Rionus Nailo's page

Ok, while reading through Ultimate Combat, I found the following:

Totem rage powers grant powers related to a theme. A barbarian cannot select from more than one group of totem rage powers; for example, a barbarian who selects a beast totem rage power (see the Advanced Player's Guide) cannot later choose to gain any of the dragon totem rage powers (any rage power with “dragon totem” in its title), unless she has the totem warrior archetype.

Totem Warrior

A barbarian often has a special totem that is the patron of her tribe. While individual totems vary, those in the tribe that call upon a totem receive similar abilities. Totem warrior barbarians can select from the following rage powers.

Rage Powers: The totem warrior is based entirely upon his totem rage powers. In addition to the totem powers themselves, the following rage powers complement the totem warrior archtype (depending on the totem chosen): animal fury*, low-light vision*, night vision*, raging climber*, raging leaper*, raging swimmer*, and swift foot*.

So, tell me if I am reading this correctly. Most barbarians can only select rage powers from a single totem. Totem Warriors may choose powers from any totem, but lose access to all other rage powers except the ones listed above. Is this correct?

My thinking is that if this is not correct, that is that any barbarian can be a Totem Warrior at no cost, they why is not every barbarian that chooses a totem not a Totem Warrior?

Either way, I think that this archetype needs to be clarified. The last sentence of the first paragraph sounds like a list should follow. The second paragraph looks similar the final paragraph of other archetypes (i.e. what compliments the class) rather than an alternate class feature, or an altered class feature in this case.

I don't know about you all, but I tend to be fairly descriptive when describing combat. Missed attacks are shield blocks, dodges, parries, blows glancing off armor, while hits are more severe depending on damage, i.e. low damage will hit a thigh or arm, while more damage will hit the shoulder or chest, or even the head. A crit or sneak attack might hit the heart or gut.

My question is how would you describe a "hit" to vigor? Deflecting to blow at the last second? Deflecting it to hit the arms/legs/shoulder rather than the chest? Getting knocked to the ground by the blow (but not mechanically prone, of course)? Getting the wind knocked out of you as it hits your armor?

And how the hell would you describe a sneak attack, an attack which targets vital organs, when RAW it would deal vigor damage?

Hey guys, need a little DMing advice here.

I recently let a new player into the group, who has selected to become a neutral cleric. Unfortunately, the player has an affinity for necromancy and selected to have channel negative energy, both of which are valid selections for a neutral aligned character.

My concern is that using animate dead, he can have up to 32HD of undead following him, including his own 8 HD, he literally controls half of the total power in the party (or at least half the hit dice). In the last session, he let slip that he was planning on animating a juvenile dragon that the party took out just before he joined.

Is there a good way of dealing with a party that has a small group of zombies/skeletons following them? Should I scale up my encounters to adjust for these extra "members," and if so how much? Would it be fair/advisable to have good NPCs antagonize the party?

So, for a while I've been been tossing around the idea of making a ninja class in the style of APG class archtypes. I rather liked the idea of having a ninja use Chakra (in this case, ki for consistency) to use spell like abilities, and I figured it'd be easier to modify a monk than a rogue. Feedback?
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Ninja: Monk Archtype

Class Skills: Remove Knowledge (religion). Add Disguise, Sleight of Hand, Knowledge (dungeoneering)

Skill Ranks per Level: 6 + Int modifier

Saving Throws: A ninja's Fort Save is a "poor save." Reflex and Will remain "good saves."

Alignment: No alignment requirement.

Bonus Feat: Identical, except replace Improved Grapple with Quick Draw. At 6th level, Replace Improved Bull Rush with Improved Dirty Trick, Gorgon's Fist with Spider Step. At 10th level, replace Medusa's Wrath with Cloud Step.

Ki Pool (Su): At 1st level, a ninja gains a pool of ki points, a supernatural energy he can use to accomplish amazing feats. The number of points in a ninja's ki pool is equal to 1/2 his ninja level + his Wisdom modifier.

The ninja may use his ki to use ninjutsu, powerful techniques which control the elements. The ninja must choose one of the following four elements: Fuuton, or air techniques; Doton, or earth techniques; Katon, or fire techniques; Suiton, or water techniques, to become his primary element. As a standard action, the ninja may use his ki to "cast" spells from the Elementalist Wizard spell lists as a Supernatural, Spell-like ability, at the cost of one point of ki per spell level. The ninja must have at least 1 point in his ki pool to use level 0 spells. Using ninjutsu requires verbal and somatic components, but does not require material components for spells with material components worth less than 1 gp, and has a chance of arcane failure if wearing armor or shilds.

The caster level for spells "cast" through ninjutsu are equal to his ninja level, and his wisdom modifier is used to determine the DC of his spells. The ninja is not considered to have a caster level for the purposes of feats, nor is he considered to have spells known or memorized; he knows ninjutsu, not spells. He may not apply metamagic to his ninjutsu.

The ninja's selection of spell is extremely limited. A ninja begins play knowing four 0-level spell and two 1-st level spell of the ninja's choice. A ninja may only learn spells from his primary element as his highest spell levels. A ninja may only learn spells from his opposition school (air opposes earth, fire opposes water) at least three levels lower than his highest-level spells, and spells from the remaining two school at least one level lower than his highest-level spells. At each new ninja level, he gains one or more new spell, using the Bard Spells Known table (PHB, Table 3-4, page 37).

Upon reaching 5th level, and every third ninja level after that (8th, 11th, and so on), a ninja can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect the ninja "loses" the old spell in exchange for the new one. The spell's level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least one level lower than the highest-level spell the ninja can use. A ninja may swap only a single spell at any given level and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spell for the level.

The ki pool is replenished each morning after 8 hours of rest or meditation; these hours do not need to be consecutive. This replaces the standard monk's ki Pool ability.

Hidden Strike: This ability functions as the rogue's Sneak Attack, with the exception that flanking does not qualify the ninja to use Hidden Strike, and he cannot use Hidden Strick while wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, and he must be using a monk weapon. Hidden strike stacks with Sneak Attack otherwise, and counts as Sneak Attack for the purposes of meeting requirements for feats or Prestige Classes. Abilities that modify Sneak Attacks also modify Hidden Strike.

This ability adds 1d6 extra damage at level 1. At 5th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, the damage increases by an additional 1d6, to a maximum of 5d6 at level 17. This ability replaces Stunning Fist.

Bonus Spells: At third level, and every 3 levels thereafter, the ninja learns a bonus spell (from the wizard spell list):

3rd - Vanish, 6th - Invisibility, 9th - Displacement, 12th - Invisibility, Greater, 15th - Suffocation, 18th - Shadow Walk

This ability replaces Purity of Body, Wholeness of Body, Diamond Body, Diamond Soul, Timeless Body, Tongue of the Sun and Moon, and Empty Body.

Improved ki Pool (Su): At 4th level or above, by spending 1 point of ki from his ki pool, a ninja can make one additional attack at his highest attack bonus when making a flurry of blows attack. In addition, he can spend 1 point to increase his speed by 20 feet for 1 round. Finally, a ninja can spend 1 point from his ki pool to give himself a +4 dodge bonus to AC for 1 round. Each of these powers is activated as a swift action.

Master Strike (Ex): This ability is identical to the Rogue's ability Master Strike. This ability replaces Perfect Self.

Unchanged abilities are: AC Bonus, Flurry of Blows, Evasion, Fast Movement, Maneuver Training, Still Mind, Slow Fall, High Jump, Improved Evasion, Abundant Step, and Quivering Palm (Note that quivering palm does not say it has to be made with an unarmed attack).

I think this looks like a fairly reasonable modification.

I'm not quite sure how spell casting compares to unarmed strike. A level 20 ninja with 26 Wis (16 + 6 equipment + 4 level/inherent) only grants 18 ki pool, enough to "cast" 3 level 6 spells, selected from one element, 3 times per day, with no other ki usage, against unarmed strikes of 2d10.

I've been running a mid-level campaign for a short while, with a pretty effective group of 4 PCs.

The current party is a Paladin 8, Oracle 8, Wiz 5/Ranger 1/Eldrich Knight 2, and a Ranger 5 (ranged weapon focus)/Rogue 3

Here's my dilemma. The Paladin wants to change his character. I told him that he is of course free to change his PC, since the focus of the game is of course to have fun, however, doing so would not be without penalty. While the rest of the party is halfway to level 9, he'd be starting back at the beginning of level 8.

Well, my Paladin just came back to me telling me he wants to play a Wizard. This would change the party dynamic to have no melee focused characters. The strongest melee fighter is an Eldrich Knight, who is more focused on casting than on fighting. I have presented this to the Paladin, but I think he's pretty set on the change.

Does anyone have some recommendations for handling this situation? I am considering allowing the Ranger/Rogue to change up her focus from bow to two-weapon fighting.

Should I adjust my encounters to adjust for having no melee combatants, or should I keep throwing normal encounters at them and let them deal with having no melee combatant amongst themselves?

Or am I just over-reacting?