RJM's page

Re Torag's Teakettle: Thanks Azmahel for the bit of feedback, though I don't see how unlimited holy water is an issue especially seeing as making an item that produce 1st level spell effect is continuously/use activated is simple. I figured a easy way to moderate the effect was to include the lengthy preparation time (lengthy at least in a dungeon setting).

THanks Vic for giving more feedback on items. :)

Boy am I glad I got my item in line on the 2nd page. This thread has just ballooned over the past three days.

Torag's Teakettle
Aura faint transmutation; CL 4th
Slot none; Price 4100 gp; Weight 3 lbs.
Description
These cast iron kettles, stamped with Torag's warhammer, were first forged for master craftsmen to aid them in working even through the wee hours of the night. The kettle can hold three flasks worth of liquid and takes five minutes to boil. Any liquid boiled in the kettle becomes holy water as if subjected by a bless water spell and will never freeze.
In addition, liquids boiled in the kettle have rejuvenating qualities when consumed. After drinking a flask of liquid boiled in the kettle a creature is healed 1d8 nonlethal damage and is no longer fatigued. If a creature is exhausted when they drink it they become fatigued instead. Liquid boiled in kettle only maintain this quality for an hour after being boiled. This time is halved in cold weather and doubled in hot weather.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Endurance, bless water; Cost 2050 gp

Here's my item for feedback. I'm fairly early on this year. Here's hoping they make it too me. Oh and as promised the backstory of the inside joke that actually spawned its creation.

Back during Alpha playtesting of Pathfinder. . .

The dwarven cleric found a group of kobold children after slaying the warriors. Stuck with indecision he prayed to his Torag for guidance. I was in a quirky mood, and so Torag said "Make something". The dwarf replied, "But I have a moral dilemna!"

"Here have a teakettle," Was Torag's only response and a teakettle manifested before the cleric. Clearly he was channelling the wrong aspect of Torag at the time.

With no useful answer from Torag, the cleric decided that the kobolds would merely spawn more of their kin and therefore were a threat to nearby settlements.

The teakettle was a regular item of the group for the rest of playtesting.

There sent it off. I suppose this means I can stop methodically refreshing the page to see if there are replies. ^^;

Thanks. Joined the forum already, I'll do the PM.

Has anyone had any trouble emailing Necromancer Games of late?

I've sent a couple of emails but it keeps getting bounced back saying it can't connect to their server.

I had a thought recently on the 21+ level play... not rules. How about a name change, instead of Epic use Mythic. This seems less likely to be confused with a story telling format and still indicates the power characters control at that point. Certainly their will likely be many fair tales about the PCs once they start effecting things on a world-wide or planar level.

Calling it "high-level" wouldn't be confused with any literary device, but would conflict with current conventions in normal "Heroic" play.

Yeah changing the name will help, I was saying something like that earlier. I thought calling it Legendary would be better myself. I considered Mythic too though. Mainly because Legendary has more power behind it, where Mythic comes off more whimsical.

Well really wasn't a choice on me giving him the dice after a certain point he was just tall enough to reach them...even when I place them on the 3rd shelf of the bookshelves (No room on the fourth and top already covered in farmore breakable gear ^^;)

Yeah if I found out I was in the 62, I would be like "Alright I'll just have to try a bit harder next year." It wouldn't be a slap in the face for me. That's like looking at being in second place and saying "Great I'm the 1st loser"

As for starting off kids into game, my son is 2 1/2 and he's playing around with dice. Figured to start off with the basics. *chuckles*

I feel I'm not in any sort of autoreject trouble. But it is hard to have confidence when the process is subjective and you know if five other people had a similar idea, you might be in trouble.

Precisely, the worry is there that if there was a similar item the other was more inspired than your own.

Then the other side of me is worrying about the 20th and the worry of "Well, damn what if I do make it to the next round? Now I'm going to have to be twice as inspired as before."

^^;

I don't really think I fell into any of the traps mentioned so far in this thread myself. But I'm in no way confident that my entry is going to make the top 32.

Hell, I'll be happy if I find out that mine made it to the top 62 they were picking through for the final 32 and alternates.

Well either way its been good to here from all three of you while you've been swimming through our sea of entries ontop of the rest of things.

I've never had wings myself, I just know I've spent many I night to figure out time travel.

Hmmm...dinosaurs. ^^ They must be!

Tyranosaurus Rex is obviously a must have. Its iconic dinosaur fair.

A raptor pact hunter would be good, no need for the megaraptor anymore really.

An Aquatic dinosaur and a flying dinosaur should be there as well.

A herbivore would be good too.

Taking a bit of reasonable creative liberty on the dinosaurs should be okay. Though I can't see much that could be added to the T-Rex, unless you wanted its bite to be similar to a komodo dragons bite.

Psionic/Magic Transparency is a must, the two should interact with each other. Perhaps making psionics a third branch along with arcane and divine of the magic tree.

I'm one of the few that enjoy the psionics of my groups. But from those in my groups the completely seperate mechanics that has made the psionics unappealing.

One of the things that will be a challenge for new epic rules is the fact that more than ever in the updated rules, the base classes reach a pinnacle of skill at 20th level.

Epic to me has always meant more grandiose than more powerful.

I don't beleive that Epic should undermine the pinnacle that it is reached at 20th level.

The mechanics of Epic play shouldn't be so far removed from the standard progression as to make the two are incompatible, but I think a definite distinction should be made between the two levels of the game.

Something similar to the Legendary paths rules found in Dawnforge: Crucible of Legends may be something to build off of. The rules related material in the book is OGL, so its something to look into for certain.

No matter the amount of sleep I get if I'm up prior to 10 Am its like trying to function through mud. Generally I find I function well on minimally on 6 hours best. If more than 10 I'm lethargic the rest of the day. If less, I crash midday and unintentionally nap.

*chuckles* I think that would be a considerable challenge to create. I'm half tempted to try it myself right now. Better yet try to include the whole list and make it a functional item. lol

That's it if I don't make this year, next year its going to be an augury coin item. *nodnod* That'll assure victory! ;)

Hmmmm...I'm pretty sure I avoided most of the pitfalls. I almost fell to the backstory trap. But limited the flavour creation text to something generalized.

I'm not sure how my item will fair on the abuse area. When I did the first draft of mine I saw some major abuses that could occur. So I did my best to limit the abuse. But still whether the intent can still be abused, or the judges see an abuse I failed to catch I'm not sure.

Well it appears that Bard has already removed the alignment requirements which is a pleasant surprise. ^^

I like the thoughts on changing Paladin to Any Good.

Monk should remain any lawful.

Barbarians don't have to be chaotic they just can't be lawful, aka lacking in strict dicipline. In comparison to the Monk and Paladin (even if it was changed to any good) Barbarians still have considerable flexability.

Mikael Sebag wrote:

Dragon Disciple, Page 8, it says:

"Form of the Dragon (Sp): At 7th level, a dragon disciple can assume the form of a might dragon for a limited period of time.

It also does not list a duration on the effect. I would assume it's the same as the spell but it's not entirely clear.

It also doesn't list what the caster level would be based off of character level or class level. I house ruled duration as per spell and caster level equal to class level.

I actually started thinking of my villian concept before I thought of my wonderous item. ^^;

I'm a group 1, I just came up with the one idea and went with it.

Really I didn't start building an item with any kind of idea of what I was going to make at first. I looked at the rest of the rounds and tried to think of a theme in which I could follow for the rest of the contest, and then built my item with that theme in mind. I found that it help me focus on the task at hand, with such an open-ended call I really needed some sort of focus.

Thanks Clark. Now only 14 days remain until the anxiety brought on by that very fear is removed or validated. lol

Though no matter the results, I know for a fact that my entry was much better than my last years entry. So moving on or not, I can only keep getting better at it.

Acrobat Sorcerers are in no danager of taking over the world.

They absolutely suck. I mean, as a class. At least, when compared to wizards. That doesn't mean they can't be fun, but if the spell they have access to doesn't help in the particular situation, they're not very helpful.

And they get high level spells more slowly than a wizard (1 level later). And they get no bonus feats. And if you use the Spell Point variant from Unearthed Arcana, they really aren't any good compared to a wizard.

Sure, having a little flexibility in your casting is a good thing, but the price they pay is very high. A few extra skill points to make the sorcerer a more attractive option isn't a bad thing - especially because the wizard is always going to have more skill points because his Intelligence modifier is always going to be higher (usually about +5 or so).

So, it would be one way to make the sorcerer not suck as badly, but not enough to fix it.

5 ranks per level is about right, it turns to a total of 6 ranks per level, including back level at 4th, putting the wizard on par with the average ranger. And a wizard's total ranks just keep on going up from there. Wizards have always been much more skill monkeys than most people give them credit.

Bo9S? Isn't that kinda of a moot consideration since it is not OGC. To use it for the basis of an arguement for a core book which is only based around OGC, can only use OGC, is just a bit silly don't you think?

Aside from that, I believe combining Autohypnosis and Concentration into Concentration, and Spellcraft with Knowledge (arcana) both have their merits.

Indeed it does. My rogue is going to despise me from now on. *cackles* Er...I mean, I'm not evil. I swear. <.< >.>

A small thing on sneak attack. You can't use it against things with concealment, doesn't make very useful in a back alley, or sneaking up on someone in a shadowy corridor. Because shadowy illumination provides concealment. I just thought this was funny, I'm not an avid rogue player, so I wasn't aware of this small piece of information. And I'm pretty sure that in many of our games that this small rule is completely glazed over.

I'm still not a fan of the ambigious sneak attack, aka Pathfinder RPG Sneak Attack, ability to be used on everything under the sun. And with that in mind I beleive that it should be limited to only working on the first attack during a round. I'm not saying that it should be made into a standard action, but that if you've got 2 attacks which qualify for SA, that only first one gets the SA damage.

Its not metagaming with a knowledge check, which I hope a wizard is likely going to have. A knowledge check should tell a caster that they should probably attack the big dumb and dangerous animal's mind over physically brutalizing it. Besides a general knowledge (nature) check would tell you that most animals tend to be hearty and have quick reflexes.

Colossal Animated Object, CR 10, Ref +7 (poor save)
Bebilith, CR 10, Ref +9 (good save)
Adult White Dragon, CR 10, Ref +11 (good save) (vulnerable to fire)
Juvenile Silver Dragon, CR 10, Ref +10 (good save)
Formian Myrmarch, CR 10, Ref +12 (good save)
Fire Giant, CR 10, Ref +4 (poor save) (immune to fire)
Cloud Giant, CR 11, Ref +6, (poor save)
Frost Giant, CR 9, Ref +4, (poor save) (vulnerable to fire)
Eleven-Headed Hydra, CR 10, Ref +8 (good reflex)
Guardian Naga, CR 10, Ref +7 (poor save, Lightning Reflexes)
Gray Slaad, CR 10, Ref +10 (good save)

There's a few CR 10s, I left out most of the immune to fire's since fireball is the example you rave over. Except the exorbanatly low Fire Giant, use a lightning bolt against him.

Anyways a large problem with this is we're using a 3rd level spell against CR 10s, when our main fireball by this point should be coming from 5th level spell instead. Using metamagics that's easy enough, which it can either be an empowered fireball for higher damage potential or heightened for higher base save. Depends on what is more important. Of course, for this purpose it will be the higher damage potential rather than the higher DC right, since total damage output is far more important then strategy.

Anyways, the arguement of resistances is like arguing that weapons should do more damage because there are Damage Reductions.

Again your point is moot here because well, the T-Rex has a good reflex save. And so using a reflex save-based spell against so creature is likely to fail. Its like winging a Fort save spell against a barbarian, your just asking for failure.

RJM wrote:

I disagree. I don't beleive their is any problem with the damaging spells on a whole.

Then you are incorrect.

Fireball does 10d6 damage at level 10. That's an average of 35 damage. High saves mean that the damage is probably going to be reduce by half, to around 18 damage. Add energy resistance on top of that, and well...

Other spells suffer in the same manner.

That's a matter of strategy. If your using a fireball against a creature that likely has a high reflex save and resistance to fire, that's your fault not the spells.

I disagree. I don't beleive their is any problem with the damaging spells on a whole.

They do not need an increase.

But your suggestion here eliminates what Mounted Combat did before which was allow you to use your skill in riding to keep your mount safe.

Unless your on just wrapping that up into the Ride skill itself?

Much of the 'broken' stuff evidence I've seen about the cleric has more to do with splattbooks then the class itself.

Exactly. I mean a battle all night, doesn't exactly define what happened during the combat or how many rounds it took. I mean was this like 20 rounds against something for their level?

Honestly as a DM, I find it hard to make my monsters last long enough. Like utter good luck knixing a Pit Fiend in the second round of combat. That was just annoying, especially since it was the big bad to the campaign and it was 18th-level party going against him.

I think the base DC for any creature should be lower than 15+CMB mainly because this DC makes it hard to perform against a creature of equal size and HD and BAB. Which is not always a common occurence either. And in comparison to creatures of your CR quite often have more HD than your level for that CR.

Examples, Jimbob the fighter faces off Jake the enemy fighter, both are equal in respects of CMB, but if either wishes to perform a combat maneuver against the other they must roll a 15 to even gain a successful result. The average fighter is probably going to have a better chance of hitting their oppenents AC than pulling off a manuever. (Levels and actual numbers for this example because we assume that they are equal in all respects)

Next we take Jimbob, Human Fighter 4, Str 18, CMB +8. And we pit him against a CR 4 creature of equal size, a barghest, who's CMB is +9. Meaning that Jimbob needs a 16 or better to start any combat manuever. Even with feats that improve certain Combat Maneuvers this only drops the required roll to 14, still well above his average roll.

I beleive that reduction to DC 10 or maybe 12 would be better for the base of CMB DCs.

You seem to be under a very large misconception there, because medium armor slows people just as much as heavy armor does. Hide, Chainmail, Breastplate, and Scale mail all reduce speed. Only light armor does not hinder speed.

Honestly I was never a big fan of sorcerers they lacked anything worthwhile incomparison of wizards. You sacrificed versatility for more casting of a limited selection of spells. Like trading up a good working multi-tool for a single focused tool that made that task faster.

Though from much of what I've seen of 4e does that exact exchange for all their classes. I'm hoping that the 2nd release of Pathfinder will have a palatable revision of the sorcerer class.

Another thing to consider is the lowering of any save DCs on these spells. Fireball becomes a 1st level spell and now its DC is 11 + Int mod, that's a loss of 2 points on the DC.

This is an interesting idea, and it has merit, but I'm not for it. The DC loss, and the moving of burning hands, shocking grasp, magic missile as cantrips (which essentially would make them the prime choices for 1st level wizards because as cantrips they are now at will abilities), I mean 5d6 as a touch attack at will is considerable at 5th level.

As was said, the ambiguity of material and foci components via the rules should be clarified. But as it stands they merely need to be on the casters person not in hand.

Again don't agree with this, but that's as it stands.

As for sundering and such, well, you can sunder armor and its not in hand.

I am also still in the camp that the CODzilla is utter BS and only caused by pourly balanced splatt books and lack of DMs ascerting control of their game, not the class itself.

A change in BAB shouldn't be too much of a problem with Backward compatibility.

As for the monk in and of itself I beleive Belkar Bitterleaf said it best...

I'm on the sneak attack applying only on the first hit board.

Makes perfect sense to me. Many cultures refer to it as the time a woman "births foulness" (note - I am not expressing my own opinion, I am stating that many cultures believe it). The moon is also not universally female. Most notable in this regard is Thoth.

My wife would like to know where you ever heard such a term. ^^;

Well besides the more animalistic nature the wisdom bonus implies.

The fact that orc shaman's are staples of a orc tribe, and that commonly religion is a large part of orcish culture on top of the barbaric nature.