JTibbs's page

If you could get 2500GP of 'market worth' I would say that a ring of sustenance is pretty nifty.

lowers your encumberence (no food or water needs), and it greatly accelerates HP regen when you sleep.

2 hours of sleep counts as 8 hours for hp regen. a full nights sleep is like 4 days of healing.

Handy Haversacks are always useful.

A Hat of Disguise at 1800 gp is very useful too in a lot of campaigns. At will disguise self is very useful.

You can guess that I'm real big into non-combat utility items.

i like the idea of using Reach Spell on a magical lineaged Shocking Grasp.

Its basically a 1st level spell mimicking Emperor Palpatine.

5d6 damage at caster level 5 within 35 feet, AND you get +3 to attack rolls against people in armor? All in a lvl 1 spell?

hell yeah. make some wands of that.

Both are two handed weapons.

If easier, use this example:

Cold Iron Longsword transformed into a Club.

they are both two handed weapons, yes, but they are not both DOUBLE weapons.

double weapons have all sorts of special requirements for magic.

Does a Transformative weapon, made of a Special Material, such as Adamantine, or Mithral, still continue to count as said material, when transformed?

Example: Adamantine Greataxe transformed into Quarterstaff.

uhm... hmm...

well I don't think a greataxe can transform into a double weapon like a quarterstaff.

but if it COULD, I'd imagine that its tips would be capped in the special material, and the weapon would have the special materials characteristics as far as attacks go.

however as far as overall HP goes, its body would still probably be made of wood, and have woods hp and hardness (plus whatever enhancements it has).

A greataxe WOULD be able to transform into something like a Halberd, or spear.

Ring of invisibility + Air Elementalist Wizard = damned frustrating opponent.

An invisible, flying wizard is damned near impossible to fight if you don't have see invisibility.

Add in a handful of rods of enlarge spell, and you are one dangerous MoFo.

You can hover, invisible, almost a third of a mile from someone and blast them with fireballs.

Just a thought.

If you want to retrain as a wizard, Air Elementalists are the best IMO

If all else fails, just graze sheep on the relatively infertile or hilly land. Those crazy woolly sods can live just about anywhere, and can be used to produce wool, milk and meat depending on breed. They're a bit thick though.

or get some skeletons building terraces out of the hills. skeletons are more than capable of following simple directions.

The Shaman wrote:

A lot of the more creative uses for spells are in making magical items - wondrous items in particular. A decanter of endless water can make for a spring in a dry area, for example, and there is nearly unlimited potential to what items you can devise (barring DM veto). For example, an arch with a permanent Diagnose Disease can help you keep the village lifestock in good condition. Still,in general the better spells of managing the land are on the druid list, but spell research can allow you to develop spinoffs or analogous spells - plant growth, control winds, commune with nature...

As for enriching, hmm, how often can you do it, both per day and on one place?

I'd be careful with that. I had to explain to someone that a decanter of endless water in a desert has a better chance of turning the area into quicksand. or worse, a salt flat akin to Salar de Uyuni.

eh, most of the time it just quickly erodes away a channel, creating a fast flowing stream to the nearest depression.

for a bit the area will be pretty muddy, but it will eventually (within a couple days max) stabilize into a spring and stream situation.

The quicksand situation wold only really happen if you buried the decanter underground in an area the sand wouldn't easily escape. and had he decanter on a lower setting. the 'fire hose' setting wouldn't be conducive at all to quicksand. far too much circulation

Repost of my personal spellpoint system:

Ccasters IMO have a few major issues with them. First, at low levels they have essentially 0 stamina for combat, and are essentially a commoner carrying a crossbow who follows the rest of the party around. Second, your ability scores really have very little affect on your capacity. Casters see very little increase in the amount of spells they can sling around with an increasing ability score. Three, the spell slot system is enormously confining for most play, and spell point systems are unwieldy and often far too powerful.

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Using a modified spell points system, in which you have to prepare each and every use of the spells you cast, and each spell costs its level in points:

Wizards, and other prepared casters who can learn new spells get 1+ their Int modifier in spell points each level, much like their skill points per level. Essentially, your magic powers ARE skill points each level...

A 2nd level wizard with 16 intelligence would have 8 points, and be able to cast 8 first level spells.

Sorcerors and other full spontaneous casters would receive 2+ their chosen spell casting stat bonus each level.
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The way everything works out, is that at early levels casters have a lot more staying power, and at later levels would spend several minutes either blasting away with very low level spells, or blow all their magic in a handful of large powerful spells and have little left over.

a 9th level wizard with 18 Int could spit out 9 5th level spells, but be reduced to cantrips. Or they could stock up on 45 1st level spells for staying power, (since to a 10th level wizard, a 1st level spell isn't much harder than a cantrip).

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This method increases the desirability of Staves, which are usually considered pretty expensive for what they give, and de-emphasizes the necessity of wands (which are ultimately disposable, lost money).

A staff capable of storing 10 5th level spells, would essentially be carrying the entire magical capacity of a 10th level, 18 Int wizard. That is VERY significant.

staffs would be instrumental in taking the high power draw of high level spells, and thus freeing up the wizard himself to be a veritable swiss army knife of lower level (1st-4th) level spells, getting rid of his need to buy expensive disposable wands and potions.

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Magic users would have a LINEAR growth in raw power, with gradual advancement allowing more potent, and more expensive spells.

Plus, the whole archetype of the wizard with a magic staff becomes practically necessary."

JTibbs wrote:

as well as the fact that the multitude of low stone walls created a microcomputer conducive to farming,

Yeah, I know it was a typo, but it still made me laugh. I had images of Pratchett's druids with their monolith computers.

yeah, just autocorrect screwing with me on my phone.

Animate dead is always a great go-to for labor.

using those skeletons you could have a tireless workforce removing all stone and rock from the soil, stacking them up as dry stone walls.

I think a witch can get animate dead at 8th level.

In the Azores they had terrible soil, being largely rock and ash. after decades of labor, the farmers basically removed all the rocks from the soil and made a boatload of small rock walls. they then had great soil in which they grew everything from sugarcane to grapes.

of course they benefited from the rich volcanic ash, as well as the fact that the multitude of low stone walls created a microcomputer conducive to farming, trapping moisture close to the soil and moderating temperature extremes.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Vineyards_in_the_Azores_ with_rock_walls_to_protect_vines.jpg

Honestly though, a 5th level Neutral Wizard would be damned good at creating decent farmland.

Animate dead + Ash storm + Create Wondrous item (for making items like decanters of endless water). With those, you could make some really nice farmland.

32. Cleansing Washbasin This fine porcelain bowl, when filled with water, is self cleaning and bestows upon the water within it the cleaning abilities of the prestidigitation spell. Used to wash hands and faces in upper class households, the Cleansing Washbasin can remove even the grimiest messes. Items placed within the water of the basin are also cleaned, but when cast upon the floor or put into another basin, the water looses its cleaning abilities.

Cost: 250 GP

Requirements: Craft Wondrous Item, Prestidigitation

30. Druids Pot These large, if simple clay pots, roughly 20 gallons in size, greatly accelerate the growth of seedling trees. an acorn, placed within the pot, will reach nearly 5 years of growth in a single week. After a week, growth will drop off sharply as the tree must be removed and replanted. Most often given to lumberjacks who work in forests occupied by druids, these pots help ensure peaceful relations as the lumberjacks reforest the land they clear with trees large and developed enough to survive. Even after being removed from the pots, the trees will continue to grow at an accelerated pace, though only roughly twice that of unaltered trees, for several years.

27:(Yes I'm counting the moldy boots)Iron coffee pot. Found with a cloth bag of coffee beans stuffed inside. A copper coffee pot will be real treasure.

its not really good to make acidic foods in copper, though they wouldn't know it.

it leads to excessive copper levels in your body. copper toxicity is no fun, even if your eyes look cool. (for real, your body lays down a ring of copper on the outside of your cornea. Looks awesome, but is terrible for you)

a tin/pewter coffee pot would be fairly common. hopefully high enough quality not to have lead in it

JTibbs wrote:

casters IMO have a few major issues with them. First, at low levels they have essentially 0 stamina for combat, and are essentially a commoner carrying a crossbow who follows the rest of the party around. Second, your ability scores really have very little affect on your capacity. Casters see very little increase in the amount of spells they can sling around with an increasing ability score. Three, the spell slot system is enormously confining for most play, and spell point systems are unwieldy and often far too powerful

I like it, though I'm not shure if differentiating bettween Wizard and Sorcerer still makes sense this way. Do you know D&D Psionics worked in a similar way? http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Psion

its similar to the psion, only the power growth isn't exponential, and wizards still have to decide exactly what spells they want that day, and how many of each.

definately not the pseudo spontaneous casters normal spell points systems make them into.

If you want multiple uses of a single spell, you have to prepare each and every one. that would mean preparing magic missile 10 times, rather than just the once traditional spell points make you.

snip

one of the major thematic overhauls i've always wanted to do would be to totally destroy the wizard class and introduce a new wizard.

basically wizards and sorcerors would draw power from themselves, and the more experienced they get from 'excercising' their magic, the more powerful they'd get.

The only true difference between wizards and sorcerors would be that sorcerors were born with high levels of magic, and instinctually learned to cast spells. They advance in power far faster than they do number of spells.

wizards learned how to harness the smaller natural magical pool they were born with, and with tht education came a LOT of magical theory, techniques, studying of others spells, etc.. they learned the rules, how to make spells, and how to learn OTHERS spells.

All this knowledge comes at a cost, and the wizard has much less magic than a natural sorceror. However they are much more versatile.

I'd do it similar to my previous writeup for spell points, only wizards would get less. 0+ Int modifier, while sorcerors would get 3+Cha modifier.

Essentially a wizard would be a sorceror with half the power, but can learn new spells at will. The learning mechanic would be a bit odd though. They'd get the normal amount of spells they can cast spontaneously, but in addition to those, they can carry around a spellbook which they can use as a reference to cast any spell recorded within.

They could take a feat to add more memorized spells from their spellbook to their list though

I've never actually seen anyone comment on my houseruled magic system (ive posted it a few times in different threads), but i guess ill post it again. Maybe someone will actually like/hate it.

casters IMO have a few major issues with them. First, at low levels they have essentially 0 stamina for combat, and are essentially a commoner carrying a crossbow who follows the rest of the party around. Second, your ability scores really have very little affect on your capacity. Casters see very little increase in the amount of spells they can sling around with an increasing ability score. Three, the spell slot system is enormously confining for most play, and spell point systems are unwieldy and often far too powerful.

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Using a modified spell points system, in which you have to prepare each and every use of the spells you cast, and each spell costs its level in points:

Wizards, and other prepared casters who can learn new spells get 1+ their Int modifier in spell points each level, much like their skill points per level. Essentially, your magic powers ARE skill points each level...

A 2nd level wizard with 16 intelligence would have 8 points, and be able to cast 8 first level spells.

Sorcerors and other full spontaneous casters would receive 2+ their chosen spell casting stat bonus each level.
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The way everything works out, is that at early levels casters have a lot more staying power, and at later levels would spend several minutes either blasting away with very low level spells, or blow all their magic in a handful of large powerful spells and have little left over.

a 9th level wizard with 18 Int could spit out 9 5th level spells, but be reduced to cantrips. Or they could stock up on 45 1st level spells for staying power, (since to a 10th level wizard, a 1st level spell isn't much harder than a cantrip).

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This method increases the desirability of Staves, which are usually considered pretty expensive for what they give, and de-emphasizes the necessity of wands (which are ultimately disposable, lost money).

A staff capable of storing 10 5th level spells, would essentially be carrying the entire magical capacity of a 10th level, 18 Int wizard. That is VERY significant.

staffs would be instrumental in taking the high power draw of high level spells, and thus freeing up the wizard himself to be a veritable swiss army knife of lower level (1st-4th) level spells, getting rid of his need to buy expensive disposable wands and potions.

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Magic users would have a LINEAR growth in raw power, with gradual advancement allowing more potent, and more expensive spells.

Plus, the whole archetype of the wizard with a magic staff becomes practically necessary.

Bowl of Hidden Fire - A stone bowl weighing roughly 4 pounds that, when a command work is spoken, produces flames the size of a small campfire from nothing. These flames are for all intents and purposes real, producing both light and heat, though it is smokeless unless it is used to burn some other material. Only creatures within a 15' radius can see the flames and the light they give off. Any creature outside the radius would only see an empty stone bowl in the natural light.

The purpose of this is to provide a source of light and heat (for comfort and cooking) that will not betray your camp and your location to outsiders.

basically you would get concealment bonuses at night over a regular camp.

perfectly legit other uses would be using the bowl of fire for potion making, distillation of spirits or poisons, and various other craft check, counting as a masterwork tool bonus.

If you get crafty, you could use it and a copper kettle to refine salt from seawater to get a little spending money on the side... you could probably refine a pound of salt in a day

Turning wands from disposable 50 use items into rechargeable miniature staffs is a great houserule.

10 uses, and it recharges just like a staff. only it can have 1 spell in it, rather than the multiple spells a staff can.

I'm sick and tired of blowing thousands and thousands of gold on ultimately disposable items...

Greatly altering the AC values for shields.

A shield is the single most important defensive equipment the average dude could have. Armor like chainmail is kinda like 'second chance' armor. heres the new shield list:

buckler - 1 AC
Light shield - 3 AC
Heavy shield - 5 AC with max dexterity bonus of +4
Tower Shield - 7 AC with max dexterity penalty of +2

Its damned hard to even try to hit a guy hiding behind a tower shield after all...

Also, shields dont add an arcane failure bonus. You just can't cast with the hand the shields in. Your other hand is completely free after all, and can be used unobstructed...

Fake Healer wrote:

What are you talking about? If you take the ring off you are no longer wearing the ring and it is no longer active. The rule also says that the shield stays with the ring. This isn't about if you would houserule it otherwise. This is a rules question. If you take off a ring it is no longer working for you, and if you have it on the Force shield stays with the ring....i.e, no throwing it.

You can still throw a ring. Nothing stops you from throwing a ring. It might not be smart, effective, or mechanically advantageous, but you can still throw a ring at an enemy. Unless you can show me a rule that states that rings can not be thrown 10 feet.

you better hope the ring hits your enemy in the eye... otherwise you just gave him a free magical item.

Giving casters spell points based on their ability modifier per level is a good way, while chaging the spell points so each point in a spell level they can cast. a 9th level magic missile would still just cost 1 point to the wizard with this system.

Give a wizard 1+Int modifier spell points per level will give them a lot of extra oomph at low levels so they aren't a glorified crossbow holder, and at higher levels will severely limit the number of high level spells they could spam before they run out of all spells. at 18 intelligence and level 9, they would get 45 spell points. That wizard could prepare 13 1st level spells, 6 3rd level spells, and 2 5th level spells each day. Or 9 5th level spells if they blow EVERYTHING on those spells.

It lets them load up on low level spells to give them a bit of endurance, but severely limits them in the amount of high level spells they can dish out.

It also gives them an entirely linear growth pattern in power level, unlike the exponential affect of the regular spell point system.

You can very easily argue that a Troll thats been disentigrated no longer has a Con score (as you need a body to have a con score), and thus cannot have regeneration anymore.

Disentigrate kills the troll.

Gandalfs not a wizard... hes an Angel/Lesser God pretending to be a wizard.

Tacticslion wrote:

JTibbs wrote:

Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:

How does one become immortal via polymorph any object?

Well if you transformed into a species with a natural lifespan thats indefinate, and the transformation was permanent, you technically shouldn't age for as long as you are that species of creature...

I think that if you changed from a human into an elf via polymorph any object you should have the elfs lifespan for the duration of the spell. Basically until someone hits you with a Dispel Magic, or you step into an antimagic field...

In 3.5 there was a bit of cheese people wanted to pull where you cast polymorph any object several times in a row to make the last form you were in your new 'base' form. Its a techincally correct reading of the wording for the spell, but at the same time its technically correct to say you can't do that. It was all up to individual interpretation. If you allowed this method, you could transform yourself into a dragon if you had a handful of scrolls, or some help.

This, OR you "Permanently" Polymorph Any Object yourself into "your body as it was when you were <insert age here>.

Depending on the interpretation, your body wouldn't age that way. Or if it did, then you could "Permanently" do it again, later.

Permanent is not the same as instant. Polymorphing yourself into a teenager seems like grey area at best. Also, what happens if the magic is suppressed after the maximum age for your base race (human for example)? You die? You start aging again from where you left off?

Aging is not a timer running out... Its the cumulative stresses a body goes under, and its cells eventually wearing their ability to reliably reproduce out.

An Elfs body is much more adept at maintaining itself over time, and that should translate back to your original body after you revert back. Your body isn't shunted into a dimensional pocket while you are gallivanting around as an elf, after all. Its literally become and elfs body for the duration of the spell with all that implies, including its rate of aging.

A human polymorphed into a younger human is a weird area where, while you LOOK like a younger human thanks to the magic, you probably are still aging away towards your death. A 95 year old human wizard might be polymorphed into a 20 year old human, but hes probably going to keel over soon...

But whats interesting about that example is that a 20 year old human body is much more efficient about fighting off diseases, resisting damage, and processing toxins and environmental stress.

If a wizard in his current lifestyle was going to die at ~75 years old, the same wizard might last to well over a hundred (much closer to his theoretical maximal lifespan) if he spent most of his time as a young man.
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All thats under the assumption your original body still ages while under the transformational effects of polymorph.

It can easily be argued that it does NOT age, since the spell reverts you back to your original body.

under this interpretation, liberal use of the polymorph any object spell will render you ageless.

JTibbs wrote:

Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:

How does one become immortal via polymorph any object?

Well if you transformed into a species with a natural lifespan thats indefinate, and the transformation was permanent, you technically shouldn't age for as long as you are that species of creature...

I think that if you changed from a human into an elf via polymorph any object you should have the elfs lifespan for the duration of the spell. Basically until someone hits you with a Dispel Magic, or you step into an antimagic field...

Seems a decent work around to buy the caster some time to figure out a more permanent solution. Although if someone did hit you with a dispel magic (or anti magic fled for that matter) would you revert to your previous "Age" or would time retroactively catch up with you? Seems a pretty go risk.

Well seeing as your lifespan isn't a timer, then any time spent with an elfs body should age you at a reduced rate proportional to the elfs lifespan. Basically if you spent a year as an elf, you should only be about 2.4 months older...

You shouldn't suffer retroactive aging. thats just silly.

How does one become immortal via polymorph any object?

Well if you transformed into a species with a natural lifespan thats indefinate, and the transformation was permanent, you technically shouldn't age for as long as you are that species of creature...

I think that if you changed from a human into an elf via polymorph any object you should have the elfs lifespan for the duration of the spell. Basically until someone hits you with a Dispel Magic, or you step into an antimagic field...

In 3.5 there was a bit of cheese people wanted to pull where you cast polymorph any object several times in a row to make the last form you were in your new 'base' form. Its a techincally correct reading of the wording for the spell, but at the same time its technically correct to say you can't do that. It was all up to individual interpretation. If you allowed this method, you could transform yourself into a dragon if you had a handful of scrolls, or some help.

I like it!

A necklace of Lesser Resist Aging would cost 28,000gp to buy, and 14,000gp to make.

A necklace of Resist Aging would cost 66,000gp to buy, and 33,000gp to make.

A necklace of Greater Resist Aging would be a whopping 120,000gp to buy and 60,000gp to make.

(please remember that spells with 24 hour durations or greater are half cost for constant effect)
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They certainly count as a damned expensive purchase, especially for a noncombat role-playing only item.

They would be an incredibly desirable item for the wealthy, nobility, and well essentially anyone.

Recovering a stolen necklace for a powerful merchant or something could be a major plot point... Or for a less than 'good' campaign, stealing it could be a major objective.

I personally think there should be a series of spells to slow aging. Something like:

Lesser Resist Aging

School necromancy; Level sorcerer/wizard 4
Casting Time 10 minutes
Components V, S
Range Personal
Duration 24 hours
Saving Throw Will Negates (harmless); Spell Resistance Yes (harmless)

This spell halves your rate of aging for 24 hours following its casting. Creatures who perform this spell every day effectively double their remaining lifespan.
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Resist Aging

School necromancy; Level sorcerer/wizard 6
Casting Time 10 minutes
Components V, S
Range Personal
Duration 24 hours
Saving Throw Will Negates (harmless); Spell Resistance Yes (harmless)

This spell thirds your rate of aging for 24 hours following its casting. Creatures who perform this spell every day effectively triple their remaining lifespan.
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Greater Resist Aging

School necromancy; Level sorcerer/wizard 8
Casting Time 10 minutes
Components V, S
Range Personal
Duration 24 hours
Saving Throw Will Negates (harmless); Spell Resistance Yes (harmless)

This spell quarters your rate of aging for 24 hours following its casting. Creatures who perform this spell every day effectively quadruple their remaining lifespan.
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Basically as you get more powerful, your lifespan gets longer should you decide to extend it until you reach level 20, and take the Discovery that renders your lifespan 'indefinite'.

You could either sacrifice a high level spell slot each day dedicated to this, or you could get a wondrous item to have it constantly on you. An EXPENSIVE wondrous item. Constant effect 4th level spells aren't exactly cheap, let alone a 6th or 8th level one.

I don't know how to adjust the class, but I think that the Jedi class should have an early 'adulthood' even in children of the species.

Jedi padawans start out at around 11-13, and are initiates (0 level) before that.

JTibbs wrote:

Umbranus wrote:

JTibbs wrote:

It also has specklings of unbelievable crap through it, like giving fighters starting at 3rd level Ant Haul, where you add your fighter level to your carrying capacity, ignore encumberence from medium and heavy loads,and can retrieve anything from your massive pile of junk on your back as a free action...

Seems you are one of those "magic can do everything but martials have to be realistic" guys.

I'm one of those 'Magic can do anything, but if YOU DON'T HAVE ANY MAGIC you can't do blatant magic at will'

You want your fighter to be able to magically carry an SUV on his back like it was a loaf of bread in a backpack?

Buy a magic item, or take a level in a class that can cast a relevant spell.

What, so raw strength is now magic in your world?

Oooh, I get it, anything you can't do is magic. Cool. Well, since barbarians aren't magic, you should be able to do whatever they can do, to, right?
Okay, so find a 2000 foot cliff and dive off it, head first, onto solid stone. A high level barbarian can do this, and
a)not faint
b)suffer no permanent injuries, mental or physical
c)stand up after landing on his head and immediately continue fighting at full strength and speed

Can you do that? Can ANY real human do that? Is the barbarian magic? What about every other class with high hit-dice?

raw strength to the point where the act of walking under such a load would likely snap the fighters legs like twigs. Such a load, even if it DIDNT turn the fighter to paste, would make it so that in 90% of terrain the fighters legs would sink into the landscape.

yes its freaking magic. If the fighter explicitly doesnt KNOW any magic, then he can't DO magic...

JTibbs wrote:

It also has specklings of unbelievable crap through it, like giving fighters starting at 3rd level Ant Haul, where you add your fighter level to your carrying capacity, ignore encumberence from medium and heavy loads,and can retrieve anything from your massive pile of junk on your back as a free action...

Seems you are one of those "magic can do everything but martials have to be realistic" guys.

I'm one of those 'Magic can do anything, but if YOU DON'T HAVE ANY MAGIC you can't do blatant magic at will'

You want your fighter to be able to magically carry an SUV on his back like it was a loaf of bread in a backpack?

Buy a magic item, or take a level in a class that can cast a relevant spell.

See, that's not a logical extension, that's a pretty heavy inference. And I don't think it's all that obvious, since you're the first one I've ever seen making that claim.

I don't think a wizard can just spend an hour casting a spell without any slots free. There is a mechanic close to that in the RAW, but they need the free slot.

funny how a wizard with 4 hours free can cast a fireball spell 50 times into a magically prepared stick to create a wand. This when they could cast around maybe 10 fireballs a day with a spellpoint system...

necromental wrote:

Kirthfinder - World of Warriorcraft Houserules

It's a heavily house ruled subsystem of PF, combined with many good ideas from other d20 variants, streamlined, and featuring heavily upgraded martials, a nerfed spellcasters. Even if you don't want to switch completely, some subsystems are relatively easily transported to standard PF, and un-nerfing spellcasters is easy. Checkout his feats (most scale, relative to BAB or skill ranks, especially interesting are Combat-Strikes and Combat-Stances), his metamagic system, and firstly Introduction chapter. Also, his races are very customizable.

The files in the first post are somewhat outdated, you can request new ones in the thread if it strikes your fancy, but it's not required.

Edit: another important part, all of his classes are heavily customizable, most by some kind of talents, and many talents or bloodlines/domains are a step to multiclassing with mitigated penalties for doing so. (example, a cleric domain that gives you mystic theurge bonuses if you multiclass with an arcane spellcaster, or fighter talent that makes your fighter levels stack with barbarians for purposes of rage bonuses...)

Whoah, how did I miss that?!? I'll have to read through it in its entirety later:O

Some parts of it i like personally, but others like the 'mojo' approach to magic items i don't. Also the changing of various pathfinder special classes like the 'elementalist wizard' into more 3.5 D&D version prestige class/school hybrids with annoying prerequisites.. (also wizards are back to d4 hit dice). His approach to arcane bonds is nice though. Its interesting how you can do an arcane bond to your own mind, which allows you to permanently learn all your spells via Eidetic memory. So you can either choose to get rid of your spellbook entirely, or have an arcane bonded item (that with his additions is actually pretty tempting), or have a familiar (which is also much better than the normal familiar).

It also has specklings of unbelievable crap through it, like giving fighters starting at 3rd level Ant Haul, where you add your fighter level to your carrying capacity, ignore encumberence from medium and heavy loads,and can retrieve anything from your massive pile of junk on your back as a free action...

seriously? A 10th level fighter with only 18 strength is going to be carrying around up to 1200 pounds as if it was a 25 pound backback... Give him a +2 to Str from ability growth, and a +4 belt, and he will be carrying around 3680 pounds of gear on his back. Thats a freaking Pickup truck he can carry around essentially unencumbered.

lots of little false balance bones thrown around that just make things unbelievable and awkward.

If I were to use this, I'd throw out about half of it all together. The other half isn't bad at all though.

His monk for example is pretty cool. The monks basically a martial focused caster whose spells all are focused on the body or for personal protection.

The monk class here is actually pretty formidable. Its basically an anti-caster martial/caster class. like a monk/spellblade fusion.

Clerics are boosted a bit more here too... Basically at this point if you want to play a wizard, you might as well play as a cleric because they are almost as good at spells but can still use weapons, armor, and have d8 HD... seriously, is anyone else annoyed how bad Clerics have gotten in power creep? people complain about wizards all the time, but Clerics have gotten to the point that they beat wizards like a drum.

If you are going to make Clerics into partial Fighters, you gotta limit their magic somehow. Maybe make it so they can only cast from their Deities domains or something.

An adventuring party of all Clerics as it is would run roughshod over pretty much anything.

Malwing wrote:

wizards can cast spontaneously. it just takes a couple of minutes, that's why they prepare spells.

I think Sorceror is the bigger candidate for a man a system, not the wizard.

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

logical extensions of the fluff and various subsystems, such as item creation feats, imply that while a wizard can only hold so much 99% completed spells in his brainymeats, they can prepare and immediately CAST the spells as much as they want. Thats only so long as they don't stick the spells into their brain.

creating a wand in a day requires you to basically cast a spell 50 times. They are pretty much just STORED spells after all.

It might take several minuted to cast the spell each time (rather than a couple seconds, like a preprepared spell) but thats the implication of the entire magic systems and fluff. Technically a wizard should be capable of casting any spell in their book if they have a few minutes prep time, though you may need to meditate for a bit or something to 'get in the zone'... Its just a side effect of the wizard magic system.
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Of course its NEVER been touched on in any rules though, so its not allowed in games unless you petition the DM for it.

because I have a helmet I have one DR?

"I stab him in the gut. How's his helmet taking off a point of damage?"

Piecemeal and DR definitely don't work.

==Aelryinth

piecemeal armor works just fine. the DR mechanic could use a bit of work, but piecemeal armor works WAY better than the crap we have now.

I don't particularly like the Vancian magic system, preferring Psionics, with Spells Known/Spells per Day mechanic a second.

While Save-or-die spells are greatly reduced, spells that pretty much end the encounter if the target fails his save are still far too common.

This one will be difficult to fix: the large imbalance between single-classing, true multi-classing (not the min-max level dipping), and prestige classing. 3.5 Ed favored the last too much, while Pathfinder favors the first too much.

I personally don't like the spell slot system due to its arbitrariness and illogical limitations. I think a modified spell point system would work a lot better. Not the regular spell point system due to its crazy exponential power growth.

Ideally I'd replace the spell slot system and the spell point system with this:

Spells take up their spell level in points. A magic missile takes up 1 point, a fireball 3 points. This is regardless of the caster level of the spell. A 10th level caster is just MUCH more efficient with the fireballs energy than a 5th level caster.

Instead of converting the vancian spell levels into points, that is completely scrapped.

Wizards/druid/clerics get 1+casting stat modifier spell points per level. a wizard with 18 INT would start with 5 spell points at lvl 1, and at level 5 would have 25 spell points. Sorcerers get 3+casting stat modifier spell points per level.

The wizard would, at low levels, have more spell points than the normal spell point system. This helps them not be essentially a spare set of hands to hold a crossbow.

At higher levels, a wizard would have significantly less spell points than the standard spell point system. A level 15 wizard would have 191 spell points with the standard system. Using the modified system here, the wizard would have 90 spell points.

Linear power growth is emphasized here, rather than exponential. It also rewards casting stats far more heavily than the traditional system.

Wizards would prepare any number of spells per day of any level they can cast, so long as total spell levels don't exceed their max amount. Said lvl 15 wizard could prepare 30 fireballs if she wanted to. or 11 lvl 8 spells and a single lvl 2 spell.

keep in mind prepared casters still have to prepare each and every one of their spells, and not prepare a selection of them to cast like a sorcerer like some spell point systems.

This system adds tons of flexibility and utility to wizards, while severely limiting power creep at high levels. Effectively reducing the quadratic equation of wizard power to a straight(er) curve.

This system also effectively rewards ability bonuses far more than the standard magic system. Oh, and ability point bonus spells per level are retroactive like normal FYI.

It also makes magic staves MUCH more useful. When a single staff has 40-50 spell points worth of charges in it (10 5th level spells anyone?), its going to a huge chunk of your total magic.

If you are a wizard, you probably are going to want a staff. Its your icon of power after all...

There are many things that torque me off, but one thing that gets my eye twitching in frustration are Shields.

shields grant an incredibly tiny AC bonus. WAY less than they should.

A decent shield is arguably more important for saving a persons life than a set of armor.

Chainmail is damned nice and all, but without a shield, you are going to be taking nonlethal damage with every hit..

A heavy steel shield should grant +5 AC. Yes, I'm totally serious about that number.

Here's a series of revised shields:

Buckler: +1 AC

Wooden Light Shield: +2 AC

Steel Light Shield: +3 AC

Wooden Heavy Shield: +4 AC

Steel Heavy Shield: +5 AC

Tower Shield: +6 AC (due to its much lower mobilty)

of course when flatfooted, the shields AC shouldn't apply.

People are going to say that those numbers are too high, but realistically they might be a bit LOW. For every hit a warriors armor takes, they are probably going to block 5 with their shield.

Reworked Armor:

I think armor should be piecemeal and give AC and DR (similar to some optional rules that already exist). A helmet would give 1 AC, and 1 DR. A suit of chainmail would give 3 AC, and 2 DR. gauntlets would give 1 AC, 1 DR. A breastplate would give 3 AC and 2 DR.

That would all add up to a suit of half plate equivalent, and give you +8 AC and +6 DR. crits would be a hit to a weak point and bypass DR in addition to the additional damage.

A shield would only give an AC bonus.

This would require re-stating a lot of armor weight wise to be more realistic. a breastplate (cuirass) IRL weighed in at ~15 pounds. pathfinder has it at 30 pounds for example thanks to legacy systems that 'Did Not Do The Research'...

~Home rules concerning wizards~

I've always considered the way wizards to work to be like this:

Wizards use their minds to grasp environmental magic, shape it into nearly completed spells, and store them in their mind/aura/whatever.

Casting a spell is basically loading a bullet, and firing it. You constructed the bullet that morning, or whenever you prepared your spells.

A wizard may be limited in how much completed magic they can carry around all the time, which is limited by mental capacity, training, and how refreshed you are. So sleeping and becoming fully rested restores your ability to cast spells.

I also allow a wizard to cast a spell directly, without ever storing it. Thats not affected by their mental storage capacity. This is how they can make a wand of Fireballs in a day, which is 50 stored 3rd level spells when they can barely carry around a dozen spells total.

So if a wizard REALLY needed to, they could sit down, meditate for a minute or two, then cast a spell, which takes between 10 and 100 rounds to cast.

Didn't prepare knock today? well, if you are in a hurry you are sh*t out of luck. But if you have 5 minutes to spare and your spellbook is handy you could bang out a spell, ritual style.

You run at 4 times your base speed by default. You only run at 3 times in heavy armor. The Run feat lets you run at 5 times.

Thanks, i couldn't quite remember which was which.

So with the run feat thats 160 miles in 8 hours...

pretty impressive. Thankfully the ring of regeneration heals non-lethal damage too. Only thing you'd have to worry about would be water and food for that run...

if only you could wear a ring of sustenance too!

EDIT:

You know, if you gave those boots, the ring of regen, and the ring of sustenance to an olympic runner, he could probably cover ~300 miles in 8 hours.

Thats mindbogglingly fast.

Well... It's not very optimized, but I'd get these items:

Tome of Clear Thought +5 - 137,500gp
Ring of Regeneration - 90,000gp
Ring of Invisibility - 20,000gp

And I'd save the last 2,500gp for when i get an extra 3,000gp for a pair of Boots of Striding and Springing.

I'd play as a wizard, and with those items it would be pretty hard to kill me, and i could turn invisible and run away at a base speed of 40ft. Plus I'd never get tired, so technically I could sprint all day. with the right feat to run at 4x rates, I could cover 128 miles in 8 hours. While invisible.

Its hard to kill something thats faster than you, can regenerate, and is invisible... well up it attacks, then becomes invisible again.

Rope Trick, while not foolproof, can effectively allow adventuring parties to rest and camp out in dungeons. A 5th level Wizard with Extended Rope Trick has a 10 hour duration. More than enough time to rest and prepare spells.

Now it's just one spell, but unless the DM restricts or alters it it's common sense for PCs to make use of this if they can't easily retreat back to civilization.

And then there is an ambush party just waiting for them to come back just out of their view.... and by ambush party i mean basically the rest of the enemies they would have fought, plus anything they could recruit on short notice. At the very least everyone would be on high alert and ready to jump anyone who comes by, and cleared areas would have more enemies..

as a 2nd level spell, it would be fairly well known, and counters for its use would be known as well.

The DM exists for a reason.

"you idiots decided to rest up in hostile territory when everyone knows you are there. now you have to fight through a small army all at once."

JTibbs wrote:

Basically i think that wizards should be allowed to sleep, and then be refreshed mentally. Then they can prepare their spells again if they want to. Tying spells per day to a 24 hour cycle is nonsensical.

God no. Wizurd players would become even more annoying. They would blow their load on the first encounter, and then insist on taking a nap before proceeding to the next encounter. The five room dungeon would take two days to clear.

Thats entirely the DM's fault if your adventuring party can do that. Thats far too unrealistic, outside of specific dungeon types.

Dungeon rooms should in no way be treated like 'levels' in agame you can clear of danger and then camp out in.

JTibbs wrote:

Basically i think that wizards should be allowed to sleep, and then be refreshed mentally. Then they can prepare their spells again if they want to. Tying spells per day to a 24 hour cycle is nonsensical.

I seem to remember at least once source (I want to say the 3.5 PHB, but I can't remember for sure) saying just that (I want to say the rule was 8 hours of sleep allow a Wizard to recharge enough to prepare new spells). If that's what you want in your game just discuss it with your group and get the GM to agree to it.

couldn't find it in the 3.5 phb. looked up every instance of the word 'sleep'.

must be in a different book.

Basically i think that wizards should be allowed to sleep, and then be refreshed mentally. Then they can prepare their spells again if they want to. Tying spells per day to a 24 hour cycle is nonsensical. Sorcerors and other casters should have a mechanic that allows them to 'recharge' too. maybe a certain number of spell points based on their ability modifer and class level per hour or so.

It'd be nice to get Spell Mastery every once in a while too, and have cantrips automatically included in spells you can prepare without a spellbook.

Sage sorcerers of the arcane bloodline can use Int as their casting stat.

At this point then, we might as well be discussing where on the periodic table Mithral belongs, and what it's atomic number is.

Can it be described as a transition metal?

Does it have a high electrical, and thermal conductivity?

What is the density of Mithral?

Is it radioactive in any way?

Is it a platinum group metal?

Does it have a high refractive index?

My headcanon is thats its just silver thats gained an inherent magical property. maybe its what remains of a dead earth elemental or something...

inhernent magic is in no way affected by an anti-magic field after all. dragons don't drop out of flight, inherent ability bonuses don't get suppressed (manual of gainful exerceise, tome of clear thought, etc), etc...

This works pretty well all things considered. It even makes it so that silversheen (the alchemically created raw material for weapons, not the wondrous item) can have an explanation behind it. My explanation for silversheen is that its an alchemist attempt to transform rudimentary silver into mithril, only its not nearly as good. Still, it becomes much stronger, harder, and somewhat lighter anyway. silversheen has a hardness of 8, 10hp an inch, and equal weight to steel. silver in reality is pretty soft, very weak, and about 133% the density of steel.

silversheen is a nice intermediate to silver and mithril in all its categories (hardness, hp, and weight)

Ciretose's 3,4,5 are bad ideas for quite a few reasons, but his first two are reasonable. his other ones leave a sour note in my mouth due to my hatred of spell failure based on REALLY bad understanding of armor restricting movement by the game designers (RL plate armor had more flexability than the human body had movement range for example), and any arcane caster would look at any spell that has a chance of backfiring and say 'this is a piece of sh*t, time to redesign it so it isn't so crappy'. And wizards as a non combat focussed class who are devoted to learning and practicing an art and science would learn to craft magical items, if only to help them in their own pursuit of knowledge.

But seriously, the thing i want done away with is 'slots', and tying it to a 24 hour cycle.

rest should 'recharge your batteries' so to say, and you should be able to prepare all your spells in advance without penalty. Basically a prepared in advance spell point system. If you only want to stock up on 1st, and 3rd level spells, you shouldn't have to use other spell slots and waste your potential.

If you want to blow all your magic potential into preparing 2 dozen+ fireballs, have at it like the pyro you are.

DaedalusV wrote:

Malachi Silverclaw wrote:

DaedalusV wrote:

Hmm so it seems that as soon as a weapon weighs 6 pounds or more, you'd be stupid if you made the weapon mithril.

6 pounds or more = Adamantine OR Celestial Mithril since both materials have a flat +3.000 GP cost added to the cost of a weapon..

In the stats line for celestial mithral it says that they cost +3000gp, but in the body of the text it says +2000gp.

Which price is correct?

BTW, this is the way to do mithral weapons: a flat price! Are you watching, PDT?

No idea what price is correct, but if it's 2k then the break-even point is 4 pound items, making it even better as an option over regular mithril.

Are there any published examples of objects made of celestial mithral?

I don't think so.

Celestial armor isn't defined as having been made of mithril, despite being half weight. Its reduced weight is due to magic though I believe.

Its enchanted with the fly spell for 1 casting a day on command, and has the side effect of behaving as if it were mithril and lighter. it has a much better max dexterty check than mithril chainmail too, and a lower spell failure and armor check penalty..

I can't find any actual description that mentions mithril specifically to it at all.

Its possible it uses celestial mithril though.

its +3 enchantment costs 9,000gp, its fly enchantment costs 8400, so thats 5000gp left over for the armor itself.

I believe originally celestial armor was described as being made of fine links of 'silver or gold', so its not actually made of celestial mithril unless they changed it...
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Sorta unrelated, but does anyone know what silversheen actually is? the material, not the wondrous item paste.

It 'counts as alchemical silver', but its a building material rather than just silver thats been electroplated onto a steel blade like alchemical silver has.

My best headcanon for silversheen is that its basically an alchemists best attempt at turning silver into mithril, but not every property is duplicated. I should mention that my headcanon puts mithril as naturally magical silver, whose innate magic makes it lighter and much stronger/harder than normal silver. Maybe its what forms from a dead earth elemental or something.

Anyway, yeah. silversheen is to mithril like secondary adamantium is to adamantium from Marvel unless anyone else has a better idea...

I love silversheens immunity to rust and rust monsters. Certain other metals like gold SHOULD have those properties too, but you don't see it...

JTibbs wrote:

Well, then that means that mithril items cost 1,000 gp per pound now. FAR in excess more expensive than adamantine. If you have to pay for the weight of the original steel item in mithril, but only get HALF the mithril. Does half the mithril mysteriously evaporate into thin air?

They are much more expensive than adamantine, which is only 300gp per pound. This also means that Mithril, despite having a price of exactly the same as platinum, costs twice as much as platinum to actually buy...

Total nonsense.

You forgot to thank the FAQ team for settling a contentious issue and making things easier to adjudicate for players and GMs.

Settling it in a nonsensical manner is just going to make it worse in the long run.

"Mithril costs 500gp/lb... but you have to buy TWO POUNDS to make anything that weighs 1 pound, and throw out the extra pound into the sea as a sacrifice"