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Apologies if this is the wrong section of the forum, it's been awhile since I posted here outside of PbP games. I'm a fairly active player myself, but am about to start a game for a group of players who have never played before, while never having run a game myself. I'll be using an adventure path, and feel pretty comfortable with the rules side of GMing, but what things would y'all recommend I keep in mind as I start getting ready for the first session?
Hey everyone, so I was looking at the kineticist's blast, and I think I found a cool way to use it, so I was hoping to get some tips on how to make it work effectively.
So what do you guys think? Would this work?
Hi everyone, I've got a homebrew idea for you guys that I'm hoping you'll be interested in, revolving around the country of Galt, which is a place that I feel has been under-explored so far in the adventure paths. So here's the situation: The current Revolutionary Council is trying to rein in the instability of Galt, which but they've only been in power for a few years, and do not have the general respect of the populace. The Gray Gardeners have been more and more brutal in attempting to reduce any unrest, often acting without the direct authorization of the Council, and although public protests are becoming less common, murmurs of the violence that seems to follow the Gardeners are beginning to spread. You will be part of a small group of dissidents based in a small village outside the capitol of Isarn. The leaders of this group were once high-ranking members of the bureaucracy and military, but were attacked and driven away by the Gray Gardeners. They don't know whose orders the Gardeners were acting under, but this has led them to retaliate by attempting to overthrow the current Council and create a better, more just, system.
I hope that you're all interested in this campaign, so let's get down to business, I'll be selecting 4-5 characters for each group.
Application:
I'd like you to create as complete of a stat block as you can, although I'll totally understand if you need to change things or make purchases before the game starts. Characters will be made with a 25 point buy, max HP at 1st level and then half+1 after that, all characters will begin at level 2, 2 traits, one of which is a campaign trait as written below, 1,000 starting gold. I'd also like to see a backstory, and if you'd like, I'd appreciate a sample of conversation or roleplay from the character. I'll allow you to apply with any race you wish, but keep in mind that they be accepted into this group without suspicion, and it's unlikely that say, an android, could have done so. Same goes for alignments, I'm fine with any alignment so long as it doesn't ruin the fun of the game for everyone else. Campaign Traits:
Ex-Military: You were a member of the militia before the current Council came to power, and although your military career is over, the skills you gained remain with you. You gain a +2 bonus to one of the following, climb, swim, acrobatics, survival, handle animal and profession(soldier), and that skill is always a class skill for you. Farmer: You did your best to avoid the trouble that comes with the revolution, but it was unavoidable when a small group of men fled to your village, chased by Gardeners. It wasn't until you talked to them that you realized just how bad it was in the rest of the country, and you promised to join their cause. You gain a +1 on Knowledge(Nature) and Knowledge(Geography) checks, and both skills are always a class skill for you. Betrayed: You were a member of the original group of dissidents who were betrayed by those in power. You consider yourself one of the leaders of this group of rebels, and fled with them to this village. You gain a +2 on diplomacy checks when talking with members of the rebel group. Idealist: You believe that the authoritarian state you have watched Galt become is not as things should be. There is a better way to stabilize the country, and you think that this group will help to achieve this stability in a more peaceful and compassionate way. You gain a +1 on Heal and Knowledge(History) checks, and both skills are always class skills for you. Believer: You believe that the Council has strayed from the original principles they promised to uphold, the principles that Milani has always preached. You have begun to learn the way of Milani, and to spread it among the rebels. You gain a +2 on Knowledge(Religion) checks, and it is always a class skill for you. With regards to the players, I'd like players who can not only commit to a long game, but who can also post regularly. Because of the nature of this game, one player can hold up both campaigns, and so I'd like you to be able to check the boards multiple times per day. I'll leave the recruitment open for a while, and give you plenty of notice before I close it. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with!
Hi everyone, I've got a homebrew idea for you guys that I'm hoping you'll be interested in, revolving around the country of Galt, which is a place that I feel has been under-explored so far in the adventure paths. So here's the situation: The current Revolutionary Council is trying to rein in the instability of Galt, which but they've only been in power for a few years, and do not have the general respect of the populace. The Gray Gardeners have been more and more brutal in attempting to reduce any unrest, often acting without the direct authorization of the Council, and although public protests are becoming less common, murmurs of the violence that seems to follow the Gardeners are beginning to spread. You will be new members of the Council's staff, just brought in to help them in their "administrative duties", which means that you can be unofficially used in any capacity. Your goal is to help the Council remain in place and to stabilize the country, by any means necessary, but there's a twist.
I hope that you're all interested in this campaign, so let's get down to business, I'll be selecting 4-5 characters for each group.
Application:
I'd like you to create as complete of a stat block as you can, although I'll totally understand if you need to change things or make purchases before the game starts. Characters will be made with a 25 point buy, max HP at 1st level and then half+1 after that, all characters will begin at level 2, 2 traits, one of which is a campaign trait as written below, 1,000 starting gold. I'd also like to see a backstory, and if you'd like, I'd appreciate a sample of conversation or roleplay from the character. I'll allow you to apply with any race you wish, but keep in mind that they must have achieved a relatively prestigious position in the Council's staff, and it's unlikely that say, a monkey goblin, could have done so. Same goes for alignments, I'm fine with any alignment so long as it doesn't ruin the fun of the game for everyone else. Campaign Traits:
Cowed: You often move to the other side of the street, or purposely avoid certain areas, to avoid the Gray Gardeners. Despite the fact that they are also under the Council's authority, you just don't feel that something's quite right about these masked executioners, and you do your best to escape their notice whenever possible. You gain a +2 bonus to stealth and it is always a class skill. Bureaucratic Mind: You've a head for organization and planning, making you an excellent person to help keep this government on track. It's this skill that has helped you rise so far, to become an aide to the Council. You gain a +2 on Knowledge checks that involve the Galtan government. Ex-Military: You joined the government after serving in the militia for some years, and bring a different perspective to the table than many of the career politicians who surround you.You gain a +2 bonus to one of the following, climb, swim, acrobatics, survival, handle animal and profession(soldier), and that skill is always a class skill for you. Son of Cheliax: You are from a family that remembers when Galt was a part of Cheliax, and you were raised to believe that even if Cheliax wasn't kind to its territories, at least it provided stability, and you believe that stability is far more important than providing a popular government. Choose two of the following: diplomacy, bluff or intimidate. You gain a +2 on both selected skills when working to crete a more stable Galt. Public Servant: You genuinely believe that the Council is doing its best to make Galt prosperous, and you think that overthrowing them will only lead to further unrest. You gain a +1 trait bonus on attack rolls for one round against any enemy who has expressed a desire to overthrow the Council. Bodyguard: You are used to looking out for threats to the Council, and are experienced in handling them. Choose one of the following: intimidate, disable device, spellcraft or sense motive. You gain a +2 bonus to that skill and it is always a class skill for you. With regards to the players, I'd like players who can not only commit to a long game, but who can also post regularly. Because of the nature of this game, one player can hold up both campaigns, and so I'd like you to be able to check the boards multiple times per day. I'll leave the recruitment open for a while, and give you plenty of notice before I close it. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with!
Hey everyone, I've been looking to run a homebrew campaign and wanted to run both of my ideas by you guys, and then pick one to run. I haven't decided on what character creation rules I'd use for either, I'm just looking to see which, of these ideas, would be more fun for you guys!
Idea 1:
This one is based on Galt, which is an area that I'd love to see explored more than it has been so far. I'd actually be running two different campaigns that interact with each other, based on the following situation. The current Revolutionary Council is doing their best to maintain stability, but they're dealing with various plots to undermine their stability. The Gray Gardeners are doing their best to keep order, but do not answer directly to them, and have been acting more and more brutal in punishing dissenters, which has only made the public more unhappy.
The first group would be either members of the Revolutionary Council or their aides, attempting to deal with these problems that come with being the leaders of Galt. The other group would be a group of rebels, people once working with the government but who were betrayed by the Gardeners and attacked. Those who escaped are now living in a small village outside of Isarn(the capital), and are organizing their resistance against the current government. They have no idea whether or not the Gardeners were working on the orders of the Revolutionary Council, but the leaders believe that they were. I feel like this gives a potential for nearly every alignment and build to get selected, and it'll be interesting to see how both groups interact with each other. On the other hand, because of the nature of a game like this, it'd likely be slower than average because we'd at time need to be waiting for the other group to hit a certain point, so that's something to keep in mind. Idea 2:
This would be a more traditional campaign, but in a world that's more dramatically altered from Golarion. Although the setting would be mainly the same, the countries and history would be changed. You would start as adventurers on a small island off the coast of the main country. The theme is of a slightly greek island, and the mainland is slightly more italian-themed than Golarion, but in general it should be a fairly familiar setting. First you will have to earn a commission to travel to the mainland, where you will be agents of the king himself. Without revealing too many details, your exploits will include encounters with the underground thieves guilds that plague the capitol, battles with fearsome pirates and the intrusion of infernal forces. I've already written out at least the first few levels of this campaign, so this would probably be a little easier to run, but I understand that the different setting might turn some people off. So I'm open to running either of these games if you guys are interested, but I probably don't have time at the moment to run both. Would anyone be interested in either of these, and if so, which one seems more fun and interesting to you?
Hey everyone, I think I found a solid way to use the Hellknight Signifier class for some awesome flavor and I'd love to run the build by you guys to get some feedback.
So how this works is that when I take my Hellknight levels I continue to gain casting levels, and my oracle level increases or the purposes of my revelations/mysteries. All I miss out on is the progression of my curse(fortunately Legalistic doesn't have great benefits until level 15), and I don't get any more revelations. In my opinion, there aren't many truly worthwhile revelations anyways, and I've made sure to pick them up with feats. So in exchange for these relatively minor costs, not only do I get the flavor of being a Hellknight, something I've been trying to do in a relatively optimal way for a while, but I'll gain all the Hellknight abilities like being able to discern all spells on a target, or use what is essentially True Seeing or Discern Lies.
Hi everyone, I've seen a few threads about this, but no definitive answer, so I thought I'd try my hand at sorting it out. I've been reading through the Words of Power rules, and it seems unclear whether a favored class bonus that normally provides a spontaneous caster with extra spells known would still provide spells known, or merely Words of Power known. For example, the sorcerer FCB allows a human to learn another sorcerer spell from their spell list, provided that it is at least one level below what they can normally cast, so they could learn magic missile at 3rd, etc. On the one hand, it's stated in the Words of Power rules that "A character who elects to be a wordcaster in a spellcasting class typically cannot use the spells of that class". Which would seem to make the claim that the FCB wouldn't allow a spontaneous caster to learn new spells, but rather new Words of Power. On the other, it's clear that it is possible for wordcasters to use normal spells, since sorcerers can gain spells through their bloodlines, and oracles through their mysteries. In addition, there is no, to my knowledge, clarification that things like FCBs should be changed from spells to Words of Power. This means that, RAW, the FCBs would likely allow casters to gain actual spells. In my opinion, it seems like the FCB would let any class with such an FCB, either spontaneous or prepared (alchemist, arcanist, bard, inquisitor, oracle, shamandebatable because the wording is kind of funky on the FCB, skald, sorcerer, witch and wizard), gain actual spells with their FCB, in addition to their already-known wordspells.
So I just started playing a Mongrel Mage, and we've just entered our first combat, when I realized that I wasn't entirely clear on how the Mongrel Mage abilities work together.
Thank you!
Suddenly, you appear in a circular room. At the edges, stone pillars support the vaulted ceilings, as windows look out into the nothingness beyond your home. At the center of the room is a massive table, surrounded by chairs. At your appearance, each reshapes itself, seeming to welcome their owners. Next to Geiyara, vines grow from cracks in the floor to wrap around the chair legs, while the very substance of Teleron's chair seems to fade in and out of reality. The table itself is nothing more than a carved map. Currently, it depicts a single large, flat continent. It is roughly rectangular, with a small piece of land at the southwest corner jutting out into the surrounding ocean. To the east, a small island rises from the ocean depths.
Congratulations on being accepted, feel free to RP your gods while I think about how to best introduce you all.
Hi everyone, this is the recruitment thread for a new Dawn of Worlds campaign. In addition to the Dawn of Worlds campaign, I would like to work with you to create a campaign to play through, in the world that you've made. Below, I explain what Dawn of Worlds is for those who don't know.
What is Dawn of Worlds?:
Dawn of Worlds is a system in which players each act as a deity, and take a base world, typically just a massive empty continent, and build it from scratch, from geography to races to culture. The full ruleset can be found at this link, and please feel free to post in the thread or message me with any questions. http://www.clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf About me:
Full disclosure: This is my first time DMing. What that means, is that I can't promise you well-polished gaming, and that's why I'm starting out with this particular campaign, which is more free-form than most and allows me to get to know you well before we begin the campaign part of the game.
Despite having never DMed before, I've played in several games both online and in real life, and have never dropped out of any, and am often one of the primary posters in my PbP games. So while I don't know much about DMing, I promise you that should we begin this campaign, I won't let it die unless every single player drops out, because I know how painful it is to have a campaign die just when you're getting into it, and I'd like to avoid doing that to you at all costs. Application Info
I'll leave recruitment open until the night of Friday the 16th. I won't be able to really look through applicants over that weekend, so I'll make my decisions the following week.
Hello all. I'd like to ask for your advice with a problem that I've had in one of my real life games.
I never told anyone what to do, but was talking to a few other players to try to come up with a strategy. The player is already familiar with my playstyle, as he is my DM in another campaign. He has never acted like this before, as he has never played in a campaign with me, only DMed. He will likely often end up playing replacement characters, and since he runs my other campaign, I spend quite a bit of time with him. I've read many threads like this before, and I know what the common reply is, but I just wanted to hear other people's opinions. If I attempt to discuss what happened with the player, he'll laugh it off and mock me for taking things too seriously. If I try to discuss it with the DM, he'll talk to his father, and I'll be in the same situation.
What are your thoughts? I would really appreciate the help.
Hi everyone, I have a quick question about building mounted characters. On every thread to mounted combat I've ever seen, the accepted weapon for any mounted cavalier is a lance. Upon looking at this, I'm not sure why. To charge with a lance requires a 15 feet charging lane, you have to move 10 feet and the lance adds another 5 feet from reach. That can get pretty unwieldy in combat. By contrast, something like a battleaxe requires only a 10 foot charging lane, and does at least as much damage. Presuming that you're a character with spirited charge, a battleaxe does 13.584 damage on a charge. By contrast, a lance does 14.106, a tiny difference. When you reach level 20 and charging damage gets multiplied again, battleaxes actually do more damage, 20.376 compared to a lance's 18.808. So basically, it looks like the lance is barely better for most of your campaign, and at the cost of what appears to be some serious convenience. Am I missing something?
Hello everyone, after reading through the recent Mystic Theurge thread, of course, I had to try my hand at making a Mystic Theurge that could perform well at high levels, and I'd appreciate it if you could provide feedback. For reference, here's the other thread
To enter quickly into the class, I'll be taking 3 levels in wizard with the Air school and a bonded ring and 3 levels in separatist cleric of Nethys, with the Exploration and Defense subdomains before entering into the prestige class until they finish and return to wizard. I'll be using a Sylph with the Like the Wind and Breeze Kissed Breezes alternate characteristics, and will be taking the standard Magical Knack trait to keep my wizard caster level at 19 by level 20. His feats are as follows: 1-Improved Initiative(If low dex), 3-Craft Wondrous Item, 5-Airy Step, 7-Theurgy, 9-Wings of Air, 11-Extend Spell Now I know that some of my choices may appear suboptimal, like the bonded object and my domain choices, so let me explain. I chose the bonded ring rather than a familiar for a few reasons. First, this character will barely gain access to level 9 wizard spells, and this will provide him with another level 9 spell slot. In addition, the familiar will not scale with Mystic Theurge levels, which will keep it extremely fragile and means that it won't be eligible for Improved Familiar. My domain choices are driven by a few things, Defense is fairly obvious, I'm looking to stay survivable despite my low hit dice, and Exploration provides a few cool benefits, like being able to see through doors and boosting my speed by another 10, up to 45. This means that when I gain a fly speed at level 9, my speed will be 45 rather than 30. Thank you in advance for your help.
Hi everyone, I'm fairly new to the site and was a bit confused by some of the things that I've seen on the messageboards. How do you create a spoiler? Thank you very much.
I've been working on an arcane archer build for a long time now and I was wondering if I could get some feedback on it. The DM has ruled that non-Elven races can be used for Arcane Archer and has assured me that I will almost always be able to use mounts in combat. He is an Oread with these stats: 18, 15, 14, 15, 19, 11 Levels: 1-Zen Archer, 2-Sorcerer, 3-Zen Archer, 4-Zen Archer, 5-Zen Archer, 6-Zen Archer, 7-Dragoon, 8-Zen Archer, 9-Dragoon, 10-Sorcerer, 11-20-Arcane Archer Due to Fighter and Zen Archer feats, he gets a lot of feats Feats: 1-Perfect Strike, free, Quick draw, Precise Shot with Monk Bonus Feat, 2-Eschew Materials with Sorcerer, 3-Point Blank Shot with Monk Bonus Feat, Weapon Focus(Bow) for free, Deadly Aim, 4-Point Blank Master for free, 5- Mounted Combat, 7- Mounted Archery with Dragoon Bonus Feat, Skill Focus(Ride) with Dragoon bonus feat, Improved Precise Shot, 8-Rapid Shot with Monk Bonus Feat, Weapon Specialization(Bow) free, 9- Trick Riding with Fighter Bonus Feat, Snap Shot. He's taking the Empyreal Bloodline of sorcerer, which uses Wisdom for casting rather than Charisma and to make up for how few levels he's taking in Sorcerer, he's taking the Magical Knack trait to improve his spellcasting. I realize that this is a rather unorthodox build, but using Zen Archer allows me to avoid the Manyshot chain and gives me quite a few feats, and since I can't wear armor, I can use mage armor to improve my AC. The monk levels give me Flurry of Blows that throughout the game stays about as good as a rapid/manyshot full attack. Thoughts? |
