Hellknight

Jason Beardsley's page

Organized Play Member. 1,613 posts (3,432 including aliases). 1 review. 1 list. 1 wishlist. 1 Organized Play character. 17 aliases.


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Dark Archive

My DM has set up a PvP style campaign, and I'm having a lot of difficulty with keeping my characters alive (no res allowed). So, what I'm asking is for the fantastic people of Paizo is to help me build one (or more) character of 28th level, with 50th level as an end goal. I'd prefer a battlefield controller (or saboteur, as one book I've read called it) prepared caster, but I'm willing to hear your ideas!

I can use any WotC 3.5 book except XPH, ToB, and ToM. If I use campaign setting books, I have to stay with that setting until level 20. My stats are all 14, and can +/- on a 1-for-1 basis, to a max of 18 pre-racial bonuses, and a min of 8. Also, as a stipulation with my character specifically, I must be Lawful.

I certainly look forward to seeing your ideas!

Disclaimer: I am posting this to multiple sites, in case it looks familiar. My posts tend to get overlooked these days.

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Hama wrote:

I read the playtest documents. So did all the people whom I play with.

Definetly not our cup of tea. Won't be touching it.
The only thing with the Wizards logo I might be willing to own is Betrayal on the house on the hill.
I also will never buy anything connected with Bill Slaviscek ever again.

As is your right, and your opinion, and I respect that.

I did play a couple games of 4e, and I just wasn't interested in that particular system. I've got many to choose from, and I have favourites (Unisystem and AGE are my favourite systems, atm).

In the end, it's just a game, and I can't be bothered to be worked up too much about it. Especially with my high blood pressure, due to being worked up constantly about other things.

But, I wish you the best with whatever game you stick with or try out! Pathfinder, Legend, Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC, Dragon AGE, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Witchcraft, Dark Heresy, and Robotech (Palladium, I think) are all games I've played and enjoyed greatly. If you haven't had the opportunity to play any of these, and are looking to play a new game, give one of those a shot. =)

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Kagehiro wrote:

They're also heralding this as the last Realms Shattering Event. We'll see how long that lasts.

It'll be the last shattering event until the next one ;)

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Scythia wrote:


Nobody had ever heard of Wand of Summon Monster in your game?

An old character of mine used a bag of holding to store goblin bodies for this purpose.. we didn't need a rogue. =)

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GreyWolfLord wrote:

Gamewise, it was when they decided to segue into the ideas of post Dragons of Summer Flame and kill DL D&D wise and come out with a card based RPG instead.

I actually still have that on my bookshelf right now. One of my favourite magic systems to date. =/

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Gregory Connolly wrote:

I find that when you optimize for something other than combat, GMs are taken aback. I made a Human Barbarian who had +17 sleight of hand at level 1 and my GM hated him. It just did not compute that I built a thief on the "wrong" chassis. I wanted to be able to not only take the money, but be able to run (40 ft move) and fight. I was a decent switch hitter in combat, but I was given a magic greataxe despite my being equipped with a Longbow, Buckler and Warhammer for 4 levels, you know what I'm just gonna stop before I get myself angry about lousy GMs.

Make sure whatever non-combat task you happen to be good at won't make your GM nerf you to the point of no fun.

Wow! That's unfortunate you had a lousy GM. I don't suspect I'll have that problem, fortunately. =)

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Wow, nice ideas! 3.5 is good to go too! =)

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Well, my character actually died, and my "next character" still hasn't been decided yet. I was going to try summoner, but discovered they don't scale well into epic levels. Especially since we plan on going to level 50 (or beyond).

My next session isn't until Wednesday, but I have no ideas. I've played a lot of stuff, and none of my ideas are very compelling to me. I would've liked to play summoner, yellowdingo, but I'm not sure it's feasible at, or beyond, my level (22).

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All some very good ideas, everyone! It looks like Druid could be a good solo build... With that in mind: Which builds could be used for solo play? "Optimized" to be the whole party?

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magnuskn wrote:
It's extremely unlikely that I'd shift. WotC would have to publish the combined revivification of Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed to make me forget what they did (against the explicit advice of the fans) to the Forgotten Realms. Not to mention that I vastly disliked 4E and that I am very skeptical of their new edition.

To be fair, the transition to 4E was like, their third(?) time they "nuked" the Realms.

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BigNorseWolf wrote:
Combat is a big part of the game. There is little if any need to ignore it for non combat roles, which can easily be fullfilled with a relatively small investment.

I'm not saying I want to ignore it. I am saying I want to be good at stuff other than, and not exclusively, combat. I understand that being good at combat is necessary, but I don't want that to be my defining feature.

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I've changed the title to include NON-combat optimized, as that was my intent.

At my table, my DM lets me try out different combat optimized builds. Though they do great in combat, I get very bored with it. Winning all the time kinda takes the fun out of it, first of all. And outside combat, he's pretty boring as well, since he has no real skill outside of "winning combat".

Maybe I will try an illusionist build next.. I like playing wizards, and it's not a wizard I've tried yet.

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The concept of optimized builds not being good outside combat came up in another thread, and it has made me curious.

First, is this true?

Second, what would some great builds look like if they were "optimized" for all-around play?

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Mactaka wrote:


I have done the 5E playtests and do not like their "pugwampi" mechanic (disad/ad) or the fix where it is now more based on GM fiat. It's a bad design mechanic that bogs down play, IMHO.

Personally, I love the "pugwampi" mechanic. (Where'd you come up with that one? I like it.)

I also am of the mindset that the players only need to know how to play their characters. If I'm the DM, I just want the players to explain what it is their characters are trying to do. If it's something that needs to roll dice for, I tell them what they need to do, mechanically, to resolve their action.

In game, I've found the combat to be a lot quicker than our current game.

The cool thing about the RPG community, however, is that you don't have to play the same game as me, nor do you have to play it the same way. And that's okay.

I hope you have fun with whatever game you play =)

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Thanks, everyone! =)

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I tend to have "sandbox" campaigns, so they have down time, if they choose to have down time.

I don't see it hurting anything if I allowed both. Do you?

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Sometimes I have a hard time justifying that my Wizard "just happened to know" about the devil in the inn, or the mass of jelly blocking the dungeon entrance, or what in the nine hells that massive horned beast was. My players do too.

So, my thoughts are to house rule Knowledge as a "research" skill. Thus changing it from a passive knowledge to an active knowledge.

What concerns should I be aware of if I do this?
Has anyone else done this? How'd it work out?

Does anyone else have suggestions for me?

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I blame Cosmo for this thread. Inevitably, it's his fault.

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P.H. Dungeon wrote:
There's nothing to lose downloading the free pdf when it comes out. I have a feeling that pdf could hook a lot of people in the game, especially people who are on the fence but don't really want to shell out for the new books. At the very least it will be enough content for groups to run a trial adventure without spending any money, and then if they like the system they can opt to buy other products. If they don't like it then they can keep playing whatever they currently play without having wasted any money.

This is exactly what I plan on doing. Pathfinder is my current game of choice, whereas the rest of my group sides with 3.5. When Basic DnD comes out as a free pdf, I'll run a simple adventure, and gauge reactions afterward.

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The current campaign I'm in is an Epic campaign, and we're currently level 22. We're not using the epic BAB/Saves rule.
The books for classes we're allowed are:
Player's Handbook
Player's Handbook 2
Complete Adventurer
Complete Arcane
Complete Divine
Complete Warrior
Heroes of Horror
Magic of Incarnum

Races, any non-draconic LA +0 to +2.

I tend to play Wizards, and would like to play something else for my next character. I would very much like to play something on the same power level, however. I'd like to stay away from divine casting classes also. Any suggestions (I realize I'm not making this easy, lol)?

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I'm no longer bound to just one game. I find enjoyment in almost all RPGs I've played at some point or another. There's plenty of room on my bookshelf for more games. I, personally, want to experience as many different games as possible.
May everyone have fun with their game of choice =)

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Questionably straight male.

I don't remember all my characters, so I'll just list a few that I do.

Darvesch Now, this is the name of two separate characters. I love the name, though I have no idea where I got it.

The first iteration of this character was a LG dwarven fighter/cleric (with levels in dwarf paragon from UA) in a family 3.5 game. He was in his 40s or 50s, and played not unlike a Klingon (duty, honor, glory, etc.) Damn if he had a spectacular death though! An ancient red dragon decided our group would be his play-things, and we might be tasty too. After a hard fought battle began to look like it would be the end of our group, Darvesch decided to wait until it was going to breath fire to jump into its gullet. (We were playing with a rule where, if a magic item is destroyed, it explodes, dealing d6's of damage based on value). The dragon's head exploded, killing Darvesch in the process. Needless to say, his looks and sexuality weren't much of an issue.

The second iteration is also LG dwarf fighter/inquisitor (not multiclass, this one is gestalt) in a current(?) PbP. This Darvesch isn't nearly as tightly wound as his predecessor (believe it or not, DM!). His elven "cousin" gets in enough trouble to keep him busy, and he wouldn't have it any other way. Though, he does take his job and duties seriously, he has been busy building a training facility for others like him. (I actually hope we get to continue the campaign at some point. HINT, DM!) He has had a fling with a companion NPC female human, and was last trying to develop his relationship with an NPC female dwarf.

The odd thing is, I can't really recall my other characters. I typically play wizards or psions, and the dwarf fighter is the only I remember. lol

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I had a very similar rule when I ran my PF game. Only, I gave a -2 penalty. Maybe I'm a softie, lol.

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I assume this will be for sale here when it's ready for release? (For those of us who couldn't back it at the time)

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Good point. I might give it a go. Might be good for me to get away from a pure spellcaster for once.

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Therius wrote:

Here, i give you a link to a guide for sorcerer. Its really good and focus on the options you got from Basic and Advanced Rulebook

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qUkVlonpJHQhy9jqicCuJDw-kmc1S3eY98GANjI lDkI/edit?pli=1

Hope it will help you

Broken link. =/

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Thought you might like to start here, Fake Healer. =)

Fantastic Maps Gimp Tutorials

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I'm gearing up for the second half of a campaign based on the idea of Law vs Chaos. I opted for Law. However, instead of playing a Wizard like I normally do, I'm going to give the Sorcerer a shot. In keeping with playing outside my comfort zone, I'm opting to play a blaster.

For the purposes of this, assume I'm using the elite array of stats. This character is starting at level 21 with appropriate wealth by level.

Books not allowed: Psionics, Tome of Magic, Tome of Battle. Everything else, including setting books, BoED and BoVD, and one-off books like Lords of Madness and Libris Mortis, is allowed. The only other stipulation to that rule is that, whatever I use becomes available for the DM to use as well.

Races not allowed: any Dragon type. In this game, dragons don't exist. This is non-negotiable.

Incarnum is implemented very well, and is sort of a focus for the game.

I have the general idea that I want to take at least 3 levels of Archmage (for Mastery of Elements, Mastery of Shaping, and Arcane Fire). I'm not set in stone on this decision, and I'm willing to hear any ideas.

If Incarnum, or the fact that this character is Lawful going against the forces of Chaos, can be implemented to make him a better blaster, I'd appreciate it a lot. There's not a lot of support for Incarnum, unfortunately.

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Maerimydra wrote:
It's good, but the original campaing is so linear and so easy (even on very hard) and the AI is so bad that I don't think that I will do more than one playthrough. Maybe the Berlin campaing will fix some of those issues.

From what I recall, Berlin will be more open ended than the original campaign.

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Mr. Greene wrote:
Combat is only sticking the Axe in the dragon? Or is it over coming an obstacle with what ever you have available, Intimidate, bluff, diplomacy, spell, exc.

What Laithoron said...

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paladinguy wrote:

Played a game with a new DM today. Walking through the woods. See some humans off through the trees. DM makes everyone roll initiative as soon as we spot them. I get highest roll and charge and attack.

After session is over, DM is like "why the f@*+ did you randomly attack people in the woods?"

I wouldn't have, but the "roll initiative" completely put me in the "BATTLE" mindset.

Is rolling initiative like that when no one has said they are going to fight a normal thing to do? Seems like it would put many players into a battle mindset when they otherwise wouldn't be...

I don't think Init needs to be rolled for anything but combat. However, if you do roll before other things, make sure your players know!

Dark Archive

Now that I've got my other computer back up and running, I'm enjoying it a lot as well.

Makes me long for the PnP RPG again.

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As a Linux user, I'm going to have to wait to play the game. No idea how long of a wait though.

Enjoy the game.

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Thank you pres man, I'll take a look at it tonight =)

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My last character died. Now I need a new one. I've grown exhausted from this campaign, and can't think of any characters I *really* want to play, since this will by my 5th.

I'm only really interested in pooling the community's minds together to help create a new character, as this is a family game, getting a new GM isn't going to happen. I enjoy the time we spend together, I'm just weary from the length of the campaign and how many characters I've gone through.

Here's what I'd actually like:

Something easy to manage. I'd love to be able to just do something without having to spend time figuring out specific details to make it work.

Something effective. My family group is a group of power gamers, and this campaign is rough. I'm going to need something extremely efficient if I want to stay alive.

Here's our rules for character creation:
My character is level 29. We're using the Epic rules. WBL applies.
Non-setting specific books are in, with exceptions.
No Incarnum.
No Complete Scoundrel.
No Tome of Magic.
No Tome of Battle.
Psionics allowed.

I tend to play mages, with a preference toward psions, but I'm willing to try anything. I don't expect anyone to throw entire builds at me. I'm just looking for ideas, and any would be extremely helpful in mentally unblocking me.

Thank you in advance.

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Here's a relevant PDF.

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I would need to look up the details of the Ohio bill, as I'm not sure if it requires a warrant or not. Even without that bill, I'd never wish anyone to live in Ohio anyway.

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BigNorseWolf wrote:

Here's an easy fix, thats already in place legally but being ignored.

Electronic data are the same as written documents.

If you cannot grab the letter i have sent by courier to my friend, open it, and read the contents then your carnivore program, prism, or whatever, cannot grab a hold of my email and open it to figure out if I'm a foreigner or not, so it can't read my email. Period.

Its the same as sneaking into everyone's house, then retroactively deciding if they're Americans or not.. its too late at that point, you've already broken the law.

I agree 100%.

It's unfortunate then, that in my current state of Ohio, there's a bill being passed around that will make it legal for a police officer to have full access to your smartphone and all its contents, with a search warrant (I hope).

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I don't really understand the anger about lack of backwards compatibility. Can someone explain that for me (seriously)?

If I buy the PS4, it'll be to play PS4 games. If I want to play a PS3 game, I'll just play it on my PS3.

In the mean time, I'm going to just save my money for another computer upgrade (leaning towards a new tower anyway).

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Scott Betts wrote:
Jason Beardsley wrote:

Just wanted to add that I have a few family members in the military that will not be getting the XB1 because of the location of their deployment. Which is unfortunate, because they're all XBox fans.

Many military members are deployed in regions that just don't have internet access.

Microsoft has already confirmed that they are working on a system for providing members of the military with codes that will allow them to use their Xbox One indefinitely without requiring internet access.

I was unaware of that. According to this MS XBox Exec, that's not the case.

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Just wanted to add that I have a few family members in the military that will not be getting the XB1 because of the location of their deployment. Which is unfortunate, because they're all XBox fans.

Many military members are deployed in regions that just don't have internet access.

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Such a shame. I had higher hopes for this generation of consoles. I'll wait till I have more information on the PS4 before I make my final decision, but I suspect I'll just save my money for a PC upgrade.

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Awesome tutorials, as usual, Jonathan! =)

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Dice_Castor wrote:


...I should email my DM a request for specifics and limits. (he keeps saying any paizo but run it by me first, and I am having trouble working like that).

It looks, to me, like your GM has created doubt and uncertainty in an otherwise great player.

If I were you, I'd find another group to join. And if you lived anywhere near my area, I'd gladly invite you to mine.

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In APG > Base Classes > Witch > New Familiars, scorpion's bonus is listed as +2 Initiative

In UM > Mastering Magic > New Familiars, scorpion's bonus is listed as +4 Initiative

Which is correct?

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@wasum - That's not what the PRD says.

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I fail to understand the paranoia you display with your character, 666. Is your GM really so mean, that if a spellcaster begins casting a spell, the enemies will automatically ignore your teammates and begin attacking you?

A witch with the deception or trickery patron will get blink or mirror image (respectively). Take improved initiative and get a scorpion familiar, your initiative will improve by +6. Going first will be your priority if you want to avoid enemy harassment. I personally like the slumber and misfortune hexes. Sleeping enemies can't hurt you, and if they don't fall asleep, you could at least make it harder for them to hit you. But the first thing you want to do, in the surprise round or round 1, is to use your summon spell. Then you can use hexes and other spells to help out your group, and avoid getting hit (which they should be helping you with anyway).

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Kolokotroni wrote:
Scaleclaw wrote:

- Magic is rare
Most village folk will gasp in awe when they see obvious magic. Some are even fearful and may react poorly. Burn the witch!"

I don't have to build a caster but i thought maybe since i want a change from up front fighters

Maybe get some holy symbols and the ability to bluff and credit the gods for your 'miracles'?

I once played in a S&W game where magic was not only feared and illegal, but illicited extremely hostile reactions. I played my magic-user as an archaeologist, as his spell selection was detection and reading magic spells.

OP: Perhaps you could play the Wizard class out-of-game, but pretend to be something else in-game. Such as archaeologist, adventurer, antique collector, treasure hunter, etc..?

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