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Randall Jhen's page
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Pathfinder CRB, page 567 wrote: Helpless: A helpless character is paralyzed, held, bound, sleeping, unconscious, or otherwise completely at an opponent’s mercy. A helpless target is treated as having a Dexterity of 0 (–5 modifier). Melee attacks against a helpless target get a +4 bonus (equivalent to attacking a prone target). Ranged attacks get no special bonus against helpless targets. Rogues can sneak attack helpless targets. Also:
Pathfinder CRB, page 197 wrote: Regular Attack: A helpless character takes a –4 penalty to AC against melee attacks. In addition, a helpless character is treated as having a Dexterity of 0, giving him a –5 penalty to AC against both melee and ranged attacks (for a total of –9 against melee and –5 against ranged). A helpless character is also flat-footed. Do these stack, or are they intended to be different representations of the same thing? In other words, is the attack made at 8 points to the defender's detriment or 4?
Thanks.
More Numenera for you.
Monte Cook's Kickstarter has entered the final 24 hours. The project sits at $446,168. $60 gets you the print core book, plus PDFs of the bestiary, world book, tech manual, printable terrain, GM screen, three adventures, the player's guide, and XP/item/creature decks. You'll get your name in the back of the book as a Kickstarter contributor. You'll get the character creator app, which will include rules references and GM adventure creation rules. You'll get a Numenera anthology before the core book comes out to help tide you over.
Every book in the line will be full color. The core book will be 400+ pages. The bestiary and tech manual were 160 pages before a recent stretch goal that expanded them (specific page count hasn't been revealed). The 200-page world guide book has likewise been expanded.
At $450,000, Monte will add "significantly more art to the corebook and the hardcover books in the line" -- 15-20 percent more.
That's a lot of value for $60. For $10 more, you can get the Kickstarter exclusive adventure.
On top of that, you can add on a bunch of other rewards: all of the PDFs I've already mentioned (for those who contribute less than The Real Deal or Ultimate Ebook Fan); print copies of the core book, bestiary, tech manual, guide book, and adventures; print copies of the decks of cards; a limited edition Thunderstone game; Numenera dice; T-shirts; and a four-panel, landscape, vinyl GM screen.
Then there's the limited leather bound version. You can upgrade a copy of the core book to this spectacular, Kickstarter-exclusive book for $60.
If the $60 Real Deal level is too rich for you, consider one of the lesser reward tiers. Ultimate Ebook Fan gets you all PDFs for $50. Player gets you the player's guide and character creator app for $10, or Ebook Fan gets you that plus the core book for $20.
You have 22 hours. Don't miss out. Help us reach the next goal to get more art, and, at $500,000, a Numenera film by Monte.
Monte Cook's "Ptolus" campaign setting included the blessed children as the opposite of undead -- they were the spirit of children not yet born. If I recall correctly (my book is eight hours away at the moment), there were three of them ranging up to CR 8 or so.
I would like to see some alternate skill systems. One idea I want to try in a home game is to separate skill bonus from skill ranks.
Ranks give you additional dice that you can roll, on a 4 ranks per 1 extra die rate. From there, you get a bonus on the roll equal to twice the number of dice you roll.
So if I have a fighter10 with 10 ranks in Climb, he would get 3d20 (take highest) + Str mod + 3 (class skill bonus) + 6 (twice number of d20s rolled).
If I were to go this route, I'd focus on Dirty Trick, then Steal.
Stats
Str 16 (10) - 2 racial = 14 (+1 at 8, +1 at 12)
Dex 14 (5)
Con 11 (1) + 2 racial = 13 (+1 at 4th)
Int 10 (0)
Wis 14 (5)
Cha 9 (-1) + 2 racial = 11
Feats
1: Crushing Blow
3: Weapon Focus (unarmed)
5: Improved Trip
7: Scorpion Style
9: Improved Initiative
11: Dodge
Class Features
1: Bonus feat (Improved Dirty Trick), flurry of maneuvers, stunning fist, unarmed strike
2: Bonus feat (Improved Steal), evasion
3: Fast movement, maneuver training, maneuver defense
4: Ki pool (magic), reliable maneuver
5: High jump, meditative maneuver
6: Bonus feat (Greater Dirty Trick)
7: Wholeness of body
8:
9: Improved evasion
10: Bonus feat (Ki Throw), ki pool (lawful)
11: Sweeping maneuver
12: Abundant step
I would love an NPC book. That was, in my group's experience, one of only two things we used out of the GMG -- random treasure tables were the other.
I'd be cool with a combination NPC/traps/haunts book.
http://rumkin.com/reference/dnd/diestats.php
3d6 average is 10.5: 3 10s and 3 11s. That means 3 point buy.
4d6-drop-lowest average is 12.24: 2 12s, 2 13s, 2 14s, roughly. That comes to, what, 18 point buy?
2d6+6 average is 13 even, so 6 13s. That comes to 18 point buy.
Edit: You could argue 4d6-drop-low would be more like 3 12s, 2 13s, and 1 14, or 17 point buy.
Edit edit: Ninja'd, and probably a bit more accurately on the 2d6+6 portion.
Reebo Kesh wrote: Ok guys I'm playing a Wizard Archer - straight Wizard who uses a bow and arrows when he runs out of spells. I'm thinking of taking the Arcane Strike feat, so I've got a couple of questions:-
Does it apply to my bow or arrows or both at the same time?
It applies to both, but bonuses from the same source don't stack.
Quote: Does it apply to multiple shots per round ? It applies to every attack you make in a round.
Quote: Does the damage bonus stack with magic arrows or a magic bow It is untyped, so it stacks with everything except itself.
Quote: If I use Arcane Strike during my attack does that mean I can't use Point Blank, Precise Shot or Rapid Shot? Arcane Strike is a swift action, and you only get 1 swift action per round. PBS, PS, and RS are not swift actions. PBS applies to every attack within 30 ft. Precise Shot applies to every attack into melee. Rapid Shot applies on every full-attack action.
It is critical that, if you do have one PC who is more powerful than the others at the table, that character not make anyone else's character redundant. It's okay to have overlap to a point, but if you have, for instance, a more-powerful bard who is a better caster than your dedicated wizard or cleric, you're going to run into problems.
booger=boy wrote: SilvercatMoonpaw wrote: Remove Attacks of Opportunity and replace it with a system that automatically stops actions in progress with no need to have a player/GM make a decision and/or make a roll.
Change "per day" to a slow recharge rate.
I kind of like this recharge idea. I can see some point system per hour being put in place. It might even mean that you don't get a full refresh of yer spells ever 24 hours. Have some super duper spell, need a week to build up the power to cast it. Maybe even have the recharge rate differ per level so that the low level spells are easy to recharge as you go up in levels.
booger=boy Iron Heroes uses tokens. Most classes use actions of some sort to gather tokens and then spend them on class abilities. Some classes automatically gain tokens for certain things -- the berserker for getting hit, for example.
It's an awesome system. Add that to my list of things I'd like to see in Pathfinder: TNG.
moon glum wrote: Abraham spalding wrote: moon glum wrote: Cheapy wrote: A master summoner could do the same thing easier with a bunch of celestial dire tigers.
Mmmm, smiting pounce. Those tigers would be subtracting DR 20/vorpal per attack. Nah. Giant rat named Mol is better! You seemed to have missed the smiting part, which means they will be subtracting nothing from their damage rolls. Oh yeah. True! Both cats and mice make mince meat of the demilich! You'll need a restore corpse before you mince any meat.
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1. I'd love to see a lot of the "specialized" classes be statted out as advanced (not prestige) classes that you can take at level 3.
For instance, a bard could be a sorcerer 1/rogue 1; a pally could be a cleric 1/fighter 1; a ranger could be a druid 1/fighter 1.
2. Feat masteries and skill challenges from Iron Heroes.
Edit: Strike 2. I'd love to see that, but I'd rather see the magic system from Arcana Evolved.
Honestly, the reason for the fix is that you typically aren't going to hit with your ITWF and GTWF attacks.
Alternatively, I might decide to allow this before feats and reduce the penalty with each feat.
'Allo! I'm considering making a change to TWF when I run my next game. First feat allows you to make 1 extra attack at your highest bonus, but all attacks are at -2, as normal.
Improved TWF lets you make 2 extra attacks at your highest bonus, but all attacks are at -4.
Greater TWF lets you make 3 extra attacks at your highest bonus, but all attacks are at -6.
Thoughts?
stabstone wrote: First off, I would like to know if there are any efficient means to have Arrow Eruption readied, as in able to cast in the same round by means of the extra standard action granted by Haste. Haste does not grant an extra standard action. It gives you one extra attack during a full attack action and increases your speed by 30 ft.
Zarzulan wrote: I use a 1 as automatic "fiasco" on any d20 roll, whether attacks or skill checks or whatever. For combat attacks I allow a Reflex check to bring the effect down to just a simple miss, otherwise bad things happen based on how badly they miss the check. Using a Reflex check allows you to keep within the existing rules instead of messing around with house rules. For fumbled skill checks I allow a Fort/Ref/Will check or an attribute-based check depending on what skill and the circumstances under which it's being used. Under this rule, a fighter is more likely to fumble an attack than a bard.
moon glum wrote: Nicos wrote: an easy target for a good archer, a very dificult oponent for everyone else The archer has to beat DR 20/- with each arrow. Unless they are 300 feet away (not likely in the kind of environment where a demilich is likely to be encountered) they have at most 9 rounds to due that in before they die (assuming they save vs. soul devouring each time, despite having their save reduced by -2 each time that they make their save).
No, an archer is hosed, just like everyone else. Except a smiting paladin, unless I'm missing something.
I don't use fumble rules in my games. They affect players far more than they affect NPCs, and they're not fun.
Last game, fumble rules resulted in a PC death. My human pally 6 was fighting a babou demon. Didn't use a smite on it, since it was the very beginning of the dungeon. Kicked divine bond for a holy weapon instead -- I would have used bane if I knew what my next rolls would be.
First attack on the thing was a nat 1. My DM has us make DC 10 Reflex not to fumble, which I missed. Dropped the sword. Spent a swift action to smite to try to pummel it with my fists. Both of those attacks missed (we were hasted).
Next round, I picked up the sword (move action), took a 5-foot step, took 1 swing (standard), nat 1ed again, but luckily made the save.
At the end of the combat, the babou killed our wizard, and then my next attack killed it.
If we didn't have fumble rules, I would have had two more attacks the round I made a standard action swing, which would have killed the demon before it killed the wizard.
princeimrahil wrote: Follow up question: for those of you who use armor as DR, do you also use some kind of base defense bonus for each class? Yes. Iron Heroes classes include a defense bonus that ranges from +0 to +15 at level 20, to +1 to +20 at level 20.
Core rules dictated that this bonus is an active bonus (essentially a dodge bonus) and would thus plummet when flat-footed. There have been a lot of variant rules that have come from this to "fix" the balance issue.
1. Make it a flat bonus that applies all the time.
2. Make 1/2 (round up) active and 1/2 (round down) passive.
3 (my house rule). Tie it to the armor the character is wearing. If a person has a +8 class defense bonus, and they're wearing light armor (1d4 DR), they have a +4 active class bonus and a +4 passive class bonus; if that person was wearing heavy armor (1d8 DR), they would have a +0 active class bonus and a +8 passive class bonus.
4. Class bonus is all active, but effects that override active bonuses only do so by 2 points for every 5 by which they pass the target number.
I'm a big fan of the armor rules that appear in Iron Heroes. I modified them a bit to be more flexible in flavor.
Basically, armor grants variable damage reduction.
Very light armor: 1d2
Light armor: 1d4
Medium armor: 1d6
Heavy armor: 1d8
Very heavy armor: 1d10
Bear in mind that Iron Heroes is a low- to no-magic system, so there are a couple ways you could handle magic armor: either increase the DR by the flat bonus (+5 medium armor absorbs 1d6+5 damage), or provide an armor bonus on top of the DR granted (+5 medium armor increases AC by 5 AND gives 1d6 DR).
Alternatively:
I'm not positive how armor as DR was handled in UA, and that may be where my former DM got this idea, but you could also halve the armor bonus and give an amount of DR equal to the AC bonus you took away.
Padded armor: +1 AC, DR 0
Leather: +1 AC, DR 1
Studded leather: +2 AC, DR 1
Chain shirt: +2 AC, DR 2
Hide: +2 AC, DR 2
Scale mail: +3 AC, DR 2
Chain mail: +3 AC, DR 3
Breastplate: +3 AC, DR 3
Splint mail: +4 AC, DR 3
Banded mail: +4 AC, DR 3
Half-plate: +4 AC, DR 4
Full-plate: +5 AC, DR 4
I like the idea of the armor converting the damage to nonlethal instead of negating it entirely.
You could look into the dragon creation rules from Arcana Evolved. Its bestiary, Legacy of the Dragons, has rules for creating unique dragons with their own types of breath weapons and other attacks.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=681
As others have said, have the PCs create multiple characters. I'd have them stat them up through the relevant levels, so all they have to do is transfer the correct info to a character sheet.
Beyond that, I would suggest that you then use the characters they created as NPCs that the players can add to the party in case of death.
I believe you can have a drunken qinggong monk of the four mountains: drunken master, qinggong, four winds, sacred mountain.
I'm not positive of that, but I think it's possible.
Purely off-the-cuff suggestion: When dual-wielding and using a main-gauche, when you make a full attack, you gain an additional shield bonus equal to the number of attacks you do not make with the main-gauche.
That way, if you have TWF and don't attack with it, you get a +2 shield bonus, ITWF is +3, and GTWF is +4.
It's my understanding that, in WoW, when you drop something, it's gone forever.
So step 1: Any item that hits the ground is destroyed.
If we can track griefing in any meaningful way, then disallow griefers from trading at all for a set period of time, escalating with each additional infraction. That means they can't start a trade nor accept a trade.
Step 2: Griefers not allowed to trade.
Alternatively, you could ban griefers from joining or forming groups, especially if being in a group is essential for any part of the game.
I would definitely go in on that.
Especially if you worked it out so that purchasing a certain number of shares got you a free account, for instance. ;)
Edit: Does anyone know if Kickstarter would be a viable platform for this?
I loved Guild Wars. I hated WoW for the monthly fee. I feel like once I purchase a game, I should be able to play it without having to pay for the privilege forever thereafter.
I'd be content with an offline version you can access without a monthly fee alongside an online version you can access with the fee.
Since my wife and I aren't traveling to see family this Thanksgiving in lieu of a longer Christmas break, we're having Thanksgiving with a friend of ours at our home. I decided to go ahead and run a one-shot with the two of them.
Warning: Grim themes to follow.
The background they'll receive has them just arriving in a small village after being attacked on the road by some undead. One of their companions got dragged off, and they lost him, so they're stopping at the village to see if anyone is able to help them.
One of the first things they'll notice is that there's almost nobody outside, and everyone who is outside is armed and suspicious. Turns out, many of the villagers (but only human ones) have disappeared in recent weeks. Eventually, they'll track down a ranger (probably, depending on what the PCs create) who offers to help.
After the group heads out, their first encounter will be with some angry animals -- probably a dire badger or two. After dispatching those, they continue on until they come across a dead villager. The body looks like it's been feasted on, but a Perception check (DC 20) shows that some parts of the skin have been cut off. A second Perception check (DC 25, -1 per rank in Know [nature]) reveals that many of the trees in the area look blighted. It's possible to follow this blight to help track (Survival DC is at -1 per rank in Know [nature]).
Following the new trail leads the group to an abandoned-looking hamlet, maybe a dozen decrepit buildings scattered about. Another Perception check (DC 10) shows a road leading away. If not for the blight in the area, it would be much more difficult to see.
Wandering among the buildings, the PCs might be able to see or hear movement in some of the buildings. Those that they investigate, they find filled with assorted undead -- bloody skeletons, zombies, and a few ghouls.
When they enter one of the buildings -- the most intact one, though it's still missing major portions of the roof -- they see a fireplace with a large pot cooking. When the door closes behind them, though, they'll hear another from the other side of the house slam shut as well. If they head straight for that sound, they'll first come to a room with a tub full of water, and what looks like a child floating in it.
Should they try to help the child, they find that she is still alive. Once she has recovered, she offers them some of the food from the house. The food, however, has been poison steeped (witch hex).
If she can keep the ruse going, she will target the PCs with feast of ashes and cup of dust; if not, a couple of juju zombies will come in from a bedroom and attack.
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Anna, halfling graveborn witch (shadow) 8: HP 56; Str 6, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 20, Wis 10, Cha 16; Bluff 8, Disguise 8, Fly* 4, Knowledge (arcana)* 8, (nature)* 4, (planes)* 4, Spellcraft* 8, Sense Motive 4, Stealth 4, Survival 4, UMD* 8.
Cantrips, aura of desecration, patron spells, poppet; feat (Childlike)
Hex (cauldron), silent image
Feat (Extra Hex: poison steep).
Bonethrall, command undead
Feat (Accursed Hex).
Hex (water lung), animate dead
Feat (Tenebrous Spell).
Possess undead, shadow conjuration
Spells: 0th – Daze, guidance, putrefy food and drink, touch of fatigue. 1st – Ear-piercing scream, frostbite, interrogation x2, peacebond. 2nd – Feast of ashes, haunting mists x2, vomit swarm. 3rd – Cup of dust, excruciating deformation, rain of frogs, vision of hell. 4th – Shadow step, vermin shape II, volcanic storm.
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Her 4th level spells serve to let her escape, and if she does, the PCs will have to try to track her, though her turning into a mosquito swarm will make that very difficult.
If they manage to kill or capture her, hooray! If not, they'll still find three of her victims awaiting jujuism in a locked room -- two villagers and their missing companion.
Thoughts?
Edit: I still need to assign her magic items, so the skills list ranks, not modifier, and I haven't calculated AC and whatnot.
Edit edit: PCs will be 5th level (one druid, one unknown), and will be accompanied by a ranger to guide them and either a cleric or fighter, depending on what the other PC makes.
Consider taking Lunge or Combat Patrol.
The tetori archetype is the grapple-monster, so you could consider that, if you're allowed to rework your character.
There's also the maneuver master archetype.
If giants are your DM's enemy of choice, and you're playing a dwarf or gnome, you could go with the Earth Child Style chain.
As was mentioned, Crane Style will improve your defensive abilities.
Snake Style will allow you to boost your AC against an attack as an immediate action.
Lastly, Snapping Turtle Style will boost your AC.
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cattoy wrote: Randall Jhen wrote: The last game I ran, I had my players decide their race/class, then assign 15/14/13/12/10/8 to their ability scores, then roll 3d6 in order and take either the rolled value or the previously assigned number, whichever was higher.
This meant players could create a character that wouldn't suck at what they wanted to be able to do while giving them a chance to be better at things that weren't core to their character.
Example:
INITIAL | ABILITY | ROLLED
8 | Strength | 15
14 | Dex | 14
12 | Con | 12
15 | Int | 8
13 | Wis | 11
10 | Cha | 14
Thus, the wizard had Str 15, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 15, Wis 13, Cha 14.
Overall, the point value is pretty high (29), but the biggest gain, Strength, isn't likely to affect the character much.
I do have to say that I really like the assign-as-you-like-plus-hubris method, though. No racial mod? Well, yes. I just didn't include it as it has no effect on the point value of the build.
When I run games, I also skip the one-point-per-four-levels adjustment, and instead give characters one point per level, but they purchase points at the same cost as to buy them at creation, so to go from a 17 to an 18 costs four points, but to go from a 10 to an 11 only costs 1.
The last game I ran, I had my players decide their race/class, then assign 15/14/13/12/10/8 to their ability scores, then roll 3d6 in order and take either the rolled value or the previously assigned number, whichever was higher.
This meant players could create a character that wouldn't suck at what they wanted to be able to do while giving them a chance to be better at things that weren't core to their character.
Example:
INITIAL | ABILITY | ROLLED
8 | Strength | 15
14 | Dex | 14
12 | Con | 12
15 | Int | 8
13 | Wis | 11
10 | Cha | 14
Thus, the wizard had Str 15, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 15, Wis 13, Cha 14.
Overall, the point value is pretty high (29), but the biggest gain, Strength, isn't likely to affect the character much.
I do have to say that I really like the assign-as-you-like-plus-hubris method, though.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/monk/archetypes/paizo---monk-a rchetypes/monk-of-the-empty-hand
You treat anything you hold as an improvised weapon, and you can flurry with improvised weapons.
Talon3585 wrote: Randall Jhen wrote: I bought Ultimate Combat yesterday. After looking at the feats in there, I think I'd make my next character frickin' Nightcrawler: Qinggong monk that takes Dimensional Agility/Assault/Dervish/Maneuvers/Savant.
Swap out Wholeness of Body for Gaseous Form.
Swap out Diamond Body for Shadow Step.
Swap out Diamond Soul for Shadow Walk.
Take a bunch of movement-related feats (Acrobatic Steps, Spider Steps, Cloud Step). **BAMF**!!! When I was discussing this idea with some co-workers today, that's the name I said I would give him: Bamf.
Edit: I did just put together an outline for this character and found out that, sadly, a straight monk doesn't have enough feats to take all of the Dimensional feats, since the earliest they can take Dimensional Agility is 13th level.
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I bought Ultimate Combat yesterday. After looking at the feats in there, I think I'd make my next character frickin' Nightcrawler: Qinggong monk that takes Dimensional Agility/Assault/Dervish/Maneuvers/Savant.
Swap out Wholeness of Body for Gaseous Form.
Swap out Diamond Body for Shadow Step.
Swap out Diamond Soul for Shadow Walk.
Take a bunch of movement-related feats (Acrobatic Steps, Spider Steps, Cloud Step).
I'm currently playing a human urban barbarian in an all-human game. Other races will be available as we encounter them, so I've created a barbarian of each other race: dwarven armored hulk, elven scarred rager, halfling mounted fury/savage barbarian, half-orc brutal pugilist, gnome elemental kin.
Aside from those, I'd like to play a switch-hitter ranger. Or one of many monk archetypes. Or the arcane duelist.
So many choices. O_O
kensai13 wrote: Clerics can channel energy 3x per day + Charisma Modifier. Can a Cleric with a 5 Charisma (-3) never channel energy at all or is 1x per day the minimum? Charisma modifier means that 3 + (-3) yields 0 channels per day. If it was Charisma bonus (it isn't), it would mean the minimum was 3.
Hmm. I tend to use simple-to-pronounce names. Randall Jhen was a telepath I ran whose goal was to essentially play chess with kingdoms. Never saw much use, sadly. I'd love to play him updated for Pathfinder.
Keris Jade was the monk I ran in 3.0 from 1-21 over a couple of years.
I used Dalen Shore for two different characters, though one never actually saw use: a warblade out of Bo9S (died relatively early in his career) and a healer-arcanist in Iron Heroes (never played, but I loved his story).
I had a Muslim Werewolf character, just retired 'cause the game ended, named Rajik Wanderdune.
Those are my most memorable characters. I had a Con-based dwarf monk who refused to die, despite my best efforts, but I can't remember his name.
Oh! I think my worst offending character name was Mashiara al'Shadar. She was a 3.5 soulblade that never really went anywhere. She started out as a kind of innocent young girl, with my goal to turn her into a cold-blooded killer. Her campaign was going in a direction that I could have done it, too. Damn shame I had to move.
To me, prestige classes work best when used to combine two otherwise disparate classes. The obvious example is the mystic theurge, but rage prophet and battle herald from the APG are others.
I understand why people would want to see prestige classes relegated to setting specific books, but I'd like to see a smattering of fluff-neutral prestige classes in any given book, and let the setting books flavor them appropriately. That keeps me from having to buy a dozen other books to see the prestige classes they offer.
My understanding is that you can use a swift action on your turn and an immediate action anytime before your turn rolls around again, but if you use an immediate action, you cannot take a swift action on the following turn.
While I understand the appeal of playing a character with many pets, I think that allowing a character to have too much along those lines takes away from the overall fun at the table. It's not much fun to wait through someone casting spells for their character, then making attack rolls for two pets, Stealth checks for a third, and saving throws for all four. The problem is compounded if you have multiple people with pets.
wraithstrike wrote: Randall Jhen wrote: I'm working on a basically entirely reworked Iron Heroes system. In that, critical hits with an x2 "multiplier" deal max base weapon damage +1d10. A x3 deals +2d10, and a x4 deals +3d10. There is no multiplying. I am working on a similar system so I now have to ask what is the purpose of your idea? My reason for it is threefold. Most importantly, I wanted to reduce the massive damage increase that things like Power Attack give on critical hits. Second, it guarantees that critical hits will always deal more damage than regular hits. Third, it reduces the time it takes to calculate your damage on a critical hit.
I'm working on a basically entirely reworked Iron Heroes system. In that, critical hits with an x2 "multiplier" deal max base weapon damage +1d10. A x3 deals +2d10, and a x4 deals +3d10. There is no multiplying.
Personally, I'm in the E6 camp -- our real world can be modeled in the first six levels of typical gameplay. Anything past that is beyond the abilities of real-world people, and is thus "epic."
However, if I were to see an Epic Handbook, I'd like to see it done in incremental levels -- maybe make it a softcover book series, where each book handles the next five levels. Book 1 would cover up to 25, Book 2 up to 30, etc. I don't want generic "you get an attack bonus/save bonus/some skills/maybe-a-feat/whatever-class-abilities-dependent-on-uses-per-level rules; I want to see characters with wholly new abilities.
For an example, see Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, wherein he provides 25 levels for each class.
bigkilla wrote: I have a question for the people who have had players or ran a game for epic level groups. How did the characters get to epic level? did you actually play that much that you leveled the characters to epic level? I had a DM when 3.0 first came out who ran a (mostly) solo game for me. He played a CE elven wizard DMPC; I played a LN human monk. Occasionally we'd have a full party including a gnome cleric of Garl Glittergold, a wizard/fighter, a rogue, and possibly one other character that I'm forgetting.
We used standard XP progression, and my monk, Keris Jade, made it to level 21 in two years. 'Course, that was splitting XP two ways most of the time instead of four.
Volaran wrote: Zurai, could you reference the source of your flowchart? As far as I am aware, this would be a situation in which _all_ conditions must be be met, not a specific order for those conditions, which can be leapfrogged via this feat.
Personally, I would rule that this feat as worded, would only bypass the positioning requirement of flanking, not the limit that flanking only applies to melee attacks.
Thankfully, it looks like a few folks have already marked this as a FAQ candidate, so hopefully we'll get some clarification. I hope that the wording of this feat is better clarified when it is added to the PRD.
I'm not seeing where, under Flanking in the Combat section, it says it applies only to melee attacks. I see where it says only melee attacks get a bonus, but not anything disallowing ranged attacks.
Take this scenario: Beastie moves past FighterMan to get to ArcherDude with a bow. Then, FighterMan moves adjacent to Beastie, but on its opposite side from ArcherDude. In this situation, ArcherDude is flanking Beastie, but does not get a +2 flanking bonus on attacks because he is using a ranged weapon; FighterMan is NOT considered flanking because ArcherDude does not threaten with his bow.
F = FighterMan
B = Beastie
A = ArcherDude
- = blank squares
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--F--
--B--
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PRD wrote: When in doubt about whether two characters flank an opponent in the middle, trace an imaginary line between the two attackers' centers. If the line passes through opposite borders of the opponent's space (including corners of those borders), then the opponent is flanked. ... Only a creature or character that threatens the defender can help an attacker get a flanking bonus. There is nothing there that says the flankers must be using melee weapons to flank, only to get the flanking bonus. You could replace FighterDude and ArcherMan with two rogues with bows, Sneakers and Stabbers, and while neither of them would get a +2 flanking bonus to attack, both of them would be considered flanking and get sneak attack.
I'll throw my hat in the ring and say that the flanking condition and the bonus to attack while flanking are two different things.
PRD wrote: Flanking
When making a melee attack, you get a +2 flanking bonus if your opponent is threatened by another enemy character or creature on its opposite border or opposite corner.
Then...
PRD wrote: Sneak Attack: If a rogue can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from her attack, she can strike a vital spot for extra damage.
The rogue's attack deals extra damage anytime her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the rogue flanks her target.
Thus, I would read it as allowing a person to flank with a ranged weapon without gaining a +2 bonus to attack.
Jason Nelson wrote: It's the kind of feat that would work really well with a merciful weapon, which is already a very nice weapon bonus cuz it's extra damage without worrying about energy resistance - only undead and constructs are going to be immune (except for rare oddballs). Invulnerable barbarians will probably laugh at you.
Possible house rule: You must take the favored class bonus once per level of the spell you are trying to learn.
Thus, you could get a cantrip or 1st-level spell for one expenditure of your favored class bonus; a 2nd-level spell will cost two; a 3rd-level spell will cost three; etc.
I highly recommend Extra Lay On Hands. The paladin in my Ptolus: Night of Dissolution took it twice, I think. He never regretted the decision.
Hunterofthedusk wrote: Lunge is only until the end of your turn, but otherwise yeah Combat Patrol would be pretty sick with that since you don't have to waste movement to get those attacks of opportunity. Monks do suffer from a lower BAB though, so they wouldn't threaten as far as a fighter. Huh. Learn something new every day. My monk player tried to use Lunge to keep a wizard from fivering out of his threatened area last session, and I just plain didn't realize this was the case.
Thanks for the heads up!
Re: lower base attack -- such is the price you pay for awesomeness.
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