Rhaddrain's page

Some background, I intend to play a warpriest of Pharasma in an upcoming campaign and the question came up of how I would tolerate a friendly undead who was possibly cursed or otherwise to continue living. Looking at Pharasma it appears that I'm not allowed to tolerate undead no matter the circumstance. So, I figured that it would just have to be the way Pharasma intends and I would have to try my best to lay the undead to rest, possibly convincing them that the afterlife is better for his kind or something else like that. But, in the instance that it is a friendly or otherwise good undead who doesn't want to die what then? Its a difficult question and depends on the circumstances for normal characters but as a warpriest I still have to obey the holy duty of laying dead to rest.

TL;DR: How would a warpriest of Pharasma deal with a good undead who doesn't want to die?

Just as the title says I would like a critique of this spell and perhaps a level it should be placed at. It is intended as a Sorc/Wiz spell

Drow Barrier
School - Abjuration
Casting Time - 1 standard action
Range - Current Square only
Duration - 1 Round per 2 caster lvl

- Provides cover in the direction it's facing (+4 Ac, +2 Ref)

- Drow Barrier blocks all melee attacks however Drow Barrier can shatter, it has Hardness 10 + Caster level and 10 + Caster level Hp

- Anyone can pass through the back side but everyone must make a Fort save to pass through the front. Success = move normally, Failure = dazed 1 round and 1d10 negative energy damage

- When Drow Barrier shatters it deals 1d10 points of negative energy damage per 2 caster levels, you may split this damage in 1d10 increments among targets within 30ft.

- Drow Barrier can be shattered as a free action and target enemies normally

- Ref halves shatter damage

- If the Drow Barrier shatters by taking too much damage it deals half damage and targets get Ref save to further halve the damage

So myself and my group have agreed (understanding that this fundamentally changes many of the game's rules and effects of abilities) that alignment should only be vaguely determined as in nobody is truly good, neutral, or evil. As such, I feel that a possible substitute for alignment (when alignment is needed for the sake of abilities and effects) is that the alignment of the adversary is decided by the defender/caster.

The basic idea came about from a paladin who fervently follows Ragathiel who could easily see many foes as highly evil when alignment typically wouldn't line up with that, for example someone who came on a sudden windfall of wealth in a small town and refused to share with others could be evil in her eyes and as such I would allow smite evil to be cast by the paladin. It must make sense for the attacker to feel this way about the opponent, so a rogue stealing for profit can't say that the priest trying to call the guard is evil.

I know that there are bigger things to consider like how circles of protection against whatever would operate but as a skeletal outline this seems to work fairly well since it applies to everyone. Nobody in the party has access to alignment specific abilities so the likelihood of cheese in that way is fairly small and can easily be house-ruled to prevent something overpowered from emerging. Side-note: Detect alignment spells or abilities don't exist and chaos/lawful is never chosen except by the DM

Tl;dr: When someone uses an alignment based ability, the person they are using it on has an alignment decided by the user of the ability/spell, IF IT MAKES SENSE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SITUATION.

Part of the upcoming campaign involves an artifact that is on the material plane and is transportable so that's really the only limitations. The best i've been able to come up with is that the artifact has something to do with a deity/powerful outsider of death and interacts with them in some drastic way rather than just duplicating high-level spells or something of that sort, so, ideally, it would be a unique ability that has RP elements built into it. I have searched for magical items/artifacts online but nothing seemed suitable so i'm turning to the power of collaboration.

Looking forward to some creative ideas.

Is there really any way to stop a dragon from grabbing someone, flying really high up, and then dropping them? Other than having a very good CMD nothing really strikes me other than maybe flight spells or the like.

So i dont have a lot of time right now, ill add to this later but I've always enjoyed moral situations that aren't black and white, adds depth to people's choices and decisions. So I already know about a ruler the PC's are going to be introduced to and she's quite the anti-hero. She serves her motives first and silences any opposition but is probably the biggest advocate of magic and its advancement in the entire world. I have a decent idea of how I would RP her, I just don't want the PC's to dislike her, she has reasons for what she does and she treats her people right its just the fact that she's a tyrant that might make the PC's feel disdain for her. She takes most issues into her own hands and is very deceptive, usually a few steps ahead of others, but the crutch from all of this is that she is possibly one of the most over-confident people you'll ever meet. Think of her as the intellectual who would do whatever it takes to expand their power/knowledge. She may be a central NPC to the story and i'm just concerned that her motives and reasoning might not be carried across to the PC's very well.

So i dont have a lot of time right now, ill add to this later but I've always enjoyed moral situations that aren't black and white, adds depth to people's choices and decisions. So I already know about a ruler the PC's are going to be introduced to and she's quite the anti-hero. She serves her motives first and silences any opposition but is probably the biggest advocate of magic and its advancement in the entire world. I have a decent idea of how I would RP her, I just don't want the PC's to dislike her, she has reasons for what she does and she treats her people right its just the fact that she's a tyrant that might make the PC's feel disdain for her. She takes most issues into her own hands and is very deceptive, usually a few steps ahead of others, but the crutch from all of this is that she is possibly one of the most over-confident people you'll ever meet. Think of her as the intellectual who would do whatever it takes to expand their power/knowledge. She may be a central NPC to the story and i'm just concerned that her motives and reasoning might not be carried across to the PC's very well.

Alright so part of my character's backstory is telling his tall tales, these stories almost always include a "good friend named Lewis". This good friend is in reality a demon that has been chasing him for years ever since he stole an artifact from a wizard and caused its destruction. The demon the wizard summoned needs enough skill to track him wherever he might be but it doesn't have 100% tracking, just general area (maybe within 10-50 miles or so) he also needs to be fairly stealthy so he can't just get spotted by everyone.

Here's where its gets complex.

Myself and the party are starting this game at lvl 1 but me and the DM have agreed to have the demon possibly show-up anytime any try killing me. We don't want the demon around forever so he should be within CR 5-9 so the party can kill him once we get enough levels.

The demon needs to be quick-tempered and easily lured but also persistent, like his soul purpose is killing me at this point as well as having some kind of weakness we can exploit to escape mostly, something that restricts mobility would be perfect (like sunlight powerlessness)

This demon is the kind of guy who's name is written in fancy spell-books so he's unique, he's got character not just your run-of-the-mill bloodthirsty demon so give him some "pizzazz" in the looks and abilities department.

On a side note i'm not really concerned with only core pathfinder material, if it works for the concept i'm all ears as is the DM

So im making a slayer who fights with a two-hander (for flavor, mainly) does this seem like it would actually be alright? Im a human taking adoptive parentage (elves) so that I can immediately use an elven curve blade, we are starting at lvl 1 so i dont have my build planned out yet just curious if anybody had done something like this before or if they could give some insight on two-handed slayers.

Question in title

Basically, how would you handle it? I had a low level paladin ask if he could meditate and basically commune with his god, and to say the least I was blind-sided by that. I hadn't even thought of a low level paladin speaking with his god, surely he shouldn't be able to just meditate for a moment and talk to a supremely powerful being as a weak paladin, thats a big deal. So what do you guys suggest for a situation like that? I've thought of something like the paladin being bathed in a warming light or something nice like that but i'm really not sure how to handle it. Any advice? Maybe just a commune with an angel but how would a conversation like that go?

I've seen a lot of people talk about adjusting play to fit a low magic world but I'm looking for a well-balanced way to do it. I know that pathfinder expects different "levels" of magical gear at different levels but I'm looking for a way to let the players still be capable without +1 everything. so I suppose what I'm looking for is just a way to even the field. there will be magic items but they will be very unique almost always. so what do you guys think would work well as a ramping up buff to keep the party on par?

On a side note any other threads on this would be helpful to me

So looking at the Duelist precise strike it should be clarified a little better and I couldn't find an answer elsewhere so I call upon my ancestors knowledge

"Precise Strike (Ex): A duelist gains the ability to strike precisely with a light or one-handed piercing weapon, adding her duelist level to her damage roll.

When making a precise strike, a duelist cannot attack with a weapon in her other hand or use a shield. A duelist's precise strike only works against living creatures with discernible anatomies. Any creature that is immune to critical hits is also immune to a precise strike, and any item or ability that protects a creature from critical hits also protects a creature from a precise strike."

So how exactly does Precise Strike work?

I really like the feel of you don't just get a magic ring off every highwayman and/or tough enemy. So I was hoping to see some cool ideas for magic items! It would be especially great to see something completely unique.
For example I made a belt that pierces the abdomen and shortly after the pc won't feel pain. it has upsides and downsides to it but things like that are particularly interesting

The players are actually low level at the moment but I would still like to see magic items of any level.

And one more thing just to let you all in on what's going on there's a mirror the pc's have that lets them go into a pocket dimension once a day with a magic shop full of crazy stuff. The prices for things are in souls, rare materials, spells ETC other magical stuff so you couldn't just buy it from anywhere! The owner of the shop is an eccentric demigod

Main Question: What are really cool things you have wished would happen as a player and what are some of the really cool things that have happened?

Really just dump anything about dming here im a sponge for this knowledge.

Natural Attacks:
I see these everywhere but they can be rather complex, lets say there was a Glabrezu he is a good example of a weird natural attacker.

Melee 2 pincers +20 (2d8+10/19–20), 2 claws +20 (1d6+10), bite +20 (1d8+10)

(I'm putting anything that modifies the attacks down here but here's a link incase im not looking at something important)
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/demon/glabrezu

Str 31
Base Atk +12
(I'm also pretty sure this is assuming that he's using power attack, so -4 attack +8 dam. WITHOUT power attack it would be +22)

that would mean he should have +18 to hit not 20 if im not mistaken...
Also, since these can't all be primary doesn't he have penalties to some of these attacks?

Finally, wouldn't the damage be lower? Unless these are all treated as primary... some clarification on what's primary and what's considered secondary would be helpful.

So i'm looking at time oracle stuff for one of my players and it looks like they are mostly utility stuff (making baddies old, teleporting a few feet, removing them from existence, ETC)

so should he go more caster-ish or melee-ish?
(by this I mean what is it with time oracles? with the utility I can't imagine going more caster-y would help much so shouldn't they go
martial stat-wise?)

What stats should he want/have
Or, some general tips on what they do well and what they do poorly.
Even a couple suggestions of time oracle abilities/spells to go for would help.

(its 20 point buy, and he is starting at lvl 4 we don't know race yet)

I would like to hear some interesting, original, or fun traps/haunts you have either encountered or created

How hard do you guys think a BBEG should be? Should they always knock someone unconscious? Should they be short fights but deadly or long and based on attrition?

What are some creative ways to make an otherwise easy encounter difficult, that way a high level party could deal with bandits. On the flip-side what are some creative ways to make a low-level party fight higher-tier enemies?

Also what are good general rules about BBEG's difficulty? or whats fair to give to the BBEG?

Hey guys, im in a bit of a pickle figuring this out so maybe someone with more DM experience could help out. So my question is what would be a good way to make a party of good characters be on friendly terms with someone like a bandit? or just generally evil?