Philo Pharynx's page

Are you using free archetype?

To all those selected, Good luck, have fun, don't die!

Being single, I'm celebrating the holiday weekend by going camping. With my hockey mask and machete.

But best to everybody who does have somebody.

"Actually, books give you new thoughts." adds Escher.

stats: 1d4 ⇒ 4

Oh, I know why somebody would want to play a kitsune. I started an HR game in person with a kitsune. But the GM burned out quickly.

I was considering bringing in the same character for this game. But I don't want to step on another person's concept.

Using Elans to represent Empty Vessels is... Inspired. <Ba-dum-tiss>

I'm thinking of a Kalashtar that brings forth a bit of quori form.

Either synthesist summoner or aberrant aegis.

I am ... skeptical.

Now that people are okay with the loot sheet, do we have a list or should we start combing the thread?

As much as the developers try to assign equalizing value to magic items, it's impossible. Different classes have different needs at different levels. That's why my usual philosophy is to treat magic item distribution with equity instead of equality.

Then I think we do need to keep a list of what everybody has gotten so that we have a way of noticing who is getting what. I've seen so many cases of handwaving this that end up with somebody eventually getting really boned over time. If you don't get what you need/want from found items, then you have to spend your share of the money on it while the guy who has their needed stuff fall in their lap gets to spend on cool stuff.

First priority, we shore up the weaknesses of the people who need it most.

Agreed.

Then we expand party utility. Improving personal specializations is the last priority. Generally, everyone is already going to be good at the thing they've decided to build their character around so the party doesn't need to invest resources into improving those things.

Eh, this one is pretty vague. And some characters expand easily while others are focused on doing one thing well. I prefer having people decide for themselves which way they want to go. Party input is okay.

Some characters are going to end up with more total equipment value than others, and that's fine.

It's okay to some degree, and it's okay in the short term. But if you don't monitor it over a whole campaign it leads to problems in the long term. I've seen games where some people end up with twice the value as others. Sometimes this is based on who speaks up and who doesn't.

I get that not everyone plays that way, or thinks about it that way, so I'm willing to be flexible. It's just my preference.

My preference is to keep track and ensure equality over the long term. I definitely don't think we should always balance whenever we split stuff up, but if somebody has been getting a lot of stuff, we focus on others.

Money is different. Even split with an extra share for group expenses tends to be easiest.

As I've said, this favors the people who have gotten items. Balancing getting a lot of items by getting less money helps even this out. Especially because the person who doesn't find the items that they need is spending full price on them.

This game blurs the line a bit because of Mal. His whole character concept is bottle necked by needing a huge pile of cash as quickly as possible.

In my perfect world, we keep track of this and Mal "owes" the party. As we get more valuable treasure as we go on, it will eventually be paid and everybody is happy.

But another way on this is that when we divide stuff, Mal's armor fund gets a share. We would do this for all significant projects. Once he has it, then we take out that share and go on.

Selling magic items tends to be a bad idea because after we halve the value for sale, and then split it by shares, each of us ends up with surprisingly little.

True, but we need to balance the fact that money is fungible. I've been in parties where they kept everything that could possibly be useful in some scenario or another, and ended up without much of the stuff they used every fight.

My thought is, we treat everything that would normally be sold as an item Mal needs for his character to function. He gets the cash value as if that item was being used as a reagent to build his phylactery armor. After he's a death knight he'll need a lot less gear and cash, so the distribution will equalize again.

I can see this. I just don't trust the system to equalize naturally without some effort from the party.

I have to get to work, but I'll put forth a formal proposal later.

Usgar wrote:

Usgar continues searching but hopes that the others have an eye on the creature.

Any result for the perception check GM?

Sorry, I just now got on. I wonder what the forum reboot is going to look like and how it's going to take shape.

The fire turns green at Escher's question. The little flaming sphere won't come near you because of the bucket of water.

Welcome back! Which of the three questions did it react to?

Going off the inventory google sheet, there is about 602 gp worth of items listed for sale.

there is that brazen minotaur head, giving some time Krakas would investigate and identify the item in a few days.

If we are able to sell all the stuff, it would be 86 gp for each of us.

Would I be able to get a gate attenuator before we go? I can't use runes, so it's unlikely that the module will provide.

the righteous medal of valor grants a +2 to CMD, converting would that be a +2 bonus to Fort saves vs Trip/Grapple/Disarm checks basically?

And I'm assuming this is an item bonus.

I am having difficulty searching for the game. Can you post the link as text and I'll work it out?

Did your party recruit Vendalfek? We had a game where my PC died and I took over the little guy and began levelling him up. I have a version at 6th level ready to go. Very useful as a spy and messenger.

As for politics, I've played in a few games with people on opposite sides and I definitely do not want to step into that sucking pit of misery. The only politics in this game is overthrowing Barzillai Thrune.

Dove/sarenrae

Do you let automatic bonus progression affect elemental blasts? by RAW, it doesn't because kineticists are neither fish nor fowl.

Could I do blessed one as my free archetype? It seems appropriate for a god of heling..

Also, could I make my scimitar finesse? I don't see strength being my strong suit.

Hmm... I'm considering Sarenrae's Dove. I'm thinking fetching bangles for my ikon.

I'll probably go pyrokineticist as my second class.

One curiosity... you're paying to play, not survive. Not play a particular character.

Actually, this is one of the things I think would be interesting about paid games. Playing some concept that doesn't work in most games. As well as games that few GM's offer. Like Unknown Armies, for example.

Blake's Tiger wrote:

Philo Pharynx wrote:

I don't see how you'd set up a Pay for PBP system. But it's an interesting challenge.

Paid GMing PbP, having done years of PbP, is particularly worrisome.

However, the more legitimate pricing is “per person per Chapter” or “per person per X%.” There’s still room for questionable business practices (e.g., someone drops partway through a pre-paid block, and then a new player is recruited and charged full price for the block).

I definitely would look askance at anyone charging up front for a full AP or even Module.

Okay an unscheduled opinion question: How would you feel if the GM requested the players purchase the AP?

I'd expect a lower price if the players had to pay for the AP for the GM.

As long as paizo is careful about which it favour and how much.

Philo Pharynx wrote:

I do think that Paizo should probably keep it on a separate forum. Or at least require "paid" in the post title. I've read a few games and started getting interested to find the buried lede that it was a paid game.

Society Play had a similar issue around the time things shifted from many people thinking Society Play was unwelcome in PbP/online campaign to many people thinking PbP/OC was exclusively for Society Play.

I do get annoyed when I open a game to look at it and only find that it's PFS once it's opened.

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Another thing to mention is that the whole game industry is never very stable. The number of game companies that have died is huge. Paizo just lost a big chunk of money when a distributor went bankrupt. Definitely enough to impact their budget. Making games is also front-loaded. It takes a lot of money to make a good game book, and they only get any profit after all the work is done and they start selling it. Paizo isn't trying to monetize it's customer like the Hasborg, but if some people are going to pay anyway, why not offer a service?

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I'd be interested if they have ideas for different ways to pay. Right now most paid games I've seen are live events. I don't see how you'd set up a Pay for PBP system. But it's an interesting challenge.

Eh, I don't have an issue with this. I'm pretty lucky and have usually had several games. But some of my forever GM's are older than I and have health issues.

I've been broke before and I know gamers who have had trouble getting work for all sorts of reasons.

Hiring a GM can be a way to scratch that itch of "I want to play a game or edition that isn't very popular."

I do think that Paizo should probably keep it on a separate forum. Or at least require "paid" in the post title. I've read a few games and started getting interested to find the buried lede that it was a paid game.

Let's see, if I'm serious about building something for this game I should roll...

6d6

You get to reroll 1's.

Or level 6 with 6 mythic tiers...

hmmm...

stats: 7d6 - 1 ⇒ (6, 1, 4, 6, 6, 3, 3) - 1 = 28

28+12=40.

Still thinking of concepts. Got a couple brewing.

Glad to see you back! I'm sorry to hear about your troubles, but glad that things seem to be clearing up.

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Violant wrote:

Mostly thinking about it because it seems the gestalt rules seem to favor one casting class and one non-casting class.

The "traditional wisdom" for gestalt is to mix a full caster and a full martial, but it's not really necessary. Zephyr uses very little of his caster side, which isn't even a full caster, literally just a couple Destruction talents and a feat to augment his Vital Strike. You'll be fine either way IMO.

Oh, there's lots of advice on gestalting over the years. And spheres adds it's own twist.

In traditional pf1, a dual caster gestalt simply gave you a wider range of spells to cast. You had more flexibility and more endurance, but in each encounter you played much like a single class spellcaster. Dual martial build often stacked features on top of each other. Like adding sneak attack to barbarian rage.

But in spheres some talents modify other talents and amplify them. So you could build wide with flexibility or build deep with stacking abilities. And many spheres classes blur the line between martial and caster.

One point to note is that you have the same number of actions. Some people choose one class that focuses more on combat options and another that has a lot outside of combat. Think about what your combat rounds will be like. Including when you are not in your optimal place. And think of what you'll do outside of combat in different kinds of situations.

We have the advantage of knowing that we're constables. As a party, we need to be good at everything that they do. I expect that over the course of the game we'll do a little of everything. But you should know what benefits your character beings to the RHC.

I'm getting worried about our GM.

What's more, I'm having flashbacks to a game that died mysteriously when the GM disappeared. I found out what happened a couple years later. She had been in a car crash and had severe brain injuries. Extensive enough that she was a significantly different person after recovery. She didn't even remember our game.

I seriously hope that our GM is going through less than that.

Shinediggersby wrote:

How common are people with superpowers in this setting?

Not very common. 1.5% of the population has superpower.

I'm not an Otaku about MHA, but I thought that the majority of the population had quirks. It's just that most people have less powerful quirks that aren't suitable for superheroing.

Howdy, DM,

With one of the other contenders also doing the Astrology tradition in hedgewitch, I was thinking of switching mine to Fortune. Is that still okay at this point? It suits the fortune-teller vibe that I am looking to project.

I'm okay with doubling up on Astrology. the characters are different enough that this still works, and it gives a built-in link between the characters.

Seth86 wrote:

@Silver I have an idea we can work on for a connection if we are both chosen for this

Cool, I'm curious!

Also, where is Zion High?

Can it be a floating campus like Sky High?

Okay, I'm thinking of a hero with sonic powers. He is going to be bat-themed. For the costume, can it be a device? I was thinking of a wing suit to go with the bat theming.

eriktd wrote:

Also, for characters with Unarmored Training looking for armor that isn't armor, there's leather armor made from stable shadowstuff, which may be slightly cheaper than clothborn. And, unlike clothborn or leatherborn plate armor, you don't have to have heavy armor proficiency to wear it! (Though granted, there's no penalty for wearing armor without proficiency if the ACP is 0.)

That, huh. I didn't know that existed. That's, actually incredibly powerful, isn't it? The AC bonus wouldn't stack by itself, but it would be a powerful way for a Monk or similar to get extra AC, and even if it doesn't give you any further AC bonus, you can still use it to get armour enhancementslike Fortification, can't you? Though honestly, 3.5 has far superior armour enhancements. Soulfire is damn strong.

And I admit, I couldn't find how much Clothborn actually costs.

Of course the cost of stable shadowstuff makes it infeasible for me at the moment.

I think Clothborn was a 3pp enchantment.

I've had people I've tried to turn on to Pathfinder tell me they were interested but the website scarred them away. One of the most common complaints about PF is the website lol. It might be THE most common complaint.

I appreciate that out-of-the-box website solutions for what paizo was trying to do didn't exist back then, and I know Paizo isn't a financial juggernaut, but, like, it's time for a new website.

One of the problems is that switching to a new forum would probably break existing games and there are decades of forum posts. They could go to a new system and keep the old one for a few years, but that would be messy.

I noticed something about Ayreth. I suspect that you took the ring of sustenance for the same reason that Tavius did. When you only need two hours of sleep, it's more time to study the heavens.

I think that we can play off of each other well.

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For people who are still looking for a concept, the themes we haven't yet seen a completed character for are:

Yerasol Veteran/Monument of War - a.k.a weaponized PTSD
Docker/Notorious Celebrity - a.k.a. OG influencer
Martial Scientist/Polyhistor - a.k.a. "But I find that Thibault cancels out Capo Ferro, don’t you?"
Vekeshi Mystic/Vekeshi Excoriant - a.k.a. a faith stronger than death

Nah, it's more that the gunslingers talk loudly. Because of the hearing loss.

@Philo Pharynx: True, true! To be fair though, I try to avoid being the GM that looks to one-shot PCs unless I make it clear beforehand that I plan on taking the gloves off, something I made clear in my Coliseum Morpheuon recruitment since the whole idea was for an uncompromising game where no one had to pull their punches and vets could enjoy both pushing limits and having their limits pushed.

Oh, I wasn't implying that you intended this. There are always times when the random number gods decide to gang up one one character.

Hmmm, this talk about Conscripts/Incanters, and how strong/useful they are in Gestalt, reminds me of the Evolutionist from Giant in the Playground.

As a class, its kinda basic, mostly a 'build your own monster' class that is meant to focus on natural weapons with maybe one or two exotic abilities. But the problem is that when it gets put into Gestalt, it turns into pure gas, taking the other side of the Gestalt and jacking it up to 10 with bonus feats, increased ability scores, and other such tricks.

I hadn't seen that one before, and boy does gestalt change the balance. for those who haven't seen it it starts out with the worst in BAB, saves, and skill points. But you can spend your mutation points to improve any of these. With Gestalt, your other class will be better with some of these, leaving more mutation points for everything else.

That's a lot of incanting.

I think Incanter works better in gestalt than on it's own. It reinforces the beats of the first class better than going with a class with a stronger theme.

@Tavius: Do you honestly believe I'd make the PCs encounter an optimized sniper foe in a fantasy steampunk setting? Because, well... you're kinda right!

That's why I'm making sure that people are aware of this. In a less-optimized game, called shots can be overkill. But with the resources we have, most characters should have some way to deal with it.

Oh, can we use the Autohypnosis skill from psionics? It makes sense for my background.

Well, those are basically your super-powered campaign traits and you get both the associated feat and first level of the associated three-level PrC for free. You also get the remaining two levels of the associated PrC at 7th level (when you would normally qualify for one of the PrCs) and 10th level (the earliest you could max out the PrC).

Is this one level on one side of the gestalt? Or is it a sixth non-gestalt level? Or do we just get the class features without the traditional level-based stuff like BAB, HP and saves?

My concept is an academic Deva skyseer focusing on divination, light, and a touch of destruction.

And of course this lands shortly before I go watch Thunderbolts*

I definitely get the feeling that we are going to be immersed in all of the cool stuff from the player's guide. I definitely think that people should try to find a few hooks that draw their characters into this world.

Sounds great. But now I have to go. My muse has set up an interview between my character and Inspector Delft. Hopefully a name will come before I'm done.

Wow, that was unexpected. Wonderful but unexpected.

I had set aside my deva astrological detective. I think I'll be able to dive back in, assuming I don't get distracted by another concept.

Pick 2 classes and run with them, right? How would Prestige Classes work, or are they not allowed?

In general you can't gestalt into prestige classes that are combinations of two classes like the mystic theurge or eldritch scoundrel. Many GM's also require you to get the class from only one side of the gestalt.

Hmm... I'm thinking Goblin Rogue/telekineticist. He was likely in jail before the city started coming down. After that, he really doesn't like demons or cultists. He figures that he should help out while things are bad and maybe people will cut him free.

Refresh...

sigh

Refresh...

sigh

Congratulations and condolences spread out as appropriate.

I just got into another game, so I'll withdraw my submission (Milton Nessus, the Asmodean Advocate).

As much as WotW interests me, I don't want to overextend. But best of luck, all of you. And have a fun game!

So long, we'll miss you.

This week started as a mess already so maybe Wednesday I'll start looking at everything

Thanks for the update. I can turn off the impatient toddler in my head for a while.