Karel Gheysens's page

I was kinda hoping paizo would produce differently coloured bases (blue, red, green for instance) though your suggestions might work too.

If the DC is 28 and they have a +2 modifier, they can't open the door using strength.

It's that simple and no different form skill checks in that respect.

Note however that other party members can use aid an other (I think it applies to ability checks, if not, it should...) to grant an additional +2 and that there are often other ways to get around an ability check.

forinstance, picking the lock of that door (either to open it or reduce the strength required), breaking it down using damage etc.

Why not based them around a starknive?

The hilt (or maybe you call it differently) is very similar to a starknive. Unlike the starknive, you can't thrown it though you gain a shield bonus when wielding two of them (when you cross your arms in front of you, you get a nice and strong surface to catch blades). The shield bonus increases when fighting defensively or taking the full defence action.

Other option might be to base them around short swords and allow the weapons to do 1d3 damage to either the weapon or the attacker on a sunder or disarm attempt.
Maybe you could grant this damage in addition to the normal effects of a critical hit. On a critical hit, you ram the sword so deep into the flesh of you opponent, the spikes at the hilt damage the opponent.

The character gets a +2 circumstance bonus to intimidate checks. That's the bonus you get from something like that.
To balances things, he probably gets -2 circumstance penalty on diplomacy checks and some social consequences or alignment issues as collecting trophies isn't exactly main stream behaviour.

This was a monster in a campaign that a GM ran that happened to have an ability that allows it to charge with a speed of 200 ft.

I don't see the problem.
A GM is free to use the monsters he sees fit for a given encounter.

Anyone ever tried to boil their dice for 20 minutes?
Do they meld or you can actually use the oldest method to remove bacteria?

btw, the hyper hygienic society we are living in is probably one of the reasons there is an increase in auto immune disease (like allergies). When the immune system doesn't get alien things to attack, it will eventually find else to attack.
So I'd say, do you immune system a pleasure and don't clean you dice (too often).

Hmm, perhaps you're not getting a grasp of how I'd manage the club. First, I will need to find a way to get approval from the principal, and little elements that can spark interest in traditional subjects, using the RPG as a source of enthusiasm, I think will be a part of this.

To convince the principal, I would just quote the article.

Whenever possible, you should always make people aware of the benefits of roleplaying, as these are many. Firstly, as a game of active communication between a group of individuals, it involves a great deal of social skill development, including speaking and listening skills. It aids the development of patience, respect, and teamwork, as those involved learn the necessity of waiting their turn, and working together to accomplish a common goal. Given the unusual and tricky situations characters in a game can find themselves in, roleplaying actively encourages creative thinking and problem-solving, not to mention visualisation and the ability to understand different outlooks, points of view, and consequences. Beyond these points, roleplaying has elements of basic mathematics, largely addition, subtraction, and basic probability, as well as providing an avenue by which boys especially can improve their literacy, especially descriptive writing. Depending on the setting of the roleplaying game itself, it may also teach aspects of history such as the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Roleplaying is also a great way to relax with friends, one that does not involve being transfixed by a television or games console, and is performed in a safe, social, indoor environment. As it is not a physically active pursuit, it is also ideally suited for children with physical challenges. Not bad for something that is also immense fun.

Shouldn't we faq this?

It's compatible with RAW though I don't think it's RAI, I think flurry of blows should have been a full round action rather than full attack action.
On the other hand, it might play into the mobile aspect of a monk. He's good at attack and moving though not at attacking and drinking a potion. Seem fair enough.

At the end of the day it's flavor. You may as well just have a Barbarian, Cleric, and Wizard. Cleric has spells for traps, wizard can have spells for unlocking and scouting, making Rogue useless. Cleric/Wizard can use spells for being a face, Barbarian can tank and deal stupid-amounts of damage by himself. etc etc. You get the point.

So you want to spend precious resources on something a rogues/bard does for free?

Spells cannot replace skills. They can be a useful addition though are resource driven, something skills are not.

arioreo wrote:

An epic weapon is a weapon with at least a +6 enhancement bonus.

So your natural weapons are considered having at least a +6 enhancement bonus when it comes to overcoming damage reduction.

A +1 enhancement bonus is enough to overcome dr/magic.

Except they are not considered to have a +6 enhancement bonus, they are considered epic. A +6 weapon is considered epic, but an epic weapon is not necessarily considered a +6 weapon. See what I mean?

I don't see anything that specifically states that having your natural attacks treated as epic allows you to bypass DR/magic.

No it doesn't. That's not what your quote says. Your question says that epic weapons have at least a +6 enhancement bonus.

That dash '-' indicates a specification of what was written before the dash. In this case, it specifies a characteristic of an epic weapon, mainly that it has a +6 or higher enhancement bonus.

I hate it when people suggest a good rolepay character has to have ranks in Profession. It's a stupid skill with only one mechanical use - making money.

Why do you see profession so limited?

Just think of your own profession and what it offers you besides a pay check.
There are large amount of stuff that are directly tied to your profession. A stable master knows how to look after horse. i.e.their profession check can be used to identify common poisons and diseases that affect a horse (which normally would be a heal check). He might even be able to cure some basic afflictions.
Furthermore, if there is something like a 'stable master guild', he knows about it and probably is a member of the guild offering benefits when associating with other members or stable masters.
As a last point, he can make knowledge check relevant to his profession. Disregarding what type of knowledge check this would normally be. If you know your society is highly sailor based, many secrets will have a relevance to sailors. You know the famous other sailors (knowledge local), know the location of important isles (knowledge geography), you know about the mystic ghost ship (probably knowledge arcana),...

imho, if you see profession as limited to just earning cash, I think that is more based on your experience with the skill and not what a dm/player could do with it if he wants to.

You can indeed come up with a bunch of house rules to keep the rules as written from killing commoners in Varisia at normal temperatures for half the year if they are outside for an hour... but really? That should be necessary? How about we admit the rule as written doesn't work well.

What house rules?

The only discussable bonus is the combination of the first and fourth. One could argue that the survival bonus is granted by additional insulation just like the cloths do. However, this is only limited by the imagination of the player and dm. If they find an other way to justify the survival bonus, it's fine to apply both.

It would be reasonable to say that you can't take 10 on the survival check as the check it is for poses a real threat. Do you really think the farmer should bring along a group of people to huddle around him while out for 1 hour (aid other on the check for heat)? Really? That makes sense?

It doesn't pose a real threat at the time you make the check (that is, while still indoor preparing to venture out). And it's a routine action which to me is a strong indication of the possibility to take 10.

I don't see a problem with the 'aid an other' check. He receives help when putting on his cloths. All his wife does is look at his back to see if his coat is good. Or mentions what he needs to wear so he doesn't forget anything.
The aid an other check is made at the point when the survival check is made which is indoors and not outdoors. So I don't see where your group of people come into play.

P.S. It's still early so I'm not creative at this time so I wrote the example based on clothing. I see little reason why something similar would not be possible with other survival based solutions.

Casting of a 1st level spell will cost that farmer most of his daily income at 25g per cast. Even then the poor adept will only have a few castings a day and certainly even with the clerics help won't be able to cover even a tiny community of 50 people.

Speaking based on gold value is wrong. In a small community, the adept relies on the farmers for his survival. I'm sure he'll be glad to cast the necessary spells if that means he can eat today.

As for the lack of castings. It's only one of the 5 counter measures to battle the cold and if all else fails, this is a possible solution to the problem that a limited number of farming communities might resort to.
If he creates scrolls, he can increase his castings per day. And it's not a given that all people have to venture outside every day.
Not sure if he could get the money to create the scrolls though (or is there a feat around this? Or maybe there should be a feat around this?)

True you do things faster, so Rogue is taking a car instead of walking (well, more like riding a horse). Assuming the Rogue takes Trapspotting as a talent. A lot of Rogues don't bother with it because mechanically it is convenient but not required.

But now come to fighting you have brought a featherweight boxer to a heavyweight fight.

A princess may get old waiting for you to slowly find traps with Ranger or Bard, but she is just plain dead when the party never make it because they were beaten to death because they could not handle the encounters.

On the other hand, a well build rogue might open different approaches to the encounter through their skills and tallents (stealth, climb, disables device etc.) without expending resources from other classes.

Just look at the armies today. Intelligence (not the stat, but knowing what your enemy does) and (mechanical aided) skills are atleast as important as holding the biggest gun.

ihmo, you can't grasp the complexity of an encounter in simple metaphors. You can twist them and focus on certain aspects to prove each and every point.

Challenge: Produce a presiege class that does not work as well (or better) as an archtype.

My thoughts are that the only ones that you'll be able to come up with are the ones that require and enable multiclassing such as the Arcane Tricker / Archer or the Mystic Theurge.

And your point is?

P.S. And I disagree btw.
Some of the prestige class introduce concepts that leave the core concept of the classes to much. The assassin is not a rogue. First, you can't catch the fluff in an archetype. Second, the focus in murder just doesn't fit the concept of a skill monkey/sneak attack/trapper/secondary combat the rogue is.

It's actually quite simple. Some concepts need a prestige class. Some concepts need an archetype, some concepts need an alternative class and some concepts need a base class.
Dismissing one of the option (or options not mentioned in this post) only limits your possibilities. The question isn't: are prestige class a good thing? But: does the prestige class fit the concept I want to introduce?

P.P.S. And you just proved my point. The prestige class are not a bad thing. You only need to find concepts that work with them. The multiclass support offered by the arcane archer and mystic theurge are good examples.