Ruanek's page

How much characters age really depends on the campaign. Depending on the setting campaigns could span years or only weeks.

I think the only real trouble would come from metamagic. For instance, if a 3rd level spell could fit in 3 1st-level slots, you could have someone try and place a metamagicked 3rd (raised to 4th) spell in four 1st-level slots, or in 2 2nd-level slots, whereas they would not normally have that capability to affect that spell until 4th-level slots were available.

If this was implemented I don't think it would work that way.

If 2 level 1 slots can be used for a level 2 spell, then maybe 2 level 2 spots could be used for a level 3 spell. So that would take 4 level 1 spots for a level 3 spell.

Ruanek wrote:

boring7 wrote:

Personally, I'm rolling a Drow noble, keeping in the back doing support, I don't know if ANY of the other players have figured out what I am (sank a lotta points into a good disguise check) and we all seem to be having fun. For the record, my character is a Drow Noble, raised from infancy by an eccentric Bronze dragon, and I'm an archer (light crossbow) cleric. It's pretty much as BadWrongFun as you ever could get.

I'd be cautious of this approach. If you really want to be a Drow noble you should allow your party to know. Otherwise you're basically secretly making yourself more powerful than the rest of the party. At the very least the party should be aware of the OP character so they can react accordingly (in and out of character).

That's why, like I said, I stay in the back and play support. Let the barbarian rack up the kills, and if he ever gets back let the party leader/face (a Fetchling, oddly enough) do the leading and the talking.

Not to mention he's the one that knows technology. I'm playing "out of her element and along for the ride" magic person in a world of Iron Gods and Alien Technology.

So are you not benefiting from being a noble versus a normal Drow? Or are you just trying to hide your more powerfulness behind a mask of never having to use it? (In either case, why not just be a normal Drow and not have the issue at all?)

Personally, I'm rolling a Drow noble, keeping in the back doing support, I don't know if ANY of the other players have figured out what I am (sank a lotta points into a good disguise check) and we all seem to be having fun. For the record, my character is a Drow Noble, raised from infancy by an eccentric Bronze dragon, and I'm an archer (light crossbow) cleric. It's pretty much as BadWrongFun as you ever could get.

I'd be cautious of this approach. If you really want to be a Drow noble you should allow your party to know. Otherwise you're basically secretly making yourself more powerful than the rest of the party. At the very least the party should be aware of the OP character so they can react accordingly (in and out of character).

Thanks for the response!

Here's another question: can a ranged weapon have the flaming attribute?

I'm relatively new to Pathfinder, so I apologize if my questions seem stupid. I recently made a level 5 archer inquisitor and haven't been able to find good answers in the rules to two potential cases:

1. Is there a attack roll penalty to a secondary target? (I have the Rapid Shot feat. If I attack one target and kill it, I assume I can then attack another, but is it at the same attack bonus?)

2. How does a range increment work? I have a composite longbow with a range increment of 110 feet. I assume that for each step beyond that there would be some penalty to my attack roll, but I can't find a number for that. (Would it be a -2 at 120 feet? -4 at 230 feet? Something like that?)

I'm interested in making a Drow Noble Paladin, but how powerful are they? Do they make other races pale in comparison? Because in our homebrew game the only Paizo races that are worth playing are Strix and Human. How does the drow noble fit in?

That's a strange world that only has two races worth playing. I'm curious about that.

For the most part, though, Drow Nobles are powerful. Normal Drow are fine, but the nobles have I think 41 RP versus the standard 8-12, meaning they're much more powerful than most races. Essentially your character will be more powerful than most other characters of the same level, especially at lower levels.

The most OP part of Drow Nobles is the constant detect magic. That's something players aren't meant to have. It means that every time there's a something magical you'd have a chance to figure out what it is, or at least know that there's something magic there. That can make DMing a lot more difficult.

Story-wise you'll also have to figure out why you're a Drow paladin. In most universes that contain Drow, at least, the vast majority are CE and would loathe and seek to kill any Drow that didn't follow that system, and a LG Drow would be particularly bad.

It it says you can't take any other actions until your next turn, I'd say you can't take any other actions until your next turn. That would include attacking.

The point wasn't that you were doing it with malice. The point is that you're intentionally killing the party. That's not something most players would enjoy. You aren't going to let them learn from their mistakes?

If you told him specifically that he couldn't prepare spells, without also saying that if the group wanted to wait an hour he'd be able to, I can understand the group being mad.

Also, if you go into the next session with the intention of killing them, with malice or not, they're likely to get fairly angry. I certainly would.

It still doesn't hurt to be a little forgiving of players their first time in a campaign (mechanics-wise, mainly so they're aware of everything, not in terms of extra stuff or other kinds of help).

As others said, the rule for wizards needing a prescribed amount of sleep/rest usually isn't done with the degree of specificity you used, so it isn't that unlikely a thing to miss.

littlehewy wrote:

Quote:

If you are unaware of the rule, and make a decision that screws you, it cannot be on me to always inform you of the consequences of your choices.

Look MM, I've read quite a few of your posts in other threads, and I generally find you to be very intelligent and reasonable. But the above quote is the thing (the only thing, really) that I totally disagree with, and...

** spoiler omitted **...

Yeah, had the group had been different and had different attitudes towards me and the rules, I may have been easier going on them, for sure. It's a working relationship, and if my players treat me like dirt and don't listen to my advice, I won't be doing them any favors when it bites them. That's the entire reason I started the thread.

If that's the case, then this seems to be "The PCs didn't respect the DM, so the DM didn't respect the PCs."

This has been said tons of times by now, but you really should just sit down and talk with them. Complaining here about their behavior when you weren't the model DM either isn't productive.

Fake Healer wrote:

So basically to me it is more of Metagaming to tell the PCs they wake up at normal time but would need more sleep to prep spells. They would have just slept through until rested, not woke up and said "Oh, dang. Still sleepy, should I rest and be able to regain spells?"

The metagame part was the DM waking them at normal time. Unless attacked they would have just slept, not woken to decide if they would sleep. Being a stickler for rules is OK, but this is more of being a rules dick.

It states that they need extra sleep to be able to prepare spells,

implying that they would be rested enough for the day, but not to prepare spells.

It sounds to me like a lot of players itt would be upset if any DM dropped this on them because you have simply ignored the rule in your past experiences, since everyone is fighting so desperately to get me to just say "this rule doesn't matter" in some sense. You want your spells back, and you want little to no consequence for not getting enough sleep. Sounds just like my players. If you are unaware of the rule, and make a decision that screws you, it cannot be on me to always inform you of the consequences of your choices.
It cannot always be on me to explain and spell out every option your character has.
It cannot be on me to, after explaining and spelling out every option your character has, tell you what the best decision is.
It cannot be on me to, after you have made your decision, come up with some out of context explanation so you can dodge adhering to the rules as I have interpreted them.

I am not writing a novel, and if I am the one doing all the thinking and decision making for the players, then what choices are my players making? Are they even players at that point? Are they just there to roll dice and give me the numbers as I fully choreograph the events that unfold? Because it sounds like that is what people are asking me to do.

Like others said, this is probably a player versus character knowledge issue. Sure, they should have known to sleep an extra hour. Maybe they forgot. But how did you tell them? Did you say "You woke up. Since you didn't sleep long enough, you can't reprepare your spells today."? Because worded like that it doesn't sound like they can sleep one more hour to get their spells back. Would they have had to say "Ok, I sleep another hour" right after being told they didn't have spells? Because that seems a bit like confronting the DM.

Yeah, the DM shouldn't have to remind the players of every little thing like this. And it does seem like things got off on the wrong foot with the players trying to get extra stuff in the beginning. But in the end, the game isn't as fun if it's players versus DM, and it doesn't hurt to at least give them intelligence rolls or something to show them things the characters may have known that the players missed.

The 2 hours comes from 2 interruptions, being the attack, and switching guard duties

The hour of preparation takes 3 hours out of the day total

That's about 1/4 off daylight wasted, so they can only travel about 3/4 worth of days travel, unless they hustle and tire themselves out, for a 2 day journey that means they are half a day later than if they had full rest, and for a 4 day journey they sow up at night

also waking up when they're spossed to when the normal spell prep time is, is another interruption that I am willing to ignore

But wasting time when it takes time to travel will have consequences when you have sleeping enemies that you can sneak up on, or enemies that are wide awake

Why would switching guard duties necessitate another hour of sleep? I only see one interruption here.

In any case, whether it's one extra hour or two, they can still sleep in. Sure, they can't travel as far. But most wizards would gladly travel less far to refresh their spells per day. Did the players know that was an option?

Did the PCs know that there was a reception desk in the inn? As in, did they know it was more than a rectangle? Even if they did, they may not have thought to look for keys there. I'm not sure I would think of that on short notice.

It sounds like you really need to sit down and talk to the players about the campaign you want to run and the campaign they want to play. You may have different expectations. While it seems like they did make some bad decisions, you don't need to always be hard on them.

If the crossbow is designed for a small person, then the bolt will do the damage of a small crossbow. Like you said, the rules specifically say that projectiles revert to their normal size. The normal size is small.

I'd think the rule would be the same for a reduced person with permanency, since the normal size of the crossbow is still small.

Are you referring to PCs knowing what their current class offers at high levels? Or what PCs know about other classes?

For their current class, I'd say they probably have a pretty good idea of what they'll eventually be able to accomplish. Perhaps not the finest details, though.

For other classes, I'd expect it would be more general knowledge. You know, what a class is. I'd imagine that it would be relatively common knowledge that Clerics are divine spellcasters that can channel energy, for example. Portions of that may not be known to everyone. I'd also think the average PC type character would know that Paladins can detect and smite evil, though not with the entire mechanics of it.

Possibly a high intelligence score could lead to more extensive knowledge of other classes, or certain knowledges where appropriate (religion and arcana seem to be the most obvious in this regard).

If the Harrow Deck of Many Things exists in the campaign the Mountain card permanently increases a person by one size category. (Interestingly, that can mean they could get stuck in the room they drew the card in.) That's an extremely unreliable way to grow in size, though.

Sure, sometimes level 1 players can be clever. But in an actual combat situation they're extremely at risk to die again. And they'll be far enough behind the rest of the party (unless the rest of the party is low-level) that they won't be able to contribute nearly as much as higher level party members in almost every situation.

Like I just said, a level 1 player can be clever. But there's a reason you don't throw a level 1 party at a CR 20 monster, and you seem to be ignoring that.

Maybe some guards that don't look like guards. Perhaps, the butler is a wizard?

Some nobles would have plenty of guards, others maybe not so many. The ranger, for instance, might be personally, very tough, and have few bodyguards.

In my experience (obviously this depends on the campaign) wizards would generally consider such tasks as being beneath them. They'd have to be particularly loyal to the noble for some reason.