Professional Calvinball's page

Dotting interest, let's see how the rolls turn up:

aaaaaaand

Ha, both are 25-point-buy, unless I'm calculating wrong. Guess I'm using the point buy.

I'm strongly considering making a Pai Zin (or "Divine Herbalist" on d20pfsrd) Oracle of Life that follows Zon Kuthon. An upbeat masochist who heals others by taking their pain upon himself (via Lifelink).

Quick question for the GM: would Profession (Herbalist) be helpful at all if I was aiming for the role of ship's cook? I sort of like the idea of a Kuthonite with the Ravenous (3pp) curse, able to self-inflict a sort of mental pain by creating meals that taste flavorful to others. But all he can taste is ash.

All that said, Occultist and Cabalist (Vigilante) are quite tempting.

Dotting interest. One of the few APs that I know almost nothing about, aside from that it has a bit more of an "intrigue" focus than other APs.

Quick question for GM SilentSage: Do you mind folks using an archetype but changing up some of the flavor? I'm interested in the Pai Zin Practitioner Oracle Archetype, but the flavor of the archetype is much more Tien-focused, which clashes a bit with the Chelaxian theme of the AP. I'm thinking of making a character that uses both divine and alchemical remedies in a vague analogue to real world doctors (or perhaps a plague doctor in this case), but would like to make sure that isn't too far-fetched before constructing a character based on that concept.

Thanks in advance for your time!

Dotting. Waffling on whether to make a Cold Iron Inquisitor or a Spell Warrior Skald. Both hit the "skill monkey" angle, with Skald being more supportive and Inquisitor being more damaging. Not sure which would make a bigger impact, and I have thoughts for flavor for both concepts. Probably going to go with the Marshal Path either way.

Decisions, decisions.

Any set deadline I should be worried about?

Philo Pharynx wrote:

Sorry to hear about the broken arm.

This sounds interesting. I could definitely go with this. With all clerics, we won't need anybody to be a straight healbot. Lots of options there.

I would suggest one limit and one expansion. I'd say that all multiclassing has to be divine classes or archetypes connected with the divine or your specific god. I'd also let people play any divine class. Let's give the warpriests, oracles, and inquisitors some love.

I hear you, though once you bring in the other divine casters, that kind of defeats the purpose of the original idea, no?

I suppose it depends on the intent of "cleric." If the goal was to have a team of highly devout followers of various gods for flavor reasons, then it doesn't deviate from that original idea. If the goal was also for the mechanical challenge of an all-one-class party, then it breaks it a bit.

On the other hand, there are some non-cleric archetypes or prestige classes that would work well here. Sphere Singer, for example, works as a cleric going into the prestige class, but it has more of a bardic feel (and has minor benefits to bards entering into the prestige).

Looking to play a necromancer from Osirion. Should be fun to mix with "good" clerics (he would be neutral evil, if allowed)

That's going to be a tough sell if anyone wants to play a follower of Pharasma.

"No, no! These affronts to everything you and your god believe are on *our* side!"

Fewer vigilantes than I was expecting.

This is actually the way I'm leaning now. The investigator archetype that I was looking at looks cool, but it seems like it would be difficult to make a character that does much more than "be stealthy". Granted, very stealthy, but one trick ponies get boring quick.

Dotting hard. Tempted to make a Cipher Investigator. Just a plain looking person who blends into the background.

It's been a while since I have GM'd a PbP, but I have run the game irl. A couple questions: where do you want to start? Where you left off, or a fresh start completely?

As a GM for PbPs, I tend to cut out some of the combat. Mostly a few random encounters that have no bearing on the story, and mildly buff some of the more cinematic fights to account for fuller spell lists and HP. PbP combat, I find, can really drag a story out and slow things down if it isn't interesting. It gives me of a focus on storytelling, but might be offputting to folks looking to sword-slap some skeletons at every turn. Would this be at odds with the group's goals for an AP?

Do you folks have a preference on mode of combat? Roll20, Google Docs, or pure theater of the mind?

I believe I heard that they are planning to bring in a (non-Iconic) Cleric of Abadar. I don't know as that they've posted up the look or the name yet, but it will be the cleric class, and it won't be Kyra.

I think they also said that the classes from the Occult would be the Occultist, Mesmerist, and Kineticist, but I'm not 100% on that.

Yeah I can't sympathize with people who dislike rare/exotic races, considering I've designed my own homebrew world to encourage things besides the Standard Seven. It probably helps, thankfully, that I've never had to deal with someone using their race as a crutch; the person who was notorious for playing bland, featureless characters in my groups was also the one who refused to play anything but humans.

Honestly I run into "I need to be human because I need that bonus feat" more than "I am playing X class, what race gives +Y to stat Z?". Far, far more often.

I suppose for me the problem plays more into expectations vs. actualization. If I enter into a game that has a setting that encourages the less common races, I certainly won't have any issue with a plethora of oddities. And I don't really have a good reason why it annoys me. I think it all falls back to the whole "justification personality" where someone will really stretch why a xenophobic race found primarily in one small part of the world is gregariously engaging in a festival.

Relevant.

Maybe part of it is that I love it when people tie their characters in with the setting, and I see a lot less of this with the rare races.

As long as they are willing to make clear the distinction between being a braggart in game, and being a braggart out of game.

For lack of example, "let me tell you about MY character." We had someone who played a character like this at our table, and it went over wonderfully. We had one fight against an immense monster (that we weren't supposed to beat anyway; it was the BBEG's pet and got called back after harassing us for a few rounds). Hardly anyone could hit its high AC, and when we did, its DR knocked that damage to nothing. This beast rears up to snap its mighty jaws at our resident arrogant jerk (AJ for short).

And the GM rolls a 1.

We were using a crit fumble system, and the beastie both missed and took bleed damage. Beastie gets called off a round or two later. AJ spent the next two days in-character telling all the townsfolk about how he had single-handedly saved the town from the monster.

So...yes, this type of character can be a blast, but I'd really look at the player behind the character more than anything. I tend to try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

How many members are you looking for? It looks like you've already filled the paladin slot, and I hesitate to build a full character just to find out that everything is already filled.

If there's a spot open, I'll likely roll up a wizard intent on becoming a Rift Warden. Mechanically, she'd be able to provide knowledge skills and crafting, as well as give the party a full arcane caster.

As far as personality, I'm thinking of an LG Rahadoumi. She views the Worldwound as a prime example of what happens when gods and other extra-planars are allowed to meddle in the affairs of the Material Plane, and seeks to aid in its closure. While her personal belief in the Laws of Man are somewhat rigid, she has come to recognize that it may be impossible to banish the demons completely without divine aid, and tries her best not to judge those who have, in their mortal weakness, sought the aid of the gods.

Interesting! I'm thinking I might make a Suit Seeker Inquisitor, modeled after the tale of Dr. Knowall, making a concept-kin of Luck.

I'm also considering making an elemental-kin of Life, but still working on the general idea for that one. Likely, it'll be a shaman with the Life spirit.

I get kind of annoyed when everyone plays "rare" races, unless the game calls for it in some way. Like, the party that is supposed to try to fit in consists of a sylph, ifrit, tengu, and strix that just happened to all meet up. I guess this is more for APs and modules, as it's always odd that the small town of Sandpoint suddenly has a bunch of native outsiders and mistrusted humanoids just kinda...wandering around.

I don't want to sound like I'm saying it's badwrongfun, but I see it too often used as a roleplaying crutch. "My character has the personality of bland cardboard, but he's half-vampire! That makes him interesting!" It can make him interesting, but it doesn't automatically make him so.

Players who when eating food at the table slurp/smack their fingers with their mouths and then handle the miniatures.

Cheese poofs have been banned from my gaming group. Someone had an incident.

Dotting. Probably going to make a Speaker For the Past (Shaman, Life Spirit). If non-core races are allowed, I'll be rolling up an aasimar; otherwise, probably a human or half-elf.

4d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 5, 5) = 17 16
4d6 ⇒ (2, 6, 2, 3) = 13 11
4d6 ⇒ (5, 3, 4, 1) = 13 12
4d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 2, 6) = 16 14
4d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 6, 3) = 14 13
4d6 ⇒ (5, 5, 4, 5) = 19 15

Decent enough.

It isn't the "quickness" of the fights that creates ill feelings at the table though it can contribute... No; it is the time share that matters. If you have a mixed group and one guy single-rounds most of the encounters then all the other people at the table who are expecting some table time in combat are left with nothing. "Oh you go third? Sorry you get to do nothing this combat". BUT if the GM makes the baddies powerful enough to last to round two then suddenly it becomes apparent that a hack and slasher with a weaker build is simply going to die, NOT get more combat time. And this creates HUGE resentment toward the optimizer who spent months combing up every trick in the books or on the internet to master his build. Because now all those combat aficionados who didn't "eat, sleep, optimize" all that time have to suddenly catch up inside of a week. So most groups answer isn't to keep punishing all the lesser optimizers, NO most groups either kick out the "munchkin" or put house rules in place to keep the over-optimizer at the same power level as his friends. And so that over-optimizer comes crying on the internet that he plays with a tyrant GM who won't let him play anything cool.

This is really what I was going for. It's the "all Jedi or no Jedi" idea. The biggest combat complaint that I've heard across various tabletops with varying groups is, "I didn't get to do anything that encounter."

If the team rawrsmashes the BBEG into oblivion, it's empowering for everyone. If one player does that almost on their own, not so much.

In classis literature many of our heroes are what I would consider "optimized". Hercules, Sherlock Holmes, Beowulf, Lancelot, all are exceptional human or demi-humans. Achilles was close but that heel disadvantage he took did him no favors in the end.

Even in modern day life our heroes are optimized. Take a look at a NFL football team, each player is among the best in the world at what they do and are each specialized for his particular role on that team. How many feats, skill and traits did Seahawk Steven Hauschka but into his kicking foot?

Optimized characters are fun for many gamers and they can, if you let it, be fun to GM as well. As long as the optimization fits the character concept I really have no problem with it.

-MD

Let me start by saying that optimization isn't always bad, or good, or...anything. It's situational.

That said, I do find it annoying more often than not when fellow players try to over-optimize. The greatest problem is almost always when players optimize combat. If someone optimizes lock picking, they can make a single roll, and it doesn't really hamper the party if they are always making the Disable Device checks. No one ever feels underwhelmed because the rogue is too damn good at breaking and entering.

But in combat, it's a different story. If the optimized barbarian charges in and one-shots everything, it's boring, and anti-climatic. Even worse, it may force the GM to start optimizing their creatures to counteract it, which can be potentially lethal to the characters who aren't combat-optimized. A scaled up lock DC isn't likely to cause a TPK. A scaled up BBEG might. Using a (college) sports analogy, it would be like being a division three team that gets bumped up to division one because of a single player.

Professional Calvinball wrote:

Overthinking

Already been mentioned

Ack! I did a thread search for "overthinking" and it didn't come up.

Overthinking

Not so much a society, but perhaps Doctors Without Borders? Likely they would be more NG than LG, but the argument could be made.

A while ago I had the idea for a LG "cleric" of Razmir. It was actually going to be a Witch (Scarred Witch Doctor) with the healing patron. She discovered a mask that gave her access to magical power, and was convinced by some Razmiri priests that the mask was itself a gift from The Living God. The witch was separated from the priests before she could be fully initiated, and so came away with the idea that Razmir was the solution to all of the world's problems.

She was going to be used in Wrath of the Righteous; essentially, she believed that Razmir's power was linked to how many people swore loyalty to him, and that if she became a role model in the Worldwound, she could convert some over to be faithfuls of Razmir. Unlike the other gods, Razmir was willing to directly interfere with the rest of the world, and would be able to "fix" the Worldwound once he gained enough power.

I don't know how it would have worked out in practice, but I always liked the idea of a completely misled, "righteous" woman who was sworn to a completely corrupt idea with complete ignorance.

A noble family consisting of:

*CN male human swashbuckler
*LN female dhampir bard
*NE female young human cleric of Zon-Kuthon
*CN male human alchemist
*NE female human witch
*CN male young human barbarian
...and their relatives:
*N unique medium abberation (appears as a pile of hair with a hat)
...and their servants:
*CN tiny undead (animated human hand)
*N male giant template human expert

Can anyone guess who they are?

Duh duh dum dum *snap* *snap*

Actually, one of the biggest obstacles I've seen to PbP vitality has been combat. Personally, I tend to join PbPs because they allow for a deeper RP environment, due to the ability to create a fuller character compared to a standard tabletop setting. I love the RP sections. The combat sections, though...

It always seems like combat slogs on. 20 posts out-of-combat will move the story forward, have interesting dialogue, contain insights into character personalities, etc. 20 posts of combat is usually pretty boring (to me) unless everyone really gets descriptive on their actions, and there are only so many ways to describe how you swing a sword. Also, in out-of-combat sections, the game can move forward even if not everyone has posted. In combat sections, it always seems like you're waiting on that one person.

I feel like I've been in more PbPs that died due to slow combat than anything else.

One of my pet peeves is "justification" personalities. What I mean by that is personalities or backgrounds that are obviously just there to justify mechanics. For lack of example, I'm going to steal one I saw recently; the player/character shall remain nameless. This character was a barbarian/mutagenic mauler with the amateur swashbuckler feat and eastern weapons. The concept was a noble samurai-type character that drank an ancient potion recipe made by his ancestors while channeling their rage. Or something similar. Point is, it feels too jumbled, and it feels fairly obvious that the fluff is just there to attempt to explain away some disjointed character choices that don't fit thematically.

This isn't to say there's a wrong way to play the game, but when people try to put min-maxed characters into heavy RP games by using justification personalities, it irks me.

One thing that's definitely important is to make sure that the GM you're applying for (if you go this route) fits YOUR criteria as well. About a year or more ago, I made the mistake of joining a game without really looking at the GM's style (it is VERY easy to see someone starting up an AP that you want to play, and decide to apply based almost exclusively on the AP). The GM's descriptions were minimalistic, sometimes just stating an NPC's name upon their introduction with no insight into defining features, or even things like race, gender, etc. I tried to tough it out, but the game fell apart on its own.

One of the problems I find is that I have no control over the other players in the application process. Sometimes you join a group that looks like it has an awesome GM, but then you have a Mary Sue character, or a drama summoner whose idea of a good character is one that hates everyone else. It really sucks to get through the application process and to decide to drop out because player X made it through, and you don't want to game with them.

I hope I don't come across as sounding bitter or jaded; I've had some very positive experiences as well. But I definitely wish there was a better way to figure out compatability between players than the current process.

Backing out as well; just got a character accepted elsewhere and two is my current limit on PbPs. Best of luck to everyone!

Definitely interested. I'm probably going to run some sort of harrower (the prestige class), but I'm still definitely debating which class to take as entry. Leaning towards a blood arcanist, but I'm still debating. Fluff to come.

Definitely interested. Where can I find the list o' characters? I've got a couple ideas for my own character, but it'll be somewhat dependent on what roles need to be filled, in combat, out of combat, and on the ship itself (captain, cook, etc.)

EDIT: Also, which races/classes are allowed?

Dotting for interest. I'm not sure yet if I'll be busy with other games or not, yet.

EDIT: Actually, a question I've been wondering: Does gestalt work with prestige classes? I am forever looking for a game to plunk a Red Mantis Assassin into, but I have no clue how gestalt and prestige would work. Swap out one of the classes for the PrC at level 6? I may just go with an Investigator/Slayer with the concept of an RMA if PrCs don't work out.

EDIT EDIT: Also, are betrayal feats allowed?

Half elves would be hard pressed in this game , they are accepted but would get nowhere near the secrets I am revealing in campaign , unless they were a prince of the realm...

A half-blood prince, you say? I shall make a Bonded Witch with a wand and a racing broom of flying.

This...may just be the worst joke I have ever made.

My home group got to the very beginning of Thistletop after we had to split up. I'd love to be able to jump into a group that is more or less at that exact same point.

I am planning to submit an Evangelist Cleric; losing a bit of healing potency and medium armor for greatly enhanced support potential.

I'm still waffling a bit on which god to worship. Shelyn, Desna, and Cayden Cailean all would fit very well thematically with the archetype. Pharasma would fit well into the campaign (it would be perfectly conceivable for a cleric of Pharasma to be called in if a tomb was disturbed), s'long as none of the PCs are planning to do any undead necromancin'. And Fateful Channel is pretty cool. On the other hand, Cayden is probably one of the most fun gods. Quite literally.

When is the "due date," as it were? I'd like to read through the posts if possible before finalizing a character. See what works with the party and all that.

I am going to make a synthesist summoner/gunslinger gestalt character named Legolas. He grew up in the Dragon Empires, so he can use eastern weapons and you've probably figured out by now I'm not serious.

Joking aside, I'm thinking of making an Ancient Lorekeeper with the Life Mystery named Saldaron. I'd essentially like to make a brightness seeker (the concept, not the actual Prestige Class), who channels pure life energy stemming from his ever-growing oneness with his past selves and with the universe as a whole. It'd certainly be easy to integrate him into a party for almost any reason; as long as he sees some sort of omen that tells him his destiny lies with traveling with the others, he will follow its course until its end.

Dotting for interest. I've been meaning to build a (possibly) viable Red Mantis Assassin ever since Advanced Class Guide came out, because I've loved their fluff, but they were somewhat underwhelming with their MADness.