Search Posts
You didn't state if you want this to be a pure Pathfinder rule... The 3.5 feat, Monkey Grip, would allow you to do this pretty much as you have written.
Even if it was the place for adepts or witches, etc, are those spells listed anywhere? I'm ok with it being the 'domain' of another class but see no spells related to this. I have no issue with developing my own spell, I just don't want to re-invent the wheel if it is in the core rules, or in a 3rd party ruleset. Seems like an odd omission for Druid IMO. Certainly, not all Druids would use it, or not use it all the time, but that kind of spell seems well within their realm. Looking for a starting point, and making sure I didn't miss something in previously published material.
Looking through spell lists, I'm not finding any spells relating to fertility on the Druid lists. I'm specifically looking for crop boon spells and birth boon spells, increased production or increased chance of conception, etc. Seems like that would be a Druid thing, and/or a Witch thing, but I'm not finding any spells. Are there any?
Work Horse Neil Spicer Starts it off! I'm currently running the Carrion Crown AP with one of our groups. We are almost done with the first book and I've been reading ahead. I just finished reading "Ashes at Dawn" today, so I am very happy to see this bit of news. :) I've enjoyed "Ashes at Dawn" tremendously, and look forward to "The Snows of Summer".
That depends... In our party, I'm 9/2 Wizard/Bard and another player is 10 Wizard. I have more spells in my book, by about 2X margin. I spend my gold that way. Wizards get 2x per level minimum. I'd guess they would normally have 4X per level. I'm obsessive with being a toolbox and push 6X or more per level. Just two examples. Depends on where the wizard spends his gold.
Possibly the DR. Archers are not as effective against skeletons. That would be my guess. DR from skeletons can shut down lower level characters' ranged attacks. A little higher level specific critter is a cloaker or mimic. They will be on the characters up close and personal. The characters will be investigating the 'objects' when the critters spring on them. A little more tough would be a will-o'-wisp. Wisps can cause problems for an unprepared party. High initiative and AC and invisible. Aberrations look cool for this purpose.
My main laptop is running Fedora and I'm running HeroLab under Wine. I would agree with your 98% statement. It is close for Linux but there are some minor issues. Fonts look different, printing can be odd, etc. A bit of effort and it could get a 100% Linux compatible under Wine. That would be wonderful IMO. Either way, it is super good as-is under Wine. My one real complaint is load time for data files. But it is accurate and gets 'er done. So I can deal with a bit o lag. It is worth the purchase price and over half of the gamers I introduce to the application end up buying it.
My wife and I use HeroLab. Now after seeing how it works, each player in our group uses it too. 7 total. It is the best one I've used in my 30 years of gaming. Awesome tool and they have great support and regular updates. It has even taught me things about the game. I looked at my sheet and said, "that's wrong!" then looked the rules up and found that HeroLab was doing it the right way. 100% recommend it.
Gelatinous Cube doesn't say the words "Swallow Whole" but effect is the same from its "Engulf" ability; characters end up inside the critter. BTW: Cubes are awesome at the bottom of a pit. :)
Displacement is huge. Toss it on a barbarian for wholesome goodness. Many spells are good in many situations but Displacement is one of my current faves. Definitely in my top picks for level 3 spells. Divination Spells are underrated IMO. They can short cut so many 'grinder' adventures. +1 on Speak With Dead.
Got my copy yesterday. Good book, still reading it though so I'm not writing complete review. The first thing I did when I opened it, was read Fafnheir's stats. OMG! Fafnheir is one tough cookie! Hopefully, I'll get some time to read more this evening. Enjoying it so far.
We are currently running two different AP in our group. Group A is 6 players and the GM. The PCs are scattered through 6-7th levels. Of that group there is one player multi-classing, me. I'm running a Wizard(Illusion)/Bard 5/2 who is a social character. I ran up 5 levels in Wizard then took the Bard levels pretty much to boost his social abilities. This will likely be a 2 level dip, then I'll continue on with my Wizard studies. (I will have to admit that I do enjoy using Summon Instrument to have a tuba come into play for use with Inspire Courage.) Group B is 3-4 players (depending) at 2-3rd level. Of that group, one character has multi-classed and will most likely alternate levels. She is Rogue/Ranger 1/1. So to answer the original poster's question, in our groups there is some multi-classing but it is not as rampant as we saw in our 3.0 and 3.5 games. Receiving the bonus HP and skill point is a small part of this, some of it revolves around other class abilities themselves, and some is that these two groups have some 'newer' players. The level 20 boosts for each class are a bit of a carrot-on-the-stick to continue with a class but honestly, I've never made a PC last to 20th in 3.x or Pathfinder. (11th max IIRC) I'd definitely consider taking 20 levels in one class if it was a one-off adventure at 20th level.
We use a wet erase mat for the one off encounters. Areas that have frequent events are drawn up on sheets of the 3M easel paper, large sheets you can get at office supply stores (I think I got the idea for this from these forums). This way we don't have to redraw the tavern every time we return, etc. The wet erase has been used much more than the pad, but we do have about 5-6 sheets of the pad drawn out that get a lot of play. Definitely worth it. We just roll them up and store with rubber bands in the corner. Sure, it isn't great decor for the dining room but oh well. that's the gamer's life. We draw on the pad with a mix of media, crayon, pencils, markers, etc. I'm the terrain freak so usually I do it. :P
Boring but good: Lightning Reflexes. I love the feats which boost saves, especially on a paladin. When they are coupled with Divine Grace, the paladin becomes very prone to making their saving throws. The 18 charisma paladin can be a GM frustration device. :D You are right though, these are boring feats. They don't get used every session, but when they matter, they matter big time.
Your story had me in tears. This is the funniest thing I've read in a very long time.
Wow! There are a lot of minis in this one. I'm going to have to purchase this soon even though my players are only about halfway through the first book of the AP. Spoiler: The Green God; I can't wait.
Monk doesn't have the focus, scattered among too many abilities and effects. Summoner is the only other one I'm not fond of. The rest of the classes I'm generally OK with. They may not be my first choices but I've played them at least once. (excepting the very new classes like Gunslinger etc. I haven't played those but I'm fine with the way they are written and will probably use them now and again.)
Mess with the thief a bit. Make it a magic ring of gender bending, or a ring of skin color change (fluorescent pink), or race change... or all three... And I'm being nice. It could be much worse.
Pfffft. Forget the rogue. In our party it was the mage we had to watch who was caught stealing from the party.... Yup... Mages can steal a ton by 'failing' to note items are magical to the party. Easy pickings.
Just noticed this... We are about to move into this book in the AP so the timing couldn't have been better. Purchasing now. These are such a good deal for the price. The visual adds a lot to the game table and is much softer on the wallet than a plastic/metal mini. I buy a ton of plastic minis but these are great to fill in the gaps on key NPCs and unique monsters. Hope you do the rest of the AP too! There are some unique bad guys later on that would be well deserving of a special figure.
oops. didn't realize you didn't have the Inner Sea World Guide. Get that next. Gets my vote too. Inner Sea World Guide is pretty good. I read it over the last few weeks and found several things that seemed like cool adventure settings that I hadn't seen previously. It is well worth the price and has a good map, some prestige classes, and monsters. I think Inner Sea World Guide is one of the better Paizo offerings, our group will get a bit of use out of it. It seems more polished and complete than some other products. I'll put it this way; if I lost my copy, I'd probably buy another.
Divine Grace rocks! Nothing sucks more than the 'tank' being taken down by a missed saving throw, like sleep or paralysis. Paladins can survive that nonsense, and often do.
Just get rid of it altogether. Initiative bonuses (other than from Dex) should be exceedingly rare.As for Improved Initiative...how far down do you adjust it? +3 is almost as good, but +2 seems a bit meh. If it was only +2 I'd add in that you win initiative ties. That could work too. :D
Tiered is what we do with Natural Spell. We use Natural, Improved, and GreaterWhat do the different tiers do? I've been banning it outright when I run games. when other people run them, they allow it, and every time I see more reason to ban it. At least wildshape isn't the broken shenaniganry it was in 3.5 When I am the GM this is what I house rule: Natural Spell
Improved Natural Spell
Greater Natural Spell
The reason to have 'fighter level' reqs on feats is so that you had feats specific to fighters...no more, no less I'd argue that if a feat was class specific, make it part of the class description/rules, and not a feat. I'd like to see feats be class agnostic; based on feat, ability, and story pre-requisites instead of classes. Class specific things should be in the class descriptions. Sure, some of the above pre-reqs would involve class dips but why over complicate matters? Logically, why would a rouge not be able to spend his feats to get all of the pre-reqs and end up with Greater Weapon Specialization? I can think of many reasons why they might want to do so. Rules like this stifle role play and back ground IMO. They make players paint their characters into pre-defined 'cookie cutter' layouts and I'm not a fan of such. All of the above said, I still think that Pathfinder is way beyond other offerings. Even so, there is always room for improvement.
As for Improved Initiative...how far down do you adjust it? +3 is almost as good, but +2 seems a bit meh. If it was only +2 I'd add in that you win initiative ties. +3 would still be very good IMO, and most would consider it HOT. +2 would make it iffy. +3 is my vote. No one likes lame feats. Initiative is just so very crucial, this particular feat can be a decision maker. Feats should be great but not 'must haves'. Tiered is what we do with Natural Spell. We use Natural, Improved, and Greater...
I don't like the Weapon feats which require X levels of fighter or a certain BAB. Just having a pre-requisite of a few other feats could achieve a similar result. (Weapon Focus and Specialization as pre-requisites would be a hefty feat investment for a rogue IMO.) I think a rogue should be able to get Greater Weapon Specialization if he/she wanted to do so. Current rules don't support this unless the rogue has 12 levels of fighter too. I'm also a hater of Natural Spell. Why have staggered fighter feats with weapons but give druids the ability all at once? I have house ruled 3 levels of Natural Spell, each providing the effect to 3 levels of magic. Any feat that is a 'must have', is too strong IMO. How many druids take something else over Natural Spell? Not many. I like feats in general. One of the coolest 3.0 mechanics. Just a minor annoyance, I become tired of the "you can only take this feat at first level" feats. I purchase a new book and turn to the feats and notice several that have absolutely no use for any of the 9 players in either of my weekly campaigns as we are at 3rd and 6th level. "Start up only" feats are a major downer; stop making new ones. As much as I like Improved Initiative, it needs to be toned down. It is good in every encounter. I find myself strained to not select it. My current PC does not have it and I bellyache every single initiative roll.
I mean you can kill your players without them standing a chance every single encounter in the game... not may table... I don't think the OP wanted to kill the players. I think the OP wanted it to be slightly challenging, and was disappointed when the dragon dropped in round 1. I think they used sub-par tactics and were faced with a perfect storm where the dragon was hosed. The OP wanted the CR equivalent monster to be somewhat challenging to the party. That is understandable. The players got a 'freebie' here. Throw them a tough encounter next time. Have them deal with a neutral or good human who thinks they are scum, via some slight either imagined or real. Make them figure their way out of that mess. (Think about a maiden's honor, or some such ordeal...That will drive the paladin into fits of despair.) Game mastering is an art. You have to know the rules and your players. It is easy to kill PCs but really difficult to keep them on edge for a long time. That is what is fun. :) Paladins have great boons, and huge issues. Allow them to enjoy the boons, but don't ignore the moral quandaries they face. For the record I have not (yet) used a coup de gras on a PC. I have sundered a few magic items and killed a wizard via teleportation into rock though.
P.S. First-pass play testing is already in progress. My players pointed out last week there have been 14 character deaths and they are only halfway through the module. Some things will be toned down such as a vorpal headsman’s axe because sure enough I rolled a confirmed crit so it was off with the PCs head. Never mind I see you have 8 characters and 2 co-horts from your earlier post.
P.S. First-pass play testing is already in progress. My players pointed out last week there have been 14 character deaths and they are only halfway through the module. Some things will be toned down such as a vorpal headsman’s axe because sure enough I rolled a confirmed crit so it was off with the PCs head. That's awesome goodness! The player will never forget that character. 14 deaths seems kind of high though. How many PCs are participating in the adventure?
Thanks for the link. That made me notice the Souls for Smuggler's Shiv paper minis. Just purchased! Now I have good minis for a few unique critters. :)
We also play Shadowrun now and then. This kind of thing is par for the course in that game.Assassinating players is totally fair game, but you need to be sensative to your players and the style of game they are expecting.You must have some hardcore players if they think assassination is fair game. Generally people stick to assassinating player characters. Hehehe I know how that goes. Our games, Pathfinder, etc. are similar. When I'm the GM it is about, "What would a bad guy do here?" Not about fairness. My players expect that level of harshness from me and would be disappointed if I didn't deliver. I think they like the challenge. Not to disparage other styles. I've played in other groups where PC death was almost unthinkable. Those games were enjoyable too. Personally, I like death to be a distinct possibility. Else they get complacent.
Certainly fair. Give them the relevant skill checks to notice the assassin, and if they fail, the Fort save to avoid death. If you want to make it easier, have the assassin sneak up on them while they are awake. Agree 100%. They took a possession and aren't giving it back, the NPC has fired a few warning shots and they haven't listened. Send in the big guns and give them a wake up call! Let them know the NPC means business. They won't forget that NPC for very long, and will be looking over their shoulders for a while too. hehe
I would say absolutely yes, and it would make for good RP. However, this is not to everyone's tastes. It can cause inter-party strife. (esp if there is an elf in the party....) Over the years I have GM'ed 75% of the time and played 25%. I tend to play thematic characters and can be troublesome at times. I have to watch myself and make sure that I'm not taking up too much of the game time, or being disruptive with my theme. It is a hard switch to make when the other 75% of the time you've been actively trying to be a thorn in the side of the other players. :P
Neither of these two would surprise me. I would find either of these two to be good developments. :) I see at least one now. I'm catching up on my reading now that the kids are in bed. I'm a bit old and slow.
Neither of these two would surprise me. I would find either of these two to be good developments. :)
Two more preview images have been added. Love the vampire. The chimera is OK but needs wings in a bad way.
Logic has no place in nerdrage. I'm always baffled by the sheer stubbornness of gamers to use the secondary market. Its like a fear of cooties or something from buying off ebay, a local store that re-sells, or any reputable online store. First, LOL, on nerdrage. So applicable...
With both of you, I agree 100%. All of these minis will be available individually. Just not in fancy original packaging. Many times you can even get them CHEAPER than the original package on the secondary market. I have never understood the vitriol directed towards random packaging. Who hated Cracker Jacks as a kid? The prize was random and we all loved it! The only reasonable argument I see, is where one other poster complained about the excessive packaging. It is environmentally unfriendly and a lot of work to unwrap a case or two of minis. I would love to be able to buy a case or two in a 'bulk' box. Non-retail packaging. I always shake my head when I have a pile of packaging garbage after opening a bunch of collectibles. Just my .02. :)
We do not currently have any concrete plans regarding a separate miniatures game. Is that something you'd like to see? I'd like a Pathfinder-ish mass battles game rule set. I like to field the 250 skeletons, 200 zombies, etc. I own on occasion and it would be nice to have streamlined rules that are some what in tune with the RPG rules. I'm probably in the minority but I come from a wargaming background and really like a good war scene now and again. It would be handy to have rules for large scale battles.
At Paizocon, the word was that randomization was out. I'm in the obsessive mini collector category. I've purchased many cases of other Wizkid's products and have been very impressed with their distribution. 25 cases of their products in fact, and I have had 0 issues with set completion. Case distribution, they do very very well IMO. Other companies could learn some things from their methods. I will be purchasing one, or two, cases. I like the preview sculpts. I am confident that with Wizkid's handling the minis the distro will be more than adequate.
haha Most don't know I can craft anything. I play stupid. I'm an illusionist, I need to hide my abilities.
Generally I charge between 55% and 75% for interparty item crafting, depending on how my character feels about the asking party member, how long it takes to makes the item (I'll crank out +1 sword all you want for cheap, but a Robe of the Archmagi, that's going to cost you.), and the nature of the item versus my character's nature. Additionally I include any secondary costs, such as having to scribe a new spell into my book. I have several crafting feats with my current illusionist, I've also purchased a ton of scrolls so I have a vast library of spells at my disposal. For some other characters, I do stuff at cost, some I charge a varying rate (50% to 75% of list), and some I just won't help. There is a disparity in alignments and goals within our group and I won't help certain folks unless it is a life-or-death situation. Others, I perform tasks for free, because I like their attitude. (Including identification, storage of special items, even free items that help them.) I'd oppose any set costs for other player characters on crafted items. This should be role played IMO. Selling to NPCs is another matter. I'd agree with some of the other posts regarding a Profession(Merchant) or a Diplomacy check (or two) if the player was trying to make a living out of crafting magic items and selling for a profit. The barbarian in our party had five separate buffs placed on her by the team during our last battle. Her rage, those buffs, and other magic items made her a juggernaut in that battle. (Displacement and Shield Other is a great combo on a barbarian.) Might seem off-topic but in battle we work well as a team, but when it comes to expenses and personal gain, we are very mercenary.
They look good and the price is right. No complaints.
No, you aren't the party wizard... but that's because you aren't the party wizard. This solidified my thoughts for my next character level. We are going through the Kingmaker AP right now and I'm running a toolbox illusionist gnome. I was tempted to dip my 6th and/or 7th levels into bard. (Level 5 Illusionist right now) Bard really fits the character as he is a talker and Perform(Oratory) would be excellent. Now I'm definitely doing it. We have two wizards in the party. So, I'm not the party wizard. I'm the leader, the fix it guy. I need the skills and flexibility this will offer.
It would be a mistake not to implement the round bases used by WOTC, or a close equivalent. I had my fair share of converting bases. I love the legendary encounter miniatures from reaper as well, but I want the round bases ... I'm in the other camp. Round bases are OK for medium figures. Possibly for large creatures; but huge+ on round bases end up with gaps on the battle mat. That is one thing I'm really glad WoTC did with the Gargantuan and Colossal dragons. Square bases were a must there. Basically, I can tolerate round on medium and smaller figures but prefer square bases. IMO square bases work better for squads too.
I like this idea and will probably use it in our campaign. I could imagine the Red Mantis doing this and I think I know which player would take the bait. :D Spoiler:
I know my players fairly well. I anticipate they will ally with the Sargavan government. The title and land deal will definitely reel them in. Having a back door with the Mantis is just too funny. This may be an idea I don't get to use though. One character is becoming a bit close to Sasha. They could go Red Mantis from the start. However, we are in the first book of the AP right now. Anything can happen here.
This is good though. Your post gets me thinking. I'll modify the conspiracy for each rival faction and go from there. I'll be prepared which ever way they choose to go.
If non-randomized sets contain minis I can use in many situations, I will purchase multiple boxes. Things like skeletons, orcs, kobolds, gnolls, human bandits, etc where I need many for various encounters and mass battles, spark my interest. The $35.00 price point mentioned above sounds fine to me as long as the minis have decent sculpts, paint jobs, and are to a consistent and proper scale. The boxed set of beholder variants that WoTC put out recently was not very interesting. It had limited use for me and I passed on it. One beholder is enough. Would I ever use 4 in an encounter at once? *shudder* Do I need 4 paint variants? Not really. 80 skeletons, I would use. Again and again, both in RPG encounters and mass battles using various rule sets. Something I've always wanted to see is a set of various familiars and animal companions. A set figures on unusual mounts would be good too. (Dwarf on a camel, kobold on a dinosaur, human on elephant, goblin on ostrich, hafling on dog, elf on a pterosaur, etc.) There are some weird mount models but not nearly enough IMO.
Make that 20 point buy....
I'm the GM for our group. They are comprised of the following PCs using hero points and 25 point buy. Yamas - Human Mawangi Druid and his monkey animal companion. First time player.
They made good class choices for such a small party. We were hoping for 4 or 5 players but two folks couldn't commit. :( The group just hit level 2 last night. I need to be careful on XP so they don't level uber-fast. They have been fairly direct in their approach so far, not going for sideline issues, and their XP is on track. If they were obsessive about every possible encounter, they could easily move up too rapidly. XP is a major concern for me with only 3 PCs in this adventure. They can handle the encounters. One player is very creative so that helps. One is a powergamer so that helps. The new guy is new, so he is doing things a seasoned player wouldn't think of. (no preconceived notions) That helps too. :) Spoiler: They were smart and spent some time befriending the NPCs, even though Yamas is paranoid in the extreme. They have Gelik, Sasha, and Jask accompanying them with hopeful morale. The other two NPCs became annoyed and set off on their own.
Long ago I was in a campaign where D&D characters went to the BattleTech universe via gates. There were a few Drow on one planet, but generally very few D&D NPCs. Magic was almost unheard of and we were highly sought after as shock troops. We were playing 2.0 rules IIRC. Protection from Normal Missiles scrolls were awesome vs. machine gun fire, SRM, and LRM. hehe We ruled that magic vs. mechs was done 1 point damage per hit die of damage e.g., 10th level wizard's fireball did 10 points mech damage using the normal tables. I wouldn't have thought of using construct rules; good idea on your part, but we used the BattleTech rules more than D&D rules in that campaign.
|
