Mad Jackson's page

We had a game where we were introducing a new player to the game. He had his heart set on playing a rogue, which the GM told me about ahead of time (this was just before unchained rogue was released, so bit trickier of a position to be in).

Knowing he could be in for a painful time, I made a bard....but not just any bard. Etrei the Feyish Jester. While a bit on the nutty side, Etrei took a liking to his character and once we started getting into trouble I made him look awesome.

I initially read that as fetish jester and was prepared for an entirely different story.

These are awesome folks! I'm really enjoying reading your stories.

I'm old. I spent about a good five minutes trying to figure out how the words matched up to the theme of the Beverly Hillbillies. After about the third time through I realized it was based on the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire.

I think it's awesome, by the way.

I want to hear your stories about cool or awesome moments with your characters. What was a cool or fun moment you had during a game?

I ask for two reasons. First, I love stories. Second, I have a skald in a game and I'm looking for tales or stories to tell in character just to add atmosphere. It would be more fun to me to use moments of awesome from other games, not just our own.

Story time!

As long as you don't dump DEX you really won't have a problem hitting touch AC in combat. Point blank shot and precise shot will be nice but not required.

Also, if you have a decent damage dealer in the party, then handing out solid debuffs will help a lot in combat. Making the enemy scream and twitch as much as your character does should be fun. I like the sound of this archetype.

Elemental rage, for when you're REALLY pushing amps to the party. I have a Brütal Skäld in a one-off game and he rocks literally and figuratively. I'm planning on going down the whole elemental chain for lightning, discordant voice for the thunder, and maybe a little fire for the Pyro effects.

Kreiger Hendrix will rock the world! I just need some groupies.

On getting your current guy to work. Consider some of the following.

Your totemic trans can give you a bite or a swin speed and water breathing at 2nd lvl. I would consider two handing a weapon maybe a staff and use the bite as a secondary.
When your wild shape comes online, look at a Druids robe, and the sky swim spell. As always you want natural spell feat (must have).
If you really want to avoid summons focus on melee. One buf and into the fight, probably bull str until you get a belt. Barks kin and the new iron skin may be good too. Don't buff too long or the fight will be done before you get there.
Druids don't have too many low level mass buffs, but review your list thoroughly. At higher levels it can be good to leave a slot blank to fill in with something you find you need later.
At higher level look at life bubble spell nice to have.
With the small group 3 of you, summoning May work out. If so look into spell focus conj and augment summon with superior summons, and maybe one of the nature summoning specials like moonlight or sunlight summons.
Do best to keep str high, and anything else to keep your attack up. I found problems toward the end.
Druid should be fine. I played a menhir savant thru S&S and had fun.
Any specific concerns?

Thanks. That's going to help. After talking to the players, they won't be upset if I start throwing summons around, so I'll definitely pick up augment summons. Otherwise, I'm looking for anything that will make wild shape (even with the -2 level progression) useful. I've been thinking of focusing on biting and taking forms which have a bite as the primary, such as a hippo, wolf, dino, etc.

Planned feats are:

3 - Spell focus: Conjuration
5 - Natural Spell
7 - Augment Summoning
9 - Improved Natural Attack (Bite)
11 - Powerful Shape
13 - Superior Summons

I think there's been a miscommunication. The game has already started and the character I posted is what I have. What I'm looking for is how to optimize the existing character, not make a new one.

That being said, I am still appreciative of the advice.

Just started last weekend. We only have three players.

Player 1: Skolvek, Ulfen brawler. Mean, brutal, and good in a fight.

Player 2: Vaioric, Varisian rogue. Charming, stealthy, and devious.

Player 3: Dagmar Grimtooth, Saltbeard dwarf shark shaman. Survivalist, pessimist, hard drinker, and ... ship's cook? (my character)

Player 1 is the forever GM, who is finally getting to play. GM is new to his side of the screen, but doing a pretty good job so far. Looking forward to the game.

Have to add this for a friend. The GM of the mini-game is playing a brawler in Skull and Shackles.

First combat in the game. We get confronted one morning by a group of four angry shipmates who want to give us a beatdown for reasons. We try to talk when one swings on the brawler. Hits the brawler for 5 non-lethal. Brawler looks at the other pirate, grins menacingly, and says "Yer on!"

Swings on the pirate, crits, does 16 non-lethal to the poor pirate. Pirate had 11 hp. Drops and takes 5 lethal. Two more run, leaving one hapless soul to face our wrath. He chose not to gracefully admit defeat and take his beating. He still got one, though.

By 12 I think the shaman has all the same forms and sizes available and it's only times per day that you're behind on. And aside from the -2 wild-shape, what other disadvantages are there?

The shaman only gives up Thousand Faces, a level 13 ability, and venom immunity. Still has woodland stride, nature's step, resist nature's lure, and full casting. Am I missing something?

Edit: grammar. And checked, it's 14th where the shaman gets huge elementals.

Edit x4: why can't I get this post right?

Playing in an occasional when-we-have-time mini adventure.

Half-Orc Invulerable Rager 2 / Sorceror (Draconic) 1 (yes, going for Dragon Disciple). We (me and rogue 1 / wiz 2) infiltrated a giant tower full to the brim with undead and used as a generator / control node for thousands of undead roaming the grounds outside the tower. Which is in a gigantic cavern underground.

We find the necromancer conducting a rite in front of "the Machine." The "Machine" is an altar with a big glowing green hole in it that the necro feeds dead bodies into. After a lot of loud grinding and some green glowing, an mindless undead of some sort exits from one of the sides of the altar. The necro is standing in front of the altar, having just fed another corpse into it. Several rows of cultists are off to either side, chanting and watching the necromancer.

We found an .. informant .. of sorts who informed us that the way to destroy the Machine and break the control over the army of undead was to feed a living creature into it.

We entered the room with the Machine and necro, and cultists. We're using minis and a battlemat and I notice that the necro is standing directly in front of the hole in the altar. I'm about 40 feet directly behind him and there are no obstacles.I'm sure you see where this is leading.

I decide I'm going to bull-rush the necro into the Machine. I was going to cast enlarge but the GM informed me that I'd have to squeeze through the aisle and wouldn't be able to charge. Fair enough. I also had a full blood reservoir of physical prowess. I burned all the charges in the reservoir, popped rage, and charged.

I have a tendency to roll poorly when everything is on the line. The GM knows this so queued up his phone to play this as I rolled, anticipating that I'd fail and be chased around the room by the necro and cultists while my ally attmpted to kill from hiding.

Nope. I think I rolled a 7, but with all the buffs, I beat the necro's CMD by 5. Slammed him 10 feet into the Machine hole. Machine makes horrible noise, huge flash of light, then dies, taking the necro with it. I was stunned. We started laughing. The GM reveals that the necro was a lvl 5 cleric of Urgathoa and was supposed to lead a desperate, heroic battle. Heh.

Proceed to pop claws and turn on the cultists, screaming "You're not the only scary thing down here!" Cue GM laughing again while the other player just holds his head in his hands.

Earlier in the game, this same character got tired of trying to track down an evil cleric in an underground complex, so he marched into a large room, drew his axe and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Hey! You! My name is Varg Blackscale! I'm here to kick your ass and take your stuff!" Overconfidence is fun when you have a greataxe and rage.

Thanks. I didn't get the companion for the exact reason you mentioned. I assumed that most of the action would take place on a ship as opposed to under it.

I am psyched about turning into a great white at level 6, but I'm not focused on exclusively underwater action. I initially debated whether to go shark shaman or aquatic druid, and while aquatic may have more mechanical advantages, shark shaman is much cooler. :)

Also, I think the wild shape penalty is effectively gone by level 12 or so. What level did you wind up being at the end?

Just started a Skull and Shackles campaign in which I'm playing a shark shaman druid. Druid is my favorite class from old, but this is the first time I've played one in Pathfinder. We just finished Kingmaker and I hated playing a wizard (probably because I ignored the god-wizard builds and wanted to make a blaster).

I'd like to get some advice on how to build him up. I'm planning on getting feats like Natural Spell, Power Attack, Powerful Shape, and Toughness. The idea is that he can switch between tanking and casting more or less at will. Versatility and toughness are my primary goals. Damage is a minor third, healing ... bleah. Spamming SNA is a possibility, but the other players will probably kill me if I focus on it after what I did with a master summoner.

It's a 3 person group and the other two are a brawler and a rogue (who is going for arcane trickster via sorceror). I am the WORST optimizer, as I usually build around an RP concept, and our group is generally combat oriented. (My fault, I've been playing with these guys for 20 years, I should know this.) 20-point build because only three people. Also, the GM has said that he wants to focus a lot on RP, so I don't really feel pressured to optimize much.

Still, advice on good feats, combos, and tactics would be appreciated.

We're only on day 2. I put my starting feat into skill focus (Profession: sailor) and I'm the cook's mate .... Will be putting points into Profession: cook if I live to level 2.

Also, what about undead? Or antipaladins? How would this affect them?

EDIT: What happens if you change creature type while you have a disease? Do you immediately overcome the disease, or did your disease just jump ship and now affects a new type of target? If so, did you just create a new super-bug?

Behold the magically engineered super disease. It's not actually magic, but we managed to get it to jump ship to several different creature types, and by various breeding, templates, and so forth have managed to concoct a super disease that affects everything using an odd mixture of outsider to humanoid to animal to human to androids to lizardfolk to...

Oh, gods, it's all the fault of the druids. By wild shaping while infected with diseases (unknowingly or not bothering to cast remove disease) over the millennia even the most common diseases have evolved to infect all natural species on Golarion. Constant exposure to magic allowed the evolution of ... magic energetic bacterium and viruses which thrive in high magic environments like outsiders and other magical creatures.

Stupid shapeshifting druids.

Or, you know, a God dedicated to disease "encouraged" the diseases to jump types. Yeah. Much better than blaming the druids. They can all go home now and stop giving me dirty looks.

Ah, missed the fact that the foreclaws were a single attack. Regardless, they are a secondary attack, though? I'm bummed about the loss of the creature's natural armor bonus. I thought it was too good to be true. Yay for Barkskin. And thanks for the spreadsheet.

Slightly related question (about third party material): If I took a level in Aegis and did not summon the armor until after I wild shaped, would the armor then conform to the new shape as if it were barding? If it does, it might be worth a level or 2 dip.

Glad this thread is here, as I have managed to confuse the heck out of myself with my druid. First one I've played since 3.5, first one ever with an animal companion (hated keeping track of them).

I need some help on clarifying attacks and defenses while wild shaped.

Lvl 4 Druid (+3 BAB), STR 17 (+3), total AB = +6 (Before wild shape)

If I shape into a deinonychus, a medium animal, I get +2 STR and +2 Natural Armor, so total AB after shaping is +7. I understand that.

Now, the dino has 5 attacks listed: 2 talons, a bite, and 2 foreclaws. The statblock for the dino indicates that the 2 foreclaws are secondary attacks. My question: on a full attack action, do I have five attacks at +7 or three attacks at +7 (bite, talons) and two attacks at +2 (foreclaws)? From what I've read, I believe I have all five attacks at my full AB.

On to defenses: does the +2 natural armor from the wild shape stack with existing natural armor on the animal?

My druid has a 14 DEX, so +2 to AC. When wild shaped, I have assumed that I get the +2 for DEX, +3 natural armor from the dinosaur, and another +2 for the wild shape, for a total of 17 (10 + 2 DEX + 2 Wild Shape NA +3 NA from base creature stats). I assume Barkskin would stack with all the natural armor sources as well.

Forgot the link to the prestige class:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/psionic-prestige-classes/metafor ge

Sorry for odd formatting, I'm on my tablet.

I'd try a slight refluffing of the Aegis and the Soulblade from Dreamscar's psionic stuff.

Soulblade creates psychic weapons and the Aegis creates psychic armor.

There is a Soulblade talent that lets you alter properties of your soulweapon on the fly which would allow for creating multiple different weapons and the Aegis armor is highly customizable for multiple suits of armor

Multiclass the two and spend some time writing up different combinations so that you don't bog down game time swapping things out and you are good to go.

Agree. Ezra Scarlet is basically Soulknife --> Aegis --> Metaforged (a prestige class that blends the two).

Natsu is an unarmed archetype fighter, red or gold dragonblooded sorceror, Dragon disciple.

Lucy is a master summoner while Mirajane is a synthesis summoner.

Grey, not sure. Probably sorceror / unarmed fighter, eldritch knight.

Most shonen characters can usually be refluffed as some kind of psychic warrior.

We named our kingdom the Shrikelands for the Shrike river. Our capitol city is Shrikewall. No, we do not publicly impale our enemies... Other cities include Olegton, Kiravoy Hold (formerly Varnhold), Tatzylford, Von Kross' Landing (formerly Fort Drelev), Candlethorn Island (also our magic academy), and Shrinehold.

Psion/monk has been a concept that has always felt just right to me.

Same for paladin/monk.

I played a dwarven Monk Psychic Warrior gestalt in 3.5. Extremely effective. A high wisdom added to armor, and then there was the inertial armor power that is like a scaling mage armor. Add in the psionic versions of stat boosters and enlarge, plus the ability to enhance unarmed strikes, and I had a nigh unkillable death machine. Also, a Monk with psionic lion's charge is sickening. Can practically cross the whole battlefield in one round and gets a full flurry with a bonus to hit. Death by dwarf-slap. Insanely fun.

My other favorite gestalt is the barbarian / druid, but I didn't get to play him up to wild shape levels. That would have been very ugly in 3.5.

My ability to code is limited to "Hello world" in HTML. Is that even considered code?

Most of your points are valid. Hero Lab is more polished, easier to use, and easier to learn. That being said, if you want all Paizo's books, you're going to have to shell out a lot of hard earned cash. If you want third party materials, you're out of luck unless there's a community add on (like there is for Dreamscarred Press' psionic books). Does SG games have official support or is it another community created library?

PCGen has most of the core books and a TON of third party materials, however it's not as easy to use in comparison, but once you learn how to load the sources you want, it's easy enough to use. The wait between releases can be a while, I'll agree. For free, though, PCGen can't be beat. If you're willing to pay a premium, Hero Lab is an excellent resource.

My point, if I have one, is that they're not in competition. Both serve different groups and have different strengths and weaknesses. I use both. I don't think that I'll ever pick one over the other.

Oh, I remember my point: I wasn't claiming that they were the same, I was saying that if I had discovered PCGen before shelling out $100+, I wouldn't have spent the money. They're not the same, but PCGen is a viable alternative to paying. To use your own example, why buy Photoshop if I can get away with using GIMP for free? Which was the whole point of this thread: free. Dunno how it got to a discussion on the relative merits of open source vs commercial programs. Sleeping now.

Yea, Linux Success! BTW @MJ HeroLab runs fine under WINE.

Best news I've heard all day. I was just forcibly reminded how much better Hero Lab is at handling reincarnated characters...

Matt Thomason wrote:

Chief Cook and Bottlewasher wrote:

I've downloaded and unpacked a fresh copy of pcgen (for other systems), in a folder labelled pcgen6001.

I am running Ubuntu 13.04 on my PC, with openjdk java 7 and the java web plug-in installed.

Double clicking pcgen.exe gives an error box labelled Launch4j which states that the application requires a Java Runtime Environment 1.5.0. Clicking OK launches a java web site.

I have just noticed, though, that the Wine Windows Program Loader is running while the error box is present. My Wine environment probably doesn't have java installed. I'm not sure how I'd go about adding it, and it really shouldn't be necessary.

Despite being the "for other systems" release, the .exe file is still a Windows .exe.

To run on Linux, you need to run pcgen.jar or pcgen.sh (although you may need to chmod+x the latter first).

Thank you. Serves me right for not reading the installation doc :)

(Creeps away, embarrassed)

Heh. Been there, done that. I make pcgen.sh executable and run that. For the record, I'm running Java 1.6.0 on my desktop box with its ancient Fedora installation and it works fine.

I can't seem to figure out PCGen. I'm having a hard time figuring out the spell page for casters. I'm not sure if it's allowing me to pick a ton of spells or if I'm supposed to be able to pick them as per the CRB. I have no idea which classes only know a certain amount and which know their full list, or which have to prepare spells or which have to rest or do whatever. I'm confused about that.

But anyway, other than that it's very easy to use. Might go to HeroLab but it's quite expensive for everything.

I bought Hero Lab before I found PCgen. I have a lot of the expansions and installed the community made package for the Dreamscarred Press psionics. I think that all in all, I've probably spent $100+ on Hero Lab. PCgen does everything and more for free. Yes, Hero Lab is easier and cleaner, but ... vs free ... wouldn't buy it again.

Besides, I dual boot Linux on the desktop and my laptop runs it exclusively. PCgen runs on Windows and Linux no problem. I have Fedora on my desktop (going to OpenSuSE as soon as 13.1 comes out). My laptop was running OpenSuSE 12.3 and is currently running OpenSuSE 13.1 RC2.

CC&B, I'll find out what version of java I have on my systems tomorrow and post it here. What error are you getting?

I like the Oath Against Undeath archetype for the Paladin. Detect undead at will, the usual smite, extra bonuses against negative energy and death effects (and grant a lesser bonus against the same effects in an aura), and the kicker: full armor bonus against incorporeal undead. Now you don't have to worry about a Wight or shadow because you're in heavy armor.

There's no way to really build the Doctor, I agree. Interesting challenge, though. I think you'd definitely have to take enough levels in reincarnating druid until you get the reincarnation power. Then probably the rest in archeologist bard (or at least one level to get all the knowledge skills as class skills), then maybe witch as suggested earlier. Or sorceror. The new Doctors all are focused on a massive charisma. He would have bluff and intimidate maxed as well as knowledge. Have to have use magic device and craft wondrous item, too.

Or you could just stick with the reincarnation druid and call his animal companion his companion and just swap it out for something different every couple of levels (the Doctor isn't one to keep his pets around for too long).

I also think he'd really rely a lot on a wand and have the staff-like-wand feat. Probably craft wand, too.

Summoner or conjuration wizard if you want the infernal feel. I do like the enchanter idea, too. But regardless, you should take profession lawyer or barrister or something similarly. Definitely throw a couple of points into linguistics so your contracts will always hold up regardless of language.

279. You're listening to a witness in court and you think that he just failed his bluff roll.

Don't forget Aasimar and Tieflings. They can be any alignment, and they can work together. They could be the Senate's mortal agents.

Edit: I see you didn't forget. D'oh!

The rest of the party is constituted of NG's and CG's who have been riding down slippery slopes into neutral territory. This slow slide into neutrality and evil has mostly been caused by the king.

Relevant

I found acid orb incredibly useful in the first few Kingmaker books. So many trolls. The fighter and the ranger could cut the trolls down but couldn't keep them down. One simple 0-level spell is all it took to shut down the trolls' regeneration and end the fights in a flash. It did tend to make me the primary target, though.

How about a multiracial cabal of immortals. Most lawful immortals have or quickly learn patience. Their long view can span eons. Imagine if a group of them managed to set aside their distrust in light of their common self interest against the proteans. You could have a lich and his advisers, a group of devils, inevitables, angels, etc., and over an incredibly long period working in concert their points of view become more lawful than everything else and they discard or sacrifice ethical issues like good or evil for the necessity of preserving order. Imagine how confused a party would be by seeing a paladin and a necromancer taking orders from a devil to preserve a hidden library or section of ancient forest without seemingly having an ulterior motive.

Part of it could be kicked off by having the material plane be a sort of metaphysical lynchpin. If the material plane falls, then all the other planes will lose coherence and eventually spiral into a chaotic abyss. If the group succeeds, the cabal might wind up choosing to continue as a major power, seeing how their differences acted to eliminate their weaknesses and reinforce their strengths. What happens when the angels, devils, etc, expect their companions to return home? What if this cabal then decides that the universe might be better off if the same authority ruled heaven and hell?

I like the name "The Senate" more than calling them a cabal. A cabal is petty, skulks around and betrays everyone. A Senate is a ruling body, made up of people who are chosen to rule. Although the Concordant Alliance has a ring to it. The Society of Necessity? The Unified?

That's awesome. Is the whole party evil or just the king?

Regardless, the ensuing power struggles should be epic.

How did the troll full attack on a charge?

Don't recall exactly. It was a while back and all I remember is that we all made a check of a tactical blooper. I could call the GM but where's the fun in that? It may have just had to make a 5 foot step. I remember thinking that I needed to make one before my turn ended but forgot to. And down the stinky gullet went the mage. Even though it was my character, I had to laugh (later), because we were so cocky going into that fight.

By the way, Turin, your avatar gives me the screaming willies.

I've seen retreat a lot, especially in my King Maker game I ran. As GM I don't always have the enemy chase the players. Sometimes it happens but it's not all that common.

Kingmaker has gone a long way in breaking our group's habit of never falling back. In the early days of the campaign, we ran a lot. Then we got stronger and we started falling back into bad habits. However, last session we had to run again. :)

We were out exploring hexes near a potentially rival kingdom. We had just finished breakfast and between the time dismissed the secure shelter and the time to summon the phantom chariot (we explore in style and comfort), an adult black Dragon lands and demands all of our magic items in exchange for our lives.

We decide we can take it and combat begins. Fighter moves in, cleric moves in, mage starts casting resist energy on people. Fighter takes a chunk out of the dragon, the dragon returns the assault, looks like we're going to win when the second one lands and breathes on the fighter and the mage. Mage goes down. Fighter is hit hard. Shadow of a third dragon crosses the clearing and we realize that we are in a "tactically inferior" position. Cleric heals the mage to consciousness, cleric and fighter dog pile on the mage and he teleports the party back to his quarters in the capitol city.

I always keep a teleport spell readied. A tactical withdrawal is always easier to achieve when you plan for the possibility.

Happened a while back, but still...

Name: Morgan
Race: Human
Class / Levels: Wizard 5
Location: Random encounter
Catalyst: Underestimated the enemy

We were ambushed by a pair of trolls. We were pretty good at killing trolls at this point, so nobody was worried. First troll falls, no problem. Cleric and fighter move into flank on the second troll as my wizard fires off a scorching ray to shut down the troll's regeneration. Problem: Nobody realized that when the cleric moved into flank there was a clear path from the troll to the wizard. Oops.

The troll charged. And hit with both claws and the bite. Which meant the troll got to rend automatically. The result is that the wizard was bit in half. It was an ugly way to go. Thankfully the group knew about a friendly Druid and within a week the mage was reincarnated as an elf. Which made the ranger, who had been reincarnated as a dwarf, very jealous.

After that, the wizard took to the air. The first item he crafted for himself was a pair of boots of flying. No more melee range!

We came up with a lower level solution that used limited wish. Character dies and reincarnate is cast ad usual. Limited wish is then cast at the same time to determine the new race instead of using a die roll. A little less expensive, but same result.

As for buying scrolls, we treat them like any other item. If the cost of the scroll is less than the base value of the city, then there's a 75% chance that it's available that month / week / whatever.

I think I've been in three different parties that self-destructed after finding a deck. They've been pretty much perma-banned by our group since we apparently have no self-control or survival instinct when faced with one.

I always thought that D&D made great training for civil procedure. In any case, the analogy is a little off. In a game, the PCs are the lawyers advocating for their position and action. The GM is actually sitting as a judge or neutral arbitrator. In any event, the GM should be ruling from a theory of equity; that for every action the "court" has the power to create a response or remedy. A GM running a game from pure RAW, or "black letter" as lawyers would call it, would run a fair, but not entirely entertaining game. That being said, training in how to juggle multiple, often conflicting rules, is an asset to running a game. IMHO.

And Terquem, I'd say this thread falls under 12(b)(6) of federal civil procedure: failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted. Heh.

That's an evil combination. I like it.

The main reason would be to let the fighter kill it even faster rather than wait for it to slowly expire. Never played a wizard before, so I'm still trying to figure out the complexity and synergies. Nobody in my group ever plays a wizard. I think that this is the first time since 2nd ed that anyone in my group has even tried...

So no effect at all with fire? I didn't think of the tar-like acid interpretation at all. It's interesting. What I was looking for was a way to get the ongoing damage without blocking line of effect to the target. I love the idea of the spell, I just was wondering if there was a way to allow the fighter to attack the subject after the spell takes effect.

Shameless bump.

I just picked up Icy Prison for my admixture evoker. If I change the spell's energy type to fire,what happens? My thought is that the subject is enveloped in a fiery blaze that burns for the duration. No entangling, no possibility of rendering the subject helpless. Just CL in damage per round for CL in minutes. Haven't tried this yet because I want to get some other opinions.

Go back to your roots, play a sorcerer with the abberant bloodline

This is pretty much what the DM said. "This aberrant bloodline looks like it was made for you!" I'm pretty sure he was referring to the character...

We're missing a grand diplomat so I briefly considered a serpentine sorcerer with all the charm / control spells. I'd need to crank up my save DC's so nothing gets away :D

I never even considered a witch. I'll definitely have to look at the scarred witch doctor and look closer at the sorcerer.

I have to step back and retract my words - I can't really go too overboard as it's a good campaign. So I'll "settle" for boisterous, loud, flashy ... but if I can be moderately disturbing I'll consider it a win, too.

I've decided to retire my master summoner from our Kingmaker campaign. There's a couple of reasons for this. First is that even with 3 players (we had a session recently where our fourth had other obligations) the campaign has started to become too easy. We fought the scythe tree with 3 people and the DM stated that if he hadn't doubled its HP it would have dropped in the third round. Last session we fought a hydra with 1.5x the base HP and it dropped in the second round. The guy playing the cleric actually said it was too easy. Part of it is the wall of meat shields that I throw down as combat begins and the other part is that we have two players who have optimized combat characters: bastard sword & shield fighter (who will usually get buffed with enlarge, bull's strength, and some sort of sacred shield or defense), and a ranger who uses enlarge, gravity bow, and has a couple of quivers of large arrows strapped to his horse.

Secondly, I'm just not into the character. He's a meek scholarly type and all the other characters are all boisterous loudmouths. I just can't get into his head and we're really not engaging in much role playing at all - just bouts of "Civilization the Board Game" and then a couple of fights. So my character concept doesn't match. I usually play someone who is power mad / driven mad by power and more than a little twisted, so I've been trying to change. But meek ain't cutting it. To edify, my favorite character of all time was a World of Darkness Tzmisce (sp?) and I once got in argument with the DM about sticking my eye on my finger so I could peek through a window without being seen. That kind of thing.

Third, I'm playing a master summoner and carrying a binder full of printouts and the constant micro management is giving me a headache. I don't think I want to cast another summon monster spell for a long, long time.

The DM understands and will let me use my same stats for another character (I rolled horribly so he gave me some good numbers to make me comparable to the rest of the group, which means I have 18, 17, 16, 13, 11, 10 before racial adjustments with the understanding that the 17 goes into the primary stat). We have a cleric, ranger, & fighter. We need some sort of arcane support and I don't need to be optimized (although I would like decent saves - the target numbers for the saves recently would require me to roll 18s to make on my summoner). I've been looking at a half-orc dragon disciple. Rowdy, blasty, and has an AC comparable to my summoner without using any gear at all - and before spells.

Any suggestions for an interesting arcane class? I also looked at the Magus but don't quite know what to make of it. If I could play anything I'd probably play a druid to shut my "druids are useless" friend up. Or a cavalier/ Hellknight to do massive melee damage. My dragon disciple has a greataxe but I don't think there's any way to make him even remotely competent with it.

It's time for me to return to my roots and play a twisted, screaming madman. Help me make them regret boring me >:-)

(note: I'm not out to screw over the game, just want to play something more dynamic - and they know me and my preferences)

Wow... I GM not because I like it, but because I would rather run a game than play in one with a worse GM than myself...

That being said, I realize now that I am a complete amateur (creatively) compared to all of you! You are all sickly creative and I like it.

I have a question about Mad Jackson's comment:
What levels are we speaking of to be able to contend with gods? and do we even have rules and lore for me to be able to run that effectively or would it be up to me to just make it up?

Keep em coming everyone! you are fueling a truly nasty (EPIC) campaign!

I love running epic high-power campaigns where the world gets reshaped.

To answer your question - I'd have them face off against the gods at the final session - have the characters at level 20 or 21. Since there's no epic handbook you'll have to tweak the encounter to fit or just make up some equivalent stats for the gods. At this point the characters should be a little outside the rules since it's a final fight and they're on the cusp of actual divinity.

It would help if maybe one of gods believes that the characters are better suited for ruling and has betrayed the current gods and made them mortal again or that's what the artifact does (maybe it has been suppressing the character's divinity the whole time and they use it to turn the tables on the gods in the end) or both. That would probably be best - as the characters powered up, the current pantheon was stripped of their divinity for the final battle and they'll fight the characters at "equal" terms for final fight. This way you can just make the gods as lvl 20 or 21 NPC's and not worry about having to track down or create epic stats. Or make them all monsters. The king of the gods is an ancient red dragon, the queen is a banshee, the wargod is a tarrasque, etc ... could be an interesting final battle.

Another way of handling it is to end the game at the beginning of the fight and then describe the chaos and destruction from a third-person view from an NPC that they left behind: "The fight begins and you and the remaining gods charge into battle. Back in Turnvale, Yorick, the old blacksmith who you befriended, looks to the sky and sees the sun turn black and the stars waver. The earth shakes and trembles, and in the distance he sees volcanoes erupt out of nowhere. He knows in his bones, as does every other living being, about the war raging beyond the sky and wonders if anyone will survive."

Tie two weasels together by a short section of rope- voila! "weasel bola" (Don't let your party's druid witness this particular brand of animal cruelty...)

Weasel-chucks! Much like gopher-chucks from Kung-Pow! Enter the Fist.

I love this thread.

I don't know a thing about pathfinder psionics, is there a good way to use that to make a butt-kicking psychic warrior? Maybe sprinkled in with Monk like that homebrew thread?

Psychic Warriors use WIS for their powers, so that's out. I'm going to throw another vote behind the melee alchemist - looks like the stats would fit really well.

The PC's are all very young and inexperienced, but have been summoned to a secret meeting of the Winbourne Alliance (think Harpers from Forgotten Realms) where they were told that they were the chosen ones to stop the great evil that is emerging on the world, blah blah blah...

btw, they all have an item that allows them to grow in power quickly... meaning they will be hyper-leveling in order to play this thing in only a few months.

while prophecies have chosen them and says that they will be called when they would be needed most, they have not been informed of what exactly the evil is.

Tomorrow they are off to find the sage that is familiar enough with the ancient prophecies to tell them what they will be up against.

The Problem: I don't know what they should be up against!
...

Any help or advice is very much appreciated!

I always love to screw with my players' heads. I'd like to make the following suggestion:

prophecies have chosen them

Make this a lie. Yes, they were gathered together and told that they were needed to save the world, but they were lied to. In reality, the prophecies have marked them as a threat or harbingers of something terrible. The Alliance didn't round them up to turn them into heroes, the Alliance gathered them to keep an eye on them and try to avoid the future (being good guys the Alliance didn't assassinate them upon identifying them). All the "missions of prophecy" aren't the result of oracular or prophetic vision, the missions are chosen by the Alliance as a way to get the party to solve problems that need solving, buy time, and hopefully get them killed off in the process by sending them to defeat extremely dangerous foes. From the Alliance's point of view if the party dies, then problem solved, and the bad guys did it. If the party survives, well, at least they made the world a better place by eliminating something evil.

Furthermore, the artifact doesn't allow them to level quickly - it's something else tied into the prophecy (maybe a key or a weapon) - they level quickly because of the nascent power that is quickly growing within them.

They should get the occasional clue that they're being lied to (like never getting to see the prophetic writings or meet the seer while every other fortuneteller they meet goes crazy at the sight of them) but it shouldn't be revealed until about halfway through the campaign - maybe 2/3rds of the way. About that time, the Alliance would decide that the characters are too dangerous to live and turn on them and try to kill them outright (by which time it should be too late for the Alliance to succeed).

I think that the prophecy would be one of a world-destroying (or close to it) apocalypse. The secret truth behind everything is that a Greater Power (or the universe, or it just happened) caused the characters to be born divine. Their destiny is to become gods - it's inescapable. after a certain point, they might not be able to die. Their ultimate enemies? The current pantheon. The inevitable war between the current gods and the characters will devastate the world. The characters are growing in power so fast that the gods will eventually strike first (but again, too late) and the characters will have no choice but to fight back if they want to survive. I suppose at the last session or two the characters could willingly sacrifice themselves for peace, but I'd expect that the current gods would have disgraced themselves in fear for their power and prestige and the characters probably wouldn't want to lie down and die for them anymore (even if they would have at the beginning).

This way you can justify the Alliance throwing them at every enemy in the book at lower levels (cults, undead, monsters, and even the occasional political enemy) and they can face demons, devils, dragons, and angels at the higher levels as the current rulers of the universe take note of a new threat. Everything in the Bestiaries should be on the table.

The ultimate outcome should be up to you - do the characters become new gods or fall to the old ones? But the characters should see the world grind to an inevitable and massive war for everything at the end. And while it's not their fault, they are the cause. What will they do to save the world - because it's their responsibility now.

Eidolon needs more tentacles.

Everything needs more tentacles.