Rashagar's page

Mainly posting here in the hopes that some resolution will be mentioned in this thread if/when resolution occurs, since otherwise it will prey on my mind.

My opinion on the topic has already been mentioned by others at this stage. I hope some manner of acceptable resolution occurs and I can only offer sympathy/empathy to those involved.

After a lot of thought, my favourite thing that other people hate is my characters making decisions that make the rest of the party put their heads in their hands and say "jesus f*ing christ"

My friends are the ones that hate it =P

Here's my favorite thing that people hate (demonstrated by this very thread).

Using rules as written.

You're right I do hate that, whichever side of the GM screen I'm sitting on. I'd much rather hand wave a fair sounding compromise into existence and get back into the flow of a combat than tell a player the cool thing he wants to try wouldn't work "by raw" or pause the combat to spend ages consulting a book for grammar minutia, for example.

I also much rather being allowed to for example swap out a certain sorcerer bloodline spell for a different one that more fits with the character concept I'm trying to create (and isn't pure shite).

To each their own though, I'm not saying one way is objectively better than another.

I like being able to bump very old threads whose topics are just as relevant today as they were when the thread was created.

I honestly had to go back to the first post and check that that wasn't a snarky comment aimed in my direction haha! I'm sorry for doubting you, and I also like being able to bump old relevant threads.

while someone else runs us through some L5R.

You have no idea how jealous I am right now.

As for what I enjoy about GMing, it depends on my mood. Sometimes I love setting up or planning out a mechanically intricate combat encounter. I love getting to try out character concepts, I always have too many to ever get to play them as a player. Other times I just don't have the energy for that, and in those instances I love when winging something pays off, like when you decide at the last second to add a character quirk to an otherwise unremarkable npc that really makes the players remember the character for months later, or when you start tangling yourself up with story threads and feeling trapped by your own spur of the moment answers and then you see that one piece of info that ties everything together and makes it all make sense. I love the post-game discussions, and hearing what parts really grabbed the players' imaginations or they found really tense. I love seeing what solutions my players come up with and how they role play their characters, and thinking out what the logical ramifications of their actions might be.

A druid wears leather. An oracle is a cripple or a deaf mute or has severe cataracts or has some other pitiable weakness. We do not send cripples into battle. The two drawbacks are nothing alike. Cripples and deaf mutes and people with severe cataracts should not be sent into harms way. Occasionally people who are already high level have remained active, but a level 1 party is not going to get the adventuring equivalent of Horatio Nelson. And Nelson wouldn't have been permitted to continue serving in anything but a command or administrative role.

It's not the mechanics that make oracles completely unsuitable for adventuring. It's the RP. The druid, like the bard or rogue, doesn't wear certain armor. The oracle is disabled and just like disabled people aren't welcome in the military unless they already have a proven track record doing something their disability doesn't prevent, disabled people are not welcome in adventuring parties where everyone is making decisions in character.

Only the cleric provides all condition removal spells without a cripplingly low spells known limit or an access delay. The druid and shaman supply some, but at least one is only on the cleric/oracle list. If no one plays a cleric someone has to play an oracle and someone else a druid or shaman. Since people who actually care about roleplaying can't have oracles in low level parties without some extreme railroading forcing everyone to adventure together, someone must play a cleric.

And the GM isn't forced to be a dick over codes of conduct, but if he isn't a dick the code of conduct isn't doing anything to balance the class. A non-dickish GM will ignore everything on the druid code except the armor restriction. And, lo and behold, druids are overpowered. They wouldn't be overpowered if the GM were a dick and made them fall on any stupid excuse, but then the GM would have to be a dick. The same thing happens with paladins, but since they're martials they merely suck less than they otherwise would have.

You're proposing balancing clerics like druids. Any GM who isn't willing to be a dick will find them just as overpowered. Any GM who is willing to be a dick to his players is forced to single out whoever runs the cleric (or druid or paladin) to be a dick to them because they have codes of conduct.

I just... disagree with everything you just said.

Everything.

That's quite rare for me.

The "boring cleric/boring wizard" mentioned by... someone... (I've just read through the entire thread at once so everyone is blending together) is kind of how I feel about all prepared casters in fairness.
You end up just picking either generically effective spells for the day or spells to counter a specific thing that day (eg. remove blindness), and it removes a lot of the interesting build-defining character choices that spontaneous casters make every time they level up.

I like the suggested ideas for making the choice of deity more relevant and the trimming the current spell list combined with expanding the domain granted spell lists, losing the domain slot restriction, and picking one domain choice to cast spontaneously instead of it automatically being cure/inflict (but it could still be cure/inflict with the right domains/portfolio). Also really interested in that idea of spells getting minor bonuses if they're added more than once.

I agree with the person who said d6 hit points isn't particularly appealing for a class that generally can't afford to hang back as much as the wizard can (unless you make all life-saving clutch situation spells ranged, which...), it can be reflected by a poorer con score if you really want the squishiness, since realistically a d6 hp is -1 hp/lvl compared to d8, and should also be combined with a poor fort save for true wizard-squish. =P

I'm now really interested in expanding domain spell lists and fiddling with deity portfolios... damn there goes my afternoon...

The scary things from level one are fleeing the scary things from level two. Diseased rats fleeing an ooze-infested flood, for instance, or giant spiders fleeing awakened spider-eaters, or deformed mutated goblins fleeing a troll alchemist who has been experimenting (and snacking) upon them, or whatever. The nasty of one level is thus tied to the nasty of the next level, thematically.

Now this I love. Makes the environment feel alive.

When running a horror-esque session I think the most important part is to be descriptive. Don't say "you encounter a troll", say "as your eyes adjust to the light you notice that the pile of soiled discarded rags on the opposite side of the room is moving. It rises up and resolves itself into the form of a hulking monstrous entity, it's eyes gleam a wicked red under the mass of knotted hair and as it raises an elongated clawed arm to strike at you a waft of foul smelling air assaults your senses". Just never name the things they encounter, and if they succeed at knowledge checks to learn more about them phrase it in such a way that you give them the necessary info without giving them the thing's name eg "you've heard tale of such creatures before, the lore seemed to indicate that the thing shied away from sources of open flame" The less game terms you can use the better.

With that in mind, some things I've enjoyed using in horror themed games include:
Tengu, I think done right they should be properly terrifying, as human-sized predators with razor sharp beaks and claws and utterly alien minds. (Think jurrasic park raptors but with even more intellect)
Children, as has been mentioned. And children's toys in places you wouldn't expect them. My players once opened a door to find a room seemingly empty but for a doll sitting upright in the dead centre of the room. They never went in to that room.
Blood in unexpected places. Eg. I had statues that bled when damaged. The masonry around them had begun to crumble and some of the statues had been damaged by falling brickwork. Despite the decades old damage the "wounds" on the statues still seeped fresh blood.
People get very squeamish when it comes to eyes or damage to eyes. And faces. Mirrors. One room held a statue holding a reflective hand mirror. Each time the players passed it the statue changed slightly and a different face was reflected in the mirror. Then one time they passed it the mirror was shattered on the floor. They were convinced that that meant that something had been released but next time they went to the statue they found the mirror whole again and a placcid expression on the statue's face.
A patch of wall that inexplicably oozed pus, which led to the catch phrase for that and many other sessions being "I lick the goo".

My players were great for theorising to each other during the session, which meant that I was in a great position to play against their fears and expectations, either challenging or corroborating their past assumptions. Don't be scared to abandon what you've already laid out in favour of the story they're making up themselves as they go along, use their imaginations against them, work on your poker face and never explain the origins of anything that you don't need to.

Hope it goes well =D

I tend to use poisons more than what I now assume to be the average amount (after reading some of these comments) when I GM games because I find it a good way to vary encounters, and having more than one death counter in effect is nice and memorable. It just makes it more interesting for us. So if you were playing in my game, Poison Resistance would probably be of more value than SADdening your character's ability scores. In comparison, I dislike effects that are all-or-nothing "now you don't get to take part in this encounter", like some will save effects are. So in my game you wouldn't tend to have as much "encounter ending" will saves, but they do still tend to come up for the more interesting effects.

So basically, which archetype is more effective depends on the kind of game you're in, but that kind of thinking shouldn't really dictate which option you choose. Go for whichever feels right for your character concept.

Also, Samurai Jack. Imakandi.

Rudyard Kipling started my love of Indian mythology.
Catfolk are the playable Rakshasa.

Because I want a character named Claude.

You know, the more I think about it the more I think if it was me building it I'd go with a Divine / Primal Companion Hunter, and just with or without the pet as Onyxlion was saying.

Trickery (deception) Domain gets you disguise self, mirror image, nondetection. It's domain powers kick ass for similarly tricksy shenanigans with an easyflank teleport and Veil.

The wild empathy/animal charming powers/hide from animals to bypass guard dogs and similar, things like negate aroma to avoid being followed or protective spirit to get out of danger or maneuver around the battlefield, tracking class feature combined with bloodhound to find your mark, spells like jump and spider climb for getting in places you shouldn't, blend and chameleon stride in place of invisibility, spells that can cause poison and ability damage, as well as summoning distracting rains of frogs or monkey swarms.

All potentially backed up with the versatility or damage that evolutions can bring.
In fact the only thing I'm not seeing here is some kind of bursty damage buff source, like sneak attack or bane would be. Closest I can see is lead blades, which is admittedly a nice spell.

Han Solo had Chewbacca. Even after Anthropomorphic Animal happened.

The animal sidekick seems to be a thing for a lot of Disney characters.

Bond villains go to huge lengths to keep their shark companions nearby.

If your DM really doesn't want to deal with summons, then respect his wishes and don't use summons. They can really slow down the game, especially if it's your first time playing a caster.

You've probably seen all this already but just in case.

Some of my favourite spells are Spiritual Weapon/Ally, since they give you at least something to do on each of your turns, and Ally counts as a flanking buddy for your melee friends/rogues. You can even flavour them as binding a soul temporarily into service or something, if that fits the character. A guy in a thread I saw a little while ago mentioned combining those spells with the Toppling Spell metamagic, which I can't believe I never thought of and now really want to try for myself. Stacking flanking and prone bonuses for an ally would be quite nice. Doesn't work if your GM insists that it has to be wisdom that's used rather than your casting stat though. (Guy in the thread also mentioned that Blade Barrier at level 12+ would benefit from Toppling too, which is even more amazing!)

Silence can be situationally really nice to have, maybe cast on something like an archer friend's arrow just before he shoots at a caster enemy to avoid the save being an issue?

Much love for Bestow Curse, it's just so good. I'd go for it over blindness/deafness. Maybe ask to swap it out if you're not happy? Though admittedly range might be an issue, but you're a life oracle! You can come back from anything. Or use a Reach rod if you have the gold for it.

Multitarget options are always good, so a Bouncing rod for your Hold Person or whatever as mentioned above is nice.

I might have missed it, but what's the 5th level spell you chose? I have a soft spot for Boneshatter, it always does at least something and is just visually really evil/fun. Greater Command/Forbid is also a nice option for groups. ("Just walk through that blade barrier again for me, there's a good puppet")

The errata getting recinded would involve the devs admitting they were wrong, on the internet. Do we really expect someone doing that to happen more than once in a single thread? =P

A party of inquisitors would be weird.

So much Solo Tactics.

I'm playing with alternate magic systems to pass the time.

I wonder if hybrid classes will help me finally kick the multiclassing habit. Probably not.

Don't get me wrong - I really like the many small changes that have happened for the monk in the last year or so. I don't feel the monk is under powered or anything like that (sure, he isn't a powerhouse, but he plays reliable and fun games).

What I'd like is to move away from the "old" design on the monk, and get closer to the new hotness (barbarian rage powers, rogue talents, ninja tricks, oracle revelations, alchemist discoveries, magus arcana, etc). A monk-orientated class that did something similar (insights?) would be amazing. Take away Bonus Feats, and replace them with Insights every even level; add a big set of flavor heavy insights and we're good to go!

You know, the more I think about it since reading it in the monk vs. fighter thread, the more I've started really wanting a monk/cavalier hybrid. Monk Orders could be a really neat way to choose between focusing your character on the more martial or magical aspects of the trope.

Ub3r n3rd, sure I reward imagination too. I just don't consider "I summon a horse and drop it on his head" to be very imaginative. Maybe in 1977, but not 35 years after the first time a GM had to say "wait a minute..."

I suppose what qualifies as being "imaginative" varies from table to table. The vast majority of the things listed here, imho, for my games, are more "cliche" than "imaginative."

YMMV.

It's imaginative if they've never seen it before, whether or not it's been done before has nothing much to do with it.

48. Enjoying a massage from an attractive underling. It's good to be the king.

Misread that as enjoying a massacre from an attractive underling.

100. At a royal gala, having a grand old time. Shows how well connected he is, and how difficult it'll be to deal with him in a non-destructive good-aligned way.

101. Tending his garden. (in either pretty or deathtrap varieties)

102. Dungeon delving with his own adventuring party.

Heh, has to be said if it was me and my half-golem character was met with groans because he wasn't a cleric, I'd be much more likely to also bring out a clockwork animal companion than to switch characters at that point.

This happened in 3.5, and the DM was a completely insane religious sociopath, and was also a completely killer DM who happened to love when people made overpowered characters(I think for the challenge.). His games were great.

Anyway, my buddy ended up making a Vampire Monk whose signature weapon was a giant Maul, who later shed the Vampire business and became an Angel. His character was the most absurd thing in existence, until he played in my Star Wars campaign. Dear god...

Oh I completely forgot I had a fairly fun semi-lethal dwarven battle-judge of a flowing monk npc who wielded a two-handed hammer.

One of the npcs I'd really enjoy bringing into a new campaign as a player.

Heh, kind of missing the point of the thread aren't you. =)

Personally I like making jack of all trades characters. I usually get pretty bored with highly specialized characters.

Sometimes I think that some people who only make highly specialized characters also get pretty bored with them, and that's why they insist on playing everyone else's characters too instead of just their own.

Huh, I never read it that way before. I wouldn't really consider it an overpowered interpretation, but I don't believe it was intended to be able to be consistently used that way. Though since LoH uses are generally a nice safety net it'd be kind of cool that your charge damage increases when you're that bit more vulnerable.

@Drakkiel: provided you got the devil to agree to perform the task in exchange for "all that remains of your soul" then you'd have no problem! All you need to do is find a staggeringly dumb devil.

Fun things to do in your campaign involving spell components:

--Tell the players what components the enemy caster is pulling out of her pouch during combat. How many players will know what's coming up when the wizard pulls out a bit of fur and a glass rod?

--Allow spell casters to improve certain spells if they use better versions of the components. After killing the red dragon, let them collect some dragon guano to maximize their fireballs, or something like that.

--Leave them behind as clues. What does it mean that there were a few hummingbird feathers left on the wizard's desk? Did he scry us? Cast some sort of protective spell?

Really lame thing to do in your campaign involving spell components:

--Make players track usage.

I really like the idea of rarer components yielding better results. It kind of ties into how we play polymorph spells, in that you can change into a specific individual by using a part of that specific individual as the spell component. My magus has a roll of leather with meticulously labelled vials of blood, hair, and nails he's collected over the course of the adventure for use with alter self (and curses, but that's a different story). It gives more fun options for espionage and creating a bit of chaos but also limits the spell's effectiveness since you need to harvest scales from a merfolk to be able to turn into a merfolk etc.

What would a generic human even look like? Would it fall into the uncanny valley for any human npc that looked at it?

Oohh this is excellent news!

I will always love the words of power system, though admittedly I houserule some of the things away, like that annoying spell duration bit. I'm very curious to see what fixes you implement and your word suggestions, and definitely looking forward to expansions to the system.

I had a sacred servant paladin of Shelyn with unsanctioned knowledge who'd always try to use her charms to end encounters before they devolved into fighting. She was a kitsune, in the most anime-girl style possible.

Another one of my characters was a water bender, Undine quinngong monk with the Marid Style feats and hydraulic push/torrent. Was the fastest tea-maker in all the land.

I homebrewed up a tengu death dealer type who could shapechange into a swarm of ravens by slightly altering the Spherewalker prestige class (basically swapping the domains for death, darkness, trickery etc and calling the swarm of butterflies a swarm of ravens). He was fun since we were testing out the mythic rules, so he required no food or drink except for the eyeballs plucked from his victim's skulls, of which he needed at least one per day.

I also created a pirate golemancer who specialised in creating singing cloth golems to help him sail the seven seas, but the gm didn't like my Tim Curry impression, and didn't want me always trying to go to Zanzibar to meet the Zanzibarbarians.

I have a huge amount of love for wordcasting, and words of power really lend themselves beautifully to spontaneous casters. As soon as I get a game for him I have a kitsune sorcerer wordcaster concept all ready to go.

Taking some illusion, charm and weather based spells, as well as making sure that I have one damaging spell of each spell level in an element other than electricity, and going with the.... djinni? bloodline to freely swap to lightning whenever I care to I feel that I can have huge versatility in how to deal with any given scenario.

Also, in terms of character playing, I much prefer knowing a few spell descriptions really well, adapting my chosen skill set to different scenarios and coming up with off-the-wall solutions on the fly than saying I'll be back in a minute, I think I have a spell for that somewhere... *looks up rulebook to check*