Simple enough but with no clear answer in the books, errata or anywhere else that i can find. When your patron grants you a knew spell what spell level can you prepare it at?
Quote:
At 1st level, when a witch gains her familiar, she must also select a patron. This patron is a vague and mysterious force, granting the witch power for reasons that she might not entirely understand. While these forces need not be named, they typically hold influence over one of the following forces. At 2nd level, and every two levels thereafter, a witch's patron adds new spells to a witch's list of spells known. These spells are also automatically added to the list of spells stored by the familiar. Spells marked with an asterisk (*) appear in Chapter 5 of this book. The spells gained depend upon the patron chosen. Each patron is listed by its theme. Its actual name is up to the GM and the witch to decide.
So here is my interpretation of the way this works. There are exactly 9 spells in each patron given at every 2 levels starting at 2nd. So just counting up from the bottom as 1st, 2nd, 3rd level spells. Example is Ice Storm from winter patron is a level 4 witch spell. Its the third one on the list means i can cast it as a 3rd level spell. Shadow conjuration from the shadow patron I get at level 8 but isnt actually on my spell list so it doesnt tell me what level I can prepare it so going by my conclusion RaI its a 4th level spell for being 4th on the list or 1/2 the level i learned it at. Am i right on this assumption?
Simple enough is making a winter witch PC in reign of winter a good idea? It mentions them specifically in the players guide but also says cold resistance and immunity might be a problem. Someone is starting a Reign of Winter game in 2 days i said i was playing a winter witch but im having second thoughts about it. Will i end up regretting the decision for the winter witch prestige class?
How does Two Weapon Rend react with damage reduction? Is it additional weapon damage? If do both weapons need to overcome DR to overcome it? Does it count as additional weapon damage? If so what happens if 1 weapon doesnt do enough damage to get through DR does it still count?
So in short how does damage reduction apply to two weapon rend?
So way this adventure is going i think it is very likely someone may be killed or even a TPK. I was wondering if anyone had any idea on how to handle such an event and keep a cool story.
Spoiler:
We are on the second book right now Sword of Valor and they are approaching the first trial. Based on their performance so far i think the Mythic Chimera has a good chance to make off with at least 1 kill but the party has 1 character right now who is actually threatening plus a 1 trick pony color spray oracle. The fight with Eustorax the shadow demon i put it on about 80% chance to TPK this party. So how do i handle player death in this campaign while keeping a good story? And what are some good ways to handle a TPK do i reload from last save type thing? Ressurected by a Iomedae? Fresh party with a new story of how they became mythic? Deal with the consequences of their failure? Im fairly stumped.
Despite already being a difficult encounter i also felt the need to add spell resistance to the chimera to prevent the encounter from being a coup de grace on the first round encounter.
Would it throw off game balance to give 4 plus int mod skill points to all classes who only start the game with 2? To try to make them more useful out of combat. Paladin and fighter come to mind. Saw the guy at dawnforged cast suggest this was thinking its not a bad idea
Major issues with paperback products. I went out and bought Wrath of the Righteous: Sword of Valor and while i was reading it several of the pages fell out. Right around the NPC gallery. I just spent cash on it and it was brand new and other than those pages in mint condition. I treat my books with extreme care. So i was a little pissed. I went to the gamestore and showed them what happened and they happily replaced my defective product before our game started. Within 2 hours the second copy lost almost half the pages in the front and back of the book. I dont even bend the cover over on itself... The pages were not torn or tattered but it looks like the glue that binds the pages together was not holding the pages. Im a little frustrated now because i already replaced the book once for the same problem.
So was thinkin for purpose of narrative is it okay for a gm to ban a class or catagory of classes and can the system handle it well. Such as of the story said there are no arcane casters or divine casters or no classes with spellcasting levels available to the pcs. Has anyone played in a game with such tight restrictions on classes and how was it?or am I better off using a different system for such a setting This question is geared mostly to people who enjoy good roleplaying over rollplay shenanigans.
So was thinking about mass combat in pathfinder the other day and was thinking about which way was the best way to do it. We are running wrath of the righteous right now second mod implemented it i don't expect to see it again beyond this one it did get me thinking about mass combat with pathfinder. There are a couple options that i can think of like ultimate campaign mass combat rules, heroes of battle, warhammer, warpath or a custom system so here are my thoughts.
First option, would be ultimate campaign mass combat definitely deserves a mention here since it is paizo published. And on a rundown maybe it plays differently but i do like how it keeps everything abstract so it doesnt take a lot of time out of the game allows for quickly resolving battles to get back to roleplaying on a micro scale once again. Unfortunately it feels wanting in a lot of areas that it seems like and a bit unwieldy for something that will take up so little time at the actual table. It is set up for armies as a whole, but doesnt take into account the smaller units that make up the army that would vary, such as archers, infantry cavalry and spellcasting but are based off of a single until multiplied 100x or by some other factor and it is suggested to run diverse armies as multiple armies. Perhaps if it took into account army composition or at least army diversity. Like adding an archery component to it adds 100 units and gives the ranged attack ability or increases the ranged attack from say javelins to bows. Adding a contingent of spellcasters would give that army spellcasting ability. Keeping the same rules but allowing variation within each army. Anyway just my take, i could be wrong i havnt tried it out yet.
Warhammer was mentionable here, kind of duct tape and string way to do it but to just use an actual wargame to simulate your mass combats, but it would require your players having access to and learning wargaming rules not everyone might be down for that.
Warpath- I dont know saw it in the paizo store as a 3rd party product dont really know much beyond that it was a more complicated take on armies and kingdom building id love to know more about it before considering buying it.
I was considering putting together my own system using mechanics already in pathfinder but on a larger scale drawing inspiration from total war and kingdom under fire and doing something along the lines of, changing the scaling on the battlemap and each miniature represents a unit composed of X amounts of soldiers, keeping relatively the same mechanics as are normally found in pathfinder only with special stat blocks geared towards a group of people instead. Spellcasters would function as support or artillery and there would be no 5' adjust only a disengage maneuver that is difficult to pull off. This would allow for a more realistic representation of commanding a battlefield and some rather unique units like a single powerful caster with a squad of bodyguards or magical beasts. Wouldnt be much more complicated that controlling a bunch of summoned creatures. I kind of want to create this system and see what it turns out like i have most of the rules in my head for it.
Finally there is heroes of battle's approach to it which they might actually be right. Their approach was we are playing an rpg, not a wargame. Wars are dull and take a lot of time so rather than commanding an army have them take part in a battle doing commando style missions as opposed to controlling massive amounts of troops. Have the battle occuring around them and plenty of baddies to kill maybe take out some siege engines or disrupt supply lines. As they said, Think big but play small.
So id like to hear some feedback about experiences dealing with mass combat/warfare at the gametable, what do you guys think is the best approach to handling large battles.
I want to open up by saying what the hell. Seriously. Faiths and Philosophies released the juju oracle that is okay for pfs play and probably considered more official/latest update than the one printed in city of seven spears but it seems like paizo made it acceptable pc class by stripping it of virtually everything that made it unique. Juju zombies were a huge part of it, so was soul jar and fetishes. The newer version was stripped of every single undead oriented ability. Not one remained. Now they speak with animals and use things like charm person. SO again...what the hell. Flavor-wise it would be better to make a shaman from advanced class guide beta. So does anyone have an idea on why paizo decided to take a very fun and flavorful oracle mystery and chop off everything that made it fun awesome and flavorful?
Making a new character for pathfinder society my current character is a barbarian fun and all but my gamestore is really melee heavy and im playing a 2h paladin in my home game so change of pace is needed. I decided i wanted to try a squishy spell sort since the lack of wizards but i also was considering the arcanist.
Compared to the wizard and sorcerer how is the arcanist? Too powerful? too weak? blows his load in 1 shot?
But i was also considering wizard, sorcerer and witch. Was looking to be a battlefield controller focusing on debuffs/buffs and being god. Also summoned things couldnt hurt.
So I was wondering how does pathfinder define occult im a high magic world. What is the focus of the options....like occult mystery for oracle, occult witch patron redundant with spirit? Dimensional occultist and there may be others I cant think of. Are they spiritists or is there more to them and are any of them any good mechanically seems hard fore to define a focus for them.
So just got back from my game and im a little pissed right now. Two of us at the table were grand lodge for a tier 1 "The Icebound Outpost."
Spoiler:
We made it all the way through the mission with relative ease, the andoran faction players found their mission in freeing the slaves and whatnot. Our last battle We found out that our faction mission as grand lodge to collect some information could not be completed without interrogating one of the baddies, so our last encounter came up and we destroyed one of them and took the other prisoner. He played dead so we disarmed him and my character shook him a bit to see if he was still alive being a chaotic neutral barbarian and all. Lifted him in one hand was a good time. The rogue shouts across the table we should probably interrogate him and I agreed so at this point everyone at the table pretty much knows what we need. Then me and the rogue take a poisoned shuriken to the back from an ambush. So i need to move and help deal with the ambush so i set the rat down next to another player who is playing a CN fighter. I move shoot my bow and fail miserably since i cant get close to the baddie since he is surrounded. Then the fighter instead of trying to do something productive turns around and coup de graces the rat. He knows that we need him for our faction mission and does it anyway and his excuse "im chaotic neutral" roughly translated "i am an a#@#!!$" even the GM asked him for his alignment which was a blatantly evil act for killing a creature who has surrendered and is begging for his life. It was no mystery we needed him and he was no threat to us anymore.
My question is what can be done about a player who f#@+s over other peoples missions just to be an a@#$~@* like that. And 2, hypothetically if i was the GM would i be within my rights to switch his alignment over from CN to CE for a single act like that. Which i think basically says pay 3k gold for atonement or have your character retired because im pretty pissed about this. It wasnt even failing our faction mission it was that one player intentionally screwed us out of our mission with the excuse "im chaotic neutral" and "pvp is illegal." Because in all honesty if that were a home game i would have killed his character on the spot for doing something like that. Since well, "im CN and im a barbarian."
I was inspired to write this based on a recent thread based on my interpretation of the game and how to run it. This is not a reinvention of the rules or actually altering the game mechanics but a reinterpretation of how to run the game making dice invisible and making the game world more immersive and reactive to PCs. This is a bit of a work in progress and im sure it can be built upon but this is what i have come up with so far.
Without Further delay im going to talk about attributes of the pcs and how they reflect in the game world.
Attributes & Dumping
Stat: Mechanical Penalties/NPC reactions
This is for exceptionally high or low stats. less than 7 or greater than 16.
Spoiler:
Strength:
High: Added carrying capacity, mechanical benefits speak for themselves/NPCs may comment on how strong they look perhaps extra attention from the opposite sex or go to them for a job first that strength is a favored attribute.
Low:Enforce carrying capacities/NPCs may comment or pass over a pc for a task because they look weak.
Dexterity: High: Let them auto success on certain checks/NPCs may comment on a characters graceful movements or having great reflexes.
Low:Require them to make dex based checks that are auto successes for other players/Comments on how they have no coordination (they pay for this one with their reflex save anyway)
*low dex is usually a penalty in itself
Constitution: High: Mechanically speaks for itself/NPCs might comment on look "hardened" or might notice they rarely get sick.
Low:Between their con score and HP, this one doesnt need further punishment/ NPCs may comment on them looking sickly or meek passing them up on jobs they dont think they will survive.
Mental Stats dont show as much but become obvious:
Intelligence: High: Dont make them roll to recall information they have previously run into as if they had an eidetic memory./NPCs of low int may have adverse reactions for feeling stupid around them. Intelligent npcs may be more inclined to help them.
Low: Not so bad mechanically their lack of skills will suffer, but be more inclined to make them roll to identify monsters or recall information. "Hey i dont remember what did NPC Jack say" me: "make me an int check". Set at an easy DC or so./NPCs may ridicule the player for being stupid. Intelligent NPCs may not care to speak to him. Overall not terribly bad on the RP side. Also consider making 7 int illiterate trait if you want to. He cant read or write.
Wisdom: High Feel free to include extra information when describing things to them stuff that would be easy perceptions to them/NPCs might react in a way commenting on a sharpshooters eye, or they might regard them more highly seeking council and advise from the player.
Low Low will saves, perception checks and sense motive. also must make perception checks more frequently maybe leave something out of a description until he rolls./ He will likely come off as witless to other npcs unable to perceive their social ques. No common sense or a special needs character.
Charisma: High Makes a better first impression, and may start off friendlier to the pc/NPCs might remember a face more easily, making it more difficult to go unnoticed. If they have ranks in disguise they instead might be more difficult to remember when people are looking for him.
Low:Everyones favorite dump. Force diplomacy, bluff, and intimidate more frequently than for characters that do not dump. Do not allow metagame conversations./NPCs may react to this character with extreme disgust and generally find his presence annoying. Even if he says something great his personality (expression, tone of voice) might cause him to be ignored. He may have to roll diplomacy just to get people to talk to him for extended periods.
*a higher charisma with a lower intelligence or wisdom can counter this RP social aspects in most cases. Think dizzy blonde who can talk her way into or out of social scenarios.
*Note: writing all this in html code is a pain in the ass.
Optional Rule: Regarding the attributes in the game world, I have been toying with the idea of giving traits or bonus feats based on stat level to alleviate feat taxes and reflect the character some more.
Dex at 14 may grant weapon finesse as a bonus feat, at 16 may grant precise shot. Maybe power attack for strength at 14, or a skill focus if intelligent. Feedback with this if it would be a good idea.
My next thing i have began implementing is "let it ride" thank you to the guys who made burning wheel for this idea.
The idea behind this one is to avoid excessive rolling for each scene so with this alternate interpretation a single roll is required and it will persist until the conditions change enough to warrant a second roll or it the scene ends.
Examples in play:
Silent as a mouse: A player wants to sneak unto an enemy camp. The player makes a single stealth check when he declares he is now moving stealthily. This check sets the dc for the perception of the guards he is sneaking by, as the GM just work with this number. You can make this check in secret if you rather the pc be blind to his exact number. This avoids having to make numerous checks reducing his chances of dramatic failures.
First Impressions: Allow a single check for each character on a single social skill, either diplomacy, intimidate or bluff mandatory for each pc involved in the interaction before any words are said. This is a first impression and determines the npcs starting disposition towards the character whether hostile, neutral or friendly. They wont outright attack but gives everyone a general idea on how the rest of the conversation will go, throughout the conversation the disposition may change based on future rolls.
Eyes for trouble: Calling for perception checks in each room is troublesome especially since it can give away things that are meant to be hidden. With this interpretation have each character make a single perception check at the beginning of the dungeon, this will be their passive perception for the purposes of noticing things such as trap doors, dungeon traps or other passive information. Anything else would require more extended searches of rooms.
Assassinations
This is a rule i designed specifically for pcs who like to do a little stabbing every now and again and it is a fairly simple rule and it goes as follows.
If a creature is unaware of of a pcs presence and has not drawn him weapon yet, then it is considered helpless as long as the player remains undetected. Just before his attack, he gets a single, free perception check to notice the incoming danger, if he succeeds he is considered flat footed instead of helpless and takes the attack as normal. If he fails this perception check, he is considered helpless and is vulnerable to coup de grace by the player allowing him to be killed outright. The creature must be vulnerable to death effects and have a discernible anatomy. Creatures immune to death effects, sneak attacks, precision damage or critical hits are not subject to this damage.
*i think those limitations rule out exceptionally powerful npcs, constructs, oozes and alien creatures. This was designed to work on most humanoids, beasts and magical beasts.
Thats all i have now, feedback for my methods? Constructive criticism only but from both the perspective of player and gm.
For fun i was trying to make a character centered around the flavor of an iaijutsu master using ONLY pathfinder material. So i have been tossing a few ideas around but i am trying to build a character that does this. It doesnt have to actually be the samurai class just has to fit the flavor. Refluffing to a minor extent is okay, (no pretending your rapier is a katana). Anyway stipulations on the character:
Requirements:
Unarmored (with incentive to stay unarmored)
Can keep up with a party of average competancy
Needs to viable to level up from level 1 without the party babysitting you the whole time.
Stuff ive looked at with potential
Weapon wielding monk
Kensai/(with another archtype that eschews armor) magus
Aldori swordlord fighter/swordlord prestige (so far this one looks like it has the most potential for a non magical option)
sword saint samurai
So anyways, this is just for fun since i was playing with a few friends who were playing eastern themed characters.
Was looking to do away with vancian magic entirely and use a spell point variant. So wanted some input with gameplay of both variants. So my two systems i am contemplating at the moment are Unearthed Arcana Spell Points, on the d20 srd or Super Genius Games, Houserule Handbook: Spell Points. Which one of these variants is more fun with the least amount of problems. I dont care personally if a player spams a specific spell.
1) Do either of these systems have balance issues for casters against non casters
2) Does it work well with pathfinder?
3) Do they balance against other casters? (So there is incentive to play either a wizard or sorcerer)
4) Do either of give longer or shorter work days than using the vancian system.
(Have seriously thought about letting wizards cast any spell they have prepared like a sorcerer. I hate vancian that much, its out dated and has the same flavor as a moldy lemon)
So i wanted to make a pathfinder society character and its been so long since ive played in it i decided to start over. And i cant find my old character anyway so im trying to fit a class and build over a personality i devised and ill fill in the logistical as needed. Still need a place of origin.
My character i imagine him to be a young magical prodigy. He has shown extreme magical talent from a young age making him a perfect candidate for an adventurer...He is however prone to vice and decadence. He tries to do what is right but more often than not finds himself doing whatever will benefit himself the most and even though he tries not to he has trouble resisting the temptation for using magic for selfish reasons. At times because of his superior intellect (real or imagined) he can have a bit of a god complex feeling he needs to meddle in things that are really not his to meddle in...He is not without redeeming qualities. He tries to be an overall good person and usually his work is for a good cause. He cannot turn down a plea for help if it is genuine and will do his best to help in any way he can.
*Beliefs*
-The universe is magic, therefor anything can be fixed with magic.
-People who are incapable of using magic are stupid.
-Cannot refuse a plea for help
-Some things however cannot be helped and must happen
-All things have their time and must come to an end
So this is what i have so far for this nameless hero I have. I wanted someone who can be a hero but is prone to his own faults. So now im trying to come up with a good character class and in context background for him where someone like this mightve grown up and what profession he would be. I am thinking wizard or arcane sorcerer but it is beyond me as to what school I might be specializing in. Keeping in mind it IS organized play i want the character to reflect his personality so I can get in what sort of hero he is without having the home group to set it up over a long period of time.
So my brainstorm:
Probably a wizard but any school of magic with the exception of enchanting because i dont see him that manipulative plus 20% of all creatures are immune to it. Leaves me with:
divination (think would stroke his god complex side of always "knowing" whats going to happen),
Evocation (Great mind for physics would reflect this)
Conjuration (nothing says can do anything like being able to create things from nothing)
Necromancy (Seems overly weak in pfs and breaks his everything must end belief)
Transmutation (I love alot of the spells here particularly refering to gravity, time and space but dont know much about it)
Alternatively the sorcerer fit his concept decently, the sage in particular would let me keep his intellect. SO anyways, any advice on this character? Also a good place of origin/faction that fits him.
Would anyone be interested in joining a campaign near the orlando area? We are using pathfinder rules for the planescape setting. We have two players and a GM, and we are still deciding on a suitable meeting time and date for all players involved. We are looking for players who enjoy a more roleplaying intensive group, and open to using homebrew/third party material in a game including the psionics material and spell point system.
More than anything we are looking to have fun.
You can contact me via E-mail (mjpalazzolo@hotmail.com), PM me or just leave a reply if you are interested.
I have been trying to make a necromancer that i enjoy playing and found a spell, create soul gem. The spell is listed as legal for pathfinder society play, the item crafted contains the soul of said creature however there is another part of the book that is not mentioned in the additional resources online but does actually describe what you use these soul gems for and their primary use is they reduce component costs of spells, or can be used as offerings.
With this in mind my question is this: If i use create soul gem on a dying creature assuming my party is willing to tolerate me doing so, can i use its soul as a component in my spell particularly for animate dead, and create undead. It would not completely solve my problem of paying a component cost for a permenant spell that only lasts a single session but will mitigate it to 25gp per casting assuming i have soul gems available.
im ever so close to creating a character and decided i really wanted to play a necromancer. They seemed fairly powerful in pathfinder (they sucked when i played 4e to the point of unplayable) and then i saw the recent bans. And also the major, major inconvenience of not being able to keep your undead from one session to the next and having to create new undead at the start of each session. So my question, are necromancers worth creating in PFS or are they so badly crippled that you are better off playing a different concept altogether. I was looking at necromancer specialist wizard, but death domain cleric, bones oracle, and witch are not out of the question. I think sorcerer also makes an effective one but, at 25gp per HD for zombies and skeletons, and 50gp per HD for anything else just to have them be destroyed automatically at the end of each session it seems impractical to ask me as a player to spend that much just to play my class. How big of a part are having undead minions of being a PF necro anyways...
Okay im broken indecisive about what class to commit to. So thought id do a poll see maybe i can get a bit of help deciding on what fits the best in pathfinder society and would be the most *fun* character to play. Right now i usually prefer playing arcane casters either pure casters or melee caster hybrids and typically lean more towards the dark arts as far as play style I.E, necromancers or diabolical summoners. So I could stay within my field of comfort or try something completely different for me either way i just wanted my character to fit well with the story and other player characters at the table for organized games. Right now i put a few character concepts together as what would be fun to play as follows they are:
Viking Warrior (Fighter or Barbarian): Survivor of an annhilated tribe of Linnorm defeated by another tribe. this viking seeks to redeem his people in the eyes of his tribal gods by proving himself worthy of Valhalla carrying the weight of his kin.
Fencing Duelist (Rogue or Fighter): This character disdains armor and knows his way around a rapier, or any similar weapon. Either from Brevoy or Absolom this guy is the son of a noble family who could afford to pay a fencing instructor to teach him the art of combat, he joined the pathfinder society out of a sense of duty and family prestige.
Nature Priest (Druid): Another class i dont really have much experience with; Either hailing from the elf lands or one of the more wild places in Galorian this character would be as an explorer and guide to the society helping them safely through areas that are still wild, ensuring they do not desecrate the natural landscape and slaying abominations to nature. Industrial growth and Undead.
Heroic Wizard: Here i can go a couple of ways this is usually my fallback class, I could go universalist wizard maybe that absolom specialty and be loosely based on a wizard like "Zed from Wizards first rule" or Merlin from countless others. Adventuring with the society for arcane lore and be a overall sort of good character.
Antihero Wizard: Other options im considering for this type are any of the specialist wizards, Infernal Binder/Genie Binder, could be kind of cool. Also necromancer i would not oppose playing I can usually fluff them up to not be evil, make them more like the death priests of ancient egypt or something. Also I would not be opposed to trying a Magus, they seem to make good adventurer types.
Witch: Yeah same reason as wizard, originally was making a gravewalker but then i found out they banned it. So i would go either Death, Spirit, Occult or Shadow witch focusing more on the darker aspects of magic and playing this one more mysterious working with darker or unknown forces for more noble ends.
NOT trying to circumvent the no evil characters rules i just think they would be fun classes to play. Anyways comments on what my first pathfinder society character should be? Im having trouble picking
