Rorrix's page

I'm interested in playing an Undine unchained rogue who will take Brawler levels later. I'll have a full submission ready soon.

This is everything I could have ever hoped for and more!

I'm a fan of intentional design. While I know not every situation can be planned for, especially in a tabletop game where the players are apt to surprise you, I like to have intricate encounters that I know my players will face prepared ahead of time. However, I suck at creating those encounters in a timely manner.

I don't like just copy-pasting a bunch of vanilla baddies onto the field and rolling attack rolls until one side drops. When I design an encounter, I usually build it with the roles of a standard adventuring party in mind unless it wouldn't make sense to do so. I also like to include environmental hazards and options to keep the field dynamic. And if I get the inspiration, I'll include a unique mechanic or objective to make the encounter more memorable and exciting.

This all works particularly well for me in the end result, but getting there is a slog. I can spend hours, even days designing only a small handful of encounters, and it's very time-consuming.

Any tips or tools to speed up the process? I'm GMing over Roll20 and am very familiar and proficient with the tools it has to offer already. Mostly, I think my design process is too scattered, but I'm not sure how to reel it in.

Alright, finally done with all that mess. I might be short on time again soon due to vacation and actually moving, but until then I'm back to my regular schedule.

Sorry, things got a little hectic. Everyone in my family wants me to fix their computers and I'm working on moving into an apartment, plus I have a convention this weekend. I'll get back to posting soon.

Sounds good, thanks!

I'll just hang onto it then, I suppose. I'm getting enough feats that it won't be a problem anyway.

The investment on Skill Focus isn't worth a feat in P6, since the return is the added bonus at 10 ranks.

Knowing more spells per level sounds like a fair tradeoff. Would I get more spells/day as well?

Ah, in that case I may make a slight adjustment on my feat choice. I don't want to be stuck with Skill Focus, I just grabbed it as a stand-in.

Would you allow Prestige Classes within the gestalt? For example, let's say I wanted to take the Harrower prestige class. It requires casting 3rd level spells. After I hit level 6 as a psychic and acquire 3rd level spells, could I start a Harrower gestalt? I understand that it wouldn't advance my casting any, but I would still be interested in it.

I'll get my first post up shortly!

Thanks for the info, I'm definitely interested and ready to dig into the lore you've prepared! It will take a couple levels, but I intend to be trained in each knowledge skill and proficient in a particular few. I'm looking forward to all of the intrigue to be uncovered.

Right, it's kept as a family secret, although some can tell something is just not quite right about them, even if they can't put their finger on it.

Paizo has a bit of exposition on fallen angels. Since she has remained on the mortal plane, it is likely that she is neutral and not evil, although she could be evil.

This fall from grace will be somewhat represented in Drabardi once his psychic powers manifest, as he will have the Abomination psychic discipline, giving him the Dark Half ability.

He is aware of the heritage, but not much else. He would probably be skeptical of the claim if he wasn't aware of how different he is from other humans (able to see in the dark, pyrotechnics, resistances), and his mother's more heavenly appearance. The lineage has followed a Female->Male->Female->Male pattern, getting diluted over time. So his mother is an Aasimar, but his father is human. His grandfather was an Aasimar, and his grandmother was human. And then his great-grandmother was the fallen angel, and his great-grandfather was a human. So the genetics have been diluted over time, but still reside within him as well as latent psychic power.

Thanks a lot for the selection, I'm excited to begin! Drabardi will be going into the Psychic class.

I had considered Adept, but it didn't seem right to change from a prepared divine caster to a spontaneous psychic caster. Plus Expert fit his background better and allowed for a setup of latent casting ability to be unlocked.

I'll pick a different feat for him and swap it when appropriate, thanks again for the quick responses.

PS: I'm open to teaming up if anyone is interested.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll be able to cast them as soon as my NPC class gets exchanged for my class level. It seemed a bit too pedantic to restrict a feat that I can't even use yet for a state that my character would be in only briefly. If it's a concern, could I just wait to take my feat until I exchange my class?

Dropping a dot, I'll have a submission soon.

Since I'm here, I might as well post my take on the build. This is for PFS, so it's a bit different than what you'd probably run in a home game.

Point Buy before racial mods
Str: 7, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 7, Wis 16, Cha 7

Monk1: Weapon Finesse, Combat Reflexes
Monk1/Druid2: Weapon Focus
Monk1/Druid4: (Any feat, it'll be retrained later)
Monk1/Druid6: Natural Spell
Monk1/Druid6/Slayer2: Shaping Focus, Natural Weapon Combat Style: Improved Natural Weapon
Monk1/Druid6/Slayer2/Barb1/Oracle1: Vital Strike, retrain level 5 feat into Furious Finish for 5 Prestige

For archetypes, you can pick just about anything for Monk (I like Kata Master), Druid is Cave obviously, Slayer is vanilla and could be substituted for Ranger if you want, Barbarian is either Urban or Savage Technologist (if it's legal), and Oracle is Dual Cursed with the Lame and Tongues curses, with Lame progressing.

Reasons for these choices: Lame oracle makes you immune to fatigue. I know the wording on Furious Finish, but that pertains to things like Barbarians not getting fatigued after a rage. Immunity is immunity, otherwise Constructs could get fatigued and that would just be silly. Dual Cursed so you can Misfortune yourself in case you roll a natural 1 on your attack. The reason for Slayer or Ranger is that you can't normally select monster feats in PFS, meaning no Improved Natural Weapon. It's the only way to get it in PFS.

Your damage will suck until you can get an Agile amulet of Mighty Fists, but it's only 4k for one and you'll be casting mostly early on anyway. I would just GM credit past the first level though.

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I'm working on a build like this and either I'm missing something or everyone else is. You would need 10 levels of Cave Druid to wildshape into the ooze, not just 10 character levels. So if you wanted to mix Monk in at all, you'd need 11 levels to pull it off with Monk1/Druid10.

Edit: Scratch that, Shaping Focus does it. Reading comprehension is fun! :'D

I wouldn't really have trouble with it if they just said "Hey, these rules are fuzzy, let's go with RAI." Instead, they made up rules, which if followed would change the game as a whole.

So, I've had both a GM and a Venture Officer make up a rule in order to prevent me from using this feat as it is written. They claim that because Improved Unarmed Strike is a prerequisite for the feat, it can only be used with an unarmed strike. I brought up Perfect Strike as an example of a feat that requires Improved Unarmed Strike but can't be used with unarmed strikes, but they wouldn't accept that as an example because it specifically calls out what weapons can be used with it. I then used Dervish Dance as a different outside example, asking if I had to use Weapon Finesse in order to use Dervish Dance (which is impossible), at which point they told me that I could either play by their rules or not play at all. I asked them to produce this rule for me, and they refused to (read: couldn't). I eventually conceded for the sake of the table, but how should I approach cases like this in the future? What am I supposed to do when GMs and Venture Officers make up nonexistant rules?

Ignore that post I made if you happened to read it. I thought Anevia had Knowledge (Religion) but she doesn't. If Anarya can't make the check, someone else might have to pray to Iomedae or consecrate it to their own deity instead.

Well that sounds like something Ri'el should be wondering, not his player asking OOC. =P

She'll just take him down to the crew's quarters. Don't worry so much, I got this, you handle Ri'el and I'll handle the game haha.

Now that I look at it, there's a map error in retrospect. You're not supposed to have gone through the officers' quarters, though that's the only way up to the deck. I'm going to put stairs somewhere that just go to the hold and not through the officers'. Pretend you never even saw that room.

The ship's map is available on the Campaign Map link at the top like I said, but I'll put it in the campaign info too. I actually prefer the loss of saves instead, so I think I'll do some variation of that, thanks for the idea.

Areas you currently know of are:
A1: Foredeck
A2: Poopdeck
A3: Main Deck
A4: Officer's Quarters

A6: Middle Hold

I'll update the campaign info with that as well. As soon as I get everyone shuffled around to their positions, I'll add more, like the Galley. For the rest of the areas, you know that there are doors/stairs leading there, but you don't know what those doors/stairs might lead to. You can explore them, but at your own risk. Let me get all the the jobs and such sorted out before we start working with ship actions though.

I'll go ahead and say that you can take 10 as long as you aren't shopping or shirking.

I'll let you know what NPCs are around when you head off to your duties.

PS, once you get your tasks, you're able to take the following daytime actions while performing your tasks.

Daytime Ship Actions
Work Diligently: Gain a +4 bonus on any one check for a job’s daily task

Influence: Make normal checks for a job’s daily task and attempt to influence a single NPC

Sneak: Make normal checks for a job’s daily task and briefly explore one area of the ship (the PC can make a single Perception check or other skill check with no chance of detection)

Shop: Take a –2 penalty on all checks for a job’s daily task and visit the quartermaster’s store (area A9)

Shirk: Take a –2 penalty on all checks for a job’s daily task and take time exploring one area of the ship. The PC can take 10 on a single Perception check or other skill check, but must make a check to avoid being discovered.

That's a whole lot of assumption that I am not about to give the answer to. :3

The crew japes and jeers at the climbers as they make their way up. There were already bets being made before anyone had started climbing. Hardly anyone expected the halfling to clamber up so quickly, an those who did lined their pockets with their shipmates' coin. They are particularly amused by the fat man falling, Mister Plugg himself laughing the hardest. After Ostarian's second plummet leaves him lying on the ground, they get hysterical in their enjoyment.

The other newly press-ganged members don't seem to be laughing about it, one particularly less so. A woman with fiery red hair and a pipe hanging from her disapproving mouth steps forward to Ostarian and begins to try stabilizing him immediately.

Heal: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11
Ostarian goes to -3

She can't seem to keep him from bleeding out, but she tries again with determination on her face.

Heal: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10
Ostarian goes to -4

She tries once more, praying to Besmara under her breath.

Heal: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16
Ostarian stabilizes on his own anyway though.

Once she's sure he's stable, she pulls out a flask of smelling salts, pops it open, and waves it under his nose. This brings him back to consciousness. As he sits up, she asks him "How badly are you hurt? I have some curatives if you think you'll need them. I'm Sandara Quinn by the way."

It's not long before Ri'el comes scrabling down the mast to offer Ostarian a berry. Sandara thanks him for the help.

Oh whoops yeah, sleepy-reading is fun. You're right, no fall.

It's okay guys, I've got a plan! Writing up a saving grace as we speak.

Also Ri'el, you only got an 8 at 37.5ft.

Argh I'm so conflicted! See, what I would normally do in this situation would kill Ostarian. And the NPC wouldn't know better that he's a Dhampir. I'd hate to put Ostarian on bedrest for a few days, because that means he essentially can't play, and that's no fun either. Give me a bit to figure out how the hell to handle this.

Yup. Ostarian warned us that he'd be busy this weekend, so it may be a wait still. I'm not too concerned as long as we get back on track afterward.

If you look, the test dummy in question did in fact die at the end haha.

I can't believe I've spent precious hours of my life making up a dice system for the effects of rum. I was just trying to do a quick fix and adjust the con damage so it wouldn't destroy you in a week, and now here we are.

I like it, but I don't. There's no incentive to drink more than one drink other than to increase the duration, in which case a player would just wait until they've sobered up to have another. Now you're thinking with Paizo. Here's what I propose now.

First Drink
Effect: -1d2 Con, +1d2 Cha, and Fatigued
Duration: 1d4 hours
Addiction: DC 5 Frt
Pass Out: DC -10 Frt

Further Drinks During Duration
Effect: -1d2 Con (Max -4), +1d2 Cha (max +4), Exhausted if duration would exceed 8 hours, sickened next day if another drink is taken while exhausted. Upon passing out, succeed a DC 5 Frt check or die.
Duration: +1d2 hours (max 8 hours)
Addiction: DC 5 Frt (+2 per additional drink)
Pass Out: DC -10 Frt (+2 per additional drink)

Here's a qick and dirty drink to the death.

While it is very possible for the average human to drink much more than this, I don't think it's necessary to go roll it THAT many times when this takes care of it pretty well. Thoughts on this system? I feel like it gives incentives for multiple drinks, doesn't fly off the deep end like my last idea, has accruing DCs, and a chance of death by alcohol poisoning.

I figured at the cost of con, it'd be something to be wary about. With the penalties from Fatigue/Exhaustion on top, you're more likely to screw up on ship, which means more likely to be punished, and you're going to wish you had Con instead of Cha at that point.

I see what you mean though. There's a drinking game where the competitors literally drink their opponent to death though, so I want to find a way to retain that mechanic. Will tweak more and be back with results.

It's alright, you picked a nice lull in the adventure to be busy. :3

Also, wow, that knowledge check... I guess Baradesh had the same luck getting Iomedae's attenion as the huecuva did getting Torag's. Must be a dwarf thing.

That makes a lot more sense, I'm glad there was some kind of official admittance to the error. Okay, Super Duper Official Final Form of the rum rations will be as follows:

-1d3 Con, +1d2 Cha, and fatigued for 1d8 hours. Multiple drinks within the duration stack and increase the duration by 1d8 hours up to a maximum of 8 hours. If the duration would increase beyond 8 hours, you become exhausted instead. A DC 5 Frt save must be made to avoid addiction for each drink.

Does that make sense?

So for an example:

So, as we saw in this example, it took 6 consecutive drinks to kill a player with a starting con of 10. I think that's fair enough.

It won't be a huge deal to shrug it off. Essentially, 50% of the time you fail it, you'll heal it off fully overnight. Not a bad deal, really. It's much nicer than the alternative to getting caught shirking your rum rations...

Which I also might need to houserule honestly. Even the minor punishments have the potential to kill some of you on the spot.

PS whenever you're all ready to move forward, followers of Iomedae should each make a Knowledge (Religion) check. No rush, I encourage stopping to roleplay and develop. That'll just be my queue to fast forward to 8 hours later and start moving forward with the AP again.

I feel like the intent was for it to be like a sleight of hand minigame for the PCs each day. But it just doesn't make sense beyond that scope because pirates want to drink rum. I think I'm going to keep it like that though, since there are some drinking games that the side effects are kind of important for.

Edit: by 'keep it like that' I mean like my revised version.

Hm, how about I run it like this then?
DC 10 Frt save to prevent 1d2 Con damage, and if you fail by 5 or more you become addicted?

Well, short of some miracle, it looks like Jack will be the rigger. But you know what they say; it's not over 'til the fat man climbs!

They don't say that? Oh. Well, Mister Plugg does. He won't be satisfied until you're all perched up there, so get climbing Ostarian!

On a side note, please keep posts that are all-OOC to the discussion thread.

Character development GOOOOOOOOO!

Can't wait for the eventual epic reveal once Xantrius removes his helm (or has it removed for him).

Hm, well cooking with alcohol is pretty usual actually, and I'd imagine that would cook out the effects of it. Unless you mean to add it in after the cooking's done, in which case good luck masking the taste of that filth haha. Might still taste better than whatever Kroop's been cooking though; whoever ends up the cook's mate will find out shortly that it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Granted, it does give you a temporary 1d4 Cha bonus for 1d8 hours. I'm not much a fan of the roleplay repercussions of pirates chucking their rum so they can pretend they drank it, though, so I think I'm going to drop the Con damage to 1d2. That way, with healing 1 Con back for each night of rest, you can enjoy your rum without having to fake it unless you run into a few rough nights, which should be less often. I wouldn't be concerned so much if it was just the PCs, but the whole crew is at stake here. You can't really run a ship if everyone dies of alcoholism first.

And it's only half a pint's worth that's already been watered down to grog. o.o;

That works too haha.

Let me just say this; the mandatory daily rum rations deal 1d3 Con damage as written. If this were the case, PCs and NPCs alike would be dead in less than a month. From drinking rum once a day. Yeah...

That's even with me houseruling some of the crueler portions of the first part of the first book to be less lethal... I'm not sure if they didn't playtest this AP at all or didn't care or what, but this first book could be featured on 1000 Ways To Die.

Oh, yes, I should probably mention that it is very very likely that you will die before you even reach level 2. Which is really sad because I like all of your characters so much. So uh. Yeah. Be careful out there! :'D And maybe start working on a backup just in case.

I'm slowly working on switching out the generic headband pirates for their respective crewmembers. This AP is incredibly thorough, and everyone aboard the ship is unique. The four NPCS to the right of your characters are the ones who appear to have been press-ganged recently, though obviously earlier than you all since they're not being forced to climb like you are.

And here is the map.

I'm also linking it in the campaign description at the top of the page for convenience.

@Iogorian: That it does. I forgot about that. Add that to your list of things, then, whoops.