strangers getting added to the party. Outside of the standard pally and cleric duo.

Hello everyone I'm the girlfriend referred to in Garion Beckett's post.

SmiloDan, you are quite evil!!! But we aren't trying to kill the scaredy-cat slayer. Just trying to keep up with the favouritism and raw power of the other players in this combat based campaign.

I feel this is an interesting topic. I played a character that was an evil half-demon paladin varient who seduced a polymorphed dragon wizard and my GM approached me outside game asking if my half-demon pally wished to bear a monster-child. I said if I have to retire my character then no but if we could get through the next few months finish what we set out to do. The dragon was the headmaster of a Mage college and had no alliances with our party or our enemy and my character thought that a child may help sway the dragon to side with us as we were starting a war. Mind you this was a high level campaign that ended soon after we killed the ruler of the monster nation and took over the county by "saving it" because we needed an army. The DM ruled that if we return to that setting our evil characters succeeded in thier goal and my character DID give birth to her little monstrosity and it would be a major villain.

Uhh, first things first, I think you posted this twice "customizing till the end" so I shall post my reply twice!!!

Use a caster with the dismissal spell (if it exists in pathfinder, normally I play d&d 3.5) to send the summoner's minions away, magic missile will still hit a monk, and rogue. Add more minions to your encounters as well, a caster needs its body guards right? I know it's kinda hard to track multiple enemies as a GM but it'll be a challenge to your players. The more enemies the more spread out your party's focus is. Also you can tailor your monsters with more hd or Dr unless by magic/good/evil. Don't get backed into corners and try pincering your party. Attack them flat footed or asleep. You're the GM you can use anything and everything they can.

Smallfoot puts everything very nicely.

You could also lower cost and up the chances of finding healing items as my 3.5 dungeon master did while I played in a campaign of (mostly) 2 my friend was a fighter and I was a rogue. Our sometimes third played a wizard. So without a dedicated healer our DM gave us more healing items. I eventually received a vampiric rapier that drained the life out of my targets and gave it to me.

You could build the paladin and toss it to your players and have them figure out what it does between the 3 of them.

I built my party a fighter because my party's paladin has an unreliable work schedule and can't always show up for game. I make them use him in combat and dungeons. I role-play him to the party as he has a low charisma and just enough int for certain feat requirements so I can't use him to give away DM knowledge or talk to myself.

Use a caster with the dismissal spell (if it exists in pathfinder, normally I play d&d 3.5) to send the summoner's minions away, magic missile will still hit a monk, and rogue. Add more minions to your encounters as well, a caster needs its body guards right? I know it's kinda hard to track multiple enemies as a GM but it'll be a challenge to your players. The more enemies the more spread out your party's focus is. Also you can tailor your monsters with more hd or Dr unless by magic/good/evil. Don't get backed into corners and try pincering your party. Attack them flat footed or asleep. You're the GM you can use anything and everything they can

I agree that talking to the DM, retraining, or bringing in new chars sounds like good options. Probably in order from best to good.

Another option, if none of those work, is to simply use your char. You are in a city, being asked to go out into the countryside and fight opponents you can't fight? Charm some guards or mercs into helping you fight. That way, you can make use of your current chars strengths to aid you in battles you wouldn't be good at. That's what an enchanter is all about, right? Getting others to fight your battles for you?

Teehee I've done that and our GM now rules that npc's will just run away at the sight of combat so I can't have nice guards protecting me. Our summoner and necromancer now protect me.

Hey now, Bear and wolf pelts can be valuable. There's a pretty red bear who's on my "to kill" list in my current campaign, but a very high level druid is protecting it, who is also on my to kill list, due to our druid being pissed about that druid being rude.

To me it sounds like your GM is good at engaging the whole party into adventures.

Yes animals can have loot if the GM wishes to provide it or the characters have the skills for it. Our hunter skins every beast we slay and the necro who's alternate occupation is chef prepares the remains into meals and party rations.

So as a follow up on those that have offered advice here the GM wasn't targeting me. As much as I feel slightly better about that she admitted to actively targeting one of the other players. Our necro was the one under fire because he created an awesome undead minion after she destroyed his other minions. The new minion, from what I understand was made within the rules and confines of the game using the level and abilties of said necromancer. I don't know much about the raising undead rules I only know that according him it was built by the books. I know he cannot create more than 2 of them as per the hd he can control for level restriction reasons. Our party was caught in the crossfire of our GM's frustration and myself and character suffered for it.

As for the DM, one reason she could be offering mindless monster hunts is that they are BY FAR the easiest monsters to run. Man-eating trees and giant beetles do the things they do. There are never motives other than "MOAR foodz!" and there aren't prisoner dilemmas.

As for being a glass cannon yeah I kinda am right now. I started the campaign I was under the impression we were going to a capital city to gather info on an evil cult then on to take out said evil cult. We've only levelled once since I joined and next level I can swap spells to add a more a defensive or offensive edge to combat.

As for her encounters she is just picking easy to use monsters. That's kinda what she does. However a lot of animals like starving/feral wolves or bears use the same tactics and can be dazed or put to sleep while still offering little to no loot.

To create your own Wands its: 375 gp × the level of the spell × the level of the caster you can choose to make it at your highest caster level or the minimum for the spell required for the spell. The DC to create a magic item is 5 + the caster level for the item. Failing this check means that the item does not function and the materials and time are wasted. Failing this check by 5 or more results in a cursed item hehehe

Kaouse wrote:

I just got into an argument with my GM who said that True Seeing negated Hide in Plain Sight...somehow.

Because somehow "hiding" in plain sight is totally different from being "simply hidden" which True Seeing explicitly says it can't see through.

There were other issues, but that was the moment I decided I'd pack up and go to bed. Maybe next time I'll deal with it.

How did you gain HiPS? Rogues and Rangers get it as an extraordinary ability, while Shadowdancers have Supernatural HiPS. I could see an argument that True Seeing counters Shadowdancer HiPS but not ranger HiPS.

From what I can tell Hide in plain sight is just a super awesome stealth check. The assassin has the same type of HiPS as the shadow dancer without the shadow conjuring so if the shadow is natural I'd count it as the same as a ranger/rogue in favoured terrain but if the shadow is conjured true seeing would counter.

Thank you for all your input so far! It's given me something to contemplate and when I'm thinking I'm less frustrated. I'm going to talk to the whole group GM and the other players.

I don't want to start a fight about her lack of desire to plan ahead or listen to the desire of her players. I was just hoping for some more neutral ways to handle the situation without the whole party killing her campaign ideas or disappointing our party leader by swapping out or drastically changing my character. Maybe I've been GMing too long I forgot what being a player is like...

On a side note (because our GM doesn't know and I can't find it) to use a wand what is the spell save dc on wands? Do you use your own save for that level of spell or the crafter's? And is there a chart or standard npc modifier to use. It's a fight that we all go through with her because she doesn't tell us anything about the wands or scrolls we receive as loot and everyone in the party has the skill Use Magic Device. I know the dc's to activate the devices but say it's a save for half damage or spell resistance applies to the spell?

The general feeling I'm getting Is trying to talk to the GM or throw away an interesting and fun character.

I personally, from a player perspective, like railroads but following a path my character wouldn't take makes it difficult for me to try and convince the other players down that path. I was the one who accepted the quest of gathering knowledge on the dragon. My party had no interest in seeking out info on this dragon or the dragon itself and they feel it should be left to "higher authorities" to deal with. The problem I'm having is the campaign always leads us on monster hunts when we're in an urban setting.

As an enchanter I put most things to sleep, daze or fascinate the enemies and then let my more murderous comrades finish the job. When I'm unable to do any of that I cast Mage Armour on my allies but that only takes 2 rounds because our summoner buffs herself. Outside of combat I keep the party together, I've befriended the other pc's and I'm aware of most of their goals.

It's not that I haven't come up with options it's that she tries to lead us into "difficult encounters" ones where my spells do nothing but protect my allies, my summoner's eidolon can't cause enough damage and our cleric is too focused on keeping his undead minions from breaking instead of healing himself. We've tried talking to her to plan adventures more geared to her party's capabilities and city setting as opposed to only giving us options that have us going back and forth from the capital to the wilds and back again. Last week as a request from other players to find bandits or thugs to beat up for a little extra experience before walking into a noble's man-eating tree infested back yard and she gave us the option for "giant centipede extermination" half a day from the city we're residing in. At the rate she ignores our pleas for monsters we can handle 3 out of 4 of us are looking to change characters. The 4th likes the characters we have and doesn't want us all to change them.

Ok, funny story, I actually already GM a game and she is one of my players in it. There is no problems when I GM my party is a solid team and they follow the roads I subtly lay for them. I'm currently playing in her game because she requested me to play to for she was lacking in player's and she thought I'd might like to get away from all the planning and strategy GM-ing requires.

When I joined the group I was under the impression that we'd be going against humanoids because the party was aimed for a big city and then on to start a rebellion against an opressive religious sect of humanoids...

I guess my question here would be "How do I breech the topic of why are we in backwards land where humanoids are mindless giant insects and the veterans are treated as noobs when they're trying to help?"

Ok, this is my first time posting anything here but my patience is wearing thin with my Gamemaster. I don't want to be that problem player that gives the GM a hard time, but I've damn near had it with her. I've been playing table top RPGs for just over 10 years and my GM only has a couple years as a player... I'm generally patient and I get that she's new to whole thing but she's been pushing me around as a player and I feel like I've been driven into a corner.

I'm currently playing a fey-blood enchantress (which isn't my standard character type I usually play hot blooded fighters or clever rogues), my party consists of a summoner synergist, a necromancer cleric, and a slayer. We're a motley amalgamation of general anarchy that is difficult to railroad. I try and follow the GM's guide and I play a character that has strong bonds with her companions. My problem is my GM is heavy combat and likes to send us out into the wilderness to fight monsters like giant bugs and things my character can't do anything about when we are currently residing in an urban setting which should be rife with humanoids that I can charm the pants off of. Currently she is trying to railroad us into a fight with a dragon that has been polymorphed into humanoid form for the purposes of spreading mischief and mayhem. But why? Why would my CN fey blooded enchantress want to risk the lives of her party and herself in a fight she can't really help in outside of casting Mage armour?

I feel like a useless argumentative ass...