Ion Raven's page

Just thinking it would be fun to create some sort of Paizo Pantheon to highlight notable posters. ;p

So just nominate any poster and what position should be and domains you think they should control.

Just listing some threads that come up often enough. This is all for good humor.

Alignment threads

Just curious, but what does it take to make our own avatar in these boards? Does the image need to be submitted to Paizo staff so that they can approve of it? Or is it even possible?

Having played through Star Ocean Till the End of Time again, had me thinking about the fourth dimension. I find it interesting, but I started thinking about how we would interact and perceive the world if we were actually missing out on a dimension.

Anybody out there who thought they came up with something rather clever but had their creativity stifled by something not covered in the rules or the GM decided it would go wrong.

I remember one time there was a druid that used entangle which pretty much left me trapped for the rest of the battle. I had tried to cut through the entangling vines, but instead it took away my weapon and i had to make a reflex save to get out of the vines again. -_-

There was another time on a beach, I was in a row boat and there were enemies underwater. I had a sword with shock on it. I tried to turn on shock and let it send electricity through the water. Nope, GM ruled that the electricity only worked when I made a swing.

And yet another time I tried to climb a golem. Apparently it was decided that I had to make a grapple check (not a climb check) despite the fact that I didn't even plan on putting it into grappled status, I was just trying to get on top to have an advantage.

Another time, I tried to use Ray of Frost to chill a glass. Apparently it destroyed the cup.

These were a long time ago, and sure they aren't really covered by the rules, but it really was a burn out when I tried to be innovative only to get slapped in the face.

I don't know why it's never been discussed, but Archery really is like magic in the d20 system. Has anyone ever notice that when someone on these boards talks about a powerful fighter, a majority of the time it's an archer?

Archery uses Dexterity to hit, same stat used for dodging and for all of the feats. Archery is ranged, meaning one can shoot an enemy before it reaches them. Although using a ranged weapon in melee provokes an attack of opportunity, one usually has teammates to keep enemies from reaching them, but one can five foot step most times out of reach and shoot (unless the enemy specifically has the step up feat). I think there are also feats that prevent AoOs as well but I don't know. Majority of fights take place within the range of the bow before distance starts to affect accuracy. Shooting an arrow 300 feet is apparently no harder than swinging a club at someone within the d20 system. Anyone who cares can eventually shoot an arrow per second over a hundred feet with amazing accuracy. Arrows never need to arch, so shooting indoors or in caves is A-Okay.

Ridiculous and unrealistic? Yes, but whatever it's a game where it only takes 13 dexterity to knock an arrow out of the sky. I mean, these arrows are moving slow enough for the targets to dodge them.

These are not some special class ability, anyone with the feats, BAB, and Dexterity can do it.

But remember, only archery can be this mundanely magical. So don't hope to wield a giant's sword without taking a special Barbarian class for it.

Going to add to the alignment threads since there's already over nine-thousand by this time. Though I think I'd like to add a new (or undisclosed) perspective. As I see it, there are two things that alignment is used for in D&D.

The first is descriptive alignment; basically how a character acts or their personality. The axes on this alignment system vary from person to person and it is very subjective. It can be useful for giving a quick idea on a charater's motivations or personality or a giving a general idea of how a race acts. Unfortunately, this kind of alignment quickly delves into sticky territory when somebody else judges another's alignment as different people have different perspectives on what is good and what is evil, what is lawful and what is chaotic. This kind of alignment adds very little to a game and often causes more problems than it solves.

The second use for alignment is what team you're working for. I'll call it alligence alignment for now. This is the objective portion of alignment for which the spells and auras are based on. The classics are good and evil, but it has devolved into nine different overlapping groups with Neutral accepting everything that doesn't fit in the other 8. This kind of alignment is useful for describing aliances between creatures sharing a common goal and thus intertwined with the spells cast and the auras that certain characters give off.

These two very different uses for alignment are however woven together by D&D. Although there is no mechanical benefit of use #1 people fight because of their differing interpretations of it because it affects use #2.

Fortunately there are solutions to it, depending on your reason to keep alignment.

If you want to keep alignment so that you can restrict how the players play their characters, I'd probably tell you to stop telling people how to play their characters, but maybe you've ran into those people who will play the murdering, back-stabbing, hobo if you let them. Unfortunately, some people will play those characters no matter what alignment you restrict them to, if such is the case first you need to find new players.

So what's the probem with just telling them to not play evil? Well "evil" is very vague. Many actions seem wrong, but may be justified at points; even killing (if you do it to save someone or the world). Is stealing evil, or is it just chaotic? These are questions you're players may ask. If you just want them to play respectable characters that don't backstab each other and don't cause problems for their party... Just ask them that. If you're players can't do that, than you need new players and the alignment system is just not the right fix.

If you're not trying to keep your players in line, than your reason is most likely the rules entanglement. "It's so hard to remove alignment" some may say. Don't remove it, just drop the descriptive alignment, keep alligence alignment. Most characters don't need an alignment, only Clerics, Paladins, and Outsiders should matter. I go with 'Holy' being the Celestials and 'Taint' being the Demons and Devils. But I've been thinking that maybe having three alignments, might be interesting, "Holy","Abyssal", and "Infernal". Basically with this kind of alignment system, don't be a prick and have their every action define them; what you do is view how their alligence would view their actions; do they agree with it? If not, let their alligence drop them. It doesn't mean the player must change how their characer is acting or suddenly feel like they're playing their character wrong; it simply means they had a disagreement with the main alligence.

Then there comes, "what do with Paladin smite?" You want a Paladin to smite Undead and Chromatic Dragons along with the Tainted, let the smite work for that too.

Anyway, my point is that if D&D had separated Alligence from Personality, D&D would have a lot fewer alignment problem thereads.

Also to those who feel that real world alignment is objective, quit being so sanctimonious. Not everyone agrees to your philosophies.

I've seen this line (or some version of it) countless times in stories, shows, movies, etc.

A balance must be maintained between good and evil.

Followed by some blabber of how the 'scale' has been tipped in favor of evil and the good guys must balance it. So following the previous mantra, does the scale ever tip in favor of good and for some reason must be balanced by evil. What good would come of it? What's wrong with the world being overflowing in some wholesome goodness?

Maybe I'm the only person here that thinks measuring "Intelligence" is futile.

Part of the reason it bothers me so much is because it's ill defined. There are three things I have seen that are often attributed to being Intelligence.

And I'm not talking about Muls from Dark Sun, I'm talking about Humans that suffer from Dwarfism. Do they get sent to the mines and are adopted by Dwarven nations?

What's a good site to put together a collaborative game project online?

I want to put together a game development group, but my biggest issue is having somewhere to collect all our ideas and work online. Ideally it should have forums, but that's not key. Any ideas?

Personally I'm really bad as a GM when it comes to asking for initiative. In my games non-combat can fluidly flow into combat. That and rolling for initiative hardly makes sense to me in most situations. So I was thinking about making it static based off the Initiative score and giving a bonus if they're prepared or a penalty if they were surprised. I was wondering if anybody else does something like this and how it went for them.

Since there are so many 'gunslinger' hate threads out there, I thought maybe it's a good time to question the 80's kungfu action monk. I can see how a Cowboy character slinging around guns would be out of place in your average sword and sorcery adventure, but what about that monk. Not the one that sits inside all day devoting all his time and faith to the lord, but the one running around adventuring, fighting monsters unarmed or using exotic weaponry, and using the mysterious ki, which is like magic but since it comes from within it's not magic.

I'm not saying martial arts didn't exist in medieval times, because they did, but so did guns. I'm saying the wuxia monk is a really out of place character that gets tossed around like it's normal. I for one have banned the monk class just out of theme that the world was based upon.

Please not that this has nothing to do with the power level or balance or any crunch like that and is entirely about the flavor and style of the monk.

Lately I've just really wanted to have a discussion about the three elements of an engaging game

Often when someone goes on about making fighters supernatural on these boards, someone else will rebuke with the idea that fighters should be bound by the laws of the world AKA they should be realistic. But are they really?

I've seen iconic examples of Wizards, Assassins, Rogues, Bards, Barbarians, and Paladins in stories and myths, but I don't think I've ever seen one of a straight fighter. I don't know of any fighting character that wasn't either charismatic, stealthy, or a barbarian.

In real life, what I know of both historical and modern armies is that they are actually trained in many non-combat skills as well. Making them closer to rangers than just fighters. Is there anyone in real life who is only skilled in the use of a single type of weapon?

Recently, I've seen many threads that want to combine rogues and fighters for mechanical reasons, but maybe they should be combined for flavor reasons, maybe call them mercenaries.
In it's place, the Ninja should be left (magic wielding assassin is probably what the rogue should have been).

Or perhaps I'm just missing something?

I'm just curious of what kind of groups people are running games for?

The game I'm currently has a party consisting of 2 Magi, a Bard, and a Ranger.

The Bard is using a custom archetype (She's a tarrot card master), she's a Veila (a homebrew race in my campaign, they're fox eared people).
One of the Magi is a Elven Myrmidarch focused on using archery while the other is a Tiefling Blade Bound using a Falchion.
The Ranger is using the Two-Handed combat style.

I'm trying to figure out if the new abilities for Time Sight replace the old one, can be used as well as the old ability, or are function together with the old ability at the same time. Can anyone share some insight?

Time Sight (Su): You can peer through the mists of time to see things as they truly are, as if using the true seeing spell. At 15th level, this functions like moment of prescience. At 18th level, this functions like foresight. You can use this ability for a number of minutes per day equal to your oracle level, but these minutes do not need to be consecutive. You must be at least 11th level to select this revelation.

Speed
First off, I feel slow should be worth 2 extra points; It drops standard move action by 5ft, a charge or double move by 10ft, and running by 20-25ft.

Steady should be an ability costing about 1 point; it mitigates the problem of being slow but the benefits aren't really worth much.

In the same stead, anything that grants fast movement (10ft to base speed) should cost at least 2 points. Fleet, a feat, only grants 5ft to the base speed.

Languages
While xenophobic may be worth a flaw simply of the inability to speak common or undercommon though that is easily negated through a single skill point in linguistics, the difference between standard and linguist is extremely minor. It's very rare that a player will be able to use even 1 of the exclusive languages which can be simply gotten from putting a rank in linguistics. Hence I feel that anything to do with languages is setting specific and up to GM discretion.

0 Cost Abilities
Some abilities are so weak yet specific that making them cost any points is silly. One such example is Greed which does grants a +2 to a rarely used skill with specific items that rarely if ever show up. Also Hooved, as written should not cost anything (and is actually a penalty with anything less than 4 legs) as being hooved does not grant natural attacks and limits the items you can wear.

A GM should be weary about adding too many of these 'free' abilities, but other than that, it should be fine to not make them cost anything.

Feat-like Abilities
They should cost 3 points. Skilled should cost 3 pts, not 4; Adaptability, Hardy, and Gnome Magic should cost 3 pts, not 1. They're all powerful abilities.

Bonus Feat, I'm okay with it being 4 points for the following reasons: it's customizable, meaning a player can optimize it for any build; it can be used as part of a feat chain.

Trait-like Abilities
Should cost only 1 point. +2 to a specific ability is nice, yes, but it's set in stone and doesn't provide ranks or increase with ranks.

And with that reasoning I re-measured out how the races would be balanced:

Maybe I'm just special, but was I the only one who assumed that small size, slow(movement 20 ft), and a Str penalty would be linked before checking out the Creation Guide?

This is really just an aesthetic issue and not at all important, but I really don't like the term RP for racial point as I already use RP quite often as shorthand for RolePlay...

So I've decided to finally take a look at it. Am I the only one who's noticed how weird the RP costs are? Let's take a look:

Skill Bonus (+2 to specific skill chosen by race) - 2 RP
Adaptability (Skill Focus feat which grants +3 [+6 at 20 ranks] to skill of choice) - 1 RP
Bonus Feat (choose a feat [which could be Skill Focus]) - 4 RP

A feat is half the worth of a half feat...

I understand that you were trying to make the core races look balanced (which they aren't really). Let's actually analyze the Human. What makes the human so valuable? Is it the bonus feat? Well other races get special abilities, many which can't even be obtained through a feat. Is it the skill point every level? Well guess what, a +2 Int also grants an extra skill point every level, as well as boost class features.

I often read that human is the most powerful race, but it isn't really. What makes it popular is customization. Most of the other races are angled to be better at specific classes because stats and abilities; the human it can be anything. I admit the bonus feat is really good, but half-elf is better if you ever decide to take Eldritch Heritage.

Sure the classes get along with each other just fine without really stepping on each other's toes, but when a race is built for a specific class or build, the human gets stepped all over. Then it gets into GM discretion territory. If the races fall under GM discretion anyway, why make arbitrary rules to pretend like all the core races are equal in terms of point cost. (I've played games where Aasimar and Tieflings were PCs, they weren't stronger than the other PCs).

Just because something is of a lower point build doesn't mean players won't take it. While the other races are better geared for certain build, a human can be built into anything. The more options you have, the more you can mix and match, the less attractive the human is. At that point, what makes the human attractive is RP reasons.

I'm not really a number cruncher so I don't know if this would actually in effect be gimped. Basically I'm thinking Magus(Myrmidarch) 4/Ranger(Infiltrator) 3/Arcane Archer X. What feats / spells would make this bowman more viable if possible?

As we all know it's a fantasy cliche for a world to have tens to hundreds of thousands of recorded history. Am I the only one or are there others who enjoy adventures through untrodden lands where there is no previous settlement alive or dead prevailing? Exploring new lands in a new world where not much is really known. Am I really one who yearns for the fantasy of exploring a world that has just recently been born?

Over the last year, I've been playing with D&D and Pathfinder and its rules. I've come up with variations of rules on pretty much everything. While I still play Pathfinder, I also have an infant system which is stripped of both the flavor and mechanics of Pathfinder. So I was wondering where any good sites or forums where roleplaying game design can be discussed can be found.

Lately I've been toying with the idea in my head of removing combat feats and instead making them 'combat techniques'. This idea is to make them similar in mechanics to how a prepared caster can learn spells, martial characters can learn techniques. This is to bring a level of realism to the table as fighters can learn techniques from different sources such as a master or a scroll that describes an ancient technique thus picking up different styles. There might be a limit to how many techniques a character can learn that raises by level. Their BAB would be the limit to how advanced their techniques are. Instead of Fighters getting combat feats, they develop martial techniques as they level up (similar to how wizards get spells).

I'm really only experienced with 3.5 and Pathfinder, but lately I've been wanting to add different elements and next thing I know I'm changing the whole system... So I figure, maybe there's another system that does what I want to do.

I've always found the rules for jumping to be weird. So here's my fix for it...
Acrobatics Roll = (Ranks in Acrobatics + Strength + Bonuses)

For Horizontal Jumps with a running start:

At first it seems counter intuitive, but listen to my explanation. Say there is a powerful sorceress looking for someone to be by her side. There are certain things about a low charisma character that make it attractive.

* They are less able to efficiently lie thus less likely to lie in the first place. That's the thing about charismatic people, they have that ability to trick you which makes them less trustworthy

* They are more obedient. Without the charisma bring up their own opinions they tend to be more submissive. That's why the DC on diplomacy is higher for more charismatic people. It's just easier to get people to do your bidding when they think/know that they're below you. They are less able to intimidate, lie to, or convince you to let up.

Charisma doesn't necessarily mean ugly, so they can be pretty too. Even if they're not, I suppose you could alter them to make them look pretty.

Low charisma characters are less likely to try to take control and less able to hide information from you making them great for long lasting relationships. Charismatic characters are much to ambitious and more likely to pull the veil over your eyes as they usurp all that you've worked for.

I want to run a Pathfinder game that isn't so saturated in magic that there are magic shops in every city but I don't want it to be so grim that characters are stuck at low levels and can easily die.

I really like the a lot of the class abilities of Pathfinder's classes so I still want to let the characters to level, but i don't want to turn them into gods.

Here are some of my modifications:
* Magic Shops will be Rare and have limited selection of items - I want to make 'magic shops' more like antique shops. They may buy off your magical artifacts if they think its valuable and if they have the money, but it's no guarantee. Also you can't just order a +4 flaming sword whenever, that really breaks the setting. I want magical items to be rare and valuable.

* Crafting Magical Items requires special materials - Again with magical items being rare, it takes more than just gold to make them. The items used should be relevant to the item of course.

* Economy and Crafting are being reworked - The buying, selling, and creation of even mundane items is kinda ridiculous. An area where everyone is an archer and there is plenty of wood should have bows and arrows be much cheaper than if you try to buy them in the desert.

* Stamina System in Place - This is similar to the Vigor system in UC; basically it's to justify fighters being better fighters without making them gods. I also have a different critical system in place.

* Spell Revamping - Spells available have a huge effect on the setting, so even though this is work it needs to be done in a game of low magic. Modifications that I'm making are along the lines of making Summoning spells specific to a certain Entity and making the amount regained by healing spells depends on the recipient's level.

* Monsters will have to be reviewed when put into play - Since I'm dampening their magic and their health, the CR of monsters is definitely going to be higher than what their level would suggest.

However, I may be missing things. Are there any particular class abilities that I should be on the lookout for? Rules that I should be knowledgeable of that would instantly gib a PC such as common monster abilities?

So this was actually brought up in the Metrication of Pathfinder Thread. I'm thinking about converting the 5ft measurement into a 2yd measurement. Seems easy enough except that the squares are a 6:5 ratio. This means either boosting the speed of all races or recalculating everything. I want to keep the human land speed, I'll just fudge the speed of the other races to fit the 2 yard measurements. The squares exactly half the speed. For the small races I'm going to round up because 3 squares a turn is pretty brutal. Half speed is pretty easy to calculate as all the numbers are even.

Movement and Range

30 ft - 10 yd (5 sq)
25/20 ft - 8 yd (4 sq)
20/15 ft - 6 yd (3 sq)
10 ft - 4 yd (2 sq)
5 ft - 2 yd (1 sq)
40 ft - 14 yd (7 sq)
50 ft - 16 yd (8 sq)
60 ft - 20 yd (10 sq)
70 ft - 24 yd (12 sq)
80 ft - 26 yd (13 sq)
90 ft - 30 yd (15 sq)
100 ft - 34 yd (17 sq)
110 ft - 36 yd (18 sq)
120 ft - 40 yd (20 sq)

Depth

2 yd ~= 1 fathom (1 sq vertical)

Weapons and actual speeds of creatures may need some looking at though, since you might want to determine certain things would probably fit better on the other side of the scale (after all things were adjusted to fit the 10 ft scale and making an adjustment from an adjustment causes weird effects).

Spells

Close - 8 yd + 2 yd/caster level
Medium - 32 yd + 4 yd/caster level
Long - 128 yd + 16 yd/caster level

I dunno, needs some work. Anyway, help or advice anyone?

Even without really going into fine detail with the stats, one can play the game with few incidents. However those few incidents can be really perplexing because of different views of what the stats mean. Here are my own personal views of what the stats represent and I'll even give examples from the system that I believe support my views.

Strength - This I believe to be one's physical output. That's why it's used for damage. Not much to question here, moving on.

Dexterity - Dexterity doesn't just cover manual dexterity, it covers all forms of motor control from precision movement (sleight of hand, stealth) to full body reflexes (AC, Reflex Saves, Initiative) it also covers one's accuracy (ranged weapons) and coordination (acrobatics). It does not cover speed, and I've never seen any proof in game to support such a theory.

Constitution - Represents health (endurance) and toughness (fortitude saves). Hitpoints, representing both one's stamina and capacity for damage makes heavy use of this attribute.

Intelligence - While most people can agree that it represents intelligence, it bothers me a little bit. What bothers me most is that I have not seen someone capable of playing an intelligence higher than their own. Intelligence on its own is vague enough term that covers many aspects. Instead of using the term 'Intelligence', I'd like to say that it represents Comprehension, in other words the ability to pick up knowledge. Comprehension fulfills the notion of being able to learn skills more easily, picking up knowledge and languages, and comprehending magic. A player can play a character with a higher comprehension than themselves via the DM giving them information directly.

Wisdom - Oh god wisdom. What wisdom actually is in the real world, is experience. That's not what 'wisdom' represents in D&D. I'd describe wisdom and vigilance and discipline. Perception and professions make sense with vigilance and discipline. Clerics are vigilant and disciplined, as are Druids, as are Monks; well at least they're supposed to be. It also makes more sense that a vigilant and disciplined character would make their will save. Characters that are vigilant and disciplined could probably be described as wise, so maybe that's what they were going for.

Charisma - The ability to influence. Some people say that this is also beauty. However other than the hordes of monsters that have high charisma and look extremely ugly, let us use something that rings closer to the PCs. Charisma is used for the ability to manipulate magic spontaneously (Sorcerers, Oracles, Using Magic Devices). Magic is blind to the human's measure of beauty. Also while it's possible that Sorcerers and Oracles could look pretty, they could just as well look hideous being deformed from their bloodline or curses. You don't need to look pretty to lie, bribe, intimidate, handle animals, use magic, or even perform, especially in front of non-humans who don't share the human's perception of beauty. Let's say you are invisible, should you take a penalty to charisma because no one can see how pretty you are? It's also not a measure of friendliness. Friendliness is not something that gets a stat. I don't need to be able to manipulate people to have friends, and if I am manipulating people, are they really my friends? Quit trying to make things difficult, it's just a measure of influence. Where does it not make sense as influence?

Lately I've been wanting to make Paladin a prestige class. I remember seeing something similar in Unearthed Arcana a long time ago. I want to make it the Pathfinder's Paladin though. Just wondering if someone has the work cut out for me? :p

Something I read recently was that the Paladin is a Paragon of Good and it is something someone strives for, not something they inherently are. So it makes sense to keep this away from a level 1 character and have it as something they grow into.

Is it even possible? I'm been trying to wrap my brain around it for a while. The idea is that prepared casting would stack and spontaneous casting would stack (such as for Paladin/Cleric or Druid/Ranger). In my head I've got that there are Full Casters (Clerics, Druids, Wizards, Witches, Oracles, Sorcerers), 3/4 Casters (Bards, Alchemists, Inquisitors, Magi, Summoners), and Half Casters (Paladins, Rangers). The idea is to have them share a list and grow off of each other rather than have separate weak lists. I know I could make up some sort of point system, but I wanted to know if someone had come up with a Vancian system first.

I couldn't help but remember this one time I saw a character sneak attack with a heavy mace. It was just so... wrong; sneak attack is supposed to represent precision damage, right? So just curious, what weapons would you deem appropriate for sneak attack?

I'm tempted to make it easy on myself and just say light weapons, but there are few one handed weapons I think would make good sneak attack such as the rapier. Hmm...

One of the things I've done is rename the stats. Partly because some of them are named strangely for what they actually do. Some stats I feel intrude on the freedom of roleplaying. The redefining bit, is just my personal input on what I feel is logical. Of course, it's really just my opinion. Anyway, I just wanted to share and maybe get some feedback.

• Strength for the most part remains the same, it's the ability to apply force however I feel it also represents speed in certain vains so I give a bonus or penalty to speed (1-7 -5ft, 16-23 +5ft; small character's base land speed starts at 25ft).

• Dexterity remains mostly the same except that it does not affect initiative and long range attacks are instead determined by intuition. Dexterity is a measure of a character's motor control. On the other hand dexterity can be used (Automatic Weapon Finesse) with "finesse" weapons (some are finesse only, such as the whip and the rapier). Sneak attacks can only be done with weapons with a finesse quality.

• Constitution is renamed to Build but otherwise is the same. Build represent how well a character is physically built, this doesn't mean size, but it can factor into size; it's a measure of how healthy they are. The only thing to note is that I use Build with Carrying Capacity to determine if they take nonlethal damage. Thus a character with good strength and no build can move a lot of things quickly but will tire easily while a character with good build can move loads all day.

• Intelligence is renamed to Intuition. Intuition is a measure of one's ability to pick things up easily and to anticipate what a character. Intuition determines initiative. Intuition is also used for hitting with a long range attack. Long range spells must make certain DCs based on the distance or go off target (into the wrong square). Intuition is used to sense motives. Characters with good Intuition but poor Discipline can easily be distracted however.

• Wisdom is renamed to Discipline. Discipline is a measure of a character's resolve. Discipline is used the same as wisdom. Discipline is the stat used for memory, as I believe memory is a sort of discipline. Discipline can be used for the knowledge skills. Concentration is based off of Discipline no matter what kind of caster is making the check.

• Charisma doesn't have any significant changes. Charisma is one's ability to influence and lead. Charisma does not include how pretty or ugly a character is. A character's appearance may affect a diplomacy check if the other character actually cares. Diplomacy with characters of other races or ethnicity however are usually not determinate on how pretty a character is. In fact a character may find the thin scantily clad blonde rather off putting. I have no problem with a pretty character having difficulty trying to lead, lie, or bribe.
  

You guys can think what you want of this. Basically I was busy messing with the skill system in Pathfinder, combining a lot of skills and splitting a few.

• Appraise - Removed it, and made it a part of Knowledge (local); It allows a character to know how valuable an object is in a particular region.
  
• Survival - Split into Hunt, for Tracking and keeping the party fed, and Knowledge (Nature) for dealing with weather and natural hazards
  
• Climb, Swim, and Fly have all been consolidated into Maneuver; Climbing mountains falls under maneuver, while climbing trees falls under acrobatics.
  
• Escape Artist - Acrobatics for escaping a grapple and such; Maneuver for crawling through tight spaces.
  
• Perform (whatever) - All perform skills have been consolidated into one skill; Every rank gains a new type of performance (similar to the linguistics skill)
  
• Profession (whatever) - As with perform, profession has been compressed into a single skill with every rank allowing the player to take up a new proffesion.
  
• Disable Device - Became a part of a new skill called Mechanics
  
• Use Magic Device - Dissolved into Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft; In my world, magical devices are rare enough and the way its magic in general works that to keep it as a separate skill is not useful.
  

• Alchemy - Creating magical concoctions and explosive powders
  
• Botany - Raising plants, creating medicine from those herbs, and locating and identifying plants
  
• Crafts - A sort of catch all for all sorts of art types including painting, sculpting, design, and even gem cutting
  
• Construction - covers masonry, carpentry, and building any sort of fortifications
  
• Culinary - Baking, boiling, and any other method of preparing food
  
• Documentation - Recording what you've learned; Also helps deal with forgery; To sketch what you've seen as closely as possible also falls under this skill.
  
• Manufacture - Creating materials such as leather, cloth, denim or other fabrics
  
• Mechanics - Working with traps, locks, devices, clocks, etc
  
• Smithing - Working with metal and glass; Pretty much using a forge; Metallurgy falls under this skill.
  
• Woodworking - Working with wood. Making Wooden Sculptures to making Bows and arrows
  

So after all that my skill list looks something like this:

• Acrobatics
  
• Alchemy
  
• Bluff
  
• Botany
  
• Crafts
  
• Construction
  
• Culinary
  
• Diplomacy
  
• Disguise
  
• Documentation
  
• Handle Animal
  
• Heal
  
• Hunt
  
• Intimidate
  
• Knowledge (Arcana)
  
• Knowledge (Dungeoneering)
  
• Knowledge (Engineering)
  
• Knowledge (Geography)
  
• Knowledge (History)
  
• Knowledge (Local)
  
• Knowledge (Nature)
  
• Knowledge (Religion)
  
• Linguistics
  
• Maneuver
  
• Manufacture
  
• Mechanics
  
• Perception
  
• Perform
  
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In a heavily house-ruled game of mine, I want to drop the save progression provided from classes to put more emphasis on the actual attributes and boost the importance of save-improving feats. The DCs from spells are much more static (based off of attributes, not level) in my heavily home-brewed magic system. So my question; Other than magic and massive damage, what else would provide an extremely high save?

I always saw strength as power given off and constitution as durability. It's the difference between the sprinter and the marathon runner. The same difference between the power of an engine and the fuel efficiency of it. And in that sense, I always imagine that speed would be a subset of strength.

However, the mention of weight lifters always comes up, they are strong but slow. The difference between them and runners though is that bulk, which may add to their lifting capabilities, but it also slows them down.

Today I got this idea of implementing a bulk trait, to represent how bulky they are. The player can decide when they create their character if he or she is bulky but changing it in game would require training or a change of diet. Bulk has both positives and negatives. Bulkier characters hit harder, can take more hits, and are more stable, but they are also slower, less graceful, and have less stamina.
A bulky character gains:
+1 damage
+1 hitpoint
+2 against being tripped, overrun, or bull rushed
+1 fortitude
+2 carrying score
-5 ft of speed
-1 acrobatics, climb, fly, and swim
-4 to constitution checks to running, marches, swimming, starvation and thirst.

Not everyone needs the bulk, for example, Bruce Lee.

Is the idea reasonable?
And is would it be balanced if I implemented it?

Usually I'm of the 'alignments should be dropped' camp, but I today I had this weird/cool idea. Alignment meters. There are four meters, Good, Evil, Lawful, and Chaotic. They rise or drop in accordance for a player's actions, by how much is determined in the end by the GM.

So for example

Good (The paragon path)
Rises
* Saving Someone
* Returning a lost object
* Donations
* Protecting someone else
* Showing Mercy
Lowers
* Ignoring someone in need
* Keeping loot rather than finding the original owner

Evil (The destructive path)
Rises
* Killing Someone
* Stealing Something
* Torturing Someone
* Enslaving Someone
Lowers
* Bounding someone rather than just killing them
* Letting someone off

Lawful
Rises
* Following orders
Lowers
* Not doing something that the law asks you to do
* Ignoring Commands

Chaotic
Rises
* Doing something against the law
* Doing something even when told not to
Lowers
* Not doing something because it's against the law
* Accommodating for the customs of others

Good and Evil should be separate because someone could do an ambiguous action (kill a person to protect another, in which case it's a little evil, but the good should outweigh the evil) and it defines the difference between a person who's hopping on both sides and the person who prefers not to be involved.

Lawful and Chaotic, I'm not so sure. But this setup allows for a Lawful Chaotic character, such as one who follows a strict code that differs from the law.

Meh, I dunno. I don't even think that I'd ever realistically use it, but I just felt like putting the idea out there.

Dexterity is finesse and fine motor skills, but sometimes I see places where dexterity is used as speed and it makes me cringe a little. If anything were to represent speed, I believe it should be strength. Doing something carefully and doing something fast are rather opposite.

So I want to make the following changes:
* Using Strength for Reflex saves
* Limiting AoO from Combat Reflexes to Str Modifier (It still uses Dex as the prerequisite)
* Carrying Capacity is determined by Constitution (I see Constitution as being representative of one's build)

The other thing I wanted to do is have Strength affect one's land speed:
1-7 | -5
8-15 | 0
16-23 | +5
24-29 | +10

If I do use this, what are things I should watch out that would upset balance?

How many people here have gone the whole 9 yards and swapped out pretty much all of the mechanics?

* Hitpoints & Damage
* Combat
* Magic System
* Attributes
* Skills (How they work / how they improve over time)
* Classes / Leveling up
* Equipment and Items / Encumbrance
* Getting Magical Items
* Item Creation
* d20 (using other dice in place of it)
* Alignment

I've written variant rules for all of those things (maybe more), which all together is only D&D in spirit. And honestly, I've only been playing for little over a year. So I just figure there would be others that have also replaced the entire underlying mechanics as well, right?

So my DM usually runs pretty cool games with lots of interesting twists, but right now we've started a new campaign. He (at least he says) that he designs his worlds before the players play, which I think is a valid method for those who like world building.

The game starts with us being young children of a peaceful but primitive tribe on a small secluded island.

* So what do our people believe in? Nothing, there is no religion, the gods are dead.

O.o? My people have no religion? Are my people daft? Do they just not care to explain how or why the happenings that go around them go around? Ugh... Whatever... No one has questioned

* So what do my people eat? Fish and what they can forage. That's it.

They apparently have never hunted birds, small mammals, or even taken to eating insects. This suddenly becomes extremely relevant when you're trying to survive in the woods after your home is burned down in the middle of the night by strange humanoid creatures with covered in shiny material.

* The woods have never been explored.

Really? What did the people do with their time? For whatever inexplicable reason they were just afraid of the woods or do they just lack curiosity?

And while the game technically can go on with out these questions being answered, I find role playing a character from a society with absolutely no ambition what so ever frustratingly difficult. For now, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt because usually his games get really good.

Anyone else ever end up in game where the world is frustratingly nonsensical?

The concept I have could probably described as an alchemist (not Pathfinder's class). She lives on her own in caves and hunts creatures with a spear for food and for components. Most of her life she spent on researching ways to manipulate both the environment and herself. Focusing on crafting Alchemy. Her favored weapon is a spear which she apply poisons to.

The problem is, I don't know how I should build her in Pathfinder terms. Even though she is an "Alchemist" in spirit, the actual class doesn't fit her image (throwing bombs and dual personality). I'm thinking Transmuter (Enhancer) with a spear as her arcane bond or Cave Druid with Earth Domain.

Which one should I go with? Or is there a better option I may be overlooking?

So I was thinking about an overpowered game where everyone would choose a base class (except for sorcerer) and along with that class they would get to choose a bloodline. As they advance in that class they get the level appropriate bloodline abilities and extra spells. Has anyone come up with this before, if so how did it go?

I always found the idea of nonlethal damage silly, any damage can be lethal. Nonlethal damage is it's own damage type too. Anyway, my idea is to remove it and instead using Pathfinder's combat maneuver system to knock people out. Since the only reason nonlethal damage is there is to knock people out without killing them. Basically a character uses their CMB (-4 if they're using their chosen weapon in an unusual way) to try and knock the other person out. The other character makes a fortitude save to avoid being knocked out.

I however see potential abuse of this by someone knocking out a character and then using a coup de grace to finish them off. I guess I could counter it by having it so that they can only be knocked out if the final hit takes their hp to or below 0 (Then it starts to get complicated and I might as well be using nonlethal damage). However, high hp characters tend to have good Combat Maneuver Defense or Fortitude Saves, right? So it wouldn't be as overpowered as it first seems, right?

I like the idea, but I need help with this one.

From time to time I've had my issues with hit points, but one of the weirdest properties of hit points is applied when both leveling and cure spells are involved.

Hit points are supposed to be abstract and one's ability to mitigate damage, right? Keep that in mind as I describe this situation.

Level 1 and level 10 fighters are sitting on a battle field. The level 1 fighter is down to 4 hit points out of 12, clearly this is extremely serious. The level 10 fighter is down to 70 out of 84 hit points, it's a minor wound.

Now take a level 2 cleric casting a cure minor wounds; This cleric is able to cure this level 1 fighter from a third of his life to full health. Using the same spell, the cleric has trouble mending the level 10 fighter's scratch.

What, do character's gain an immunity to healing as they level up?

So my solution: Cure spells that scale. However not with the caster, but with the target. Basically the number of dice rolled for the heal is based on the target. So a level one character gets about the same percentage as a level 10 character, staying true to the spirit of hp and abstraction.

I reworked the heal spells (and added a another cure degree) so that they work with such a system by changing the spell level and die used.

Cure Minor Wounds - Level 1 - d4
Cure Light Wounds - Level 3 - d6
Cure Moderate Wounds - Level 5 - d8
Cure Serious Wounds - Level 7 - d10
Cure Critical Wounds - Level 9 - d12

A Cure Light Wounds (now a level 3 spell) cures a number of d6 equal to half the targets level(minimum of 1) plus the half the caster level.

So a level 5 cleric to curing a level 10 fighter with cure light would cure 5d6+2 hit points.

Say that there is a Drow Noble Rogue 5/Shadow Dancer 1/Assassin 2, who happens to have max ranks in stealth, magical items that give him a competence bonus, and a wand of invisibility; how does one fight off this horror of a mess?

Specifically the combination of Deeper Darkness at will, Hide in Plain Sight, Invisibility, and the Death Attack. What keeps the assassin from using their hide in plain sight ability to study a target for 3 rounds and then throwing a melee weapon to pick off enemies?

I guess I'm looking for two things really, anyway to fight off this menace and a consensus that such use of vague rules is complete dickery.

But really, what is a good plan to protect an Aasimar Paladin 4/ Sorcerer 1/ Dragon Disciple 3?

So I need a couple of rule clarifications.

My current group has been allowing people (pcs and npcs alike) to stealth in the daylight and I always did find that weird, but recently I had looked up the rules on stealth (because one of the players made a new character and it happens to be an assassin that ooc threatens my paladin) and it says that one needs cover or concealment to stealth.

So from what I gather:
> You can't hide from anyone in light or above while in the open.
> You can't hide from creatures with low light vision while in the open.
> You can't hide in the dark from creatures with darkvision.

Also, from what I gathered noone can see (but can still use blindsense or tremorsense or other non visual senses) in magical darkness. Am I correct?

Also death attack can only be used with melee weapons, so does a thrown dagger still count as a 'melee' weapon or is it considered a ranged weapon?

Sure I have a selfish reason to ask these questions, but I really don't want my Aasimar Paladin/Dragon Disciple which I've had from day 1 to be slain by a Drow Noble recently created by a rules lawyer through rule evasion.

Do you use minigames in your campaigns, if so what are they?

By minigames, I mean a game within your game that uses different rules than those for role playing and combat. Such as for gambling, racing, etc.