RusanCrosha's page

Fair enough. I knew it was a long shot, but I was curious. It makes sense, thematically, that an Alchemist wouldn't be able to take any item creation feats other than brew potion.

Awesomesauce. Thanks for the ideas. :D

On a similar train of thought involving a different character idea, is there any reason why an Alchemist wouldn't be able to take the Craft Golem feat?

Oh yes, I had planned on it. :D Intelligent hybrid dire animals for the win. Thanks for the input. Any ideas as far as such abominations having class levels of any sort?

Hadn't considered the fact that it's still able to be dispelled, so thanks for the tip there. And I'm not too horribly concerned with the cost since I'd only be using this idea as a villain's plot device. Planning to disguise the experiment with the actions of a mass murderer (in the employ of the alchemist, so as to attain the thumb bones needed for anthropomorphic animal) and once the experiment is further underway, rumors of lycanthropy running rampant in the community.

I think I may have stumbled onto an interesting villain concept, but I want other peoples opinions on whether or not it works mechanically. Hoping someone here will double-check my math, so to speak.

Alchemist (Vivisectionist archetype), at a sufficiently high enough level to have access to the anthropomorphic animal and awaken extracts. The former allows him to take an animal and turn it into a human/animal hybrid with Int 3 and capable of speaking one language. The former allows him to further enhance the mental facilities of an animal with a 3d6 Int.

However, since awaken technically turns an animal into an augmented magical beast, does that mean an animal would first have to be turned into a (permanent) anthropomorphic animal in order to also receive the benefits of awaken?

Also, assuming everything checks out and he is indeed able to create an intelligent human/animal hybrid abomination, how about adding class levels?

Two rather short sessions into this adventure path, and I ran into a bit of a snag. Two of my players are absolutely hell-bent on finding the key to the purple tome left to the party in the will that details the Order of the Palantine Eye. I know the description of the book says the key is nowhere to be found, and that it provides Disable Device and break DCs, but they're hard to make in an all-mage party (seriously: alchemist, summoner, wizard, and cleric, all using at least one archetype). They seem to think it's unfair that they can't find the key, and I honestly don't remember seeing it listed anywhere in the book. Am I missing something, or is it just that the players aren't supposed to be privy to the information in the book? If the key isn't listed as an obtainable options, could someone provide some suggestions as to where it could be found or how the players could bypass the lock if they're that intent on gaining the information?

Looking to start up a campaign that takes place in Avistan, as the PCs embark on a quest to prevent the Whispering Way from gathering the seals needed to free Tar-Baphon from his prison in Gallowspire. Should a final confrontation occur between the PCs and this infamous lich, I want to have stats ready for him. So I'm curious as to people's opinions regarding his class. I know the paperback volume Inner Sea Magic lists him as a level 20+ human necromancer, but I'm wondering if he'd make a more impressive lich by going the route of a cleric, or possibly doing the mystic theurge thing. I'm aiming for 24 class levels so that he'll even out to CR 25 (-1 CR for being an NPC, +2 CR for the lich template).

On a related note: skeletal champions and zombie lords. When calculating their CR, do you include their class HD or is their initial CR based solely off of their racial HD? I'm inclined to think it includes class HD, but at the same time (based on the skeletal champion), it seems odd that a level 20 character who becomes a skeletal champion is only a CR 9 creature. o.0

Awesome, thanks to all who have responded, your ideas have been helpful. :) Thinking the RPtools is where I'll end up going, if I can get the program to work properly and such.

This has always been my one failing in PBP games: how do you track movement and distance for purposes of moving in combat, range increments, spell ranges, etc.? Is it generally ad-libbed at GM discretion or is there a program out there that'll let me make simple yet manipulatable maps that I'd be able to post?

Don't mind this, just testing out the BBCode tags to see how they look.

out-of-character discussion

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Looking to build a Necromancer for an upcoming game, but I can't decide on what I want my Opposition Schools to be. I'm leaning towards Divination, but I'm having a really hard time narrowing down what the second one should be. Any suggestions?

Okay, two more questions on this subject: 1) how would you determine the Caster Level of an intelligent phylactery? and 2) does destroying the phylactery slay the lich outright, or does it just make it impossible for the lich to come back after a defeat?

Here's an overview of what I'm planning: I'll break it down for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Inner Sea Region.

10,000 years ago, there was an ancient empire known as Thassilon, ruled by seven powerful wizard. Each of these runelords, as they were known, represented one of the mortal sins (based on the Christian seven deadly sins). When the empire fell into decline, the runelords locked themselves away in a deathless sleep, to be awakened in the future to reclaim their lands.

During my reading up on Thassilon, I also discovered that the runelords used the Emperor's son as a puppet ruler after the Emperor's death, and that the son was not allowed to leave the capital city.

So, in essence, the lich I'm designing is supposed to be the Emperor's son, who has lived throughout these 10,000 by various methods, eventually reaching lichdom. Perhaps he was hopping planes of existence or even visiting the other worlds in the solar system. Haven't figured that out yet. But, when he comes back, he awakens the runelords, but not before discovering how to create multiple phylacteries. He's made 7 phylacteries, one for each runelord, and via plot device soul-locked each of them to a single phylactery (see Heroes of Horror for soul-locked rules).

At it's core, the Emperor's son has returned and is forcing his former prison-keepers to work together under his rule rather than focusing on destroying each other and claiming the kingdom for them selves. Because of the soul-lock, the runelords have incentive to protect the phylacteries because they will not die so long as they exist, and thus keep their new master alive and well.

The phylacteries themselves are protected in the typical lichy ways, but are designed (via Intelligence and Cursed properties) to be beneficial to the person carrying them while slowly degrading the character to a point (One Ring style) where he'll want to protect it and will eventually seek out means to return it to the proper owner(s). I want to point out that they are not any harder to destroy than a typical lich's phylactery, and I'm not considering them artifacts. If anything, their abilities will use of spells themed around the 7 sins, with drawbacks occurring every time it's used.

As for the Lich's CR...who knows at this point. Considering the runelords themselves could be considered nothing more than underlings at this point, I'm thinking somewhere in the CR 22 to 23 range. Definately enough to be a dominating presence before a party of level 20 characters, in any case.

I haven't looked too extensively into the whole item creation thing. So at what point (gp-wise) do you think a phylactery would become powerful enough to warrant a CR bump for the lich? For an Intelligent Phylactery with Int, Wis, and Cha at 10, the base cost would be 120,500 gp. Also, I know the 3.5 Forgotten Realms setting had an epic-level spell that allowed the lich to create multiple phylacteries. Would there be any way of transferring that into the Pathfinder system, or would it be more of a plot device?

I'm currently organizing a campaign in which the "end boss" is a powerful lich. However, I'm curious about the phylactery itself. I know the Craft Wondrous Item feat is required for the creation, but I'm wondering if other attributes could be tacked onto it. For instance, using the Magic Items chapter in the Core Rulebook, is it possible/feasible for the lich to make his phylactery an Intelligent item and/or a Cursed item on top of the normal costs it. I guess what I'm aiming for is something less along the lines of a hidden object that prevents the lich from being killed and more akin to The One Ring, an item that can actually influence the person who carries it.

Interesting. Out of curiosity, what are you basing your decisions on?

I will say this for Paizo: I love the fact that they've included starting GP values for all of the supplemental classes they've introduced to the game. It was a frequent frustration back in my D&D 3.5 days to try and figure out how much gold a character should have if he was playing a class from a book that did not provide this handy bit of information.

However, I do wish they'd also include an equivalent providing where each supplemental class should fit in on the Random Starting Ages table from the Core Rulebook. I've tried venturing guesses as to where each should fit, but I'm never 100% sure the class belongs in the category to which I assign it.

So I'm curious: how would you rule the complexity of the training that goes into each supplemental class?

Simple training: Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer
Advanced training: Bard, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger
Complex training: Cleric, Druid, Monk, Wizard

Classes in question: Alchemist, Cavalier, Gunslinger, Inquisitor, Magus, Ninja, Oracle, Samurai, Summoner, and Witch.