Revel's page

Sooo... apparently the link has been dead for along time now but I never got on Google so I didn't know. Getting my Gmail for the first time in years I expected trash but had 20 or more share requests... umm, whoops?

So hopefully this fixes it. If not please let me know and I'll try again.

Revel's Guide to the Monk

Alright, so I’ve been the forever DM for a group but recently had a player who, like you, stepped up to run a campaign. We started with a couple short one shots where she got her feet wet and she is now running Age of Ashes, so as you might gather this thread amuses me. Hopefully I can give you a couple pointers :)

First, the difficulty can be a little wonky at times, most fights are perfectly fine, but occasionally there is one that doesn’t seem balanced right and could go very bad very easily. However, since we had done a few one shots with the same characters our group actually started at 3rd level so we had no problems, in fact I asked her to bump up the monsters a little until we were close to the correct level (the advanced template works well for this).

With this in mind I would consider either starting the group second level or running them through a short group of encounters and leveling them to second them (even if they wouldn’t quite have enough experience from the encounters). This way you can play the rest of the modules pretty mush “as is” without being overly worried about some fights being to lethal. Don’t worry, there will still be challenging fights.

As the group adventures, if you use experience points they will naturally grow closer to the right level over time since higher level characters get less experience from lower level enemies. If you aren’t quite ready for this you can always give them a little extra experience once in a while to keep them about a level ahead until you feel comfortable enough to let the groups’ level drift into place (they’ll likely remain about half a level ahead but that’s perfectly fine)

If you don’t use experience points but instead use milestone leveling, just keep the group leveled one level higher than the module suggests until you decide otherwise.

Note if you have more than 4 people in your group these measures may not be needed since the extra support from the other characters may make up the difference all by itself.

If you want to run a couple encounters to level the group to 2nd level before starting, read over the players guide for Age of Ashes. The town the players start in often hires adventurers to deal with local problems so it’s really easy to create a problem and have the town offer a reward for the players to go handle it for them.

Btw, for your reference, my group has been using experience points, we started Age of Ashes at 3rd level, ended the first book 1 level higher then suggested and are currently on the first half of book 3 and at the suggested level, though I suspect we might still might be about half a level higher and thus may level a little earlier.

Also, as someone mentioned above, use the forums. Since I’m playing in it I don’t look at the one for Age of Ashes but there are quite a few resources in the adventure path threads as well as tips on how to deal with issues that may come up.

Whatever you decide to do, please remember the only thing that really matters is that everyone’s having a good time. Good luck.

Well I can’t speak to all of the investigators abilities as I haven’t read through it well enough and haven’t had a player run one before but as far as “That’s Odd” goes, noting that something is out of the ordinary does not mean you understand its significance. For example consider an investigator enters a room and notices some marks on the floor over by a painting.

Is there a secret passage there? Perhaps part of the wall moves and caused the marks.

Is there a loose stone or other secret compartment that is over there are the marks are because someone recently accessed it?

Did someone move furniture that was once there? Perhaps a chair was moved elsewhere to conceal a bloodstain.

Did a creature come out of the painting and the marks are from it coming and going at night?

In other words keep it vague. Think in terms of a murder mystery in which “ideally” the significance of the clues noticed may not be apparent until much later in the story.

Based on what Rysky pointed out you don't "have" to say anything except that something feels off or unusual about a certain area of the room though personally I'd prefer giving some sort of hint as in the example above. Still if you aren't sure how to to it without giving out to mush information it does give you an out of sorts.

Maybe I missed this but I have a question.

Where does your gods anathema fit on the codes of conduct? It seems like they would have to be included somehow. For example, what if a paladin of Shelyn where put in a situation where they had to lie to save a great historical piece of art? What takes priority? How about if an innocent would come to harm, what if the lawful authorities have decided it must be destroyed, etc.

Unless your gods anathema is included on the chart I’m still seeing plenty of “paladin falling” threads in the future.

I really like this blog post, there is lots of good information and I really like what you seem to be doing with spells. I do have 2 questions though. First, I don't understand why, under regeneration it doesn't simply read

Heightened (+2) Increase the regeneration by 5.

If spells only go through level 10 it wouldn't change anything and would seem to be more consistent with the other spells (well, based on my sample size of 3 spells anyway xP). Additionally, if there is any chance spells can go past tenth level, such as when characters go beyond 20th level (if that is possible, which I really hope it still is) then I think it would still scale fine and would be a nice option to have available should you even choose to use it.

The other question is simply is there any chance of getting a blog post on magical traditions, essences, and meta magic in the near future :)

As far as actually playing the game goes what I find fun is:

1) When I surprise the players, usually with a big reveal and they think it’s cool.
2) When the players surprise me by doing something clever or putting things together sooner then I thought they would.

Basically, as DM/GM I run the game and already know the area, encounters, NPC’s, story, etc. so the only thing that really makes it worth doing is seeing things unfold in unexpected ways and seeing the players having a great time.

Having said that I still prefer a 50/50 split between playing and running games, unfortunately it tends to be me running the game 90% of the time.

@Shiroi:

Interjecting reality can be fun provided the group is OK with it and what is being interjected is, in fact some representation of reality. In the years I've been playing I've noticed when numbers start climbing it's good to convert those units into something we are more familiar with to gain a better perspective.

Having said all that, just so you know, 330 feet per 6 seconds is about 37.5 miles per hour, so a speeder chase it is not :)

Also for a little more perspective, when I googled it I found that most birds appear to typically fly in the 10~40 mile per hour range. Hope that helps.

@ Durngrun Stonebreaker: Alright, I think I understand part of the problem, the way you run charm person seems odd to me. I think I get what you are trying to say but I don’t think I can agree with it and I suspect others feel the same way which is why so many people have a problem with what you are saying. Let me see if I can explain.

I just see it as sort of a magical lie. That's why there is a charisma check (to convince them to do something they normally wouldn't) instead if a bluff check. The spell is compelling the person to follow your commands, just making them more receptive to your requests.

First the charisma check is because you are not lying to them, you are trying to convince them to do something. If you do lie you will in fact need a bluff check as well. Also, if it is supposed to be some sort of magical lie it seems to me it should be a bluff check rather than using saving throws and charisma checks so I’m not sure I understand the first part of your argument.

Second, how does it make someone more receptive to your requests? To me this sounds like a drug impeding a person ability to think or reason somehow. I don’t understand how this would translate to the equivalent of a lie.

The lie in the case if Charm Person is the caster is your friend. In my games this is all that Charm Person does, magically convince that person the caster is their friend. Everything after that follows from that lie.

I don’t know about you but I’m fairly certain I couldn’t walk up to anyone, lie that I was there friend, and get them to just believe me and I would challenge even the best con artists out there to do it and be suddenly considered a person’s friend just the same as if they’d known them for years, they may be treated similarly, but to be truly considered the same as a real friend, I seriously doubt it. So once again I am back to seeing it as a drug rather than a lie. For me at least I just don’t see how it can be treated the same as a lie.

In short, the way I see it, you are magically altering an individual’s state of mind. A lie can be believed or not, a person has a choice. You are removing the ability for a person to even make that choice which basically strips them of a portion of their free will. I don’t really understand how you can think of it as a lie. Lies do not take away free will, drugs however can, which is why I believe this is far more similar to a drug then to a lie and consequently why I’m having difficulty seeing your argument that it could be merely the same as a lie.

In fact I'll even take things a step further and say that even if you are the best con artist on the planet and can in fact convince someone absolutely that you are their friend or even their very best friend it is still not the same thing. The end result may be the same, but one way you are taking away free will and the other way you are not. For me at least that distinction makes a tremendous difference.

Well, I believe things should make sense so I’m normally alright making judgment calls like this or playing with others that do. However, in this case I have two problems. First, any time I make such a call I always allow the player(s) to change their action. This is only fair since they have a right to expect things to more or less follow RAW unless informed otherwise ahead of time. I’d like to have everything in house rules but that simply isn’t realistic. There will always be occasions that you didn’t think of so you have to be able to deal with them and move on.

Having said that, your GM seems confused. The way he envisions a wyvern isn’t accurate. First, a wyvern is only 8 feet tall, the other 8 feet is just tail, and it’s entirely possible to wrestle and pin someone that big, very difficult of course, but still possible, so you should definitely have been able to pin a wing and ground him or at least severely restrict its movement. Having it do nothing was not only a blatant disregard for RAW but also how things should have worked.

Second 120 feet per round is all of about 14 miles per hour… uh, yea that wouldn’t have impeded you at all, especially when you can move at nearly 23 miles per hour yourself.

So in any case, as a GM I’d probably have kept to the RAW on this one, though I may have said you couldn’t completely pin it. Still it wouldn’t have been going anywhere fast. Now having said that, as a player I’d have politely objected and give my reasons why and, if he still kept to his ruling which did not follow RAW and was not at all what I expected, asked to change my action. Then I’d have argued more after the game once I figured out things like its actual size and speed in hopes or reversing any future ruling to that effect.

Explosive decompression causes him to take 3d6 hp damage (no save) on the first round of exposure. (This is taken from Distant Worlds.)

I’d probably allow a reflex save for half myself. I would think that if a character immediately expels the air from their lungs they should take little or no damage. The reason for reflex rather than fortitude is that it’s a question of how fast you react and exhale rather than physical endurance.

There is no air to breathe but he can hold his breath for (Constitution score x2) rounds.

As you mention a little later I’d definitely reduce this to their constitution score in rounds rather than double that. Without air in their lungs they definitely shouldn’t be able to hold their breath as long.

I like your idea to let them hold their breath normally and take explosive decompression damage each round. If you do that I wouldn’t allow any save for half damage since their choosing not to exhale. However I think I’d force a fortitude save each round to determine if they are able to keep holding their breath.

Sound does not travel, so V component spells could be hard to cast (if not impossible)

I’d lose the ambiguity, spells with V components would definitely be impossible to cast. A silence spell is much nicer to a person and still prevents them. Also remember that anyone trying to hold their breath normally will be taking constant damage and require concentration checks to cast anything.

One could also argue for the Staggered condition, possibly as a result of the explosive decompression.

Perhaps anyone taking damage from explosive decompression gains the staggered condition for one round? Not as sure about this but it sounds like a reasonable rule.

In my personal opinion there really isn’t any clear distinction between the two. The characters a GM creates are simply other characters in a story. Flushing them out simply makes for a better more vibrant story with a world that has more depth to it. I have been GMing over 20 years and work in much the same way, in act based strictly off of what you’ve said in this thread I’d say we have very similar style. Now if I were to define a GMPC as a separate thing I would say that they are characters that have a fully flushed out character sheet AND that have become part of the PC group that adventures together.

As far as warning signs go, I have to say, no they are not any kind of a warning sign. GMPC’s, as I'm defining them, are merely another tool in the GM tool belt. They can be used to flush out an incomplete party in small groups of people, to provide abilities that the party current lack so that they can face an upcoming challenge, or even as simply a way to nudge the party in the right direction or create a greater degree of interactivity between party members and add more role-playing opportunities.

That said, they are a tool that can be easily mishandled. While there is nothing inherently wrong with using them in the story or even having one of them take center stage for a bit, as with any good novel or movie, it’s important to make sure that these occurrences are brief and have a reason to occur within your story. The player’s characters, and not your NPC’s, GMPC’s, or whatever, are the main characters in the story and other characters (of any type) should not overshadow them.

Basically, the danger comes from those GM’s that stop making the story about the player’s characters and the decisions they make. If this happens, most players are likely to start feeling like they are just along for the ride and that can kill a game. But as long as everyone’s having a ball playing and likes were the game is going you shouldn’t concern yourself with the opinions of others.

****

Having said that, keep in mind that as you can see on this thread, there is no clear definition of what a GMPC is. In fact I almost started arguing with Evil Lincoln after reading his first post but after reading the rest I realized our only real difference of opinion was in our definitions. It’s not in any dictionary that I’m aware off and while definitions of different individuals are often similar, a small difference can lead to a large misunderstanding. This is likely why in some threads you can see such different opinions on them.

Well the one possibility I can see for recovery is the cleric. On page 191 of the CR are rules for recovering from negative hit points without help and at the bottom of a pit seemingly dead there is a very real possibly that the dragon ignores the body giving him a chance to recover. Also at his level with presumably a good fortitude save I'd say his chances for waking on his own are good.

Once awake healing himself is easy... given that he's a cleric and all. The tricky part will be escaping alive with or without the other characters bodies. If he can, 13th level is high enough he should be able to rez the rest of the party himself.

If he can't reach the bodies, for whatever reason, to dangerous, no longer there, been eaten, etc. he could escape and follow up on the idea mentioned above. He could gather or hire a new adventuring party with which to confront the dragon and try again as proposed above.

I did hear an interesting option (may have been Game Masters Guide) that you have them play a new party trying to rescue the old party and then once they have done so each player can choose between their new and their old characters.

This option gives them a chance to recover, by the rules, without making it easy or making the players think you'll be a push over in the future should anything like this ever happen again. In fact, I think if it's done right they might even be on the edge of their seats knowing this is their very last chance to recover there characters.

Well, I’ve stated my opinion and thus far it hasn’t changed though this discussion has been very interesting and I have learned a few things that made me think through everything some more. I was going to bow out quietly but I thought I’d throw out some food for thought. Take this for what you will.

Revel wrote:

@dragonfire8974: I may have missed something somewhere, where is the 50% more wealth then the rest of the party coming from?

assuming a party of 4

3 get a -10 percent. so 3 are at 90%
the crafter gets 30% so the crafter is up at 130%. while it isn't exactly 50% more, it is very close. exactly 50% more would be 135%

This didn’t read right to me so I wanted to run some numbers. Please keep in mind that these numbers are not meant to be an accurate representation of how a group spends their money on crafting but rather to give me a better idea of the wealth advantage potentially possessed by characters that craft.

Each of the following is a break down of % magic item wealth and % gold wealth. I then make a few stated assumptions about how the loot is used in the imaginary group simply to look and the resulting discrepancies in the crafters net value vs. the groups net value

<disclaimer>I am tired and the numbers or equations may or may not be correct, I’m generally good with math but as I said I’m tired, if I’ve made errors feel free to correct them, also this post is a bit long</disclaimer>

No. Not remotely. It is, however, what the profiteers are accusing the non-profiteers of, in spite of roughly 200 posts explaining why this is totally erroneous.

Eventually it becomes clear that people aren't "getting it" because they don't WANT TO.

Actually I disagree, elaborating on what I said above a little from the “real-life” perspective if you have me spend say two weeks of my free time making items for you at cost and you save 10,000 gold then you just got 10,000 gold and I lost 2 weeks… who’s profiteering? Meanwhile if I at least make a little you still come out ahead but I get something for my time.

Of course from the game oriented perspective no time is really passing and my character is earning gold beyond the groups norm at the expense on a party member and that’s not cool at all.

IMHO it’s entirely about perspective and play style. But as always that's just my opinion.

All right, I’ve been working on this for some time now and I think it’s ready for a critique but first a little background.

Some time back I decided I wanted to try my hand at making a guide and since I enjoy playing monks it seemed like the logical choice. While I have quite a bit of experience playing monks please keep in mind two things. First, the game I normally run has house rules so I my have forgotten something or be taking something for granted so if you see something that isn’t RAW please point it out to me. I think (or hope) I have made few, if any, mistakes of this kind but it’s hard for me to be 100% certain.

Second, while I’ve played a lot of monks I haven’t played them all so a few of my assumptions about a feat, ability or such may be off. If you think I’m wrong feel free to state your case and I’ll look it over and possibly change things if I feel the points made are sound. Of course being my guide I’ll ultimately go with what I believe to be the case but I’d like to think I’m open minded and will give other opinions fair consideration :)

Umm… one last thing, as anyone clicking the link will soon learn the guide kind of got away from me. I meant to do an up to date guide through Ultimate Magic and it was already getting a little longer then intended when Ultimate Combat came out and with all the nice feats and archetypes for monks I naturally had to read, evaluate, try out, and include that material as well. So ya, it grew well beyond what I had originally intended.

In any case I’ll be back to read comments etc and eventually update my guide but between work, school, and life it may take me a while to be able to update everything depending on just what needs done.

Anyway here’s the link, hopefully this works, as it’s the first time I’ve used google docs.

Revel's Guide to the Monk

My initial thoughts, I’d allow the prestige class in my game, I might even be tempted to use it myself sometime. Having said that that are a couple things I would consider changing.

I hate that acid is considered earth. I assume they wanted to make each element have a frequently used “energy type” but I will never agree with it myself. Still that’s a personal issue and there is no reason why you can’t leave it in for yourself.

How about mixed cases? For example Wall of Lava from the AGP has both the earth and fire descriptors. Do you get a net bonus, penalty, or do they cancel each other? Personally I’d let the bonus stand for any earth spell regardless of other descriptors, effectively making the earth descriptor more important and giving the geomancer a roundabout flavorful way to used some of the other damage types when needed.

For sorcerer bloodlines what about deep earth? It seems like it would fit well and give sorcerers at least one other option for becoming a geomancer.

Anyway good job overall. Hope this helps.

k, I may have gone a little overboard. I let my players pick encounters randomly from my monster manuals by asking for page numbers and one picked a mercane just recently (though they don't know it yet). I generally prepare the encounters over the next week so they are ready to go at the next game session. In any case seeing this thread was just to perfect, so this is what I came up with and will be probably be using next time I run my game.

Rod of Summon Merchant

Description: The party finds an elegant ivory rod with platinum runes inscribed across its surface. The rod itself emanates divination, illusion, and conjuration magic.

Identification: If identified it can be determined that the rod has two functions. The first puts the user in contact with someone predetermined during the rods creation using illusion and divination magic. The second uses a variant of a summoning spell.

Usage: When the first function is used a huge translucent image of blue skinned humanoid appears towering over the PC’s. After a brief look around his gaze falls on the PC holding the rod and he smiles and something along the lines of, “Ah, a customer, what can I do for you”.

If there is no immediate threat apparent and the PC shows a desire to do business the blue skinned humanoid, who is a mercane merchant, tells them to activate the rods 2nd function telling them the command word if they haven’t learned it. When the second function is activated the mercanes translucent form solidifies and he then proceeds to do business with the PC.

Purchases: When buying merchandise from a character the mercane determines the price either by negotiating it or using fixed prices as desired by the game master. Each time he reaches into his pouch to get money he repeats the amount aloud and promptly pulls out exactly that much.

If a character wants to buy something they must make inquiries directly to the mercane, since he does not have any merchandise with him. As with gathering money once needed the mercane reaches into his pouch says the name of the item aloud and promptly pulls it out exchanging it for the gold.

Pure fluff: Periodically when making a purchase the mercane pulls out the wrong item and frowns. He then drops it back into the pouch raises his voice and says something like, “I said a ****, now move it.” A moment later a hand or appendage of some sort suddenly emerges from the bag holding the requested item. After taking it the mercane looks back at the party, if any of them appear confused or surprised he merely shrugs his shoulders and states, “Its hard to get good help these days” as he makes the transaction.

Item Background: Several years ago a mercane by the name of **** created the first of these rods. It works by first allowing the merchant to view the area determining if it’s safe and speak with those using the rod to see if the they want to make a transaction. The second function allows the merchant to be summoned to the rod location. Unlike normal summoning spells this always fails if resisted by the merchant so he may not be summoned if he does not wish to be.

Since its creation, a number of other successful planar merchants have begun utilizing these rods of merchant summoning as well. In addition a number of variants also exist. For example, one such variant is said to use a reverse summoning spell to summon the rods holder to the merchants’ store. Of course the individual doesn’t have long before the summons ends and they are sent back where they came from. This is considered useful, as it generally doesn’t give them enough time to leave and go elsewhere to do business.

...by the way I'm horrible at naming NPC's or for that matter just about anything so if anyone has any good ideas it'd be most appreciated.