Lavawight's page

Two of the people I game with refuse to use psionics or anything considered psychic because they perceive it as science fiction, and that interferes with their immersion. They are okay with third party content in general, and psionics/OA would fit many of the concepts they've tried to create over the years. This also occurred when one of them wanted to play something exactly like the Pathfinder ninja, but would not because they didn't want an Oriental-themed character.

I'd like some advice for convincing them that they can attach whatever flavor they like to the mechanics provided by a class, and their character doesn't have to be just like the fluff description or iconic image. Is it possible?

I posted this over on the DSP forum as well, but it's somewhat less active over there so I thought I'd get opinions from here too.
How should the soulknife’s blade enhancement progression interact with the automatic bonus progression optional rules? My group may shift to that rule soon, and the mind blade progresses faster than the ABP chart. Any suggestions, or is it fine as-is?

My group is about to start the Serpent's Skull AP, with me as GM, and they've all agreed that they want it to be a tough game. As one of them put it, "my character should be on his knees with tears in his eyes, voice choked with gratitude as he thanks the gods for the dirt he found to suck on for nourishment."

So, I need to make this pretty hardcore, without guaranteeing a TPK. I'd like the difficulty increase to be mostly environmental rather than just more or harder fights, such as decreased supplies or recovery items. There will be a divine caster who will likely take create water as an orison, so water won't be an issue.

Any suggestions are welcome, and I appreciate the help.

My tiefling gish was my very first 3.0 character, and I have maintained her in one form or another over the years and through each edition, but there has never been a class or combination of classes that quite suited what I wanted until now. The magus class fits my mental image perfectly, particularly the cabalist 3rd party archetype.

That little intro aside, let me get into the details. She'll be level 7, cabalist magus, and I want to go into the Dragon Disciple prestige class. Both GMs have agreed to allow the cabalist to have access to bloodlines at level 1 rather than waiting until level 7. Specifically, I need advice on feats, whether DD is worth it, and if not, which bloodline to choose instead of draconic. This character is constantly in melee, and not at all shy about 2-handing a weapon and forgetting about spellcasting if the situation calls for it. I'd also like to focus on a weapon that can benefit from 2-handing, as well as being usable in one hand for casting purposes. Over the years, this has meant EWP Bastard Sword most of the time, and probably will remain that way. With that in mind, Dervish Dance builds are out, and I'm not looking for the usual Dragon Disciple focused on natural attacks; DD was for cool-factor, stat and armor boosts, and abilities, but if a bloodline can do better I'll skip it.

Stats are rolled using 4d6 and dropping the lowest die, so pretty high, and thus optimization isn't what I'm looking for here, more like effective and versatile. They can be rearranged, but not rerolled.
Str 16
Dex 17 (including +2 from race)
Con 14
Int 18 (including +2 from race)
Wis 12
Cha 12 (including -2 from race)

Despite how effective it is, I don't like to just spellstrike Shocking Grasp all day, and I like to use my spells for versatility. It's also worth noting that my GMs have disallowed Zorro-ing my way to free attacks through Arcane Mark+Spellstrike.

Sorry if I meander or ramble a bit; I'm writing this with a monstrous headache and it's a little difficult to concentrate. Let me know if I was unclear, or if there is any further information you'd like. Any help would be appreciated.

As written, this spell seems to only redirect attacks to, in most cases, your allies, since it specifies that attacks are always redirected to something threatened by the subject of the spell. Would he be considered to threaten his allies for the purpose of this spell? If this is RAI, how would that interact with flanking?