Iczer's page

James Krolak wrote:

Why does Quig not get boldfaced like the others? Man, Ratfolk always get the shaft.

Clearly Quig grabbed the bold typeface for use in a different mechanical device. Also, if YOU were going to shoot at one of those entries, wouldn't you be more likely to fire at a bold one?

It's a feature, not a bug!

Don't judge!

while Keskodai is the bug.

They really shouldn't be hard and fast rules. The point of "only members of this group know this thing" is to make "knowing the thing" more exclusive, a thing that defines members of the group as standing out, and to keep anybody and everybody from taking it purely for the mechanical benefit. If it's like weapon finesse or improved trip, then it's less special. But you don't have to limit it only to the in-group to keep it special.

If you had a character who was a follower of Shelyn and learned a dextrous glaive fighting style, then turned away from the faith for whatever reason, it's not like you'd forget how to fight. So I just read that sort of thing as "think about how to work the relevant fluff into your backstory" rather than just taking it without thinking about where or how you picked it up like any other feat. In theory you could do this with every feat, honestly. I'd be interested to know how wizards acquire "toughness".

Let me tell you about the 'Iron wizard' tournament sometime

If androids can't rage, then they can't cast emotional spells. Considering androids do not appear as PC races in any hardcover book, It's not unreasonable for it not to be specifically spelled out in OA, or for the emotional component to be left out when it didn't exist at the time androids were written.

This is common sense. If you can't experience emotion, you can't bring that emotion forth when needed to cast a spell.

You will find they Can indeed rage.

It's just sub optimal. They fail to gain the morale bonuses, but get to keep the penalties.

and they still fatigue afterwards

In short: they can rage. they just wouldn't

[also: we have an android barbarian in our group]

Heal: makes you a healer.

Profession: healer, or doctor, or travelling Chirgeon, or whatever, makes you proficient at the nuts and bolts of getting paid to use the heal skill.

things like sourcing clients, setting up shop, and knowing what licenses a town may need you to have. drumming up business, keeping the books and paying the appropriate taxes.

It is possible to be a healer (heal skill) and still try to make a living (untrained wisdom check) it just makes you a good healer, but a terrible businessman

It is possible to be a healer (profession skill) and still try to heal others. but you will be untrained. BUT you will know all about the business side of the job.

Both is best

Xabulba wrote:

Kangaroo's can't walk backwards

Nor can Emu's, hence why both appear upon the Australian coat of arms.

Plus, they're a pretty decent cook up at a barby.

But Gamey as all heck.

Charisma does not equal appearance.

HITLER

*Drops mic*

Godwin

Batts

I'm really glad there's no charisma stat in my system.

More information Please.

[Will grovel if necessary]

Batts

the more you learn

I was disappointed with this tawdry and dry work.

Visually it was unique, and spectacular...so Kudo's there.

But it dropped the ball in so many places, from the subpar acting to the mangled plot and even its star feature, its special effects, were regularly clumsy and inexpertly handled.

It is clear that the designers were fans of many sci fi stories, as you can see their plots being ripped off and violently inserted.

All in all it had great visuals. I look forward to screencapping it someday, but I weep for something that could have been much better, without even trying I might add.

1.5/5

Batts

Opponent threatens 3 squares in all directions (reach 15 feet)
Fighter charges.

at T-15feet he does not provoke an AoO. He has moved from a non threatened square into a threatened square.

At T-10feet he provokes an AoO for moving through a threatened square (moves from T -15 to T-10)

At T-5feet he provokes an AoO for moving through a threatened square (moves from T -10 to T-5)

You are correct that he Provokes twice in the same action - movement. That he moves as part of a charge is not relevant, he has still moved through threatened squares.

Depends. Losing it is fine for a neutral character. Vengefully mutilate is a no-no for any sort of good, though a murder may be forgiven.

Effectively: a slow mutilation implies he's enjoying it or receiving some satisfaction in the act. this is not any form of righteous anger, this is drawn out and evil in nature. A Rant, a sworn oath and a relatively quick murder is also technically evil (assuming an already helpless foe) but can be forgiven given the backstory.

Batts

To be fair, there probably aren't a lot of wizards.

D&D 3.5 basically states the highest level of wizard in an area is 1d4 + community modifier. A small city of 10,000 people could have 2 10th level wizards, and a further 12 of lower levels. the same is probably true for sorcerers as well

Making at best 1 in 714 people wizards, the same with sorcerers (there are more bards statistically)

Pathfinder says that the highest level of spell casting available in this city would be 6th (so 12th ish level cleric/wizard/sorcerer) obviously representing a the very upper echelons in the spellcasting group.

You wouldn't need a lot of people to police these guys. They probably police themselves.

That said: Law & Order:- A.C.D. Arcane Crimes Division
In the Golarion Justice system, the non spellcasters are represented by two equal and yet equally important groups. The men who hunt Spellcasters, and the clerics who debuff them. These are their stories.

BUM BUM!

I've often found that the disparity usually comes from optimized characters rather than more broadly defined ones.

I have a high caster party (one magi, 2 sorcerers, one bard and a fighter/ranger/barbarian) and I've found that the sorcerers have to pick up the crossbow in a number of encounters. as a result they are a little more diverse. they haven't dumped their Str and con scores, so their Cha scores are not as high for instance. and their feat selection is a little more martial.

The fighter crossed into barbarian and ranger so he could cover more useful ground, adding skills across the board and class features rather than power trough his favourite feat trees. He wants to add rogue so he can have some of the sneak attack goodness if ever he has to aid one of the casters (obviously, by flanking) and the extra skills are nice.

all in all, if you play the optimized versions, you get what you get. If you diversify, then things change (and tend to throw the CR system out of whack a bit)

Batts

I had one notable encounter with a fighter as the end-boss. Paired adamantite weapons and some sunder pretty much broke up the party very quickly. Most of his magical gear was in shoring up obvious weaknesses (mostly the will save)

It was a smaller group who, IMHO probably should have been better armed knowing their foe, and probably would have benefited if they had not been weakened by perimeter defences first (one trap, a trio of adepts with burning hands, a zombie Chimera and his loyal defenders)

Incidentally...it was a TPK.

Batts

If it is the most broken caster you want, I'd like to present you to my friend, Alfred the Awakened.

The build is simple (and cheesy as hell):
0) Take a lvl 20 Nature Oracle.
1) His level 20 ability allow him to change his type to animal (takes 8 hours).
2) Target yourself with poison/spells that drain your intelligence to 1 or 2.
3) Now he is a valid target for the Awaken spell, which he is able to cast himself. This is maximized, just because he can (2000gp and 24 hours).
3b) Result is: +3 cha, and +2 HD, and changed type to magical beast.
3) Return to step 1, and repeat.

Spending 400.000 gp (about half wbl) in this manner, gives you a total of: +600 charisma, and +400 hd, which in itself grants 200 feats, +300 BAB, and 100 stat increases.
Needless to say, you are going to break the game, whether through spells DCs above 300, more spells than you can spend each day, or insane to-hit bonuses and +78 damage from power attack alone. Unbeatable saves, hit points that could easily reach 10K, and your cha bonus to dex, are making sure that he is never in any real danger. Through feats and spells we make sure to be able to reroll any saving throw that end up a natural 1.

Cheesy? Yes, sir.

(You can even combine it with blood money to avoid the cost of the awaken spell, but that is unnecessary at the moment).

at Intelligence 1 or 2 can he even speak well enough to fufill the Verbal component of Awaken?

The problem here is that you cannot 'trip lock' a person. Getting up from prone triggers the attack of Opportunity (and you should double check how many the eidolon actually can perform) but the attack of opportunity occurs before the action. So he's effectively trying to trip a prone opponent, who then gets up from prone (which is what he was doing in the first place)

Mobs will work well (they always will). low level creatures with low CR's attacking en mass can simply swarm him. He will get an AoO on the first little guy, and then the rest can gank him with flanking.

Ranged attackers also are good here, as he will have to actually close with them to get his trip trick to work.

Use attackers with reach. they won't trigger AoO by moving into attack range, and most reach weapons are higher damage.

At some point some basic dispell or banishment are going to work, and remember he counts as an outsider now, making him vulnerable to a lot more attacks.

Of course the actual build would be nice to know (all I have to work on is Trip + 10 foot range.

The sythestist build is pretty good at what he's doing here, so there's no shame in him being good at what he does, and for a while he will outclass the straight melee types, but it will all even out as your bad guys will have broader options.

It is questionable at best, but it can either be Neutral or Evil as a deed depending on how vile the target of the effect is.

Most people would be fine with putting one on a Balor, but probably would question the need to have it used on a common thug.

Would it even fit on a Balor's head?

I've always held that wonderous items shouldn't be objects that simply allow you to spam spells, but rather, well, wonderous. gaining the ability to spam a prefered spell is typically the job of a wand, which i notice is harder to operate than many wondeorus items, and requires more proficiency (I understand Craft wand requires around 5 levels)

A cloak that doubled your healing rate, would maintain the feel of a wonderous item far greater than a cloak that allowed you to cast CLW several times per day.

My 2 copper

Batts

I go camping. Often. I got used to it with the army, and I date a lot of country girls (and their fathers can think of no better bonding experience than a few nights out bush).

Comfort, no matter how small, is essential.

This is why people seek shelter when rain starts. It's why we invented beds.

That said, the definition of comfortable is very individual. I am fine with a tarp and a blanket. A tent is nicer of course, and both are very weather permitting. I know a man who can sleep as long as he has his hat over his face and a fire. I also Know a man who can barely sleep out bush no matter what he has.

I'm willing to bet the game relevency comes down to whether it's a class skill or not. Rangers may be very comfortable bedding down with a hat over their face in the back of the ute... errr wagon, while the sorcerer may need that tent. and the lavender smelling soap. and the fluffy blanket. and the stuffed bear.

So...I'd go with a survival check. DC 20 for a good nights sleep 'in the wild' with equipment bonuses and circumstance bonuses piled on top.

Batts

We had Wilhelm Von Staizer, a Bard/barbarian with wisdom and charisma of 8 in one campaign. The sorcerer aquired Colour spray early on as his spellbomb of choice and in the first encounter, caught The Honourable Von Staizer in it's effect.

Now the spray dropped everyone in the area, and so the bad guys were dispatched, ending a combat encounter in one action, but Von Staizer was never quite right after that, and developed an addiction to colour spray, even to the point where he used to beg to be colour sprayed to sleep at night when the sorcerer had a spell slot left.

We used to love it. 'Friends don't let friends Berserk and do enchantments', 'The first step is admitting you have an addiction to colour spray' and 'This is your Barbarian. This is your barbarian on colour spray'

And then he leveled. Bard 3 Barbarian 3. 6HD meant no more effect.

he was distraught, he roleplayed the search for tougher and tougher magics. Hypnotic pattern sufficed for a while, but his HD was more than capable of resisting. Rainbow pattern would have been next, except the sorcerer died.

To this day, we still remember Von Staizer, as we confronted our first lich, calling out 'You're no wizard..you couldn't even cast prismatic spray'

Batts

How about a few spells that exclusively deal with the spontaneous casters and/or profit of bloodlines then.

Spell load:
when cast it immeadiately acts as an already known lower level spell that can be cast spontaneously, but can be cast as a swift action. alternatively by 'locking' in a given spell of lower level, its caster level is considered +1

Alter bloodline:
Change target (self) bloodline for the duration. alters known spells and bloodline abilities but not feats or skills.

Bloodline boost:
alters target (self) bloodline, making it 4 levels higher for the duration

apotheosis:
Technically, a specialised version of wildshape. you become an affiliated bloodline critter.

Batts

How does teamwork vary from “attack the enemy until they're dead?”

Quote:

In some of my games (not all, I have good groups and...Other groups) I get some excellent strategy work going. The heavilly armoured guy kicked a troll in the b~++&+@s (defensively) to draw it's attack of opportunity, the bard, with inspire courage active, aided his defence while the other two performed a trip attack (one aiding the other). Once down, the aforementioned heavy fighter power attacks the prone guy spending an action point for the extra action. The Branger (Bard/Ranger) virtually never attacks anyone, he spends his time aiding another or using improved reposition to juggle opponents around. he later took a level in Monk (hungry ghost) to add punishing kick to his list of 'shoves' He was also fond of bullrushes. Even in the game with the..less than optimal players (players..not characters) The Cleric spends a lot of time performing touch of good/guidance/touch of strength on party members, adding the occasional CLW when necessary, but mostly moving into flanking position for the rogue.

Quote:

Do you have AIDS? (Aid Another tactics)

The aforementioned Cleric likes the aid another action, and will randomly aid another target's AC when he feels he lacks the hitting power to be effective. A favourite tactice is to guidance/touch of good then aid another on a party member so in the 3rd round the target uses a +4 to hit. I argue that if he were 'hitting' his opponent he would be more useful, but that +4 at 2nd level allows our fighter to severely wound some heavilly armoured foes.

Quote:

Teamwork Feats

Mostly the Fallen Inquisitor from my last campaign enjoyed this. He got a lot of power out of his shield this way, always staying close to the cleric with the large shield. It changed a lot of combat options too as he lost a lot of AC by straying too far from the cleric. Or when a hobgoblin samurai sundered his shield (lost shield, plus shield focus, plus the shield teamwork feat)

Quote:

Combat Maneuvers

Iv'e seen linked bullrushes. It was beautiful. Each party member moved to a location and delayed actions. then each took a turn bullrushing a target, each shoving him 5-10 feet. The wizard spent a hero point to Hydrualic push the target the last 5 feet.

In another game, an unhittable wooden construct was tripped and then dragged through a flaming wall by the tiefling, before the second tiefling dragged him back through the same wall. The aforementioned Branger/Monk performed a flurry of disarms at one point against a quartet of brigands, and also disarmed a crosbow weilding guard at another point during a suprise round, and then shot the guard.
I had a Hobgoblin samurai perform a cleaveing sunder much to the dismay of apair of party members.

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Spells and Teamwork

I've seen a Branger use reposition to push targets back into an area of a druid's entangle. A tiefling monk has smashed a lantern over a troll's head triggering a held burning hands, and there's the ever popular fascination as a cover for a suprise round.

Quote:

Leadership...

Never had a game go on long enough for this feat to come into play. Odd.

Batts

Firstly. The PC's are 16th level. They have reached pretty much the top tier of any sentient beings ability. they are approaching the status shared by myhtical figures. The idea that a thieves guild exists that could challenge them is a pretty laughable thought. I will presume there is a good reason something like this exists though, and I leave it to you to justify it.

After all, by 16th level; they are pretty much ready to start punching out dragons and cavorting with upper echelon demonic forces. I don't even keep games alive long enough to reach that level.

That said, If I were designing traps for a vault....

* traps should work often enough to justify building. The first way to make a character stumble into a trap is to deny their ability to find them. Place traps wher no one thinks to do a search. No perception check = no found traps. I like at the bottom of ladders, at the bottom of other traps, 10 feet before a menacing looking object etc... I've found that as soon as the party rogue looks for a trap (or heavens forbid takes 20) he generally finds it.

* Traps should be deadly. OR really should have a seriously unwelcome effect. a little challenge rating appropriate damage is trivial, and all it does is blow a little time for the cleric. Serious damage or an effect that really stumps them is the order of the day.

* traps need to be gotten around by the makers. sadly, the traps have to be able to be bypassed for the owners to get in or out. The information or tricks used need to be relatively secure or else the bard will get it and then it get's bypassed.

Some Ideas:

Dwarven Castling Vault. A cube like dungeon composed of 8 rooms, stacked 2x2x2 each room is about 30 feet across. Every 6 hours the Cube teleports randomly between a dozen or so secret locations. It has no actual doors, it has to be teleported to, which can only be done by someone who has memorised the interior of a specific room, and can initiate a teleport the appropriate distance and actually knows which location the vault is in at the time of teleport. It may take hours to calculate with some obscure mathematical formulae for instance. This doens't even account for any traps you wish to place In the vault itself.

An Ice cavern deep into the earth. a 5 mile long tunnel leads there, and light is pretty much extinguished the whole way. Traps liter the tunnel, but a shoeless man who know what to look for can feel small grooves in the floor signalling traps ahead. The cavern itself is littered with some dangerous level undead, benefiting from it's immunity to cold and it's blind sight.

The vault itself is a collosal animated object. One that can, if need be, simply flee the PC's.

The vault is located in the sub levels of a mountain top monastery, and is flooded. Numerous traps before the basement are designed to dump PC's off the side of the mountain (possibly through an antimagic field)

a Pit trap, which drops into a well of many worlds

a pit trap, that is more easilly detected and avoided. a secret door in the floor of that trap leads to a permanent magnificent mansion (and the vault)

The vault's contents are affected by some sort of long term or permanent polymorph effect, while dummy treasure sits nearby.

The vault is only accessable by bridge over...oh i don't know....an acid pit i guess. The bridge is an animated object.

The final chamber before the vault has 300 doors. all trapped (even the right one). These magical traps are resetting, and if triggered, summon nasty level appropriate critters. More to the point, unless the cistern underneath the room is full, any attempt to open a door triggers the trap, bypassed or not.

Batts

[QUOTE} I guess, the discussion is pointless then, at least regarding your character, since it clearly says "you", directly adressing the reader/player. I guess the saving throw boon against poison might become handy if you travel to, lets say Australia.

Bah. I'm Australian. The whole 'everything is poisonous' Myth gets around but it's groundless.

Heck, I haven't been poisoned by anything in days now.

Batts.

PS: oh, the reading is pretty clear. You count as both your species and another species when checking for effects or prerequisites. you don't gain any of the other race's abilities.

That would be just silly.

So let me get this straight.

Ruinous, the sage (Wizard 2) wakes up one morning at 0600, prepares his spells (Magic missile, Magic missile Colour spray and grease).
Has a heary breakfast in the Shadow wilds with the crew, decamps and continues adventuring by 0700. His 4 spells are ready and are set for the next 24 hours, one day, and can be reset at 0600.

Add some orcs, a goblin riding an octopus and a top heavy ogrekin Dhampir and he's done for the day (with one silly little grease spell remaining). The party camps outside the dangerous Dungeon of deadly danger for the night (oooohh lets say 2200hrs). 8 Hours later he can prepare his 4 spells again becuase:

A) it's a new day
B) he's had 8 hours without casting spells (IE He slept)

Say the fights went really well, and they cleared the DDoDD early and camped at 2000hrs. He wakes up 8 hours later (0400hrs).

It's not a new day. 24 hours have not passed. He basically has one spell left (The grease spell he prepared earlier). Bored, he makes an early breakfast. He'll prepare spells on the road.

Or

Feeling Impish, he casts Grease on His fighter1/Barbarian1 compainion and yells out 'FIRE' and watches the mayhem.

Out of spells now, when 0600 rolls around (and he's recovered a little from the thrashing) he prepares again, but the Grease spell counts against his limit becuase he cast it less than 8 hours ago.

Do these look about right?

Batts

Now wolves don't have ranged attacks, but we'll give this one a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher.

not to be creepy but I think I'm in love.

I am so gving the next wolf encounter some rocket launcher support!

Batts

Since your brain uses sleep to deal with all the problems of the day.

Dreaming is important to mental health.

If you go long enough without REM sleep, you will start to halucinate as your dream state starts to leak over into your waking hours.

After about a few days to a week of this, you become psychotic.

Never sleeping would be really bad.

Non-sleep rest will restore physical fatigue and exaustion, but it will not help your brain. Which is the real reason we sleep.

Sleep has a few basic known functions, and about a gazillion unknowns.

Poisons accumulate in the brain, and only dissipate during sleep periods. Likewise, other chemicals that keep us alert diminish over the course of the day.

Some chemical processes in the body, some protein generation, a fair amount of hormore, especially growth hormones, are produced only while sleeping.

Inactivity allows recuperation that activity does not allow. You do not heal faster, per se, but you aggravate the healing process less. It allows for stress relief as well (but 8 hours of practiacally any leisure activity could do the same so it's not exactly causal)

sleep Conserves energy, mostly at a time when, biologically, it is not energy efficient to be active (you use significantly more energy hunting in the dark for food with our sub par night vision for instance)

Memory consolidation: is a theory, but is hotly debated. some studies display a tendency for people to perform better at recollection and problem solving after sleep as opposed to those who performed other tasks during a similiar time frame. results are inconclusive.

Need to dream: it's a mis-statement. you need to sleep, mostly for the above reasons. Dreaming occurs, typically as an epiphenomenom of other , odd, electrical brain activity that occurs when asleep.

There's a lot of conjecture beyond this (and even within this), but fundamentally, if you can abolish the fatigue, and repair the damage, you go a long way to avoiding sleep. memory and thought consolidation may be essential, but the jury remains undecided as to how important sleep is to those functions. Some chemical processes may need to be shored up as well, but, well....~Magic~.

The question remains, what would you do with those extra 8 hours?

You will need extra calories for a start. one extra meal per day will be needed. Also, you will need something to do. 8 hours is a lot of time. you could pick up a new hobby, but it has to be one that can be done in the dark, while everyone else is asleep (No perform: percussion please).

Batts

It's a long road to go down, to be sure.

1) Feat tax. You don't even start until 7th level (master craftsman at 5th level and then you qualify for the relevant feat only. selecting it will have to come later) Fighter's may not care at the feat tax though.

2) The skill needs to be relevant. You need to be able to use the skill when it comes down to it. You can have as many ranks of Profession: Confectioner as you like, it won't be any use in crafting magic armour. Likewise, Craft woodworking, will probably only help when making wooden weapons or armour (or wonderous items)

3) Other heavy stuff: as you're not a spell caster, there's a likelihood you have to eat all the extra prerequisites as well (Though, to be fair you do get a +2 to the skill)also, I'm not sure you get a huge amount of skill points either as a gunslinger.

All In all, you had better really want this.

Batts

and on a related note, is a blacksmith any good working with dragon scale? I mean, it's not actually metal (though if he actually posesses craft: armour then I don't see a mechanical problem)

On another tangent, who is doing the skinning? I mean, a good sized dragon is a ton or two of meat. Are we going to just sit in the lair and skin it right there, or were we dragging the body to a professional to get the job done. What would the skill be to skin it anyway. survival? Profession: butcher?

As I am led to believe, it takes a bit of time and effort to skin something, first the slicing, then perhaps some curing.

I know It's come up in a game or two of mine. deep in the mountains a half dragon/crocodile gets slain by the PC's and they debate the whole skinning it for leather. 3 days march back to a hearth, and another 3 by road to an actual town with a leatherworker. They left it there rather than hack it to pieces and drag it back with them.

Batts

.

.
Is there any other creature you can use to make Dragon Hide Armor without it being from a Dragon.

What i mean is, can you make Hide armor as good as dragon hide, from some other creature that is not a dragon??
.

Probably not. However, the creature's skin is potentially able to offset the cost of masterwork Hide.

Batts

So we are playing Serpent Skull tonight, book one, and we stumble across a little shed. My half-orc inquistor kicks in the door, hops in, and looks around, asking what he sees. The DM response... "You jump inside the shed... it's a Gazebo." (Which for those who don't know, is a reference to http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/98/Jul/gazebo.html ) My group found the whole thing pretty hilarious, but I had to ask: Has anyone else ever been "Gazeboed" by the DM while playing before?

No.

But, I have used an animated object (Gazebo) on the PC's before.

Them, being aware of the joke, were gobsmacked when the Gazebo uprooted and went for them.

Hillarity. Almost a party wipe, but Hillarity nontheless.

Also, a Pagoda/Mimic

Batts

Establish an upper and lower price for the item. rule of thumb it to +/- 20% (This Vase, value 100GP has a salable value of 80-120 GP)

Have merchant make a profession: merchant roll.

* If the merchant is actively hawking start with a slightly higher initial bid 'Hey Mister! you want Vase? 130 gold!'
- If PC refuses, immeadiately jump to 120

* If PC asks about object, start with initial high price.

In either case, PC makes an counter offer, and then rolls diplomacy. He's aiming for the result of the profession check. If he bids underneath the lower amount, grant a circumstance penalty. If he fails, move the offer down by a few coins (never below base price). if he succeeds, move it down by 10%

Give the PC three attempts before the merchant settles on his 'final price'

I've found that most goods that have to be haggled for carry a vastly inflated price, and merchants are more than willing to eat into the 'profit' margin of an item. They expect it to be haggled downwards a little or a lot. It is a rare occasion for a merchant to be out of pocket though.

Batts

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” -- Mark 1:17

I vote the net would be the favored weapon of Catholicism. ;)

John 2:15: favoured weapon scourge and /or whip

Batts

might I suggest looking at OGL steampunk?

It was a hokey little 3.0 adaption with it's own unique magic system that worked out well in the few games I have run.
Each school of magic had a feat requirement (Spell casters got a few feats for this purpose) and each school had a pertinent skill. You built the spell yourself, (at a good deal of time and component cost) and then loaded the thing into an artifact (to be let loose ad infinitum as long as you could make the relevant skill roll to activate it.

despite the extra bits, it involved a decent, and comprehensive spell creation system that could be invaluable if someone professional were to take it up and rejigger it to be, you know, professional.

Batts

I don't think the target is required to hrt himself knowingly. Still, I have a witch PC that frequetly hands out Cause light wounds potions to bad guys, and the occasional acid flask. 'Here..drink this'

The Bad guys, of course, gets his normal save vs the potion, and I've allowed a perception check for potential acid drinkers to notice that the brew they are about to down is acid. Otherwise caveat emptor.

Batts

prime them with something low. a CR1 bad guy is about as powerful as a level 2 character, so scale appropriately.

The CR setting assumes a relatively optimised, well equipped party with access to healing, roguiness, fighting and spell slinging. If your party is Not like this, you need a quick re-assesment of the appropriateness of CR's (or types of CR's)

the brief of it is, scale down the CR if the party is sub-optimal in any way (Especially the lack of a healer..the ability to have a rest on HP is a game saver).

Could you summarise your Party so we an better assist?

Batts

It's not new, but I laud you for your discovery.

There is a game, Over the edge, that basically advocates whole campiagns doing just that, even to the point that PC's are generating whole plot arcs just from randomly blurted things.

It's a new trick, and It's fun, but be carefull.

Batts

Congrats!

Monkeys hopped up on acid.

fiendish monkeys. So they can have acid resistence.

Hmmm......

Picture a dungeon in the shape of a ring. One big loop. at each of the cardinal points is a pit trap, and at 45 degrees to each pit trap is an 'encounter zone'. I like crypts (as a general rule anyway) and the ghouls as listed works well.

The pit traps lead to a central shaft (greased thanks)which dump into a main chamber with something that should not be done. Off the top of my head a zombie hydra sounds applicable. The skum and slime that the ghouls keep dropping down here make the terrain difficult all the way through.

for those parties that seem to pit trap resistant (I'm looking at you miscellaneous rogue), leave some secret door that leads down, into a corridoor (and trap that too) that leads into zombie-hydra town.

as for getting in and out.......

The circular dungeon rotates. The opening opens once every three hours, and only for 20 minutes at a time. Given the nature of the inhabitants, it goes in some epic cemetery (which is where you can leverage the lesser undead into some pre dungeon play)Terrain being the hallmark of a good fight, some towering tombstones to hamper vision and line of effect sound about right, and some ledges for undead to scramble across allows you to execute some 'death from above' scenarios.

Batts

The last pyramid I used on adventurers was populated by a minotaur. a big 3D maze with maze traps (traps that tigger the maze spell), and a pair of magnificent mansions set on sliding blocks (so whole sections of the dungeon 'moved')

The minotaur was bandaged, but by no means a mummy. (Apis, the bull headed deity) and a variety of mimics, disguised monsters and animated objects. even the 'treasure' turned out to be a creature.

It was fun, having characters get 'lost'

Batts

It's matter of perspective in this case.

If Bob is sprinting past me, and I take my attack of Opportunity with, say, my hand axe, he is easier to hit. Think of any time you see someone get stiff-armed while running.

As for ranged attacks, The opponennt sprinting is moving in a predictable straight line (you cannot turn while sprinting) so it's a simple matter to simply aim a little ahead and predict his movements. In addition, a good deal of the time, the target's concentration is focused solely on what is in front of him, and in the distance, and not on the guy with the crossbow.

In all other cases, yes it is harder to hit a moving target. for most weapons, after moving 120 feet, the target starts to move into multiple range increments (long bow not withstanding of course).

Certainly it might be easier to avoid bowshots if you are both aware of the shooter and actively trying not to be shot (as opposed to being 'relatively still')

Batts

I've sighted a barbarian at the club I attend.

She's a dex 18 str 10 build with dodge and mobility going on, and she weilds a pair of Chakram (obviously, not at the same time, as she lacks the feats)

she's also a good (Ish) skill build with a 14 inteligence. She seems to be holding up well against the fighter, but time will tel when the levels start to climb (they are 3rd level right now, she has superior HP, but not by much and comparable AC. It's her rage that puts her up a notch)

Batts

My heroic campaign is 20 points and medium progression. My gritty one is fast progression and 15 points

I suppose that leads the way for slow progression and 25 points.

Batts

I've got a game with a 20 dex, 10 Str Barbarian using 2 weapon fighting. The same game has a dedicated witch healer and a martially inclined druid (holding on to a single fighter level to back it up) The rogue makes magic items and is the official magic expert.

Batts

The bards I have in my games use spin down counters. when they start, they set it to the number of rounds available, and on their action spin it down by one. They sit on the table and are pretty hard to miss, so they rarely forget, though I have one player who often forgets to turn it down on his turn.

The same spin down counters works for barbarian rage as well.

Batts

You've seen it a almost every fantasy-based movie/tv show with a big monster. The hero climbs up the monster and does something like poke out its eyes or cut off its head.

And this is exactly what my players try to do everytime they encounter a monster bigger than themselves. Ogres, Dragons, Purple Worms, you name it, they wanna climb it. And I always find myself at a loss for how those rules would work.

On a slightly related note, how do you actually kill a giant upon whom your attacks will hit their ankles, or the monster whose tentacles are the only things characters can hit? How do you see it play out?

Thanks!

well: I would suppose with climbing a larger than you style critter you should grapple, followed by a climb. That said, grappling the larger foes is pretty difficult all by itself.

So I guess: establish a hold (as opposed to a grapple). You make a CMB vs the opponent's CMD and you enjoy a +5 to the attempt (As usual, it's best if you have oth hands free). If successful, you gain the grappled condition (your opponent does not)from there make a climb check (as a move action).

To your second question: Fights are dynamic things, with jumps and rolls and a lot of movement. Big creatures have a lot of HP so the first few strikes are bviously jabs to knees and hips. as HP start to drop, the blows are raining down on a monsters shoulder as he slumps, or when he bends down to strike.

As for the tentacles, well they are usually entered into as the creature's reach. IIRC you cannot actualy strike them, but have to move in. (Which seems silly..why can you not hold an action and strike the tentacles?)

Batts

I ran a 3.5 campaign where everyone was a psion. a very..different game to be sure. 3 teleporters (Nomads?) and a biokeneticist (Egoist?)

I had to play very lightly, as I didn't want to kill any of them witha bit of combat. Suprisingly, when you have the skin of an eggshell, you tend to put a little more thought into the melee aspects of your characters.

Recently I ran an all Barbarian game. It is still in progress.

Batts

I like mixing plants with undead, because they really don't care about each other.

A big assassin vine and a handful of zombies (or skeletons depending how much meat on the bones you prefer) is always a good time.

I've done this. an assasin vine that had taken root in an ogre Zombie.

Batts

Technically, a flammable substance is one which easilly catches fire, whereas combustable refers to a substance that can catch fire, but you have to work at it.

Compare and contrast Propane (Flammable) and wood (Combustable).

Your clothes are combustable, by and large, though some exceptional fabrics will be flammable. I'm thinking, period medievil garb will be combustable rather than flammable.

Batts