Ma Gi's page

Don't forget the Fallacy fallacy which is that calling something a fallacy automatically nullifies the very valid points behind it.

Berti Blackfoot wrote:

how do I get over an aversion to killing PCs?

Practice. The first one is always hardest, after that it gets easier.

Just like real life. O.o lol wut?

Um what I have done is have an encounter that appears easy at first sight, a couple of hardy monsters i.e. a couple of trolls. Then have some stealthy monsters make an appearance mid-combat from behind.

Trap! or whats the point?

And +1 on the traps aren't placed in initiative therefore must be resolved before initiative can be rolled. Or you can roll initiative and let the ambushers act in the surprise round but immediately they have triggered the trap which you would do anyways on someone's turn say they were opening a trapped door during combat. You would not let them open the trapped door and use a readied action to shoot someone behind it before getting your arrow in them first?

Not much about the rules are based on reality or "logic." There are all sorts of bits here and there designed simply for balance. Examples-Natural AC of monsters scaling by level, Prices of mithril/lb vs mithral as special material, magic, leveling up, anything with stats, etc.

So to be fair, nothing is game-breaking about 1.5x dex damage while THF. I am siding with those in favor of this, because of the afore mentioned and because it makes more "logical" sense with the system.

That being said I see how people are reading "Dex instead" as "Dex always." If you have +4 str and +4 dex, normally THF you get +6 damage (4x1.5) but instead you add your (+4) dex. Likwise, off-hand fighting you normally get +2 damage (4x.5) but instead you add your (+4) dex.

I think it is pretty safe to say that it was intended to mirror how strength adds to damage though based on the different method of describing how it adds dex to damage from the other similar feats/abilities.

So my friends and I just got to book 2 and have begun divvying up the governmental roles. Then we thought, rather than hire NPCs to fill in the gaps we'd all make secondary characters. I thought about doing something a bit different for the Spy Master and suggested I make a druid. It seems pretty cool because I could use nature to spy and also the druid tends to be neutral/objective, so wouldn't likely be swayed by outside influences or his own motives.

I was wondering what archetypes/feats/traits/spells/magic items/strategies you think would be helpful in accomplishing this. For example, I saw the Pack Lord archetype that lets you have multiple animal companions and empathic link with them like a familiar.

Also we like to play with some party intrigue and so I was thinking about sending secret messages to the DM of various ways to try and weed out if there are any traitors in our party/secondary characters.

For example, one of the PCs secretly turned in a bounty and gained a large sum of money. He wasn't very covert about it, but we didn't know exactly how much he got. But then when we said like, "Dude we need that for the kingdom," he said "oh here's 5000gp" like it was nothing. So we kind of suspected him of potentially being a spy/thief. So I thought maybe feed him info/string him along via the Spy Master to see what he's up to whether it's treason or stealing from the kingdom or if he is in fact innocent.

If you have ideas on how to weed out certain potential problems within the party for various other PCs, without my actions swaying them to do wrong, let me know also.

One thing I will never understand is how the value of mithral goes down when it is crafted into other objects, instead of increasing. Mithral is a 500gp per pound trade good. But for some reason a full shirt of chain that weighs 12.5 lbs is only worth 1,100gp, while a mihtral Tower Shield that weighs 22.5 lbs is worth only 1,030gp.

Couldn't I buy these and then melt them down for more value? Even if I had to split half the profits with some dwarf that knew how to do it, it would be a lot of profit. Whereas I feel bad for the crafter who must spend so much (500gp/lb) on the raw mithral from the mines and then sell it for only +1,000 gp, all because raw mithral is worth more.

I understand its a game, but it wouldn't be that complicated to make the math at least plausible.

16.) "As the fireball detonates on it, you hear the troll begin to laugh."

I actually did this once a while back. I had a green dragon brand a bunch of river trolls with marks that gave them 10 fire resistance. They struggled fighting them, because none of them had any acid and their means of fire were all mundane. Even the fire elemental they summoned struggled to hurt them. They thought it was pretty funny...

This dragon also knew they were coming for it and so prepared in advanced for the more greedy member of the party. :D

128: Have the largest gem you can think of (in my case an 8lb sapphire) sitting there for the party, preferably as treasure, (in my case after fighting a water elemental). Inscribed in the gem is the character's name and the word "desire". (They debated whether it was a trap or the command word for the magic item for 10 minutes)

My players weren't too familiar with Trap the Soul so I was able to keep the fun going. The character said "desire" and was sucked into the gem. No one, not even the wizard, could figure out whether to dispel it or break the gem or let the effect run until it ended. They worried that choosing the wrong action might keep their friend trapped forever. (this kept them debating another 10 minutes)

I kind of think that arrows are already sharpened for their first use... since they are more disposable than a sword it makes sense that they should be. A sword on the other hand might be used 20 times before (the same as a full quiver) before there is time to sharpen it.

I think if anything recovered arrows should have a -1 damage until sharpened. Though of course that would be a house rule.

I think that "blade" might more accurately be replaced with "slashing weapon" since sharpening a point doesn't make it any more useful when fired at 300 feet per second (an arrowhead is actually less capable of penetration than a blunt arrow, however, with the arrow head it makes a larger wound) and you can't really sharpen a hammer.

Just my two cents. As far as I know there is no offhand except in two-weapon fighting in RAW. I can switch my sword and shield around as much as I like between my arms and fight and defend equally well even if I decide that my character is right handed. The offhand comes in when I choose which is my "primary" weapon, and which is my "off-hand" weapon.

I assume that the first attack is the one I put my full effort and strength into and the second one is a quick add on that has less strength and effort behind it. I'd just assume that this means that any "off-hand" attack whether it be from a physical hand or another weapon options such as the helmet counts as filling a hand slot for the turn.

Otherwise, you could make a case of three weapon fighting where you attack with both hands and your helmet and whatever other weapons you could possibly wield not in a physical hand.

Well you can still learn most spells on your own, like cantrips and most lower level spells, and could even potentially research any spells as if creating your own spell. In the section under creating new spells it talks about benchmark spells that stand for the most powerful of that level. It's these kinds of spells that would have to be learned specially to reduce their availability and encourage the use of other spells.

So my friends and I thought about ways to make magic more interesting, especially learning spells, especially the ones that every spell caster gets by default, such as invisibility, fireball, summon spells, or whatever. We thought making it so you had to collect certain spells from magical creatures such as dragons, lamasus, demons, angels, etc. could be interesting.

So I'd like your help to present some of those too common/powerful spells and/or creatures that could teach you. And maybe ways to locate said creatures or what they might want in return.

Example:
Lammasu; teaches greater invisibility and dimension door; they want wisdom and learning; they will only teach those who prove themselves good-hearted and just;

Legion Archon; teaches greater teleport; they want to know how you have spread peace and mercy in the world; they want help defeating some demons that are reeking havoc nearby;

Imp; teaches invisibility and commune; they want you to pull a vile prank; they want your soul;

Green Dragon; teaches dominate person; they want gold and treasure;

Hey so I've been working on a spell idea for a while. It's not really "new" more of just a mixture of a few spells and fits with my character so I wanted your opinions on its mechanics.

6th level Abjuration
20ft radius of bright light (as daylight) w/ 20ft more of other light
All within the 20ft radius are affected by Magic Circle against Evil and gain the +2 AC, saves, etc against evil creatures.
Evil outsiders (undead too?) can't enter as per Magic Circle against Evil without SR or Will save.
The spell is centered on the caster and follows them around.
Duration is 1 min per level.

Sorry it's not formatted but you get the idea. It's similar to repulsion which is 6th level, except the repelling is limited to evil outsiders and maybe undead. The radius is fixed instead of variable and they get bonuses against evil. Also it gives a little light (I imagine beams of light projecting from the ground in a circle that wards off evil)

What do you think?

Based on my quick analysis seems pretty cool.

Just some things to compare to. Fighter gets weapon training at about the same rate as well as armor training. That is effectively the same as the Malison giving the enemies -1 hit and AC, except the Grimblade gets that from the beginning. The fighter's bonus only applies to himself, where as this ability affects all enemies adjacent(or nearby at higher levels) so effectively all allies gain this bonus as well. On top of the pentalty to attacks, their saves get hit, and they have the option to add all sorts of goodies to the effect like decreased AC, no fast healing, lessened DR, difficult terrain.
They still get lots of other options like curses and such.
The ranger can do similar things to allies as a standard action to give them half his favored enemy bonus but that only applies to one type and doesn't have all the extra effects.
This is effectively an ongoing bane spell with reduced radius that numerically increases and gains other effects which in some cases can't otherwise be done to my knowledge (taking away fast healing).

It's a cool concept but I think it is more powerful than the fighter.

Some suggestions to consider, but maybe not all of them: reduce its effect, keep range at adjacent, make it an activated ability (standard action, or swift action) that lasts a certain amount of time, useable a few times a day, less Greater Malaison abilities in the level tree, lesser effects for some Greater Malaisons, level requirements for certain Greater Malaisons.

It's use is obvious. It's for selling to other, lower leveled adventurers. Just tell them it'll come in handy someday.

They don't but I feel like in that sense potions are almost useless. I don't use potions much and would much rather purchase the on going effect. I would definitely consider using them if they stacked. And I don't think that an extra +2 attack and damage ultimately makes the large-scale difference, but enough difference to sacrifice an action to drink it.

What are your thoughts on house ruling them to stack? Broken? Meh?

So in general save vs death effects are kind of lame, mostly when fighting one bigger dude. Either it works and instant win, or it doesn't and there is little reason not to keep trying. There are other spells that are similar, but still have a chance of survival if the save is failed. I'm thinking of harm and disintegrate. Both do a lot of damage, but you can reasonably survive on a failed save.

Example One: fighting a dragon, he gets baleful polymorphed because he rolled bad and encounter over.
Example Two: Dragon gets suffocated over and over and will probably always make the save, but is still staggered and loses a lot of its power as a dragon to do all of its bites, claws, wings, tail, etc.

One thing I thought about would be to house rule that such effects would be delayed, such as baleful polymorph decreasing their size each round until they fully turn into whatever little animal and suffocate staggering them the first round, and then dropping them unconscious, etc.

Another idea is just to self regulate and not cast such spells on obviously powerful monsters, since your character would probably not believe it possible to affect such monsters with spells-like that and instead rely on buffing/debuffing/other spells that would more likely work.

So I was wondering what you all think? and any experiences you have that have been successful.

With so many languages so tightly packed I assume that it is easier to learn more languages, rather quickly (probably still too fast for realism) but consider the evidence of this in real life. In America, you maybe have the opportunity to meet Mexicans and might learn Spanish. In Europe, there are a lot more countries nearby and all intermingled in such a way that the average european who dabbles into other languages could speak 2-3 extra languages pretty well (especially with latin based languages).

what if you just made it so you can only make your level in items. period. And then if you want have a temporary drawback like -2 con or whatever then they can be drained for a while but not permanently. Another idea to consider is have Nexus of power hidden across the world that provide the only places to craft weapons.

What about an enormous cavern, like super ginormous. Inside it would have several platforms some connected some not which would each perform their various functions. The "walls" would be the gaps between some of them, the fog that obscures vision to 30~60ft, and some walls of air that prevents movement between certain areas. To be able to traverse the gaps there would be stones that give the PCs flying for a while until they get to the next part. In theory they could choose which ever platforms to go to next but they would have to do all of them to deactivate the orb.

I imagine something like this: Air Dungeon with each of the pathways being the platforms and the center being the boss area. The skulls being the stones to deactivate the barrier around the middle. And the rest being a bottomless pit.

Thoughts?

The dungeon is located on top of a mountain in the Edge of the World Mountains in Taldor.

It is supposed to be in Aroden's Eye, which doesn't have any more detail that I found than the name. So it's supposed to be Aroden's Eye, but doesn't literally have to be so. The idea came because I need a distraction that puts a fog over the city while the bad guys do other things and the fact that the Eye of Abednego was the fault of Aroden. So I decided it could be similarly related. After his death, followers built the place in his honor or something.

I like the ideas of gravity, flying necessary(or climb checks), using air as barriers, having earth elementals/other creatures that are disturbing the balance, having certain air themed creatures attracted to it, quite a few puzzle like things involved with getting through the dungeon and stopping the orb, lightning traps, etc.

Keep the ideas coming please this is good stuff, especially if anyone can help connect Aroden with the weather effects(I know he isn't really the god of weather or air, but he is of innovations, which is like technology, right?)

*Edit* - I just thought about the orb actually being an egg for a Thunderbird which is just about to hatch, which explains why the weather is going weird because that's what thunderbirds do.

I need some ideas of things to furnish an air themed dungeon. It should be around 8th level. The point of the dungeon is that the eye of a god is supposed to be there which is a large orb that is controlling the weather in the local region. So I also need to figure out how to disable such an orb. The bad guys of the campaign are the ones who activated it, but they just need it to cause a diversion whilst they do a more devious thing.

So I've got a few more ideas, but I'll need some help thinking of good challenges related with Lamias and a Beholder.
So what I've got:

-Lamia has taken the temple of a local god and defiled it. She has charmed some monsters to help guard her new home. (What monsters would be good?)

-Children have been kidnapped, no one knows exactly why. But they really have magical aptitude and are being kidnapped by the lamias to raise an army. They are being held at the temple.

-One of the stronger Lamia working for the beholder is a cleric and could use that to benefit their side. (Any ideas on what cool things an enemy lamia cleric could do?)

-With that I guess the beholder is charming the king (not right away so the king can get the PCs on board first) and the beholder is charming other monsters to help him. (Any ideas on what other monsters would have synergy with this feel?)

-Any other ideas?

So I had this idea for a Paladin who was technically LG as per the requirements but really only followed the Code of Ethics for his order to the letter, but found loop holes.

Examples: Thou shalt not kill. (But he still beats people up)
Thou shalt not lie. (But he only tells part of the truth)
Thou shalt not work with evil. (But he justifies that evil is arbitrary that if there is a good reason, like common objectives its okay)
etc.

So is this bending too much the LG alignment? Or is he still lawful because he follows the code? Or is he more chaotic because he bends the rules? and still good because he still has good intentions? or evil because he is trying to cheat the system?

Does it really matter that he is goody goody paladin?

World: Well its a pretty standard world. Probably just the pathfinder one. It would probably be in a more remote area where magic is less common (i.e. people are wary of wizards and there aren't magic shops on every corner where all of the loot can be dropped and the next tier of weapons and accessories can be purchased.) Also weird monsters would be less seen (i.e. if the villagers saw the beholder, they would think giant floating demon rather than Beholder.)

Players: Probably on average three very experienced players.

Expected Length: Several sessions, but not a start at level 1 go to level 20 kind of deal but at least several levels worth.

I guess I'm just looking for ideas. Like I like the idea that the beholder is controlling the king and that he has spies (the Lamia). So these are the kinds of things that I'm hoping to flesh out, but I'm just drawing a blank right now.

So I was thinking of a campaign based around a Beholder as the main bad guy. But I can't seem to get my ideas in one direction/having difficulties coming up with ideas to flesh it out. Any ideas would be appreciated.

So it would be called "In the Eye of the Beholder." Kinda like the saying so it would play off of that a little.

Main Antagonist - Beholder
Other antagonists - Lamias who disguise themselves to lure PCs or something.
Lair - would be a cave or castle or something

Other ideas - I want to make sure that a large variety of abilities/skills would be necessary and useful so that way everyone would have a chance to shine.

But I need help to flesh things out. Like plot hooks. Motives of beholder etc.

I thought it would be fun to construct a campaign with the community to see how you all play homemade campaigns, etc.

You could allow a high DC heal check to determine that there is less blood around the wound than there should be. It isn't as blatant as the two neck punctures, but it gives them a skill based hint.

I like it and I'll do a Perception check as well to see that the blood has been sucked up and otherwise disturbed just for some variety.

But if people wouldn't mind, I'd really like ideas for clues pointing to the killer/that he is a vampire.

Ex. (one I just thought up) They are walking down a hallway with flickering torches, and I'd allow a Perception check to notice something wasn't right about the shadows cast. But then with a much higher DC They would know specifically that one of the shadows was absent. This would help give them an idea to look for abnormal qualities of the vampire/potential killer.

First of all thanks for all the posts and ideas.

Second, let me explain a little more about the setting.
- Magic is very uncommon because its illegal (only 2/9 in the party are casters and one of them is me(who'll be very sick at this point)).
- Vampires aren't quite normal, so they don't have the whole coffin bit. And the vampire traveled there recently with the other elven rangers, when they got caught by the 'locals' of the city, and then by the dragon.
- The keep is inhabited by a few demons, but do not necessarily need to be there.
- The elves kind of know about the demons already, and so they wouldn't really go too far through the keep in fear of running into them.
- This part is only one part of the adventure, not the focus.
- They aren't really locked in the keep, rather locked the world out, because there are undead all around the ruined city outside and a VERY EVIL dragon on the rampage.
- Also one of the PCs will likely be a vampire by that time because of other factors.

Mostly I just want ideas for clues or events that might happen. I expect no matter how hard I try the PCs will do something unplanned, so just a list of ideas will be the most helpful.

I do like the faked death idea.
As for the magic jar idea, I could just have a shadow demon use it and ad havoc.
Instead of puncture marks, I could just do hastily slit throat from which the vampire fed.

I need help with the murder mystery part of my adventure I'm writing. Basically the PCs are locked inside an old keep with a group of twelve friendly elven rangers. One of these elves is a vampire (the murderer) and the rest is just figuring out who.

Somethings I've thought of are:
- Earlier in the quest I describe the killer as 'a little pale'.
- They'll find a dead elf with punctures in his neck.
- They'll see an elf who has blood on his lip and says its from the fight earlier (truth)
- A shadow demon is also in the area and can add havoc.
- Most of the elves should survive (six or more)

But I need other ideas/events/advice on running this part.

Thanks.

My method is to think of a class I'd like to play and at the same time with some defining feature that makes me unique from any other character I, or others in my group, have ever played.
Ex. I wanted to try out new rules for a spellcasting class based on the setting we were in, and I also wanted to play a child character.

Next I get my stats and distribute them, which usually sparks a few ideas of what my character will be about.
Ex. I gave the kid some charisma anticipating a time where he'd use him being a kid to save his life or something of the sort, in addition to a lot of intelligence.

Next I look into traits, which usually give me hints of the basis of my past or give me ideas of personality.
Ex. I chose Adopted(elf) and Street Child. He was raised by elves, because his human parents were killed after an orc attack. For the street child, his elven parents sent him to an academy for magic, but he didn't like it and often skipped school and wandered the city.

Next I look into physical descriptions.
Ex. I gave him unruly black hair to reflect his chaotic nature. Bright blue eyes, because eyes are a defining feature of children. And to connect with his whole elven side, his ears were cut like an elf's by the orcs that attacked his home village, never having seen a child before and thought the strange little elf needed to have elf ears. Also I gave him a strange tattoo on his chest, which reflects something special about his past that I still haven't learned about and which was incorporated into the campaign.

At this point I grab my abilities, feats, spells, skills, etc.
Ex. He is obviously a genius child for being able to work spells with PC proficiency, so I gave him feats to reflect his control and amplify the prodigy feel. Skills were fairly standard, but I gave him some stealth and sleight of hand and bluff, because he's got street smarts. For spells, I didn't like the idea of a child casting fireball and other offensive spells trying to kill his enemies. Instead, he uses mostly buffs and debuffs, with some illusion to enhance his mischevious nature.

And then the equipment. I try to use slightly different equipment from character to character, finding it boring to use the standard, backpack, rope, bedroll, etc. And I try to use different weapons if I can.
Ex. I gave him a magic sword called Moonblade that glows blue in moonlight, a relic of his past. I gave him a green cloak, which he always wears the hood up. I gave him a journal, as is required by his class, but put it in a waterproof bag because its important. I gave him a silver whistle which is another relic of his past.

The last step prior to playing for me is, NPC connections. They should be significant enough to matter, but won't unbalance the game.
Ex. like his parents, sister, headmaster of the academy who is looking for him, etc. But he isn't best friends with the King's son or anything to the point where he'd get special treatment.

So now I have a character that is more than just "a wizard" or "a fighter". But this is only the beginning. The character develops over the course of the campaign. As I go I add little features that further the character as the situations present themselves, like what food they eat, what they fear, what they enjoy, and other mannerisms, and what abilities they choose from then on.
Ex. As I went I made him: Not eat meat with the exception of rabbit like the elves of this setting, he's allergic to the elven tea, he's scared of heights, the dark, and deep/fast/stormy water(just like most kids), he likes animals/exploring/adventures/figuring things out, he half-smiles(smiling with one side), he collects various types of whistles, he isn't very money smart, he admires an elf-ranger in our group and tries to do what he does.

So those is my creation guidelines. The order may vary a little between characters, but its generally the same.

What specifically are you wanting this summoned monster to do? Attack, take damage, scout, flavor, something else?

Yeah unless backed into a dead end with no other options, a real rogue wouldn't fight. Remember they are the kings of dirty fighting. So use every dirty trick possible. Traps, sneak attacks, minions, illusions, poisons, etc.

@Ma Gi: Here's a mummified crypt guardian:

Mummy, Minotaur (CR 10):

First off, thanks for taking my request. However, I should have been more specific and clarified my request. I was hoping for some balanced mixture between the "Mummy" from Bestiary and the "Crypt Thing" from Bestiary 2, that is about CR10, uses defining traits from each, and maybe also wields weapons.

If you are willing, I'd appreciate it if you took a second go. Otherwise, you can just ignore my request.

I want to jump on the bandwagon of refuting this statement too.

And how does the character know someone has been charmed?

What I would say: No your character has low Int. It means he is dumb. Combined with high wis it means he knows there's something weird going on, but he just can't figure out what. Alerting the guards would also require some intelligence.

If 10 is the average score for a commoner, then on average they have 10 INT.

Since 70 is the commonly accepted level of IQ to qualify as 'retarded', this character does not fall in that level, so it may take him a round to figure out what is going on, but he could call for the guards or something. I would also hope that there is someone in the same room with at least a 10 intelligence who'd also very likely figure out that he may have gone invisible or whatever and would be able to figure out what to do quickly.

Well I just did some research on this. I asked my parents who have limited knowledge of this game(didn't even know I was referring to this at all anyways), limited knowledge of fantasy and magic type stuffs, etc.

Their response to "A wizard is locked in a jail cell and disappears, what did he do?"
1st - "He went invisible."
2nd - "He was a hologram." - illusion
3rd - "He twinkled." - teleport
4th - "His molecules dispersed and he walked through the bars/walls." - gaseous form

So as you can see from this little test, even someone who doesn't know anything except the guy locked up is a wizard and he disappeared could guess such things. Probably the 2nd and 4th were brought on by scientific knowledge of our modern age, but 1st and 3rd are pretty reasonable guesses.

o.O Awesome!

How about some cross between a mummy and a crypt thing? I need some sort of boss guardian for a tomb(CR 10).

Thanks, if you take my request.

The genetic disposition to the disease would be removed as a "contributing factor". ;-) Trust me, I thought of that one.

Also, he wouldn't revert in physical years, as the wish isn't to return his physical form back to how he was. The condition of his health would return to that point. So if he is a 60 year old man with failing health due to a condition that started at age 10 when he as nice and healthy, he should end up a 60 year old man with the immune system of a healthy 10 year old.

Actually you said before contributing factors, nothing about removing contributing factors.

Also, I don't remember you specifically stating that he couldn't revert in age or form. You said his health would revert. If his age reverted prior to said disease, he wouldn't have it anymore and thus before the disease or contributing factors.

Sorry I'm just trying to play devil's advocate. In all truth it pisses me off if a GM tries to do crap like this to me in a real game.

Fantasy dark ages/renissance time period. What's a gennetic.

Genetic diseases still existed even if they didn't know what it was called. You wouldn't wish "blahblah cure his genetic disease blahblah."

I wish for King blahblahblah of House blah, son of blah, current ruler of blah to have his health to return to how it was prior to when he contracted this disease and any contributing factors.

So King blahblah etc returns to childhood before the contributing factors of his disease set in, only to grow up to that same disease?

Just what I'd do as a GM trying to twist any and all wishes.

So, in your games, no Sovereing Glue till level 20?

Well as no one in our group uses that, let alone makes it, it is not a big deal. Though I don't see what makes that a CL20.

edit: Obviously they didn't just randomly choose this item will be CL20 just because. There is a reason for any item to be considered a higher level item or lower. This item being higher level means it's harder to make and harder to dispel. But if a low level could make it, it seems logical a higher level should be able to easily dispel the work of that lower level. If that particular item is supposed to be hard to stop, then put that in the rules/description of the item as +X to the dispel DC and lower the CL.

Besides you could still purchase it or other items of higher CL, if you wanted whenever.

Sweet! If Paizo doesn't like this I'm boycotting them... (JK I couldn't go a week with that)

Personally I agree wholeheartedly with you. Most of the magic item creation requirements should not be optional(for the +5 DC). Spells I could see being so(still +5 DC) because even if you haven't mastered the spell you'll at least know the theory or could learn and apply it that once, but feats and levels and other such things don't really make sense. You should, at the very least, require help from someone who meet those requirements. In our games we ABSOLUTELY require the level requirement for an item, but otherwise its normal DC increase.

If you look at what would maximize a fighter's stats as a min/maxer, you will end up with a skill-less fighter who only swings their sword.

If you look at other options for getting what you want as a roleplayer, you will end up with a skilled fighter who is only slightly less powerful.

Helaman said it all.

Any class from APG (haven't had any desire to look more closely into any of them). Mostly I don't want to read up on them for hours and never play them.

We listen to music all the time. We do a lot of game music. Oblivion/Morrowind/Nehrim/Guild Wars/Baulder's Gate/Neverwinter Nights/any other similar computer game.

I think they're more supposed to be equivalent to the CR of traps. And trap CRs have never really felt very comparable to monster CRs to me.

I completely agree. While a trap may be more deadly for one attack than that CR its a one shot deal most of the time. Maybe it has to do with you can't really plan for a trap and it creeps up on you unexpectedly unless your rogue is searching every inch of every dungeon. Haunts seem to be less dangerous even than traps, because the haunts I've seen have triggers like interacting with some object you normally wouldn't.

STR 3d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 2) = 7(-2 age) = 5
DEX 3d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 3) = 9(-2 age) = 7
CON 3d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 1) = 4(-2 age) = 2
INT 3d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 3) = 11(+2 age)= 13
WIS 3d6 ⇒ (4, 6, 6) = 16(+2 age)= 18
CHA 3d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 1) = 6(+2 age) = 8

So I guess he could be a 85 year old human sage with a long white beard. He hasn't moved from his fluffy red pillow inside the temple atop the high peak for 60 years so that is why his muscles, joints and overall health is horrible. He has average intelligence but is quite wise and he speaks all vaguely and mystically resulting no one understanding the answer to their problem.

For us it depends on how they died. One of our players often loses interest in their character after a while and puts himself in harms way, dying on purpose. He usually comes back penalized.

Well in theory you should have much more powerful magic items then that anyways. But yes that is almost definitely a house rule.

On the few occasions which I DM(usually just one adventure per campaign), I often hold back on my character because I don't want them to be the star. The DM is supposed to present the story for others to shine. I am about to DM an adventure where my spellcaster will use buffs and his high intelligence to support the party in the puzzle type dungeon. If I went at his full capacity and solved all of the riddles, where would the fun be. Likewise if I cast spells at my full potential, I would be the star not the players.