Lacdannan's page

I played through the first adventure of Doomsday dawn recently and thought I’d share my feedback.

I’ve never been a fan of pathfinders 1.0 death mechanic. It was everchanging and not immediately knowable without some system knowledge. But 2e makes 1e death mechanics seem basic. I’m begging y’all, consider new players to the system at level 1 are more likely to experience the death mechanic than a high level character that is likely being played by a player with much more system knowledge gained from leveling said character. Y’all are front loading a convoluted mathematical component of the system to players who may be experiencing the system for the first time. Please please please, make the death mechanics, and any mechanics likely to be experienced at level 1, simpler, so I’m not scaring away new players to the system at their first game.

Rule of thumb, don’t force me to consult a table during a game. It kills immersion and enjoyability of the system.

I also found the pregen Barbarian to be too strong on damage and too weak on everything else, if I understood the mechanics correctly. A total of +8 damage from raging (initial +2, doubled from large weapon, doubled from titan mauler) was devastating. When I got confused, I had to metagame to my party ooc to get away from me until I could shake the effect, otherwise I’d likely kill any or all of them in short order. No damage reduction mechanic and low AC made me an ineffective front line defender as well. Damage was too great for a pile of hit points alone to serve as my tankiness and I was a drain on Party resources because of it.

I found the DC’s to be way too high given our bonuses. A door with 3 locks which required perfect execution of the rogue to pick just isn’t fun. I saw the player deflate as they thought, “oh hey, this is my element, this is when I shine... no wait, turns out I’m useless, guess we have to go through the railroaded trapped door.”

Good thing I noted, the cleric loved the changes to the casting mechanic. Being able to spend more actions to increase the size/shape/number of people of his heals appealed to him. He’s been playing clerics in a lot of systems and this was new and exciting for him. Well done there. I think this is a step forward for sure.

The additional effects on critical success and failure of spells also seems like a good idea, although we didn’t get to see it in action much.

Overall, it was tedious and lacked the fun element of being heroes in an rpg. Respectfully, I didn’t care for my first introduction to the new system and fear the direction the game is going. Make more heroes, not more tables.

Please remove the Starfinder Core Rulebook from my side-cart. I just received it as a gift. I believe it was order # 3834337.

Thank you!

Hey all,

I’m playing a Thundercaller bard in a homebrew campaign, and while I’m loving the out of combat opportunities, my in combat options are a bit... wierd. I either just buff the party and feel somewhat useless otherwise or I use Thundercall and trivialize most everything (which I try to do sparingly for the enjoyment of others). I’m looking for some middle of the road options. I’ve been playing mostly as a caster, but the limited spells per day and spells known combined with only 6 casting levels has itself also been disappointing. I picked up Shooting Star Divine Fighting Style feat for a decent combat option and it’s been okay. Doesn’t rival the damage output of anyone else in the party, but holds its own well enough. Then I realized that combined with disarm and/or sunder (perhaps an adamantine starknife), the shooting star technique could really shine, especially with bard buffs going and all that. Seems like a great way to punish brutes that engage the bard in melee. So my questions are two fold:

1) Anyone have any thoughts, experience, or advice with combining Shooting Star divine fighting technique with disarms and/or sunders?
2) Any advice on what else I can to to feel a bit more useful in combat situations?

Thanks in advance!

Hey all,

I have an upcoming campaign where we are starting at level 5. It's a home brew campaign where we'll be investigating why our city has been magically sealed off from the rest of existence and plagued by an onslaught of summoned creatures each night. I'm pretty open to most anything. I thought this might be an opportunity to play something interesting that doesn't have any viability initially but comes together later on. Any and all ideas are welcomed. 20 point buy, likely no 3rd party material, all Paizo allowed. I want to be very effective at whatever role i'm in, but flavor is always appreciated too.

I've been theorycrafting a throat slicer build but am not sold on it. I've built it with everything from brawler to bloodrager to synthesist summoner to vigilante. Fairly effective, but doesn't come together until level 6 or later.

Any ideas from the community? Thanks in advance.

Hey all,

In a game where I am a PC, there is another player who is not very enamored with his bard character. The character is great outside of combat, but in combat he inspires us and occasionally casts some spells, but mostly shoots (and misses) with his short bow, doing minimal damage when he hits compared to the archer fighter or two-handed barbarian. He's been given the option to revamp his character by the DM and I'm assisting.

During a one-off adventure I ran, he played an Alchemist and seemed to really enjoy the bombs aspect. To that end, I was looking for a way to give alchemist bombs to a bard and am coming up short. Alternatively, he may be willing to go alchemist if he could still do inspire courage, but that seems harder to do and I'm not sure he'd want to stray that far from bard.

So to that end, any ideas on how to give bards alchemist-style bombs? Or if not, what do you think a fair trade of bard abilities would be as I'm pretty sure the DM would be willing to allow some house-ruling to ensure he's having more fun.

Thanks in advance, all.

I know that strictly by rules, only one of your bloodlines may be wild; however, assuming the GM would allow both bloodlines to be permitted as wild, how well do you all think this would work?

Idea is a nature oriented dwarf with a musket and a bear animal companion. I know something similar could be done more simply with a druid, or even a gunslinger with the animal ally feat chain, and perhaps those would be stronger. I don't know. Just a random idea I had that I wanted some feedback on.

Need some help with a cursed item. Again, this will contain some RotRL spoilers, so read no further if you don’t want to see them. I recognize cursed items are a tricky thing to add to the game, so I’m trying to make it a blessing and a burden.

Background:
The party just finished with the skull dam in the third book. They made a deal with the pit fiend there to power floodgates of the dam. I should include here that the party is much more neutral than good, and there are absolutely no lawful good characters in the party. Specifically, in return for its freedom, the pit fiend was required to power the dam immediately to alleviate the current problem (which he did by summoning two level 1 devils). Additionally, the pit fiend swore to ensure the dam was powered for the next 100 years without using innocents or good outsiders as fuel (evil outsiders, evil humanoids, etc. are fine to use as fuel). He must also see to it that the damage made to the dam by the ogres is repaired. There were some caveats. The pit fiend is to return to its home plane as soon as it is capable and remain there for 100 years and a day, with the exception of returning strictly to the confines of the dam as needed to see to its repair and powering. It can take no action against the party member for 100 years and a day. It can take no action against the party members’ family or descendants for 500 years. All pretty standard stuff, although I did note they forbade actions, not words. So I could have him send others to harass the party, and still might do that.

Then the party got greedy <evil grin>

After the party heard how the pit fiend was imprisoned, they included in the deal that the wanted to be able to summon him 1 time if and when they face Karzoug. The pit fiend included the verbiage, “and I will only answer your summon if I feel I have been made whole.” The party obviously thought he was referencing his level draining, but part of being made whole is to remove the slight he feels at being perceived so weak by these mortals. The pit fiend is in the details. Then the subject turned to how they would summon him. The party asked for his true name, which he flatly refused. The party then said, and I quote, “Okay, we’ll leave the method of summoning you up to you”. The pit fiend did add the verbiage, “If you summon me, and it is not when you are fighting Karzoug, the entire deal is void.” They agreed. Finally, the greedy, greedy, GREEDY wizard asked for “a favor”, but never defined the favor.

The Item:
So here is my thought, I want to give him a cursed ioun stone as both the means to summon him and as the "favor” to the wizard. I was thinking a variant of the lavender and green ellipsoid stone that traditionally can absorb up to 50 spell levels up to 8th level. However, the cursed item would not have a limit on number of spell levels it could absorb and could absorb any spell level (even 9th or above). The catch is simple, there is a % chance every time it absorbs a spell that it is crushed (destroyed) and will attempt to summon the pit fiend. The % chance varies based on level of spell absorbed. Specifically, the chance is 10 minus the level of spell absorbed (ex. 1 in 9 or ~11% chance for a level 1 spell , 1 in 2 or 50% chance for a level 8 spell, or 100% chance for a level 9 spell). This gives the wizard an “instantly get out of any spell I throw at you” card, but with a Russian roulette catch. Using the item is a willful action, so using it outside of the battle with Karzoug could void the deal if the random roll comes up with the item attempting to summon the pit fiend.

Additionally, I want the item to have a property where it emanates an antimagic sphere whenever it is within 100 feet of an evil outsider as a means of protecting its owner from the harmful spell like abilities such creatures are known to possess. The item will obviously be immune to its own effect, and will cripple the wizard at close range. I made it 100 feet so that potentially the wizard could get outside 100 feet and function normally. The point of this “protection” is to have a significant enough negative effect to entice him to seek to remove the cursed item. The party knows Karzoug summoned two pit fiends at once to initially power the dam, so they should recognize having this item when they go up against him would be a severe liability, Especially since Karzoug will be well aware of all this by the time that battle comes.

If an additional positive quality is needed, I thought of giving the item a +2 inherent bonus to Intelligence. Entice him a bit more to use the item.

That moves us to the removal of the item. The item is clearly artifact level so requires a special means of total destruction. My thought is to have the item immune to all spells of 8th level or lower (so no simple removal with remove curse). The item can be permanently removed in one of two ways. If a mage’s disjunction spell is cast on it, followed by a wish spell, it can be removed, and at which point it immediately returns to the pit fiend (this does not nullify the deal). Alternatively, if the owner bathes in the waters of the Runeforge’s runewell after it has been drained of all of its creative energies, a simple remove curse item will destroy the item completely (this also does not nullify the deal). Learning of these two means of removing the item will take time and research.

The DC to identify the item is DC 35 (15+CL of crafter). The DC to determine it is cursed is therefore DC 45. I’m thinking he ‘might’ make the first. There is no possible way he makes the second (even on a 20). So I’m thinking of telling him the traditional properties of a lavender and green ellipsoid ioun stone that if crushed will attempt summon the pit fiend.

So thoughts? Too harsh? Too soft? Does it need the +2 inherent to Int? Suggestions about the item or what else I should do? Do you feel the wizard would need to willfully don the item or was that already freely given when the deal was struck?

Thank guys!

I apologize if my searching-fu was not adequate; Is crafting specific weapons as a different type of weapon permitted? If so or if up to DM discretion, do you think permitting it would be unbalancing?

Examples: making a Luckblade a longsword instead of short sword, making a short bow version of an Oathbow instead of a longbow, etc.

So i need a little help.

One of the players in an upcoming Kingmaker game (wherein I am also a player) is wanting to play a Gnome Ranger, Archery Style, Beastmaster archetype. The character will be using a small-sized composite longbow. I imagine at some point she will be taking the Boon Companion feat as well.

I'm very concerned that this character will be very weak, especially considering when its compared to the rest of the party, which includes a Battle Cleric of Gorum, a Magus (Intensified Frostbite or Shocking Grasp), a Half-elf Dual-Cursed Lunar Oracle (very powerful animal companion), a ninja (not sure on build), and a bard (not sure on build).

I'm afraid the racial penalty to str combined with no bonus to either dex or wis will really hurt this character.

Any tips, tricks, feats, traits, etc. that anyone can recommend to increase the combat effectiveness of this character? She's new to the system and will be very open to suggestions in that regard; however, I'm afraid the race, class, combat style, and archetype are most likely non-negotiable.

Thank you in advance.

Hey all,

DM is allowing me to take Winter Witch archetype along with Scarred Witch Doctor if I want, ruling that since winter witch restricts familiar choices and scarred witch replaces familiar, that they don't conflict with one another as much as some archetypes. He has also ruled that I may take the scarred witch doctor archetype as a human without the Racial Heritage (orc) feat tax. A very generous DM indeed.

Knowing the latter was available already, I stat'd out a witch with the Infernal (Pit-touched) eldritch heritage feats. We will be starting at level 9, so I won’t get the inherent con increase until level 11, but will have a robe of arcane heritage to bump up the inerent con bonus quickly.

However, now that I know I can take winter witch as well, I'm considering doing that with the Rime metamagic feat and frozen caress hex.

The problem is that both builds are very feat starved. In order to get the hexes I want (misfortune, cackle, evil eye, prehensile hair), if I go the winter witch route I'll need to spend two feats on extra hexes (to replace the one I'd lose and pick up frozen caress) and a feat on Rime.

I'm finding that my options are to go straight Scarred Witch Doctor with Pit-touched eldritch heritage feat chain for inherent con bonuses (probably up to a max of +4 in this campaign) or Scarred-Winter Witch with Rime and frozen caress, but no inherent bonuses to con.

Thoughts on which way to go?

25 point buy, starting lvl 9, average wealth by level, I'll be taking two item crafting feats (arms and armor, wondrous item) at minimum to make our starting gold go further. It's a very melee heavy party [Battle/buff cleric, melee paladin, melee rogue, possibly a druid (not sure if melee or caster), and either a barbarian or blaster sorc] which is why prehensile hair is a must. The party is pretty new to the system, so I am focusing on a heavy debuffer to make them look better in combat. Slumber hex is forbidden. Agony hex may be as well. Both of which I'm okay with, as I plan on getting Retribution as my first major hex (again to make the party look better).

I've been looking into Animal Companions quite a bit lately, and in researching on the boards one of the things that really bugged me was a suggestion that an animal with an Intelligence of 3 has a different "intelligence" than a humanoid of Intelligence 3. This is because animals have a number of "tricks" known and humanoids do not. I prefer my systems to have more universal rules, where creature type doesn't affect the lens through which one must read ability scores.

The rules clearly state that an animal with an Int score of 1 has 3 tricks known. An animal with an Int score of 2 has 6 tricks known.

So a logical progression could be a simple +3 tricks per intelligence point. The formula would be: # of tricks known = Int score x 3. And indeed, I've seen this used often on the boards. However, this would leave an average human with Int 10 as knowing 30 tricks. Clearly an average human knows more than 30 tricks, and this is the basis for the argument that Animal Intelligence and Human Intelligence are different things.

My proposal is an exponential progression. The formula for which would be: # of tricks known = 3 x 2^ (Int score - 1).

So now an average human would know over 1500 "tricks" whereas an exceptionally smart human with into of 20 would know 1000x more "tricks". This seems rather realistic as general concepts such a currency can be as simple as "funny colored paper and metal has value" to complex international trade relationships.

Clearly, at some point you just stop keeping track of what "tricks" a person knows, but the proposal offers a great incentive for increasing your animal companions Int score over straight con, dex, or str. Alternatively, it offers a real penalty for Min-Maxing an Int down to 5. Congrats, your Thoq-character with Int 5 only knows ~ 50 "tricks". Choose wisely.

Anyone see anything game-breaking or undesirable about this?

Hey, all. After much time and energy, I'm finally getting my old gaming group to come to the realization of pathfinder's superiority over that other 4th edition game. For one of our games, we are converting our characters to pathfinder.

I'm a little hung up on our warden. I'm looking for a build that is nature themed (required), serves as a front line tank (required), and preferably wields a 2-handed reach weapon (optional, character has an intelligent bardiche he's quite fond of but can be converted to another type of weapon if needed).

I've thought about a polearm master fighter, a barbarian/druid wildshaper rager, and a straight ranger with heavy armor proficiency, sword and board with lunge (probably longsword and buckler for 2-handing power attacks).

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Greetings. First of all, if you are one of my players, please stop reading and go elsewhere. Also, several RotRL spoilers will be included, so don't continue if you'd prefer not to see those.