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I’m excited for an update. I hope they take the opportunity to consolidate the rules, make them easy to reference and read, and I’m always excited to see Paizo’s ideas on their setting.
NFT… Non-Functioning Thoughts. Give it a rest, bruv.
Actually the most unpopular candidate would be kicked out of the country, slowly leading to cleaning up the government. I figure officals would either become more ethical (at least hide the skeletons in their closet better) or become ethical enough not to win the vote. Maybe we could do this on a state basis and every four years on a national basis. In Utah, for example, we had a fellow lie about his schooling to get into the Sheriffs department and was fired for this. Later, he managed to get into a state administrative position where he was using the state to reimburse erroneous travel expenses which totaled several thousand dollars. In my opinion, a pretty good candidate to ostracize. If we get rid of him, other members of society would learn from his mistake or suffer the same consequence. Govenors and other high ranking politicians would almost be forced to represent the people rather than pushing their own agendas, for fear of being ostracized. As it stands, politicians only represent the people for the months leading up to an election or reelection. JP
Democracy is based off of the ancient Athenan form of government. The Athenan people didn't get to vote for their leaders, though, they voted for who to ostracize. The most UNpopular candidate was banished from the town for 10 or more years. I vote to bring back the "Ostraka" vote and at least improve society by removing the worst candidates, rather than voting for someone you don't like, simply because they aren't as bad as the other person. JP
I'm actually really interested in the Pathfinder Cleric class, except that I'm currently the DM in the Pathfinder arc. Another group is playing the Demonweb pits, 3.5, and I'm a cleric of Athena and was desperately trying to get them to make the change to the (I forget the name) Emit Positive Energy ability from Pathfinder. Currently, I cast about 2 spells in combat, then spend the remainder of combat keeping my players away from the negatives. With Pathfinder, I could spend a Turn action to send out a 30' radius of positive energy that heals everybody (even living villains) for a substantial amount. So rather than spending several turns healing, or one of my meager amount of 5th level spells to Mass Heal, I could take a single turn, heal a bit of the whole party and get back to casting my awesome cleric attack spells. I'm just interested because the cleric gains the ability to use spells outside of healing magic. Also, from a DM point of view, and NPC cleric with this ability is much easier to manage. You just need to watch how often their turn ability is used, rather than going through the usual routine of lvl 1 healing, lvl 2 healing, etc. A Pathfinder NPC Cleric is an easy alternative to twisting a friends arm, unless you know jiu-jitsu or some other deadly art. JP
Speaking of WOW... I just saw the new clips for WOW's new expansion, World of World of Warcraft. Apparently in this one you get to play a computer geek in his parent's basement playing World of Warcraft. It looks EXCELLENT! World of World of Warcraft XD!!!
Cheese and Crackers this post really took off! Ok, now WOTC's leprachaun contacted me earlier today and said the real reason for 4E is none of that corporate mumbo jumbo, it's because one of their lead designers cast his net into the sea for ideas for the day. He only casts his net three times, though, praying that the sea will provide him with what he needs. His net became stuck each time and each time he was forced to swim down to pull it up. Well the third he pulled out lamp that released a large and terrible djinn. The djinn threatened the designer something fierce, but the executive begged for his life. The djinn was dimwitted, though, and the designer managed trick the djinn back into the lamp. Long story short, the designer decided never to go fishing again... THE END. *sigh* That's my story and I'm sticking to it! JP
Maybe hostility is coming from the populaces' desire for a Rolemaster supplement... "Your dice shows a 63, but judging by the angle of the shadows, the sun is past it's zenith so we will go off of the After Noon charts. So adding your strength to the second exponent, subtracting 16 times your unpleasantness factor all divided by 4C... comes to the conclusion that you miss... horribly... causing you to trip... and land on a rock... a sharp one... which punctures your kidney and you die like a sobbing baby in 2d4 rounds." Yes, the people could riot over Rolemaster. JP
Ever since Wizards decided not to go OGL with 4E, I think the RPG industry has gotten tense and preparing for a fight or change, which also causes tension. What direction is the market going to turn? Stick with 3E or switch to 4E or lose interest altogether? It's actually an exciting point for role-playing. FantasyCraft is supposed to come out whenever they schedule it. The only beef I have with Paizo is that they used to pick on me back in junior high and now I'm a lot bigger and I think it's time for a rematch! XD JP
I heard another reason for a recent influx of Lovecraft is because it is now an open license. I've only heard this, but it makes sense. I knew August Derleth had the rights after Lovecraft, but I don't know of anybody else picking up the license so I figured it was just a matter of time before it became open domain. JP
I enjoy the Journals and other articles in the back of the books the most. They may not be the most well written or organized articles I have seen come from Paizo, but each article fleshes out and molds Golarion just a bit more. By describing the world from a first hand perspective, you absorb details that are harder to get through flat descriptions. The 2 Journals encountering the Shoanti gave a lot of information about the culture, practices, and society of the group that I wouldn't have deemed important unless I had been shown. Later articles included more raw info on the Shoanti and by that point my interest was peeked. I first encountered the Journals style narrative for describing the campaign setting back in the 2E Darksun setting and that still paints a better picture for me that just telling me what's in the picture. I enjoy history and I can get a lot of information out of history books, but for a fantasy setting I have a hard time absorbing much from a fantasy 'history' book (i.e. Silmarillion [did I butcher the name?]). A narrative (The Hobbit) provides a rock for my imagination to build from and later explore the history behind the setting. My problems with the Journals come from a feeling of just blindly being dragged by the nose. Where is he going? This wasn't really answered until you find out that he just blindly follows his compass. Is he exploring or adventuring? At first it seemed like he was exploring mysterious sites, but now he just seems to be trying to survive each encounter (adventure). What about the other inconsistancies? The whole investigation of the ioun stone was interesting, but just ended up being a 'regular' magic item. His behaviour seems to change gradually in the stories, this could be because his character is developing, but it feels more like he is just 'being developed.' And is he writing in a journal about the days events or is this a first hand story? Personally, I imagined the Pathfinder Society to be a loose group of intellectuals who investigate and research various mysteries in the world, not foolhardy adventurers who blindly walk into disaster after disaster just because they are following the direction on the compass. I hope the criticism is helpful. JP
The purpose of the updated core classes was to make them not so obsolete, so that people will want to play them past certain levels, I believe it states that in the Alpha rules (somewhere in the back, probably XD). I understand your problem though, my gaming group almost didn't want to play the Alpha rules simply because they have so many options from other books. They've changed their minds since then, but I offered to allow them to pick any of the classes out of the millions! and we would sit down and change it into a Pathfinder-esque character class. The changes PFRPG makes are pretty clear. Skills would need to be reworked and hit dice on wizards and rogues go up. I would simply choose a similar character class after that and compare the abilities gained per level between the 2 classes. The fighter is going to have a ton more abilities than any 3.5 class or prestige class, so I would weigh the benefits and add more to the prestige class, a simple added feat would be the easiest. Magic using classes shouldn't be too difficult either because the core classes already out provide excellent examples on which direction to persue. Home Rules will probably increase quite a bit because it will either take Paizo time to create more or they'll have their hands tied with copyright laws.
Thanks, I would never have figured that one out!
Between the text, map on pg 62 (Skinsaw), and the picture of Magnimar on pg 65, I am confused on some of the districts in Magnimar. 1st - Arvensoar - the text description speaks of a huge tower that looms over 100' over the top of the cliff. The map numbers this location next to the coast, but doesn't have it represented. I believe the picture shows it in the backround about where area 12 (Lowcleft) is. It makes sense to switch them the 2, but I'm not sure. 2nd - Dockway - I'm pretty sure area 10 and 11 have been swapped because 11 (Dockway) is described with the shouts of fishermen and blasted by the salt (not to mention DOCKway). Is the Bazaar of Sails further inland? 3rd - Rag's End - the map shows it located next to the wall and inland. The text describes it as a "maze-like knot of alleys" which looks like the darkened area 15 on the map. The buildings in area 15 look more randomly placed and closer together, but the picture shows this area as taller, prominent buildings. I'd appreciate any help, even if it's pointing to the right messageboard.
That's a good point, the imps are a lot stronger than the waymen of Perdido Station. Not quite like werewolves rampaging through the city who would be more feral and chaotic. I imagine, though, that the imps would either live off of the society, whether symbiotic or parasitic. They might threaten and bully lone commoners, stealing their food and gold. They might join or lead underground groups, furthering evil plots. Whatever their motives, attacking and killing for the sole pleasure of it isn't trait that lasts long in the city, which would attract attention of the authorities. Even evil authorities want the crowds at ease and passive. Exploring the interactions between these groups in Korvosa, both evil and good, would be interesting.
My friends and I were looking at the RotR player's guide and noticed a similar discrepancy in the adventurer description of the paladin. The description states that some paladins (and ex-paladins) who are not devoted to a deity find themselves in the ranks of the hellknights. A description of the hellknights states they bind devils into their service and use 'evil' methods such as torture. We had a hard time grasping the game concept of the paladin fitting into this description. The Crimson Throne player's guide clarified this a bit more. I'm assuming (yes, I know what that makes me) Paizo is intending on this campaign setting be loosely use the alignment system. Magnimar and Korvosa have all sets of alignments and factions that oppose each other, but somehow seem to 'live' with each other. In a loose system, just because somebody is neutral evil doesn't mean that they intend to kill or enslave the city, they just have evil (selfish) tendencies and will act accordingly. Maybe a better example is the idea of an evil party, PC or NPC. A CE character in that party doesn't have to murder the rest of the evil party because he is CE, he might realize safety in numbers or the benefit of others working towards a similar goal. A LE character and LG character may disagree on methods, but both agree that order needs to be upheld. As for the imps in Korvosa, they sound familiar to creatures in Perdido Street Station (China Mieville). Dragon and Dungeon magazines had several articles about this author so I finally picked up the book. Paraphrasing, there are imp-like creatures that fly around swearing, copulating, and defecating on the streets below. In D&D these creatures are probably evil (selfish), but they know how to survive in a city of evil beings and good beings trying to kill them. I recommend the book if you don't mind tainting 'Epic Pooh' fantasy forever.
Hmm... I guess the cover has changed since August! She looks more like a paladin and less like a half-celestial cleric of Lamashtu, but maybe that's a red claw under those gleaming white gauntlets. I haven't begun playing RotR, yet (I'm itching too), but these are some of the best adventure/material/stories that I have read. Thinking about more adventures revealing Golarion has me salivating profusely, but, my pocketbook is hurting pretty badly. The artwork and writing talent in Pathfinder is astounding and deserves every penny if not more for a glimpse at it's artistry, but (that ugly word again), being a frugal gamer I am going to have to think twice. Any word on whether Crimson Tide is going to 4E in June or sticking with 3.5? Alas, if I could overthrow Hasbro and their corporate lackeys, only then could I ascend to the ruling caste, and eat the sweet fruit of others toils. Thank you for reading my bitter, passive aggression.
I haven't seen the Dragon magazines that had the Darksun information in it, but athas.org had a lot of free information that seemed to be pretty well put together. They got rid of defilers and preservers and just gave wizards as a whole the option to do either or with social repurcussions for using too much defiling magic. I think they also got rid of the 3-24 stats, stating that because the attribute bonuses are so easy to get in 3.0-3.5, that the new Darksun stats are simply 3-18. Come to think of it... most of the rules on athas.org were for 3.0
As the party's main divine caster, that limits you quite a bit, especially as a druid. You'll need to 'prepare' the Cures just in case you need them, and dropping them for Natures Ally if you want. Because of this, maybe you want to focus your feats on improving your healing or summons because healing is your primary concern for the party, summons a second (whether you want to use it or not), and miscellaneous buffs or attacks third. Depending on what level you start out at and how you feel about combat, Wild Shape would be a good offensive option. The Nature's Warrior out of complete warrior offers some good additions to your Wild Shape if you're intending on fighting or merely defending yourself. It sounds like a difficult class to play trying to fill the clerics role and in a SF environment. If nothing else, I imagine spaceships have rodents and vermin as well...
It looks like you're on the right path. d20 is a pretty rigid system meant to keep the chaotic character creation and level gaining of 1st and 2nd edition D&D under tight reign. The major downfall of that system is character levels and experience = kill monster. I like what you did with hit points/damage reduction and character skills. I noticed the Educated feat... do you have more feats like this to open up more skill groups? On the feats, it looks like you added a few to provide more options to combat (i.e. parry, riposte). Have you changed much more with combat? How have the playtests gone? I didn't see anything on character advancement. Are you intending on keeping the same xp guidelines? I suggest breaking down the xp needed to gain a level so an enemy defeated earns the same amount no matter what, rather than adding roleplaying xp options on a matrix. Maybe a gradual xp increase per level rather than about double. Oh! Watch out for player exploitation of the skill = money system. I suppose if you're the designer you can slap players that take a single point in EVERYTHING just to rake in more money. Setting seems to take a large role in your game. Maybe you could add a couple of feats that allow characters to tie themselves into that setting, like nobleborn, political favor, or So-and-soburg contacts. When I get more time I'll take a closer look at the setting. Good Luck!
Chronocles of the Neomyth almost reminded me of Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth, similar name and what looks like a designer's desire to create something better than D20. I'll have to take a closer look at this, but my first reaction is creation needs a strong guiding hand and an online, co-op campaign may not have that. Aria was a d10 system similar to the World of Darkness stuff (they even thank Mark Rein*Hagen for support and advice), but the main idea is to create a world/setting/idea that is created by both the game masters and the players and interactively play through many years in game time. I believe the game mentions somewhere that rather than focus on a sole character or adventurer, you can pay attention a lineage. The setting also becomes a cooperative character as time passes and wars, plagues and such ravage, revolts happen and government changes because all of this changes the setting and affects the people within that. As an example, a paladin type character grows up serving his king in a monarchy, but 20 years down the road, the king's nephew poisons the royal family and sets up a dictatorship almost overnight. It's pretty safe to say that the paladin's offspring are going to grow up very different from their parent. This is my #1 favorite game that I have never completely played. The biggest reason for this because 2 heads (or 3 or 4) are not always better than 1. My players and I could never seem to fully agree on what type of setting, area, or peoples we would have populate our world. My last campaign, though, I used a hybrid form of Aria and D&D in which the heroes rescued a small village, then aided this village in growth and development in an interactive way that I alone could not have done. This inspired the heroes to interact more fully with the environment as a whole and the village grew as they grew. There were flaws with this system, I didn't feel the time table vs the growth was realistic, but the players liked it and started to complain when adventures took them too far away from "home." In the future I would like to do something like this, but in a 50 to 100 year time period to set up a prequal feeling for the campaign. If you're interested in combining the d20 system with another system, I would say break down the d20 system first. Characters, character creation, and character advancement are some of the most time consuming things I've run across when trying this, with combat being the brutal judge on how well you do. If combat is not fun, then the game breaks down into a group of friends telling stories to each other. I've never fully converted 2 systems, but theoretically, the math is not that much different. A 16 in STR could be converted to a 4 in a five point system or an 8 in a 10 point system, with 17 being nothing different.
First off, my experience with psionics is pretty limited. I've just skimmed through the Expanded and started making a character with basic backround knowledge from 1st and 2nd edition. My limited opinion from that is that the psion had a very limited arsenal of powers in the combat area (which was stated earlier) and the psion seemed to play more of a "filler" role like a bard, or druid and less of a support class like the cleric or wizard. Choices for powers seemed to lean towards physical augmentation, divinition, minor healing (is it only personal healing???), small selection of nukem (disintingrate, but single target), and a couple utility powers like levitate and fly. The wizards spell choices tend to be more open ended and party inclusive or helpful for the entire group. A psion's, on the other hand, are limited to a specific flavor (like the bard's or druid's). If the designer's could have fathomed a fireball, lightning strike, or detect magic being generated from someone's mind, I'm sure they would have included it in the list of powers. With that said, if you're going straight combat, the sorcerer is the obvious choice because the wizard's utility is no longer needed, but that depends on the campaign. A series of games in which a psion's divinity helps with captured villains or there is a possibility of fighting monsters toe to toe with augmentation, I would love to play the psion, but I imagine filling the utility role of a wizard would difficult and stressful for the player and the party. Same goes for a druid, though, poor choice over a cleric or the main spellcaster, especially in a dungeon. Other points I'm not sure on... do psion's get abilities to use scrolls or similar items? Do they need to pick up Use Magic Items to use wands and such? In the end, I don't believe the psion and the wizard really compare on the same level unless the psion's spell repetiore were to increase. Unfortunately people are afraid of 'learning a new system' (powers = spells, it's not that difficult to understand) and game/adventure designers don't want to take on psionics, dnd's bastard child. As a side note to "Fixing the Wizard," having a psion in the party as a support caster alongside the wizard would be fun, maybe replace the cleric if they can heal the party (I still don't know :P). This might prevent the wizard from having to blow all of his top tier spells and needing to rest after each fight, especially if these 2 casters work together... just a thought.
This is a great thread and I think I have learned more on how to create a better wizard from people's complaints than how to fix the core class. My Opinion: Every class is succeptible to my #1 flaw in the game and that is making some bad character growth choices (i.e. skills, feats, spells) and playing a "crippled" character because of that. The wizard just happens to be a little more crippled because a bad choice in spells (for the day or for your spellbook) leaves them out the money and essentially with wasted character space (in a min/max society [which is where adventures seems to be heading]). My Solution: Let your players "revamp" their characters every couple of levels, say 6 or so. Sometimes fighters grab feats like combat reflexes and don't need them or their specialized weapon is destroyed or they find a better weapon. Rogues don't alway have the option to use mobility in a dungeon setting or you happen to play Expidition to Castle Ravenloft (try diplomacy on a zombie???). If a wizard had the chance to reselect his skills, feats, and spells at critical juntions in a campaign, that might help them to stop wishing that the next monster would put them out of their misery so they can make a new character. Aside from this, the wizard needs the most feedback from the dm to determine what type of spellcaster is going to be the most usefull in the campaign.
I was seriously considering this a day or two ago. It makes it tough with straight class and hope to prestige class relatively early. Using the double weapon, I thought, would be a good choice because you only have one weapon focus and only one weapon to draw. I was thinking either dwarf or half-orc so that way I could multi-class with fighter and not have any penalties (I was looking for higher level barbarian abilities). The only thing I didn't really care for is being able to rage 5/day, I mean how many encounters can I muscle my way through. Having a couple levels in fighter really bumps up the effectiveness of the barbarian, though. The barbarian I was going to play would be a CN 1/2Orc Barbarian/Fighter(however many)/Eye of Gruumsh with leadership because I wanted to really stir things up, but my DM said no CN characters for this campaign *shakes fist at the heavens*... but I'm still partial towards a halfling barbarian for fun. Side note... I thought you played the wizards... your advice on the fighter vs wizard board was really interesting.
I have never done this on an adventure path, but I have switched off DMs before and I am currently a player in the Castle Ravenloft adventure that I ran back in 2nd edition. The problem with the campaign in which we switched is I was running them out of Dungeon and thus required less effort so I ended up doing more of the DMing. This was fine until my Paladin was ripped to ribbons and I decided to play the wizard (bad choice for a DM character[spell lookups kill the sense of urgency]), and near 9th level I was left hanging because the other guys thought it was 'my' campaign now. I enjoyed it in the beginning because it made the campaign a creatively group effort and each of our styles led to a flavor that I could never have come up with. Also, I enjoy watching my character grow as much as I enjoy running the game, but seperately. The game with Ravenloft isn't bad at all because Wizards switched it up alot from the old game. A lot of old history is the same and I enjoy viewing it from a different angle. Maybe watching the way the other DM plays a couple NPCs will change your perspective on how you play the same ones... Have fun with it, I've been thinking about doing the same thing for a while now.
Hmmm... sorry if this posts twice or something similar... For such an epic campaign, I believe that you need to have the ending go out with a bang. To do this I suggest the adventurers start trying to persuade 'factions' over to their side. You said earlier that the adventurers may fight Iggwilv with the help of Iuz and/or Grazzt, but what about the common people involved or affected by Iggwilv. People that would rather die than have their loved ones killed or enslaved by demonic hordes. This type of thing might give the dwarf and elf a chance to shine if their people or allies aid in the final battle. Even if you don't want to end the campaign with a large battle, having these factions in the background for some enormous spell to smash them would be pretty epic. Also, remember the Grazzt and Iuz are probably plotting something to give them the upper hand after a confrontation with Iggwilv. I wouldn't imagine them spending much more than 50% of their energy in a direct battle. Good luck with your campaign. My current one is starting to fizzle, but we played for almost 2 years and just reached lvl 11. At the moment I am trying to find a good break point in case we want to pick it up sometime.
I recently started to play Go. Fun game with very simple rules and since no 2 games are the same, an incomprehensible amount of open strategy.
Thanks ^^
Not really knowing what the ruling agency is like, I would assume that any sort of undead ruler/s would have all of the time in the world and thus be very patient in planning and manipulating.
Kiss the monkey :(|)
My first suggestion would be to play through a few games first, but it sounds like you still have a lot of that 'creative spark' bursting out of your seams (why else would you take on such a daunting task as DM ;P).
I suppose I always tried to look at it as the 'dodge' thing mentioned earlier, but maybe a little different, like 'luck points' or something similar. Agreed that a knife wound should be lethal at any level, but it would be a lot easier to take a person out with that knife who is less experienced in defending themselves (low lvl fighter) than somebody more battle hardened (high lvl fighter).
Good Topic! Another way to go would be to allow evil to be an acceptible alignment and freely populate the cities with a mix of good and evil alignments (i.e. Las Vegas). This would allow you to freely integrate evil NPCS with the other more "civil" alignments without having to change a lot of game mechanics. If you are worried about players killing that 'evil' werewolf who is actually the real victim, then roleplay some of the consequences (werewolves have families too ;P). A few consistent games focused on the grey areas between good and evil should be enough to get your group on the same mindset. Good Luck! |
