Kibeth's page

Game Name: Vaylen-The Precipice of War
Theme: Open World in a unique and diverse homebrew setting.
Flavour: High fantasy player-driven adventure, action and intrigue.

I am looking to run a campaign in my homebrew setting found in the campaign info tab. I plan to have the story driven entirely by the whims and decisions of the players rather than any intricate premeditated railroad. “Roll play” and combat will happen as often as the players make it happen; I have not listed a percentage breakdown because I expect that the player’s roleplay skills and decisions will be the deciding factor. The world will continue to go on, and the decisions of the players can and will affect the direction and order of events they are involved in greatly. Even where we begin will be based on the backgrounds of characters that will be playing. I’m aiming to get 5-6 players to play, posting 4 times per week at minimum. Take a look at the world under campaign info. Looking forward to receiving apps!

Characters
Character Background:
I would like players to use the “Ten Minute Background” system. It includes examples. As I’m expecting this game to be driven mostly by the RP of the players, I will be using this background as a judge of your RP ability, both for content and style. Be thorough and creative.
As far as the content of the background, the information in the world is presented, as mentioned previously, within the campaign info. I want to strongly encourage players to feel free to make up their own story elements within the world including but not limited to deities, locations, races, organizations and histories. If you have any questions that cannot be found within the campaign info, just ask!

Character Creation:

• Power: Level 8
  
• Abilities: 20 pt buy
  
• Bling/Cash Money: Standard Wealth
  
• Race: All pathfinder races are permitted. You may create your own race not exceeding 15 RP with the advanced race guide, just make sure there’s very good roleplay associated with it. If you choose to play something half-construct, feel free, but expect adjustments to your back ground – that race is extraordinarily rare, experimental, and secret. You may exceed the 15 RP limit to create cooler races, but you will be subject to LA. The same applies for characters hell bent on using templates (because werewolves are cool). Pathfinder has some rules on the matter. Check out the SRD under monsters as pcs. It also contains the info from the ARG
  
• Class: All pathfinder classes and prestige classes.
  
• Alignment: I don't give a damn, just make it work RP wise. It's more of a guideline anyway in terms of your character's personality and behavior. Know this: if you can't feasibly get along in a party, it obviously won't work out unless you can convince me to let you in as a campaign villain or opponent because your RP is that good. Heath Ledger RP'd hard in The Dark Knight.
  
• I ain't even mad about third party or homebrew, but run it by me first. For the record, I'm allowing Gramarists.. You can find the Gramarie disciplines and prestige classes here.
  

We have a few house rules. My apologies, there are more than a few of them, and therefore I've used a spoiler.

House Rules

Applications
Applications will be closed on May 17th at 12:00 AM.

Application Format:
Name - Duh. What do they call you. Even if it's "Nothing." Hell, they could call you tater salad for all I care.
Race - If you're going to do something crazy, but still within the guidelines I mentioned above, please RP well. I'm talking a concise history.
Class - Well it wouldn't be fun without the ability to, y'know, do stuff.
Alignment - As I said, this is more of a guideline, and I expect slightly more than "LN." I mean, definitely mention that too. It's a requirement. But I'd like to see a short sentence or two on your character's philosophy on morality. You can even answer it as if your character was asked directly what his alignment is.
Appearance - Ah, yes, the first impression. What do you look like, what do you wear, and are you rockin' a phat grill. Pictures are nice.
Personality - Well, I wouldn't want you to completely eliminate content from your background, but I'd like to see a short description of what your character is like. What drives your character's decisions, what are his/her fears.
Ten Minute Background - This is it. The Real McCoy. The Big Dawg. This is what it all hinges on. This is your background, an often under-appreciated portion of character development. Given that I just asked for your character's personality, I'd like to see the first section filled with some creative concepts that aren't redundant with the previous requirement. At the end of this, I should know your character pretty well; I should know where he came from, why he's level 8, how he got to level 8, what his accomplishments are, who his friends, enemies and frenemies are, what his short/long term goals are, and a secret or two. You don't have to be verbose; just be thorough and creative (I know, I've said this a million times).
RP Sample - Short narrative to get a feel for your writing style. The world is an open sandbox. To play in a campaign is to be a character in a larger movie, but I am letting you drive your own plot. Tell me what you're doing when the "camera starts rolling," why, and how you got there. Alternatively, you could write an rp sample of a portion of your background. Up to you.
Have Fun - Enjoy this. I know I will! :saros :D

I will post applicants (with a completed application) here:

Questions:
I'll answer questions here:

Book One: Esoteric Elven Emissaries

The scene is unremarkable. Bright lights, obviously magical in nature, buzz and dance around the smooth, even stone walls of the small rectangular room you have just entered from some dingy, obscure hallway within the Academy of Valandaer.

As he sits to face you, the door closes quietly of its own accord and his facial features begin to rearrange subtly. He motions for you to sit, gesturing to the four empty chairs opposing him. "Talk amongst yourselves, briefly; introductions and the like. I have a few things to review before we begin our agenda," he says in an even, confident voice that sounds as though it too is undergoing subtle rearrangements in its features. One of the arranged texts slides, unprovoked, gently across the table and opens in front of him as he speaks. He begins to read.

Roll initiatives. You're going to pick your seats in that order and sit down, if you so choose. Describe yourself, and what you say if anything. If you have a picture that's basically your character, that will suffice in place of the description. Feel free to introduce yourself as well, as I'm fairly certain that we don't know each other. Roll the initiative and describe yourself in one post, then save your seating and possible dialogue until after everyone has rolled and you know your order. The 4 chairs are spread evenly along the half of the table opposite from the gentleman who is reading.

With that weapon bonus the spellslinger can

apply any of the following to his arcane bond: enhancement
bonuses (up to +5) and dancing, defending, distance, f laming,
f laming burst, frost, ghost touch, icy burst, merciful, seeking, shock,
shocking burst, spell storing, thundering, vicious, and wounding.
An arcane gun gains no benefit from having two of the same
weapon special abilities on the same barrel.

Just for clarification, these abilities affect the barrel of the arcane gun, and as such all bullets fired take on the qualities that the gun is imbued with correct? How, exactly, does the spell storing interact with the magic bullets ability? Does this mean that every bullet fired is then spell storing(which would be useless since that would provide no time to actually cast a spell into the bullet)? Or simply that the arcane gun is spell storing and one can cast a spell into it and fire it through a bullet, having it function similar to a melee spell storing weapon and the spellslinger must take another action to imbue the gun with a spell? Is spell storing not a melee weapon ability only?

I've been doing some playtesting of the revised Magus class recently. It felt like between levels two and 7 where you get haste for an extra attack, spell combat didn't really have a place. It was always more worth it to spellstrike. Not only does spellstrike cause your spell to gain the threat range of the weapon, but you can move and then do it. Spell combat adds a bit more versatility in the sense that you're not limited to touch spells, but between 2 and 7, shocking grasp is your bread and butter anyway. A simple intensified causes shocking grasp to keep up with scorching ray for the same level of spell and allowing you to maintain mobility. 3/4 BAB prevents taking a minus to hit to gain a bonus to the conc check from being worth it, in my opinion. It just feels like spell combat doesn't have a strong enough niche until later. I could be missing some things, obviously, but this has been my experience in playtesting.

Additionally, the Magus pool needs to be larger, or there needs to be a way to trade a spell slot for more points or something. Those things go by pretty quickly, especially in an adventure that throws more than just a couple more encounters at you per day. I'm not saying it needs anything drastic like tripling the pool, but some sort of increase is in order. Again, this is obviously just opinion.

The arcanas that allow you to do abilities once per day, such as critical strike, concentrate and the metamagic arcanas should be free the first time and then cost points for additional usage. Once per day just feels really... for lack of a better word, lame. If it would work better to just make them cost points the entire time rather than free once per day and then points, that would be fine as well. You should be able to do those things like that more than once per day, provided that you are willing to spend resources to do so in place of spending them on other cool things.

Arcane strike should stack with the arcane pool ability. I know there's a thread that pretty much says the same thing already, but I thought I'd mention it here.

The Magus is still very MAD. To alleviate that a little bit pretty much costs two feats and shoe-horns you into using a scimitar. Some of that manifests in the save DCs for the Magus spells that require saves. They're really low. Can't have as much int as other caster classes when you have many other stats to worry about. Combine that with not being a full caster, and you have spells that are easy to save against. A solution would be one similar to what the sandman bard does; in certain situations, up the dc and caster level of spells cast by the class. For the sandman, it's when their opponent is denied dex. For the magus, it could be only when using spell combat. Perhaps doing something like making it so with spell combat, dcs increase and with spellstrike caster level to penetrate sr increases. It would certainly help give a niche for both abilities.

The capstone for the magus compared to other classes seems weak. No more conc checks are very nice, but +2 to dc, sr penetration or attack rolls for a level 20 capstone? It's not like conc checks are difficult to succeed at 20 with a dc of 27 at most for the 20th level magus. A feat and a trait pretty much make it so you can only fail on a nat one. So while not having to make conc checks is nice, I'm not sure that's worthy of a capstone. As far as the +2 to dc, sr or attack rolls... I mean... for a capstone? Again, not sure, especially compared to other classes.

I still think the arcanas would do better with a rogue talent or rage power progression, but I have accepted that it probably won't happen. I gave up on the unarmored Magus with int to ac as well :(.

Present:

The afternoon sun shines through the large stain glass window at the back of the room, leaving patterns of red and blue draping across the table and those sitting at it. The table, bare but moments before, is now full of fine Elven foods. Ryschal, veal seasoned with Valandaerian spices, and theriis, a mash of vibrant fruits, are served first with bread and wine to the party.

“You know, this meal turned out better than I thought it would. At first they told me it was going to be impossible to get spices imported from Valandaer. I guess I showed them, nothing a good trade of favors can’t do,” Nigel says delightedly as he looks about. Ornate shields cover the wall at even intervals, blue base with gold trim and a brown insignia of a sword over an open book. Shelves of dusty books line the walls underneath the hanging shields. Most of the spines are too dusty to read, but a few stand out as chronicles of missions written by old members of the Guild.

Nigel is dressed in simple clothes, no armor showing, and no weapon at his side. His shirt is a dusty white, with a simple brown vest over it. It tucks into a pair of simple brown pants. All in all Nigel is a rather plain individual; short brown hair, plain green eyes, and a clean shaven face with nary a scar. Sitting at the end of the table, several feet in front of the window, he eats slowly and constantly; taking time to devour each little bit individually before moving onto the next, never taking a break between except to speak. A smile seems to sit upon his face, never falling for even a second.

To the right of Nigel sits a woman previously introduced as Shaan, a friend of his who would be overseeing the discussion of terms alongside him. At the opposite end of the table, Magnus Lirian sits with a wide grin on his bearded face. To the right of Magnus, on the long edge of the table, the Duchess of Linoor. Her demeanor is more or less the opposite of Nigel’s own. Clearly famished from the journey, she is inhaling the food almost as fast as the servants can keep bringing it out. Janus, the Duke of Namre and Magnus' Apprentice, sits to the right of Sheriah. To his right sits Alaris, who looks about excitedly as people shuffle in and out with trays. He makes several attempts at small talk with the servants passing by, clearly quite excited with this entire procedure. Opposite Sheriah, Janus and Alaris sit Elros of Amrothe' and Molasbar. Behind Molasbar and Elros, leaning against the wall with arms crossed while looking rather unimpressed, is Teris who stands next to a glass case, the contents of which are several small trinkets made of… brass? Bronze? Some shiny rust colored metal that has dulled over the years.

At this point, the members of the meeting make small talk as they enjoy their meal.

Narees' Manor sits in the back of Ulvin, separated slightly from the rest of the city. A gate surrounds the spacious courtyard of the manor. As a gesture of respect to Valandaer's royalty, Darrow Shimvin, Lord of Veramoore, has sent his Diamond Guard to the Manor.

So I think someone asked this in the round one thread, but I thought I'd ask again. Does the conductive enchant work with either spellstrike or pool strike? If not, I don't understand what the purpose of pool strike considering it takes a standard action to do it and that pretty much every touch spell on the magus spell list just does damage. I feel like that arcana might be a prime example how some of the arcana just feel really weak. Also, we've been told that we're getting more touch spells in ultimate magic correct? So I shouldn't be rabbling because some of the cooler touch spells like touch of fatigue, idiocy and gracelessness are not present. Overall, good work. I really enjoy this version. Huge improvement compared to the original and very well done. Still some room for improvement, but that's why it's still in playtest.

Valandaer
The High Kingdom of Valandaer, otherwise known as the Elven High Kingdom, was once the undisputed superpower of Sariel. It boasted undisputed political and military power, along with a vibrant culture whose influence was seen all across the world. As its nickname suggests, the Nobility of Valandaer are almost unequivocally Elven. The Kingdom in its entirety, however, is roughly 60 to 65 percent elven. The High Kingdom is a nation with a history saturated with the Arcane. Divine Magic, while not shunned in any circle, is simply among the minority. Denizens of the Kingdom revel in the use of Arcane Magic in day to day tasks and pride themselves, as a collective, as the greatest practitioners of the art in the world. After all, the ancestors of Valandaer’s leaders were the first to use magic as a tool for expansion. The High Kingdom is a nation that prides itself on ancient traditions, and traditionally it is ruled by a Monarch, his queen, the captain of the High Guard, the official Advisor to the King and three of the highest ranking nobles. The three Nobles are rotated every decade, and the new members are selected by the old council, except for one who is personally chosen by the King. The High Council consists of 7 total members.

Presently, the High Kingdom is ruled by Queen Soreanna Baelgar. It is the first time the High Kingdom has been ruled by a Queen rather than a King because of the tendency for the King to Outlive his queen by a significant margin. The current High Council consists of 9 members, further upsetting the tradition of Valandaer. There are those among the nobility of the High Kingdom who are less than pleased with Soreanna’s apparent disregard for the tradition of Valandaer.

The Elven High Kingdom is at war with the relatively newly formed demonic nation of Tyrixx. During the Second Great War, after gaining an increased proficiency for the arcane, the elves of the High Kingdom opted to summon a sizeable number of demons and subject them to indefinite compacts under the threat of arcane annihilation in order to bolster their military might. After the war, the High Kingdom kept the remaining demons as slaves. Eventually, these demons multiplied, and some bred with their mortal masters. In time, there was a great uprising and revolt by the demon and half-demon slaves which resulted in their freedom and a migration, known as the Exodus, out of Valandaer’s territory. In a short period of time, they formed a nation and it prospered. According to Valandaer’s schoolbooks, the war began when the leaders of Tyrixx murdered King Seferin while he was on a diplomatic sojourn attempting to negotiate open trade.

It is well known across Sariel that the High Kingdom is losing this war that it has been fighting for quite some time. The leaders of Valandaer have requested aid from many of the other powers of Sariel, but have found nothing but rejection for reasons that are unique to each power.

Recently, an envoy of some of the most powerful nobles of valandaer have begun a journey towards the heart of the Sixth Great Empire to make yet another attempt at forming an alliance to aid them in their time of need.

Recently a friend and I have been creating a heavy homebrew game world to be used with the pathfinder rule set (and maybe a bit of 3.5). We have a solid background and story skeleton that I will elaborate on provided that there is sufficient interest. I am looking to find four people who are interested in playing a campaign starting at 15th level. We will use pathfinder rules for play. Homebrew classes from other sources, including 3.5e, will be allowed as long as they are run by us first. As previously stated, this is just an interest check to see if there are people out there who would want to do a higher level campaign in a fully fleshed out homebrew world. If it's sufficient, then we will begin posting the details of the campaign and the world.

Thanks.

A temporary bit of homebrew that my DM allows while the magus is still "unfinished." The Magus Remake. There's also a 3.5 spellthief remake for pathfinder somewhere on my computer... I'll post that later if/when I find it.

So my dm saw the magus class, and he shares my love of the concept of the magus. After some lengthy discussion, and perusing these forums, he allowed me to take the class and tweak it to my liking provided that he did not think it was too overpowered. That being said, he also tends to have a pension for the ridiculous, and thus his judgment of what's overpowered is often skewed. So I thought I would post the magus class as permitted by my dm for Jason to take a look at, as well as the rest of the community, and give some feedback. It is quite lengthy as it's pretty much a class write up. I included some of the ideas from these forums that interested me the most and attempted to implement them. Due to the length, I'm posting it as a google doc. I apologize in advance for the appearance of the table in advance.

The Magus Remake

I kept the spells exactly the same, and implemented the flurry of blows like idea for spell combat, as well as the arcane pool idea. The magus arcana ability has been re-arranged and reworked to incorporate the Arcane Pool. Quite a few of the other abilities have been tweaked as well. Again, looking for some feedback, especially from Jason. Obviously I'm not asking this to be the next playtest of the magus or anything, I'm just hoping that while looking at this you might see something you like.

Thanks,
Kib

There is a thread for the Magus Arcanas, and one for Spellstrike Ideas. I figured I'd make one for Spell Combat as well just to put it all in one place. I believe it was Mr. Fishy who suggested that the magus takes a hit to ac rather than hit while using spell combat, or something to that effect, kind of like rage. I rather like that idea.

I believe this was posted elsewhere, but I have some concerns with the flavor of the class. This is most certainly a personal thing, and I don't expect everyone to agree with me. However, for me, the idea of a melee combatant who blends the art of magic with that to become adept at both, but masters neither does not "jive" with wearing anything more than light armor. This is especially true, for me, if you're creating a class that is strictly to use a 1 hander and a free hand with 3/4 BAB. This isn't supposed to be an "arcane paladin." I'd like to see the armor proficiencies removed in favor of magically enhanced, perhaps insight based, ac. Int as an insight or deflection bonus to ac while wearing no armor, or something to that effect.

Saves
I would also swap the fort and reflex saves; somehow the idea of a 3/4 BAB d8 melee class with a high fort save instead of high reflex just doesn't "jive" either.

BAB
Surprisingly, I'm alright with the 3/4 BAB and d8. It's somewhere in between a caster and a full fighter or paladin, and fits the flavor quite nicely. With feats such as arcane strike, weapon focus and weapon specialization, and the arcane accuracy magus arcana, accuracy doesn't seem like it would be a big issue.

Spells
A spell list of its own makes sense, and I'm sure with the final version, there will be plenty of delicious touch spells added on from the new book. However, what's with the PREPARED CASTING?!?!? I mean, I suppose it's not a big deal, but it is a point of concern for me.

Abilities
Spellstrike needs to be reworked. Jason has clarified in various posts now that it does not mean you get to cast and attack in the same round. You have to cast the touch spell, and you can then choose to deliver it through your weapon in the next round. Essentially you are holding the spell until the next round and then you may deliver it while attacking. Aside from attacks of opportunity, and some other very specific rare instances, I do not see the point in this ability. It should be reworked to be similar to the Duskblade arcane channeling ability from the 3.5 PHBII. Because the magus pretty much requires a one handed weapon and a free hand, an ability similar to the duskblade's arcane channeling would not be anywhere near as broken as it was in 3.5 since you wouldn't be able to channel while TWF. Keep it limited to touch spells obviously.

Spell Combat is unique, and enjoyable conceptually. The increased penalty to the concentration check makes sense. However, mathematically, at lower to mid levels, the ability is just not worth it. I believe it was Cartigan who pointed out that you essentially take a -4 to attack rolls for a 50% chance to cast a spell while you're attacking.

Also, as a little aside here, it seems like combat casting is pretty much a requirement for this class. Why not just give it to them for free? Feat taxes are lame. I suppose I could make the same comment for arcane strike. And sure, the magus arcana "concentrate" solves this a little bit, however it's once per day.

Now then, Magus Arcana. I think the Bonus feat thing needs to be rolled into magus arcana, and the levels you get magus arcana should be adjusted accordingly. That would be good for versatility and personal flavor and customization for each magus. I think the Broad Study Magus Arcana needs to add a line that lets you add touch spells from other arcane spell caster lists to your own list so that way it is actually useful for a non-multiclass magus. A higher level arcana that lets you replace either strength bonus to attack or damage with your int bonus would be cool, though balance wise I'm not sure how feasible that is. It would get rid of a lot of the MAD issues that I see arising since this is a class that will not have as high of an int bonus as a wizard due to the melee needs of dex, str and con. An arcane accuracy but for weapon damage would be nice as well. That or some magus arcana that improves the way arcane strike works, and/or makes it so arcane strike is a free action. Critical Strike needs to not be a swift action or the aforementioned changes to arcane strike need to happen. A magus arcana that allows you to add one wizard spell to your list each time you take it would be cool as well. A magus arcana that gives spell resistance, one that allows increased caster level to overcome SR when casting spells with spellstrike or spell combat similar to the duskblade ability, and one that allows an increase in the dc of the spell cast with spellstrike and spell combat; these would all be good ideas. All of this would create a system of versatility. No two magi would be the same.

Arcane Weapon is quite good as is, however I'm curious as to whether it's supposed to act in the same way as a wizard's bonded weapon in that you can enchant it as if you had the appropriate item creation feats. I realize that it does not say this in the text, but the text does make mention of the concentration check so I thought I'd verify.

Weapon Bond is also fine as is, however my concern is that it's not worthy of being a 19th level ability. Yes, I understand that it makes you immune to disarm, and you will constantly know where your weapon is at all times, however, how often does disarm really happen? Often enough to warrant an ability like this? Sure. 19th level? Not so sure. I feel like other classes have cooler higher level abilities like DR, Mass suggestion, Gate, Great Hex, Great Quarry, and Empty Body.