My players killed Meyanda dead. Couldn't see any chance of redemption for her. But somehow got along with the transdimensional murdertyrant that is Zagmaander. They even walked through a much more dramatized cave of her victims, complete with corpse mural with allusions to the Alien movies all over, and still seemingly got along much better once they started talking. This is including the fact that she very much was known to the party as to what she both was, had done and intended to keep doing once freed.
I think my party is just really mercernary, or I did a really good voice for Zagmaander. They also captured, interrogated then took Sanvil up to the top of the mound to be shot in the back of the head and buried in a shallow grave. Probably one of the most cold blooded things I've seen from the group and really set the tone going forward.
Anyway, I would have liked for Meyanda to stick around in canon. She's a cool character, and her backstory really is actually something I think the outlined ending of that book struggled to convey well, or for players to recognize they could turn her to their side. I get the sense that giving ways in which she could be redeemed was mostly to help with 'what if' scenarios and they wrote with the expectation that she wasn't going to survive, nor do the party have much of an excuse to keep her alive after what she's been doing. Shame really, I actually liked the conflicted villain she represented.
Wish I had seen this thread when I started on Iron Gods 5e myself. We started the same year and all! How funny. My players only in the first part of book 3, so Iadenveigh and all the stuff going on there. Not sure when we're getting to the Aurora but I've got the statblocks for that half ready.
I'll share some of my converted statblocks and equipment a bit later. Suffice to say I went to a lot of lengths to redo a lot of the equipment rules, environmental hazards and actually introduced some ways to help bridge the gap between 5e's low magic item approach and Pathfinder's abundant approach.
RedRobe wrote:
For example: Krimox the Thrice-Flensed. Why is this creature a monk?
He's a monk because Kuthites are ascetics. Their obsession with pain and self-mutilation is a process of absolution for them, and to actually achieve some kind of spiritual ascension. It is a means of cutting away the weakness and reaching some great epiphany about the nature of reality, much like Zon-Kuthon himself did, and much like Krimox did. You don't just become a sado-maschoist of that level without some extreme amount of dedication and self-control, which is why monks are an incredibly good fit for Kuthites. There is even an entire monk archetype in PF dedicated to the Kuthite monks, and the Nidal oligarchs use mute monks as their police force.
As to how you handle his statline, I've not gotten to that point but try and bring over his stats faithfully really. It's worth noting that he is a interlocutor kyton, so replicate some of that creatures abilities first. The bleed attacks, the gaze attacks, etc. And then start adding in appropriate monk abilities like Deflect Arrows or Stunning Blow. I think his PF statblock doesnt really *do* much with the monk template, so this is a good chance to make him more interesting. Really, whatever helps make him more of a threat, and he definitely deserves having legendary actions to help with that if necessary.
He technically isn't necessarily a fight either, so remember that he negotiates first and tempts the party into accepting his aid.
If your backstory adequately explains how or why you can access it, and your gm is okay with it, then that's fine.
Rarity is less about inaccessibility but literally rarity from the perspective of the Europe/American-esque fantasy, or hyperspeciality of the weapon in question. If you are in an area the piece of equipment is abundant or regularly used, or from that location, you have a very good justification for having it.
For instance, khopeshes are uncommon but typical in Osirion and the surrounding regions, so you could get one easily from there.
Similarly, some uncommon weapons are more than from divides of ethnicity or locality. Some are just downright bizarre for weapons. Flame poi are very, very weird, bladed scarves are only used by very dedicated practitioners
Some are limited to profession. Nightsticks aren't used by warriors, it's for a specific kind of profession and you would need to go find a guardsman to feasibly acquire one, not a weapons trader. And it is debatable you'd even be able to buy one in the first place.
Breaking this down:
If you're from Osirion, you can get a Khopesh with zero issue. To say no is quite weird given it is a cultural weapon. (Also anywhere that Osirion controlled or it's people migrated too are likely to use the weapon, like Katapesh)
If you are some kind of performer turned mercernary, then a bladed scarf or flame poi could be a way of transitioning your skills over to a new profession.
If you were a former guardsman, retaining your nightstick makes SOME sense. But more so if you remain a guardsman.
Since there exist very, very few prerequisite feats besides archetype feats, and those being basically entirely new options and granting you new options equivalent to most equal level feats from normal class options, but expect you to be taking them for the sake of actually filling out those feats and not the dedication (the dedication mostly setting you up for the later feats while providing the necessary baseline functionality necessary to use them) I don't see it as being feat tax heavy at all.
There is probably only one or two examples of where this mostly might be impactful. Namely, such as a situation as using one dedication feat to qualify for another, like with archer into eldritch archer. I don't see many classes that could use eldritch archer to it's most extreme effect beyond cantrips being able to even take the class at 6, but that's another point entirely.
I feel like there is a misconception as to what the issue was with how 1e used to work. The tax wasn't just in having to take a feat to do a thing (although that is indeed something that often happened in 1e and still a thing in 2e). The tax was the feats leading up to that. You HAD to take Dazzling Display, a feat gunslingers would never use, to ever use Gun Twirling. This is what is meant by a tax. Useless clutter to do the thing you want, but there was no way to get around it without really pushing the limits where you could. (for the gunslinger, it meant taking a specific archetype, for example, which made that archetype one of the strongest since it opened up one of the strongest player options in a feat heavy build. It is feat heavy BECAUSE it is tax heavy)
If you were taking a dedication feat, then never wanting the feats in that dedication in the first place, that's kind of absurd given how many more options are available inside of a class and in other archetypes that sometimes have overlapping dedication feats in terms of functionality. You should take dedication feats to progress in that archetype, not to get the initial bonus. Many of them have very, very good feats.
The feat system seems set up in a way to tax you as little as possible, is my point, and that's a damn good quality to have. The only thing gating most players is level and available class feat slots, but that's only so you aren't able to do literally everything possible and for you to choose your toolbox carefully. Some classes, however, get to cheat and that's cool. Fighters, for example.
Final Sacrifice is going to be very, very fun. Especially with a healthy supply of undead due to Animate Dead.
And while it is using multiple slots compared to just dropping fireballs, it also ends up slightly more action efficient due to the summoned creature getting something close to about four actions before you pop them on the following turn.
Basically, I just don't see myself using fireballs when I could just be popping low level zombies for close to the same price. Maybe they're not going to be fireballed IMMEDIATELY, but I would already want to wait on my allies to inflict some kind of debuff first.
I'd hardly call trying to get two dedication feats cheese, just kind of a prickly rules situation.
More importantly, this seems definitely like a situation of specific over general. Multitalented is concerned with bypassing the normal progression you need to meet while taking dedication feats and archetype feats.
These other two options just grant you these feats with no interaction with the typical progression for multiclass archetypes.
The only thing these options require you to meet are the prerequisites for the feats. Not the special clause, which is concerned for standard feat selection.
If the feature says it does a thing, it does a thing. They don't block each other, but those feats do prevent taking another dedication feat like normal.
Consider it like this; ancient elf and eldritch tricker grants the feats, the feats themselves prevent choice elsewhere. You only chose the class for the feature, not the feats themselves.
Getting super specific on weapons has been and continues to be kinda weird to me. A lot of weapons generally aren't so noticably different to one another to need specific stats. They will generally work like their closest analogues enough not to warrant it, so I feel it is more sensible just to reflavour. Is there really that noticable difference between a fauchard and glaive except maybe in an overanalytical sense?
The few that do need specific stats is simply because they are different from real examples. The scythe for instance is a reaping scythe, which has the blade at a right angle rather than at the pole tip. That to me makes sense for why they would differentiate them.
285. A race whose natural habitat is the cold depths of space.
286. A race that entirely lacks alignment, instead driven by some imperative objective to which all else is meaningless.
287. A race whose perspective of time is extremely slowed down, allowing them to even see bullets in flight. But they have otherwise normal reflexes and mobility, making this more of a detriment than a benefit.
288. A race that seems to be made of a single material or assortment of a single kind of object (for instance, they seem to be made up of broken seashells or discarded spoons), but is not a construct or elemental. Otherwise looks humanoid down to very defined features, despite their anatomical makeup.
289. An aberration that looks identical to another race, but that race sees them as some kind of horrible monster. The individual fully believes they are a member of that race regardless.
290. A race whose soul lingers just behind them, unbeknownst to them. All others see a ghostly watcher, seemingly betraying their inner thoughts, or maybe making vaguely threatening gestures.
291. A race that is otherwise pretty normal, but has an unsettling aura about them in the presence of fire. This does not necessarily affect their behavior or alignment, though others might interpret their actions as slightly more menacing than intended when in fire light.
292. A race whose arms have atrophied to uselessness, requiring the use of magical prosthetics made from silk and gold to perform most tasks.
293 A race who seem to be able to peer into other planes, even see the gods themselves if they look deep enough. This can have dire consequences, as any entity they can see can in turn see them. This occurs involuntarily when they sleep.
294. A race whose bones, nails, teeth and hair are made of some kind of glass. Their hair is malleable though brittle, while their teeth, nails and bones are as hard as diamonds. Light often reflects off them in strange ways. They are vulnerable to shatter, like a construct.
295. A race who, to other creatures of various alignments, seem to speak an entirely different language. Creatures within one step of their alignment can partially understand them, but only creatures of identical alignment can fully grasp what they are trying to say.
296. A race who culturally desire ascension into some other higher state beyond their current form. Very big on augmentation, with most members of the race replacing their flesh with prosthetics.
And some more...vague prompts
297. The comfort of rain.
298. A lost and discarded heirloom.
299. Wild abandon given fulfillment.
300. The people you meet in liminal spaces.
301. Unspoken words and deep regrets.
302. Addressing it is worse than ignoring its presence.
303. You seem reluctant to ask them questions. They often answer with things you did not seek nor ever wished to know.
304. A rusted, blunt dirk finds purchase in their hands, but the sharpest blade reject them.
Perception+8 Init+4Active Buffs:BodyNone! Yeldrid is just a mundane catgirl....or, so he says.Change outShe good.Stats:HP19/19AC16F-F12Touch14CMD15Fort+6Ref+6Will+3Resources:Grit0/1, Bullets3, Pellets7Powder Horn1:10 doses;2:3 doses
Yeldrid, seeing the bow wielding orc, decides that she is probably his safest bet of acquiring a decent weapon. He takes a boxers stance and begins bouncing on his toes towards the gangle, launching a jab as he gets close.
Unarmed Strike:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
He biffs her on the arm, but lets out a yowl and shakes his hand in pain, hurting him more than he definitely didn't hurt her. He's really not good at this.
Frankly, I really liked Starfinder's NPC creation rules and I think they made for really easily made creatures on the fly. But I do enjoy making NPC's slightly more closer to effectiveness as PC's, so stating them out like in PF1 can be fun but time consuming.
Having both on the table would be good for me. I don't dislike either system and think both are fun in their own way.
Honestly I'm just happy that the devs seem to know what they're up to and are being so open about what is coming in the new edition.
This is a pretty good change from Starfinder's reveal which, while it wasn't really as necessary to detail every change since it's just another 3.X game, is really a show of good faith from Paizo with this new edition. They seem confident in what they're doing, I like everything they've done thus far, and I would hope they stick to their guns on this and take it even further despite some of the negative reactions.
With a whoosh, the horrible bits of gore disappear. Nesica tries to make sure Adi is comfortable by tucking her back into her bedroll. Maybe Adi should stick to secretarial work...
Seriously, why did Nesica let an intern come along on this extremely unsuccessful mission of vengeance for a man who literally stabbed her friends and had her arrested.
Also we'll be talking about Forlorn elves and the Bleaching in the elf and gnome descriptions, for example, but we won't be going into detail on affairs in Kyonin or explain what's up with why the gnome god Thamir Gixx has the same last name as the Lord Mayor of Absalom.
But you should at least explain why Thamir Gixx became GNOME god ;)
Separating mechanics from fluff is dead simple. Strip the fluff.
Stripping setting stuff from the core rules is also dead simple. Just recreate the content to your own homebrew without even touching the mechanics.
If you are making a homebrew world, this process is already an important first step. If you’re looking for a setting agnostic ancestry descriptions in order to show your players how you run content, then you’re probably fine with P1e’s stuff but frankly, just write something out or tell your players how you run those ancestries. Half the fun of home brewing your own world is coming up with your own flavour.
If that’s to your interest you probably shouldn’t be using published material anyway (in terms of fluff, mechanics obviously should be kept), or at the very least using it for inspiration but otherwise configuring it to your own liking.
I absolutely would like to see the goblin treatment extended to races like orcs, hobgoblins, kobolds, drow (they’re already going that way according to more recent content), and duergar.
Unseating all this terrible baggage and making these ancestries more playable and reasonable to play as in more campaigns is a great first step and a good one at that. I look forward to the day that I can tell my GM I’m playing an orc wizard and not be looked at with bafflement.
Deadmanwalking wrote:
Uh...with the exception of Drow and Ogres, I'm not sure this was a thing in PF1. Not outside people's headcanon, anyway.
I personally have pretty deep problems with Ogres, but Drow and any of the presumptions about them (like how elves would turn into drow and stuff) was recently amended, both slightly retconned though mostly just reaffirming that the vast majority of presumptions about them was racist propaganda from....what are they called, Lamplighters? Anyway, they’re working to fix that now. Drow are more accepted in their ranks, in fact.
Drow society is pretty awful. Drow themselves are not innately evil. There are plenty of drow NPCs who aren’t CE and aren’t even evil.
In short, Paizo wouldn't dare turn on the majority of their player base's desires in an attempt to appease what is by-and-large a minority opinion.
Is a functional crossbow going to somehow bottom out P2e’s sales? Is this truly the straw that breaks the camels back?
Or will they just make a good system and be done with it, with the state of crossbows being almost entirely non-impactful on the system’s value as a whole? I’m hoping for the latter, since such an assumption suggests a saner course of action. If crossbows get fixed along the way, that would be nice.
Also, have you not seen the goblin thread? They’re taking some pretty big changes in P2e. And from the reaction I doubt they really have an interest in pandering to grognards still obsessed with what was done in previous editions, not when they’re making a classic enemy into a playable hero. You might just be pleasantly surprised, Darksol.
The law is all that matters. If goblins can make for mighty paladins, and keep with their oaths, then I see no issue here. I welcome them to our ranks!
After the battle with Vorka came to an end, Twitchy sat up in the Crow’s Nest of Vorka’s ship with Ronk. She put her head on his shoulder. “We did it, Ronk! We got Vorka, we got loot, we got this awesome pirate ship that doesn’t sail stupid places, but stays right here! But you know what the most important thing we got?”
Ronk scratches his head. “Ummm, we still alive?”
Twitchy hugs him. “Yes, and we gots each other! Forever!”
Nuzzling Twitchy’s face, Ronk mumbles into her ear. “Twitchy wants to keep Ronk?”
Twitchy looks into his eyes, and strokes his monster hat. “Always!”
Darting his face forward Ronk kisses Twitchy quickly. Pulling back he keeps his face inches from hers. “Ronk is keeping you forever!”
I’m playing nothing but goblin bards from here on out. My fellow players get to experience the beauty that is my singing voice.
It’s not good.
Anyway, goblins being made a core race is going to be pretty wild and a cool change. The little lore we have suggests they’re sorta like creepy gnomes, as someone I know put it.
I’m super excited about this. Mostly because A) I like more stats overall, and B) this comes pretty close to what I already hoped would happen. Options to enable more characters in different classes.
I’m not adverse to penalties in a system where ability score increases are significantly more abundant, that is for certain. This also gives me a LOT of hope for monks being far more playable compared to past editions.
I mean, we already have a race with similar amounts of idiosyncratic tendencies living within human settlements.
They’re called gnomes. Those guys are WEIRD. There are a few example gnomes in the early content talking about gnomes stealing stuff from people and them being NG because they slipped the item into the persons possession in the first place. That kind of invasion of personal space would really not fly very well by most and yet it’s some a gnome potentially might do. In their quest to experience new and strange things and experiences they get up to some real wacky stuff, and the fact that they die if they don’t is basically all the justification they need.
Goblins are pretty reasonable in comparison if you take a gnome to its most logical extreme.
Composite Bows are the master race of ranged weapons, and it has always been this way since the original 1st Edition D&D. There's no reason to change that paradigm now, especially because there's no new fad to make them less appealing.
In fact, more of the new "cool" characters use bows over crossbows due to their excess training and lack of clunkiness with crossbows. So expecting Crossbows to be comparable, or even have a niche in response to Composite Bows is laughable.
I honestly don’t know what this is based on, or what the basis of this argument is. It’s a brand new system, and we’ve had several years of complaining about the state of certain elements of it that Paizo is more than likely aware. Crossbows are one of them, and P1e did have solutions eventually. Stuff like Overwatch Style, Bolt Ace, so on and so forth. It was supported, even if it was mechanically weaker than bows out of the gate.
We’re not even sure if the composite system is even in the game yet. They could have other ideas for adding damage to ranged attacks. Frankly, with such a dearth of knowledge at present your assumptions are ludicrously baseless.
DND 5e just straight up gives dex to damage not just on finesse weapons but ranged weapons as well, I think as long as the number of attacks you can hit with such a character is no longer in crazytown territory that just flat giving it to those weapon types with no feat required is fine.
That is one of the worst things about 5e in my opinion. Outside of a few niche builds everyone can safely dump Str.
No they can’t. Not if they don’t want to get shredded by monsters bigger than them. Remember, Strength is a saving throw and is often associated with being heavily displaced, grappled, throttled, or just straight up mauled horribly. Some pretty big monsters will do very nasty things to you if they managed to get those effects of. Most famous being a mindflayer oneshotting you in a grapple. Reduce strength at your own peril.
But that’s the thing. 5e actually made Strength a significant stat by increasing the value of weapon dice (all strength weapons have the highest damage dice), giving ranged weapons the ability to use Strength (thrown weapons have pretty good ranges for the most part and use Strength), its own saving throw, and most of the same effects from past editions as well. Prone isn’t as deadly in 5e as Pathfinder, but it still grants advantage, which can quickly add up. So a character shoving an opponent to open them up to easy hits can be a pretty impactful move. Grapple is...eh, but stops all movement modes, so it is theoretically possible to deal with fliers if you can somehow grapple them before they get too far. So someone leaping up at someone (like a monk), could grapple them back to the ground.
Taking a page from this design philosophy, make Strength an impactful stat outside of just hitting stuff and doing damage, and you’ll eliminate 90% of the problems with the severe disparity between the effectiveness of Strength investment and Dexterity investment.
And by impactful, I don’t mean obligatorily necessary like the suggestion for Strength impacting AC that is in another thread (neat in theory though, and isn’t entirely a bad idea just overall too complicated). A good system should make both stats meaningful without crippling a character for NOT investing in that stat/feature. It should be a matter of trade-offs for effectiveness, not forcing a character to be balancing multiple stats at once to function at all.
That was the problem ALREADY with P1e, and would honestly end up being a step backwards rather than forwards.
I prefer pointbuy, specifically 20 point buy, since it allows for a greater degree of control over your character’s starting statistics, is less detrimental to classes who need a lot of ability scores to work (monk), and means the player can choose what compromises they make early on in the game.
I don’t like rolling and a I like 15 point buy even less. I don’t remember the last time I saw a monk who wasn’t one I played in games where either of that sort of thing went on. I’ve also seen my fair share of dead weight characters too as a result of rolling.
My list isn't best to worst, just that this is a pretty premium list:
Sorcerer - Stormborn/Arial Wildblooded - For some reason I just love the air magic feel of the Arial/Stormborn sorcerer, and I would REALLY hope this finds its way into the core list of bloodlines over a generic elemental bloodline. While I understand why that would be preferable, such a specific bloodline makes for a better thematic experience. Also, Gozreh worshiping sorcerers are cool.
Rogue - Phantom Thief: Thoroughly believed to be one of the worst Rogue archetypes and the best skill user (funny that), I absolutely love the flavour of the archetype and hope to see something like it resurface in P2e, given the new proficiency rules.
Metamorph - Alchemist: An archetype about shapeshifting into different people and humanoid creatures is absolutely awesome to me. While its implementation into P1e is pretty mediocre, I would love to see another attempt at this concept in the new edition.
Paladin - Vindictive Bastard: Although I wouldn't be surprised to see this basically already an assumption for paladins in P2e, I would really hope that a paladin who falls from grace can have some cool class features if they take up an oath of being a complete jerk or unabashedly aligned solely to their own interests and those in their immediate friendship group. A heavily neutral paladin is a great concept and I want something like it again.
Rogue - Eldritch Scoundrel/Arcane Trickster: PLEASE, don't let this one be forgotten. Give us a rogue who gets spellcasting of some kind. I utterly LOVE Eldritch Scoundrel and think this is definitely something we need to see more of in the newest edition.
Erik Mona wrote:
NOTE: Holy Hell, not a lot of votes for wizard archetypes...
She only gets a little flustered, but is still huffing later in the day regardless. The breeze certainly puts in work, as does the occasional happy miniature rain cloud that drifts nearby, completely unexplained.
Perception+8 Init+4Active Buffs:BodyNone! Yeldrid is just a mundane catgirl....or, so he says.Change outShe good.Stats:HP19/19AC16F-F12Touch14CMD15Fort+6Ref+6Will+3Resources:Grit0/1, Bullets3, Pellets7Powder Horn1:10 doses;2:3 doses
Strangely, all my PbP's are like this right now lol
"Well, we know the sign has been turned around. I'll just assume that the forest path is the wrong way, and we're meant to go up that path." Yeldrid points towards the left path.
"If they're all traps...well. I guess we get caught." Yeldrid lets out a fairly weak laugh. He's...quite tired.
Well, you make multiple individual ranged attack rolls per scatter attack, so I would imagine you just launch every available ray or attack (up to the spells normal limit, mind you) with however many attacks you make with the scatter attack. If its only one, you can choose I suppose.
Nothing here suggests you affect more creatures with this attack than normal with whatever spell you use ranged spellstrike with.
Hello! The mods over at the r/starfinder_rpg Discord (myself included) have an ongoing bestiary conversion project to bring all the old monsters you love into Starfinder. We would absolutely love for people here on the Paizo forums to come contribute and finish the project with us. Even if it is sending us conversions you yourself have completed on your own. Any little bit helps!
We have the instructions written out here for your perusal. You don't need to be a part of the discord or frequent the subreddit to contribute, just let us know where you found out about the project and how best to contact you on the spreadsheet.
Here is a basic stat template for your conversions. If you have any questions, post here or contact me via PM's, or come ask in the discord.
When the door clicks open, Khaan steps out of the car in a single sharp motion. The loosely fitted poncho covering her gives little away to what is underneath, only a vague outline of her form, though her shoulders seem sharply square. One hand stretches from within the heavy garment, placing the tip of a walking cane onto the ground.
Appearance Description:
What little of her body can be seen is segmented, like small plates of soft chitin pieced carefully together to form her flesh-like carapace. Her hand resembles that of a life-size puppet, the knuckles formed from bands of silvery metal and bolts. Her face is separated carefully between jaw and upper skull by numerous plates. When her mouth moves, the gaps widen to reveal red, shockingly real muscle working them apart. Her eyes, slightly sunken, are undeniably organic, even if where they are placed seems foreign to them. Her neck is the most plated, shifting against one another as her head moves around, a tessellating pattern running from beneath her chin to her sternum, hidden away within her clothing. They seem to stretch as she moves, demonstrating their pliability.
The hair seems real enough. A reddish chin-length bob cut, orderly and functional. And yet it makes her all the more eerily alien, even by Sarkeslion's diverse standards.
Khaan steps a few feet forward and points with her cane towards the group of three.
"Y O U WOULD LEAVE AS ONLY THREE? A P I T Y. SUCH A JOURNEY WOULD BE FAR MORE DIFFICULT WITHOUT GOOD TRANSPORT AND COMPANY." The voice seems to emerge faster than Khaan's lips and jaw can move. It is grinding, but not impeded by her lagging mouth movements.
I've made a change to Khaan. She is now an investigator. I didn't feel like an ES would have enough impact in this game to be worthwhile, and Investigator facilitates a few of the same roles but generally better in the skills department.
Perception+8 Init+4Active Buffs:BodyNone! Yeldrid is just a mundane catgirl....or, so he says.Change outShe good.Stats:HP19/19AC16F-F12Touch14CMD15Fort+6Ref+6Will+3Resources:Grit0/1, Bullets3, Pellets7Powder Horn1:10 doses;2:3 doses
"Time to go. I hope you can run fast, Isamu..."
Stealth:1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28Honestly, how is Yeldrid so quiet?
Yeldrid keeps up with the same path, following along the ravine. He wonders what happened to the bridge, whether it was the gangles or some other insidious being. Maybe something he should let the guild know about it...
The catfolk constantly looks out towards the forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of a small fox or the gnarled forms of pursuing gangles. And yet, the night grows more and more silent as he leads the group away from hunting pack. Enough that, finally, Yeldrid can hear the sounds of night birds, night bugs flit around his ears, and he can no longer smell the trails of the orcs in the trees.
Home free. For most of them. After a night like this, Yeldrid regrets having not purchased some catsmoke in Barlily. Would help to calm the nerves...
Sup, I'm like, already playing in one of your games and in KC's game. So...not much for introductions but I suppose I'd better let everyone else know, you know? (Hi Almonihah)
I'm probs going to go point-buy, even though a 20 Dex would be incredible, the other stats are simply too low.
So I'll go with: 13, 14, 12, 14, 12, 8
So, are androids, as a 16 point race, okay for choosing? It's only a point above the limit and there isn't anything in the racial abilities that would necessarily make it more ridiculously powerful than a 15 point race. I'm not sure what to take out that would bring them more in line. Maybe the +2 Perception bonus?
I'm more interested in flavoring them as partially organic golems than as scifi synthetic humanoids. Not as wholly constructed as wyrwoods but maybe with an organic humanoid core kept alive via magic and constructed organs. Creepy but sorta like a walking magical life support system and prosthetic body frame combined. So that explains why they are still susceptible to poison and Fortitude saves, need to eat, and don't immediately die at 0 hit points. What humanoid they once were is...probably whatever creature you stuck in the frame.
As for what trait, I was thinking this character would make a good driver with the Hired Driver trait.
I'm thinking rogue, with the Eldritch Scoundrel archetype. Damage is going to be a bit of a problem until 3rd, but Arcane Strike is available to this character so at least they have that to help them out.
Nesica claps and opens up the chest to look inside, pulling out and putting on the ground anything inside.
"No more scrolls, sadly. We might have to find another way around.
Nesica pulls out the helmet, frowns, and puts it aside. "Gonna need Sunt's help...but definitely magical, probably has some protective wards on it. Adi can help work out what.", she muses to herself as she pulls out the robes. Giggling from within the oversized fabrics, Nesica pops her head through the magical one and strikes a similar pose to the woman in the painting, wielding her quarterstaff in one hand, although the garb makes her look a toddler playing dressup rather than an intimidating hellknight.
She looks into the crate of black powder. "A little concerning. Must be for cannons. I bet we can get a lot for this on the market."
The best casters win without anyone knowing. It is hard to estimate how much a blinding, or staggering, dazing spell helps if there are still enemies running around.
Of you can make 1/2 the enemies useless but not fully incapacitated for a round or two you changed a hard fights into two easier ones without taking away any fun. I have had gms say "that was a tough fight for you guys" be use the fight was long. When in actual fact my caster still had everything under control it just happened to be a group that was a little slow doing damage.
Out of combat the caster player should challenge themselves to use magic to make each adventure different and intresting. Sometimes teleport other times invisibilty shpere, others yet a crazy illusions. Then they should try to make others the star of the show. Having narrative power means you can make your fellow adveturers the heroes of their own story.
Sadly, a spellcaster I've brought with that power has had the opposite reaction. (only in 5e though)
Maybe because we had some serious damage dealers along with them which resulted in one-round victories after the control spells (see: grease) came out, which meant the GMs felt I was trivializing the encounters. I was, but I was letting the others do all the fun things and I just got to play the weirdo in the backline talking about their precognitive powers, centuries of knowledge and incredible leaps of logical deduction and perception.
One of my favorite characters, yet so horridly reviled.
Anyway, haven't played a spellcaster with that party since.
Once I played a slayer in a party of 4 other spellcasters. Two clerics (both travel, one a multiclass barbarian), a conjurer wizard and a skald. Now, leading up to the event I was already going to retire him since it was during a really good story point to do so, but this was a pretty sad end of my play of him. (I intend to bring him in as a cohort anyway, so he might reappear later)
During his last session, the party was challenged with having to get some workers holding a mine hostage, including their employers and various unlucky staff members and local indigenous folk, to either step down or keep them from hurting anyone. (they were unhappy with indigenous workers 'stealing their jobs', so we didn't feel so bad for stopping their terrible crap). We couldn't talk them down, so we went the direct way. To violence.
The building was three stories tall, with only the first and second story boarded up. so the group realized they only needed to reach the third floor to do anything. One cleric cast fly on herself, another lifted up by eagles (or maybe it was the wizards levitate), the wizard just conjured up some summons (probably the eagles, bit hazy), and the skald raging song'd and summoned more creatures up to the second floor.
Me? I had to slowly try to force the door open with a crowbar while a few of the hostage takers threw various objects at me from above. The door was so tightly sealed, and my rolls so crap, that even when the skald tried to briefly assist along with an NPC to get door open, it quickly became apparent that the encounter was going to end long before I could get to it. So I just gave up and let them resolve it without me. And they did with a great deal of success. I was, frankly, not needed. And this was after an adventuring days worth of events.
Now, to be fair, I did get to do some fun stuff just prior to this. My slayer got some cool trick shots off with his bow from a good hundred yards away onto some defending hostage takers at the gates of the mine just prior to reaching the main building. But that was because I couldn't close the distance as quickly as the other party members. And because in reality, given the opporunity to do damage, my slayer had a real knack of doing damage. A lot of it. But the failings often stick with you longer than the successes.
I somewhat find discussions on whether Dex or Strength is better to be missing a pretty major point. The reason there is so much contention over this is that martials could potentially become Single Attribute Dependent, tipping the balance more towards those martials than others. Every single martial requires 3 or 4 stats each, often starting with all the physical stats at varying degrees of importance, and often with one mental stat valued more than the others, often Wisdom. The other two are brought down to 7's if stat hungry enough, because no amount of baseline point buy can be of equal value for most martials compared to the value generated by spellcasters (yes, I know, I'm bringing up spellcasters but it's true and part of my point and DEFINITELY relevant to this discussion. We wouldn't be having it otherwise).
Per point, a martial gets less than what a spellcaster does, since the value generated from a spellcasters spellcasting stat is exponentially higher than a martial putting points into one of their main stats, and any additional +1's for a spellcaster is honestly just an added bonus.
Having so much lumped into a single stat means that for that character, their stats are more diverse overall. For Dex builds, it's not uncommon to see them utterly dumpster their Strength score (personally I think that's a mistake but that's just me), and for a martial at low point buys that could mean more potential for character diversity.
For instance, you could increase your Intelligence more so you have more skill ranks, more languages, higher Knowledge skills, and allowing you to contribute more to skill challenges while also dealing reliable damage. Or Charisma, allowing you to really sell that character concept of a charismatic rogue or intimidating marauder. This does not affect their combat effectiveness as much as other characters, which seems to be the sticking point of people who dislike it. They still have their faults (cmd, carrying capacity, climb/swim possibly killing them), but they're faults that are acceptable for the chance of having story impact.
Discussions like this are ignoring the root problem of martials. To consider such a, statistically, crappy trade for the potential of character depth and the stats to reflect it, without ruining combat contribution, really shows how terrible martials are at their core. Stuff like the Vigilante is a fantastic example of fixing those problems, but stuff like the Shifter is also very recent example of how little is actually being done to change the formula.
Volkard Abendroth wrote:
Holger Coulson wrote:
I gotta spend two more feats now? Just for an extra +1 to damage?
You misread Trained Grace.
The feat doubles the damage bonus from Weapon Training.
Don't forget, none of this is halved by off-hand attacks, so it's significantly better value in terms of damage than Double Slice. You don't have to invest as much into Strength as a result, since Weapon Training can carry you damage wise. This means you can mostly focus on Dex and have a reasonable Strength score, benefit from both Strength AND Dex enhancements, and effectively double up on your classes main damage bonus.
It helps bridge the gap for TWF fighter builds without having to stretch ability scores too thinly, which is often at the detriment of mental stats at lower point buys and leaving you with a fairly one-dimensional character.
Tim Emrick wrote:
In my current campaign, the rogue has has almost exactly the same stats as Merisiel, but with swapped Str (18) and Dex (15). He's a core rogue, because I don't own Unchained, but his player found a way to use Two-Weapon Fighting and still deal a fair amount of damage, even without sneak attack.
What's their durability like? How often are they targeted for attacks? Why isn't this stabby, lightly armored warrior being smushed with only a +2 Dex to his name? Most of the time, it isn't potential damage that holds core rogue back. It's literally everything else getting to that damage that does.
A lot of monsters a rogue simply cannot approach or even be in direct line of sight of due to having not nearly enough durability/high enough saves/good enough AC to survive any amount of attacks directed towards them or possible debilitating auras. Twist Away, Resiliency and Slippery Mind are only going to go so far in a given day.
That's why Debilitating Injury was added to Unchained Rogue. It helps provide methods of protecting themselves and their allies through hampering 5-foot steps (so creatures with reach can't keep approaching the backline), reduce attack rolls (helps the rogue most of all), and increase their own accuracy (core rogues actually have accuracy problems, kinda like a monk does).
Additionally Dex to Damage is truly the saving grace of URogue, since it depends on such a powerful ability to keep it from being as MAD as the monk. Personal anecdotes aside. I recognize the problems with other classes having it available to them (although the options have been so thoroughly nerfed I truly believe they are inferior in every way to Strength-based martials), but this shouldn't extend to criticisms of the URogue's Finesse Training.
Perception+8 Init+4Active Buffs:BodyNone! Yeldrid is just a mundane catgirl....or, so he says.Change outShe good.Stats:HP19/19AC16F-F12Touch14CMD15Fort+6Ref+6Will+3Resources:Grit0/1, Bullets3, Pellets7Powder Horn1:10 doses;2:3 doses
Yeldrid looks about, scratches his chin, and pulls out his rope. He whispers to the group "Hide somewhere in the brush. Rex, take one length of this rope and go over there. Lily, tie it down over there. I'll cling on the edge and call them over. When they come towards us, pull the rope taut. They'll go right over the edge."
We remember the session we found him, a tortoise in an abandoned tribal halfling village covered in intricate and detailed depictions of the peoples history and magical secrets carved into its shell. The sorcerer was enamored and found a way to make him her familiar. It took the player ages to finally choose the method to do it, but he would frequently talk about what the sorcerer and the tortoise, dubbed 'Runeshell', were doing and how she cared for it.
He died sacrificing himself to save several PC's who were downed by tar skeletons, bringing one of them back up long enough to rouse the others, but having taken a sizable attack of opportunity as a result. He had gained sentience for only 24 hours, and yet was willing to risk it in order to help the ones he cared about.
