So my players have gotten past the point where Nurah has planted the demon blood. Through interviews they have came to the conclusion that Nurah was probably behind it, but just don't have any evidence to prove it. Being a heavily good party they have just taken to keeping her close (taking her with them on every mission)and under close watch.
The thing is it seems that Nurah's treachery is supposed to be discovered and resolved at that point or soon after. I'm not seeing any more plots shes suppose to hatch after that point.I did have her ring the bell in the Chapel as she snuck off under stealth. The players suspect (incorrectly) she had something to do with Arles's freak out but still haven't taken any actions against her nor have they tried to redeem her. She hasn't helped them one bit in battles either. She's played it off as "i was guarding the rear, getting into position
Now this is where it gets complicated. Nurah isn't stupid and probably not suicidal. After she witnessed the PC's completely annihilate everything in the chapel, without so much as breaking a sweat, its pretty obvious the players are extremely powerful. Or watched over by the gods themselves. She knows they suspect and are watching her and she's no match for them, or even a lone PC, for when they tire of her. She suspects that not even the demons left in Drezen can stop them, especially with an Aasimar paladin of Iomodae leading them. His power attacking smite evil with radiance has just destroyed the opposition. She could easily sneak away, but she would have to face the party in drezen or at some point. She could Flee the war completely, but the demons would surely hunt her down.
The most logical coarse of action seems to be just stay with the PC's out of self preservation and avoid risk. I could have her attempt one last PLOY and make a run for Drezen. Then have her work against the players indirectly while retreating further into Drezen until she's forced to choose a side.
How would other GM's play this out? And what are some plots she could hatch without putting herself to much in harms way?
I just want to chime in as I've been on hiatus for a while. I missed the errata change(s) and all the excitement last couple weeks. It got brought up by a player i GM for last week.
I started playing D&D in 2nd edition and actually got to play up through 3rd and 3.5. I quit playing for years when a lot of the rules fell apart and splat books ate my house. I've been gaming in pathfinder for a couple years now. As I've been playing I've noticed some of the bugs still remain, but at least we have some new ones too ;) Hopefully players aren't too upset that mounted combat, and many things that revolve around it seem really confusing or overtly broken currently. Its been broken since 3rd edition and I'm sort of surprised this dead horse started getting kicked around again....
Maybe something good can come out of this if we start digging and sharing our findings. With more out in the open maybe some of this will resolve its self or help the devs identify where the real problem lies and what the best fixes could be. At the very least it may help GM's and players come to a conclusion themselves as maybe just one bit of info was overlooked and its the missing peace.
Some of the very things being discussed on the forums about mounted combat and feats have been the same problems with mounted combat since 3rd edition. Things were implied as being the "RULE" but never actually printed anywhere. Sections referred to terms that actually didn't exist except in passing. The rules were spread out all over and way worse than Paizo gets accused of i might add. And at times even flat out contradicted other parts of the mounted combat rules . There are a few spots mounted combat never even cover's or touches on, and honestly its probably a good thing. Im actually pretty surprised paizo didn't spend more effort on revising mounted combat in general and carried over as much as they did, being such a good sized portion of mechanics.
A lot of the problems in 3.0 if i recall correctly got twisted and seeded pretty deep into 3.5. It seemed as if designers misinterpreted, edited, misworded, revised, and developed new material with rules that they had slight variations about how they actually worked in game and rushed it to market. After a while it was impossible to actually tell what RAI was. Quite a few gamers in my area and those i spoke with at the time just adopted a lot of house rules, excepted some of the rules, and hand waved others. Over the years to current day, myself probably included,I've just excepted and remember how WE played as actual RAW. Im only human right? Anyway, i will try and post some of things i can remember that caused issues and maybe others can as well.
Ok first this is not one of those classic threads of straitjacketing the player paladin and stripping him of his powers. I have a newer(ish)player to PF and his first at running a paladin, of Iomedae. From what im seeing from him, previously an oracle of battle last campaign,is he's generally running a "find all evil and kill it philosophy". While this actually works out pretty well for say a pali of iomedae it might play out differently for say, a pali of Sarenrae.
Now the first issue popped up yesterday. WENDUAG was hiding in the refuse closet and popped out sniping the wizard. Everyone rushed in and WENDUAG was quickly brought down to dying. The wizard, smacked down a bit, for spite continued to just cast BLEED on her. The Pali let him do so, searched her, and then was going to kill her. He knew she didn't radiate evil- i wasn't sure she should even though she worships baphomet she has no spell power yet so is she really radiate the same evil as a cleric? I simply told him being a worshiper of Iomedae it might not be the most honorable thing to do. She's beaten, unconscious, and helpless. I wasn't going to strip him of his powers or anything but figured this was a good time to bring up (early)the whole paladin code and let him get a precursor to possible moral dilemmas that might or could arise later in his career. With some griping and moaning he decided to stabilize her and tie her up. He later also took prisoner 2 cultists (bapmomet and Deskari)and Hosilla, who did ping evil but were put to sleep. These i would have actually been ok with putting to death. I think he took my "not to honorable to kill a helpless person" to the extreme. while i think this would be perfect for a pali of sarenrae a pali of Iomedae..not so much.
So i guess what im asking is what would be a good code for a beginner pali of Iomedae to maintain giving were this campaign takes place- the worldwound,and given that the city isn't in much of a state to actually maintain much law and order for trials and such. Also what aspects would take precedence for a paladin of Iomedae- Valor, Rulership, Justice, Honor? Good before law? While im sure some code issues will pop up from time to time it probably wont be anything major because of the AP. I'm not a stringent GM but i do want the player to have a sense of SOME code and to experience it, since paladins do get some pretty good opportunities and powerful treasure this AP. I don't want him to have the mentality to ping evil and murder everything on the radar with no recourse, being a herald of JUSTICE after-all and that it could very well get him and the party killed in the final book.... Also i feel the paladin is no longer the absolute goodie two shoes he was in the earlier editions.
Just wanted everyone to know that the number of pathfinder apps on the google store is getting up there. There getting quite pupolar with my players and even helping me as a gm. There's character sheet apps, rules apps, and more.
Could the Ultimate Versatility general mythic power be used to change an archtype or to undo one? I'm thinking no as I don't think an archtype is a class feature but honestly I'm still getting used to archtypes. Since I created the thread though and I'm pretty sure the answer is no what are some class features that would be a good use of this power or what have others used it for?
I have a player that really wants to play a Ninja in WotR. I haven't studied the class in depth but from what i have read it seems like there going to be at a disadvantage for this particular path. I'm also worried about how he will also fit into the overall theme of the ap, Tying in his backstory and explaining why a ninja would even want to take on the wourldwound in the first place will also be a challenge. I'm sure he will need help in fleshing out his backstory and character to some extent but i just don't have much popping out.
The only thing i have come up with so far that would make sense would be a tiefling ninja as he would have a decent shot at infiltrating demons.
I'm interested in what others have to say on the matter and wht you have done with your ninjas. And how ninjas in general relate to the worldwound area in general.
I searched the forums but couldn't really find anything that pertained to this exact scenario. first off i try to stick to an unwritten rule to only use vital strike if a creature is intelligent OR if it's been reduced to 25%/ on it's last term.
I read about spell effects and VS or giving VS to creatures such as t-rex but this is a little different.
Creature in question is a spectre. upping to a 11cr enounter with 4 levels of savage warrior. it has improved natural attack and i'm debating on giving it VS, is this legal? it's not a spell so seems permissible. the thing will be going up against 4 10lv pcs so i'm not worried about 4d6+ 2 levels of energy drain killing them off, just want to know if it's within the rules...
working on a new character sheet/portfolio as my players are finding the pathfinder stock character sheet too crunched, small, and not detailed enough. so i got to the feat section and i came up with 22 feats for a human fighter at level 20. This seemed the class that could get the most feats per raw but am i correct? is there any other class/combo per pathfinder published books only and a max level of 20 that could possibly get more than that? i got 10 for character class lvl 20+ human bonus feat+11 for 20 levels of fighter. so is 22 truly the max? i added 4 more spaces for good measure...
was stating up an umbral dragon and noticed they have no reach in any of the size categories. according to the bestiary if this line is omitted it has standard reach. Now does that mean it has 5' reach in all size categories (can't be right), standard reach for a long creature (no other creature statblock does this, and dragons have extra reach on bites),or this line was omitted by accident (most likely the case)?
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Ok first off i know calling out the Devs for a clarification is a big no no. And it's not what i'm doing here. i know what RAW says about the matter. And i'm not calling them out, i'm simply inviting any of them over to pop in and give there opinion- NOT an official clarification. If what people want is a clarification/errata then thats what the faq button is for.
First off my reasons are different than most. I'm not seeking an answer to tell me how to handle rule X in my game, or for me to show up anyone, or throw "JJ said" in my GM's face, or to state rule X is broken so paizo needs to publish errata on X rule.
The reason is I've been working on a supplement for a 3PP and there is a curtain class portion that revolves around earth glide. This supplemental class has powers that bend and effect earthglide, in the same manner as barbarian rage powers effect his rage. With that being said it's VERY difficult to write rage powers without knowing exactly how rage works, the same goes for earthglide. I never even realized any problems until it went into playtesting and playtesters brought up some interesting points.
Being as thorough as i am, i figured it only fair and worth a shot to seek some insight on how to handle it. After scouring the archives for some hopeful solutions i found more questions than answers.
I can let the class fall where it may and let the GM's handle it, as the rules are the rules. I can hold out on publication and hope for more rulings/errata which could cost me. I can give the class it's own clarifications that supersedes the pathfinder rules or future errata. Or maybe i could get some good insight from developers and players (future consumers),which is why i asked for opinions on the matter. I think maybe giving the class it's own clarifications would be best but i don't want this to come across as trying to make paizo look bad or for paizo to take any offense.
Lots of rules-
Tremorsense (EX):
Quote:
Tremorsense (Ex): A creature with tremorsense is sensitive to vibrations in the ground and can automatically pinpoint the location of anything that is in contact with the ground. Aquatic creatures with tremorsense can also sense the location of creatures moving through water. The ability's range is specified in the creature's descriptive text.
Blindsense (EX):
Quote:
Blindsense (Ex): Using nonvisual senses, such as acute smell or hearing, a creature with blindsense notices things it cannot see. The creature usually does not need to make Perception checks to pinpoint the location of a creature within range of its blindsense ability, provided that it has line of effect to that creature. Any opponent the creature cannot see still has total concealment against the creature with blindsense, and the creature still has the normal miss chance when attacking foes that have concealment. Visibility still affects the movement of a creature with blindsense. A creature with blindsense is still denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against attacks from creatures it cannot see.
Blindsight (EX):
Quote:
Blindsight (Ex): This ability is similar to blindsense, but is far more discerning. Using non visual senses, such as sensitivity to vibrations, keen smell, acute hearing, or echolocation, a creature with blindsight maneuvers and fights as well as a sighted creature. Invisibility, darkness,and most kinds of concealment are irrelevant, though the creature must have line of effect to a creature or object to discern that creature or object. The ability’s range is specified in the creature’s descriptive text. The creature usually does not need to make Perception checks to notice creatures within range of its blindsight ability.Unless noted otherwise, blindsight is continuous, and the creature need do nothing to use it. Some forms of blindsight, however, must be triggered as a free action. If so, this is noted in the creature’s description. If a creature must trigger its blindsight ability, the creature gains the benefits of blindsight only during its turn.
Incorporeal (EX):
Quote:
Incorporeal (Ex): An incorporeal creature has no physical body. It can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities. It is immune to all nonmagical attack forms. Even when hit by spells or magic weapons, it takes only half damage from a corporeal source. Although it is not a magical attack, holy water can affect incorporeal undead. Corporeal spells and effects that do not cause damage only have a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal creature. Force spells and effects, such as from a magic missile, affect an incorporeal creature normally. An incorporeal creature has no natural armor bonus but has a deflection bonus equal to its Charisma bonus (always at least +1, even if the creature’s Charisma score does not normally provide a bonus). An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid objects, but must remain adjacent to the object’s exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own. It can sense the presence of creatures or objects within a square adjacent to its current location, but enemies have total concealment (50% miss chance) from an incorporeal creature that is inside an object. In order to see beyond the object it is in and attack normally, the incorporeal creature must emerge. An incorporeal creature inside an object has total cover, but when it attacks a creature outside the object it only has cover, so a creature outside with a readied action could strike at it as it attacks. An incorporeal creature cannot pass through a force effect. An incorporeal creature’s attacks pass through (ignore) natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects (such as mage armor) work normally against it. Incorporeal creatures pass through and operate in water as easily as they do in air. Incorporeal creatures cannot fall or take falling damage. Incorporeal creatures cannot make trip or grapple attacks, nor can they be tripped or grappled. In fact, they cannot take any physical action that would move or manipulate an opponent or its equipment, nor are they subject to such actions. Incorporeal creatures have no weight and do not set off traps that are triggered by weight. An incorporeal creature moves silently and cannot be heard with Perception checks if it doesn’t wish to be. It has no Strength score, so its Dexterity modifier applies to its melee attacks, ranged attacks, and CMB. Non visual senses, such as scent and blindsight, are either ineffective or only partly effective with regard to incorporeal creatures.Incorporeal creatures have an innate sense of direction and can move at full speed even when they cannot see.
i'm not sure why I've never pondered this before but now that i have i find myself curious how others handle it.
So you have a dungeon and at the entrance is an average encounter, beyond the entrance is a cavern containing a challenging encounter. while the PC's engage the creatures at the entrance the monster in the cavern is alerted and joins the battle. Obviously if its a tribe the Pc's could easily find themselves overwhelmed and the AVG encounter soon becomes a fight for survival. how do some people handle this? do you place the CR's in a curtain area and what happens is the players problem, adjust for it by planning a max CR over a curtain area, make your areas static and ignore common sense? Usually i just build CR's by area and if they join or merge well the players probably created the situation and now must handle it. But is this really the right way to handle it? A tribe for instance, a party could find itself easily facing an ECL of +5, +10, +15 or even higher. putting players against such an ECL just seems wrong in so many ways....
I was curious about non OGL d20 material. exactly what can't be used? where's the line drawn? i'm not saying for instance taking the warlock upgrading it and marketing it but, what about say spells. what can and can't you use? The name of the spell seems a no brainer. But, would it be as easy as taking a spell and renaming it? if not what else would you have to change? could you rename the spell, change the description, but use the same mechanic? my OGL fu is weak and any insight would be appreciated.
ok as the title implies im looking for help building a fighter rogue. i have an inexperienced player in this department. While he is a veteran he's only ever played a pure rogue and this is our first go with pathfinder rules. he is currently level 5 but his character almost dies every battle because he's built him as a skill monkey and decided he wants to go more melee now but made some really poor choices along the way to convert now. Since he's so underpowered combat wise to the other players and there more optimized it's starting to drag him down and i've decided to let him rebuild his character via a special quest and will help him build him retrain his new character. Now he likes to keep things simple and doesn't like to have too many complex rules at his disposal so the simpler the better. Also with the rebuild he has some limitations since his character is pretty important to the story arc. We agreed we don't really want to change WHO he is just help him fill out his character more towards combat oriented. we agreed a dip into fighter, staying a rogue, and readjusting the skill he uses really wouldn't change his personality that much. he already tries to be combat oriented he just doesn't have the build to hold his ground and pull it off. We used a high rolling method so he has REALLY good stats but we will not be changing those so as not to change his character in this way. i have some ideas but i would like to see others builds ideas in order to use the whole build or just peaces. I would like to avoid builds that FORCE him to use every rogue talent and feat to pull off. I would like him to have SOME room for personal choice for instance. so the less feats and talents you can pull off in your build the better. before his rebuild he lacked a high enough AC to stand his ground, to low HP, and his hit accuracy was to low. so in the rebuild we're sacrificing a little flavor, taking a skill cut, and trying to up were he was too weak to do what he wanted.
I'm not looking for an optimized DPR build but we are looking for one that he can pull his weight in combat so to speak. so again the less restrained the build is the better.
i was originally gona post this under rules and really it could go anywhere so i finally decided here just to get more of an opinion base.
I searched the archives and i was surprised this didn't ping any responses. i then scoured the rules everywhere i could think of and didn't find anything. This should be an easy ruling to answer but i'm curious of other peoples opinions. I'm not demanding any "OFFICIAL" answer from the staff but any are welcome to share there experiences on how they handle this in there own games. feedback from GM's and players would be nice to have both sides represented. i dont see this thread getting to uncivil or confrontational so it might be a lighter fun thread for everyone.
so here goes.
substituting a monsters feats with other feats, excluding bonus and racial.
1) is it allowed per RAW?
2) is it RAI?
3) is it just mean and screwing the players over?
4) it doesn't really matter RAW or RAI but should be used on a rare case by case basis for memorable encounters?
I personally feel it COULD be all 4. i haven't done it personally yet, i've mainly used templates, class levels, or advanced a monster. But i could see how a simple feat could change a monster without having to rebuild or advance it and would be quicker.
while i feel that non intelligent monsters would be most likely to be cookie cutter versions. A race of intelligent ones make more sense to be just as variable in there feats as PC's. Intelligent creatures would in general have the same feats overall as others of there race from that area, clan, or tribe but it could very well be different from east cost troll tribe to west coast troll tribe.
while i'm inclined to think this should usually only be done for a story reason, a rare encounter, or just to throw something unique at the players from what they think to expect, i can imagine some other reasons GM's may wish to change feats...
To throw more grease on the fire, if you allow any rogue to disable at a distance, you're basically giving away Ranged Legerdemain for free, weakening Arcane Trickster further.
SO how DOES a rogue disable a trap that has a DC to disable it but all logic should trigger if he ever gets close enough to actually disarm it?!
some magic traps can possibly be bypassed but others may not, a fireball trap for instance.
There is no support in raw to say a rogue can disarm a trap from range so i assume he can't. but then how is it disarmed?
Is it.
1) a rogue can disarm from range?
2) an Arcane Trickster only can disarm them?
3) the rogue with his ubber skills in magic traps can somehow (fluff not important how) role a disable device check if he passes somehow trick the trap into not "seeing him"? but in this case a failed role would trigger it and usually it has to be failed by 5 or more to do that.
4) other
some other ways i could see a stealth check VS the disable DC to "trick" the trap to get in range and then a normal DC to disarm it.
im thinking it should be #2 as that is the only case supported by raw.
also relating with range:
Trap Spotter (Ex): Whenever a rogue with this talent comes within 10 feet of a trap, she receives an immediate Perception skill check to notice the trap. This check should be made in secret by the GM.
i know it doesn't state it but it would make sense and within the powerlevel to allow in the case of ranged traps to allow a check within 10' of the traps range...
say you attempt to use a scroll that is higher than your CL and you fail the CL check, what happens to the scroll? the prd does not say, it only covers a check chance for a mishap. in the case of a mishap the spell takes effect but is bothced so the scroll is used. but if you just fail the CL check to use a scroll in the first place and succeed on the mishap chance does the scroll remain intact and can be attempted to cast it again? i would say yes but im just not sure. this could be very important as a player of mine needs to buy a scroll of greater magic fang for creating a magic item to use in it's creation.
the NPC was really only suppose to be a messenger/assistant type who worked for a noble house. he relayed the official charter with one of the PC's. i really wasn't planning on having him continue on with the party but i just forgot for him to leave after reaching the outpost and heading out into the wildlands. i never even stated him up! the only role he has played is help keeping watch and watching the horses while the party is away. the party has gotten used to having him around and since i haven't gave him any stats i figure i should since he was already cought in one wandering monster battle, though all he did was yell "willow wisp!!!" and run for his life lol.
now i got an idea i want to build him around but im undecided what class/classes to make him. he could later play a role of a leader or henchman later on so i really want to flesh him out now. i want to build him like Van hell-sings assistant. knows a lot about monsters, tinkers making weapons and items to fight monsters (like potions, minor alchemical items, minor magic items, potions, and such). i want him to have class abilities that give him a boost against curtain monsters but im not looking to optimize him either- he's more a sidekick not a frontman. monster knowledge is a must
so far i've narrowed it down to ranger, inquisitor, alchemist, or a combination of them through multiclass. right now im leaning alchemist/inquisitor of Erestil with a focus on community. establishing a community and protecting it and it's rulers from dangerous monsters while doing his best to be a vital part of the community and helping it prosper.
one issue im having with choosing these classes is explaining why he was a meager messenger-though i have a few ideas.
i don't want him to be too optimized and maybe give a small taste of the new classes for originality. i plan on starting him off 2 levels behind the pc's and level him up as a henchman even though he isn't one he may later become one. since we are using a high stat game i rolled his stats 3d6 drop the lowest and got some decent stats to do whatever i need him to be.
these are his base stats-
Quin Zaldory 10 13 16 12 16 11
he is human and his racial bonus will probably not be on a 16 so the pc's wont have a super leader later on.
ok i thought i had knowledge checks figured out as i use them quite often but then a players through some questions at me that made me think about the whole system and how it really works.
here's how i treat knowledge check and a lot probably do as well.
party encounters trolls and makes a knowledge chack for giants. check of 10+cr pretty much just tells WHAT the creature is,creature subtype, and maybe general power relative to the party. For every 5 points over the DC another useful peace of knowledge may be revealed. Some monsters may have higher or lower DC's than to 10+cr based on variables- such as how common it is, how likely the player is familiar with beast,magic, or just about anything else the GM wants to throw in. That i got and is probably the most common way it's done.
But here's the issues.
WHEN does/can a player use knowledge for a creature and how does it work-raw only explians the formulae
some examples:
-say a PC learns in the above that they are trolls and they have regeneration and how fire and acid effects them. what if they encounter trolls again later? It makes sense obviously that a PC would still know about there regeneration-thats a given. what if there are still abilities the players doesn't know the creature has? it doesn't make sense he would get a new role unless he leveled up and gained more ranks in the knowledge. BUT this would make it a nightmare of keeping track what checks revealed what, and at what levels they learned what, and when they can try again!!!
-what if the pc encounters a monster again and it has a template, can the pc tell it's say fiendish and get a new check to see if he can tell this and knows anything about fiendish creatures? i would say yes in this case. but would the PC notice automatically without a check that this template creature is some how different than normal creatures of it's type? obviously if you ask for a new check this is going to give something away that something isn't right. what about if the PC encountered a creature with a template first? how would he know it's not a normal version and just that the knowledge he knows is just incorrect!? would he then think that this templated creatures is the norm and all the books he read was wrong?
-can you use knowledge skills to tell anything about class levels? in this case, can you use knowledge checks on a human to get a general idea of level or is it just racial knowledge? SO if it's just racial, a check on a level 10 knights won't really tell you anymore about him than a peasant other than he's well armored and armed?
I have the idea of the basis for this armor but need help fleshing it out as close as possible with the PF rules. It's mainly for a PC that is playing a class i designed. he is an earth magic specialist but is a f/m ish type base class. he's allowed to wear light armor with no spell failure chance.
now the idea is a breast plate made of black marble with natural veins of mythral with leather padding inside, the mythral veins have no effect it's just fluff. the armor can only be used by this class and creatures of the earth subtype. The armor was crafted at a sacred sight on the elemental plane of earth by the shaitan. When worn by this class it's treated for all purposes as light armor.
so far this is what i want it do:
+1 breastplate
when worn by X class and earth types the armor is treated as light armor.
when worn by non specific types the armor weighs as much as normal stone and leather.
so i came up with LEVITATE as spell used to create it. now should the armor being treated as weightless? it would still have armor check penalty, arcane spellfailure, max dex as it's still bulky and not like wearing a shirt.
could i get some ideas for armor check penalty, arcane spellfailure, and max dex and weight for the armor when worn by the specific class AND non allowed classes?
also i could use some help coming up with a cost as well, so far the only rule i see that fits is -30% cost for being so class specific but -30% of what i have nothing to go on.
first how do you advance a peon? i got quite stumped on this. say i want to use the advanced templet which adds +1 CR. if i apply that to a 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8th CR monster. WTF is it's CR?! o_O
second how do other DM's feel about advancing human or humanoid characters with class levels? the reason im asking is i remember James Jacobs saying something to the effect that advancing all monsters when dealing with parties with more than 4 players or with exceedingly high stats work good to bring CR's back to where they should be. I've been doing this and it's working great for my campaign involving 5 players with very high stats. But advancing humans with class levels seem dirty some how lol. Now i could easily just add another level to the enemy but the advanced template seem more on par in keeping them in line with the player characters and +4 to all stats is way more power than +1 lvl. also when advancing humanoids should i keep the +4 to all stats caped to there max racial stats allowed or just let stats fall where they may? i can already see the player anger when they get hit by a human with 24 strength and he has no magical gear lol. what about the bonus to natural armor? should i give races with no natural armor an armor bonus or up there armor or gear instead?
I'm working on a new race to use in kingmaker. a tribe of Kobolds "substituting the sootscales in KM" who in there past rescued the child of a silver dragon while it's mother was being killed. The kobolds raised/worshiped it for a short time. this act wasn't completely selfless ofc. the good dragon god,can someone please tell me any dragon gods in pathfinder and there role?,sent a follower to rescue the baby silver dragon. This Silver dragon follower of "good dragon god" took pity on the kobolds and felt obligated to repay the dept. In short the silver enlightened the kobolds and showed them the error of there ways and taught them a new religion and good moral code. Over the generations these kobolds became LN and there appearance changed to lustrous grey scales instead of chromatic colors. The purest of this tribe are clerics of there brought on dragon religion and are LG or NG and have silver scales and other silver dragon qualities (horns, wings, etc). This is now a new race.
i have some ideas in mind but want to see what other people come up with so here is a list of some things i would like some view points on.
1)the general race is still Humanoid reptilian LN(grey scaled)and the goal is 1CR with racial HD. the only 2 things i know for sure i want to give the race is size medium and lose the light sensitivity. everything else is in the air, stats, skills, special features, etc.
2)i could use some name suggestions other than mashed combination's such as Drabolds, kogans, etc. i'm leaning towards drakken or Dragonfolk.
The priests i have figured out, they will simply be enlightened versions of this new race with the half-dragon template. which will meet the 3CR minimum and since they have racial HD will have a breath weapon. i'm thinking of giving them a racial ability to advance there breath weapon dependent on character levels so i can advance them more later to keep them in an ongoing story. Since they can't take dragon disciple class levels this seemed the right thing to do, do you feel it's over powered?
I'm working on a new race to use in kingmaker. a tribe of Kobolds "substituting the sootscales in KM" who in there past rescued the child of a silver dragon while it's mother was being killed. The kobolds raised/worshiped it for a short time. this act wasn't completely selfless ofc. the good dragon god,can someone please tell me any dragon gods in pathfinder and there role?,sent a follower to rescue the baby silver dragon. This Silver dragon follower of "good dragon god" took pity on the kobolds and felt obligated to repay the dept. In short the silver enlightened the kobolds and showed them the error of there ways and taught them a new religion and good moral code. Over the generations these kobolds became LN and there appearance changed to lustrous grey scales instead of chromatic colors. The purest of this tribe are clerics of there brought on dragon religion and are LG or NG and have silver scales and other silver dragon qualities (horns, wings, etc). This is now a new race.
i have some ideas in mind but want to see what other people come up with so here is a list of some things i would like some view points on.
1)the general race is still Humanoid reptillian LN(grey scaled)and the goal is 1CR with racial HD. the only 2 things i know for sure i want to give the race is size medium and lose the light sensitivity. everything else is in the air, stats, skills, special features, etc.
2)i could use some name suggestions other than mashed combinations such as Drabolds, kogans, etc. i'm leaning towards drakken or Dragonfolk.
The priests i have figured out, they will simply be enlightened versions of this new race with the half-dragon template. which will meet the 3CR minimum and since they have racial HD will have a breath weapon. i'm thinking of giving them a racial ability to advance there breath weapon dependent on character levels so i can advance them more later to keep them in an ongoing story. Since they can't take dragon disciple class levels this seemed the right thing to do, do you feel it's over powered?
I remember reading a thread and i'm sure there are others too that basically boiled down to this. The Gm was/planning giving enemies abilities that players cannot gain. i Think it was for a single boss fight and the gm was going to give him extra turns? I've seen other posts that basically boiled down to "you can't have enemies do that if players can't".
well i'm wondering why not? why can't the GM do whatever he wants? in a role playing game is there truly such a thing as RAW and is there any GM that truly abides to raw?!
i was going over the Silver dragon and i found something that doesn't make sense. under magic for dragons it says something like,"Dragons cast and learn spells as a sorcerer of the listed level etc..."
but if you look under silver dragon they ave access to devine spells, not really the issue. the issue is that learning spells as a sorcerer forbids spells on the cleric list. the spell in question wasn';t even a bard spell or bloodline spell. nor does a dragon have any feats or dragon abilities that let them do this, there is NO feature that lets you do this per RAW! so if pathfinder monsters don't have to follow the rules why does an all powerfull GM have to? just figured i would open a can of worms and see the replies *GRIN*
Any other people love elementalists? A player of mine asked me to design a class for him based around the elementalist. what started as a quick class write-up is actually turning into a full fledged book! we started play testing the class and it's turning out to be truely unique with a very strong flavor.
The class was asked to be created for one of my players and he is in the middle of play testing right now. Overall there was some issues making a spellcaster class focused around one element and still keeping it viable. After all, energy immunity can easily shut down a mage built around one type of energy. So after designing the overall theme the next important thing to work on was making the class playable even if his energy type was nulified for an encounter.
The class has access to only one element and a lot of spells from the transmutation school. while the class only has access to 1 element (his specialty) this makes him a lot more limited and less versatile, but my player is happy as the class was built for flavor and not munchkin power playing. i got the the name copywrote and may seek an outside publisher and have it published. here's a general idea and teaser.
Transmentalist- an ancient order of sorcers focused so strongly on tranmutation and elemental magic that it changed there very being. over centuries it altered there form and gave them powers over one of the four elements. They have magic abilities that give them mastery over there specialty element and make spells of that element harder to resist. Over time as they grow in power they can alter ther forms into para-elemental beings and fight with devistating force.
In game terms they have up to 6th level spells, access to almost any elemental spell of there specialty(including arcane and divine, they have there own spell list for each element.this is what is still taking the most of my time finishing. while most are energy spells many are not and are themed around an element. ex earth= stoneshape, summon earth elemental, fist of stone etc. they also have a large selection of transmutation spells. this gives them decent buffing spells to make use of to aid the party and not be worthless when they can't blast there energy on foes. they also have a unique shapechange similar but stronger than elemental body spells. this makes them good front rank fighters if there elemental energy is ineffective, and because there spell focus is so less diverse. so while a lot of there spells are "blaster" energy type spells, when there energy is ineffective they can still use buffs,weapons, and there elemental form to fight.
overall the class is proving very interesting and unique in play. though very specialized this also gives the class a strong flavor. The making of the class was inspired by Avatar:the last airbender meets dragon ball Z. Think going super saiyan with elemental power ;)Once i'm finished i while be willing to share the class with everyone. it may just be the the class make-up part though as i mentioned earlier it's turning into a book-new spells,feats, equipment keyed to the transmentalist, history, and story. does this sound like a class anyone would be interested in? or willing to playtest?
from reading the 1st ap it appears the players are encouraged to help the kobolds,even rewarding them for doing so. now there are a couple problems with this. first the obvious one-kobolds are evil. im sure my players will be inclined to "kill the evil guys!" and ask questions later. second, if they do choose to help them they might find themselves debating on what effect this could have leaving the kobolds intact to cause future problems with the kingdom,and go back to finish them off. third,the kobolds reside in an abandoned silver mine, a mine that could be put to use funding the kingdom. I guess an option that could be used is to eradicate the mites and persuade the kobolds to relocate there "now that we've killed your crazed shaman you should relocate before his soul comes back as an undead and kills you all!".
i plan on running kingmaker adventure path. it's hard getting my players who played in 3.5 to convert to pathfinder as there used to so many splat book rules and feel limited. they hate designing character even remotely typical in anyway lol. im allowing some 3.5 in on a case by case approval.
One of my players is going to play a spellblade from ToS. Now for his background in a gist is, he was sold into slavery as a child and forced into gladiatorial servitude. Now i plan on running him solo in this arena and having him escape. But my problem is where would such an arena be located at? i was thinking somewhere in Andoran. If anyone else could help me out i would appreciate it. the closer to the river kingdoms the better.
another issue is campaign traits. since this player would not be from Kingmaker area what would be a good campaign trait he could take and still make use of? i considered altering Sword Scion but allow him to apply to one chosen weapon since he been a gladiator his whole life...
Lastly he wants to fight with a Nodachi. looking over this weapon it seems overpowered. The party will have no pure fighter type som im debating using it still. i could easily play it off as an ancient azlanti weapon..
I know a new campaign setting is due out this year but i'm thinking it's going to have some changes but the overall format will be the same. As it stands the current campaign is just way to vague for my tastes. It gives an overview of kingdoms and general history but thats about it. the details on individual towns and cities is even more vague with usually only a small caption. why is there no REAL campaign setting, like a box set? i loved how the old forgotten realms campaign had i think 2-3 books, maps and everything. there were maps on just about every city. now i know golarion is huge and all but THAT was paizos choice. i would have started out with only maybe a handful of kingdoms in a curtain area fully detailed and grew out from there. instead of leaving a hole huge world left so vague
In pathfinder every kingdom seems to have some really interesting back drop,mentions it, but never explains it. an example is numeria and the crashed ship. ok we have a HUGE plot here that brings in robots,addicting "stuff" seeping out of the ship,technology, and worse off 7 skymetals that are shipped all over golarion but only adamantine is ever mentioned-since 2008?! these are big loose ties and it seems every kingdoms has twists like this adding to it. there's more information available in adventure paths, numerous other products, on certain cities and things mentioned in the campaign setting, but i feel the campaign setting should be more complete without having to scour numerous other books and buying tons of them too. just to run a campaign.
At the least i would like maps of maybe the few largest cities in each kingdom. you know, were adventurers might actually go to spend there hard earned gold. i know i could make a map if this happens(and i can bet you 100% it will)but there lies a problem in that. If i mock up a city what happens if i run an adventure later that shows the city in detail and it's completely different!?
i plan on running kingmaker and i can bet you once players start gaining some good wealth they will seek out New Stetven as a trading haven in search of magical gear. "players-whoa skymetals!!!...WHAT ARE THOSE!!? ME-um well er you know..adamantine. player- you said metals. what other metals are there!!? IS MITHRIL A SKYMETAL!!!?" in reality i don't even know if mithril is. what else should i throw in ...vibranium? lol.
now i'm gonna try to hunt up some more books detailing the surrounding kingdoms before i run kingmaker as my players are notorious for dropping an adventure to seek out something else the find interesting. i just wish the campaign setting offered more so i didn't have to.
so in summery i'd like to see a more complete campaign setting with more than one book. maybe a general one like it is now for players but another one for the GM with more details and "goodies".
i also wouldn't mind a "complete" book series. say
a complete guide to varisia, cheliax,taldor. maybe combining some of the smaller kingdom.
im not trying to be negative i just feel Golarion was rushed and GM's are left hanging.
i remember reading once a spell that caused energy vulnerability,it might have even been an after effect. I scoured for hours and couldn't find it. not even sure what spell list it belonged to or anything. does ANYONE know what spell does this?!
I have this class im working on for my campaign called a Transmentalist. sorry i can't post the pdf as the computer it's on the motherboard fried. will be getting a new one in the next couple weeks and recovering the file. The class was built with a dragonball Z inspiration were the class can go super saiyan. hope there's some gamers here familiar with DBZ.
The class is built around a transmutation/elemental specialist, hence the name transmentalist. as they progress they aquire the traits of an elemental (sleep immunity,paralysis imunity, cannot be sneak attacked etc)at 20th level they have all the traits of an elemental. starting at 4th level they can start to power up, in game terms they can elemental body with some exceptions. there more qasi elementals. they look human with elemental traits not like elementals. they gain the stat bonuses as size modifiers even though there size doesn't change(for balance reasons),but they can use all there equipment as well since they remain humanoid. they also can cast spells in this form. To keep the ability "special" it's uses per day is way less than a druids wildshape.
they have an elemental blast similar to 3.5 warlock eldrich blast that they can use unlimited but maxes at only 5d6 dmg with no invocations. avg BAB. 2 good saves that depend on specialty element, one is always will. simple weapons only with 2 bonus weapon proficiencies depended on element, light armor only.
all in all there like a mix of sorcerer with elemental bloodline, 3.5 elemental savant prestige, and druid. they get some other abilities from those class as well.
they have a class specific spell list comprised of arcane and druid spells from pathfinder and spell compendium and cast spontaneously. there limited to a single element with a good mix of transmutation spells. quite a few elemental spells are energy based obviously but there's a fair mix depending on element. im currently using the bard progression.
now here's where i need advice. on "paper" they look good and balanced but im thinking there under powered? for one while they can use transmutation spells to buff up and those stack with elemental body size bonuses there shapechanges per day is a lot more limited (currently 1x per day at 4th lvl). when completely buffed and in elemental form there still weaker than a fighter combat wise, less HP ,and armor. so overall a flashy back-up fighter,at higher level they may be almost on par. at this point still a decent class.
my problem is the bard spell progression. hardly any spells per day. and since Transmentalists have access to only one element there attack spells can easily be shut down with a simple resist energy, and there left to atacking, which they only do fairly at when in elemental form. there also limited to 6th level and lower spells. would bumping them up to full sorcerer progression be to much and over power them? I'm thinking it may not in this case as there spells are so limited (buffs, one type of energy spells,few utility spells)
Well me and all my current players have always wanted this type of character class (maybe not done exactly like this...)but are others disappointed in the flavor as well? I was hoping since the earliest playtest it would get changed to go the route i was hoping, and wasn't.
Summoner just doesn't seem to fit the class name so much as Beast-master does. An eidolon seems more like a magical beast companion that can just be revived the next day than a true summoned magical beast. I'm sure others out there were hoping for more a final fantasy summon Ifrit class like me?
This is the same disappointment i had when i watched digimon seasons with my daughter and in season four they took away the actual digimon and had the people digivolve :( heck i would even prefer a weaker summoned monster that POWERS up in time of crisis than the way it is now just like digimon in season 1+2 lol
I will probably just house rule the class as the constant Magical beast always around just doesn't fill the role quite right for me or any of my players.
A character option could easily remedy this and give players some flavor and utility. For instance, reduce the summon time to 1 standerd action and the eidolon is summoned forth for 1m/lvl or another format. gives the summoner x times per day and voila! yeah your eidolon is around a lot less but it's there when you REALLY need it and you don't have the scenerio- oh we're going into a small under ground cave or a town so you have to stay behind so im severely weakened.
Another nice option would be to allow the summoner to summon multiple eidolon (though one at a time). Say augmented monster summoning spell. if monster summoning X can summon an XHD monster why not an X level equivalent eidolon? have it so only his SA monster summoning can be used this way, it already has the one active at a time. He can't use his normal eidolon abilities on this monster summon eidolon. yeah it makes a lot more work for the player but if its an optional class feature it's work he can choose to take on or not.
these 2 class features would allow players to play the TRADITIONAL summoner they always wanted to play without changing the class in any way if done through optional class features and only adds more flavor/character customization. These will definitely be optional class features i will be house ruling in. But i figured i would share them for others to use ;)
Elemental Blast (Sp): At 9th level, you can unleash a blast
of elemental power once per day. This 20-foot-radius burst
does 1d6 points of damage of your energy type per sorcerer
level. Those caught in the area of your blast receive a Reflex
save for half damage. Creatures that fail their saves gain
vulnerability to your energy type until the end of your next
turn.
Vulnerability means the creature
takes half again as much (+50%) damage as normal from that energy type, regardless of whether a saving throw is allowed or if the save is a success or failure.
What if the target has Energy Resistance?
Lets say Biggs the fire sorcerer uses Elemental Blast on wedge who has energy resistance 10 fire. The next round Biggs blasts Wedge with burning hands for 20 damage. Would it be 20 damage - 10 for resistance +10 for a total of 20 damage? And in that order? (thats how i understand it)
lets take it a step further
Lets say Biggs the fire sorcerer uses Elemental Blast on wedge who has energy resistance 20 fire. The next round Biggs blasts Wedge with burning hands for 15 damage. Would it be 15 damage - 20 for resistance, reducing it to 0 then 7 damage total? Remember "Vulnerability means the creature takes half again as much (+50%) damage as normal from
that energy type." OR would he only take 2 damage?
Well i will finally be starting up my PF campaign. i will be starting off by running one of one my players off as a captured slave forced to fight as a gladiator. This was his character story he wanted to go with. so i've actually decided to run him somewhere before 1st level. His class abilities will be discovered as part of the adventure and his gear even aquired as he escapes.
My problem is he's a spellsword from the tome of secrets and this will be before his formal class training. I'm going to allow him his spells but no components as he's a slave. He chose "shield" and "protection from evil". PFE has a material component but not one listed. The only reason i'm curious is this minor detail could very well effect the adventure. I know the cost is probably nothing but i need to know if he can scrape by and acquire the component somehow in secret. The only other option is to make PFE actually have no material component since one is not listed.
only info i could find on components is this-
"Specifics for material and
focus components are given at the end of the descriptive
text. Usually you don’t need to worry about components,
but when you can’t use a component for some reason or
when a material or focus component is expensive, then
the components are important."
well he can't use the component if he can't scrounge it up. so what is it?!
