Oggron's page

Kudos to all who took part.
Its been really fun reading what you all came up with.

Deeplit
Occularictus
Spiroskek
Narrick

Love this round :)

Monster Round is my favourate round of the competition.
Given Nar-Voths listed inhabitants.
I'm expecting to see creatures associated with the Derro, Duergar, Troglodytes, Morlocks, Vegepygmies. Drow Fleshwarps are the other thing I predict.
Man O man I cannot wait. Love me some new monsters.

(Forgive the spelling and grammar mistakes, as usual I'm typing this on my iphone instead of socializing with real people. I just love monster ecology)

I can recommend the setting book 'Into the Darklands' for this.
That was one of the things I bought for my brother along with the first two 'second darkness' AP's a few years back. Gave him the 'gift of gaming' for him and his university flatnates. He studied environmental sciences back then so we had a lot of discussion as to monster ecology. Vestigial eyes were discussed, changes in pigmentation, skin translucency, bioluminescence, the kinds of micro-organisms that formed the lowest rung on the food chain and the prevailence of scavenging organisms.

Wikipedia has a pretty good list of Cave dwelling critters, and some good links to more info on this. But I'll summarize for those who want a quick starting point.

Underground critters can be divided into Troglofauna and Stygofauna. The former living in dry cave systems and the latter in underground rivers and such.

Keeping the Troglo / Stygo prefix the same (Denoted by X) they are then divided into:

1) X - philes
These complete a large part of their life cycle underground but are exposed enough to surface tunnels to have retained the features to allow them to life on the surface. Many species of chiropteran (Bats) are the classic example of this.
(Due to its proximity and number of accessable surface passages, Nar-voth creatures would largely be this type)

2) X - xenes
These creatures are known as 'cave guests' and can spend a part of their life cycle underground, but they are not adapted to survive their entirely. Hibernating mammals such as bears are an example of this.
(These are the sort of beasties you'd find guarding the surface passageways)

3) X - bites
These are the archetypal subterranian creature and the kind that spends their entire life cycle underground. Usually descended from X-philes, these are the ones like the pale cave salamander or the eyeless cave fish whose lack of exposure to the surface ecology causes them to adapt in weird and wonderful ways.
(classic example of this are the Troglodytes which were once lizardfolk who fled underground and adapted, and this also factors in the various crotters that come up from the lower levels)

140) Foe Stitcher

The Good: Love the name and I dig the silver thread which you use to drag around or otherwise harry an enemy.
The Bad: Just say no- to back story
The Ugly: This might have rated better if there wasn't a better idea/version out there already using a norn thread which was the missing execution element here.
Overall: Still a solid 4 stars from me as I did like this item a good deal. Next time give a little more effort because if this is your bs entry on a game break while a=eating curry I want to see what you can do when you're trying.

Thank you very much for your words of encouragement.

Foe Stitcher:
Interesting idea with a cool visual, but this could get complicated very quickly as different opponents are tied together and knotted up. Some issues with using different stats for each drag maneuver as the number of foes increase. This adds a level of complexity that isn’t really necessary.

FOE STITCHER: I really liked this one. It has some bugs, but a lot of potential.
Feedback:
* Firstly though, you missed the cost of the actual weapon. 320gp for a masterwork rapier & 90gp for alchemical silver. Should be the same in price and cost.
* The thread the stitching creates is not indestructible, which ensures there is a defense against it; the targets can simply try to cut themselves free (50% miss chance for invisibility, but the hardness and hp aren't overly high).
* The tactical applications (as well as sheer fun) of the foe-stitching are huge, though they look like they could take a bit of work to adjudicate sometimes.
* It's a +2 rapier, so 8,410gp worth of stabby, with 7,000gp for the special, which has a few things going for it, so is hard to price. It's possible that 7,000gp is too little, given it does create and animate invisible rope, and then drag people with it.
* Definitely one of my favorites out of what I've seen this year though :)

Thank you very much for the Feedback and for highlighting some legitimate issues with my item. I will work on these issues and try again next year. Thank you also for the encouraging appraisal of my items visual aesthetics, its good to know I at least got that part right :)

Well I thought my entry wasn't half bad for something I typed up on my iphone during a curry with my gaming group. Would very much appreciate a less biased opinion than my own on the subject. Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to review my entry.

Foe Stitcher
Aura Moderate Conjuration; CL 9th [Price 15,000 gp; Weight 2 lbs.

Description
According to legend this weapon once belonged to a cruel fey queen.
This oversized needle counts as a +2 silver rapier. Whenever Foe Stitcher deals piercing damage to an enemy, it creates a silver thread that connects the weapon to its victim. This thread counts as invisible except to the wielder of Foe Stitcher or those under the effect of See Invisibility or an equivalent and possesses a maximum length of 200ft. The thread possesses hardness 5 and 12 hp, it can be cut through by the usual means or with a dc 25 strength check.

Any enemy inflicted with a silver thread can be subject to a Drag maneuver at range as a Standard action. This can be modified with feats as per the Drag maneuver.
Whenever a second enemy is damaged with Foe Stitcher, the first enemy damaged becomes subject to a ranged drag attempt as a free action. Treat the second enemy as the one initiating the drag maneuver for moving the first enemy. Enemies affected by this ability cannot move farther away from each other than the distance they were apart when the ability was used, without first breaking the thread connecting them. Subsequent drag attempts by the wielder continue to target the first enemy struck. Only two enemies can be effected by this ability at once. If enemies would be dragged into adjacent squares as a result of this ability they are sewn together, which causes them to count as entangled in addition to the restricted movement.

Construction
Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Animate Rope, Chain of Perdition
Cost 7,500gp

Good Luck Everyone

Awesome. Soon as I find the money I'm getting this book!
Can't wait to unleash these fresh horrors on an unsuspecting group XD

Heh I love these threads. Some right cracking stories out there.

Played in this mostly homebrew dark heresy game revolving around a hybrid of Martian successor nadesco and neon genesis Evangelion. The setting was amazingly described and the story interesting. As a group we really enjoyed his first session wherein we as different characters played from the perspective of the Operations Director, the Mech Pilots and Emergency workers/soldiers rescuing people from damaged sections of a huge space ship. High concept. Nicely executed pacing. Interesting npc's. Cool Mecha vs alien leviathan action.

Three things conspired to mean than their never was a second session.

The first:
The GM was a lazy bum. Despite having very little in the way of real life and the rules outlined already from a homebrew website he found. It took him 6 months to prepare and organise that one session and then never even started prep on the second despite healthy demand for over a month.

The Second:
The ridiculous statblocks of the enemy monsters. I'm sure if any of you are familiar with Evangelion, you will know that the Godzilla esque monsters are supposed to be OP. We won through shear luck, being completely unfamiliar with the rules and the system. He specifically told us that we we're not allowed to read the rules because he wanted us to be in the dark about what to do. Suffice to say, several of us ignored him and realised the guy had gotten several fundamental rules wrong and that the Leviathan we took down was league more powerful than we should have been able to handle. To which his response was: 'the enemies don't care that your not powerful or skilled enough, deal with it however you can'.

These first two could be forgiven, if not for the Third:

Okay so the party consisted of an Ops Director (myself), two big mecha pilots and two soldiers from these special 'Valkyrie squads' that got to do everything from pilot fighter jets to rescuing civilians. Then we realised several things. There was already 2 full squads of Valkyrie soldiers, two other mecha pilots, and my character was replacing an existing ops director who was in charge of a full complement of command staff. Each of which had well defined backstories, their own picture art, detailed statistics and personalities. Each essential to the plot.

So we each thought. Hold up. You mean there's already a version of each of our characters that are of equal importance to the plot, that we share xp and resources with, that are all built with a full understanding of the rules and actually know how to do their jobs better than we do? Then why are our characters even needed, when the GM has a literal army of GMPC's to play with? What are we just meat shields and placeholders, used to justify these utterly insane CR encounters? If we couldn't handle them without the help of these GMPC's, then we're never going to feel any sense of achievement.

We coined the term 'GM masturbation'. Whereby we as players could seemlessly exit the stage and leave the GM to 'play with himself'.
Sexual innuendo aside. Am I wrong in thinking this guy misses the point of GMing a campaign here? His campaign probably continued in some fanfic or other. Proving that we as players were never really needed in the first place.

Suffice to say there was never any second session. And a damned shame too.

This sounds like a familiar problem to me with some problem players from past campaigns of mine. The guys obviously just being contrary for kicks and enjoys making a mockery of the game. Though his justifications sound fairly well thought out and even funny, if his intention is to provide unwanted satire then I see why it rubs you the wrong way. I have an on/off regular player who has in the past played a cowardly self-interested barbarian, a noble Orc Diplomat, a hyperactive halfling Monk and an evil Torturer 10-year old psionic. Sometimes a bit of satire is fun. Makes you look at things and react to situations differently. But in a serious campaign with solid RPing, such silliness is not acceptable. Especially if it disrupts the game.

I've recently taken a stand in excluding this player from several games. The replacements we found turned out to be much more mature and added to the game in new and unexpected ways. Don't be afraid to cut off a necrotic limb. No matter how long you've gamed with this dude, if he's bringing your game down then he needs to shape up or be banished from the campaign.

Haven't read the full forum so forgive any repeats.
Here's some suggestions of the top of my head.

The Righteous Few.

Knights of Sarkoris.

Answering the Call.

The Abyssal Crusade.

The Sacred Line.

The Bane of Demon's Blight.

...The Last Crusade
(Yes I know there's a certain Archaeologist whose lawyers won't approve)

And to re-Iterate my favourite title already suggested on page 1,
"Unto the Breach."

Aye. Shame tho. Have used Leucrotta and Perytons to add alot of colour to my own campaigns. They deserve some love.

Current List:
>Chupacabra
>Mothman
>Sandpoint Devil
>Sasquatch
>Yeti

The speculation on the remaining 5 monsters? My opinions.

Water Orm + Sea Serpent are both very likely to appear, but due to thematic similarity and similar CR: I find it unlikely they'll both be in this book. Water Orm is the more likely, as it's currently estabilished lore screams cryptid.

I find the Deathworm to be unlikely as we've already had the thematically similar purple worm in another book. I can't see much variance in Bunyip, chickcharney, Chemosit or Tatzelwurm lore. Of previous suggestions the Globster is the one you could do the most with. But with other aquatic oozes out there, I don't see this one being used.

Kongamata is covered quite well in serpents skull, as is the Grootslang. Of the African Cryptids: Molele-Mbembe is perhaps the most recognisable and the first into print. Personally I'd vote for Grootslang, it's got a catchy name and cool lore.

I think the Carbuncle would fit well into this book as a novel low CR creature. It's a good example about misleading myths. Similarly, the Unicorn is one of those archetypal medieval myths that pop culture loves. I'd really like to read about some less sparkly variants (a la jim butcher summer knight/ ffX Ixion). Given the recent uprise of certain tv shows, I can easily see this one or pegasi being popular choices.

I haven't got mythical beasts Revisited. So I don't don't know if Hydra, basilisk, nemean lion, gorgan, cockatrice, stymphalides etc are covered there. But as these as more 'classical' legends I doubt they'll be in this book. One from native American and mess American myth I'd love to see tho is the Thunderbird. Or it's counterpart, the Roc from the classics. I think a nice big bird cryptid will fill out the set quite nicely.

My List:
>Grootslang
>Globster
>Thunderbird
>Unicorn
>Water Orm

Specifically speculating on whether the Saoc Brethren knew something. Their nation collapsed due to the eye, and their culture was based on prophecy so that was hardly a solid foundation... The wiki and Ithink the inner sea guide refer to this 'mass suicide' after learning some aweful truth in AR 4615. This could be as simple as learning how long the storm would last, despair for their nation or loss of prophecy, or they could have learned something vital. Time for some speak with dead spells?

What's interesting is the Astrological connection for Lirgeni prophecy. Could some player from the Dark Tapestry have played a role? Some entity with designs on Golarion that required Aroden silenced or just plain removed from the equation?

Has anyone actually seen the body of Aroden yet? My theory is that the eye he where he fell. But no evidence to support that one. In my campaign I have the divine paradox that is Arodens corpse acting as the aforementioned theorised 'giant sphere if anhilation'.

Back to speculation.As for the 'who had motive/who gains from this' side of things.

That list includes:

The House of Thrune
Asmodeus
Deskari
Enemies of Prophecy

Potentially many others, I think the Lirgeni may have been on to something. Didn't their high caste commit mass suicide when they learnt some dark truth? like the cause of the eye?

Anyone ever watch the show 'prison break'?
(Bear with me...it's 4am and I'm writing up a biomechanics experiment)

I had an idea a few months back in this vein for pathfinder, wasn't sure whether I wanted to homebrew up a module or just write a story. But I know I'd prefer to read such a Golarion 'prison break' style story from an expert author. Essentially get a bunch of volatile personalities together, each with a unique skill set, and bust someone put of an unbreakable magic prison. Guarded by Minotaur jailors.

I even wrote down a few names of prisons in Golarion lore that might make good settings. Like the Black Whale and the Puddles in Absolom.
Mind you my scribble pad also has the realm of Tegresin the Laughing Fiend. Not sure where I was going with that so skip. Anyone recommend any other infamous prisons in Golarion that would fit the bill better?

Darklands and the Mwangi Expanse, if you'd be so kind :)
Sprinkled with a side of Mammoth Lords.

Seconded on the puzzlement. Tiberoliths? Now there's a term that used to be a 'google-whack' all of 7 posts ago. The heck are they?
Something new I hope ^.^

Is it me. Or is this news (or speculation) really not that surprising? You wouldn't quit before the playtest unless there was a good reason.

Wizards of the Coast going in a different direction and alienating their creative designers? Yeah, cos there's no precedent for that...

Well WotC's loss is the industries gain. Wonder what Monte's gonna work on next?

Harsk: "Alright lassy. When I told yer to to invite along the spell casting bird, I think yer misunderstood me. I meant the pretty one. Not this flying rat here."
Tengu: "..."
Merisiel: "Actually Tengu can't fly."
Harsk: "Shut it Elf."

...

Kobolds: "You know if your busy, we could come bak later?"

And Savage Worlds. And Cthullutech. And Dragon Age.

In order of preference. Voted for:
>Pyrebloom
>Ravenous Gorgewort
>Slaughterhound
>Hushfoot Bocan
>Necrotic Reef

I think all need some tweaks. But these were my top 5.
Haven't used my last 3 votes. Still weighing the rest up.

Team Pisces Digitii (fish finger), harking back to the days of a star wars game with an all Mon Cal /Selkath cast. We also like doctor who :)

Recommend Serpents skull. It takes em out of their comfort zone and shows them something new. Plus, if your a GM who likes to customise and tweak adventures, the chapters i've run have all been good for that.

Again, a spontaneous Druid-list caster.

Artificers are awesome, but are very Eberron as well.

A class inspired by Hindu mythology somehow. I don't know much of it, but what I do know I think is awesome.

edit:

I don't know how they would do this, but a 'host' class would be pretty cool. Like, purposefully being possessed by spirits, ghost, etc and using their essence for powers.

Agreed. The Sythethist and the possessed archetype skirt round the edges of this. And the old 'Tome of Magic' (got it right this time hehe) class called the binder played with this idea pretty well.

I like the idea of being able to become the 'avatar' of a powerful entity that works through you. Though this is similar enough to Paladin, Monk, Oracle etc that people could say 'hey look another archetype'. But if you mix in plenty of indian mythological flavour and tie the class to the vudrani empire and the untapped lore there. Could work.

A class that takes on the divine mantle of deities to use supernatural abilities of their patron so long as they act as their representitive in the material plane. Throw in various druidic/paladin-like/monkesque abilities for immunities and such and you the beginnings of a class.
I like the idea of making a 'Pact' with a servent of the divine and act as their mortal servant. Different abilities for different deities etc.

Perhaps like the vestiges of the old binder class, you choose an ability from a pool associated with the entity and are able to use more at the same time as you level. Then as levels increase you can gain more than one patron as long as their portfolios overlap.

Glad I missed the editition war detour.
I'm unfamiliar with the Factotum: 'Jack of all Trades' class.
But I gotta say that even without the WotC legal issues, that's a pretty le sounding name...

I'm part of a solid gaming club in Cheshire, and I know of other groups in East London, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and south Wales that play pathfinder.
However I mostly run my games through D20pro as I have players who are based on the west coast of the US and Australia. It truly is a widespread hobby.

Plus if your using the trait rules, you could take 'Magickal Knack' from the magic traits to offset the loss in spellcasting level from dipping into Paladin.

I think 'Wasting Curse' works thematically for the character concept here. As I assume a combat optimized paladin/oracle won't exactly be the most diplomatic of individuals. Plus if he keeps his helmet visor down most of the time, they'll never know...

Ordinarily I'd suggest extra revelation as a feat to get more of the other fun revelations in the Metal Mystery. At later levels I'd suggest abundant revelations to let you use some of the cooler ones more times per day.

Theres also some 3PP feats by Open design that I could recommend if your GM allows non-paizo sources.

Do Dinosaurs have a God? And if so, can we add the suffix '-zilla' to its name as well..?

Out of curiosity how many rules do you have Arminas?
I have somewhere in the mid 100's...

Aw... for a second there I thought we were gonna get a product preview...
You misled me Paizo blog!

Once ran a game of d20 OGL 'weird war' called zeit der toten.
Basically was a 10 man squad of paratroopers dropped into the middle of an outbreak of the Nazi created Lichhoste disease 10 days before D-day. Group ended up grabbing their local french contact and turning the nearest farmhouse into a fortress.

11 players. Hand drawn maps. Waves and waves of zombies. Loadsa random critters I statted up (mutated exploding zombie cows anyone?). Players that died came back as special zombies. Involved virtually the entire gaming club for a few months with people dropping in an out. Campaign ended with the last survivors hiding in a bomb shelter as the Luftwaffe bombed the town.

Was absolutely crazy. But good times.

But if ya want some actual depth in a game, then 6 is kinda stretching it.

That's just Lazarx. You get used to it and just stop making eye contact.

Aw. But if I avert my gaze then he'll get concealment against my readied +1 Flaming Troll Bane Longsword...

Knife thrower.

That'd make a sweet rogue archetype!

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Nah, Paizo just had to update all the 3.5 sourcebooks to lawyer-friendly PF-compatible rules, wrapped in their brand art.

Talk about building on sand. Given that much of that stuff was crap anyway, I'd rather they'd just give us new stuff.

Its possible your subscribing to the wrong game then pal, if thats your take. I really hope thats sarcasm, cos its a bit too venomous for this thread.

If by music, you mean the symphony of sobs that my players make as their characters are crushed in a cascading cacophony of falling rocks? Yes, yes I do listen to sweet music.

oooh thats my favourate song :)

I've used the music from the Lost TV series on low volumes during my Smuggler's Shiv setting to portray mystery and sadness. Seemed to go down well but was pain to maintain the atmosphere as well as tracking everything else so stopped.

A fellow GM uses music from Tron, Advent Children, Star wars and anime like Naruto and bleach for his stuff. Went very well with cinematic intros to places in scifi campaigns. But it gets annoying when he stops the session to go through his itunes library for 'the perfect song' to play loudly and distractingly during battles.

And then another GM just played the SW canteena song over ang over whenever we went anywhere then even looked like it sold alcohol and/or had a gathering of more than 3 races... Was funny the first 10 times.

Music can add to a game but only if you have a cheat sheet for your playlist and the volume level is subtle enough that people can talk and think over it.

Ah yes Tome of Magic. My bad.

True name magic was one of those concepts that seemed to just get tested then discarded. I think the Paizo staff could do a lot more with it. But yeah it would need a rebuild.

TBW I was half expecting the 'words of power' section of the UM to have a prestige class in this vein.

While we're brainstorming. How about pathfinder-izing (yeah thats a word now, get used to it.) the classes from Complete Magic: 'Truenamer' and 'Binder'. Debatably, the summoner and certain wizard archetypes can fill the binder role nicely. (and I know Paizo have their own shadow themed prestige classes and archetypes so the 'shadowdancers out').

But I always thought Truename magic was an underutilized concept. Perhaps combine with aspects of the Archivist for an original base class?
'Scholar' or 'Chronicler' or 'Sage' or something to that effect.

A lot of the things in XPH (Expanded Psionics Handbook, the 3.5 core psionics material) could indeed be abused--but the largest abuses sprang from folks ignoring the rules. The prime rule of psionics (in 3.5 and the Dreamscarred Press update to Pathfinder) is simple: you cannot spend more power points on a single manifestation than your manifestor level. Of course, there were exceptions (Overchannel, Wild Surge, etc., etc.) but these were spelled out and had a hefty cost.

Overall, I liked the 3.5 system and was impressed by the flexibility. There were things that I objected to: astral constructs, the ecto-everything, the ability to swap energy types on the fly, the growing of claws and bites, the use of poison, etc., etc. I guess I wanted to see a focus on more traditional areas of psionics in myth, legend, literature, and film.

In my view, psionics shouldn't be as handy at doing utility as arcane magic, nor should it be able to cure all ills like divine magic. It should excell in the telekinetic and telepathic domains, and have a number of psychoportive, precognotive, and pyrokinetic uses. I fully agree that it needs to replace neither arcane nor divine, but to supplement them both as the third dominion of magic: mentalism.

I am a big supporter of the concept of psionics, and when I first read James Jacobs musings on how Pathfinder and Paizo might redo psionics, I was . . . not happy. But then I started thinking about it and how it could be done--and if handled correctly, it will work. All it takes is for those who dislike psi to contain their vitriol and for those who like psi to give it a chance.

But hey, what do I know?

Master Arminas

Yeah that was what I liked about your mind mage actually. I don't mind 'mentalism' as a class concept. I just don't like it spilling over and scooping up other classes capabilities. Which lets face it, is what would happen once you started getting archetypes and more spells. I guess my biggest dislike of something, is a class that steals another classes thunder with none of its associated weaknesses. This mixing can be done right, but it can also make other classes seem pointless.

+1 to your pet peaves on psionic powers too.
I could understand some of those things. But not all of them.
My least favourate part of psionics was the 'elemento-kinesis' side of things where you basically move away from being a psychic, steal from the arcane classes then declare yourself an X-man.

Oggron wrote:

So noted Cheapy. I'll look into those at a later date.

Edit: And can we keep the call for Psionics out of this thread please. I'm happy with that being 3pp (and therefore optional). Never liked Psionics in 3.5 and I don't want Paizo to get dragged down by opening that particular can of worms. Plus from what I hear the 3pp source on this is very good, if you like that sort of thing.

Personally I'm happy with magic being magic. Always thought that Psionics was basically just something that made magic redundant from a thematic standpoint. Why spend years learning arcane formulae or earning the powers of a deity when you can just blow stuff up with your mind?

I've enjoyed pure Psionic settings and pure magic settings. Having both in a single setting just gets my hackles up.

That would a big NO, Oggron. Psionics doesn not mean sci-fi, and is quite acceptable in a fantasy setting. I would like to see a Pathfinder version of psionics that fits (mechanically) with the remainder of their classes, although I suspect many of those who champion the idea would hate it once produced. As an example of the direction that I believe Pathfinder should go with psionics, try my mind mage on for size.

After all, psionics IS magic.

And since when is it only a third party product that makes something optional? I don't allow anything outside of the Core Rulebooks unless I specifically give the player permission to use that class, feat, spell, or item that he found in the APG or Ultimate Combat or Ultimate Magic. The entire system is pretty much at the DMs option anyway.

Master Arminas

I like your interpretation this theme better than many I've seen Arminus. But the whole 'Psionics IS magic' statement is a subjective issue thats pointless to debate. There are many forums debating the inclusion of psionics, so we're hardly identifying a new niche here.

To me the 3.5 psionics system basically went:
"okay so you want to spell-like effects but you don't want to have spells per day (point pool system instead), you don't want to have to use any of the rituals/ restrictions/ somatic componants / flavor of magic, you don't want spell failure, you don't want to worry about estabilished methods of magic defense and you don't much care for balancing spells against other spells of the same level - be a Psionic!"

I got halfway through reading it and just got fed up of how easily it could be used to break things. It was a third tier of magic that seemed to render the other two largely obsolete. You'd think such a unique system of magic would be rare but suddenly it seems like every character and their pets use it.

I recognize and have enjoyed psionic rules systems in both scifi and fantasy settings. But I like to distinguish settings of Arcane/Divine and psionics, because in my mind they are very different interpretations of the same thing that if they ever coexisted. Logically one would outcompete the other for the same niche.

Many times I've asked the question of "In a world with Psionics where you can train your mind to cast spells, why would you waste your time learning arcane formulae or praying to a deity?"

The answer always boils down to 'variety is fun. its not broken, its different'. (as if something can't be different and broken)

But then as my answer boils down to 'I'm grumpy, don't wanna try nuthin new', don't take me too seriously.

So noted Cheapy. I'll look into those at a later date.

Edit: And can we keep the call for Psionics out of this thread please. I'm happy with that being 3pp (and therefore optional). Never liked Psionics in 3.5 and I don't want Paizo to get dragged down by opening that particular can of worms. Plus from what I hear the 3pp source on this is very good, if you like that sort of thing.

Personally I'm happy with magic being magic. Always thought that Psionics was basically just something that made magic redundant from a thematic standpoint. Why spend years learning arcane formulae or earning the powers of a deity when you can just blow stuff up with your mind?

I've enjoyed pure Psionic settings and pure magic settings. Having both in a single setting just gets my hackles up.

Oggron wrote:

The 'Tactician' might work better, or the 'Auxillery'

There's already a 'Tactician' Archetype for Fighters. Gets more skill points, gets the sort of additional class skills you'd expect from a leader/planner type. Check 'Ultimate Combat'-- it's in there.

Ah so I see. Not heard much of UC beyond tidbits from the pfsrd. Hhm, it occurs to me that something mixing some of the Bards mechanics into this vein would result in the elucidation of a clearer concept. But not the performance aspect of it. I could seen a military themed 'bannerman'/'military musician' archetype for the bard but this ain't really the theme we're trying for here (tho I that would work on its own).

I've seen a few 'officer' prestige classes knocking around that work on leadership abilities, passive buffs from inspiration, situational buffs from planning, teamwork feats etc. I just think you shouldn't have to wait for X levels to start leading men into battle. To do it well maybe, but there are born leaders out there. Hence why I support this as a base class idea.

Like with the 'Shaman' or 'Technomancer' ideas, you could have an archetype fill this niche. Or you could really explore it with a Base class and Archetypes.

Yeah I'm sure SGG has ssomething I like, just not read it yet. Perhaps a bit to rash in judging them. Anyways back on topic.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/rogue/archetypes/paizo---rogue -archetypes/swashbuckler

There already is a Swashbuckler rogue archetype but its not much like the old PHBII version. I like the idea of such a class, but it'd have to have a different name and be less of a straight conversion. Not this classes biggest fan due to one bad player. One 3.5 game he plays a cliche pirate who just randomly turns up on a desert island. Next game he brings back the same cliche pirate in a setting where we never come witting 1000 miles of the open ocean. Which begged thequestion of whether he could truly call himself a pirate... But yeah that's a tangent, moving on.

I heartily agree with the idea of a military strategist type class. There's definitely a niche there thematically. More emphasising teamwork feats, buff/debuff based class features and buffs that depend on strategy. Maybe leadership as a bonus feat with features that enhance it. Have yourself a Favored Subordinate through this mechanic.
Don't think you should call such a Class 'the Martial' or 'Warlord' so as not to poke the beast of WoTc legal team. And I think there's a 3pp 'Strategist' class out there. Calling it the 'Soldier' or 'Officer' is bland and naming after military ranks is more setting specific.

The 'Tactician' might work better, or the 'Auxillery'

Oggron wrote:

Heh no worries Finn K. I'd be hesitant to add steam punk elements into a fantasy setting as well. I mean I currently don't allow Monk, Samurai or Ninja cos of the setting disparity of having asian classes in a the african colonial setting of serpents skull (plus I don't have those books so theres a definite limitation there).

But the thread is about finding a unique niche and the consensus seems to be that the 'Artificer/Technomancer' is one such class. I suppose ultimately my suggestions on this meme could be used as archetypes. But one could just as easily make a flavorful class with a bunch of elements from this thread. Coupla archetypes too.

That isn't to say there actually should be an extra base class. Just saying there could be one based on this concept.

*nodnods* no worries on my side either-- just wanted to make sure I wasn't unnecessarily offending with my posts. :D

While we're on the subject of what we like or don't like in different fantasy environments though-- I'd like to see a really good artificer, but am not so interested in what I see as most of the technomancer/gadgeteer builds, because I am a big fan of "Magic AS Technology", but not a fan of "Technology as an alternative to Magic" (in worlds that have both) in my high fantasy games. Now if the set-up was something like Shadow Run, I'd be generally more interested in mixing the two.

Don't see any reason why the two concepts have to be mutually exclusive or render the other redundant. Better if magic and tech work together.

I have a similar policy since changing to pfrpg. Have only allowed 7 3.5/3pp feats and a select amount of items to enter my games. I would recommend Wolgang Bauers 'advanced feats' series published from Open Design. theres about 4-5 feats in those 9 pdf's I'd deem to be imbalanced, but with a few tweaks they are playeable.

Personally I'm not a fan of Super genius games 3pp. They seem to be in quite a rush to add class bloat. But a friend of mine bought some of their newer stuff so now I gotta review it for balance. ends up being quite a pain when players buy 3pp wanting to use it but only think as far as 'ooh shiny', not 'is this balanced?' or 'does this make sense in my setting'?

Heh no worries Finn K. I'd be hesitant to add steam punk elements into a fantasy setting as well. I mean I currently don't allow Monk, Samurai or Ninja cos of the setting disparity of having asian classes in a the african colonial setting of serpents skull (plus I don't have those books so theres a definite limitation there).

But the thread is about finding a unique niche and the consensus seems to be that the 'Artificer/Technomancer' is one such class. I suppose ultimately my suggestions on this meme could be used as archetypes. But one could just as easily make a flavorful class with a bunch of elements from this thread. Coupla archetypes too.

That isn't to say there actually should be an extra base class. Just saying there could be one based on this concept.

One 'Class' my groups discussed before as a niche comes from superhero genre. That is the powerset of characters like the Atom, Giganta, Stature, Ant-man, Wasp, Makarov etc. Bear with me cos this is very breakable idea.

This is just off the top of my head. We called it the 'Magnitus', as in Magnitude.

You have a class without full BAB progression (it gets a lot of abilities that more than offset that), that has spell-like abilities that allow you to change size as a standard action for a number of rounds each day equal to X + levelx2 + CON.

Start off with Large/Small and expand the available categories every 6 levels or so that at 18th you can go Fine or Colossal. Equipment and items shrink/grow with you. And a Full round changes you by 2 categories in one direction, or just a standard to change one.

Class feature that lets you change back to normal sized at 5th level as a move action. Note that for small races they get access to medium and large size transformations at 1st.

Level 10 lets you change one size category as a move action, and back to normal size as a free action.

Level 15 lets you change 2x size categories at once as a move.

Capstone ability allows you change from any size to any other size as a move action (this allows the sneak into baddy orifice and grow to full size tactic). Though they'd get something like an opposed constitution check to see whose damaged the most by this.

((Alternatively if 2 Size categories per 6 levels is imbalanced, how about 1 per 4 levels that lets you reach colossal or fine sized at 20th level?))

Ideas for class features:
(Note: too many for one class so these could be feats or archetype replacement features)

>Spell-like abilities around shrinking or enlarging allies, objects and enemies

>Bonus feats that let you wield oversized weapons at reduced penalties in base form. Though this wouldn't stack up in sizes beyond large.

>Class features that mitigate the size penalties. Choosing either Dex o Str to reduce the penalty by a small amount every 4 levels or so.

>A class feature that lets you control which square you shrink into. For example going from 30ft of space as a Colossal sized dude down to medium, picking one of the 30 squares

>Catch off guard, Throw anything as bonus feats?

>Rock throwing, rock catching, giant-like heavy object throwing feats etc. Combined with the above to fight with trees.

>Getting a free Stealth check in plain sight when shrinking to small size rapidly, extra stealth bonuses.

>A perception bonus for seeing things at long distance and a penalty for spotting small objects whilst enlarged, but the reverse when reduced.

>Getting a free bull rush attempt when growing rapidly to push enemies out of your squares as you grow in size. Bonuses on these.

>Insight bonuses for damaging structures and objects

>Bodyguard-esque features that help you protect your smaller allies by taking damage in their place or bonuses letting them use you for cover. And when shrunk, you use them for the same bonuses.

>Precision damage on enemies when small, attack bonuses to offset size penalties.

>Able to use escape artist whilst shrunk to squeeze your way inside enemies bodies and allow you to deal ability damage from targetting organs.

>CMB/CMD bonuses. Abilities that let you pick up and throw enemies/allies.

>Spell-like Barkskin and feather fall from density manipulation

>A x/day size change as a swift action to rapidly gain AC or CMD bonuses.

>Something that stops you from provoking AoO when size changing or using your size change abilities

>Something that lets you use trample, crushing damage etc when stamping or jumping on enemies.

>Similarly something that lets you generate small tremors to knock enemies prone like the feat from Tome of Monsters Complete. Smash or something?

>Abilities like intimidating presence that make creatures smaller than you cower in fear.

>Ability that lets allies climb you and fight from your shoulders, or that lets you use a free hand as an unstable platform and allows you to grant them elevation bonuses as a move action.