GhanjRho's page

Dread Knight wrote:

There is always the option of being a member of The Wayward Path, Path of War Expanded Classes and the trait there that allows you to swap one Martial Discipline with any other one.

The Wayward Path one looks pretty awesome, could take the Int class and swap something out for Veiled. I took a look at the Expanded Classes and the Harbinger looks more along the lines of what I was going for rather than Stalker, so I appreciate that help there. It's pretty darn edgy but it's real cool.

You think Harbinger is edgy now, wait until the Edge Lord archetype hits d20pfsrd. And yes, that is a real archetype that DSP put out in April Augmented.

So, since this got rez'd, I'll give an update on the campaign.

Party consists of:
Human Antipaladin10 (Lord of Darkness archtype, plans to go vamp)
Tiefling Sorcerer10 (Infernal bloodline)
Human Ranger10 (TWF spec, dual-wielding falcatas)
Tiefling Cleric6/Exalted4
Human Sandman Bard6/Assassin1/Master Spy3

Currently in Book 3, with the invasion of the Vale happening next session.

So far, it's actually been going really well. I did wind up using the org rules, though I folded Secrecy and Loyalty into Survivability. Actions taken are largely Criminal Enterprise and Abduct Peasants, with the occasional Monster Hunt for flavor (and hydras. They have 3). They have gotten use out of the spread/find rumors options, though.

The Fighter went Ranger instead on our suggestion (new player, second campaign, only other experience is playing a Wilder), and is enjoying being a whirlwind of death, though he's gotten KS'd by the sorcerer a few times. I've given him some optimization help (dual-wielded falcatas for the win!)

The Antipaladin is being played by the groups resident serious RPer, and the Lord of Darkness archetype from book 5 has come in handy to him, especially the charmed and commanded cruelties (commanded let him end the Izevel fight in two rounds.) He exchanged Iris's ring for a knighthood for his social identity (no vigilante levels or features, just use of the hat of disguise and roleplay).

In retrospect, I should have let them kill Sir Richard at the Horn, but enough of the moving pieces fit together that I was able to let him escape. At the cost of the lives of his entire party (I fluffed the plot ability to pierce the veil as requiring the uncoerced sacrifice of a being of pure heart. So when they encounter him next, he's gonna be royally pissed off, and guilt-wracked, and for his opening number he left the antipaladin with 4 hit points left in one attack.

Psionics Unleashed was the original. It has since been revised to include the errata and some newer material.

Psionics Expanded is the first major expansion, including original DSP material and some minor system reworks. Think of it as the psionic APG.

Ultimate Psionics is a compilation of Psionics Unleashed, Psionics Expanded, and the first Psionics Augmented (Vol. 1).

Psionics Embodied is the psionic NPC Codex.

Psionics Augmented Volume 1 is a standalone that contains all of the new material written for Ultimate Psionics, allowing people that already had Psionics Unleashed and Psionics Expanded to not pay for material they already had.

The other Psionics Augmented releases (Soulknife and Wilder so far) are short, PDF-only option packs for the listed class.

Psionic Bestiary contains lots of psionic monsters.

In short: Ult Psi is your main source. All the races, all the classes, most of the archtypes. Psi Aug: Soulknife and Psi Aug: Wilder give those classes more options. Psi Emb gives you lots of NPCs and Psi Bestiary gives you enemies.

Sorry if this was answered before, but will the Path of War be compiled into 1 rule book much like Psionics Expanded? If so do you know whwen that might happen?

There has been talk of an Ultimate Warpath book, but their current position is "we'd love to do it, but it's not on the schedule". Personally, I'd wait for news until after they've done the PoW errata, and maybe a PoW:E errata.

Gorbacz wrote:

White Wolf didn't collapse because they went digital. Heck, they never really did - what killed them was the decision to reboot all their profitable lines with something that wasn't quite as well received.

I take it you're ready to stomach the increasing prices of print products? Paper is dying, mobile is on the rise, things will only get worse from now on if you're in the "let's party like it's 1778 all over again" camp.

White Wolf is dead as a doornail, they cannot even produce their own product line. Onyx Path has to do it for them as a third-party company, and even so, they need kickstater funds to get anything released.

The company was fine, even after their reboot of the World of Darkness lines, until the CCP online gaming buyout disaster happened. A decade later and we're still waiting on the World of Darkness MMO? Yeah, brilliant business that...

So much wrong with this post.

White Wolf is a brand, wholly owned by CCP and has been since the buyout. Onyx Path Publishing bought out Scion, Aberrant, and Trinity and has licensed Exalted, the World of Darkness and the Classic World of Darkness. And no, they do not "need Kickstarter funds to get anything released". The Kickstarters are for Deluxe Editions of new major books. The last few Kickstarters have actually had the (almmost) full text of the book available for review. Additionally, none of the World of Darkness Second Edition books have been kickstarted.

And no, we aren't waiting for the World of Darkness MMO. It's been officially cancelled for months.

The first thing to go over is the four types of maneuvers: boosts, stances, counters, and strikes.

Stances are always-on effects. You spend a swift action at any time to enter a stance, and you remain in that stance until you are rendered helpless or unconscious. Stances can increase damage, AC, saving throws, or speed; boost skills; grant abilities and more.

Boosts are short duration buffs. They cost a swift action to activate, and last for one round. They can add damage, ability damage, let you ignore DR, take a move action, etc. Boosts are noteworthy for being able to affect a full attack.

Counters are defensive maneuvers. They cost an immediate action to perform, meaning you either cannot have used a swift action on your turn, or you lose your swift next turn (for this reason I suggest prioritizing boosts or counters, but not necessarily to the point of exclusivity). Counters let you counterattack, replace AC and saving throws with skill checks, or even temporarily shrug off conditions.

And finally, strikes. Strikes are the most prominent part of an initiator's arsenal, being the replacement for a full attack. Strikes come in standard action and full action varieties. To initiate a strike, you make one or more (usually melee) attacks, as determined by the maneuver's description. For example, in order to initiate the Veiled Moon strike Flicker Strike, I make a single melee attack, which the strike modifies to let me target flat-footed AC.

As for the Disciplines themselves, each one is a group of thematically similar maneuvers, separated into nine levels (it can be helpful to think of them as being similar to schools of magic or psionic disciplines). Each discipline has a discipline skill, which one or more maneuvers from the discipline will make use of; and three associated weapon groups (except for Solar Wind, which has four), which grant a DC bonus when used. Additionally, in order to qualify for a disciplines higher-level maneuvers, an initiator must know multiple maneuvers of that discipline, up to knowing at least 4 for the 9th level maneuvers.

The Path of War disciplines, with their general themes:
Broken Blade, unarmed combat and combat maneuvers
Black Seraph, brutality and [Evil]
Golden Lion, leadership
Iron Tortoise, defensiveness and shield use
Primal Fury, heavy damage and charging
Scarlet Throne, dueling and nobility
Silver Crane, healing and [Good]
Solar Wind, ranged combat
Thrashing Dragon, two-weapon fighting
Veiled Moon, teleportation and etherealness.

Odraude wrote:

I will never understand the draw to Doctor Who.

Moffat says it quite succinctly...

“When they made this particular hero, they didn’t give him a gun, they gave him a screwdriver to fix things. They didn’t give him a tank or a warship or an x-wing fighter, they gave him a call box from which you can call for help. And the didn’t give him a superpower or pointy ears or a heat ray, they gave him an extra heart. They gave him two hearts. And that’s an extraordinary thing; there will never come a time when we don’t need a hero like the doctor.”
- Steven Moffat

And then Moffat began screwing things up. But still.

Awesome! Can't wait until I have the physical book in my hands.

Re: Pirahna Strike; ahh, dang it. For a second I thought Paizo let DEX-fighters have nice things.

And I agree it's debatable, and generally I come down on the side of utility (my favorite soulknives are generally Half-giant Gifted Blades, though I'm working on a Dark Tempest build ATM). It's my opinion that a properly built baseline Soulkinfe is better for buckets of damage (or even CHA damage from Knife to the Soul)

Would buy both softcovers and Kickstart an Ultimate Warpath

Having just reread the Bo9S, I really like the way it's format for maneuvers. It goes :
Summary of all maneuvers, grouped by level, then discipline (level1 A,B,C level 2 A,B,C, etc.)
Rules for discipline A, alpha order
Rules for discipline B, alpha order
Etcetera, etcetera.

Between that, and typing every technique in the summary as boost, stance, strike or counter, it's very easy to see what your options are and how they fit together, with the detailed rules easily findable.