Hazrond's page

Paladrone wrote:

Yakman wrote:

Yes. You can run it that way. And there's no textual support for how I would run the Planes... but that's not as cool.

If the Drift is just gobbling up stuff and nobody cares, then what's the point?

But if it's gobbling up stuff, and that stuff matters? And it's visibly undermining the supernal world? That's AWESOME. The great palaces of the angels and devils are falling into ruin. The demons are wild beasts in a shrinking cage... etc. etc.

But then you get questions about why none of the Gods seem to have a problem with the Drift. Like, if using the Drift was causing some kind of universal collapse, you'd expect the various Gods and Demons and their worshippers to be doing everything in their not inconsiderable power to suppress the usage of Drift drives.

that's an interesting conundrum. like the Gap. and the Drift itself. lots of unexplained things in Starfinder. ;-)

Well the reason why is that in the grand scheme of things this is just another drop in the bucket. The outer planes have dealt with the constant erosion of existence for aeons now. The Maelstrom is constantly eating away at them and recycling that soul energy back into new souls, and they are constantly shoving more souls into the plane to make up for lost space. So really they have so much experience dealing with this i doubt it even pops up on their radar short of the occasional accident where someone notable gets yanked into the drift for a bit.

What is the level range on the polymorph spells and their duration?

1-6, with each level granting access to more possible abilities and wider arrays of creature types. You can have 4 forms to choose from per spell level and it lasts for 1 minute per caster level.

also the penetrating weapon quality + the other two...any one have any thoughts?

In the SF discord we had a discussion about this exact question. I believe the general consensus was that in the absence of some clarification by the Devs or a GM houserule, you follow mathematical order of operations. So that would be reducing the hardness by half, THEN reducing the halved hardness by the Penetrating amount. As for how this interacts with Adamantine weapons, i am not sure.

I'd be inclined to let your ulrikka duster adamantine sword cut through anything reduced below 30 by the fusion, but that's just my interpretation.

Maybe I'm approaching Starfinder from the wrong perspective, but I love a good sci-fi RPG, especially one that has a lot to do with starships.

Starfinder, unfortunately, seems to be rather weak in this area. Some of the scaling issues bother me, specifically making a light carrier isn't really possible, because the hanger bay just cannot fit on ships smaller than gargantuan.

The scaling absolutely makes no sense. Why can't a 300 foot ship carry 8, 20 foot interceptors? No reason at all, aside from nonsense RAW. Why does a 15,000 foot ship max out at 40, 20 foot ships, meaning that in a straight line the ships take up 5% of the ships entire length?

Just gonna note that this was not a permanent design decision, just something to do with Shuttle Bays in particular. With the release of Pact Worlds we were given a system for making carrier ships as small as Large size (with nothing saying you can't go smaller) for a small price of hull points when your smaller ships detach (think the Ghost and the Phantom from Star Wars Rebels).

I actually liked it, i just had a small issue of confusion as to how certain concepts transfer over (spell lists? Nonlethal Damage from Burn?) but overall it was a pretty sweet thing to have.

There are a lot of interesting items to buy that aren't in the CRB(for example, a plasma cutter or thermite), but pricing them can be tricky. It would help to have a rough ratio. Going off the price of clothing, 5-10 dollars to a credit seems right.

Anyone else have a number?

My PbP group estimated a $12 per credit exchange rate by crossing the prices for food and clothing. Do remember though that unlisted gadgets cost 5 credits according to the Technology section of the core book.

Victor thrashes in the creature’s grip, desperately slashing at the devilfish in an effort to persuade he’s more trouble than he is worth as a meal, swearing in Varisian ”Verdammter dämonenfisch!” Varisian I’m gonna respresent as german since it shares linguistic roots with Giant

Slash!: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10
Slash!: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

First definitely misses but the second might hit with the AC penalty? I’ll roll damage just in case.

Soul Blade Damage: 1d6 + 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + (3) + 1 = 10

Or can it... fly in space?

We have 3 Mechanics. It may not yet but it will.

This thread started off to help a guy to convert some races and has turned sour. Really sucks to see it turn out that way.

Yeah... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sour things. It seems i just hold some controversial opinions. I'll stop now, sorry again.

Yes energy weapons need a balancing factor. But making a character immune (or nearly so, the strongest energy weapons you have at level 1 have a 50% chance of being nullified by Fire Resist 5) to them for the first few levels isn't balancing, it's removing a massive chunk of the threat from the early game.

Get a slightly better gun then? Or heck, you could also just, ya know, use one of those conventional firearms that exist because last time i checked, fire resistance doesn't mean anything to bullets.

Kaidan Alenko - human technomancer, Xenoseeker theme

Ashley Williams - human soldier (sharpshooter), Mercenary theme
Garrus Vakarian - turian operative (detective), Outlaw theme
Urdnot Wrex - krogan solarian, Mercenary theme
Tali'Zorah vas Neema - quarian mechanic (drone), Spacefarer theme
Liara T'soni - asari mystic, Scholar theme

Miranda Lawson - human operative (spy), phrenic adept archetype, Mercenary theme
Jacob Taylor - human soldier (arcane assailant), phrenic adept archetype, Mercenary theme
Mordin Solus - salarian operative (explorer), Scholar theme
Jack - human solarian, Spacefarer theme
Grunt - krogan soldier (blitz), Themeless
Thane Krios - drell operative (ghost), phrenic adept archetype, Bounty Hunter theme
Samara - asari solarian, phrenic adept archetype, Bounty Hunter theme
Legion - geth operative (hacker), Spacefarer theme
Kasumi Goto - human operative (thief), Outlaw theme
Zaeed Masaani - human soldier (bombard), Mercenary theme

No one's done the Andromeda crew as far as I can see? I'll take a shot at it.

The Ryder Twins: Xenoseeker Exomechanics, this is pretty obvious, depending on whether you want some magic you could dip some Technomancer levels, given their Military training you might see Heavy Weapons or Sniper Rifles as appropriate too

Pelessaria B'Sayle (Peebee): A Scholar Drone Mechanic with an Archaeological focus. In combat she uses small arms and combat hacking as more of a harrying force and directs Poc rather than being a direct damage dealer

Vetra Nyx: An Outlaw Operative(Detective) with the Starfinder Forerunner archetype, Vetra is good at reading people, skillful, well connected, and highly resourceful, and not too shabby in a fight either.

Cora Harper: A Themeless Soldier (Blitz Style) later going into Guard Style with the Phrenic Adept archetype, she's a bit bland personality-wise (hence her lack of theme) instead preferring to model herself after her current role model, whether it be Alec or Sarissa. Lastly she has the phrenic adept archetype because of those Biotics capable of tearing apart a tank that she can't seem to forget.

Liam Kosta: controversially I'd call him an Exomechanic with a penchant for grenades rather than a soldier, as a lot of his abilities are based around tech and overcharging his gear rather than a penchant for combat. As for theme I would call him a Mercenary (not in a literal sense, but rather because of how the abilities synergize with his squad oriented, helpful mindset)

Nakmor Drack: An easy one this time, Drack is a pretty good fit for a Bounty Hunter Soldier with Blitz and Armor Storm styles, an unstoppable juggernaut charging into the fray with shotgun and rifle in hand.

Jaal Ama Darav: Given his skills as a rebel soldier and his preferred methods of dispatching enemies (sniping and invisibly backstabbing respectively) he's a pretty solid Operative(Ghost). As for his theme, given his fame among the rebellion and the trust that Evra had in him as a soldier I can pretty confidently peg him as an Icon of the Soldier profession.

geovoidl wrote:

Since an Exocortex is a computer, couldn't it be setup with a control module to control your weapon?

The Exocortex isn't a computer, but your Custom Rig becomes one at level 7. And yeah, you could do that, but computers are extremely bad at shooting. Their attack bonus is equal to their tier. At level 20, your computer attacks with a bonus of +10 which will pretty much only hit on a natural 20.

You're thinking too small. Why have it controlling a piddly soldier-sized gun?

Give it a control module to your Starship and have it make attack runs with the starship weapons! Crappy to-hit doesn't penalize them because they function as hazards, which means they have their own to-hit and damage table (plus you get to do something like that scene from Thor: Ragnarok where she turned the ship guns on the scavengers).

There is ONE way to get around the issue of salvaging being garbage. In the Alien Archive we've got the Assembly Ooze, which can melt things down for 100% UPB value. So if you could hunt down one that makes UPBs then you could make an effective "recycler" of sorts by enclosing it in a case made of the correct materials (Which according to the pic in the archive, may be glass? Or just to be safe you could synthesize some sort of bone cage or something since it refuses to touch organic matter that lacks tech inside it)

Matthew Downie wrote:

I still don't think the 10% sale price fixes that issue (though it does fix a couple of others).

The more you reward players for doing things other than greyhawking the less incentive there is for them to do the greyhawking.

But you're right. If you're players are determined enough to want to penny pinch and scrape together every single credit then there's nothing you can do besides say "you get nothing for this".

The issue is that unless you as the GM give huge payouts of credits (rather than gear) or go out of your way to plant the items the players are wanting, then they are forced to "greyhawk" things, because it is the only way to acquire the gear they want. Heck, if i was given the option to tank my WBL in exchange for having my endgame gun from the start (so that all i'd have to do is add upgrades like enchantments, which you are getting a total loss on every time you "tier up" your gear) i would take it in a heartbeat just to avoid having to deal with all the money spent on upgrades and such disappearing into the ether.

So as we go and look at the tech level of Starfinder i find one thing strange, given all the advances we've seen i find it strange that in some places the tech seems to have stepped backwards from the Numerian tech that likely formed a basis for most of Absalom Station's tech (and the golarion survivors as a whole). The most glaring example of this seems to be the AI, specifically, what Starfinder calls an AI seems much closer to what Mass Effect would call a VI, yet way back in the days of early Golarion we see truly sapient artificial AI (such as Hellion and Unity), as well as the tech to create sapient AI by uploading mental blueprints of creatures (such as Cassandalee). So why are Starfinder's AI so far behind in comparison? It's not like they got completely cut off from Numeria's tech when they were creating all of this stuff right?

Mark, you were one of the ones who made the kineticist class weren't you? Have you considered making a numerian "Nanite" element ala Generator Rex? An Android with conscious control over its nanites could perform alot of feats that would be really similar to a Kineticist wouldn't you think?

-5- do you have any other idea for an undead priest pc ? Vampire would work I think but is the template not too op ?

One thing you NEED to know is that if you become ANY kind of undead that doesn't mention keeping Class Levels in it's description then i would be careful because you WILL lose your class levels... having said that i would totally still die to a Shadow because being a Shadow would be AWESOME (after you regained some class levels (which now aren't lost to Agent of the Grave!))

How are you healing the party with negative channels?

1.) Not that I've seen. As a player, I'd try to convince my GM to allow daywalker to suppress it, especially since the flavor text mentions looking at the lich, and Daywalker alters the lich's look.

2.) I am unfamiliar with that ritual, nor do I have much info on making liches for PCs; they're mostly a GM thing.

3.) Depends a lot on the game. If it's an evil game or if there's a very strong reason for the rest of the party to work with a lich, it can work.
It could also make the lich PC markedly stronger than the rest of the PCs, if there is no kind of compensation. Since a lich's CR is +2 on top of its regular, the rest of the party members would each be a CR 8, while the lich would be a CR 10 (using your level 8 class and assuming you each have appropriate wealth by level).

4.) Don't get caught by the general population? Especially those good, holy types?

5.) As above, those templates are both strong. If the rest of the party isn't getting an equivalent template or something to balance the scales, I'd recommend having the GM keep you behind in levels. a +2 CR template like lich or vampire is theoretically equal in power to gaining 2 levels in a class. Maybe the GM could give you a few of the template's abilities and powers after one level and the rest for the second level.
Or maybe do a CR+1 template like zombie lord or skeletal champion.

Maybe they are using that Urgathoa Necklace item that lets you heal with negative energy? (It also is a salt shaker, including undead salt, because reasons.)

Kolokotroni wrote:

Define "a world without gods or magic". Because if that means a world without arcane and divine spells in the hands of the players, you will need a lot more then the automatic bonuses progression to manage that.

The gods have all died and magic with them. The players could be any class and as they progress other magic creatures/items would reawaken as well.

In that case, plot hook, someone notices the wizard cast a cantrip or something and passes the word along, the party then is hunted by the local government who want to capture them and use their spellcasting abilities for themselves, like how the Warlocks of Qarth reacted to Daenerys' Dragons in Game of Thrones.

Thanks for the suggestions, i think i am probably start with Whisper and make it better over time.

What is your characters name? No reason for the sword to have a better name than the PC.

Olivia Aldori (Formerly Wilde)

Hmmm, what about Whisper, considering its current weak sonic effect and how it is essentially a Finesse weapon?

So my DM is running a fun prequel session for each player leading up to our Kingmaker campaign and my Swordlord Aspirant managed to win a duel against a few guards of an important Swordlord on technicality.

Long story short she ended up with a magical charm from a close friend that made her already somewhat odd Aldori Sword even more different, to the point of the fact that the GM says it needs to be named because it is a purely unique weapon on the face of Golarion.

Its a Masterwork Sawbacked Aldori Dueling Sword that has the Disarm feature. In addition, the magic charm causes it to deal 1 Sonic Damage with every hit and on a natural 20 attack roll i get a free disarm attempt against the target of the attack. The Sonic effect is only going to increase in strength over time and the weapon is eventually going to become a mythic artifact.

Whoo boy, this is a fun one. Well, to start i would make the character a Kitsune Vigilante, taking the Realistic Likeness feat at level one and making your vigilante identity be one of your shape shifting forms. Then I would go down the Many Guises line of talents for the ultimate ability to blend into a crowd, don't forget to take the quick change line of talents in between so you can round a corner and become a complete different person Mystique style.

As for the nameless one feat tree it seems like a rather double edged sword, I would say leave it because it requires you never impersonate anyone and that VERY OBVIOUSLY ruins the Faceless Men's preferred style of murder.

First the rules clearly place GM judgement at the very TOP in importance, yes, above even the rules themselves. If he argues against this then it ISN'T the rules he loves but rather CERTAIN RULES he favors over others. Perhaps make a "Rule 0" placard and if he tries to argue a rule past the point where you've already decided then place the placard on the table facing him and ask him not to break the rules any more.

Might i just stop here and say that acting like this is petty and condescending as f~*+. Like seriously, just talk to the guy, passive-aggressiveness like this is not something that you should be doing and i would (and HAVE) personally leave any game with a GM who acted like this.

PYROKINETICIST. BE THE GOBLIN WHO CAN MAKE FIRE FROM NOTHING, A GOD AMONG GOBLINKIND!

Evil Artifact? How about that it has to be shattered by the strike of a Holy Avenger wielded by a mythic paladin?

So wait, why are they being prosecuted so heavily? The only crimes i see are Breaking and Entering, and possibly resisting arrest, because
A) they killed monsters
B) said monsters were quite obviously impersonating powerful nobles
A isnt illegal and B makes A even more justifiable in court, since impersonation in that manner IS a crime

So aesthetic style requires that you pick a weapon from the monk fighter weapon group.

truly the most powerful of the style feat chains, because it makes it so that when you fight you look FABULOUS:p

heres an idea, Elf with:
Elemental Resistance (Cold)
Desert Runner
Darkvision
Fey Magic (Cold Terrain)
Fey Thoughts

Basically, a very weak cold fey, then take Elemental Ascetic (Cold) with VMC Monk then add Ascetic Style (Quarterstaff) and you have a pretty good recreation of a certain winter spirit. ;)

Even if he manages to word the spell to not be an egg, I'd rule that his mind changes to be like that of a dragon as well. The character is now an NPC, please generate a new one...

the question, is WHY? what about the thought of having a level 17 wizard be able to use the second most powerful spell in the game to fulfill its intended purpose (granting wishes) for something that has likely little impact at all in the actual game-world (its much better than wishing for say, a powerful item, or to swipe the unprepared BBEG from his resting place right into your fully prepared party of PCs)

If your GM is trusting you to play a class that is normally banned for its OPness then why are you trying to sabotage him? Do you dislike this GM? I would be careful before betraying his trust like that unless you plan to only play this campaign and none others with him (also it's slightly a douche move to betray the trust of what sounds like a nice GM atm)

In an evil campaign all of my pc's are planning to open a portal large enough to bring the material plane into abbadon. What would happen if they accomplished this

Quick Semi-related question: Why does your game get crazier each time you post here? (no sarcasm or insult, im just curious)

personally? i would say go Witch instead, it will give you access to the all-important heal spells and you can take Hex Channeler to gain extra Positive Energy goodness, plus you get access to a few light spells to dispel the darkness (see if you can play a samsaran for Mystic Past Life to get more light spells). If its only CLERICS getting nerfed then i would say to take a look at Life Oracle as well.

this is actually very similar to a racial trait for kitsune that was printed in the Kitsune Compendium by Everyman Gaming, glad there is a 1st party way to do it now :D (if this gets seen by the author, I LOVE THAT BOOK)

Just out of curiosity, what would be the visual effect for Elemental Overload on an Aether kineticist? There is generally no visible effect for TK. Maybe random pebbles orbiting you like ioun stones? You hair floating on strands of aether? Your force ward becomes a visible sphere like a droideka?

i like to imagine it like this here

So i was going through the Occult Adventures book and came across the Tome Eater archetype (the name is literal for those who might not have the book yet), i need to make a new character for a Reign of Winter game i play in and so i had the thought to make a Tome Eater Occultist who was a Goblin, goblins dont have a penalty to Int so it should be ok, for the character's personality i was kind of hoping to make something of a cross between a normal goblin, and Mordin Solus from mass effect. Basically make him brilliant (especially by goblin standards) but a slight bit crazy, and also have him speak very quickly. The main issue is that while i have a bit of an idea how to go about this i am also still a bit in the dark as to how i should prepare/get in character. Any ideas for him would be appreciated as well. ^_^

My party just reached lvl 9 on my campaign and I'm a little at loss on what else to do with them before proceeding with the next big story arc because I need them to reach at least lvl 12 to make sure there isn't a TPK.

The party consist in the following:

-Catfolk Rogue
-Asimaar Fighter
-Human Barbarian
-Elf Bard
-Thiefling Sorcerer
-Half-Orc Fighter
-Human Cleric

Any suggestions?

What race is that, are they like Kender? :P

Stealth Synergy

An enormous undead horde that nobody knows is there.

then one guard rolls a narural 20 and they hospitalize him after he starts freaking out about an undead horde that isn't there :p

Unless the Cavalier and the other player selected the Exclusive trick for their pets, any schmoe with a good enough Handle Animal could command the pets. However, they would likely be restricted to things like down, stay, etc.

I will point out that while TECHNICALLY i dont think anything prevents them from using handle animal to just say attack their owner, it feels heavily implied that, being a class feature, they would at the very least not attack the owner in question

would argue for the dm to let you use the experimental gunsmith (gnome racial archetype)

You probably dont need to, take Racial Heritage (Gnome) with the human bonus feat and you have access to the gnome's racial archetypes and feats as well as everything else, plus it also explains her extreme paleness and blue hair! :)

The players would be robbing it, like a bank heist movie;

Have a vault containing something amazing and impossible to steal
Hire a team to steal that amazing
Pull off the heist and escape.

I think I'll work with Hazronds idea.

If you want a few explanations of my various defenses, the walls of force prevent people from entering through the ethereal plane, the walls of lead prevent divinations to keep them from knowing the inner defenses, the golem is effectively unaffected by the antimagic field for the most part but without all their magic goodies the party will be hard-pressed to actually be able to penetrate the golem's DR, (DR Epic is hard to break when your magic weapons are disabled) the golem's fast healing should be able to out-heal anybody who deals damage. The antimagic field also deals double duty in preventing enemy spellcasters from being able to engage in effective combat with the golem, most creatures should be relatively helpless as the golem pounds their faces in if they make it past the symbols of sleep (there should be like, 20 of them, there is statistically no way they all should survive a save), dont forget that if they try to run from the golem back into the hallway they will have to save against every symbbol as they return

Are your players supposed to rob this bank or defend it?

If robbing it, do what Hazrond suggests but double it.

If defending then it is a wooden shed.

Something about this response struck me as incredibly funny. Well done if that was your intention.

How hard to crack is this vault meant to be, because here are some ideas for a high powered one.

Dex to Damage in melee is awful. Any game I GM, I never have and never will allow it. I don't think it's balanced: It isn't badly unbalanced in terms of the fight, but Dex characters also have much more out of combat use due to Dex skills.

Not only is Dex good for many more things than Str is, but I also care about combat being as realistic as possible. Of course, magic, dragons, etc. don't exist in real life and so have their own rules.

But, weight classes are needed in every martial art because the big strong guy will always beat an equally skilled small quick guy. No 120 pounders win Heavyweight championships in MMA or boxing.

"Not with fencing!" someone will say; but that's about touches, and Dex to touch AC is fine. If fencers used bladed swords and tried to rip flesh off each other, stronger ones would be much more effective.

"Realism? With magic, dragons, etc.?" might be argued. That introduces unreal things into the world, but physical combat should be like physical combat.

"Stat consolidation" is awful, too. Everyone should face tradeoffs. Every class, including full casters, should be MAD. The primary casting stat should only determine what stat you need to cast spells of a given level. Otherwise, save DC should always be Cha based (sheer power), bonus spells per day Int based (remembering more spells), and all concentration checks Wis based.

So all mental stats would affect all casters, too (who actually already need some Dex and Con to avoid being too easy to kill if someone can get into melee with them).

There should always be tradeoffs, and everyone should have weaknesses that are relevant and have to choose among them.

I don't mean any offense, but that truly sounds awful to me, very rarely in my experience will you be able to have even halfway decent stats across the board, and thats with the high powered rolling that i am used to, in a point buy environment i cant see this working well at all, but eh, different strokes for different folks.

Hazrond wrote:

10) The Homebrewer

The homebrewer is somebody who for whatever reason can't stand some aspect of the rules in relation to his plot. Spells will miraculously fail to affect this specific curse, abilities no longer exist if they can hope to alleviate some ill he has heaped upon you, and if you ever try to point out that Remove Blindness/Deafness should by all means remove the Blindness/Deafness spell to them, they will usually accuse you of being a rules lawyer and leave in a huff.

What to do: i dont know, i have never found a way to deal with this particular type, if you have advice i would appreciate it

This is the one that would likely annoy me the most. They tend not to take criticism well in my experience.

You have no idea, i have run into these kind of people several times, the thing that annoys me is how when something would solve an issue they knee-jerk ban it, for instance, one of them sent us into this dungeon, first room? Full of necromancers hitting us with nasty debuffs and ailments, so after we barely survive that the cleric remembers they had prepared Dispel Magic, which because we were in 3.5 had an AOE use, so the cleric tries this and is met with "That doesnt exist" we say "But DM, it does, here you go, see, *gives link to spell description*" "Nope, it doesn't exist, continuing on, you are all blind deaf and drained, how do you plan to fight the rest of the necromancers and demons?"

10) The Homebrewer

The homebrewer is somebody who for whatever reason can't stand some aspect of the rules in relation to his plot. Spells will miraculously fail to affect this specific curse, abilities no longer exist if they can hope to alleviate some ill he has heaped upon you, and if you ever try to point out that Remove Blindness/Deafness should by all means remove the Blindness/Deafness spell to them, they will usually accuse you of being a rules lawyer and leave in a huff.

What to do: i dont know, i have never found a way to deal with this particular type, if you have advice i would appreciate it

Going by the word of the Tattoo Familiar ability, it seems that it can sit in your corpse for as long as it likes before exiting, though i am unsure if it can re-enter your corpse

"Levels of different classes that are entitled to familiars stack for the purpose of determining any familiar abilities that depend on the master's level."

That. Core rulebook. It's been discussed to death. General opinion is only ever one arcane bond.

i believve his issue is that Tumor Familiar and the Homunculist familiar are explicitly their own abilities, and not arcane bond

I'd like to see this guide: for one, it's not even clear which familiars can or can't use wands!

I tried to make a list of wand-capable familiars - let me know if I missed any or added any I shouldn't have.

Cassisian, Tripurasura, Lyrakien, Brownie, Coral Capuchin, Quasit, Imp, Faerie Dragon, Tidepool Dragon, Shadow Drake, Nuglub, Homunculus, Impundulu, Arbiter, Shikigami, Mephit, Pseudodragon, Sprite, and Zoog.

Pooka mayybe? they are listed as wielding daggers