Malkari Durant's page

I feel like the nanocyte thematically should get something from "eating unwanted items". It's just that they should not need to specifically target the very best stuff.

This should probably work like selling stuff without needing to have someone to sell it to.

So your nanite investment is:
1) The full value of the best thing you've eaten.
2) 10% of everything else.

Personally, I like that idea, BUT I think tracking that would be a little difficult. Maybe, instead have the nanite investment be:

1) 10% of anything you have consumed
2) OR the full value of an item if it is greater than your current investment
3) But cannot be greater than the maximum amount for your level (see the Clarification: Creating Nanocytes Above 1st level thread)

Honestly, I really like the imagery of the nanocyte taking an item and their nanites come pouring it and eating the tech item. Or the nanocyte dumping a bunch of UPB's on a table, letting them out and going, "Time to eat, my friends!"

But for my it seems weird to have the investment value reset. I'm more in favor of a max value equal for their investment equal to some percentage of the WBL table (say 50%) and you can get to that value either by feeding the nanites straight UPBs and get the full value or the nanites can eat a piece of gear and get 10% of its value.

I also like the scenes that play out in my head of the nanocyte learning that piece of gear they just ate as a form, but they forget how to do an older piece of gear.

And like Zilvar 2k11 said, we shouldn't punish the players for being creative. Plus just imagine doing a mystery game with a nanocyte as your villain...

Also, if your investment didn't reset, just imagine the nanocyte saboteur!

So short version:
I like a max investment value for level
I like being able to increase that value rather than have to replace it all at once
I like being able to trade out a previously known form with a piece of gear you just found.

The 1st level power of the discorporation faculty says that the reactive spray can trigger as a reaction after taking significant damage from an enemy.

How much damage does the nanocyte need to take to be considered signifcant?

Is this like one of the ways a vanguard gains entropy points, would it be 2 hp/level needed to trigger the ability?

Or was this meant as damage from a significant enemy?

I'm wondering who has misread a particular rule and ended up having a better (or at least more enjoyable) result because of it.

For example, while running last night, I couldn't find how many charges wands were supposed to have. This came up because the druid had a 1st level wand of heal and wanted to use it to heal up the party's tank, a monk. So, I ran it as: As long as it is on your spell list, you need to spend a point of Resonance each time you cast the spell from your wand.

It wasn't until afterward I found the rule buried that wands have 10 charges, but everyone at the table was really happy with wands working that they just needed to spend Resonance to cast the spell if it was already on their spell list.

I also remembered that the 3.5 Eberron setting had a similar item called eternal wands that let the user use the spell in it unlimited times over the life of the item, but only so many times per day (3 if I recall correctly).

I'm going to have to be in the camp that is for adding in Stamina for PF2. Having played Starfinder with a small group over the last several months without anyone playing a class that can do any kind of healing (technomancer, operative, mechanic), Stamina is great.

As a kind of balance between Starfinder's stamina model and the desire to keep healers relevant, what if PCs had a Stamina pool, determined as it is in Starfinder, but they did not have Resolve points to recover during a short rest, but they did recover to full after a full rest and different classes did have abilities that interacted with stamina points.

Alchemist - some mutagens give temporary stamina points
Barbarian - give a string of class feats that give temporary stamina points while raging, but at a cost of a higher exhaustion during their down round
Bards - compositions/spells/ or an ability using their Spell points to restore stamina
Fighter - they have a class feat available that 1/day can restore stamina points, perhaps equal to their level
Monk - class feat that modifies wholeness of body to restore stamina as well
Rangers - a class feat modifying hunt target to regain a small amount of stamina for dispatching their target
Sorcerer - have an option for them to gain a lesser version of the bard's ability for those with an occult bloodline
Wizard - as has been suggested by others, give the abjurers an ability to give temporary stamina points

hmm

Is it every saturday? or just some?
(every, every other, or just some saturday when folks can agree to meet?)

-S

We meet every Saturday from about noon to midnight. Well, most of us meet every Saturday, we have one who is there for 4 weeks and then gone for 4 weeks.

With real life getting in the way at times, I'm trying to find a few more players to add for the pathfinder game I run on Saturdays. I am out in Northwest Houston. Is anybody interested?

James,
I have a question concerning the Red Mantis. Would it even be possible for a member to leave the organization (and almost certainly the religion as well)?

Or is the only real way to leave the Red Mantis to meet with Pharasma?

Thanks

Here's a simple fix: genjutsu = the various rogue magic talents. However, the ninja is limited to the school of illusion and may take them multiple times. Uses over what the rogue gets cost 1 Ki.
Kunai = daggers that deal 1d3 damage and have a 20 foot range rather 10 foot.
Windmill Shuriken: starknife with range of 30 feet, does 1d6 damage, -4 penalty to attack with in melee, two-handed weapon, but folds up so is treated as light weapon for the purposes of hiding via Sleight of Hand, if you're dead set on it being able to return - then give it the boomerang's ability to come back to the thrower (but only when it misses). Otherwise you're getting into the domain of the magic weapons.

I think this meets the desires without being too over the top. I may not be that much of a ninja fanboy, but by wife is definitely a ninja fangirl.

How about this as a way of handling the magus' ability to cast a spell that he doesn't already know. [from the magus 2.0 playtest document]
Change Pool Spell's description to the following:
At 4th level, the magus learns to use
his arcane pool to cast additional spells. He can cast
any magus spell that he knows by expending a number
of points from his arcane pool equal to the spell’s level
(minimum 1). He can cast spells with metamagic feats in
this way, but he must spend additional points from his
arcane pool to do so, equal to the level increase from the
metamagic feats. The spell’s overall adjusted level must
still be one that he can cast.
[beginning of new stuff]
Beginning at 7th level, he may cast any magus spell, even if he does not know it. A magus may only choose to do this a number of times per day equal to his Intelligence modifier. Spells cast in this way may not be used in item creation. However, a magus attempting to research the spell within 24 hours of casting this way gain a bonus to the research attempt equal to 1/2 of the highest spell level they can cast.

This strikes me as a way to show the magus getting inspiration for a spell on the fly. Keep in mind I haven't had a chance to see how this would actually work in play, but it seems to me that it offers something to both sides of the camp of whether this is a feature or a problem.

Alright, how about this for the second power of the Purification domain, using Set's idea:
Purifying Scourge (Sp): Beginning at 8th level, you can purify the souls and bodies of the faithful and blasphemer alike. As a standard action, you may touch another creature to remove any status condition, poison, disease, curse or other undesired effect that currently afflicts them. After you touch them, 1 negative condition is removed per round, beginning with the condition they have been afflicted with the longest. Each time a condition is removed they suffer 1d6 points of divine damage. Conditions that are inflicted after you touch them will not be cured. This lasts for one round per 3 cleric levels rounded down plus the round that the creature was touched (so a 9th level cleric can remove up to 4 conditions with this ability). If the creature shares your faith, then they are entitled to a Fort save for ½ damage (DC 10 + ½ cleric level + Wis mod). Alternatively, you may use this ability a number of times per day equal to your cleric level, but never more than once against the same creature.

Hi - My group is switching over tp PFRPG. I want to make a "Voodoo Priestess" build for the upcoming campagin.

I'm looking for any suggestions as to background / build that would be along the lines of this type of PC. I had a chance to skim the campagin setting and thought the "sodden lands" may be the best point of orgin for a PC of this type. Probably human (for an extra feat to help bolster energy channeling) or maybe 1/2 elf.....

I want to try the new "command undead" feat mechanics - so I'm pretty sure playing a cleric is the only way to go. Perhaps a diety with a nature / divination / curse / necromancy flavor? I dont know the PFRPG panthenon very well yet......

Also want to incorporate poision use somehow (profession or craft skills?)

Thanks in advance for any help!

Another option for you is to go the route of a necromancer specialist. They gain Turn or Control Undead as a bonus feat. Plus you'll be able to get plenty of divination and curse type spells while you're at it. As far as skills go, I would focus on the interaction type skills as well as Craft (alchemy or poison) depending on what you actually plan on being able to do and how your DM adjucates the creation of poisons. Heal would probably be a good thing to use as well (you can use it to help spread or contain diseases - like zombie plagues)

Here's what I've done with the Eberron races. The names have been changed to protect the innocent, and not-so-much.

Dream-children– This alien race came to the world in time immemorial bringing with them those that would become the runelords.
Dream-children traits
Attributes: +2 to Int
Size: Medium
Base Land Speed: 30 ft
+2 racial bonus on saves vs. mind-affecting spells and abilities and possession
+2 racial bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks
+2 racial bonus on Disguise checks to impersonate a human
Kalashtar sleep, but do not dream
Psychic Ability as a bonus feat
Psychic Sense, Contact, and Knowledge (planes) are always class skills for Dream-children and can be used untrained
+4 racial bonus on Contact checks
Suffer 1 point less strain from any telepathic skill, suffer no strain when using mental contact with Dream-children and Varisians they are familiar with. In addition, Power Points can be used to pay any strain cost
Gain 1 Power Point per character level, regardless of class

Automatic Languages: Common, Varisian (or Quor)
Bonus Languages: Draconic and Thassilonian (or Riedran)
Favored Class: Psion or Monk

Beast-borne Racial Traits
Humanoid (Shapechanger)
+2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Cha
Medium
Normal Speed
Low-Light Vision
Keen Senses – shifters gain a +2 bonus on scent and hearing based Perception checks
Athletic – shifters gain a +2 bonus on Climb and Acrobatics checks

Shifting – Beast-borne gain a pool of heritage points that they can burn to recall the power of their lycanthropic heritage. At each level, they gain a number of heritage points equal to their Constitution bonus (minimum 1). For every round spent shifted, a shifter must expend a heritage point. Every shifter feat grants an additional heritage point. While shifted, a Beast-borne takes on a more feral appearance, with their eyes taking on the appearance of a predators, their nails and teeth lengthening, and their hair growing thicker and longer.

Beast-borne Traits
Trait Stat Bonus Benefit
Winterhide Con +1 natural AC, cold resistance 5, +2 racial bonus vs. environmental cold
Beasthide Con +2 natural armor, suffer distraction only ½ rounds
Longtooth Str 1d6 + ¼ level bite attack (-5 as secondary attack)
Cliffwalk Dex Climb 20, retain AC while climbing
Razorclaw Str 1d4 + ¼ level claw attack (-2 as secondary attack), 2 claws
Longstride Con Gain scent quality, +2 on Survival and Perception (scent) checks
Dreamsight Wis Speak with animals, +2 on handle animal and Wild Empathy
Gorebrute Str 2d6 + ¼ level gore attack on a charge
Swiftwing Dex Fly 20 (average) can’t have medium or heavy load or armor
Truedive Con Swim 30, +8 on Swim checks, hold breath 5 x Con rounds

Favored Class: Ranger or Druid
Automatic Language: Common, Shoanti
Bonus Languages: Elven, Gnome, Halfling, and Sylvan

Bloodless
* Living Construct Subtype (Ex) – nothing changes here. Note: channeling positive energy only heals half the usual amount while channeling negative energy deals the full amount of damage
* +2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Cha
* Medium size
* Base land speed 30 ft
* Composite plating – no change
*Light fortification
* Slam attack deals 1d4 damage
* Body can be enchanted as if it was a suit of armor and fists may be enchanted as weapons
*Automatic Languages: Common; Bonus Languages – NONE
*Favored Classes: Fighter or Artificer

Faceless
Changelings
*Shapechanger Subtype
*Medium size
*+2 bonus to Cha
* 30 ft land speed
* +2 racial bonus on saving throws vs. sleep and charm effects
* +2 racial bonus on Bluff, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks
* Linguistics is always a class skill for changelings
*Minor Change Shape: no change
* +1 Skill point per level (must be spent on personal interaction skills or Linguistics)
*Automatic Languages: Common
*Bonus Languages:, Dwarven, Elemental, Elven, Giant, Gnome, Halfling, , any human language
*Favored Classes: Rogue or Bard

I think I came up with these around when alpha 3 came out. Also, the dream-children write-up refers to skills in the psychic handbook from green ronin. So, if you don't have access to that then just replace the lines concerning their psi abilities with the ability to use mindlink at will with familiar targets as a 1st level psion. If anyone is interested, I've also done a conversion for the artificer.

As a compromise to ease of conversion and the complaint that cleric's don't get enough skill points, why not have each religion have a skill tied to their faith. This skill is treated as a class skill and has ranks equal to their cleric level, similar to the bard's bardic knowledge ability. In addition, clerics may make Knowledge(religion) checks untrained at any DC for questions pertaining to their faith, but no other.

What do you guys think?

Alright, how about this for an idea for improving shields.
*A shield can reduce the multiplier of a critical hit by one step. All damage then is treated as a sunder attempt (without drawing an attack of opportunity). If the amount of damage done exceeds what is required to destroy the shield, then any extra damage is dealt to shield bearer. Otherwise, the shield gains the broken condition.
*A shield can be used to intercept ranged touch attacks, taking the brunt of the attack. Add the shield's AC bonus on ranged touch attacks.
*As far as a Reflex bonus goes, I think the ideas of giving half of the shield's AC bonus would work pretty well. However, the shieldbearer should need to be prepared to hide behind the shield. So, he doesn't get the benefit when flat-footed.

I could use some help designing a new Sorcerer Bloodline that incorporates the darkness.

Someone in the Sorcerer’s past either joined with the shadow plane or became tainted by it essence. As they gain in levels they gain certain shadow-like powers. I would like to keep it balanced with the other bloodllines, but make it a viable bloodline that would be interesting to play. Does anybody have any ideas?

If you're interested, I have a shadow "bloodline" from an Eberron game I ran a few years back. Short story is that I killed my wife's ninja (about 10th level or so I think), but there were no clerics strong enough to bring her back, but here enclave had a device that could bring the ninja back. Only it wasn't completely successful, she only got part of it back while the Keeper kept the rest of it and as a result she picked up a major bloodline with mostly shadow and darkness based powers. Just e-mail me at grey_bard42 at yahoo dot com.

I need a clarification on this.

I noticed that quicken spell can be used by spontaneous casters, which made me rather happy, but the wording of it in the beta seem to imply that it was ONLY for spontaneous casters.

Did the wizard get robbed out of quicken spell? I can't imagine that would be consistent with backwards compatiblity.

Please tell me this is incorrect.

Perhaps the special note could be changed for clarity. Reading something like this.

Special: Unlike other metamagic feats, Quicken Spell does not increase casting time. Instead spontaneous spells cast from any source with this metamagic feat applied are cast as a swift action.

Actually, another possibility for the Cinderlands in Eberron is Talenta Plains. There are portions of it that are more prone to prairie fire than the Great Plains here on earth. Plus, its right against the desert of blades (I think that's what its called). So you can throw in border disputes between the valenar and the Talenta. Trust me, the last thing you want after you is a halfling barbarian mounted on a clawfoot. I let someone use that as a cameo PC and it was just plain nasty.

At least that's where I would be having the Cinderlands

The extra spells seem a little imbalanced since none of the other bloodlines gives access to spells not already on the sorcerer list. Also, confusion seems a lot more powerful than the other first level powers.

Actually, they do, take a look at the celestial bloodline, at 3rd level, they get bless as a 1st level spell. If I recall correctly

We just finished converting our characters to PRPG. This post is about the evoker.

He has an special ability at 8th level called Elemental Wall. It pretty much says its a Wall of Fire but you can change the element type, "otherwise functions like a Wall of Fire".

A Wall of Fire can be put out (or at least sections of it) by dealing 20 cold damage to it.

So, can a Wall of Cold (as an evoker ability) be "put out" by dealing 20 cold damage to it? What about a Wall of Electricity or one of Fire again?

Another point is the Specialist Bonus itself. This is better explained with an example:

A 9th level Evoker can unleash a 9d6+2 Fireball unto his enemies.
A 9th level Necromancer can unleash a 9d6 Fireball unto his enemies, then send in 24 3HD skeletons to finish them off (72HD worth of undead).

Do you see it? I think you do ;)

As far as the Elemental Wall power goes, let's just assume that it's 20 points of energy damage of the opposing type, but I definitely agree with the problem about the specialist power. Maybe instead of the +1 damage per 5 levels give them this.

When casting evocation spells with an elemental energy subtype, an evoker may ignore 10 points of that energy resistance per 5 levels. Beginning at 10th level, creatures that are normally immune to that particular energy type are treated instead as having energy resistance 50. At 20th level, any creature who is considered to have a negative energy resistance to that element (e.g. -20 fire resistance) is instead considered vulnerable to that element. This ability only applies to evocation spells cast by the evoker by virtue of being an evoker.

Mind, this hasn't been playtested at all, so it might be a touch over powered. That and its really late where I am.

One of my players made an interesting observation and I wanted to see if anyone here knows the answer:

my player wrote:

I was looking over the rules for identifying magic items using the Identify spell and the Appraise skill and came across an interesting little quandary. According to the rules as written, Identify is useless until you reach third level (or 2nd, potentially - since a feat can increase CL). Specifically, it takes 3 rounds to perform the study of the object to be identified, but the duration of Identify is only 1 round/level.

Do you think this was an oversight, or intentional?

I would think that this would be a slight oversight, but detect magic still lasts for a minute at 1st level.

I think sorcerers have Use Magic Device as a class skill now to represent the ease to which they can tap all things magical. This is to include the ability to more easily use the magic stored in objects. Like say using a wand of cure light wounds more easily than his wizard counterpart

Could I get that as well

grey_bard42@yahoo.com

It does make sense to have knowledge (local) useful as a monster ID skill, but at the same time the knowing about all the little nooks and crannies about every city when you've spent your entire life in backwatersburg doesn't really make sense. So, what I propose is something along the lines that Keith Baker did on the Wizards boards back when Eberron was still new.

My suggestion is that you are familiar with a number of areas equal to your number of ranks. The size of the area is up to the DM. Ideally, these areas should be areas where the culture, geography, and architecture are relatively homogenized. Outside of your selected areas, you just can't make knowledge (local) checks. However, you must have spent enough time to really become familiar with the area, let's say a week for the sake of argument. And all you do during this week, is getting the lay of the land, hearing old stories, getting completely lost in the back alleys, etc.

It's kind of like linguistics. It stretches believability to think that someone can become that someone can become familiar with so many different areas, but Linguistics isn't any better. How many people do you know that can speak 7 different languages, while being a virtuoso singer and able to play nearly any piece of music ever written on any instrument and be able to quote obscure facts that would stump the return Jeopardy champ before they're 25? (And yes this is referring to a 1st level bard, in case you were curious)

I've used this approach in my games, and it has yet to break anyone's brain. Unlike 3.5 Grapple rules.

Which d20 game was it, and do you recall the specifics of the ability?

I don't remember any more specifics to it. I don't think the game has actually been published yet. I got in on a playtest at a con, but there were no NDA's to be had, at least that I recall.

Actually, I've played a D20 game with a sprint skill. Only it wasn't Strength based. It was Dex and Movement based. You added your movement and your Dex mod to your ranks and other modifiers. This determined how fast you could sprint as a move action.

Another idea is that a paladin gains ranks in Ride like the bard gains ranks in a Knowledge skill once they acquire their mount (starting at 5th level they gain 1 rank in ride at every level), but this only applies to ride checks made with their mount.

Really such things as Break DC, hardness and hp in the equipment tables would be a horrible idea, escpecially for all the times when characters are wanting to break things. Well, it would be a horrible idea to not include them.

I'll throw my lot in with those for keeping weapon finesse. A nice change in the direction of unifcation would be rolling Agile Maneuvers into Weapon Finesse

Just for a little clarification, here's a little better breakdown of my different weapon groups:

Axes: battle ax, great ax, hand ax, heavy pick, light pick, throwing ax
Basic: dagger, club, dart, sling, quarterstaff, and dart
Blades: Bastard Sword (2-handed), falchion, Greatsword, klar, longsword, scimitar, scythe
Bows: long bow (standard or composite), short bow (long bow or composite)
Close: gauntlet, shield, punching dagger, sap, spiked (shield, gauntlet, or armor), ogre hook
Crossbows: light crossbow, heavy crossbow
Druid: club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, shortpear, sling, spear
Exotic Axes: dwarven axe, orc double axe, dwarven Urgrosh (with spear group)
Exotic Blades: Bastard Sword (1-handed), Two-Bladed Sword
Exotic Light Blades: kama, Sawtooth saber
Exotic Crossbows: repeating crossbow (light or heavy), hand crossbow, double crossbow
Exotic Chains: bladed scarf, dire flail, Nunchaku, whip, spiked chain
Exotic Hammer: gnome hooked hammer
Exotic Monk: kama, Nunchaku, sai, Siangham, shuriken
Exotic Thrown Weapons: bolas, net, Shoanti Bola, shuriken
Firearms: All available firearms
Chains: flail, heavy flail
Hammers: club, earth breaker, light hammer, mace, Morningstar, greatclub, heavy mace, Warhammer
Light Blades: dagger, kukri, rapier, sickle, short sword, starknife, war razor
Pole Arms: glaive, guisarme, halberd, Ranseur, quarterstaff
Rogue: hand crossbow, rapier, sap, shortbow, shortsword, starknife, war razor
Spears: dwarven Urgrosh (with spear proficiency), javelin, lance, Longspear, Shortspear, spear, and trident

Here are the starting racial proficiencies:
Dwarf: hammers and axes
Elf: bows plus Longsword & rapier single weapon proficiency
Gnome: light blades or crossbows
Halfling: may select exotic thrown weapons as a standard weapon group
Half Orc: heavy blades or axes
Human: any weapon group

To learn any exotic group, you must have a +1 BAB bonus and if it has a standard group, such as axes, you must learn the standard group first.

Ever since Unearthed Arcana came out for 3.x, I've been using weapon groups with success. Personally, I'm very fond of the way they work and would like to see them for Pathfinder.

However, there is a change that I'm using that works fairly well that uses BAB to determine starting weapon groups. Those with a poor BAB begin play with a single weapon group and basic weapons. If you have an average BAB, you start with basic weapons and two other weapon groups. Those with a good BAB, except fighters gain three weapon groups and basic weapons. Finally, fighters gain basic weapons and four weapon groups plus one more at every even fighter level. If you multiclass, you gain additional weapon groups only if the new class has additional weapon proficiencies.

Basic weapons are defined as club, dart, dagger, quarterstaff, and sling.

Most other weapon groups are taken straight out of the fighter description. There is also a weapon group called Druid weapons consisting of: club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, shortpear, sling, and spear. The starknife and war razor are added to light blades, the earthbreaker is added to hammers, the klar is added to blades, the shoanti bola are an exotic throwing weapon, the bladed scarf is an exotic flail and the sawtooth saber is an exotic light blade. Exotic weapons remain exotic and require a +1 BAB to gain proficiency. In order to gain proficiency with a group's exotic weapons requires either a weapon group or a feat. Improved Unarmed Strike can be purchased with a weapon group slot if you meet the usual prerequisite as usual.

Under this system, dwarves gain axe and hammer proficiency and elves gain bow proficiency plus single proficiency in the longsword and rapier. All races that treat [insert race here] weapons as martial weapons simply add those weapons to the standard group.

So, what do y'all think?

Hehe thanks Jason. That makes more sense now. Too bad, I liked having the Xp chart mememorized.. won't work now. :)

Well, the medium advancement is still easy to memorize.

i have already brought this up in alpha 1 a couple of weeks ago, but i find it worth mentioning again (especially since there was no response to the thread). So here we go:

The elf's and dwarf's "auto-detect" feature for secrets/stonework(the part "may make a search check as if actively searching for...") should be removed or changed. Reason:

As a GM i have to constantly roll the dice when my player's enter a new area (and I have 1 elf and 2 dwarves in my group). This is rather annoying. Second: I forget to roll more often than not and my players constantly remind me to throw the dice. Very game-flow stopping. The characters walk the circumference of each room because this lousy ability only has a range of 10 feet (formerly in 3.5 only 5 feet for elves but luckily this was changed to make both abilities work at a unified range.)

So what can we do about this:

1) leave it because you are one of those people who like it as it is
2) change it to an automatic detect features (no check)
3) change the range to cover "1 room" regardless of size
4) remove the auto-detect part
5) other options?

I prefer one of two approaches, both work pretty well. The first approach is simply treat these auto-detects as taking 10 for the check. The other is for everybody's secret checks, have your players roll the d20, say 10 times. Write those numbers down and whenever you want them to make a check but you don't want them to know whether or not they succeeded, use a number from that bank.

What I use is a slight variant from the rules presented in one of Green Ronin's Advanced Manuals. It amounts to your initial class determines your array of stats. You get a grand total of 28d6 split amongst the 6 stats but how they're arranged depends on you first class. You still only keep three of the dice even you get to roll 7d6 on a stat, like a wizard's intelligence. While this does tend to pigeonhole you in your first class, it also all but guarantees that you'll be able to take care of the things that your class does well

I'm just trying to get some clarification on the language portion of linguistics. Excluding the languages you begin with for being [insert race here], how many other languages do you if you select linguistics as a 1st level skill?

For example, if an elf with an Intelligence of 20 had Linguistics as a 1st level skill, would he only know common, elven, and five others (for Int) or would he know more?

Inspired by the description of "7 days to the grave", I'm creating a doctor: specifically, a human wizard with Heal as his bonus racial skill, the abjuration specialty, and the Arcane Disciple feat from Complete Divine (with Irori or Sarenrae as his deity). I like the power of arcane magic and don't want a combat-focused cleric. So this build seemed like a match. However, the Arcane Disciple feat doesn't interact well with the new divine domain system. I've posted the feat below. Any suggestions for how to apply the feat?

I suspect this is a typical example of the kinds of problems folks will encounter despite "backward compatibility." Some kind of cloistered cleric variant or white necromancer could solve this build as well.

ARCANE DISCIPLE [GENERAL]
Choose a deity, and then select a domain available to clerics of that deity. You can learn to cast the spells associated with that domain as arcane spells.
Prereq: Knowledge (religion) 4 ranks, Spellcraft 4 ranks, able to cast arcane spells, alignment matches your deity's alignment.
Benefit: Add the chosen domain's spells to your class list of arcane spells. If you have arcane spellcasting ability from more than one class, you must pick which arcane spellcasting ability this feat applies to. Once chosen, this decision cannot be changed for that feat.
You may learn these spells as normal for your class; however, you use Wisdom (rather than the normal ability for your spellcasting) when determining the save DC for the spell. In addition, you must have a Wisdom score equal to 10 + the spell's level in order to prepare or cast a spell gained from this feat.
Each day, you may prepare (or cast, if you cast spells without preparation) a maximum of one of these domain spells of each level.

There are a few possible ways to do it that I can see right now.

The rules specifically mention a tie to the fey. I was wondering what people thought of adding this to the gnome's racial traits

Fey-touched - Gnomes can sense the presence of cold iron within 15 ft. If the gnome would succeed on a DC 15 Perception (scent-based) check by taking 10, then the gnome is aware of the presence of any cold iron with this distance, but not the size, number of sources or direction of each source. A gnome that is aware of cold iron suffers a -2 penalty on any skill check requiring concentration or interaction with others and can only concentrate on any given subject (including a spell) for a number of rounds equal to their Intelligence modifier -1 (minimum 1 round including the round that they begin concentrating). Lastly, they are considered fey or humanoid for the purpose of whether or not a spell affects them.

Lets face it. Even 1st level characters take awhile to make...especially if they are twmplated/Level adjusted/or otherwise not 100% core. Even "normal" Characters can be time consuming to create. That said, a point is soon to be made.

To help "validate" the creation process, as well as the attachment most of us have with our characters, I "created" an...unorthodox houserule.

To help dull the sharp swingy point of sudden death full attack rolls, I allow the party a couple of rounds...determined semi randomly to use a very well rolled heal check to "resuscitate" a technically dead comrade.

I know, I know...it screams abuse and all that, but hear me out. I am a stingy bastard when it comes to gold and loot. Most of my players learn to be content with masterwork quality items until (usually) 7th level. There simply aren't the resources available to raise a character until the magic itself becomes available. The material component is generally VERY painfully felt as well.

To balance this I allowed CPR, or "the breath of life". The first time it happened, when the fighter took a devastating crit from an Orc barbarian, the whole table went quiet. I then explained that the cleric (with healing domain no less) knew of a way to save him, but every second counted. The tactical huddle was awesome. They worked damn hard to get the body away and stall the barbarian long enough to get the fighter back.

Cleric: I need bandages! Tear your cloak!
Sorceror: Uh...ok? What can I do?
Cleric: Hold this bandage...hold it tighter fool!
Sorceror: Why are you pushing on is chest?
Rogue: If this doesn't work, can I...?
Cleric: Do it...pump...pump...and I'll never heal you again.
Rogue: I was just sayin!

The whole aid another mechanic worked out beautifully. The result was a mostly dead fight becoming mostly alive. Mostly, because he was considered exhausted for 24 full hours. No exception. In town, this would be a simple matter of passing time. In the Direwood, it was a good reason to...

This could work, but personally, I would like to see some more crunch on this

As far as necromancers being able to animate from level one, there was a 1st level necromancy spell from 2nd edition's complete book of necromancers that allowed the necromancer to animate animals (and only animals). This could be a solution to having to wait until they had animate dead to start your own army of darkness. As far as the whole undead pet goes, I seem to recall that wizards had a feat on their site called corpsestitched familiar, or something like that. Allowing necromancers to have it as a virtual feat attached to their familiar would probably not be too overpowering

Ok, that's what I was starting to work with but how does the +13 fit in if the ability bonus is only +3? What bonuses am I missing?

The +13 you're looking at means one of two things. Either he has already quaffed his potion of jump (resulting in a +10 enhancement bonus), or it's an unfortunate typo

My issue of Dungeon 144 seems to have gotten lost on its way here. Normally it gets here a little after the date it hits the shelves.

Any hope of getting another one sent?
Thanks

In the scaling notes at the end of Bullywug Gambit, it mentions something called Jajirlok. Can someone shed some light on who or what this is? Was it something that got cut for space in the magazine? It would be even better if Nicolas Logue can respond to this

Thanks

Can shifters reproduce with humans? Elves? Orcs?

And what about the resultant child(ren); are the offspring shifters?

I don't remember where I read this, I think it might have been part of the Keith Baker FAQ on the Wizards boards.

What I remember is that shifters are a "true-breeding race". This means that it doesn't matter who they reproduce with, the kid is still going to be a furry little mutt with a lycanthropic heritage

If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to get a copy of those notes from you too Jason.

Thanks,

my e-mail is grey_bard42@yahoo.com

If I recall correctly, his item that had a dose of false life wasn't a potion at all, but rather a necroturgon. No actual details are ever given about the creation of necroturgons. But from the description of them, the creation process probably involves things better left unsaid (at least in terms of fluff). I mean, something that you can't swallow but must instead inject and something that seems to move inside its tube. That's just creepy. So, let's just assume that either Filge did involve a process for empowering bits of liquified necrotic flesh with magic or learned about from some other source. In my game, he learned it from another source. Just one more worry for the PCs. Luckily, there's a few places in my game that I just have to mention the name of, and they will quickly avoid any contact with anything tied to it

Alas, abalone is merely tuna fish

A few places right off the top of my head that a paladin does not want to be are the Shadowlands of Rokugan, and from Eberron - the Mournland, Karrnath, and the Labyrinth of the Keeper

I've been toying with the idea of trying to put together an Egyptian campaign for a while now. But I was wondering if anybody out there knew of some good fluff resources that I could use.

Thanks to everyone in advance

The only explanation I really have, is that over time, the brain can reroute certain functions to different areas. I remember hearing about a case of somebody getting their head skewered and somehow surviving. At first, the individual suffered all sorts of problems with higher brain functions, but as time progressed, he became closer to where he was before the accident.

So with that in mind, something that would make the worms a little deadlier is to make the first point of Intelligence damage permanent without magical healing, and each point beyond that takes 1 week to heal. Or something along those lines.

Then again, we are assuming that there is something special about the PCs. Just consider how fast they are healing from the sort of things that would put most of us in the hospital for at least a month

In my group, we have two long term campaigns going. In the first one, we don't have anyone wearing anything heavier than a heavily enchanted mithral breastplate. In the other game, an Age of Worms game, we have a couple of Admantine body warforged (consider them to be wearing Admantine full-plate), but everyone else either doesn't wear armor or wears light armor. Also, you may want to take a look at some of the variant rules from Unearthed Arcana. We use the armor as damage reduction and the damage conversion rule. It's turned out very well actually and makes more people think twice about armor