Kenny is the type of player that started off playing barbarians, still prefers barbarians, and can play any class as a barbarian. Oftentimes minimally invested in roleplay he perks up in combat and gets really excited about crits even if they're rolled by our opponents. Sometimes especially if they're rolled by our opponents.
He practice rolls: "Practice roll, practice roll, practice roll, practice roll. Real roll! [rolls a crit]". The central limit theorem does not apply to his characters. I've seen this in practice. One time I played his character while he was gone and completely failed until I started practice rolling. Crits galore. If Kenny tries practice rolling with a non-barbarian this also fails.
He often attacks inanimate objects in combat. If we are fighting pirates there's a good chance he's fighting the ship. If we are fighting a bronze golem on a platform suspended by chains above a pit of lava he attacks the chains. When asked why he explains that his character, a former slave, hates chains.
Since he might be moving soon we have been joking that this might finally be the week that he runs a one-shot. He finally did. And it f***ing rocked.
The Rules of the $wag Barbarian one-shot:
- Only barbarians. Level 6. 25 point buy.
- 8th level wealth but the extra 2 levels of wealth can only be spent on luxury items that don't affect combat in any way.
- 3v3 barbarian combat, we rolled randomly before the game to figure out teams.
- Arena combat, no explanation of why we were fighting each other.
How it went:
As we were finishing up our characters Kenny asks me how to calculate the CR of a challenging encounter. I explain that we take the average party level (3 6th level barbarians with a generous point buy = APL roughly 6) and he starts flipping through the bestiary looking for something appropriate. Then he asks how costs scale for magic weapons. We talk about that.
He draws a huge, perfectly symmetrical map that he explains was inspired by Super Bomberman, complete with respawning goblinskull bombs. There are chariots with unkillable horses and ejector seats, ramps, and jump pads. Everything is destructible including boxes on platforms that we later find out have potions of resurrection that you can drink before you die and have an instant resurrect effect. In the middle is the piece de resistance: A ( CR 12 taiga) giant on a bridge with a +10 great sword in its stomach. How we knew there was a great sword in it's stomach I still don't know.
My character, Swagthor the Barbarian (aka Swaggy T an urban/mad dog barbarian mounted archer*) was teamed with 69 Chains (a primal rager covered in gold chains) and another barbarian, Electra Diamond, (played by our paladin) a completely bedazzled invulnerable rager. On the other side were two breaker barbarians and titan mauler who wore a simple loin cloth and carried a great club made out of the entirety of his gold.
Combat was fast paced and fun. Our team tried to kill the giant early on, which led to the primal rager being killed. The invulnerable rager (played by the paladin) tried to heal him by lobbing a resurrection potion at his corpse but rolled a 1. The giant swatted the potion out of the air and gave her the Dikembe Mutembo finger wag. Not in his house. My archer barbarian ended up chased all around the map by two breaker barbarians in the unstoppable chariot before finally being cornered and killed. The dead players took control of the giant and combat reached a crescendo when the breaker barbarians managed to sunder it's spear. The last two barbarians managed fortunate crits that killed the giant before fighting to death for control of the +10 great sword. Presumably the winner went off and started a $wag barbarian kingdom somewhere.
* Technically you can't combine these two archetypes. Kenny's GM rulings were generous and largely uniformed. It turned out that almost all of the barbarians had some kind of minor rules issues.
After much rules learning and careful crafting my PC, Sun "The Cage Potato" Wei, is ready to lead our all monk party at the Ruby Phoenix Tournament.
Since Sun Wei is a Sensei/Drunken Master/Qinggong monk he'll be using his Advice class feature to Inspire Courage as a bard of the same level (11 here). So I thought I'd ask the boards for good martial arts advice that he could impart to the team with each round of Advice he uses.
1. [After compatriot misses an attack or fails to confirm a critical hit] Your Ki is weak! You need to do more Ki lifts.
2. Your so-called kung fu ... is really ... quite pathetic.
3. When you can balance a tack hammer on your head you'll be able to head off your foes with a balanced attack.
For an upcoming one shot (Ruby Phoenix Tournament) we've decided to put together an all monk party. The character I have in mind is a chubby human monk with a lisp and a tendency to stutter, which is why our party is registered in the tournament as the "Five Fifths of Fa-fa-fa-fury".
I'm leaning toward a sensei build but I'm not seeing what I should do with him in combat aside from give my fellows advice. Also, if it helps one of the other players is playing a Zen Archer monk so I'd prefer to stay melee-oriented.
You'd think Paizo would have thought a little bit more before unleashing a dragon that can literally do anything. Our party ran into one today but fortunately we won initiative and were able to kill it before it deleted our user accounts.
Spoiler:
This afternoon a player still newish to the game heard the GM mentioned a psuedodragon and asked what a dragon had to do with sudo. It took a while to explain to her because she had been doing a lot of programming lately. Later this evening I mentioned the psuedodragon to my fiancee and she too immediately jumped to sudo. Ladies be coding.
For a one-shot one of the players has rolled up a three-armed gunslinger 6/alchemist 2. With the help of TWF feats he is shooting five times a round and having a ton of fun surprising people with the third arm.
I'd like to help our (newby) GM create a four armed gunslinger to give the PC a truly memorable duel. It doesn't have to be made using character creation rules, a monster would be fine but I'm hoping for something that will give a fairly optimized 8th level character a run for his money. What would you all suggest?
I'm designing an encounter to take place in the remains of an opera house thirty years after it burnt down.
Backstory:
During their investigation the PCs learn that 240 years prior the city had been a bastion of a heretic faith, whose practices were deemed so foul that a crusade was launched against them by the Order of Immaculate Fury - a sect devoted to the worship of Iomedae. Those who repented were given a quick, merciful death. Those that did not were made to suffer unspeakably in a pit dug in the town square. The entire population of the city was killed except for a small noble family that had been traveling at the time. Centuries later the crusaders still maintain a fortress cathedral and the old town square had been built over many times, most recently with the Theatre Maurou.
Jean Marie Rieux was the last scion of that noble family, who had nursed their hatred for the crusader's descendants through the centuries. The Carnival of the Condemned was partly a retelling of the genocide of his people and partly his revenge. He plotted to seal the doors of the opera house and unleash the horrible things trapped in the pit, touching off an undead plague. The head of the Order of Immaculate Fury, learning of the plot too late to save those in the theatre, decided to burn down the theatre to save the city. The lieutenant in charge decided that any witnesses who identified the War Priests as such be thrown into the fire to share the fate of the damned theatre-goers. The last of these was Marcel Montastruc - the poster artist who is the source of the haunts.
The party will be 6th level at the start of the adventure. I'd like to have at least 3-4 combats and several haunts. Here are my thoughts so far:
- The "horrible things trapped in the pit" should be be a pair of Bodaks (a CR 10 battle but the party has several abilities that make them effective against undead).
- Marcel Montastruc is a ghost (human expert 7), trapped in eternal anguish and confusion over his fate. He can only be set to rest by exposing the crimes of the Order of Immaculate Fury. The Order (LN) knows this and works actively to thwart those seeking to investigate the exact nature of the fire.
- Some of the trapped theatre goers have become wraiths and the previous Prince-Bishop will be an advanced wraith (and identifiable as the Prince-Bishop to those who have seen his portrait).
- Others appear as weaker undead, maybe hordes and hordes of skeletons sheathed in spectral fire.
What do you think? Do the undead I've selected make sense in the context? Are their power levels appropriate? Any suggestions for haunts?
Let's help Paizo gauge interest in an edutainment extension to Pathfinder by suggesting Mathfinder titles! Algebraic!
1. Statistics Revisited
2. Inner Sea Mathematics
3. Induction Proofs Unleashed
4. Algebra, Kingdom of Headaches
5. Manual of the Hyperplanes
6. The Epic Logarithmic Level Handbook
7. Ten to the Power of Seventeen Squared Coins for a Kingdom
8. Ultimate Equations
9. Blood of Angles
10. Seekers of Sequences
11. Graphs of Golarion
Credits:
I contributed 1-3, Matt Thomason 4-7, David Higaki 8-11. This was from the now closed "How are people supposed to 'talk' to Paizo exactly?" thread.
Are there any human towns where goblins are tolerated, perhaps having formed a relationship where the goblins are allowed into the town to take the garbage away?
Where I'm going with this:
I'm writing up a one-shot adventure in which a group of 11 goblins band together to steal 155 gallons of hard cider from 3 taverns on the night before the town's Hard Cider festival.
I'm basing it loosely on Ocean's Eleven and trying to work in as many heist movie tropes as possible. However, I want the idea of open warfare completely off the table. At worst the goblins might use a poison that induces nausea or knock out humans and leave them tied up.
Ideally, the town will be on a hill to allow for a chase scene where the goblins ride an out of control wagon out of town, chased by humans on their terrifying horses, while the real heist takes place in the form of a hot air balloon that escapes while the humans are distracted.
I'd like to put together my first character for PFS this weekend and I'd like that character to be a necromancer with a heart of gold.
I'm imaging him as a brilliant and helpful but entirely lacking the squick factor that others have towards the undead, kind of like a Dr Temperance Brenner from Bones if she had access to necromancy.
Any suggestions on how to stat this character up? Faction choices? Familiars?
Here is a rough draft of my Reference Samurai build that I hope to contribute to the Guide to the Builds. My idea was to build a very standard Samurai (Human, Order of the Warrior) and show how the class features might work together in practice instead of giving an optimized build.
Any advice is welcome, especially from those that have actually played a Samurai. Comments from actual experience with a high level Samurai are more likely to make it into the guide.
I've been batting around ideas for a Spaghetti Western Style Duel - think of the final scene from The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly. What do you guys think?
Setting notes:
This is for a Weird West, Cowboys versus Zombies campaign I'm starting up. Gambling will figure prominently as will dueling. Gambling will feature skills like bluff, sense motive, perception, and sleight of hand.
The deadliness of the duel will be set by the number of "internal" rounds it lasts. A player may only stay in a duel for a number of "internal" rounds equal to his/her character level plus one. Each "internal" round adds +2d6 damage to the eventual winning shot. Each "internal" round the two combatants roll attack rolls at their highest bonus. Each round the combatants decide whether or not to participate in another round. At the start of each round a player may make a Sense Motive (opposed by Bluff) check to get a sense of the relative tally of his opponent. A combatant may forego making a Sense Motive check in favor of an intimidate check where a successful intimidate check gives the opponent a -4 circumstance penalty to Sense Motive and Bluff checks for the next round.
If one quits and reaches for his/her gun before the other then the surviving combatant gets a +4 competence bonus (aka the Cool Hand bonus) to his final tally.
To determine who gets the winning shot sum the following:
The initiative of each combatant, the attack rolls for each round, and the Cool Hand bonus.
Whomever has the higher total fires the winning shot, rolling for damage as normal and adding the additional d6's of damage.
I'm putting together a Cowboys and Zombies game and would like gambling to figure prominently in the gameplay. One scene would involve taking on the BBEG in a high stakes game of poker on his own turf. Instead of just rolling dice I'd like to involve the actual game of poker as well.
I was thinking that the players would be dealt into a game with the GM acting as the dealer and a guest player (with some poker experience) standing in as the BBEG. Skills would come into play as follows:
Profession Gambler: The GM looks over the player's hand, consults a table of poker odds and gives the player an estimate of the expected value of his hand (written on a note).
Bluff/Sense Motive: Opposed checks. Either way the GM looks over the Bluffing player's hand and figures out the value of the hand. If the Sense Motive player wins the opposed skill check he'll get a more or less accurate estimate of the worth of his opponent's hand. If not, he'll get a less or even misleading estimate of the opponent's hand.
Intimidate: Usual use to cause an enemy to become shaken (which will affect Profession Gambler, Bluff, and Sense Motive checks).
Sleight of Hand/Perception: Opposed checks. Success allows a player to draw a card from his sleeve (is dealt another card and can bank an existing card - banking more cards raises the difficulty).
I'll be moving to a new state soon and am thinking that playing some PFS would be a great way to get acquainted with the local gaming scene. I haven't played society before and have a few questions on what type of character would complement a typical PFS group.
1. What niches are typically left uncovered at PFS tables?
2. How often do you find yourself thinking "If only we had a ..."?
3. As a (new to PFS) player how should I divide my resources between being useful in combat and out of combat?
Looking over the sneak attack rules I noticed that while the extra d6's don't get multiplied on a critical hit there's no reason why they wouldn't get multiplied when charging with a lance.
Is it correct that sneak attack damage (assuming you could land it) would be doubled when charging with a lance (or tripled with a lance and spirited charge)?
Bonus question: Suppose a vanished ninja charges with a silenced, invisible horse and the ninja attacks with a lance but the mount makes no attacks of it's own. Would the mount stay invisible (perhaps allowing the ninja to vanish and invisibly wheel around for another charge)?
(Not that I'd ever consider playing such a character but I am admittedly tickled pink by the idea.)
I like dwarves but hate the fact that they are always portrayed as having a cheesy Scottish accent. I've decided that next dwarf I play will have a thick Spanish accent.
Do you all have any suggestions for a Golarian background for Señor Pedro Piedro, El Hacho Negro del las Minas del Sur?
(Loosely translated Peter Stone, the Black Axe of the Mines of the South)
Where is he from?
How can he even be a dwarf and not have a terrible Scottish accent?
I see him as an axe-wielding ranger - any suggestions on how that should look mechanically?
I've had a character concept banging around my head for a while and would like some advise on choosing mechanics that would fit. I'm not looking for an optimized character - the rest of the party isn't all that optimized and I don't want to dominate encounters.
Iosif Baryshev, Ustalov bear calvary. Iosif comes from a small part of Ustalov which has long been under the sway of a powerful cult of necromancers that has replaced most manual labor with undead servitude. Having grown up in this system Iosif has accepted rule by necromancers as a perfectly normal method of governance. To feed the ever growing need for undead fodder even minor infractions are punishable by death and eternal undead servitude. Of course Iosif is a good man and the glaring disconnect between the culture he has accepted and what he feels in his heart has driven him a bit crazy.
Character quotes regarding undead:
(Upon seeing peasants working on a farm) "Interesting! In my country all manual labor has been replaced by necromancy. (trembles and rocks slightly back and forth) So many farms, so happy, so productive."
(Discussing industry back home) "In my country number one industry is necromancy. Number two industry? Protection from rampaging undeads."
(Party is attacked by undead) "Reminds me of the Christmas! Time of traditional uprising of the undeads in my country."
(Speaking of his "friend" the necromancer) "Ivan? He very funny guy! He try kill me in my sleep and raise me as undead servant. Not this time Ivan! Such a kidder."
Until recently Iosif was part of the Ustalav Bear Calvary Regiment and calls his mount Comrade Bearsky. Comrade Bearsky is an escaped circus bear and is smart enough to have learned a number of tricks. Iosif refers to Comrade Bearsky as his lawyer.
Comrade Bearsky:
"With lawyer for bear legal problems not big problem!" Cut to courtroom scene where Iosif stands accused and Comrade Bearsky, wearing a bow tie, stands in as his lawyer. Bearsky rears up and roars at the Judge "Raaaaarrrr!". Judge quickly finds Iosif innocent.
(Speaking of Bearsky's legal prowess) "Can you believe his mom want him to be doctor?! One of finest legal minds in all of Ustalav!"
What do you all recommend for class options? Is Ustalav the right place for a Russian character to be from? I see Iosif as human but can be swayed if another race would fit the Russian flavor particularly well. What weapons would make sense for Russian Bear Cavalry? Is there a rules option that would allow Comrade Bearsky to wear heavy plate barding? Would it make sense to do this instead of a lighter barding? Are there rules that provide for a thematic treatment of vodka that doesn't lead to horrible addiction side effects?
Finally, we are currently at level 11 in RotRL. Other party members are a halfling witch, human oracle (of the heavens), human monk, and goblin paladin (mounted archer). I imagine Iosif fighting using dragoon tactics - charging into battle and then dismounting and fighting next to his bear. For ranged combat I think either a crossbow or some sort of large firearm would be appropriate.
Halfling Witch 11 (flying blaster and arcane support)
Human Oracle 11 (heavens, flying divine support with a side of blasting)
Human Cleric 1/Monk 10 (fast grappler, hard to hit but doesn't hit hard)
Goblin Paladin 11 (mounted archer)
Human Samurai 11 (tanky striker, mounted lancer)
I'm currently playing the Samurai and having lots of fun with the character but I don't think the character would want to be resurrected if/when he falls in battle. Do you guys have any suggestions for a replacement character?
How we work in combat:
In combat we've been doing fairly well. The witch and oracle usually take to the skies and the fast trio of the Samurai, Monk, and Paladin work as a team (Samurai and Monk respectively protected by Shield Other and Sacred Bond cast by the Paladin). The Samurai is usually hitting pretty hard (2H keen katana + critical focus feats + power attack + challenge), the Monk is an effective grappler, and the Paladin is putting out lots of ranged damage (especially against evil enemies).
How we're misfiring out of combat:
The Witch and Oracle have covered the Knowledge skills pretty well and the Monk is a capable scout (stealth + perception). A lack of survival, disable device, and diplomacy has been mildly annoying. It would be a plus (but not required) if the replacement could cover at least one of these skills.
Each character has a pool of 24d6 to assign to his statistics. Before the dice are rolled, the player selects the number of dice to roll for each score, with a minimum of 3d6 for each ability. Once the dice have been assigned, the player rolls each group and totals the result of the three highest dice. For more high-powered games, the GM should increase the total number of dice to 28. This method generates characters of a similar power to the Standard method.
What is the appropriate dice pool to balance a 20 point buy? Would you recommend any changes to the standard dice pool concept instead?
I'm looking at either increasing the number of dice in the pool to 28d6 (following the Paizo prescription), staying at 24d6 and rerolling ones or staying at 24d6 allowing the player to switch out one roll for a six and another for a four.
I've been thinking of running a series of one-shots for our group (to let our hard-working GM sit on the other side of the screen and to let players have a chance to try out new roles and character concepts).
I'd like to emphasize the Order vs Chaos dichotomy and one of the ways I'd like to do so is in character creation, with different attribute generation for Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic characters. All three methods will be loosely based on a 20 point buy.
On a related note, players will have a hero-point type system. At the start of each adventure each PC receives a point that can be spent to affect one roll (saves, attacks and skill checks only).
Lawful:
The player chooses one of three different stat arrays + point buy (all sum to 21 points):
1 great stat: Player starts with one 18 attribute and has four points to spend otherwise.
2 good stats: Player starts with two 16 attributes and has five points to spend otherwise.
3 decent stats: Player starts with three 14 attributes and has six points to spend otherwise.
Hero point: Converts a single d20 roll (friend or foe - saves, attacks and skill checks only) to an 11 after the success of the original roll has been determined. The PC would not necessarily know a priori if an 11 constitutes success or failure.
Neutral:
Attributes are decided by a 20 point buy.
Hero point: Player can spend his hero point to gain a +4 bonus on a single save, attack roll or skill check or force an enemy to take a -4 penalty on a singlesave, attack roll or skill check.
Chaotic:
The player is given a 24d6 dice pool.
Hero point: Before rolling one save, attack or skill check the player can elect to spend his hero point to roll d20s and take the best (n.b., can not be used on rolls made by other PCs or by the GM).
Finally I'll have three traits that allow a PC (before any dice are rolled) to choose his generation method and hero point style.
Traits:
Somewhat Orderly - Neutral or chaotic character uses the Lawful stat generation and hero point system.
A Little Balanced - Lawful or chaotic character uses the Neutral stat generation and hero point system.
Touch of Chaos - Lawful or neutral character uses the Chaotic stat generation and hero point system.
Some specific questions:
Is an additional point in the point buy system fair for a lawful character having a slight restriction on stat choices?
How does the 24d6 dice pool compare to a 20 point stat buy?
Do the different hero point styles seem balanced?
Any suggestions on making the system more balanced and fun to play would be welcome.
I had been wondering what benefit could be gained from the Second Chance (SC) and Improved Second Chance (ISC) feats in the APG.
So I've worked out the DPR formulae for the feats and applied the calculations to an 11th level version of Falchion Fred (assuming he had an additional +1 to attack and the relevant feats but no other differences from 10th lvl). So he's got a +21/+16/+11 to hit and 2d4+25 for damage.
DPR vs AC table:
Here's a table that gives expected DPR as a function of AC of the opponent (percentages show
percent increase/decrease over DPR w/o SC, ISC):
So the lesson here is that SC and ISC are of little or no help when an opponent has a low AC relative to Falchion Fred's bonuses to hit. When dealing with an opponent with a very high AC or against an opponent that can effectively debuff Falchion Fred's attack bonus then SC and ISC allow him to stay relevant in the fight.
The formulas to calculate the SC and ISC:
DPR1,2,3: average DPR for 1st/2nd/3rd attack (standard calc from DPR olympics thread)
DPR2-, DPR3-: DPR for 2nd/3rd attack calculated against an AC 5 higher
LH1 - likelihood of 1st attack landing
Second Chance DPR = DPR1*(2 - LH1) + (DPR2 + DPR3)*LH1
Im Second Chance DPR = DPR1*(2 - LH1) + (DPR2 + DPR3)*LH1 + (DPR2- + DPR3-)*(1-LH1)
In conclusion, I likely wouldn't build a fighter around SC and ISC unless I expect my to hit bonuses to be low (say using Power Attack at the same time as Combat Expertise) or had a very specific reason why it is important that the first attack hit (say firing a heavily enchanted arrow). That being said I wouldn't rule out the notion that there are other builds that might get very good use out of SC/ISC.
Rise of the Runelords group is looking to pickup another player ASAP after losing a player to changed employment circumstances. We're currently near the end of Hook Mountain Massacre and the party composition is as follows (all currently at 9th level):
Human Samurai (melee specialist)
Goblin Paladin of Saranae (archer)
Half-Elf Oracle (of the Heavens, divine support)
Halfling Witch (elements patron, arcane utility and fire support)
- The median age of our group is about 30
- Depending on the day will split from favoring RP and combat equally to having an emphasis on the latter.
- We play near Colorado Bvld and the I25, every other Thursday night 6-11p.
If you're interested post here and/or private message me and we'll hash out the details.
The 8th level Scout ability (skirmisher) states that when a scout moves more than 10 feet in a round and makes an attack action the attack deals sneak attack damage as if the target were flat-footed.
It doesn't specify that the attack need be a melee attack. So is it the case that an 8th level scout rogue could move 15 feet and then fire off an arrow from his short bow and get sneak attack damage if it hits?
During last night's session my Samurai's horse (animal companion) was Coup de Grace'd by trolls. I'm putting together a new mount and would like some help in choosing feats especially.
My samurai tends to fight on foot with a katana in hand although a number of his feats benefit him while lancing on horseback (notably power attack and furious focus). His class features also give him the ability to work as a mounted archer.
I'm looking for a horse that I can ride into battle as a lancer, dismount and fight alongside with my katana. What do you guys suggest?
I've seen a number of threads discussing how to put together an optimal party for whichever AP. I enjoy these because I like thinking about how the different character classes can work together and how this would work out in a roleplaying context.
However, in practice our games take on a (much welcomed) Darwinian feel of survival of the fittest. Structural flaws in the party are solved (and occasionally created) by PC death and the introduction of replacement characters (supposing the dead PC isn't raised or reincarnated).
What are your experiences? Has your party changed substantially over time or do the player characters remain the same?
First iteration:
When I joined the party was almost entirely melee oriented
and combats were fun but clustery-effy kind of affairs where everyone argued over the best squares to beat the enemy from.
Second iteration:
The inquisitor retired when the corresponding player moved and the battle cleric, rogue and druid all died within a few sessions of the inquisitor leaving (twice for the rogue). The rogue was reincarnated (twice), an archer ranger joined and the druid and battle cleric replaced leaving us with
after his reincarnation the rogue took a keen interest in survival (for RP reasons) and combat was completely changed. The barbarian and samurai formed a tough front line while the other PCs generally stayed back and engaged in (mundane or magical) ranged combat or supported the frontline with spells.
Current iteration:
A few sessions ago the barbarian died (impressively) and has been replaced by a mounted archer paladin while the player with the ranger is moving, leaving us with
and now the samurai acts more as a tank (occupying space along with his horse to keep enemies at bay) and the remainder of the party fights almost entirely as a ranged unit (the rogue is back to flanking from time to time), a complete turn around from how we played when I started.
All of the iterations have been fun and the surviving characters have markedly changed their approach to combat to adjust to their changing experiences and the party around them.
I joined a continuing Rise of the Runelords campaign a bit late (at the beginning of The Skinsaw Murders) and another player joined much later (at the beginning of the Hook Mountain Massacre). The latter player's character is based off an NPC.
Our GM is a pretty busy/talented/handsome guy and doesn't have time to put together summaries of what we should know. I'd like to have something to this effect since we game every other week and if we miss a session then no one remembers the plot all that clearly when we meet again.
Are there any "What the players should know after book XXX" resources out there? I don't want any spoilers for the book I'm in but it would be good to have a summary on hand so that I can appreciate the over-arcing plot elements when they come up.
Another player and I have joined the campaign late (I joined not long before the battle in the clock tower, the other player joined at the start of the third book, Hook Mountain Massacre). Both of us would like more background on the parts of the AP that we've missed and our GM has been too busy to fill us in.
Would it spoil the third book to read the first and second books of the AP? Are there any online resources for players so that we know at least the plot and who the (non-player) characters are?
Our group is currently in a state of flux and are trying to figure out if an in-combat healer is called for. We're at seventh level and I'm wondering if a Paladin can be an effective channeling + LOH healer. The party has six PCs so channeling seems to be the most effective route for healing and it would help if the healer could contribute with DPR as well.
1 Pt Blank Shot
1H Rapid shot
1P Precise Shot (bonus feat from Divine Hunter)
3 Power Attack
5 Selective Channel
7 Many Shot (or Extra Channel)
I'm hoping to have a reasonably effective archer that can channel (spending two uses of LoH) to heal the whole party or use Lay on Hands on specific targets when needed and plugging away with arrows otherwise. I put in Power Attack for flexibility when forced into melee but if someone has a better option I'll look into it.
I've been playing a LN samurai in a campaign that has proved (to everyone, including the GM) surprisingly lethal. So I always keep another character concept in my back pocket just in case.
For my next character I'd like to play the exact opposite of my samurai - a selfish but talented warrior with entertaining and bizarre personality quirks.
What do you guys think would be the Golarion equivalent to Sterling Malory Archer (ISIS agent aka "Duchess"). What class(es) are the best fit? How should he be statted out and where should skill ranks be allocated? What about alignment? I've been thinking Cavalier Oot Cockatrice but can see this going a number of different directions (ninja?). Is there a Cha-based combat build that doesn't have a moral code?
1. No original posts please.
2. One quote per poster.
3. Stick with quotes from existing posts of the 'Creating magical item for the party + small fee on the work = players uprorar?' thread. Maybe once we get to 1500+ posts here we'll create a meta-meta thread.
My submission:
Humphrey Boggard wrote:
beej67 wrote:
Humphrey Boggard wrote:
Mistwalker wrote:
Humphrey Boggard wrote:
we haven't had any new ideas here since the high 900's.
Hey, I'm partial to the math that I presented and that got promptly ignored in the 1200s!
PS working on that 2000+ job.
Are you sure it's not the same as QuantumSteve's calculation in the high 900s (link please?).
Also, you should know by now that sensible posts get ignored around here. You have to call someone out by name and make it really inflammatory. Even then they'll respond as though they hadn't read beyond the first two lines. Then your job is to respond with something that you've posted earlier in the thread. And so on until the internet explodes.
I'm having a reasonably good time reposting the same thing that Selgard keeps dodging, wondering how he'll dodge it next.
Also, Animal Farm.
I'm thinking of putting together a meta-thread called "What do you think are the ten best posts of the 'Creating magical item for the party + small fee on the work = players uprorar?' thread" thread. Of course probably eight of the top ten comments were posted by me.
edit: Also, Khmer Rouge! Selgard do you not hear my siren song?
edit^2: This has to be at least the twelfth or thirteenth shark this thread has jumped.
edit: Apologies to the mods in advance. Much love to you guys, hopefully you are enjoying the joke that is the out of control crafting thread as well.
edit^2: Brought to you by the guy that runs the Fantasy Fantasy Football league at work (in which you put together a team of your favorite Fantasy Football Managers and are scored on how well their fantasy teams do).
In my game I've yet to see anyone use Aid Another in combat (fairly common for skill checks out of combat though) largely, I believe, because of the action economy of it. It never makes sense to spend your standard action helping someone else get a +2 to AT or AC.
However, reading through the APG the Bodyguard feat allows a PC to spend attacks of opportunity (AoOs) instead. UC has a feat, Swift Aid, that allows a PC to grant a +1 to AC or AT as a swift action. Also, in the APG the Cavalier class has an Order (of the Dragon) that grants another +1 to Aid Another (plus another every six levels after second) and an archetype (Honor Guard) that gives another +1 when used to boost someone else's AC.
So I'm thinking of putting together a human Honor Guard Cavalier (Order of the Dragon) with the following feats:
1 Combat Reflexes
1C Tactician -> Precise Strike
1H Iron Will
3 Power Attack
3C Honor Guard -> Bodyguard
5 Furious Focus
6C Swift Aid
7 Gr Iron Will
With a 14 DEX he's looking at giving a +4 bonus to AC to an adjacent ally against a specific attack three times a round using AoOs (+5 at 8th level) and giving a +2 to AT as a swift action to an ally for their first attack in addition to his usual full attack. He should do solid if not spectacular damage with his glaive or great sword while buffing his fellow melee-ers in ways that are complementary to those of a bard or cleric.
* All of this was inspired by the fact that we have a barbarian with tons and tons of HP but an AC so low that enemies have trouble not hitting him so after a certain point he becomes a huge draw of in combat healing (no bueno!). I got to thinking about what an ideal cohort for him would look like and decided that this might be a fun character to play.
In a world in which death can be a minor affliction how are property rights resolved for the recently deceased (or undeceased)?
Case 1: If the party defeats an undead nobleman who leaves behind neither a will nor next of kin, can the party claim his lands (perhaps via some sort of probate hearing)?
Case 2: If an NPC dies and has his property claimed via some legal mechanism, can he file for the return of his property upon his resurrection? What about reincarnation? Do all races have equal protection under the law? What is the legal impact of spells like Speak with Dead?
Also, do organizations created strictly for nefarious purposes have property rights? Do legal establishments protect, say evil cults worshipping forgotten gods? Or can a cultist have their property confiscated simply for being a member of a criminal organization?
We've got a large party that's primarily melee focused. Whenever we're dungeon-delving we tend to get chewed up in constricted spaces. What can we do tactically to reposition in tight situations? How should we be approaching going through doors in dungeons?
The party is composed of the following 6th level characters:
Human Barbarian (always uses axe)
Human Samurai (can switch between katana and a two-handed weapon, usually pole arms)
Halfling Rogue (melee specialist)
Halfling Witch (really really enjoys blasting)
Half-elf Druid (rarely casts in combat, prefers to melee) + bear companion (size M)
Half-Orc Cleric (domains Strength and Glory, two-handed with greatsword but low AC and tends not to last long in combat, usually turning to channeling as fight wears on)
Dwarven Inquisitor (again melee build)
The Dwarven Inquisitor often can't make it due to work-concerns so hopefully you guys have don't have too many inquisitor-only strategies. None of the PCs are likely to spend more than a feat or two becoming proficient in ranged attacks unless the case is exceedingly compelling.
Usually the Inquisitor uses a spell (or power? I'm not sure which) to peer through doors but we make so much racket that whatever is on the other side almost always knows that something is coming and has time to prepare. Then we all try to charge through the door with only one or two of us getting through, getting our behinds handed to us in the process. The rest of the PCs sit around getting bored at this point, plotting to move up in the marching order so that they can get beat up next time instead of just sitting around.
