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It worked out great. They actually didn't get quite as far as expected because they decided to take sort of an indirect approach, so I haven't used the sorcerer yet. I'm learning and getting quicker with making stuff on the fly. And fire-heavy was definitely the theme of the night. Thanks again for the help.

Awesome. I'm going tweak the gear a bit, but the saves, spells with times per day and DCs, and AC (with spells factored in) saved me a ton of time and will get me 99% percent of what I need to get my players going and I can do the rest on the fly.

The ifrit and the goblin snake have set themselves up as cult leaders amongst an especially pyromaniacal tribe of goblins. There's going to be various enviromental disadvantages to the player (flammables everywhere!) and they haven't taken the hints to prepare themselves with fire resistance in any way, so it could be quite a challenging encounter.

Meant to include ifrit, yes.

Take a Goblin Snake. Set its charisma to 18. Make it a level 6 Fire elemental sorc. 52 HP. AC 18 from mage armor, 22 if it casts shield. Saves are +4/+4/+9. BAB +4

1st level spells (DC 15) - Burning Hands, Mage Armor, Shield, Snapdragon Fireworks, Feather Fall, Grease
2nd level spells (DC 16) - Scorching Ray, Invisibility, Resist Energy
3rd level spells (DC 17) - Fireball

Mage Armor at beginning of day. Shield and Resist Energy (Fire) before combat if possible. Spells available is 7/6/4 at start of day, 5/5/4 if buffed. Throw fireballs as fast as possible.

[EDIT] Fixed mistake in spells known and added DC's

Wow. If you just did that off the top of your head, you're good. This is my first time DMing so I'm a little slow making monsters with class levels. On top of that, I never played a sorcerer or wizard, so it would've taken longer to pick spells. Sometimes I overthink things the way I would making one of my PCs, for a creature that's probably only going make it one encounter. Thanks a ton.

So I'm not 100% sure this is the right place to post this, redirect me if there is somewhere more appropriate. Anyways I was looking for a goblin snake with caster class levels (bringing it up to about CR 6-7) and an ignan sorcerer 8 or 9 to help finish up an encounter tonight. If anybody has stat blocks ready, that would help me tremendously. I got busier than I planned and my players are excited to play tonight. Some of my usual sources for premade NPCs are coming up short.

Thanks in advance in anybody can help me out or let me know a better place to post this.

Well, what type of bard are you trying to be? I'm currently playing an Arcane Duelist who uses lots of intimidation and trips with a whip. With a build like that, an extra feat is pretty useful because there are multiple lines of feats that are all useful (Weapon Focus->Dazzling Display, Combat Expertise->Improved Trip->Greater Trip, etc.).

A Houri would get lots of bonus spells and have very high save DCs, so the natural way to go with that would be more focused on casting, which is a little less feat intensive than a controller build that uses lots of combat maneuvers.

Desna has the best domains for a good cleric. I spent a ridiculously excessive amount of time making that decision when I made a cleric of Desna. I made a chart with all the possible combinations and noted good synergies, overlapping powers and domain spells, etc. Too bad I lost it otherwise I'd post it. Nevertheless, here's what I got for you after refreshing myself by skimming over domains in the PRD:

If it's not too late to change, might I suggest the Luck domain? Luck domain is one of the best. Luck has great domain spells and granted powers. I would suggest dropping Good domain, because Touch of Luck would make Touch of Good redundant. Touch of Good might be better at lvl. 20 since its bonus scales up (sorry, don't have time to do the math), but Carrion Hill is for 5th level characters. Even at level 20, I'd take Touch of Luck for the ability to avoid critical failures and score more critical hits (it affects all d20 rolls, including critical confirmations).

There is no overlap on Luck/Travel domain spells either, which is why I would stick with Travel over Liberation. Liberation has similar, arguably better, granted powers, but Luck and Liberation have overlaps on Domain spells. Plus, you said you really wanted Travel domain, which makes sense as it fits your character concept and gives a very nice speed bonus.

Any specific areas you're talking about? Because I'm a little confused. The feats chapter, a huge chunk of the book, has almost nothing for wizards. It has a pretty good amount of stuff amount for hybrid caster/melee characters like bard, inquisitor, and magus but it tends to focus on magical enhancements to combat-related abilities, not actual spell casting.

Other major features of Ultimate Combat:

The Gunslinger and firearms rules.
Vehicles.
Performance combat.

All of these have as much or more use for non-casters than casters.

Great thread idea. I've been watching tons of ST:TNG on Netflix lately while I write campaign and encounter ideas, so I'm totally game. I don't have the playtest on this computer, but later I might take a stab at a race (Romulan? Ferengi? Betazoid? Android?).

But for now, a quick thought on your Klingon:
I think Brak'lul should translate crunchwise into something that worked like fortification (critical/sneak miss chance). I don't know the value of that in RP. My first thought is 3 or 4.

Might I suggest the whip?

I'm playing a similar character right now (Half-orc arcane duelist) and the whip has been working out great. A masterwork whip with Weapon Focus (whip) means that you get +2 to CMB on trip attacks, which you can do at range and you aren't at risk of being counter-tripped. Weapon Focus (whip) is worth it as it can be be used as a pre-req for Dazzling Display (as a half-orc bard, your intimidate should be huge). Ultimate Combat, if someone in your group has it, also adds scorpion whips that do lethal damage and a tree of decent whip feats.

You already have the whip proficiency from bard, so you can keep your standard orc proficiencies, including the awesome falchion (for when more direct damage dealing is needed). There wouldn't be a need to multiclass until Dragon Disciple, which would keep your spell progression and bardic music up. The strength bonuses from Dragon Disciple would work well with trips, too.

ciretose wrote:

You can make this a clean and simple system that can be used broadly to create a great many options, or you can create a broken messy loophole filled point system that gets cast aside by reasonable GMs and leads to messageboards full of min/maxer explaining how their sparkle elf is totally legal.

I'm sorry, but you're talking about people who would in all seriousness argue for days about who's tougher: Superman or Mighty Mouse. Your "elegant system" wouldn't negate any of that b.s.

Don't be ridiculous. Nobody would argue about that when it obviously goes:

:)

Anyways, I think the point-buy system will work fine when used by GMs who want to make customs races to flavor their own campaigns, which is what it seems meant to do. I don't think any good GM would just let a player make some ridiculous min-maxed race and then play without checking it out just because it's technically legal. The system shouldn't be used like that and I don't think it's supposed to.

For classes that have a "Every x levels, select a class feature from this list" feature such as rogue tricks, alchemist discoveries, etc., their archetypes recommend selections that go well with the archetypes. I appreciate this. I don't have to follow this and I'm free to make the character, but I'll take a second look at the recommended options. Something like this could be done with types and subtypes: suggest racial abilities that complement the types.

I would like to see is more types and subtypes listed up front (I'm aware that this is probably coming anyway, but I still wanted to let it be known). Some of these could package together a couple of essential features of a core race. All or some of these features could still be available for others without the type or subtype to purchase piecemeal. Those buying the features piecemeal might pay 1-2 RP more in the end, but it could be worth it for them as it gives them other options for type and subtype. Thus, if you wanted to build, say, a race of stout halfings with some dwarf-like characteristics, it would be quick and easy.

I don't think favored class bonuses should cost RP. RP should go to things that every member of a race gets, not just those who become certain classes. Plus, you're already giving up HP or skill points for those features. Also they're optional; lots of characters are still going to take the HP.

I don't know if anything official will ever cover this, but I'm hoping they do. If I were a GM designing a race for my players to use and I knew my players would be interested in those options, I would just design my own using the APG as a baseline.

I thought of Karate Kid first too when I read "Crane Style." After reading Crane Riposte, I thought of the monk Lei Fei from Virtua Fighter 4, as the feat perfectly duplicates one of my favorite counter-moves from that game.

While it is quite clear what the RAI is for the pre-reqs of the Crane Style tree, I get a little confused on the first reading of pre-reqs that use an "or" to seperate the last two items in a series of more than two. The RAW (at least using the common usage of "or" in a series) would mean that any one of the pre-reqs listed would satisify it. Paizo does a good a job of being consistent with their formatting though, so what's meant is usually decipherable.

"Eyes and Ears of the City (Abadar)

Your religious training was entwined with your work serving the city watch of a large city, the primary duty of which was standing sentinel on a city wall.

Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Perception checks, and Perception is always a class skill for you."

It's a faith trait, so you have to be a follower of Abadar, though I think it would be a small concession for a DM would let you use this trait if your deity had a similar portfolio to Abadar and the flavor text matched with your background.

I have never played an inquisitor, played with an inquisitor, or even read the class at more than a quick skim. So I acknowledge that I have almost nothing of substance to contribute to this thread, and for that I apologize.

However, I felt that it was unfortunate that no had given jadeite credit for the fact that this thread's subject=BRILLIANT!

Good day.

Here's some thoughts having nothing to do with fatigue that you may or may not have considered:

As animal companions have low int and limited ability to communicate through normal means, you might want to take a look at what tricks the ape is trained in. If he doesn't have the 'guard' trick (IIRC that's what it's called), the druid should have to make a handle animal check just to get the ape to do what he wants to do. And that's just at night for the watch. I don't think there is a clear precedent on ordering an animal to sleep, so that's up you as far as a Handle Animal check DC. I realize that druids and companions are extraordinarily close, but wouldn't trying to tell an adrenaline-fueled ape who just got out of battle "OK, time to go back sleep now" be pretty challenging? Also, how are they packing him around?

On the other hand, you could just handwave all this because what your player came up with isn't gamebreaking. I'd bet the druid might just be trying to streamline things at the table, and is accepting some disadvantages to do so by having one ally vulnerable during ambushes and traps.

If you really wanted to be devious, you lull your PCs into a false sense of security by letting this setup work without a hitch for a while, and then catch them off guard with a nasty nighttime ambush. It can't be that hard to come up with something that could thwart one animal on guard with low int, low will saves, no ability to psychically communicate like a familiar and no darkvision. Then the PCs are at your mercy, unless they have some other protection like an alarm spell.

Edit: Changed wording to reflect that the companion was an ape, not a guerilla. Although I suppose that depending the tactics of your party, it is possible that he is both an ape and a guerilla. ;)

Also, I'm pretty sure the DC to order an animal to sleep would be 25, or 27 if it was injured. That's feasible even at low levels with the druid's bonuses to handle animal, but not a given until higher levels.

I try to take interesting mechanics from other games and incorporate them into encounters. One that I made, but haven't played yet, was based on the board game The a-Maze-ing Labyrinth (the one where you slide tiles, not roll a marble). It's basically a maze where one PC can shift the tiles to create new pathways, helping their allies navigate towards the objective and creating tactical advantages. I'm happy with how it turned out and I expect it to be a lot of fun.

I've also tried to make a chess based encounter. I was thinking of something along the lines of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, where the party takes the place of pieces on a life-size magical chess set and must win the battle. I found it hard to get a satisfying compromise between chess and D&D rules (we were playing 3.5 at the time). I also did some searches and saw that, not surprisingly, others have had similar ideas. However, nobody really seemed have it figured out completely. Sorry if it seems like a slight derailment, but I'm curious: has anybody seen/played/made a well-done chess encounter?

I think I'm going to use the set-up and characterization of the Jade Falcons, because it works better for what I wanted out of my rival party than the party I was building, who I'll just rewrite as another encounter. Depending on how my PCs react, the Jade Falcon-type rivals might make a turn into full-on antagonists (I'll be pushing them that way).

I think it's funny that one of your PCs ended up marrying a rival. Maybe it'd be fun to drop some hints that one of the rivals is more sympathetic, and give the PCs a chance to win them over. I'm thinking a Charisma check from the whole party upon first meeting their rivals, the winner of which will unknowingly (at least for the time being) become the object of infatuation by one of the rivals.

BTW, for those who have the Rival Guide (the preview of which might have planted this seed in my brain), does it feature any advice on how to set up a rival group-focused campaign? The impression I got from reviews was that most of the book was descriptions and stat blocks of pre-made groups meant to plug in to a campaign in progress, as well as some other feats, spells, etc. Still sounds worth picking up, but I'm just wondering how relevant it might be to this idea I've got.

Magicdealer- Thanks for the advice; that is exactly the info I was looking for in terms of how to build the party. How did your campaign like this go over with your players?

8th Dwarf- I'll see if I can find a copy. I have the time to create all original characters and the first few encounters, but I'm not above stealing some other good stuff and incorporating it in there too.

Hi, I've been a lurker so for a while, finding pretty much all the info I needed by searching through old posts. However, I'm writing my first campaign (likely I'll be starting GMing in a month or two) so I'm looking forward to posting a little more often.

Anyways, my idea for a campaign is sort of a sandbox, but also features a rivalry with an NPC party that would compete with the party in completing quests. The rival party is led by a charismatic and well-connected but also arrogant and power-hungry LE Ifrit Sorcerer with the Elemental Fire bloodline. Due to his charisma and fire abilities, this sorcerer has attained a cult-like following among a small group of goblins who make up the rest of his party, one of whom is a cleric convinced that the sorcerer is a prophet of The Ravaging Hunter, goblin god of fire.

I'm hoping that I can get the party interested in this rivalry and use this to subtly direct the players towards the encounters I have prepared (by dropping hints of their rival party's activities) without giving the campaign too much of an "on rails" type feeling. I want the PCs to be able beat the rival party every now and then, but it should feel like a major achievement. And I definitely don't want them to be able to beat them so badly the rivals won't have a chance to flee and fight another day.

I want the rival party to level up roughly with the PCs, but should they maybe be a level or two ahead to keep the challenge up? Also, I'm probably going to let my PCs create their characters with 25 point buy. Should I create my rival group with the same? I have similar questions about gear: should I use the value for PCs of their level or NPCs?

I'd love to hear ideas on either flavor or balance. Thanks.

I'd probably replace the specials with more Paladin-oriented ones. Does anyone have any ideas?

Here's an idea: one extra use of smite per day, but this extra use must directly advance the blade's purpose. This would be at the GM's discretion, but this would be very simple to determine for most of the standard intelligent item purposes. For example, if the item's purpose is to defeat arcane spellcasters, once per day the paladin can smite an evil arcane spellcaster and it doesn't count towards their normal limit of smite uses. The black blade can still be used for smiting in other situations, but these consume uses of smite as normal, and the paladin may even have to establish dominance if his use of smite opposes his weapon's purpose (also resolved normally). This idea obviously wouldn't work for some possible purposes of the blade since the target also has to be evil. But that's not that big of an issue since the GM should be exercising some control in the blade's purpose so that it works for their game anyways.

Another idea: Bonus to paladin's Will saves to establish dominance over the blade as long as the paladin is acting in accordance with their Code of Conduct.