Hanz McBattle's page

I want to be an evil bastard too. I still think this group needs a name though.

My character's name is Goran Harsk. He's a straight-up line holder fighter, nothing more. I can't wait to see the stalwart defender PrC incorporated into the game so I can go with some kind of "Shield of Evil" motif.

Goran was a front line warrior and catapult operator who was briefly enslaved in war. He doesn't like to talk about it but everyone who meets him gets the sense that it's why he's evil.

So to you all, I wonder aloud, why do you play a druid rather than a nature-worshiping cleric? Why play a barbarian rather than a fighter with a great big axe?

For the differences in character and character sheet.

Sure, I can play a fighter with low intelligent who comes from a primitive tribe and throws himself at enemies recklessly. But by the time I'm doing that it would almost be criminal not to roll a barbarian.

And while I'm rolling that barbarian I can build my sheet around the mechanical perks of being a barbarian: I can use trips or other combat maneuvers without a surplus of feats because my rage powers let me "fake" it. I can move eight squares a turn and threaten more of the board. I can tank without relying on AC- which, let's face it, doesn't scale up as well as damage later in the game. And that HP/DR is a godsend.

As for my favorite class, I like the magus. And you want me to defend it? The thing can learn wizard spells, cast while attacking in full plate armor, transform into all sorts of nasty and do it all while flying. I think it can defend itself (;

I originally had my own pathfinder setting, a continent called Syrix. I tried to start a story based on this world. Any feedback would be welcome, as the beginnings are quite short.

CHAPTER I

Gorrus’ Journal
Tilsmuk 3rd, 5280

It has come to pass that I am imprisoned in the wretched spire of Kodor. For what ill doing am I condemned to rot in this dungeon of malefactors and brutes? O, what great villainy hath been wrought by these feeble hands?! I lament to record that I have been decreed guilty of that offense which political men find so thoroughly toxic: Scholarly crime. My studies of obscure and unpalatable magic have sullied my fortune before, but this I fear is the point of no return.

Yea, men will fight tooth and claw like rabid beasts to quell that which is aberrant or poorly understood. So here I sit, Gorrus the great sorcerer of Rodon, patriarch of the noble family Hallengloom, a beacon of knowledge in a world benighted, festering in bondage for the crime of witchery. My only hope is to take ill and abscond from this barbarous world in haste.

Consigned to his ill fate, the despondent Gorrus Hallengloom curled up in the one relatively dry corner of his cell and tried to his best to weep quietly. Soft, demure sniffles quickly gave way to child-like wailing, his pitiful cries deluging the dusty old tower. Gorrus tried In vain to suppress his lachrymal flailing as the footsteps of an approaching guard became evident.

The man moving towards Gorrus seemed as though torn from a nightmare: The black hood he wore covered all of his face save a pair of focused gray eyes, and his scarred flesh told the tales of a thousand battles. He lumbered methodically forward covered in bulky armor, a crude patchwork of metal, leather and ogre bones. In any other place the young Gorrus’ sorcery could lay waste to the approaching titan in ways too horrible to describe, but the spire of Kodor was coated with a rare and extremely valuable metal- A material called clarien that served to unweave the ethereal flows of magic around it, thus rendering magic users impotent.

“Here it comes”, though Gorrus with abject fright. “Surely this ruffian will breaketh my bones and eat of the sinew that gave them movement! O, misfortune! Gods please make short work of this.”

“On your feet”, growled the rather unpleasant guard as he spat at the filthy floor beneath him. “Now.”

“Gentle sir”, begged the petrified Gorrus. “I implore you, taketh pity upon me! I am but a flimsy little man! There is a hideous rancor in thine eyes, yea. But will my shrill screams bringeth thou any great satisfaction? Will you find mirth in the throws of my agony? Aye, for a time. But then you will weep, for you will realize you’ve hurt me!”

The jailor stared back unmoved.

“You’re free to go”, he grunted. “Lord Thadeus’ decree of guilt has been abolished by a higher power. You are to be released under the condition that you report to the king immediately.
Now take thy feathers and inks and frilly things and get the hell out of here.”

Being anywhere near King Tubbicus Maximus of Rodon was generally a very bad idea. He was sadistic, petty, impulsive and prone to bouts of grandiose rage. By this 8th year of his reign, the king had already disfigured seventeen jesters who failed to amuse him, castrated twenty three noblemen for the crime of handsomeness, and once ordered that a mentally challenged peasant be boiled alive for accidentally calling him King Flubicus. Gorrus knew all this, but he also knew the king personally and considered him as something of a kindred spirit. Tyranny aside, he was a clever, whimsical man renowned for his insatiable appetite for sin and his queer sense of humor. More importantly, the king liked Gorrus (to the extent that he was capable of liking anyone).

And so an elated Gorrus left the dismal prison tower, taking his feathers and inks and frilly things with him on the path to the heart of Rodon. The hot sting of Lord Thadeus’ branding stabbed at his right shoulder, the word WITCH burnt into his sore, weeping flesh. Midway through his short journey, the sorcerer paused to swear an oath to the sullen sky.

“If you fancy me a witch, Thadeus- I will doeth unto ye what witches do.”

Filled with fury and purpose, Gorrus suddenly disappeared from the country side with the wave of an arm and a puff of green smoke.

Chapter II

The court of King Tubbicus was the most lavish and ornate place the great continent of Syrix had ever seen. His throne room was a carnival of sin and excess, full not only of the finest silks and oils and the frilliest things ever crafted by mortal hands, but of the sharpest, spikiest and most perverse contraptions imaginable. Indeed, no pleasure was beyond the pale for Tubbicus, the most warped mind ever to preside over a human kingdom.

Lounging in a hot bath of imported salts and scented lathers, the corpulent king shifted his weight about gaily and twinkled his toes, taking in every bit of salty granular pleasure as he cooed with sensual delight. After a long fit of bath time frolicking and giggling and making sounds no man should hear, something awful happened: The king spoke.

“O, gods in heaven! I taketh pity upon them. T’is a dreadful day when one comes to envy his creation! Surely they look upon me with covetous eyes! What sayeth ye, Jonan?”

Archpriest Jonan Alonidae was not appreciative of such heresy, but was at least equally averse to being mutilated, burnt, tortured or fed to ravenous crabs. Nor did he want to be vivisected, infected with leprosy, exploded, imploded, impaled, used as a projectile, used to test projectiles, drowned, bludgeoned, used as a mount for little people or forced to coach the castrati glee club (which despite the name was a rather joyless affair). And so it made sense to the old cleric that if he didn’t like any of these things he should give the insatiable king the praise that was his birthright.

“Pity”, replied Jonan, “can be a heavy burden to carry.”

There was a horrible, uncomfortable silence for a time where the sloshing of hot water echoed through the vastness of the throne room. This kind of thing happened a lot, for the simple act of conversing with this most volatile of monarchs was very, very dangerous.

“But, my king, if you must bare this burden, be not weary. T’is the burden great men must carry.”

Tubbicus looked up inquisitively at the robed figure at the side of his bath. Jonan had seen this look before, and he knew exactly what was meant: Yes, you’ve grabbed me. Excellent thought. Now elaborate!

A call from across the hall spared Jonan the indignity of elaborating.

“Gorrus hath cometh, my king!” proclaimed the royal door man.

“Ah”, proclaimed the nude king, aided out of the tub by two servants. “Bring him in!”

An air of deranged joy pervaded Tubbicus as Gorrus entered the court and knelt before him. He was so overjoyed in fact that he lifted the little spellcaster to his feet and showered him with praise.

“O my dear friend Gorrus, t’is a blessing to see you. I was so terribly bemused to learn of your imprisonment that I dropped my things at once to order you released! You always bring such mirth unto this house- seeing you again hath put me in the most fanciful of humors! How was your stay at the spire, old friend?”

“Dreadful, most dreadful”, replied Gorrus with a dismal sigh. “I’ve seen awful things in my short time in this world. I have risen the dead. I have crafted tumorous golems of pus and gore with souls that yearned for naught but to bludgeon and grind- but my stay...”

Gorrus paused theatrically.

“But that stay at Kodor was the most terrible thing I hath ever endured. A pox upon that thing which men call life. I will never sleep soundly again.”

Gorrus mustered every ounce of his inner strength to hide his frustration as the king burst out into hysterical laughter.

“How I have missed your tales!”, declared the king, smacking at the sorcerer’s left shoulder. “Come with me, there is much to discuss.”

There really was an awful lot to discuss. By royal decree, the self conscious Gorrus disrobed and joined Tubbicus in the bath and the two talked of endless war and strife- not the endless war and strife of their fathers’ time, which made for great banter and was something akin to the national sport of Rodon. This season had seen famine and bloodshed so terrible that the kingdom’s very existence was threatened.

To the west, a fleet of Eelithi war ships had landed on the shores of outer Rodon and pillaged several sacred temples and monasteries, stealing a powerful magical artifact and killing a generation of young clergymen. To the east, a dim witted but tenacious Xorakian warlord led three thousand beastly warriors to victory against the defenders of an important riverside fort town. He and his goons carried out ghastly orders from a Xorakian king, which due to a misunderstanding, resulted in his soldiers raping the crops and salting the women.

To make matters worse, the summer that had recently ended was the warmest in memory. From the months of Ilgmusk (the first month of summer) to Oren (the first month of Autumn), a legendary heat took hold across the entire continent, under which the crops of all kingdoms wilted. The amount of soldiers needed for military conscription could simply not be adequately fed, and so a scantily defended country side was ripe for pillage.

As usual, the scape goat was dark wizard types.

This whole thread is absurd.

Pathfinder Online is going to implement a system where griefers become wanted men and entire organizations will be designed to punish them.

To say that griefers shouldn't be "allowed" just doesn't make any sense. They can't keep doing what they do with impunity and will probably end up being squashed by a world that appraises them as immoral and untrustworthy people.

Ray spells are also good, since I believe you can use those for sneak attacks as a rogue.

can we get a fact check?

To put together what's been said, a cool angle for the game to take would be a multi-axis skin system for buildings:

-Racial axis
-Alignment axis

The human design would be typical traditional medieval fare, where the other races would be slight or drastic alterations: Orcy establishments could be covered in spikes, dwarven establishments would be covered in stone, etc.

-Evil buildings could be covered in gargoyles, skulls and junk. Good buildings could have statues of angels, metallic dragons, etc. Neutral buildings might be adorned in um.... something neutral.

I agree over 9,000%.

I suspect that the "skins" of buildings will be fairly limited for a while as the game enters development, but in the long run I'd definitely love to see elven or orcish styles.

If I were to join or help found a legion of undead users, I wonder if that would necessarily (by the RAW of the game) make my organization and it's members "evil".

By RAW of the pathfinder tabletop rpg, undead raising spells carry the evil descriptor meaning that, if not making the spellcaster evil by casting the spell once or twice, your alignment will definitely slip south with repeated uses.

I wonder if a similar mechanic will be employed in PFO or not.

Maybe necromancy can be a foul means toward a good end. Maybe it can't? I'm wondering if the developers have discussed this at all.

Apart from the fact that there will be no classes (huzzah!) I want to play a bounty hunter because it likely best suits my playstyle.

Thus I will try and train the skills first that are needed as a bounty hunter.

I think that puts me down as a Ranger or maybe Ranger/Sorc hybrid type.

I'm also getting really into the idea of a sorc/ranger or wiz/ranger- to the point that if it's a viable mix I may want to start a union or guild for them.

...g#% d#$ned bears

When I initially heard about multiclassing, I thought it would be a bit more traditional. The idea of being a fighter who switches up his abilities and turns into a wizard is fun, but will true hybrids be viable? Like a guy who wants to be a fighter and a wizard at the same time?

Oh :(

Time for mine!

I'm very happy you guys are finally getting into the meat and potatoes of combat.

If there is a steamroller group, it will be intentionally use the most effective everything. There's no way around that.

I think there is, however, a niche for groups which are effective within a subset of the world; local maximums in power density which are below the global maximum.

Both if those are different from "druid>all", where a homogenous group of an unbalanced type is superior to every other combination.

This is indeed a grave concern. Certain classes have a reputation as being "needed" in a group or being generally overpowered in nearly every incarnation of D&D. One of those happens to be a personal pet peeve of mine, the druid.

While my mind has been drifting here and there as to what my ideal clan would look like, I don't think I want to work with druids. Part of it is that they represent a primitive society and look just plain wrong in a guild of siege machine crafters or a cosmopolitan kingdom- part of it is that I just don't think transforming into an animal or elemental is a cool ability- In my opinion it actually looks a bit silly to see men in full plate fighting alongside spellslinging bears.

I also don't much like monks, who I feel also look a bit silly- what with their unnarmed unarmored bodies running around fighting people who have real weapons like some kind of anime character.

I would love it, just ADORE it, if a military could get by without druids, or without monks- or for that matter without any one class and still be effective.

Ideally this would mean that NO class is a sacred cow- This doesn't mean an army of nothing but bards should be as effective as a diverse army- all I'm trying to say is that an army that prohibits certain classes should still be a diverse and effective army.

Yeah, I've said it before and I'll say it again: Physical dexterity should NOT be an issue of difficulty as long as this is an auto-attack game. If this were the next big FPS I'd have to sing a different tune but it isn't. Fast clicking excersizes aren't fun.

I also like the point about people with disabilities which I really never thought about before. There may be some people out there who have limited dexterity for whatever physical reason. It may be hard for games like Halo and Call of Duty to be accommodating but I'm imagining something with about as much of a physical challenge factor as neverwinter nights, IE none. If you can click a mouse and click a few keys you should be fine to play this.

I should also say I really like the idea of "battle pulses" or "pseudo turns". In my mind it marries the turn based essence of D&D with the requirements of mass combat. Then again I'm not a game designer- but I really hope Ryan Dancy reads this thread.

What I was thinking originally wasn't just the good/evil axis. That's part of it, but in fairness the alignment system and requirement for groups to maintain a certain alignment should control that to an extent. What I was talking about was general aesthetics and flavor. For example, look at the Alliance and Horde of WoW:

As organizations, the horde and alliance have distinct looks. They are racially segregated. Furthermore the horde has a more tribal, primitive look and flavor whereas the alliance appears more "civilized" and European. In the games inception, these differences were reinforced by the rules (if very slightly) by each faction because each possessed a class the other didn't: The noble paladins for the alliance and the primitive shamans for the horde.

The good thing about games like PFO is that you're not confined to the prison of the game's back story and forced into one of two factions. A player in Pathfinder Online doesn't have to join the alliance or the horde- he has actual freedom and can join (or create)a multitude of player created factions.

But by virtue of that same freedom, couldn't someone create an alliance or a horde? And no, before you get all antsy, I'm not suggesting that the alliance and horde from warcraft be remade in this game. What I'm concerned with is the right of an enterprising group of players to make something that is tactically and culturally distinct- A group that LOOKS and FUNCTIONS differently from most other groups.

FOR EXAMPLE, imagine a settlement of dwarven barbarians. They might wear simple skins and maintain a low level of technology and an up front fighting style.

No fighters allowed! That metal armor is too advanced and it frightens our tribal elders. We hear if you wear it it steals your soul.

Paladins? What paladins? We're a bunch of chaotic hard drinkers who probably haven't the slightest inclination to follow the rules and help others in need.

Sorcerers/Wizards: We're dwarves so we're typically fearful of arcane magic. Our clerics and druids will take care of the magery.

What I'm arguing is that the game can react in one of two ways to the aforementioned groups:

The game can punish them if arcane nuking and control spells are essential to a military, or if any other role/class they omitted from their organization is terribly vital. So the options here would be to ignore flavor and get some wizards for survival's sake or just perish from the earth.

Alternatively, the game can be flexible. If no single "Class" or race is essential for winning wars, players will have much more freedom in shaping how their group looks, feels and fights. If this group of dwarves can get by without sorcerers and wizards by using their clerics and druids as their only spellcasting support, then in my opinion the game works as a sandbox because players are truly customizing their kingdoms.

TLDR: It doesn't necessarily matter that we can create our own organizations- if every kingdom, faction and military happens to work in the same exact way, IE: all 11 classes and races are needed for victory in battle, every group will recruit members from all 11 classes and races. If this happens, the world will feel 2 dimensional and unconvincing as every group that goes by looks like a mirror image of the last.

Today I was thinking about kingdoms and player organizations: If this is a sandbox game, settlements will be inhabited by player characters. This means that the deep seeded prejiduce against elves, orcs, humans and other races is no longer a real, tangible force in the game world.

Likewise in terms of RP, certain proffessions don't belong in certain groups: To use the most extreme example, a gunslinger doesn't belong in a low tech tree hugger faction. A paladin doesn't belong in a guild of assasins.

I'm worried that a need to optimize will lead to an all accepting world where dwarves fight beside half-orcs and necromancers fight beside paladins. If it is always optimal for a military force to include units of each class, each military will and diversity will die.

What I'd like to see is a game where it's practical (and possible) to make forces composed of relatively few "classes", with racial limits

This will allow people to flavor their factions- examples:

A village of half orc savages:
-no paladins, no bards, no monks, no wizards

An order of righteous crusaders:
-Limited to good aligned Paladins, Clerics and fighters.

A band of gray elf raiders
-No paladins, druids, or monks/ no units with medium or heavy armor

I could go on and on, but I just got distracted by a shiny thing.

Another cool direction taken by the Chivalry came in regards to crossbows:

First of all, they seem to fire in a more even horizontal fashion as opposed to the long arching trajectory of longbows: In other words, longbows are effective for shooting over your own men because arrows tend to "Sink" in the air whereas bolts travel in a straighter line.

It would be cool if in PFO longbows could be easilly aimed to fire over your own men and hit at distant units, whereas crossbows (with their straighter shooting missiles) would be impeded heavilly by a blocked line of sight or interfering allies.

The other awesome touch added to crossbows in Chivalry is that crossbowmen can carry a tower shield with a notch in it for shooting their bolts. Firing in this way is slow and tedious- not only to crossbows shoot significantly slower than longbows in the game, but they shoot with two hands meaning you have to find a spot to "park", slowly lay down this tower shield, take out the crossbow and get to shooting.

This is a truly awesome when way of fighting because it leads to a new tactic: The missile wall.

Usually in war you have your "wall" units with shields and swords and your projectile units, but this brand of fighting combines the two. Cool stuff to think about IMO.

If you haven't heard of this new game, it came out today.

Let me start out by saying that Chivalry isn't even similar to pfo in concept: It's a non-magical medieval fighting game that pits small teams of warriors with realistic medieval weapons against each other. Still, I feel like there are lessons to be learned from the game:

1) Clicking to attack/block: One big argument among PFO circles revolves around weather attacking should be automatic (like neverwinter nights) or manual (like Dungeons and Dragons Online). In chivalry (being an action game and not an rpg) the hacking is all player controlled and it's done well. to block you have to actually aim at the incoming attack, you can jab slash or budgeon (or something like that) and combat is skill based.

-Chivalry really got down the combat aspect. It's skill based and adrenaline fuled. The lesson here is that

a) click-to-attack can work well

b) don't even bother making attacking manual and skill based unless you can really make it work WELL. In my opinion it's all or nothing- dice based combat is fun. Manual attacking can be good too, but not unless it's of a very high quality.

2) Friendly fire: This has two meanings. For one, if attacking is manual, an arrow or a sword swipe may miss an enemy and hit an ally. Secondly, and this applies regardless, "friendly fire" can occur when a projectile (a pot of hot oil, a wizard's black tentacles spell, etc.)

-Again chivalry hit the nail on the head. Friendly fire is enforced, at least from all the servers I saw. This changes the game in a few ways:

Has anyone played a game like halo where people ran around grenading their feet to kill everyone around them? Or where people shot and grenaded indiscriminately into a pile, ran in circles and blew up everything knowing they would be safe from their own men? Chivalry really cut the crap with that. Because of friendly fire, arrows and hot oil jugs (basically grenades)hurt allies. People have to act reasonably and work together in a logical way to get things done.

This greatly effects how combat looks and feels. For starters, shooting into a melee becomes troublesome: A skilled archer can still do great damage, but hurting your own men is a threat. Furthermore, AOE grenade lobbing becomes... I guess I'll say interesting. I threw a grenade today that killed one ally and five enemies. Sometimes friendly fire is an afterthought for cruel and reckless warriors.

Because in PFO characters have alignments and reputations, friendly fire could be a defining character of a character or army: Perhaps repeat teamkillers can have their alignments shifted towards the chaotic/evil axis, or a character can hold a permanent record of friendly kills that can act as a sort of resume'. No one wants to hire a deliberate team killer.

Er, almost no one.

A good aligned nation of paladins may kick out citizens or remove soldiers who hurt their own consistently, but an evil empire might hire powerful casters who shoot magical AOE spells at the front lines without thinking twice.

TLDR:

1) PFO shouldn't try to use manual attacking over autoattacking unless they are extremely confident that they can do it very well. Auttoattacking isn't boring and is easy to design, but manual attacking needs to be perfect or we're in DD0 territory.

2) Friendly fire is essential for maintaining tactics, and it can be policed through alignment/reputation effects. Keep hurting your allies and no civilized men will work with you- recklessly committing fratricide with aoe spells is fluffy for evil players, and can sometimes be a legitimate means to an end.

MOAR!!!

moar

Yeah... Also, even a magus doesn't have to spell combat every turn. With my arcana enhancing my weapon and all those fancy natural attacks I might want to save my spells once in a while and go insane with the sword, one claw, bite and gore. By level twenty (three sword attacks alone), that's six attacks in a full attack action!!!

:(

moar!

I have a dark vision for a character: The incredible gargoyle magus. The plan is something like this:

The spell Monstrous Physique lets you transform into a gargoyle:

A: I don't know if natural attacks can be taken as part of a spell combat attack action, but if so that is awesome.

B: Gargoyles have the freeze ability, which Monstrous Physique II lets you retain: Sit still and gain a +20 to stealth to hide in plain sight to appear as a statue! That sounds useful.

C: I GOT WINGS!

Is this awesome? Effective?

Due to recent collaborative efforts, SOTS has been scrapped for a more lucrative and secretive potential clan alliance. Please removed said clan from your list.

@Shifty - Pathfinder Online will not make you happy, I'm sorry to report.

O snap!

I really would love it if animal companions could be given to anyone who seeks to train one.

What I would love even more would be to see "pets" outside the typical animal companion fodder. Vermin would be welcome, and maybe even magical beasts. I would love to play a ranger with less of a goody goody nature flavor- maybe he runs around with a vicious spider, frost worm, gargoyle or bassalisk.

I need to pitch an idea for a short film (for a screenwriting class). I wanted to ask all the /b tards if this idea is HOT OR NOT. I turn to the Paizo messageboards because i have no where else to go.

A physicist is accidentally transported into the future durring an experiment with teleportation. The world he is taken to is apparently one giant building inhabited by horrific creatures, including predatory linen sheet-covered life forms that hunt him for his warm, sheetless flesh. He traverses a seemingly endless labyrinth of treacherous hallways in search of the sun, only to discover a sentient, telekinetic mushroom hidden inside a janitor’s closet. The mushroom tells the physicist that he is but one of the mother fungus’ many “heads”, and that his roots spread all throughout the earth. He goes on to recount that for a billion years, plants were the earth’s dominant life form, covering the earth in a sheet of greenery. Fungus could not outgrow them without special “fungo-active” compounds: Preservatives, food dyes, plastics, high fructose corn syrup and fine linens. Because these did not exist in nature, fungus created animals- at first inconsequential beasts, but then finally man- and infected them with recipes for their needed compounds. Slowly Incorporated into the fungal collective, man unwittingly served to destroy the “green tumors” of the earth, replacing all land mass with concrete and steel, blocking the sun and destroying all plant life

One way in which I think PFO can improve the world of RPG's is in ensuring that multiclassed characters are not entirely weak. Let me explain with an anecdote:

Back in my neverwinter 1 days, I was a member of a cool server called three towns. I got tired of playing the same wizard or blackguard over and over so I tried to make some different things:

1) The Wizard/Rogue

How I planned it:

Oh gee, I'll have such awesome spells to augment my roguery. Magic weapon/true strike will help my damage and accuracy, cat's grace will buff dex (my rogue attack and stealth stat), invisibility will make me a better sneak, and all sorts of transformation spells will make me a killing machine.

How it worked:

I had low level spells, with relatively low DC's. My base attack bonus was a disaster. My hp made doing "roguish things" suicidal. Sure, I could go invisible or ensure one sneak attack hitting with true strike (with lower sneak attack dice then a full rogue), but the build was garbage.

2) The Wizard/Fighter

How I planned it:

Bull's Strength + shape-shifting spells + magic armor + touch spells, with plenty of abjuration/shielding spells and the odd fireball or control spell here or there.

How it worked:

Again abysmal HP, an arrested Base Attack Bonus, relatively crappy AC and other problems meant that this build was sub par at best. Despite the clear cut vision of a battle mage, the mechanics of the game made this build little more than a pipe dream.

3) The Ranger / Anything else

How I planned it:

I'm going to bond with my beloved animal, and he'll see me through to the end no matter what path I choose!

How it worked:

Actually, pretty well for the most part. For example, a rogue's sneak attack and extra skills combined with the combat style feats made for a brutal and cunning combatant. But, and I consider this a big but, there was no equivalent of the BOON COMPANION feat. For those of you unfamiliar, this is a feat that allows you to level your pet as though you had continued leveling in the pet class. I really hated seeing my little spider buddy gradually fade into uselessness.

4) The Monk/ caster

How I planned it: As a classic "Anti-caster" class, the monk seems at least semi-magical, and the temptation to augment his fighting with clerical or arcane magic was too much to let up.

How it worked: Awful. Just awful.

I'd like to see a game where atypical class combinations can work. Thoughts?

hm... MORE!

IS there a point to siege weaponry? They seem weak compared to a high leveled guy with a bow, and they don't seem to go up in power.

We at The Seventh Veil would like to open Diplomatic Relations with you.

On what grounds?!

I'll sign up for your messageboards right away.

I'm wondering how magic users will behave on the battlefield: Will they be simple fireball hurlers? Controllers? Will they be attached to squads of martial characters to add buffs or will they function more efficiently in units of their own kind?

Does anyone have any ideas on the matter?

That's the biggest mistake you saw in GW2? The "races" section on their site is like an rpg mistake museum.

Name: Sword of the Sepulcher
Tax Rate: 50%
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Government: Oligarchy
Membership Policy: Approved

Mission: The sword of the sepulcher exists as a military force for those who practice necromancy without disturbing the dead or bargaining with evil entities. We will track down villains who use the dead to serve them, hunt for magical artifacts and defend ourselves from anyone who defies our cause.

The Sword of the Sepulcher sees necromancy as a means to an end. To our followers, spells that cause disease, peel skin from bone and drain life energy are simply weapons like any other, and for the most part, are not good or evil in and of themselves. However, we differentiate ourselves from other necromancers who see the deceased as a resource to be exploited and militarized.

As an organization, SOTS is not above stealing equipment or getting into trouble for the cause and is unconcerned if this is occasionally not considered “good.” Our methods will be as harsh and underhanded as possible, even if our goals are (usually) noble. As such, SOTS has a Chaotic Neutral alignment and welcomes all non-lawful members.

Military Philosophy: We believe in using masses of tough old fashioned infantry while magically crippling opponents with hideous debuffs. Siege equipment is also a very important ingredient in our army. Our military is the reason for our sky high tax rates: We believe that every man should be well armed, and that the cost of military equipment justifies high tax rates.

Religious Philosophy: We worship the gods Desna and Pharasma with equal devotion, revering their roles in magic and death respectively.

I’m not a necromancer. What do I do?: The Sword of the Sepulcher is a military and ideological machine. We have just as much use of non-spell casters as any group, so long our members share the same code of ethics. You can fight for our cause in any way, and we welcome any who are qualified to fight for us. So don’t worry that you’ll be “left out” or that this isn’t the group for you just because you’re not a necromancer.

Banned Classes:

Druid: As avid technology users, tree demolishers and seekers of necromantic spells, druids are unwelcome. Most druids would look down on us anyway.

Monk: There is an alignment conflict, and good riddance. We value sharpened steel over karate chops.

Paladin: Again, there is an alignment conflict. Plenty of paladins would probably want to see us dead anyway.

I recently made a post about chariots and their potential role in PFO, only to realize that chariots became obsolete with the development of cavalry and what-not.

Then, I ran into this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_wagon

War wagons would be incredibly fun vehicles to incorporate into Pathfinder Online. The potential for ranged damage output with mobility and protection on their side is appealing to me, and I think this medieval tank should rear it's head in game.

In addition to quick ranged firepower, war wagons provide a solution to anyone who wants to shuttle infantry about the battlefield relatively quickly. Polarm wielding infantry, for example, are the bane of cavalry and being able to move them around nearly as fast as the cavalry they oppose could be a rich tactical boon.

Squishy black tentacle casting mage unit? Again, the wagon provides a great way to move them about with relative protection. If you have a unit of necromancers, what better way to carry corpses into battle to be raised as skeletons?

It also says for dazzling display that you must be wielding the weapon. Is that a hole in the idea?

Dazzling display requires weapon focus. Can you get away with taking weapon focus touch attack or ranged touch attack? Or does the weapon litterally have to be a weapon?

I'm thinking of making a sorcerer with dazzling display, so that when I'm out of spells I'll be able to hurl frightening rays about the battlefield and scare people with them. I hope this is kosher.

@Hanz McBattle - you need to read that post again.

We don't want you talking about sex in open chat and we don't want you doing it in private chat unless it's mutually ok.

That's not an American thing. It's a common sense thing.

Sorry, I didn't read right.

Hope you still love me, great lord of PFO :(

No mentions of sex allowed in game? I'm sorry, but that is pretty lame. Not a game breaker by any means, but f$!+ing lame and weak. I guess it's what you have to expect with an American company though.

Everything else was cool and I loved the screenshot.

Ooh, vehicle-based combat! Man, nobody's tried that! WoW's design fell apart into gimmickry; LOTRO's going to submit their version of mounted combat in a month or so. Still, that would be great! Transport troops and supplies to and from the field of battle, act as ammo resupplier/medical ambulance, or just put spikes on the sides, lances on the front, and go full-speed towards the enemy lines!

Again, that's probably going to take a LOT of coding and balancing, but if that could ever happen in PFO, that would be awesome.

Plus... Twelve Dwarf Beer Wagon Charge. That is going to happen at some point, no matter what I have to do to get it done.

I can dig it.

Troop transports could be very interesting on the battlefield, especially with archers shooting from inside.

I'm curious as well. In the PnP game most people think poison is useless, but I'd love to see poisoning as a powerful tactic.

I really want to make an effective character based around using a two bladed sword, but I'm wondering if it's possible. Neither end is a light weapon, so using it will come with stiff TWF penalties. Is it possible that a weapon like this could be worthwhile?

I honestly adore racism in a fantasy setting.

Of course there will be those progressive do-gooders who's settlements look like Jim Henson's creature shop, with everything from Dwarves to Half Orcs living side by side- just waiting till the day that kobolds and goblins and tieflings are available for play so they can be invited in too.

Then at the other end of the spectrum, I really do hope we see racial alliances or settlements that forbid a certain race. I would love to see an alliance of dwarves and gnomes that don't let outsiders into their place. I would love to see a tribe of ferocious half orcs.

I think both types of settlements have their place. One is not better than the other- diversity is the best solution.

I just did some research and found out that chariots were kind of an ancient thing, not medieval at all. Seeing as though pathfinder is a vaguely medieval setting for the most part, I can now see why they wouldn't fit.

Mr. Dancey seemed to be saying other races will be added. When I heard that I made a happy sound- I think it went something like this:

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!