PepticBurrito's page

Before I begin, let's visit Natural Attack rules found in the Core Rulebook.

Page 182: "You do not receive additional natural attacks for a high base attack bonus. Instead, you receive additional attack rolls for multiple limb and body parts capable of making the attack (as noted by the race or ability that grants the attacks). If you possess only one natural attack (such as a bite—two claw attacks do not qualify), you add 1–1/2 times your Strength bonus on damage rolls made with that attack." (this is also found in the PRD at http://paizo.com/prd/combat.html)

What this means is the following. At BaB of 1, a creature with natural attacks will only get one attack per round. At BaB of 6, if the creature has multiple limbs capable of completely natural attacks, it will get two natural attacks per round. The first limb is at BaB of 6, the second limb is at BaB of 1. Each increase of BaB by 6 increases the number of limbs that can be attacked with.

Two-weapon fighting does not apply to natural attacks. For the purposes of a second attack, the second limb capable of performing a natural attack is not an "off-hand". There is no default negative to be changed on a second attack for offhand, because there is no off hand.

Having no offhand also means that Power Attack can be used with every natural attack the creature has.

Catfolk, which can have natural attacks in the form of their claws, have an item called "Cat's Claws" that turns their claw damage type from "Natural" to "Melee Slashing". This makes their second claw become an "off hand", which allows two-weapon fighting to come into play. This also removes the ability to use "Power Attack" with either of the Claw attacks".

Now, let's look at the Bloodrager Bloodline Abyssal. Page 11 of Advanced Class Playtest.

"Claws (Su): At 1st level, you grow claws. These claws are
treated as natural weapons, allowing you to make two
claw attacks as a full-attack action using your full base
attack bonus"

This sentence makes absolutely no sense and leaves a huge hole in the rules as to what happens at BaB of 6.

If, at BaB of 1, a Bloodrager can do two attacks as a full round attack, then at BaB of 6 they would NOT get any more attacks from having a high BaB ("You do not receive additional natural attacks for a high base attack bonus."}. They are out of attacking limbs, there is no more limbs that can be attacked with. Two-weapon fighting doesn't apply, since there is no "off-hand".

Recommendation for fix. Change the language found for Claw in Bloodrager (Abyssal) to the following:

"Claws (Su): At 1st level, you grow claws. These claws are
treated as the player holding two masterwork melee slashing weapons for purposes of enchantment and two-weapon fighting."

To keep these claws as "Natural Attacks" would require a lot of rewriting of rules, a bunch of special feats and/or abilities, or a lot of confusion at a gaming table. Considering the the fact that some experienced GMs I know have no idea how Natural attacks are run and treat them as both Natural and Melee slashing (a Barbarian Catfolk in their games get's 4 attacks per round at BaB 6), having special rules for Natural attacks and the Bloodrager will do nothing other than confuse players.

I would also recommend considering giving the claws specific damage tables based off BaB. So that as the character levels, the claws do more damage. At level 1, they do d4 while enlarged. At Level 6, they do d6. Etc.

So I GM'ed my first session of my campaign Saturday, using an overhead projector set up. I took a photo before game began that's available here.

There are limitations of my set up with this specific projector combined with my iPad. It is a wide screen projector and I have a first gen iPad, which is 4:3 for non-video applications. So the battle map software I'm using displays as 4:3 over the projector. I could stretch the image out with the projector, but the iPad software doesn't allow for different x,y grid sizes, so it distorts the image. The VGA port is via a dongle, where as the HDMI port is via a direct connection, so HDMI is very much preferred.

At the height shown in the picture (4.5 feet), the image is the size of the pillowcase on the table at 16:9. In 4:3, it comes out to about 24inx18in (a little larger than that). So it's not huge, but it doesn't need to be. The software on the iPad covers a gigantic area and can be moved as they go through an area. Big areas can be done and displayed. Lighting, line of sight, traps and hidden objects are built in.

The projector is 50 lumens, which was a worry when I ordered it. I have a Mitsubishi HC1600 (1600 Lumens) I use for movies and it's REALLY bright. I was surprised to find the PK301 worked quite well in household lighting and there is no problems with image quality even at a 10ft wide image.

Portability can't be beat, which is why I went with the set up. iPad, Projector, cords, and stand all fit in one bag.

Cost: Projector $280 with shipping (Amazon), 10ft HDMI cord $15-18 (Amazon), Stand $30 (Mainstay brand flexible lamp and Mainstay normal lamp at Walmart), modifications to lamp head $10 (Ace hardware)

I gutted both lamps. The main rod is a series of metal pieces that screw together. Both lamps were made by the same company and the metal pieces are compatible. I bought the second one so that I could have back ups and do any height I wanted. Only the flexible lamp was necessary. The lamp fixture was a series of screw on plastic pieces. It was modified with a rubber stopper, a bolt, a plastic cap, and some two part epoxy to act as a projector mount. The projector has a mount screw hole on the bottom. I'm using some spacers on the bolt so that the projector can be screwed on tight with no stripping of the connections.
There was some initial problems with weight. Basically the flexible section could hold the projector perfectly still at any angle if I had it shaped just right. Wrapping it with duct tape solved the problem. I got some plastic ties with a mechanism to be removed quickly to hold the cords down the length of the rod to keep them out of the way.

In game, I used software tokens (labeled with numbers on screen) and the players used their mini's. Combat Manger (Windows) was used for all combat tracking, spell and feat look ups, stat blocks, etc. Each monster labeled with numbers in Combat Manager corresponding to the tokens on my iPad. Combat could not go smoother. The players have access to ALL spells and feats from Paizo (which they use the PRD for). All spells and feats from the PRD are in Combat Manager, along with EVERYTHING needed to run combat by a GM. I can't recommend that software enough to GMs. When combined with on the fly touch generated maps on my iPad, everything from set up, to NPC/Monster selection, combat tracking, lighting/sight constraints, and everything in between just can't be better. Little things like the fact that their torches illuminate what they can see just make everything easier to manage.

I'm running a game in a heavily modified "Freeport" (Green Ronin), with a main plot centered around a heavily modified RoTRL (Paizo) background story. I've got the setting, story, and about 100 named NPCs complete. It's been quite a lot of work.

Problem is, I have one main story and no mini stories.

What I need is a BIG list of side quest materials that fit a privateer/pirate campaign setting. I'm not talking about NPC centric quests, I've got those. I'm talking random encounters.

For example (Straight from my notes):

THE BARDIC CUTPURSE:
The PCs go into a tavern where a bard is playing (basically the FIRST tavern the PCs go to). He uses “dazzle” a few times during the performance on the crowd to keep their attention. This scene can be combined with a generic NPC asking the players to do some low level task for some cash. The PCs leave. Sometime later in the session, the bard attempts to grab an item hanging off a PC and make a run for it. He will be cornered and the PCs will catch with him. The bard has already summoned his instrument. This is where the PCs learn what kind of bard it is. He’s a level 7 Demagogue bard. He has no intention of killing the PCs, he just wants to get away. He incites several members of the crowd to attack the PCs, so that he can get away with the item. When the bard performance no longer covers the attacking crowd, the attacking crowd will flee the scene. If this fails to lose the PCs, he will use his wand of silent image to create all sorts of reasons for the PCs to give up chase.
If the Bard is cornered, he will immediately surrender. He is desperate. He owes (my version of the mafia) money and is convinced that Sart is going to kill him soon (Sart, of course prefers to not do such things because dead people don’t pay back money). He’ll apologize profusely and say he’ll find a way to handle it himself.

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So in this case, I start with the simple idea of a Bardic Cutpurse. Since the campaign setting has been completely rewritten by me, I know where and how to put the idea. The problem I'm having is that the big lists of side quest I keep finding are for more kingdom based campaign settings. This game is going to run for quite a while in a "Pirate" city that's meant to be a little more on the gritty side. Traditional side quest material won't due.

Any ideas?

So, I've been looking at how Pathfinder actually states AoO in the book and noticed a few things that seem odd. I'm just wondering if I'm current.

Without Greater Trip, there is no AoO on target with a success.
Standing up, even if done as a full round action, gives a AoO. Moving while prone, even as a "5 ft step" gives an AoO.

Am I reading it right?

A player in my upcoming campaign wants to play a custom class. Basically, he wants an unarmored cleric who wears a priest outfit and role-plays like an Inquisitor. He is an experienced GM who runs custom classes in multi-planar settings. All of his game classes are seriously boosted, so that at level 10 the only way they make sense is if they are in a planar setting.

His idea of "balancing" this class incorporates having a prayer book that functions similar to a wizard spell book (same number of spells written in the book at comparable wizard level) with unlimited uses. Meaning, he gets a book of wands with unlimited charges that take a full round action to use. This idea has been completely discounted due to being fundamentally broken.

I do like the idea of a "priest", just not the priest from his campaigns. So, what I'm doing is looking at taking a cleric and inquisitor and making a hybrid class.

My basic idea is to permanently limit the armor and weapons to light. Scribe scroll at level one. Each cleric domain spell slot gets an additional inquisitor spell sitting next to it and/or judgements replace 1 or 2 channel energies/per day.

Any ideas?

So, I've decided to run a full campaign with these rules for player race building. I pulled all the monster and advanced traits, gave the players 10 RP, and limited them to three per category. They have fey and humanoid available to play.

My first inclination was to pull the general spell like abilities from the document entirely. After looking at it and doing some test builds, I changed all their requirements to "fey". I suspect giving humanoid races spell like abilities doesn't quite work. Whereas, a fey will have a harder time walking around in most cities without being noticed, which provides and effective trade off.

What do you guys think?