Weird Butler

Old Curmudgeon's page

Organized Play Member. 13 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character. 1 alias.


RSS

Silver Crusade

Thank you for that response. I've been off the internet for a bit and I just spotted it.

I think I will definitely have to coil up the concept of using a whip with Core

Silver Crusade

I'd play him as stoic, fierce, ingenious and forceful.

He might over-compensate at times (wearing primitive Orc cultural clothes, carrying a great axe at all times, being rude to elves, etc). He might also be keen on highlighting injustices done to the Orc people (Why do the PC races have all the good land?).

Aternatively he could be a controversial radical seeking to raise consciousness and demand equal rites for his people - think Malcolm X in need of a stepladder.

He could even demand to be treated as an Orc even if that prejudices him.

This is just my tuppence's worth.

Silver Crusade

GM Rednal wrote:

Heh.

...As a GM, I'm seriously leaning in the direction of Paladin being "any Good", and Antipaladin being "any Evil". It... seems to fit better.

Very early D&D, back to the first OD&D boxed set that had Hobbits rather than Halflings and the 9 alignment grid system, marked Lawful Good as Christian and Chaotic Evil as its opposite. It's a very old assumption.

Look at multiverse cosmology and count the planes too. The same assumption is there. Lawful Good is the goodest good, Chaotic Evil is the evilest evil.

If can be changed, of course, though.

Silver Crusade

Milo v3 wrote:
One thing I find interesting, that if push comes to shove you can go to modern day earth scientists with the golarion setting as a high level wizard and collaborate with them.

As far back as AD&D there have been jokes about fantasy adventurers playing games like Papers & Paychecks. People unfamiliar with this can google AD&D DMG cartoons.

Therefore the most likely interaction would a Wizard working out the right kind of Gate or doing the right kind sort of Summons (choose between Scientist, Bureaucrat or Middle-Manager). Another one might be a Wizard sent to a random destination in the multiverse ending up somewhere rather more mundane than expected.

A scientist transposed in a fantasy world would have to shift quite a few paradigms, I believe. The reason we resolve everything in science down to numbers is because people proved it could be done, this might be the case elsewhere.

Silver Crusade

Milo v3 wrote:
You don't even need to be an adventurer, anyone with enough wisdom to not have a penalty can perform magic with merely training as an adept of a magical tradition.

Exactly, although I was sticking to Wizards for illustrative purposes.

There has been much discussion about how magic does not behave like real world processes. That is because science has so far discovered that this is all there is. In a Pathfinder word there are different systems to be discovered by science.

What could be problematic is ruling out external influences on an experiment. There are all kinds of ways a hard to detect third party could mess up an experiment, which could be used to start to discredit the process of science.

Silver Crusade

Magic in Pathfinder is not as special as you might think.

Any adventurer can become a Wizard and if they have an Intelligence greater than 9 they can cast spells too. Likewise the theories of magic, Spellcraft and Knowledge(Arcana) can be studied by anyone.

Those spells are predictable, repeatable formulas that can modified due to well-know rules.

The rules of magic could be tested by science. A large reward paid out to someone who could demonstrate magic would be rapidly collected too.

So considering the availability and variety of magic in a Pathfinder games, special is not the right term to use.

Silver Crusade

You'll get maximum leeway for your constable by him believing that pretty much everyone you want to capture is heinous and that you are the lawful authority and due process is summary justice after torture.

This is not too far fetched. Medieval knights could deal out low justice to outlaws (people who failed to turn up to courts) by hanging them. This paralleled the latter handling of pirates.

Also torture was used in English law when someone was known to be guilty and the information they held was time critical. This happened to Guido Fawkes, whose mask was worn by "V" in "V for Vendetta" and now the Anonymous movement.

It was also used in Witchcraft trials, which were all very lawful even though they generally were designed to get someone to confess to cookie-cutter, standard confessions on pain of death so they could be killed for witchcraft.

So historically things were brutal. Your constable just needs the right mandate and some severe intolerance ...

Silver Crusade

GM Hands of Fate wrote:
Gisher wrote:
They should be a thing. A pack of diminutive vampires sounds awesome!
Vampiric Rat Swarm?

Vampiric Humming Birds of Doom?

Silver Crusade

As some who started DMing in '77 here is my humble advice.

By now you should be starting to know where you are weak when it comes to the rules, work out whether you want to play to by the book, throw out rules you disagree with or make house rules to patch things.

As for adventure designs try to make things as logical as possible as players will appreciate it as they work things out. An Orc subterranean raiding base? Give it a back door, places to keep riding beasts, links to thier overlord (and possibly evidence of at least change due to turbulent Orc politics) and think about how their loot would be distributed.

For inspiration see some of the 70s Sword & Sorcery movies and consider reading some Conan or Micheal Moorcock.

Good luck!

Silver Crusade

Arachnofiend wrote:
Battle Clerics are very effective in Pathfinder, but they're strong for DPR, not CMB. You really want to stay in full BAB classes (or at least classes that get pseudo-full BAB like the Monk) for a trip build to be viable.

Thank you for your advice.

Things are fluid at the moment, if a trip character does not make sense when I dot the i's and cross the t's, I might construct such a cleric.

Silver Crusade

Arachnofiend wrote:

The feats that make a whip viable are non-core. You'd be better served picking out a polearm.

If you're set on using a whip, then as a Fighter you have feats to spare and losing BAB for a Bard dip is counterproductive to your desire to use CMB. Go with EWP.

This got me thinking - there is one more source of whip in Core, a Cleric of Calistria gets one because whip is Calistria's favored weapon. Combat clerics, focused on buffing themselves, used to nearly work in 3.5 so this is a possible.

There probably is at least one more hidden away but if the necessary whip feats are outside of Core then it is a moot point unfortunately.

Silver Crusade

tchrman35 wrote:
Falxu wrote:
If Half-Orc appeals to you, you can pick up whip as a trait... assuming traits are allowed in your game.
For Organized Play, the only traits available are from the Traits Web Enhancement, and I don't think that one's in there. (I think they're, with few if any exceptions, the ones from the APG.)

There are four sources for Core are the Core Rulesbook, Character Traits Web Enhancement and the Pathfinder Society: Year of the Serpent Pathfinder Society Role-Playing Guild Guide. If one of those sources references Bestairy I then that can be used too - but only if it is referenced.

Core is stricter than general organized play.

Silver Crusade

I've been working on preparing a Core character for organized play and I'm tempted by a trip character. I'm close to picking either a Human or Elf Fighter.

However the question of a weapon remains and I am favoring a whip. The two routes I can see is either taking the Exotic Weapon Feat or a level of Bard.

Is there a third option?

Currently the feat seems the best choice as the synergies between my draft build and a level of Bard is just not making any sense.

Yours, curmudgeonly