Fotta's page

What about the Investigator talent specifically for this purpose: Item Lore?

the best part of a power vacuum is that there are usually several agencies trying to claim that spot for themselves. I would emphasize this.

If this wizard was close to creating life, which is so difficult, then there will be others out there who want to continue his work. Whether that means stealing golems and reverse engineering them, or taking his notes, or simply completely moving into his laboratory.

If he was a high level wizard, there will also be lots of treasure seeking individuals looking to loot and scour his workshop. These guys will clearly be at odds with the first group.

Your PC's secret society probably wouldn't want either group to take anything of value away, so that your victory won't be for nothing. So they will also try to have a presence in the swamp.

These three factions competing for the scraps left behind by the wizard can bring up some interesting dynamics. What if a treasure seeker tries to bribe the PC's to let him in? What if one of the secret society is a druid, who thinks the best way to protect the swamp is to sumberge it at the bottom of a new lake? What if one of the secret society becomes tempted by the power, and is secretly trying to recreate the experiements for himself while deflecting any investigation?

I like the idea as a concept, but isn't that against the whole idea of why they set up the Runeforge? What is the purpose of a time dilated research facility if you come back after your study and someone else has already solved the problem/everyone you know is dead/the answer is no longer relevant?

For my player cards, I keep the decks to my right. Deck is on the left, discard on the right, and character card horizontal above them. It's the old M:TG setup I used, but with a stat card instead of life counter. I haven't actually seen one of the mats unfolded, but that might be a nice addition.

For the game decks setup, I've built and modeled a lazy Susan just for use with this game. It has spots around the outside edge to hold the location decks and current characters visiting. Each location also has room to prop the location card upright so it can be easily read at all times. In the center I have a box that the blessings deck and blessings discard are kept on top of. We also place any scenario rewards inside of the box, and open it when we win. Took a while to put together, but it makes it easier for 5-6 people to reach everything.

I've played through book 1 in Jade Regent and Kingmaker. Both games just sort of fizzled out afterwards.

I'm currently playing in book 6 of RotR, and I'm super excited to actually finish the story. I'm really hoping we don't all die...

Ascalaphus wrote:

@Artemis: when I tried it I used only one constant. It's still pretty easy.

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Re: Globe of Invulnerability. By default emanations move with you, but a specific power always overrides the general rules. The Globe is an exception to the normal emanation spell rules. I see no ambiguity there.

Really?

The globe emanate from you.
You can move.
The globe can't move.
.....

The fix is simple: giving the spell a range of 0 and an Area of effect: 10' spherical emanation.

It's definitely not worded as it should be. The text again reinforces the idea that it doesn't move with you, though, when it says you may leave and return to the globe without penalty.

I like the style and setup and big reveal, but I have a question on it. why does it shock the evil twin? When he loses his mask he'll be revealed, but the good twin is unmasked the whole fight, right? You could just cut the fight if the two twins ever get in melee distance of each other. The evil twin just sees the good one, stops, then runs away and leaves the henchmen to die. That keeps the party from dying and builds more suspense for the actual reveal at a later point.

I guess you could do similar if another party member deals X damage to the monk and his mask automatically falls off. that way he can make the party look bad and learn the value of maneuvers, but they don't have to get him to single digits before he books it.

I like the idea of the BBEG getting others to do the work for him. Maybe he's some kind of false prophet, and predicts a great war in the pantheon/rising of rovagug/invasion by the great old ones, etc. Very few believe him, so he convinces the PC's to investigate and then rally various powers to his cause. Gullible clerics, greedy wizards, etc. The PC's go around and get everyone to agree on a massive ritual that temporarily severs the divine link to protect the mortal realm from whatever the approaching catastrophe is. Then the BBEG, who had been planning for this all along, makes whatever move he had set up the dimensional lock to achieve.

He's also saying there is a minimum for each die roll. So if you needed a combat check of 6, and one die (minus penalties) got you a 6, while the other (after penalties) was a -1, then you still pass, because the minimum is 0.

My next character is planning on being a holy warrior/militant account of Abadar. I'm not sure alchemist can caputre that as well as some other classes. It would be interesting to see though, certainly.

What are you doing as an archer that's getting your mount kiled every combat?

In the base set we soon ran into the damned, elusive Sh-a-dow (you probably have to be a Brit to get this reference).

Scarlet Pimpernel?

So we're saying that even though the "A sohei may use flurry of blows and ki strike with any weapon in which he has weapon training." clause is inside their 6th level ability, they get that before 6th level? Is that just because it doesn't say a "6th level sohei may use..." at the start of that sentence? Sweet. What about the Paladin's capstone ability?

"At 20th level, a paladin becomes a conduit of power for her god. Her DR increases 10/evil. Whenever she uses smite evil and successfully strikes an evil outsider, the outsider is also subject to a banishment, using her paladin level as her caster level...."

That's fantastic. That third sentence doesn't say "whenever a 20th level paladin uses smite evil and successfully...". So that means it doesn't matter that it's a 20th level ability, right?

"A sohei using weapon training..." So as long as I have weapon training, I get it.

"Whenever she uses smite evil..." So as long as I have smite evil I get it.

This is beautiful. I'm looking forward to banishing every outsider I ever fight, thanks.

You could have someone cast magic weapon on them. Or pick up a wand that would do it. Also I believe there are one time use things like silversheen that can help out temporarily.

When I join a new group I almost always make a fairly generic character that will be generally useful in a variety of situations. Then I see how he compares to the expectations of the rest of the group including the GM. My next character will be inline with what the group seems to want.
I have built straight fighters with extremely detailed and convoluted backstories to explain why he insist on using a pair of clubs scale armor. But really the group couldn't optimize worth a damn so I had to start with a sub-optimal set-up to not overshadow them. Also the GM had bought many of the books, but he and the whole group really weren't yet too comfortable with most of the rules outside of core. So I pretty much stuck to core with just a couple of feats that didn't even get taken until mid campaign. So they had plenty of time to get used to the PC with only simple stuff.

I completely agree. In my previous group, I played a multiclassed, multiple archetyped, complicated combination that was a blast to play. Then I moved and found a group that had been playing together a while and had an open spot. I had an idea of what they played, but to avoid any miscommunication on system mastery, I played a bard. No multiclass, no archetype, nothing. And that was also a blast to play.

Later on I found out what they were comfortable with, and picked up a prestige class. My next character afterwards had a very unique archetype. I took time getting complicated to give the GM a chance to find his pace first.

I once knew an alchemist gnome,
who kept his lab in his home.
He learned his mistake,
when he brewed an earthquake,
now potless and cotless he'll roam.

As hyperbole for effect, why not skip the sword all together? Take a barrel, fill it with wands of vampiric touch, then bonk someone on the head with the barrel? 6 zillion damage.

The barrel is in your hands, therefore the wands are, right?

I play a male witch from the Mwangi jungles. He has never heard the term 'witch'. He is a 'Speaker for the Spirits'. He's also okay with shaman.

In my current group, we did have one player retire a character because she felt she wasn't really contributing to the group. She was playing an archer paladin (divine hunter) in a group with an archer ranger and a two-hander paladin. She is now playing a fighter/rogue, and feels much better about her choice. Not optimal, definitely, but still a valuable party member. We have been playing RotR for over a year now though.

In all fairness, this happened in a purposefully difficult and gritty campaign. We were okay with the ruling, and able to get it fixed...mostly.

A monk was attacking an enemy knight, and rolled a 1. The DM used a crit fumble chart he found online, The rolled result was "Attacker is disarmed"

Monk: Not bad since I don't have a weapon to drop.

DM: Nah. We'll just disarm you literally. he cuts off both your hands.

Well the only real benefit from flurry for a full BAB class is the extra attacks, right? Basiclly just the TWF tree for free. Maybe just knock it down a peg. Give them one additional attack at 8, and two at 16. That gives them 50% more attacks than without flurry, but all at the typical -2.

Level 8 would be +6/+6/+1 instead of +8/+3
Level 16 would be +14/+14/+9/+9/+4/-1 instead of +16/+11/+6/+1.

This is completely without reading the document you posted though. I just now found this thread, and it makes me happy.

The next campaign I'm playing in will be about religious persecution and rebellion in Cheliax. We're all playing very religious characters who worship anyone but Asmo.

Very cool concept. I'll work on something when I get off work.