Quasi-Human's page

@ Quasi-Human and Callarek:

I am glad to hear that you have encountered no mayor problems. It appears I can go ahead making the switch hitter.

It's actually a rather fun playstyle, as you always need to be planning ahead and thinking about whether you should attack from range, or dive into the melee.

Get a masterwork breastplate as soon as you can afford it, and then save-up for a Mithral breastplate. I'd also pick-up a darkwood heavy shield and a one-handed weapon somewhere in the first couple of levels - rangers can 'tank' in a pinch if needed.

Switch-hitters using a two-handed weapon work really well simply because two-handed weapons need very little feats to be competitive. (I.e. power-attack) So the bulk of your feats can go towards the archery stuff.

Who makes the better switch-hitter, rangers or fighters (again - in PFS context)?

I'm playing a switch-hitter in PFS currently, wielding a Great Axe in melee and a composite bow for ranged.

The main difference between fighter and ranger is that rangers get to skip some feat requirements for their 'combat style' feat selections, and therefore can skip the Precise Shot prereqs.

Fighters get the heavy-armor prof. automagically, which is nice for picking-up the sweet, sweet Mithral Full Plate, which is quite nice for characters focused on melee. That said, you're probably not going to see Mithral Full Plate for some time in PFS, and since its capped at level 12, you'll probably go through most of your campaign without it.

That said, I haven't had many problems dying in melee, (I leave that up to a certain charge-happy bard) Rangers are a durable class, and if you value mobility you might want to forgo heavy-armor and just stick with a mithral breastplate.

Math is your friend ;)

Math is clearly NOT my friend. Also, I need to make friends with 'Reading the whole thread' at some point.

I usually like to force a machine to do the hard mathy stuff.

Other average point-buy equivalents for dice-rolling schemes:
1D10 + 8 = 34 points
1D12 + 6 = 25 points
1D16 + 2 = 9 points
1D18 + 0 = 2 points
1D20 + 0 = 15 points

Mind you, I'm extrapolating some of the point-buy values for very low and very high stats, e.g. a 3 is worth -8 points, and a 20 is worth 25.

dunelord3001 wrote:

This only works on virtual dice but I've been thinking about doing 9+1d9 for stats, anyone tried it?

I'm no math scientist but I think doing that gives a greater chance of clusters toward the high end.

The chance of getting a 10 with 4d6-drop is something like 1/11 and the chance of getting an 18 is 1/62.

With 1d9+9 the chance of getting either a 10 or an 18 is 1/9.

I wrote-up a quick die-rolling simulator a while back.

Here's the rough frequencies of 4D6, dropping the lowest die:

Result - Frequency:
3: 0.1%
4: 0.3%
5: 0.9%
6: 1.5%
7: 3.0%
8: 4.6%
9: 7.0%
10: 9.4%
11: 11.4%
12: 12.8%
13: 13.5%
14: 12.0%
15: 10.0%
16: 7.6%
17: 4.3%
18: 1.6%
Whereas 9 + 1D9 is all 11.1%
In other words, with 9 + 1D9 you lose the chance of having anything below 10, which is roughly 19% or so. Thus, with 4D6 drop 1, you can expect one attribute with negative modifier.

The average point-buy cost of 9 + 1D9 is a whopping 38. 4D6 drop 1 averages around 20, making it roughly equivalent to the usual point-buy of PFS characters.

Also, 1D9 need not be only in virtual dice. Roll a D10, and if it comes-up as a 0, roll it again.

Table-humor tip:

In Act 1, when the trip to Torvic's cave beings, there's a bit of flavor text:

After enduring weeks of relentless mountain wind and
sleeting rain...

After reading that, (or whatever equivalent you come up with) without pausing at all, ask the table to do a 'Boredom Check' - it's hilarious to see a table full of gamers all simultaneously drop their heads to their char-sheets looking for their 'boredom save'.

Not only that, but she is immune to illusion, so Invisibility would not have worked against her. Sounds like your GM had the same problems I had, missing many things from the last fight.

Way, way too easy

I'm going to fully take the blame for missing the fear-aura effects and the immune to illusion abilities - those in concert would have made the last fight a good-deal more challenging for you, Mr. Slanky, all your little friends. I simply didn't apply the basic skills I learned in 1st grade - reading.

That aside, if the party does sneak-in through the stairs in area 5 (AKA the kitchen) they have a good shot at getting the jump on our Lady Morilaeth - a melee character could probably charge the throne from the secret-door - assuming they made it past the fear-aura.

Aside from that, it's worth noting that bringing 6+ PCs to any of the PFS adventures tends to make things much easier. There's more utility spells, more eyeballs looking at maps, more knowledge skills to roll, not to mention radically increased party DPR - you can start one-round-killing encounters, particularly if you get a surprise round.

Several times we said we wanted to listen at the door and then were magically able to tell what was in the room and the dimensions of it (as if we had already entered the room). :>

A good note for anyone running this module: first paragraph of page 4 -

"Adril does give the PCs a map of the museum"

Thus, when I ran this one, I dumped-out the full grid-map in the middle of the table and briefly went-through what each room was labeled as. I.e. Bathrooms, Offices, Exhibit Hall, etc. The PC's shouldn't know EXACTLY what's inside each of them, but they should have some clues. This also makes it a bit easier on the GM to not need to maintain the 'Fog of War'.

Like staying up drinking when you should be sleeping. *glares at Quasi-Human*

I take offense at your accusations sir, and I demand an apology.

I never once stayed-up drinking when I should have been sleeping. I've stayed-up drinking, carousing, and talking waaayyy too loudly in your hotel room when YOU should have been sleeping.

+1 to what Mr. Slanky said, same process for me.

I'll make that a +2.

If you've never GM-ed Pathfinder before, you might want to try running a few non-society 'home games' with some of your buddies, just to get a good feel for the rule-set before things become official.

Aside from that, the more GM-experience you build-up BEFORE Con season, the better. Things can get hectic at cons, and you'll want to be prepared and confident to handle all the possibilities that can come-up.

In regards to BAB - If I'm not mistaken, you use your cumulative BAB to determine multiple attacks when doing a full-attack action. I.e. if your total BAB is +6, you get an additional attack at +1.

It would be great if there was some kind of latitude given to the GM to be able to increase the number of opponents in an encounter so that the encounter's difficulty "widens" rather than really "raises." That way you don't have six players, plus two pets, plus a mount jumping on top of the opponent and making the encounter far too easy to overcome.

I wholely support this notion. Some sort-and-simple "Large Party Rules" for each tier/encounter. For example:

For parties of 6 or larger, instead of 2 Red Great Wyrms, use 3.

What about Prestige-Award points? I'm told I can spend 2 of those and get anything worth up-to 750 gold pieces - donno how many 'dollars' those are worth though....

so Waman is not supposed to travel with them.

Good point. I just assumed he was traveling along, and that Venture-Captain Mihir was going to 'deal with' him once he got back.

Your reading makes things a bit easier, thanks!

I'll be running this module next week - how have other GM's handled Waman after the initial ambush?

Does Waman try to stay with the PC's, maintaining the facade of being legit? Do the PC's usually try to tie him up? Does he simply vanish after not being useful to the plot?

I've had good experiences with 8 + 1d10, though; it's quick, too.

Running 1D10 + 8 through my die-roll simulator:

Average Stat sum 80.9
Average Modifier sum: 9
Average Point-buy Cost: 34.2

The 34 point-buy probably makes-up well for the less-optimal stat distribution.

Some other single-die averages:

1D12 + 6:

Average Stat sum 75.1
Average Modifier sum: 6
Average Point-buy Cost: 25.5

1D8 + 10:

Average Stat sum 87
Average Modifier sum: 12
Average Point-buy Cost: 43.6

As for healing, there are basically two options, if you don't have a healer:

1) give lots of potions.

/agree

As the GM, you'll probably want to make clear what the rules are going to be in regards to drinking potions during combat - i.e. how many potions one can have at-the-ready, and what sort of actions you need to draw and drink one.

Also, you need Cure Light Wounds wands. Either:

1.) Get at least one level in Ranger/Paladin/etc.
2.) Have multiple characters put several skill-ranks in Use Magic Device
3.) GM fiat to relax the restrictions on healing wand use.

That way, with a minimum of preparation, the PC's can recover fully between fights.

I think an ideal balance would be some random roll system, (3D6, 4D6 drop 1, etc) BEFORE everyone chooses classes, and then have the GM review and add a bit of balance using a point-buy system. In other words, total-up everyone's point-buy costs, and/or tone-down the lucky-ones. I.e. players add or subtract a D6 or D4 from the very high or very low stats, or even randomly pick which stats to adjust.

That'll help to keep the 'commoner with walking Gods' effect down, while still maintaining the randomness. Not to mention helping the GM balance encounters.

Roll a D20 for each stat and let the whining begin.

I wrote a quick-and-dirty javascript stat-roller simulator, and oddly enough, 1D20 for all stats averages-out to cost roughly a 20-point buy - assuming one could buy stats from 1-6 and 19-20.

Follow-up question: When doing a round Iterative Full Attacks, can you have different weapons in each hand, and attack different targets with different weapons?

For example, I've got a cold-iron waraxe in one hand, and a warhammer in the other. Can I hammer the skeleton in front of me with one attack, and chop the demon to my left with the axe without any

I checked the combat rules, and there isn't anything that specifically prohibits this.

I've always been a big fan of melee-classes that had a bit extra too them. Straight-up fighter-types are a bit too much one-trick ponies, so I tend towards:

Paladins
Clerics
Rangers

Oddly enough, I also lean towards religious, faith-based character types, despite the fact that I'm a dyed-in-the-wool agnostic.

I'd make sure that you're catering to what kinds of themes they enjoy.

+1

While it's something to keep in mind for every player, regardless of gender or spousal status - you need to make the game fun for your players. Especially since you're trying to convince someone new to the hobby to play.

Two major stumbling blocks I can think of off the top of my head:

1.) Gauge the crunch-factor carefully. Not everyone has fun calculating CMD. Nor does everyone enjoy hearing "That's a hard-corner and you can't move diagonally". I'd play it very fast and loose with the rules.

2.) Avoid competing with the PC's. It's a stereotype certainly, but not all women enjoy competition as much as men, so don't make it about the GM vs. PCs.

Everyone has a different definition of fun, and the best GMs are usually those who can figure-out what that is and deliver. You (hopefully) know your wives best.

I have a player (who's playing a Paladin) who did not once roll above a 10 during an entire play session. He threw the dice out in a fit of fury.

Next session same thing happened. I asked him what the hell was up with his luck and he responded, "I fished it out of the trash."

I have since destroyed said die with fire. It was necessary.

Call me crazy, but would the Pathfinder Society invite members that didn't speak the usual language? That alone is a fine rationalization for the commonality of common.

That said, it might be a fun/funny roleplay opportunity for a low INT character when trying to interact with the rest of the party:

"Thag not good talk. Words hard."

Armor for Large and Small creatures weighs twice as much or half as much as armor for Medium creatures. Would the surcharge for using Mithral or Adamantine scale proportionately?

Put simply, the game is well-balanced around race-selection already. If Gnome Fighters start getting exotic material-armor earlier than humans, that gives them a major advantage. House-rule it if you want, but I say it's good as-is.

Sure, in real-life smaller armor would need less materials, and would -probably- cost less. But in real-life there are no dragons, similarly there are some not-quite realistic rules in PF. Them's the breaks.

I just gave one of my players Full Plate at 1st level. He had a good background story as to why he had it. The other players had no issue with it so why not.

This is full of win.

As long as you're not playing in PF Society, and you as the GM are making sure that the uber-armor isn't making the game too easy, it's all about the fun.

LilithsThrall wrote:

I was constantly disappointed that none of the people I played with ever went up to the top of a tall building and tried to fly off of it.

I am still constantly disappointed that several of the players I've played with haven't done this. I can name a few I wish would.

I did, once. I just concentrated REALLY hard on Jesus and Obi-Wan Kenobi at the same time. I was undamaged aside from a slight case of rickets.

Is there anything that is as popular today as ADnD/3.5/PFRPG?

Nope. D&D, in its various flavors is far and away the most popular RPG out there. If you're looking for something else, there's many, many alternatives though. Head down to you local friendly gaming store and browse, browse, browse.

One thing to ask yourself is 'What is it I like about Pathfinder?' Epic heroic battles? Tactical combat? Roleplaying as a mighty hero? Some
balance between all the above?

There's games out there for everyone, from Amber Diceless to Rolemaster.

Heck, you might even like to play table-top wargames, i.e. Warhammer Fantasy/40K. It's the fun tactical combat without all that boring 'roleplaying' getting in the way.

Lastly, what else does your gaming group/friends like to play? It is hard playing games without a group.

You may like it, but throwing abilities in the trash is never a good thing.

That's my issue with this as well, however, you're only throwing it away at higher-levels, thus, Pathfinder Society isn't an issue here. (DB is only +3 at level 12). It starts to become limiting around lvl 17 or so (according to the Character Wealth by Level Table), so it's entirely the purview of the GM. At that point, some house-rule options would be:

1.) Damn the torpedoes and ignore the +10 limit for weapons.
2.) Keep the limit, but allow the character to also get the mount instead of another +1 for the weapon
3.) Keep the +10 limit but allow DB to be split between two different weapons.
4.) Keep the limit, but allow some of the DB bonus to be added to armor/shield. (This is a tad unbalancing)
5.) At lvl 20 give all Paladins retractable adamantite claws that count as paired Keen Axiomatic Holy Avengers. (By far the best option IMO)

That said, it would be nice to add a bit of clarification about the +10 limit to the Divine-bond RAW, as well as adding some official rules for high-end characters to keep the ability from getting trashed.

@Beckett - I can see what you are getting at.

Issues in the rules about shields-as-weapons aside, what I'm really trying to ask is this:

Should I invest what little cash my current character has to enchant my Masterwork Darkwood heavy shield, or should I pony up the bucks to buy a Mithral heavy shield?

Not sure about that. By RAW, it might be treated exactly like Enhancement Bonuses on a Shield. The Enhancment for AC and for Attack are seperate. You might have to do that with a Shield as well, not that Mithral actually has a mechanical use in combat. The cost of a Mithral Weapon is differen than Shields.

While I'd agree with you in the case of adding shield-spikes, (i.e. needing to buy mithral spikes to overcome DR) - Shields count as weapons when you are shield-bashing and I quote: "Mithral weapons count as silver for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction."

Is there anything in the game where wood overcomes the DR?

Looking at the special materials section, it looks like a Darkwood shield is substantially better than a mithral one. Both have a 0 armor-check penalty, and no Max-Dex bonus. But is there something I'm missing?

Darkwood Pros:
Much cheaper (257gp vs. 1020gp for a heavy shield)
2.5 pounds lighter
Resistant to rust monsters

Mithral Pros:
Treated as silver against DR
More durable
Cannot burn (but I'm not exactly sure if/when that would have an in-game effect...)

The other tricky element here is game-balance. If I'm an archer and I can't just whip-out my bow and start shooting on round-1, I'm less-effective than the rest of the group.

Stringing bows, folding nets, and cranking crossbows isn't fun. Shooting things is fun. You'll note there's no rules about sharpening or oiling swords in the game either.

I certainly agree that it's unrealistic and it bothers me to some extent, but the game ends up being more fun for me and the rest of my friends without tracking the minutia of weapon maintenance.

You can always drop whatever's in your hand as a free action and retrieve/chug the potion in one round.

That said, I equip all of my characters with a specially-designed Camelbak-style hydration-system full of cure-serious-wounds potion. Also viable are 'beer-helmet' systems filled with healing potions.