Gulo's page

The Warrior's Prayer

Gods of war, I call you.
My sword is at my side.
I seek a life of honour, free of all false pride,
I will crack the whip with a bold and mighty hail.
Cover me with DEATH if I should ever fail.

Glory. Majesty. Unity.
Hail.
Hail.
HAIL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb46TxwEaZw

.. Paizo is the best publishing company, ever. ;)

Since I'm not really a big fan of the Dragon Age RPG game system, it seems natural to try and D20 it instead. Here's what I've written so far regarding this. I'm still working on it and this is very much just initial framework for classes and the spells.

A good example of where needs some thought is for the classes; I was at first thinking of filtering many of the DA specialization abilities as abilities to reflect in Pathfinder, but I'm not sure how much of that stuff really matters (like, the name of certain abilities) versus the Pathfinder ones. Such as, do you REALLY need to be able to perform that 'Punisher' ability from Dragon Age to make it Dragon Age? Probably not; the feel and flavor would be more important. Some abilities like the Templar (PF Paladin) have been re-written to reflect the magical angle.

I would try to limit the class and race tweaking the players do; try to limit the class changes from the APG except where suggested. I'm also unsure about the APG Base Classes though the Alchemist would likely work pretty good in Dragon Age, and also give the ability to access magical-like abilities. The Witch class might fit well for the Morrigan-type casters; truly wild casters that have nothing to do with the civilized mages and such magic.

Speaking of magic, I haven't quite ironed all that out yet. I was basing the ideas on the UA magic points, but I think I have the points down wrong for the spells I've put together. Of course, this could also allow for reason to be afraid of DA casters, and also for the ability for others to use the mana pools as weapons. Right now I'm trying to put the meat together, then will clean up after.

I also tweaked the 'Arcane' schools a bit too since the ones found in Dragon Age (and the ones added in Awakenings) don't really fit as general spells but are more like class abilities or the like. I broke Arcane into Arcane, Utility, Fade and Secrecy. DA lacked a number 'useful' spells that I couldn't see someone with magical abilities would overlook. Fade are spells the deal with dreams or the Fade itself and Secrecy spells would be invaluable for any wizard triyng to hide themselves.

I haven't done anything with the hexes yet; would likely work as a glyph or the like. More to come.

As for sources, I'm drawing on my experiences in the game, the DA wiki, the Ferelden's Travelers Guide found in the Prima DA guide and finally the Green Ronin Dragon Age RPG.

Pathfinder's Dragon Age (pf:DA)
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=10V7Jr278JBfwZie6gxsMVUODpTI6txrpYm j0BnAl3Qo

Spells:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1xeBSag7Zc1cpqIBBlAK-zoxwywg-ertmka dhvcDa264

I'm curious where something changed .. taking from the D20 SRD:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/enlargeperson.htm

"Melee and projectile weapons affected by this spell deal more damage. Other magical properties are not affected by this spell. Any enlarged item that leaves an enlarged creature’s possession (including a projectile or thrown weapon) instantly returns to its normal size. This means that thrown weapons deal their normal damage, and projectiles deal damage based on the size of the weapon that fired them"

As compared to from Pathfinder's PRD:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/enlargePerson.html

Melee weapons affected by this spell deal more damage (see Table: Tiny and Large Weapon Damage). Other magical properties are not affected by this spell. Any enlarged item that leaves an enlarged creature's possession (including a projectile or thrown weapon) instantly returns to its normal size. This means that thrown and projectile weapons deal their normal damage."

Reduce Person from the D20 SRD is in-line with Pathfinder:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/reducePerson.htm

Melee and projectile weapons deal less damage. Other magical properties are not affected by this spell. Any reduced item that leaves the reduced creature’s possession (including a projectile or thrown weapon) instantly returns to its normal size. This means that thrown weapons deal their normal damage (projectiles deal damage based on the size of the weapon that fired them).

So, something changed somewhere, I'm just not sure where, when or it might have even not been a conscious change.

---

Now, since we're talking about a special ability (the Ki Arrow), it states the damage of the weapon (the bow) is an unarmed strike. Nowhere is the damage of the Ki Strike ability stated to be based on the weapon in use.

Since Enlarge Person increases the size of the person, it would also increase the power the Monk is using to draw the bow. While normally the arrow would shrink down and do less damage (RAW in PF), the damage of the Ki Arrow is doing has less to do with the arrow and the ability of the monk to deliver it; based on his own strength, aiming ability and everything more than a typical archer would have.

Yes, other classes have that too -- reflected in plusses to hit and damage increase through composite bows, etc -- but the Monk's ki overrides overrides these other mundane concerns and because he was mighty when the arrow was fired, the arrow is also mighty.

At least, that's how I'd do it.

.. thank you, I've been wanting a check list for my Pathfinder materials. ;)

Also, I can't help but wonder if Imaginos is a Blue Oyster Cult reference. I always thought it should be the name of a stage musician. You even have your own theme music laid out; "Oooh, Imaginos!"

then the duckblade

I know that's a typo, but I still couldn't help but wonder at what sort of fowl warrior would be such a thing.

My guidance counselor in Grade 6 (1986 or so) ran a red box D&D campaign for a handful of her kids who she thought would like it.

Best guidance counselor ever.

Evil is as evil does. I have a tendency to over think everything and had pondered this hard upon an occasion or two and my final decision was 'evil is as evil does'.

Goblins, evil. Orcs, evil. Kobolds, evil.

Why? The same reason others are not; they're just made that way.

The funny thing is in the real world I land heavily on the side of personal responsibility and individual will but in a fantasy world where gods and magic exist, then I can actually accept "because" as an answer because, honestly, if some all powerful deity wills it to be, then it is.

So, while it may not be the goblins/orcs/kobolds fault that they're evil, they still need to be dealt with. And you don't negotiate with evil any more than you negotiate with a rabid dog.

It just boils down to the fact I'd rather play at "Lord of the Rings" where I'm smiting evil and saving the day instead of "Conqueror of the New World" where you're running down the red man and trying to amend his savage ways (or killing him to save his soul).

If people are against DRM and are willing to bypass Hero Forge because of it, why are people accepting Excel based spreadsheets? Microsoft is one of the worst companies in the world when it comes to overpriced software with draconian DRM as part of it.

I really wish someone would produce one of those Spreadsheet based sheets through OpenOffice instead. Perhaps it's something I ought to try, but there's that first step of learning OpenOffice macros or basic.

As a side note, PCGen works great for me. I trust a third party generator far more than a first party .. especially when the first party updates their online content to reflect rules changes that you don't know (D&D Essentials, I'm looking at you).

*goes off to start reading about OpenOffice scripting options*

I'm disappointed that the paladin(and the rest of the party) didn't smite him immediately after all.

Well, everyone was aware the person was new so I think everyone was just willing to pretend it didn't happen in the hopes that it'd get better, but it just killed the campaign instead.

---

I used to play with another guy who was somewhat infamous in our crowd at trying to be the combat monster, but instead of trying to excel at one thing, he'd spread himself around too much.

End result was that his supposed assassin/ninja/bounty hunter/badass was bland like milquetoast and spent most of the game sessions unconscious because he was spread so thin, while my mechanic who was useless unless he was fixing things or shooting things with a light pistol managed to plink things to death with consistency.

It got to the point where I'd start chanting "I .. AM .. IRONMAN!" at the table and proceed to sing the song whenever my character miraculously escaped harm.

The other guy didn't see the humor of the situation.

The only real story I have for this is from someone who had never played with us before, and as far as I know had never played D&D before.

I was DM and the session started slow; I was taking a bit of a lampoon on the idea of adventurers being in a tavern and being offered an adventure; where instead an ancient curse was upon the town and it just so happened that the night the adventurers were there was when the dead of the area were being raised to re-enact an ancient battle.

What this had to do with the tavern is that the resident gaffer, Old Ben, was sitting at the fire and quietly passed away while sleeping. This also means that his body was re-animated. The serving girl who checked on him was given a rude surprise when he tries to bite her and such.

The players spring into action of course, cutting down the dead old man, saving the screaming girl, etc. That screaming girl I just mentioned? This is how this plays out:

Snaggletooth: .. is she still screaming?
Me: In the aftermath of the battle, she seems quite agitated still especially since a kind old man just died, came back to life, tried to eat her and then was killed again by strangers to the town -- she's still in shock and yes, she's still screaming.
ST: Okay, I go up to her ..
Me: .. okay ..
ST: I take out my dagger ..
Me: *confused* .. ok-a-a-a-y ..
ST: .. and I slit her throat.
Me: Why?
ST: To make her stop screaming.
*confused looks around the table*
Me: Are you sure?
ST: Yep.
Me: In front of everyone?
ST: Are they looking?
Me: Yes.
ST: Sure.
Me: *gets passed note from the Paladin*
Note: If he does, can I smite him?

So, despite the fact the GM (and his RL cousin) try to dissuade him from the bad idea a number of times, he decided he wanted to do it anyway. Since the Tavern o' Terror had other things going on at the time (the animal heads on the wall had started singing by this point), thing basically moved on but he wasn't invited along again, that's for sure.

Aside from that, all I have are just zOMG geeky type stories. (short version, take showers, damnit).