The Dominion alchemical golem has been statted up in the composition book I use with the Bioconstruct modifications (heart and brain), a Rune of Defensive Shock, and a creepy doodle. Looks a bit Phyrexian.
Thanks for the ideas guys.
I'm a little annoyed with myself for accidentally re-using the dungeon "gating" system from a previous dungeon, but "Can't open the boss room door until you switch on the power, can't open the generator room door until you find the key at the other end of the dungeon" is a cliche for a reason. It works.
I've got it set up so that once they turn on the power, they can use the holo-map thingy that they're there for, but it ALSO switches on the anti-boarding system, a Dimensional Lock, that will stop them from dim-dooring out until they kill the ship's control system (the powered-up Vespergaunt).
We've got SOME Dominion of the Black stuff coming up in a few months in "Doom Comes to Dustpawn."
One thing to keep in mind though... the Dominion of the Black is NOT Lovecraft monsters. The Dominion and the Lovecraft monsters do share the Dark Tapestry (which is a big place), but they aren't the same.
I really really really REALLY like the idea that the Dominion of the Black is made up of neh-thalggu though. A lot. To a significant extent. That will likely have repercussions in future Dominion of the Black information.
YAY!
I planned from the get-go to avoid just Lovecraft Monsters, making it clear that the Mi-Go are as much interlopers and looters as the PCs. LovecraftIAN doesn't mean ripped straight from Mountains of Madness. I'm drawing on a bit of Dead Space, Event Horizon, Alien, and Prometheus for this. Thinking of using some of the more interesting oozes as environmental hazards; a lot of things are going to be mundane monsters re-fluffed to be more spacey; the devourers sure won't look human. I'm thinking that the original crew is long-gone, leaving behind the "automated systems" and servitor creatures. Saves me having to describe the Dominion.
Cosmic Horror isn't just "lol, lovecraft monsters," and I respect that you guys try to maintain some restraint when it comes to using them.
Also, I just statted up Mr. Gray, the Mi-Go leader. CR 12, 7th level vivisectionist, looks NASTY with his buffs and dex mutagen. 6d6 sneak on a grapple, AC 30. I think I'll toss in some acid-filled exploding bioconstruct minions to be his flank-buddes. Or some mutilated brain-extracted wildlife.
I'm currently running a game that started out in Kaer Maga, but has since spread into a planet-hopping campaign. At the moment, I'm having a lot of fun ripping off John Carter on Akiton, as the players are following the advice of a cryptic soothsayer and a trio of caulborn, trying to figure out what to do with their McGuffin.
Anyhoo, they've been led to the partially-excavated site of a buried Dominion of the Black spacecraft. The diggers were already killed or turned into Bodaks when they arrived, and now they're about to 'port into the craft's interior. I have a week to make the creepiest, brain-ripp'nest, geigerest dungeon I can manage. It's gonna be more than a series of combat encounters; puzzles, environmental hazards, tragic prisoners that can't be saved, the works.
I just need to populate the damn thing.
A band of Mi-Go and their minions are already prowling around the place, led by "Mr. Grey," an Alchemist (vivisectionist).
I'm also considering using the occasional bodak as a sort of "trap" (open door, bodak on the other side, everyone saves vs gaze before you have time to close your eyes).
Final boss might be an advanced Heresy Ooze (from Inner Sea Bestiary).
I'm also going to use a Devourer or two, maybe hooked up to the ship's systems somehow.
So, I come to you guys looking for ideas: I need suggestions for monsters in particular, but also traps and non-combat encounters. I'm paging through every bestiary I can find looking for creepy creatures.
In case you haven't guessed, I'm stealing HEAVILY from Prometheus for this.
Behold! Stats for the Ethergaunts in the Pathfinder ruleset. I came up with an additional technomagical item or two, and a whole new caste, the alchemy-using Blues.
Its such a shame that Ethergaunts are property of Wizards; I really think they could be kickass "Core" foes/monsters for, say, D&D Next; they'd stand out among all the bugbears and goblins; uniquely D&D, but New by virtue of being kind of old and less-known. Shame Paizo can't use them.
You just reminded me of how much I liked Downer; I mean, just the setting was... quintessentially D&D. It felt like 3.5's "Real" setting, the one you'd actually get if you used all the cool stuff from the actual books.
I think that best option is to rebuild them from scratch using monster creation rules. Either pick CR you want them to have or HD/ability scores you want them to have and calculate from one of those points the rest.
That's what I figured I'd have to do. But I kind of like the idea of making a project of it; a formal write-up that other people can use. On that basis, I'd like to make sure that I do the build WELL.
Also, I want to get lots of milage out of them, which means making it easy to give them class levels. I was also thinking of something like the Pale Stranger; a monster with PC class abilities, like giving the Reds a Magus's SpellStrike or Spell Combat abilities, or the theoretical Blues access to Bombs; but maybe that's just too silly compared to the "semi-psionic sterile purity" of arcane spellcasting.
So, while recently dicking around a certain 40K-loving imageboard, someone reminded me that Ethergaunts exist. I'm doing a Distant Worlds campaign right now, and they'd be PERFECT bad guys for when things get seriously space-y; great concept for some sort of nefarious alien race. The etherealness also makes them interesting; space has an ethereal plane, too, so their ships are invisible/insubstantial most of the time; they pop out of nowhere, like Eldar.
Problem is, the Ethergaunt stats in the Fiend Folio are a bag of dicks. The CR 9 red ethergaunt only has 27 HP. They're so poorly-made, I don't know where to start converting them. I'd like to create a flexible statblock that I can apply various different classes to, and I'm really not sure how to balance/build monsters with automatic casting ability.
So far, I think I'll just replace their spell immunity with normal SR, and maybe give them some ability that applies their Int bonus to AC and/or saves. I also had a thought that the Reds actually cast spells as Maguses, and maybe making a new caste, the Blues, that have Alchemist abilities.
Perhaps build them so that there's only one stat block, but I suppose there should be separate stats for the Whites, Blacks, and Reds.
Any thoughts? I know that EVERYONE owns a physical copy of fiend folio, right? Wink Wink.
I have a bit of a crazy question here ... why not just give undead creatures a Constitution score? While all undead are immune to poison and the like, it seems reasonable that some undead will be tougher than others, have denser bones, thicker flesh, more resistance to being melted or disintegrated because of the composition of their bodies. This toughness would be based on the physical body of the undead creature, not what ever Charisma represents. That being the case, why not just give them a Con score and be done with it?
Because "Under the hood" details like that is why some people like 3.5 so much. Creatures that aren't fundamentally "Alive" are designated as such by not having a constitution score. it's a cool and "transgressive" thing for them to have.
Since undead no longer have d12 HD, and constructs gain bonus HP based on size, undead needed some way to have the right amount of HP for their level. Back in 3.5, the "Unholy Toughness" ability (which did exactly what undead now automatically get) got slapped on pretty much every new undead monster in Monster Manual 3 and after.
I agree entirely, but I feel that just because something makes for good inspiration doesn't mean we need to use exactly what inspired us. I think that, within the world of Pathfinder, the qlippoth fill the role in question here much better than actual Mythos monsters. To me, they just mesh better with everything we've already got in place. The qlippoth and the Mythos creatures are redundant - only one is required, and the qlippoth don't put as much pressure (for me) on the fourth wall.
You've touched on something there.
While it's very nifty and kitchen-sinky and all those things, I have to admit that the various extraplanar horrors like the Quippoth/Obyrith (especially since the Abyss is now the fundamental "Outside" of the planes) kind of devalue/are devalued by the material-plane horrors of the Outer Gods. Paizo did a good job of justifying their existence, and I think that the Mythos elements fit in really well with the conventional universe, but they make the various outer planes feel...small. Quaint. Limited.
Back in 3.5, you had the Far Realm, which was a great way to mesh the lovecraftian "Outside" with the conventional planar cosmology and heroic fantasy genre of the game. But since there's no catch-all Horrible Place that's completely outside the conventional planar cosmology, and may in fact be far more representative of the greater nature of reality than the Great Wheel, you have to go back to material-plane-bound beings that partially exist outside reality alltogether (not extraplanar) with names like Yob-Sodoff, which render the Quippoth redundant.
Of course, nothing stops you from leaving out the mythos stuff and sticking to the usual abyssal/infernal/daemonic ultimate evil enemies.
The Alien Xenomorph I believe is based on a work of Giger's called the Demon, which has the classic biomechanical look but also has black eyes in its skull. I think that the story goes something like Scott thought that the Alien creature would be even more terrifying if it was blind.
And thus he gave us an endless supply of subsequent creatures, all with no eyes and piano-key grins. Everything from Phyrexians to Slake Months have that setup.
Drawing on Geiger for the visual moteifs of the Dominion sounds pretty good. I can also imagine them using some other messed-up stuff, maybe...bioconstructs? sort of like the various kinds of Husks the reapers use? Fungus robots?
A concept I rather liked from the later 3.5 monster manuals, the one thing that made them worth looking at, were the...Monster Families, I guess. Stuff like the Mindflayers of Thoon, a bunch of monsters with a common origin that can serve as the recurring baddies in a campaign, formatted sort of like the various Outsider entries (devils, Asuras, and so on), but not necessarily a bunch of extraplanar spirit beings.
I also think that the bestiaries could do with more templates to modify existing monsters, or just variant abilities for existing monsters. I find such things very useful for making, say, Thassilonian Guardian Constructs or horrible creatures from beyond reality.
Speaking of that, I think that some monsters explicitly associated with specific Great Old Ones would play nicely, especially Paizo's original ones, Xamen-Dor and Mhar.
Xamen-Dor in particular would be a great place to put in some Necromorph-eseque plant/zombie infector undead, in the same vein as the Spawn of Kyuss (which I know at least SOMEONE at paizo likes a lot). Everyone loves Necromorph knock-offs.
Perhaps, if paizo ever makes a big thing of rules for undead creation, some undead specifically meant to be crafted by players, or bad guy minions, with more interesting abilities than generic skeletons. Undead with armor and weapons stitched/grafted on, that explode when you kill them and release toxic fumes, or big undead that you can wear like powered armor.
More Dark Tapestry monsters, more Aliens, and maybe some stuff from Australia and Arcadia. Also, if paizo wants to make more dinosaurs, you could 1. invent some new species based on speculative evolution, or, 2. make an intelligent dinosaur playable race. Like raptors. Everyone loves raptors. See: http://povorot.deviantart.com/art/Bronze-Age-118833770
Since I wrote the third adventure for Shattered Star, I can safely say that you'll find some stuff from Distant Worlds hiding in there. And City of Strangers, for that matter. :)
Multiple questions/comments
1. Actually, I've been working on a City Of Strangers campaign of my own, and Distant worlds has given me a bajillion ideas for some arcs at mid-level. The two books really complement eachother.
by the way, does that fungus patch under Kaer Maga have something to do with the new Fungus Great Old One? Or is it just a demon lord?
Also, are the Dreaming Stones some sort of dormant Gate, or a navigational/scrying tool? I'm trying to remember anything else in City of Strangers that explicitly links to Distant Worlds.
2. If we want to really push the "this book is awesome" thing, what's the best way to do it? I already picked it up from my FLGS today, and I intend on spreading around some positive reviews. Is it better for paizo to have people buy things off the site?
I've got to say, I find Varisia personally very compelling. It sort of typified what Pathfinder means to me; breaking out of old ruts in D&D and doing something interesting with old tools, making something that feels new and different despite being rather old. It heavily features the classic RPG mainstays of Goblins and Ogres and Giants and Wizards, but makes them actually fit into the world. It made Lamias a major enemy. Lamias! that's an achievement in and of itself.
Then the rest of the setting came along and went all kitchen-sink psudo-post-renaissance or whatever you call it. Which is great, don't get me wrong, but I still have a fondness for the original region.
I'm fine with Shattered Star being a true sequel to Rise of the Runelords, and I'm also fine with leaving varisia for a good while. Here's hoping the AP after that will finally be the Numeria one. My players have a hankering for alien juice.
I thank you most gratefully for inventing him and the Paizo developers for leaving him in place!
Out of curiosity, is there any kind of a story behind why he's called Third? Is he Allig the Third, or is Third his family name, or some kind of title or moniker?
If you read the article again, you'd see that he once had a last name, but started calling himself "Third" after investigating the ruin and becoming addicted to alien juice.
Just the moniker Third doesnt correspond to any *Earthly* titling system; the author probably intended to suggest that he'd come under the influence of something within the wreckage. Maybe he's the third being that the entity in the wreck has possessed/influenced.
Speaking of that article, I also liked the mention of the Bone Sages of Eox the Dead. Alien space liches are awesome, because they don't need to breathe in space.
Damnit, While i like the idea of another AP set in Varisia, that finishes off most of the plot threads there and explores more territory, my players are going to cry "Why no Numeria AP?? I want to laser guns, and get addicted to Alien Juice! ALIEN JUICE!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The first Book of the Damned has a thing about the origin of the gods and other spiritual beings; the Seal (I'm pretty sure it means like a seal on a letter, not a pinniped). It was a warm spot of light in the void of the outer sphere, and at one point, it disgorged motes. The motes swirled around, basking in it's glow. Then, an uncountable eon later, it disgorged a second batch, which were consumed by the first motes, which had grown in the interim. More motes were birthed, and not all of them were consumed, some surviving as lesser beings. and in this state before time, the first spiritual beings gained complexity. Fear and Predation, and Companionship and Thought, began to take shape.
And another uncountable eon later, the Motes had names of their own. The two greatest, from the first batch, were close, as brothers. One was called Ihys, and the other Asmodeus.
_____________________________________________________________
The Seal is some sort of insensate, probably non-sentient power source. Sort of like a less tentacular, spiritual Azathoth, I suppose.
It's the closest thing to an overdiety you're going to find in-cannon, probably. It gives a source to all the spiritual entities that haven't come from the Abyss or the Maelstrom, since those are the other two big sources of reality (though the Maelstrom [and thus all of reality] might just be a cast-off fragment of the abyss. Or something. the Abyss certainly predated the Maelstrom.) Axis is apparently something that dropped in from a completely different reality, though. Maybe it was an accretion point for other planes?
But that's the outer sphere, not the material plane itself.
So, I found a bid old stack of Dragon mags in my attic, and I moved them to the bathroom for toilet reading.
Trust me, I'm going somewhere with this.
Anyways, I found some tiny article on arcane focus, which was pretty much just like Psionic focus. And it occurred to me that forcing someone to chill and gather themselves for a big casting is kind of a cool subsystem.
Sometimes it strikes me that casting is a little too...easy. Barring an attack roll, or a concentration check when you're being distracted, casting a spell is like firing a gun. I realize that this is sort of part of vancian casting; you load the powder and the shot at the beginning of the day, then fire your brain-gun later.
We've already got on-the-fly casting in the Words Of Power system, so wouldn't it be kind of cool to also have a few more dramatic casting mechanics?
I guess what kind of sparked this thought was a friend of mine talking about why he liked the magus, but not other casters. he likes to be a shit-kicker, and it's hard to be a physical badass as a full-caster.
And then I thought of the Dresden Files. And it got me thinking about more dynamic magic systems, that allow wizards to push themselves in extremis, for example. Like, being able to take hit point or mental damage to cast a spell even when you're out of slots/points, or to jack the caster level at the cost of taking Fatiuge/exhaustion/going unconscious. I'm just saying it would be kind of cool for casters to have obvious physical/mental effort go into their art.
Then again, you could say the same for combat classes. melee combat is freaking tiring; anyone who's played AmtGuard for a few minutes knows that firsthand. even for someone with physical conditioning who isn't a pasty nerd, pulling off extended fighting full of fancy moves would be hard. Special actions like Power Attack could have a cost associated with them, like a certain number of Fatiuge points, maybe based off your con score/mod (like, you have Stamina equal to your Con+class level). A lot like Ki points, really. Yeah, fighter Ki points, that you spend to pull of semi-tome-of-battle-esque special moves, which you get access to via feats (something more to do with fighter bonus feats). Like: Pay 1 stamina, get a free trip with your next attack.
The only problem is that this would be per/day, when it really makes more sense to be per/encounter (up to a point). Maybe between combat, you can regain one or two stamina, but you can still be completely exhausted at the end of the day. It would be cool to have Fatigue come up a little more often, as a penalty for exerting yourself.
Of course, most combats don't go longer than a minute, ususally much less.
I mean, say what you will about 4E, but giving melee dudes lots of cool combat powers that let them shove people or lower their defenses or whatever was a pretty cool idea.
I think that a mod or two, evoking the style of Planetary Romance, might be a good test of the idea. Let people keep their swords-and-sorcery, but on sn alien world, with tech and magi-tech in the background
Also, the fact that we played monsters, not some prancy little metro sexual emo whelps,
:D
Quote:
I'm not understanding your point on the vampire serial killer thing. Truly curious, by the way. You don't understand a serial killer that specifically targets vampires?
Nope. I would never, ever, use the tremendously inappropriate misnomer "serial killer" in such a circumstance. Just as nobody would ever call a person who swats mosquitoes a "serial killer" (of mosquitoes). Definitely a WTF moment.
(Also, see both Tobias' and Helaman's posts.) While my players certainly aren't necessarily "kill anything not in the PHB" type of people, vampires (or undead in general - definitely those marked as "any evil") aren't really given the benefit of the doubt. And good on 'em, AFAIC.
But mosquitoes notably lack the capacity to dread their own demise upon seeing the fate of an erstwhile acquaintance. I'm sure that mosquitoes, gifted sentience, would regard humans as dangerous mass-murdering monsters who crush harmless, starving creatures (What, you need ALL your blood?).
As I understand it, the killings are destabilizing the vampire power structure, which means that the younger, more reckless and bloodthirsty members will start with the wanton slaughtering.
Of course, you could just kill ALL the vampires; that works even better.
If I had no experience of Pathfinder and you told me about the basic idea of Numeria and super science and all the rest of it, I'd expect to hate the idea on principle. Sci-Fi and fantasy don't mix, I would think.
But I love Numeria. I don't know why, but I do. Admittedly, I don't have DoG yet, but Numeria is one of my favourite places on Golarion so I'm keenly anticipating the section on the Red Redoubt.
Hurry up!
Probably because it's literally Crashed Into the setting, rather than being an actual part of it. It implies a greater universe out there, and creates a crazy scavenger-world aesthetic in the region.
Divs are corrupted genies, and genies are the elemental plane trying to ape humanoid shapes, so divs are relatively recent. They certainly came along after daemons, and might even have come along after demons.
If demons are corruption of mortal souls incarnated and genies are elemental response to humanoids then probably divs as corruption of genies could be thought of as elemental imitation of demons and thus younger.
Quote:
As for psychopomps... they're the new kids on the block and as such I've not put a LOT of thought at all into them. So far, their development's mostly being spearheaded by Wes. If I had to guess, though, they probably came along at about the time mortals started dying, so probably between devils and daemons.
But this begs question: where they here before mortals, waiting for the first one to die or had spawned at the moment of first death, or came into existence only whence mortal death was already strongly estabilished part of the world...
The description for the Psychopomps suggests that Pharasma may have found them already at the boneyard, and crafted more in their image. The whole arrangement of souls travel and migration and judgement and whatnot is not the "natural" state of things, it's a system put in place by the gods to provide for their mortal worshipers/maintain a steady influx of power, or so I understand.
HOWEVER, it should be pointed out that many of the alchemist's abilities, like the bombs and his infusions and mutagens, are not purely physical. they're literally not repeatable, because they have no effect on anyone other than the alchemist (or, their wonderful properties vanish if the alchemist prepares a new extract using that slot, or whatever).
The alchemist sort of works like a fan-WoD Genius, in that they perform sciency-seeming but impossible wonders by sort of imbuing a fraction of their own personal soul/ki/mana into their creations.
How that interacts with mundane alchemical crafting is an open question, of course, which is the point of this thread.
I like magic and suchlike to be an overlay on the real-world physics of a gameworld, and magic must interact with it. so, for example, that bomb the alchemist throws does have incendiary chemicals in it, along with some other odd, seemingly non-functional elements, or maybe missing a key ingredient. and for some reason, if a non-alchemist were to mix them on the spot and throw it, it just...wouldn't be the same. it wouldn't burn as hot, wouldn't light properly, wouldn't actually explode, just smoulder.
Alchemists can create clones and homuncluli, but that doesnt mean they can do advanced genetics or assemble gooey bio-robots and synthetic organisms, or know all the intermediary steps to that level of technology. The methods they use to make a Homunclulus or clone are of an occult bent.
I like Fullmetal Alchemist as much as the next guy, don't get me wrong. I'd love to see an RPG with internally-consistent magic rules that aren't kitchen-sink, but D&D isn't one of those. No, D&D has Ki/Chi AND hermetic magic AND Alchemy AND Psionic Powers AND Divine Miracles AND weird semi-science elder-thing-occult--math-stuff, and probably has Morphic Resonance too.
Lovecraft was a...odd individual. A shut-in, phobia-ridden anglophile who was very racist even for his time period.
Who, strangely enough, did a lot of traveling. His travelogues were collected and printed by Hippocampus Press. His essays.
Yup; it's true. He traveled EXTENSIVELY. He was hardly a shut-in.
It's pretty easy to cast judgements back through time at earlier ages. Folks who enjoy that might do well to keep in mind that 100 or so years in the future, our descendants will be doing the same to us.
I should hope so. If people 100 years from now don't consider us backwards barbarians, something will have gone very wrong.
Odd. I watched a documentary on Lovecraft a few months ago, I don't remember mention of much traveling. It wasn't the focus of the work, so perhaps it was downplayed. Or I just didn't pay close enough attention.
I have some thoughts on this whole thing; bear with me for a moment.
Spoiler:
Games are hard to make these days. As a random example, look at Bioware's output. Consider the old days of NWN and Baldur's Gate, or even Kotor. Now look at Dragon Age and Mass Effect. adding a new character or planet to modern games requires months of work with voice actors and animators, plus a lot of math work to give the character's knockers the proper bounce, if they're female. Or look at Morrowind and Oblivion. When they went from text-only to full voicework, it sounded like piss. Think of all the pages and pages of text in Morrowind, just in the dialogue. Compare that to Oblivion's conversations about mudcrabs.
With that in mind, imagine this: the perfect, easy-to-mod fantasy game engine. essentially, the Neverwinter Nights engine, but cleaned up a little, and using the Pathfinder ruleset. models and textures a little enhanced, maybe a little more capacity for animations, but overall very modest. No physics-jiggle on the tits, no lens flair, and no requirement for everything to have a voice-actor. Maybe the artwork could be a little stylized, like Borderlands. It's a good way to hide limited resources.
Paizo could make content for it, other people could be outsourced to make content for it, normal people could make content for it. Good content could be "adopted" by paizo, and sold for 1-5 dollars, sort of like the App Store. A great way for new talent to break into the industry.
Imagine an Adventure Path on this engine. there's your first relase: Rise of the Runelords, the PC game.
They've already poo-poo'd the idea of doing a Numeria AP because of all the fiddly little rules that they would have to come up with to make it work. Also, they've already stated that the Advanced Firearms from the upcoming UC will not be a part of Golarion. So I'm not sure how much additional tech there is in Golarion to cover.
SJ
Every now and then you see little bits of advanced tech, like all the logging machinery in Carnival of Tears, clockwork constructs, and so on, plus all the lost technology of Azlant and the Shory, and the Council of Truth's various efforts.
Nonetheless, I do hope that they'll at least make a module set in numeria, to gauge interest and experiment; sort of like what they did with carrion hill
Regions where typical adventuring can be undertaken: Varisia, Numeria, the River Kingdoms, the Shackles, realm of the Mammoth Lords, Land of the Linnorm Kings, the hinterlands of central avistan (darkmoon vale, Isger's dense woods, the Nirmathas border) Mwangi Expanse, Katapesh, and probably more I've forgotten.
Plus, lets not forget political skullduggery, cloak-and-dagger stuff, which can happen in the largest, most civilized of cities.
Actually, Greater Teleport is quite adequate for traveling across the void. Prep nothing but greater teleport, put on a space suit and a ring of sustenance, and some air source, and cast teleport and greater teleport as much as you can. drift for 8 hours, prep your spells, wash rinse repeat.
Space liches don't need greater teleport. They just drift for horrific eons, contemplating their dread thoughts with supermortal intellect.
Sort of like byakhee, if byakhee were superintelligent.
You underestimate the sentient mind's capacity for boredom. You can only go mad, then go sane, then go mad again so many times before the whole process becomes dreadfully tedious. Inhuman alien monsters evolved for void-travel can manage it, but even Elder Things go into hibernation.
You have to be very stupid to not get bored drifting through space.
"Space, space. So much space, gotta see it all. Play it cool, here come the space cops. SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!"
"How long do they last? How long can a sentient being exist in solitude? Many would crush their phylacteries after a few million years, moving on to see what long-avoided doom awaits them. It's better than reading the same book again for the 5 billionth time.
Others would leave. pack their libraries in extraplanar mansions, and be off to the void. Perhaps in a great skeletal craft of fire and steel, perhaps simply teleporting a few thousand miles at a time, inching their way across the void in short hops..."
Or transform themselves into Demiliches and travel the Astral Plane
Space Liches are cooler.
Actually, Greater Teleport is quite adequate for traveling across the void. Prep nothing but greater teleport, put on a space suit and a ring of sustenance, and some air source, and cast teleport and greater teleport as much as you can. drift for 8 hours, prep your spells, wash rinse repeat.
At the very least, a bag-0-minis of themed dudes would be nice, especially dudes you'd be likely to use a lot. Like, a bag-o-goblinoids, a bag-o-undead of various sorts, a bag-o vermin, a bag-o-dinosaurs.
Maybe just a bag-o-chumps, that contains a bunch of goblins, kobolds, orcs, and human thugs.
"On how many worlds has it happened? On how many words did death win? How many worlds did the beguiling idea of a cold eternity take hold?
Entire planets of the dead. Zombified animals shambling about in a parody of life, lesser servitor undead toiling for a few ascendant lich-lords. The population slowly dwindling over the eons due to accident, violence, or existential despair.
Until eventually, the final conflagration of egos begins, as the remaining lich lords vie for final control of the world. entire continents eliminated with a few ancient words from dessicated lips, moons called down to crush hemispheres. Until one remains, one immortal being of unliving perfection, with an entire world to himself.
How long do they last? How long can a sentient being exist in solitude? Many would crush their phylacteries after a few million years, moving on to see what long-avoided doom awaits them. It's better than reading the same book again for the 5 billionth time.
Others would leave. pack their libraries in extraplanar mansions, and be off to the void. Perhaps in a great skeletal craft of fire and steel, perhaps simply teleporting a few thousand miles at a time, inching their way across the void in short hops..."
Hmm...Pharasma and Dhampir....not so sure who that would work. Reading up her (Trial of the Beast) I'm not so sure. I have to say I see latly TOO much posts with a Dhampir character...why not a classic race or something totally awkward...the Half-Orc Paladin, the Halfling Inquisitor...
...If Dhampir particularly work anywhere, they work in Carrion Crown. Even before the Twi-tards began to spread, heroic vampires and half vampires (and half-vampires that hunt vampires) are common, and admittedly cool. They exist for the same reason Drizzt clones exist.
1/2-monster characters that hunt monsters are a goldmine of easy angst for new players, and sometimes old players can bring themselves to embrace the cliche and just have fun being Blade/Hellboy/Dante.
I can handle a diversity of themes. I LIKE high action/adventure pure-concentrated-awesome games. I like genre mishmash and Eberron and magic trains. If I want a hard-edged, generic game, I'll play that. Those already exist. Rise of the Runelords still sits there, being awesome, a prototypical D&D campaign with lots of unique, surprising features. With that out of the way, paizo should be free to have fun with Indiana Jones APs and Pirate APs and Numeria aliens&supertech APs.
I'm not personally a fan of Asialand or L5R or whatever. I find the cultures ossified and over-formalized, and there's too many Weaboos in the fanbase of such things. However, I realize that other people do like those things, so I don't begrudge an AP set in such a setting. I just wouldn't be able to run it with any particular passion.
however, I'd PLAY in it, if only to be the Blithe Spirit who shakes things up, or be the "F~*+ you, my honor is my own" Ronin.
Paizo made a particular effort to cram as many monsters in the Bestiary as it could, since that's what most people will actually use. Each monster entry gets a single page. They even had to scrimp here and there; the various sizes of virmin and staple monsters like ghasts don't even get statblocks, instead getting build rules.
There's a vast wealth of fluff for those monsters in previous editions, and Paizo puts their specific monster fluff elsewhere, like the Revisited books.
If the Hellknight is tanking, and someone doing the Constantine act, AND two sorcerors (I hope they coordinate to not be redundant)...You're short on skills, and knowledge, and even with the Inquisitor channeling energy, a healer would help. On that basis, I'd actually suggest Alchemist. you can brew healing potions, use that high int for Knowledge skills, and provide a little more damage and anti-swarm options, and utility. cover everyone's weaknesses. Have a look at the Ultimate Magic archetypes; the Clone Master would be fun as all hell later on.
ahh thanks guys, knew he was from Rhode Island in the states but never heard the term anglophile before. Heh, learn something new every day.
Lovecraft was a...odd individual. A shut-in, phobia-ridden anglophile who was very racist even for his time period.
The best summary/apology I've ever read for lovecraft's racism actually came off of 1d4 chan: "It's important to realize that this isn't the domineering, brutal racism of the Mississippi Klansman, but the fearful, neurotic racism of the skinny white nerd."
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Lovecraft
Sadly, being an Anglophile has fallen out of fashion these days, what with the UK now being a Chav-infested Orwellian Nanny State.
I'm actually a little sad that the AP after Jade Regent (which I'm not really overly interested in, but understand that other people are, and I like the "heir to the throne" concept of it. I'm not a big fan of asialand; the ossified, formalized cultures annoy me) will be Skull and Bones, if only because I'm still waiting on Razor Coast AND thinking of making a 4E homebrew maritime mini-setting myself.
I was sort of hoping for a Numeria AP, since that's what my players would like. a few times during kingmaker (into which I thew in some extra techno-artifacts), they expressed interest in a numeria AP, where they could fight robots and get addicted to alien juice.
Do the current gods on golarion actually claim to have created the world?
Well...their follower's legends claim so, at least for all the early ones. The Book of the Damned chapters on Asmodeus and Ihys seem to indicate that they and the other motes created by the "Seal" were the original propagators of life, and fashioners of the heavens. With the Seal as some sort of ineffable creator...object/entity/whatever. regardless, a much more likely ultimate creator than a big beard in the sky.
Of course, the golarion universe also has horrible Elder Gods that predate such things, and the Maelstrom seems to have predated the various hierarchies of seal Motes, and the Abyss may have predated the maelstrom. And Axis just sort of came out of nowhere, fully-formed, likely from some other reality, a painful pin of order in the chaos of the Maelstrom.
And all that is the Great Beyond, and not the infinite physical universe of stars and planets and nebulas and slumbering-tentacle-gods. And the various Golarion gods seem to be mostly focused on Golarion itself (or it just looks that way to their worshipers, in the same way children think their parent's lives revolve solely around them). Do the other planets have their own versions of Pharasma and Erastil? Or are the known gods localized entities? Does Viltvoodle 6 have it's own Jetravartid god of the hunt, and it's own Jetravartid Maelstrom? Or is the Jetravartid god of the hunt just erastil with a few extra arms? Does the infinite Great Beyond have various districts? As in, if you travel far enough on axis, do you leave the part metaphysically connected to Golarion and reach one that's more tuned to not-mars or not-venus? Or totally-not-Vort-home-of-the-slaughtering-rat-people?
These are the inherent problems of trying to square an infinite material plane universe with the usual D&D cosmology, a created universe with a naturally-formed universe, gods that predate reality with gods that developed within reality. And it actually comes across really well in-game; no one really knows the answers to these questions, and the neat-and-tidy pantheon and creation story doesnt really hold up under scrutiny, but nor does the "endless, uncaring gulf of space that wants to eat your brain" square with a gives-a-shit pantheon of various divine entities drawing in and caring for mortal souls, whatever their eventual fate. No one in-universe ultimately knows, so why should we?
the inconsistency actually adds to the fun. Personally, I kind of like the idea of the wonderful multiverse of gods and heavens and angels and hells and souls still being a tiny, precious spot of light in an infinite sea of tentacular blackness. the Elder Gods scare the crap out of the regular gods just as much as the Cthuloids scare mortals; see Rovagug for example. Makes them a more sympathetic and relatable bunch.
I'm overall pretty square with this treatment of faith and whatnot. The only thing that needs a little clarification is that whole wall-of-the-faithless-esque thing in Pharasma's Boneyard. There's something a little head-slappingly silly about emulating one of the biggest, most contentious wall-bangers (sorry) in RPG cannon history.
I know I said I was "out of the thread," but I need to step back in to clarify something that, alas, wasn't made clear in the section that talks about what happens to atheists when they die.
Basically... the same thing that happens to ANYONE when they die—they either get punished or get rewarded.
For an atheist, if you're punished, you go into the graveyard in the Boneyard. If you're NOT to be punished, your soul transforms into a free-roaming spirit that leaves the Boneyard to drift through the planes to observe and watch and learn, sort of like a ghost, I guess, but without stats since you're not undead—your'e just an invisible observer at that point.
Pharasma's the one who judges whether an atheist was naughty or nice, in any case, and she does so fairly and as according to that particular atheist's success or failure at whatever it was he/she did in life.
So in essence, an atheist is like anyone else when they die; they either go on for a reward or they get eternal punishment.
That we haven't gotten that message out there more clearly is one of the biggest disappointments and failings of both "The Great Beyond" and "Beyond the Vault of Souls."
Well, now I feel really stupid. That makes more sense. Thanks.
There's a monster that always stuck in my head: the Shinning Child of Thassilon, from RotRL #5. Their utter, horrifying OTHERNESS was far more compelling than slime and tentacles. I was glad to see it again in Bestiary 2.
Their various origin stories were creepy as hell, especially the insane reflections of a dying star and the celestials of the far future one. It's like they're Angels of some alien cosmos. Kind of gives me a slight Evangelion vibe, too.
Thing is, I saw the same background for something else...the Caulborn in City of Strangers, the hive-minded thought eaters that live under Kaer Maga. Since both creatures have ties to thassilon...
Does paizo have some sort of big idea behind these things? Will we see any more monsters in a similar vein?
Still reading through it. Of course, I went straight to the Bestiary first. Great spread.
The only thing I'm a little sad about is that the Elder Thing is mechanically a little dull. I had hoped for lots of DR/adamantine.
well, they're just my favorite lovecraft monster ever, because they're essentially PEOPLE. I have an inordinate fondness for that moment of realization that the horrible tentacle monster is a thinking, feeling being.
Personally, I thought the first and second Second Darkenss adventures were golden. The plot was good,, the double-cross was GREAT, the Golden Goblin was interesting, and the open island and the summer-blockbuster action bits went over great with my group.
I'm overall pretty square with this treatment of faith and whatnot. The only thing that needs a little clarification is that whole wall-of-the-faithless-esque thing in Pharasma's Boneyard. There's something a little head-slappingly silly about emulating one of the biggest, most contentious wall-bangers (sorry) in RPG cannon history.
The only thing I could get out of it was this: The "atheists" who are fed to groetus were described as "those so damaged that they denied the existence of their own souls." Now, I'm personally a science-minded person in real life, who thinks that supernatural shit is stupid, and our minds are the product of chemical processes in our brains. BUT, while I might intellectually think that, I still treat other people, and other living things as more than chemical processes, because I am not a sociopath. I may not believe in a "spirit of ART" that makes an assortment of pigments on canvas "art," but I still see the art as more than just an arrangement of pigments. Likewise with people.
the point of all this is that some nihilistic person that sincerely doesnt FEEL that they have some sort of special essence or some sort of greater connection between them and other people, or to the universe, is a damaged individual, very different from someone who just doesn't believe in magical sky faeries when there's no evidence for them, and said nihlist is also different from someone who lives in fantasy setting Y but refuses to bend his knee and offer up his sweet belief-juice to a cruel, irresponsible cosmic bully.
Truth is though, that most of the usual atheist complaints are moot in a D&D setting, since the gods ARE active, DO take responsibility for their follower's actions, and the ones who claim to be good actually ARE by-and-large GOOD. For example, a cleric of Sarenrae who commands his followers to slaughter an entire town or something just because they worship Erastil would loose his divine powers right quick, in a spectacular manner. Involving fire. Lots of fire. In the real world, he'd have an even chance of winding up a saint after the righteous, divinely-ordained holy war.
That's just how I square it in my head. i know this is a thorny-ass problem, and paizo doesn't want to accidentally offend their customer base.
What's wrong with Trial of the Beast? It has everything a good adventure needs, apart from an amusing allied NPC. A few very flavorful mini-encounters, a big plotty event, and a creative dungeon crawl with very memorable monsters. Like the blind flesh golem with the Seeing-eye-homuncluli.
The Lust Runelord appeared to have developed some form of eternal youth. Many Lust-built complexes (such as the Lust section of Runeforge) have an enchantment that keeps anything living there eternally young and sustained. Often, if they ever step outside of the area, time "catches up," and they rapidly age into dust like the bad guy in The Last Crusade when he picks the wrong cup.
Which might seem odd, since those magics have nothing to do with Charm Monster, but it needs to be remembered that the Runelords weren't super-focused in their use of magic, and many of their most awesome inventions were outside their specialized school (like how Karzoug was all about summoning Things from beyond time, like Denizens of Leng and Hounds of Tindalos), or how the Wrath (evocation) runelord apparently also went in for fleshcrafting (sinspawn and reefclaws).
I assume that someone in thassilon first invented Festrogs too; it seems like the kind of thing they'd do.
I really don't get why people complain so much about xyz element in a setting or game.
1. No one is going to walk in on your game session and force you at foam-LARP-sword-point to use Ninjas or Shoggoths in your game. Feel free to excise guns and alchemy and whatever elements don't fit with your narrow idea of medieval heroic fantasy from the games you run. I don't like Eberron's Draconic Prophecy or the Lords of Dust, so instead the eberron game I ran was full of Emerald Claw agents, Murder Mysteries in sharn, Warforged calling people "meatbag," the Dreaming Dark, and Cannith ruins in the mournland.
2. You may not like it, but other people do. I'm not personally a fan of Ninjas or Samurai (apart from Ronin). I'm going to be honest: I don't much like japanese culture. quite the reverse; some elements of it deeply irk me, and the people who idolize it irk me more. some bits of American culture also irk me, mind you. But just because I've had some bad experiences with Weaboo roomates doesn't mean that I'm complaining that Pathfinder has an asialand or rules for samurai and ninjas. I'm fine with it. Maybe one of these days I'll pull out my Ronin character idea and have fun giving the finger to authoritarianism.
3. Lovecraft is everywhere. Conan, Neil Gaiman, Hellboy, tons of other media use lovecraftian elements. He's in D&D from the get-go; mind flayers and aboleths. He creeps in everywhere. If anything, Paizo is doing what it always does: taking something old and making it fresh again. In this case, they're not pussy-footing around with Captain Erzatzes like everyone else does, they're using the original mythos elements without dilution or much alteration. That's pretty fresh, compared to the usual practice.
Frankly, in Pathfinder, I don't like Absalom very much. I find it stylistically boring compared to places like Cheliax, Ustalav, Kaer Maga, and whatnot. I also don't care much for the Startstone, Taldor, Galt, or the marginalized roles of Dwarves in the setting. Sometimes it seems they could just be removed whole-cloth, and it wouldn't affect very much. I would have rather Paizo try to do something a little interesting with Dwarves, like they did with gnomes or elves. even halflings got a little thought put into them. I'm also not 100% on the Planetary Romance or vintage Raygun Gothic elements of the Sci-Fi section of the setting; I much prefer hard sci-fi (with a littel lovecraft mixed in) in my Fantasy in SPAAACCEEE mashups.
But I don't mind, because I trust paizo to do a decent job with even those elements I don't like, maybe even enough to make me like them despite myself.
I LIKE numeria's super-tech. I LIKE the solar system. I LIKE explicit Mythos elements. I LIKE the guns.
I'd like to chime in with props, in particular for the NPCs. The Amateur Werewolf Hunter will probably be another PC favorite. Depending on how the internet reacts, he might even join the same roster as Shalelu, Vencarlo, and Laori, mostly because he's so hapless.
I've noticed a lot of the triggers or requirements for unleash psyche requires the player keep track of what turn something happened on or how many have gone by. It's interesting but there are feats like
"Requirements The same enemy has damaged you on at least two of its turns in this encounter."
that seem fiddly. As a player you have to keep track of the creature damaging you twice, and that it did so on its turn. If you get attacked on enemy turn, then move away and it AoO's you in the head, RAW it wouldn't trigger since that AoO reaction happened on your turn.
Which seems overly bookkeepy and restrictive, if it was just "damaged by enemy on two different turns" it would be nicer?
I do dig the meta nature of tracking turns being part of a Psychic class, it fits pretty well.
Would Bespell Weapon apply to the Strikes in the flurry granted by Ki Strike?
Ki Strike is a "non-cantrip spell" to qualify for Bespell but I wasn't sure what the correct order of actions is for the Strikes. Are the considered part of the spell so Bespell Weapon can't happen until after? Or does it happen and then the strikes are made?
A -> Ki Strike Spell used (Bespell Weapon free action triggers) -> 2x Strike from Ki Strike.
B-> Ki Strike Spell used -> 2x Strikes from Ki Strike -> Bespell Weapon free action triggers.
I very much want it to be A, but suspect it's B by RAW.
I was making a Monk archer for the 101 Monk Builds thread and stumbled onto some interesting interactions. Mostly the often overlooked Perfected Form that all Monks gain at lvl 19.
Perfected Form Level 19
Quote:
You have purged incompetence from your techniques. On your first Strike of your turn, if you roll lower than 10, you can treat the attack roll as a 10. This is a fortune effect.
At level 19 when a Monk gains this ability their attack mod should be 25(prof) + 3(item) + 7(22Dex + Apex Item) for a total of 35.
10+35 = 45 Attack roll no matter what.
level 20 Monsters
Balor AC - 45
Apocalypse Daemon AC - 44
Tarn Linorm AC - 46
Vazgorlu AC - 45
Pit Fiend AC - 46
Ancient Umbral Dragon AC - 45
Eremite AC - 45
At level 19, a Monk cannot miss their first Strike against a Balor, Pit Fiend would need a status buff on the Monk or a debuff on the creature.
Eldritch Shot
> Effect You Cast a Spell that takes 1 or 2 actions to cast and requires a spell attack roll. The effects of the spell do not occur immediately but are imbued into the bow you're wielding. Make a Strike with that bow. Your spell flies with the ammunition, using your attack roll result to determine the effects of both the Strike and the spell. This counts as two attacks for your multiple attack penalty, but you don't apply the penalty until after you've completed both attacks.
Searing Light
Quote:
You shoot a blazing ray of light tinged with holy energy. Make a ranged spell attack. The ray deals 5d6 fire damage. If the target is a fiend or undead, you deal an extra 5d6 good damage.
Critical Success The target takes double fire damage, as well as double good damage if a fiend or undead.
Success The target takes full damage.
Heightened (+1) The fire damage increases by 2d6, and the good damage against fiends and undead increases by 2d6.
Max Spell level following build below would be 6 at this point(lvl 19), jumps to 8 at 20, so casting Searing Light as lvl 6 spell is 11d6 fire(38.5avg) + 11d6 good + Dangerous Sorc(6) = 83 (at 20 this jumps to 113)
Monk using a +3 Major Striking Flaming (Greater) Frost (Greater) Shock(Greater) Composite Longbow does
Alright so lets see what happens Lvl 19 Monk vs lvl 20 Eremite
Eremite AC - 45
Monk automatically hits Eremite for 120, triggers weakness to Good for an extra 20 for a total of 140.
A crit would be 240+Deadly d10 + Persistent dmg from runes + 20 from Good Weakness.
Ignoring Persistent Runes, deadly adds 3d10, 16.5 more damage for an avg total of 276.5 dmg on crit. But with +35 attack roll crit is only 5%.
95% of 140(133) + 5% of 276 (14) = 147avg damage per turn. vs the lvl 20 Fiend.
Also with this build, Arrow of Death auto-hits for 91 damage.
And at lvl 20, being able to add Polar Ray's damage + Drained 2 without having to worry about missing and following it up with Arrow of Death or an Eldritch Shot (Disintegrate) seems pretty nice.
Ancient Elf Demon Slayer
Using flaw to swap int for cha
str 14++ 18
dex 18++++ 22 (24)
con 10++++ 18
int 8+ 10
wis 10++ 14
cha 16+++ 20
Does this all seem correct and accurate to how the abilities above should function? Is there anything that averages more damage than a lvl 19 Monk with Eldritch Shot? Did I miss something?
In a group with +3 Heroism or a Bard, and the enemy flat footed a Monk hits 75% of the time and Crits the other 25%.
I'm trying to figure out when/why you'd want to use One Inch Punch?
It's 2 actions to make 1 Strike that deals 1 extra damage die, or 2 dice for 3 actions, but if you have a Striking Rune or any Property Runes it does less than just using Flurry?
The gap widens as you gain higher Striking Runes + Property Runes and Flurry combines attacks for weakness/resistance so One-Inch Punch doesn't do anything there, so what's the point?
Attacking twice does more damage once you have a Striking Rune and uses the same amount of actions.
Flurrying does more damage for less actions.
The only time I can see this actually being a damage increase is if you're using a weapon with no runes I guess?
When you successfully Shove a creature, increase both the distance you can push the creature and the distance you can move to follow along with the target by 5 feet on a success or 10 feet on a critical success. If you push the target into an obstacle, it takes bludgeoning damage equal to 6 plus your Strength modifier, or 8 plus your Strength modifier if you have legendary proficiency in Athletics.
apply to abilities like Tiger Slash with the "as if" wording?
Quote:
You make a fierce swipe with both hands. Make a tiger claw Strike. It deals two extra weapon damage dice (three extra dice if you’re 14th level or higher), and you can push the target 5 feet away as if you had successfully Shoved them. If the attack is a critical success and deals damage, add your Strength modifier to the persistent bleed damage from your tiger claw.
Would a wizard with Metamagical Experimentation be able to pick silent spell without first knowing conceal spell? The thesis doesn't mention needing prerequisites for the metamagic you can pick for free, just 1/2 lvl.
Looks like a pretty sweet set of abilities to start from. Katana's work for 1hand or 2 and are versatile.
The Vigil domain makes it work well since they can become expert in any weapon with the initial doman power Object Memory, while Duty offers a soft taunt with Dutiful Challenge.
Is Precise Strike meant to automatically use Panache and apply the extra damage or should it be optional?
Basically asking if the wording should be changed to "you may deal additional precision damage" so a Swashbuckler could use a finisher without adding the extra damage if they chose.
So in a situation where a swashbuckler tries to disable a target using Targeting Finisher they don't accidentally kill them with the extra precision damage.
I have a few questions, or concerns about swashbucklers as they are currently.
While I don't necessarily like that Panache generation is tied to the non-primary stat (Intimidation, Deception, Grapple/Shove/Trip) it isn't that big of a deal. Although I think Gymnasts should get a "Add the Finesse trait to the Grapple/Shove/Trip actions" so they can use Dex for them as things are currently.
The main thing is that Gymnast's are the only Style that get negatively impacted even if they succeed on their action that gains them Panache, in the form of MAP.
Braggart Turn - Demoralize (Gain Panache)-> Finisher with target at -1 or -2 AC from frightened. 1 action left to move, raise shied, parry etc.
Fencer Turn - Feint (Gain Panache)-> Finisher with target -2 ac from flatfooted. 1 action left to move, raise shied, parry etc.
Gymnast Turn - Trip/Grapple/Shove (Gain Panache)->Finisher with -5(-4) MAP with target at -2 ac from being flat footed.
Does this seem like an issue to anybody else? To gain Panache to be able to use a finisher a Gymnast makes themselves worse at landing the finisher on that turn.
The only real advantage to being a Gymnast is that Demoralize, Feint and Distract are Mental effects so some creatures are immune, but that doesn't seem like a great trade off. There are 0 feats that require being a Gymnast, and getting a free Step after a Finisher at lvl 9 doesn't seem that strong, also seems more like a fencing thing.
Against a non-immune foe, Braggart seems the strongest, Demoralize ->Tumble Behind->Finish with target flat footed and either -1 or -2 from frightened.
Does it seem odd to anybody else that Monks have to take a feat to get access to Crit weapon effects? While all the other martial classes essentially get it for free?
Rangers, Fighters, Barbs, Champions just get their effect for free from class features.
Rangers get it vs their Hunted Prey at lvl 5.
Fighters get it with every wep they have Master prof with, at lvl 5.
Barbs get it with every wep they can use while raging, at lvl 5.
Champions get it as an extra rider on their Blade Ally, at lvl 5.
Monks can get it at lvl 2 if they use a Feat to take Brawling Focus, and that's all the Feat does.
Clerics and Bards, get crit effects for free at lvl 7,13
So Monk's, the masters of unarmed combat, have to take a feat to get something that every other martial class + Bards? gets for free.
It's weird to me, not sure why Monks just didn't get "you gain weapon crit spec in brawling attacks" attached to their weapon expertise. Could even give it a restriction of only when using an attack granted via a Stance if it needs a limiter.
I saw a fellow PF2 GM on reddit looking for assistance creating a False Hydra for 2nd edition. Now that the monster rules are out I figured I'd give it a shot and see what I could come up with.
I mostly used the 5e version as a base and then adapted things for PF2.
My version for Pf2 is here and any feedback criticism is welcome. Was my first time adapting/creating something to the new rules.
I also have them as individual pdfs with better resolution, was a pain combining them all into one.
One of my players had a question about how the damage combines on these abilities.
If the PC hits both attacks, one Slashing and one Piercing, it says to combine the damage for the purposes of resistance/weakness. Do the damage types combine as well?
say they hit for 10 slashing, 2 piercing, combine to 12 slashing and piercing damage.
target has resistance piercing 5, does the 12 become 7?or does it only reduce the 2 piercing to 0?
if it's the former it would have been better to not double slice at all since the 2nd weapon hitting actually lowered the damage from the first hit.
The Charau-kas encountered in HellKnight Hill have the ability
Thrown Weapon Mastery - When a charau-ka throws a weapon, the weapon gains the deadly d6 weapon trait. When it throws an improvised weapon, it doesn’t take the –2 penalty for using an improvised weapon, nor does it take the penalty for using that weapon to make a lethal attack instead of a nonlethal attack.
What would be an appropriate level for this to be available to a PC? I'm kinda sad nothing like it exists in the CRB already but was thinking of adding it as a General Feat option as it seems pretty good but not exceptionally strong.
I know there's the "Special: You can take this feat again and select a different X Feat" on the Multiclass Archtype feats, but is it written somewhere that you can't take a feat multiple times?
You enter the stance of a wolf, low to the ground with your hands held like fanged teeth. You can make wolf jaw unarmed attacks. These deal 1d8 piercing damage; are in the brawling group; and have the agile, backstabber, finesse, nonlethal, and unarmed traits.
If you’re flanking a target while in Wolf Stance, your wolf jaw unarmed attacks also gain the trip trait.
Trip
Source Core Rulebook pg. 283
You can use this weapon to Trip with the Athletics skill even if you don’t have a free hand. This uses the weapon’s reach (if different from your own) and adds the weapon’s item bonus to attack rolls as an item bonus to the Athletics check. If you critically fail a check to Trip using the weapon, you can drop the weapon to take the effects of a failure instead of a critical failure.
So from what I can tell it just lets you never crit fail a trip attempt if you're flanking in wolf stance since you can't really drop your hand/leg? Or would you just drop out of Wolf Stance as an equivalent to "dropping your weapon"?
And lets you apply any bonus from Handwraps to the check since you're "using the weapon(Wolf Jaw)" for the attempt?
Are the Handwraps of Mighty Fists 1 item that goes on both hands or can a PC wear different ones on each hand?
If you can't wear different ones that reduces some versatility in weapon dmg for Monks, for example a Monk couldn't have one flaming and one frost if they're shared on both hands.
Due to some payment info being wrong, and then lost, it took a bit for my subscriptions to be set up but now that everything is correct I see that the Bestiary is seemingly ready to go, but it looks like the core rulebook? is now backordered.
Is there a timeline on how long that's going to take as it's the most important book?
I set up subscriptions for the new edition and there was originally an issue with my payment information, I updated the payment information and then got the "we lost some your payment info" email, so I've updated it again but the orders still say pending?
Is there something else I need to do to get the order processed, will I get the new books when they release or would I just be better off skipping this month and getting them somewhere else?
First how is the damage for magic missile calculated? Is it one roll that is then applied for each missile or do you roll each missile individually? And if they're individual does Dangerous Sorcery only apply to 1 missile or all of them?
Option A:
The caster rolls 1d4+1 for each missile.
Option B:
The caster rolls 1d4+1 once, and each missile does that much damage.
And how does Dangerous Sorcery interact with this spell?
pg 131 wrote:
DANGEROUS SORCERY FEAT 1
When you cast a non-cantrip spell that deals damage and that doesn’t have a duration, you gain a conditional bonus to that spell’s damage equal to the spell’s level.
If the caster rolls for each missile(option A) does this apply to only 1 missile? Or does it apply to every missile like the damage in Option B?
If I'm doing this correctly Option B would make MM do some serious damage.
pg 236 wrote:
wrote:
Heightened (+2) You shoot one additional missile with each action you spend.
This is obviously anecdotal but my players had no issue or roadblock when picking ancestries.
I started part one Doomsday Dawn with 4 PC's, 3 of which have never played Pathfinder and 2 that had never played a TTRPG at all.
The 1 veteran player and 1 that had played 5e before both made half-orcs, Ranger and Barb, because they liked the concept. The two complete novice's made a Goblin Sorc and a Halfling Rogue.
At no point in this process did any of them complain about "being behind" or that they didn't have enough racials.
Pretty much went
GM -"these are the feats you get from your race/heritage/ancestry, you pick one now and then get more as you level"
Player: "ok cool" ->picks feat they like and moves on.
The Deadly Simplicity feat increases the damage die of our favored wep (crossbows) from 1d8 -> 1d10. Then using Crossbow Ace and hunting our target the damage die is once again increased since we're using a Simple Crossbow. So 1d10 -> 1d12 and we get 1/2 our wisdom.
So unless I've missed something if you Hunt a target or Reload your crossbow, you're making an attacks with +9 to hit and shooting greataxes(1d12+1). It's pretty sweet.
Dex(4) + Prof(4+1) = +9 to hit 1d12 + 1
Continuing onto later levels you can take Favored Aim at lvl 6 to be more Ranger or stay with Basic Cleric Spellcasting, take magic weapon and enjoy hitting with 2d12 crossbow bolts.
My concept for this is essentially the PF1 inquisitor and it seems like the closest I've found in the playtest.
What do you guys think? Did I miss anything with how Deadly Simplicity and Crossbow Ace interact?
When you're falling, how many feet do you fall in a round? I saw there is information about how much damage you take and stopping a fall but nothing on how long it takes to fall?
Are all conditions supposed to give condition penalties/bonuses or do they also give circumstance penalties, if so that's going to be annoying trying to sort out which ones are which for the purposes of adding to rolls.
For example the
Flat-Footed Condition gives a -2 Circumstance Penalty to AC
shouldn't that be a Conditional Penalty?
Also Friendly gives a +2 Circumstance Bonus and not a +2 Conditional Bonus?
Seems pretty unintuitive if things called Conditions are not giving condition effects.
