MySinIsPride's page

Things you could do: give your players max hp at each level up to make them less squishy, have them each play one additional character (this will also give your newest player some experience in a different class), hirelings you control (heal bot, tank, etc.), consider using hero points, gestalt, and maybe being overly generous with wands of healing. May also consider making your bad guy's lackies a couple less levels than you would normally build them at.

Fen pretty much answered everything so the only comment I have is in regards to number 2. Burrowing could leave traces depending on your GM or if you're the GM, your style. I had my players encounter a bulette and in the lead up to the fight had them discover rumors about a giant mole tearing up the countryside. However, abilities like earth glide wouldn't because as far as my understanding it's more of a melding with the ground.

Also, monk of the sacred mountain gets an AC bonus for staying in the same spot at the end of your turn. Combine that with decent ability modifiers and a vial of mage armor oil you're sitting pretty while your GM sends those ten guys at you. Kick their ass as they miss you're incredibly high AC with snake fang.

Rod of Splendor?

As part of the Snake Style chain of feats in Ultimate Combat you can attack someone if they miss an attack on you. Take a look at Snake Fang: Ultimate Combat Feats

The Belching Beaver.

*sigh*

See Invisible is a 2nd level spell, doesn't take 3 rounds worth of standard actions to pinpoint a location, and avoids the 50% miss chance from concealment. Furthermore, if the invisible creatures moves outside of your 60' cone during those 3 rounds of detect magic, you're screwed.

So no, you're not at all using a 0th level spell to substitute for see invisibility.

Show of hands, has anyone ever used detect magic, in combat, to successfully attack an invisible foe?

Well now I'm going to just to spite you!

Simple: 'ya'll'!

I polled some of our group's women, getting several snarky answers (I prefer Empress, You may address me as Mistress of all I survey, and Milady de Winter were the better ones.) before all agreed that they had no problem with the list which included 'gals' and 'girls'. All nixed any disrespectful ones, but use them in-game frequently (every letter of the alphabet up to 'u' so far). I also point out that I didn't poll our one twenty-something and 3 of the other four are grandmothers, youngest in her late 40s.

Survey consisted of 4 women with over a century combined play and about 30 years of GMing, taken during a meal at a Chinese buffet with husbands and siblings present for odd comments.

As one who's been watching Futurama on Netflix, the term meatbags has grown on me.

MySinIsPride wrote:

I'm seeing a bunch of conflicting opinions in this thread about targeting a potion (or oil) during an AoO.

The threatening creature gets an AoO against you and can choose to sunder the potion. If making a sunder attempt would provoke an AoO from them, then it does so.

The wording in Drinking a Potion about the vial being able to be targeted is a hold-over from 3.X when the Sunder maneuver was not specifically listed under attack options (options that could be taken with an AoO or in place of a melee attack). Sunder had its own listing and it was not entirely clear. While Sunder is clearly allowed now, the wording in Drink a Potion or Oil and targeting the vial was probably left in because it doesn't really contradict anything.

Initially my thought was that you use your CMB vs the defender's CMD in order to sunder the potion (using the sunder combat maneuver rules), but the text isn't super clear if that's the proper thing to do.

However, in the 3.5 player's handbook it says this (pg 158):
Sundering a Carried or Worn Object: You don’t use an opposed attack roll to damage a carried or worn object. Instead, just make an attack roll against the object’s AC. A carried or worn object’s AC is equal to 10 + its size modifier + the Dexterity modifier of the carrying or wearing character.

I know this is Pathfinder, but Pathfinder was built using 3.5 as its foundation so it warrants looking at the 3.5 rules to gain some amount of perspective on a very non-specific Pathfinder rule about targeting potions during attacks of opportunity.

I haven't run it, but have considered ways to convert it to the Pathfinder system. I will likely use it during at least one gaming session and see how it goes.

I would change the +d8 for a bonus action (which is a 5e thing) to be the cost to perform a Swift Action. I would also add a +d6 or +d8 as a penalty if a player changed their mind. This would represent the, "S%@&, I planned to strike this guy but the Ranger just put an arrow in his skull. Now what?" type mental hesitation which occurs during the chaos of battle.

There have been other threads on this topic and to the best of my knowledge the +1d6 means it stacks.

I'm seeing a bunch of conflicting opinions in this thread about targeting a potion (or oil) during an AoO.

Do you...

A.) Use the sunder rules to target the potion versus the potion drinker's CMD when the AoO is made?
-1A.) If so, this means the potion drinker gets an AoO against you if you don't have Improved Sunder, correct?
B.) Roll a normal attack versus the AC of the potion (13)?
C.) Roll a normal attack versus the attended object rules for the potion, which would make the potion's AC 10 + opponent's DEX modifier + size bonus(+ deflection bonus?)?

Or D.) None of the above. In which case supply your own formula with reasoning why.

It depends largely on the look and feel you want to have for your campaign, but it's not set in stone. High-fantasy usually means the characters are at an epic level compared to their surroundings, or are equally epic to their environment. More wealth means they can purchase bigger and better things. Again, you don't have to follow the gamemastering guide exactly, I'm personally running a 25 pt buy campaign using normal wealth guidelines.

A class only receives the effects listed under itself, not other classes. The Bloodrager pays no attention to what is listed under Oracle.

Works for me. This is what I originally thought, but was probably overthinking it. I couldn’t wrap my head around why black blood would apply different effects to different classes or creatures and various searches for “black blood” just led me to be even more confused.

A problem with threads is that anyone who misreads the question has their misunderstanding re-enforced by other commenters who misread the question the same way. Perhaps if they had a reference that was not an oracle nor bloodrager archetype, they would see that this is not a question about a multiclass oracle-bloodrager.

metatron has the answer

Yes, agreed, the original post should have been worded more precisely.

Oh.

I read "What, if any, of the black blood effects listed on the Oracle are applicable to the Bloodrager?" to be a multiclassing question.

That’s entirely my fault. It made sense in my head, but I failed at properly conveying it in text form.

Thanks to all for the assistance.

Sorry, I probably didn't word it correctly. I'm not necessarily trying to multiclass, I'm trying to figure out if there is a standardized ruling on what having black blood means. I've essentially seen three different examples on what black blood does: one for the bloodrager archetype, one for the oracle, and one for black blood monsters. If we're only expected to obey the ruling listed under the individual class or monster type that's fine, but I've seen in other locations on the forums where someone asked about black blood effects and they're pointed to the oracle as the definitive source for guidance.

I have a question about black blood and its effects on the Bloodrager versus its effects on the Oracle. What, if any, of the black blood effects listed on the Oracle are applicable to the Bloodrager?

For instance, on the Bloodrager archetype is only lists the following, "At 1st level, your blood runs thick with black blood. You are immune to the effects (both beneficial and destructive) of black blood. You have this benefit constantly, even while not bloodraging. When you take damage from a slashing or piercing attack while bloodraging, as an immediate action you can grant your melee attacks the frost weapon special ability for 2 rounds."
Black Blood Bloodrager Archetype

However, for the Oracle it lists this instead, "All black-blooded oracles effectively share the same curse—the curse of black blood. The material affects these oracles physically and mentally, altering both physiology and mystic powers. The blood of a black-blooded oracle actually runs black, and wounds she suffers are infected by her own power and are difficult to heal. She is immune to the effects (both beneficial and destructive) of black blood. Positive and negative energy affect a black-blooded oracle as if she were undead—positive energy harms her, while negative energy heals her (this aspect of the curse has no effect if the oracle is undead). The curse also dulls the oracle’s coordination somewhat, imparting a –4 penalty on all Dexterity-based skill checks. At 5th level, she gains cold resistance 5. This increases to cold resistance 10 at 10th level, and immunity to cold at 15th level."
Black-Blooded Oracle

So would a Black Blood Bloodrager archetype receive all the negatives that the Oracle receives or is the Bloodrager somehow immune or unaffected? I'm specifically asking about the -4 penalty on Dex-based skill checks and magic healing (positive hurts, negative heals).

Also, if the Bloodrager receives all these negatives then why doesn't the Black Blood Bloodrager receive the cold resistance sooner? The oracle gets it at level 5 while the Bloodrager receives it at level 8. It seems to me that if it's an all or nothing deal then the Bloodrager should receive the resistance sooner as well.

Super confused; please help.

So I put this together and it is a complete ripoff of multiple sources with some original tweaks. That said, it is not my intent to offend those I've blatantly plagiarized, but to put online yet another version of the goliath race for people to use, gain inspiration from, or to adopt as a template for their own interpretation of goliaths. Please feel free to rip this apart in an attempt to improve upon it. Total RP is 15.

Goliath - Pathfinder

Goliaths are mountain-dwelling nomads who view themselves as descendants of titans and see life as a grand competition. Their scattered bands have never been major players in the politics of the lowland world, but they have wandered the mountain ranges of the world since the primordials first shaped the peaks and valleys. Tall and massive, goliaths revere the primal power of nature and use it to enhance their own strength.

Strong and enduring as the rock of the mountains where they reside, goliaths live mostly in the little-explored ranges of insert your own world name here. Few people venture into the goliaths' domain, and the goliaths find little reason to leave their high vales for the insidious dangers of the lowlands. However, the natural wanderlust of their kind leads some goliaths to venture down into the lands they gaze over from their mountainsides simply to see what might be there—or, more rarely, to test their mettle by raiding livestock or hunting dangerous monsters.

Goliaths who wander far from home soon find that their great size and talent for combat opens up a world of possibilities among the smaller races of insert your own world name here. A small number of goliath sellswords can be found as far away as insert different name here.

Goliaths tower over even half-giants, standing between 7 and 8 feet tall. Their skin is gray or brown, mottled with darker patches that they believe hint at some aspect of each goliath’s fate or destiny. Their skin is speckled with lithoderms, coin-sized growths of bone that appear like pebbles studding their arms, shoulders, torso, and head. A bony ridge juts over their gleaming blue or green eyes. Male goliaths are bald, and females have dark hair they typically grow long and wear in braids.

Goliaths have life spans comparable to those of humans.

Goliath Racial Traits

(1 RP) +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity. Goliaths are strong and powerful, but not graceful.

(0 RP) Medium Size: Goliaths are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size, but see powerful-build below.

(0 RP) Normal Speed: Goliaths have a base speed is 30 feet.

(2 RP) Darkvision: A goliath can see in the dark up to 60 feet. I ultimately went with Darkvision instead of LLV because of their Titan lineage.

(2 RP) Mountaineer: A goliath has a +2 to climb and survival checks, thanks to their mountain heritage.

(1 RP) Hardy Stock: Goliaths have adapted to the often harsh and wintery climates of their mountain homes and are not affected by environmental cold conditions until temperatures drop below 0° F. This trait confers no additional protection from cold based spell effects.

(1 RP) Altitude Affinity: As the feat.

(2 RP?) Powerful Build: Whenever a goliath is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for CMB, the goliath is treated as large if doing so is advantageous to him. A goliath is also considered to be large when determining whether a creature’s special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect him. A goliath can use weapons designed for a large creature without the -2 penalty. However, his space and reach remain those of a creature of his actual size. If a spell or effect changes the goliath’s size to large or larger, the abilities of the spell or effect override the effects of powerful build.

(1 RP) Intimidating Prowess: As the feat, but only against medium, or smaller, non-goliath humanoids.

(4 RP) Stone's Endurance: You have the stone's endurance power; this power can be activated as a Swift Action once per day.

Stone's Endurance - Goliath Racial Power
Your foes' attacks bounce off your stony hide.
Effect: Once per day you gain DR */- until the end of your next turn.

• Level 1: Gain DR 5/-
  
• Level 10: Improves to DR 10/-
  
• Level 20: Improves to DR 15/-

(1 RP) Weapon Familiarity: Goliaths are proficient with warhammers, greataxes, and greatswords, and treat any weapon with the word “goliath” in its name as a martial weapon (too bad there aren’t any actual goliath-typed weapons… yet).

(0 RP) Languages: Goliaths begin play speaking Common and Gol-Kaa. Goliaths with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Dwarven, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Terran, or Giant.

So all stealth rolls are opposed by perception checks. In this case since the orc failed in his check to perceive your player skulking about you could word the description as, "You slip into the shadows hoping to avoid the orc's fierce gaze. With his attention currently occupied on defending himself from the vicious onslaught of your companions, it appears you maneuver around him unnoticed." Or something like that. Use whatever exists in the environment to rope into your descriptions, use whatever could be distracting the creature to aid you, and use whatever the player has as equipment or abilities to form your statements.

As for city or town descriptions, each location is unique so I tailor my write-ups based on its distinguishing characteristics. Maybe one town is in the middle of an election cycle and the whole town is filled with banners with names painted on them. Maybe another town has been under constant threat so there is a depressed atmosphere among all the people. My players just recently entered into a town which was gearing up for a festival so after they entered I talked about the lively state of things. I rattled off details about a group of drunken guys singing a tavern song as they walked by (one player actually jumped off the wagon and joined them), I spoke about the kids playing in the streets, and also detailed how a group of women approached each of them to put colorful leis around their necks followed by a gentle kiss on their cheeks.

Additionally, why does the gate need to be open? Maybe they have to convince the town militia to let them pass. Maybe the town's in lockdown and they have to sneak in. If the party is well known locally as heroes have people cheer for them as they pass and have a nearby mother shove a baby in a player's arms to kiss its forehead. Lots of options, you just have to think outside the box about what makes the particular location special. Brainstorm a couple ideas and then expound on them.

One thing that I've played with is allowing Profession skills to substitute for multiple other skills but in narrower contexts.

You could roll Profession (Slueth) for instance in place of Diplomacy to gather information but not to impress a Baroness. Likewise you could use it in place of Heal to tell how someone died but not to stop bleeding. Replace perception to methodically analyze a crime scene, but it wouldn't help spot an ambush on the road, etc...

I do something similar with my player by allowing him to substitute his low Ride skill with his higher Acrobatics score to do things like fast dismount and soft fall. More complex ride maneuvers require a Ride check though.

Sounds like a trick for a Dark Naga. They're already LE and having immunity to mind reading helps both keep the cultist from listening in and sounds very Prince of Darkness. Maybe slap the half-fiend template on it and get it some truly outsider/divine power from that and you might be looking pretty spiff man.

These are really great suggestions. I hadn't actually looked at the Dark Naga before because I was looking for a higher CR creature. But I just went and read over its description and it fits perfectly. Thanks for this!

Trying to finalize details on a side plot involving an Asmodeus cult and a reskinned Naga (maybe using the Guardian Naga as a template) which gives birth to reskinned Slugspawn. The idea being the Asmodeus cult is deceived into believing this Naga is a herald or gift from Asmodeus (his sacred animal is a serpent), but the creature is just using them to advance its own goals of total domination. This is where the reskinned Slugspawn come into play.

I'm all for maximizing the fun at my table. That said, if the animal existed within the party for a significant period of time I would treat the animal companion as a team mascot, nothing more.

You have quite a bit of options depending on what direction you want to go. Here's a short list: necromancers, corpse lotus, zuvembie, ostovite, wight, warsworn, carrion golem, festering spirit, shredskin, etc.