Oxylepy's page

Going on the logic that the sun cannot be seen, at about 500 feet up the planet becomes invisible even when taking a 20 for many characters (DC of 2+50).

Honestly I've always felt they should have a rules breaking and development pre-release.

There are people on this forum who will go through the printed text of every single page of a book, usually within the first 2 weeks, pointing out errors.

There are think tanks on the boards which will find exploits in the rules and abiguities which later need to be FAQ'd.

Save money on editors, save developer time, save heartache, simply have a PDF beta for the editor fans, have a text alpha for the think tanks, and have an exclusive pre-alpha for the loyal posters to aid in the developmental state.

Pay attention to your posters, use the resources you have available to you, and produce a better product. This was my same suggestion about the Warhammer rules, the company decided they made miniatures, not rules, tried to push up miniature sales and turned the game into a cluster------, and fantasy followed suit, now there are 3 valid rule systems for the fantasy game and a lot of people have left. Don't follow the same path, focus on using your resources and focus on your gamers, then you can build a very solid product and avoid confusion, ambiguities, and developmental difficulties. Profits will take care of themselves.

The real question about magical girls, is how do I get a human being who is adept at every weapon that exists to be my familiar and how do I use null magic as my only source of magic.

I think to handle Louise a Kineticist would have been MUCH better, with an eidolon instead of a familiar, that would work for the entire Familiar of Zero world

As a companion, though, it is completely unlike anything else. It would have been really nice if it were designed as an actual shadow version of you, or at least became a Greater Shadow at 10 SD levels

Personally as a GM I prefer prepared casters by a wide margin. Just strikethrough the spell you cast.

As a player, and for PCs in my games, I greatly prefer spontaneous casters. First because it cuts down paperwork. Second because my players are cheating **** ******** ****** ***** **** ******* mother ******* *** ********* ***. bad at paperwork. Third, I like the ways of breaking them more.

Read Juju Oracle just now saw nothing about them improving Undead what so ever. What version are you using since the version I saw didn't offer anything really worth taking it for.

Spirit Vessels (Su): You can channel wendo spirits into lifeless bodies, reanimating them to aid you. When using the animate dead spell, you can control 6 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level rather than 4 HD. In addition, any zombies or juju zombies you create using animate dead, create undead, or similar spells possess maximum hit points.

Juju Mystery

Hrm. I suppose I could use Feyspeaker to make a solid Druid Lich. And go for the Shadow Spells to steal most any 2 level lower sorc/wizard spell I want... hrrrm

I've always treated them as programed corpse-y constructs. They act according to their programming and at worst they may need to be trained to adequately program them. What they can't do is communicate or take the orders of one other than their controler

Are you trying to make way for a hyperspace bypass? In that case, it's lawful...

Only after the proper forms have been filled out in triplicate

Wait until the GM goes to the bathroom, then look at his notes.

:D

Be sure to feed your GM if this is your goal. I, personally, wouldn't leave a combat still active to go to the bathroom. But enough tacos will throw any semblance of holding it out the window

I actually have a number of different gods in my world.

Those who earn it (which is the primary option for PCs). This is where the class level system is utilized and where the players typically achieve it. It's easiest for the gaming system to handle this by just having it be another tier of gameplay, for which I use things from 3.5 and the PCs must actually find a way to surpass whatever level cap they have (anywhere from 30-50). This is the place for gods like Shar who was an adlet sorcerer that achieved divinity by creating Nightshades from fiends, rending a small fraction of each transformation into herself and reaching divinity through that. Or Miliara, mother of Undeath, the first (humanoid, at least) lich and creater of Vampires, who achieved divinity by leading the dark elves to freedom from elven slavery while inventing a means of achieving a form of immortality, then spending millenia traversing the planes, finally coming across the divine drow representation of her as a god, and killing it to merge with it.

Those who have it innately, merely born with divine spark. The Deer God a divine stag of storms is this kind of god and is effectively a CR 14. Mira the Vain Lich is in this class merely from her heritage and from discovering her innate word of creation (change/polymorph effects).

Those who are believed in, which range from beings who are little more than a turtle (Small Gods reference) to things like Umberlee.

Those who are gifted or earn it, which is often demigod to low level god status from other gods granting them a fraction of their spark. These gods are in service to and act as an aspect of another god. From previous examples this includes the first vampires (Miliara) and the Generals of the Void (Shar).

Those who are part of the underlying structure of the multiverse which tend to remain unseen by my PCs but make up an infinite pantheon begining from the encompassing everything (11th dimmension), down to the points (0th dimmensional). Notably Mira's father was one of these (5th) and could have altered this entire reality with a word if he wanted to anger its own 5th dimmensional god, or his and her 6th.

Those who are effectively gods but at the same time aren't part of the system's of divinity, such as the Sourcerer, the seventh itteration of the seventh son of a seventh son, who is a living font of magic, capable of altering reality and bringing forth new magics. Or the Time Dragon (the only one) who exists in all times at once and yet remains unborn and yet long since dead.

Give me a little more credit than a singular form of god. But the point remains true that I must somehow mechanic divinity for PC's sake as I offer the ability to achieve it to the PCs

Yeah, pretty much my own way of looking at the rules, and it makes the most sense to me that way

As a GM I have always held the following positions:

These spells don't end at death, and revival in the same body retains them.

A new body will no longer have those effects.

Lichs lose these effects if it isn't built into their phylactery (as per creating an effect on a magic item which has a material component).

I bring up the last point because in most circumstances that has actually come up with my group enough that it's important.

I make them do the 36 questions for building relationships, and a set of about 20 questions for creating a character background and interesting character. That's to make up for them not having developed their character through gameplay.

My group is ADHD and, unlike me, cannot build solid back stories or well rounded characters. So this system is punishment enough for them.

Nine factorial is much higher than the system we have been using to generate intelligence scores.

Alright, it can turn an infinite number of hitpoints to 0 or less.

Gradually degrade their sense of self and desire for life until they take their own lives. It's fun for the whole party.

CrimsonVixen wrote:

I may be chaotic evil, but there are some crimes that are just too evil for me. Not sharing my lust is one of those.

That is a code of conduct I could get behind, or on top of, or under, etc...

Famous last words.

Charlie Bell wrote:

What about nasty things you do choose to throw at your players?

This sounds like a great spin-off thread!

3 parties have now been tpked by shocker lizards in my campaigns. They are presented with a clearing full of them, no one rolls knowledge, someone messes with them

I agree, but mechanically pirates are to be "chaotic" in nature because they do not follow the overarching alignment system, which is far too basic to really cover things. As for things which use the actual alignment, a classifying breakdown to generate spectrums within the standard system is useful for me as GM, which still maintains a stronger illusion of a more gray system for by my players and myself, as well as remove certain restrictions from classes which I already have to.

Personally I do not see this world or the gaming world within this black and white system the game does. As an example, I feel strongly that acts using human psychology to manipulate others for your own gain is extremely evil, and yet I see google targeting advertising toward you based on previous searches or shopping, and I see grocery stores moving product around to confuse patrons into purchasing things they otherwise would not want. To me these are very distinctly evil actions which are viewed by many as proper or okay. History texts remember victors as freedom fighters, and losers as terrorists, but many within our own society are starting to see the folly in this and altering the terms, this doesn't alter the definitions of those groups, but heavily alters emotional connotations.

By that logic you need to also kill all the humans. They constantly infest everyone else's grain silos, steal from the other races, and generally act antisocial.

Also the halflings will take your stuff and eat your food too.

Many of the people who are saying they have had non-negative experiences seem to be referring to long term, stabalized relationships.

My own negative experiences are from relationships of college age people, that haven't been going on for a long period, or that are unstable just because of the relationship at hand.

It isn't so much the gaming together as it is the participants who are gaming together. This is just like any group who plays together, however in this dynamic the same problems can be grossly exaggerated.

Choose your groups well and everything should work out.

I actually have Zapp as an anti-neutral paladin in my current campaign. He has yet to be introduced, but Danny Elfman has, who purchased a body from the PCs and then walked off singing Dead Man's Party (which is a place the PCs will be going to in about a month or two).

As for the topic at hand, again revering nature and dominating animals to go to their deaths (like sending a dog to die to traps or to fight the BBEG) are not always going to be mutually exclusive. The GM and player should be talking about this and expectations of the character's druid.

Some here argue vehemently one way, others the other. No where in the rules does it say that revering nature means that you seek to protect all the animals from harm, or that you will cause no direct harm to animals. Druidic practices of disemboweling animals every day to prepare spells, casting their entrails to your gods, is not directly disallowed, and would actually be revering whatever nature that druid holds dear. GMs and Players alike may argue they do not wish Druids to behave in such a fashion, and if that is the case ot amounts to home rulings.

Oxylepy wrote:

My players choose the skill point about one fifth of the time. Alternative benefits for classes are much stronger. However they MUST be immediate, the 1/5th thing is worthless none of them ever want it, and I wouldn't want it either.

If you are talking about the 1/6 of a feat/talent options, they are usually well worth it. Consider that taking one hp per level is no different than a single feat, toughness. The good 1/6 options give you as much of a feat at level 6 as you would have gotten at 20 by just taking an hp every level.

Sorry, opinion based on my experiences as a player. Hitting 6th level in any game is pretty much the end. DM's tend to just end the games around then, for whatever reason

Throw a shiny red ball. It is sure to chase it.

I don't know....I can see a grappler managing a succubus-proof hold...

Attack from behind, grappler's arms up under the succubus' arms, reaching back and pulling those arms back, reach back under the succubus' wings, push them up, hands on the back of the succubus' head, holding that down, pin to the ground, knee on the back.

Completely non-sexy hold on the monk's part, and nothing the succubus can do on her part.

I'd throw in incubi handling scenarios too for equal time, but they apparently work very differently

edit-Actually, coming up with pinning visuals and strategies for beings with unusual symmetries is kinda fun. That could be a thread all on its own...

This sounds like my last hookup. But with less leather and I saw nothing about manacles

I cannot recall and am far too lazy to bother getting up to find it. I think it was in one of the bestiaries and have legionnaires as the image for the one creature that used it. They are effectively swarms of small or larger enemies. They can be found here

I just let people smack them around as if they were not a huge group of creatures (unlike swarms). Swarms save themselves because their size makes them far too small to hit adequately and it's hard to imagine millions of spiders with a pool of 500hp really feeling that fraction of a hit point from smashing 10 of them. Troops, however, are easy to smack individuals of (treating millions of individuals in a troop as a swarm, though, if you're running around in a mech suit) and thus lose HP accordingly.

It will save a buuunch of hastle for you guys and you can have much more believeable groups working with your BBEG. If you want them fighting a hundred goblins because the Ogre King commands it, awesome, it will take like a half hour of playing kick the gobo and suddenly you all feel really good about yourselves.

I sometimes hold back on the number of minions the BBEG has in the interest of saving time. I have occasional players who drive over 2 hours to attend my games and I try to end at a reasonable hour so that they can make it home safely.

Have you considered troop creature types? They substantially reduce the time for large groups of enemies

Oozes. Anything easier than painfully difficult and horribly life threatening

Highly complicated and something you have to keep track of, which will likely become tedious...

Definitely a slick move. I'm also on the anti-cumpulsory alignment idea. Too many aspects of alignment are subjective, but at the same time outsiders with alignment subtypes are forced to play within the rules of alignment (lack of free will, often). However even with a non-compulsory alignment system where a Lahmia could protect a village from erradication by zealots, having the monsters in some way linked back to an evil deity (Medusa I would think for this) does explain their typical state of alignment

Pretty much everything. DnD gods from FR and Greyhawk, pathfinder gods, player characters from old campaigns who hit level 40 and became gods and are some of the strongest deitic presences, my own gods to fill odd rolls where necessary, and then the gods who made this reality.

Pretty much have it set so the first god was 11 dimensional, who made infinite 10th dimensional deities, and so fourth to the fourth dimensional ones who pretty much made everything as it is in this universe. Random fifth dimensional planes walking gods pop up from time to time to go all Zeus and boink farmer's daughters, but aside from the Sourcerer that's about the most potent thing in the universe at any given time, and they aren't around long.

Edit- I forgot my favorite god. Because my players say Dear God in response to a lot of things, sometimes the Deer God appears on thundering hooves from the sky, often to stare at the party and eat grass, then leave in a far less dramatic way. He is petrified by bright lights amd loud noises, especially when they are moving toward him, but none of the PCs have tried this

I'm working on a homebrew class at the moment to fill a kind of wizard/loremaster/pathfinder chronicler role, the latter two I have always enjoyed conceptually, but found lacking as they are seperate and prestige. So this is a go at conjoining them into a scholar who persues lore and does research in some field.

As for the main balancing issues I need to run through the features of the class and figure out where to expand things or if certain abilities will push it toward being overpowered.

First the spellcasting: Wizard progression, Arcane study.
Arcane Study: Select a school of magic as a primary school, all other schools require 2 spell slots to prepare spells from
Commentary: as a specialist wizard, however all other schools are treated as opposition schools, and there are no special abilities granted based on school.
Considering: Allowing Universal spells to be exempt from the 2 slot restriction. Also highly considering the ability to learn spells from other 9-level casting classes (Cleric, Witch, Druid) which are part of your primary school (likely with a requirement to have a scroll or spellbook of the spell and research costs involved, as for druid spells it would require understanding the language either through linguistics or the bonus language class feature).

Commentary overall on spellcasting: The concept here is that they have less spellcasting ability overall than a wizard, refining their research substantially to a single school of magic. This is also to maintain a level of balance with the other class abilities.

Core class concept: Research Paths
This is a highly open ability selection, similar to a witches hexs, sorcerer's bloodline, oracle's mystery, etc. Initially I was considering doing this as an oracle's mystery, but I have conceived of too many overlapping concepts (I was building this with a Dread Necrancer feel to it as a path of research in Undead, my friend wants to play the class and study spirits, which between the two of them there would be overlap, hence something more like a large list would work).
So, I'm not going to sit and list out examples as this section isn't so much where I need help, but this will be where power control comes in, as more or less abilities will lead to substantially different power levels to the overall class.
Anyway, the way this works is the player chooses a field to study (which will have examples, but also allow the DM and player to go beyond those examples), then throughout the progress of the character they select abilities to gain related to that study. Each ability will give a list of the suggested fields it can be taken with.
Currently looking at stealing things like the Dread Necromancer's bonus to HD controlled with animate dead, and the Dread Necrancer's increased ability scores for undead they create both of those would work with studying Undeath. Also looking at the Witch Doctor's Channel Energy feature, the Cleric Animal Domain's animal companion, etc. Stealing things from other classes here shamelessly, often with a minor to moderate reduction to ability if it it a major feature, while things like sorcerer bloodline abilities or witch hexes would just be stolen straight.
With a research topic like Undeath I figure they should be one of the most potent necromancers based on their restriction to spellcasting ability, and similarly with other specific topics which would really refine them toward a specific goal. (Sorry about the necro heavy focus that's just a pet love of mine, I do intend for it to focus elsewhere equally, however I am also going to use this for an NPC in game as well)

At the moment I am considering this as 5 total effects gained, plus a capstone, one at level 1, 4, 8, 12, and 16 with a final bigger one at level 20 from a different list of capstones.

Secondary abilities:
Breadth of Knowledge: This is the Bardic Knowledge ability, but I am going to expand it to linguistics and appraise, probably also craft and spellcraft to round out the intelligence based skills.
Loremaster: As per the bard ability.
True Lore: As per the Loremaster ability, probably around 14-16, depending on which level lacks major bonuses.
Bonus Languages: As per the Loremaster Ability, I was thinking about level 10 and every 3 levels after, but this is a minor balancing point as I am not sure how many to give.

And that about rounds it out. I am stuck on how many bonus languages to give and if I should push Breadth of Knowledge out to all intelligence based skills. From there I'm not certain if 5 or more abilities through their research path should be given, as comparing it to Sorc says it's good, while Oracle says it's low, and Witch/Arcanist say it's extremely low. Also the questions remain about the points in their spellcasting.

Help appreciated and desired.

Edit: d6 hit die, 2+Int for skills, slow BAB, Will as a good save, Wizard skills (dropping Fly and adding UMD)