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My players have just killed the king and now need to escape the city. I want to come up with a cool session where they are dodging the guards and getting around obstacles. There should probably be some small fights, but nothing big. The purpose of this is to get from the throne room to the bandit rebels outside of town.
I’m looking to run a home brew sample game and looking for what level I should run it at. In pathfinder I find level 8 to be the ideal. At that point there is some disparity between skill levels, most class abilities that are key to characters are online, etc. So, what level is that for starfinder? What should the ship look like at that point?
There can be an argument that half health is first blood.
Dragon hating, fallen paladin falls in love with a dragon, finds Bahamut, and seeks redemption.
While I agree we need some patience, esp with all the conclusion jumping going around, the hat we need is concrete information. All we are getting in these blog posts are vague tidbits that don’t actually say what’s going on. They are giving us just enough to come back for more, hoping they give us something real.
So the answer is to make one stat irrelevant? Sigh I give up. you guys have fun. I'm out. I assume this was directed my way. How does using a stat as a prereq make it useless? Maybe armor needs a specific strength to wield without incurring a penalty, or weapons need a str score to wield properly. If we are swinging around 3d12 axes do we really need +6 damage?
Skills don’t require int. Please don’t make wizard/alchemist accidental skill experts again just because of their primary stat. I know skills are being reworked into proficiencies but remove int from the equation.
What if instead of adding dex to damage we got rid of str to damage? As long as the stats are being used to hit the correlated stat already ends up giving more damage. PF2 will undoubtedly have new damage formulas. Once you add in feat reqs needing certain stats (like current 13 str for power attack) it may fulfill its role already. From my understanding they are trying to get rid of static bonuses to damage anyway...
I like archetypes that grant cool class features to other classes. For example, any archetype that gave animal companions to a class. Granting deeds or pinache were also cool. I wouldn’t mind seeing archetypes that granted you boons from every class. For example the wizard version could give you half casting ability (or whatever the new 6th level casting is) and open the opportunity to take a wizard feat in place of the class feat of your chosen class.
I want kobolds as a core ancestry -Me too
why is a 25% chance to fail bad? Also with varied degrees of failing, I see this issue solving itself. Also a specialized character isn’t only going to have this bonus. They will have a few more bonuses from gear, feats, class, or whatever. If they have another +3 this way they take the fail rate down to 10%.
1) The gunslinger class (as well as archetypes that use firearms)
1) Magus (to fill the half arcane caster half melee role)
I’d rather see alignments entirely removed from the mechanics of the game. Detect evil, smite evil, etc should all be usable against anyone who opposes you, (your goals, your gods, however you want to put it). This is the way I’ve played since 3.5 days.
Thanks Doug, I love when I see a response like that one. You just made my day.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p4V5YtrYpJUwCETD3CTJAoOKk-DM_dQiYOJkeTw T5fw/edit Shameless plug
I’d suggest seeing if the DM will roll the three animal companion feats into one and letting you each have a full level animal companion instead. This is campaign specific of course. Actual people will change the game a bit more dramatically. That being said, you need some sort of for liner for a traditional party set up. Paladin is great, as long as he fits the campaign. Bloodrager or barbarian would be my second choice. All of this is really campaign dependent.
I don’t know what you mean by tiers. I’ve seen that full BAB classes gestalt very well with kineticist. (In)Monk was particularly fun. Paladin was also very good and had little ability clashes. It gets a bit MAD though, so depending on how stats are done... Any full caster, or even heavy caster will likely take over as the main class. Having kineticist as a backup to always have an attack blast to utilize.
Yeah, that’s why I’m having trouble with black. Green is playing a game with his subjects, white is leading a barbaric Viking like clan open to any challenges, Red is the ruler of the largest most civilized nation (taken by force), blue is leading a very structured regime - fighting pits and all. I was thinking about using religion somehow. It seems the best way to get the black dragon to behave enough to make him work for the campaign.
What could be his possible motivations for ruling a kingdom?
Yes, I tend to build my villains with the same rules as the players, just a few levels ahead. Your idea sounds cool, but I’m not sure how to implement it. The black dragon has me stuck. From my reading it sounds like they don’t want any outsiders in their area. What would motivate them to be a ruler? Religion?
Starting a game soon that will involve dragon riders. I need some memorable villains. I need classes (its a gestalt game), but more importantly I need motivations and goals. Many of them control large sections (kingdoms) of the land in question and it's the PC's job to take them down. I have one, I like (feel free to add suggestions on him as well). LE (race not yet implemented) Monk(unchained)/Kineticist(Earth/Air)
He honors all contracts he makes, but if you steal anything, especially water, from him he destroys your world with a savage ruthlessness.
Hmm- I think that was the list I was looking for. Thanks! I'll keep working on mine as I want to include some non PFS options.
start slayer, gestalt into summoner treating the dragon as your edolon give the dragon all of the evolutions profit No, edolons aren't animal companions. Needs to be something that can use an animal companion as a mount. A cleric whose church or whose deity is hostile to dragons might wish to have a separate identity as a dragonrider - taking the mounted fury vigilante as the gestalt class could work there. Sounds pretty cool. If hostile to all dragons sounds more like an inquisitor to me. Bard // Paladin or similar might work thematically in the latter case. Paladin's can get a mount, use the feat boon companion and it's full progression. Big Al- Yeah, I think some kind of Barbarian with a raging dragon will be awesome. I definitely plan to suggest this to my players. One idea I came up with was a Magus (probably Eldritch Scion). The quest that unlocks and binds the dragon will fulfill my atonement unlocking paladin. Unlocking full BAB, huge boost to my saves, and divine magic is a large boost in power.
With what? You need a base class to prestige into it. I could see it as a fun possibility. Maybe a raging barbarian or bloodrager that grows to large when raging... barbarian/hunter?
Sure, Prestige classes too. Thanks for the help so far.
Anyone have a list for this? I thought there was one, but cannot find it. I'll start making a list unless someone can point to one. (I'm counting mounts that level up as animal companions) Hunter
Druid
Ranger
Paladin
Cavalier
Oracle
Cleric
Inquisitor
Shaman
Samurai
BloodRager
Brawler
Warpriest
Barbarian
Sorcerer
Anyone
What's Missing? If there are quicker ways to get them on a class already listed please let me know about that as well.
Thanks for that link Wraithguard. I'm the DM for the campaign. Not everything is set in stone yet. The feat is there to enable an animal companion feat or to use on boon companion (assuming they want to). If a full AC class is taken then it's just a bonus feat. So, I would definitely approve of it being used for extra revelation for a nature/lunar oracle. Cool ideas so far. Keep them coming. Thanks!
There isn’t really an “off-hand”. You are just as accurate using your left as your right. You can hold your pistol in one hand and your rapier (or whatever) at all times and never have a negative modifier. As long as you don’t try to use them both in the same round. Drawing a weapon is typically a move action. If you use your standard action to attack with your pistol you can use your move action to draw your sword.
Summoner would give you an extra character. No summoning will be permitted, without which I don’t see a summoner. Druid shapeshifting would be a hard sell. Interesting line of thought though. The campaign is built around riding on dragons. I’m looking for ideas that embrace that idea. Flavor is also really useful. Which class are you taking 1-5 and why are you unlocking the second. I’m looking for ideas to inspire those who get stuck on character ideas. One player is stuck always playing the stereotypical elven archer and wants to try something new.
25 point buy. Levels 1-5 each player will have one class. Any class that gives you an extra character (mount, animal companion, etc) is not allowed (or you can just skip that feature for now). Before level 6 you will gain a dragon companion. At this point you gain a feat and a second (gestalt class). At this point you are required to have an animal companion (or something that counts as) either by class feature or feat. This animal companion will be your dragon. While you may not be able to ride your dragon right away, much of the later parts of the campaign will take place in the air.
Yeah one point of arcane may not be worth 2 rounds of flight. Then again we’re talking about doing a dragon rider campaign soon. If I use this character for that, “jumping” from my dragon to my target would be pretty cool. Thanks for the clarifications.
Once I hit 8 spell combat is free again? Arcane looks decent. I also noticed it said you have to use the mystical focus to gain abilities that require blood rage. This indicates that some do not. Can’t really tell which ones do and do not require blood rage. If I don’t have to spend an arcane pint every 12 seconds flying from elemental may put this archetype over the top for me. Good point on the arcane pool being used for multiple abilities and thus draining quickly.
I’ve been trying to figure out scion, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. What bloodline do you think fits and would be worth using an arcane point? It’s main draw is the cha casting stat and spontaneous casting. With only 2 skill points per level, I felt I needed 14 int anyway. Spell recall almost makes me a spontaneous caster without the increased cast time on metamagic, but it does end up using a lot of arcane points. Dirty fighting looks cool. Would I get the +4 bonus for tripping with magic missile?
I meant I would give the player characters a prestige or gestalt class not the dragons. Drake is probably a more accurate description of what they will be riding. The update of the class you linked is kinda what I’m looking for, I think. I’ll be nerfing the dragons down to a barebones level and letting them chose how to improve them (better melee, better breath weapons, more tanky, etc). Thanks all for your advice!
Your players sound like entitled whiners. You are the DM. They should listen to your interpretation of the rules and trust that any changes you decide to try out are within the intent of making the game more fun for everyone. If you play by rules as written three of them are not allowed to play (as the AP was written for 4 people).
The beginning of the campaign will start with them running around and making friends during this time they discover some dragon eggs and some lore behind hatching them. Then there will be some questing to hatch them and then a series of air battles where they will ride their dragons. To facilitate their dragons gaining in power once they hatch their dragons I want to give them a prestige/gestalt class. I want them to have options, but so far I’ve really only come up with them using their dragons as animal companions or edilions. I’d like to have 5-6 options and give them standard roles (frontline melee, caster, etc). I could just make some feats for the dragons to pick up giving them more class like features... They should have their dragons hatched by around level 5 and probably go to 12 or so. Any ideas on classes to look at for inspiration? Should I ban other “pet” classes in order to better highlight the dragons?
We be goblins is fun if they would be into a not so serious game. If you are looking for something less one shot then dragons demand is pretty good.
The hunter can cure. Have him hide a wand. Sandara is an important NPC because she is the GMNPC that pushes the characters into doing what you want them to. If you have a player who will take that role it will help balance the DM to party ratio. I think Rosie is important. She is the first and easiest crew member to recruit and kind of pushes you into recruiting more. You can put another character into that role, but the alternate recruitment is important.
The Red Mage has had more varied iterations than any other class in history. The current version from FFXIV is the one Im looking at mimicking. This version is a primary dps caster that charges up when casting magic and uses the charge to run in and hit with a strong rapier attack. Then he creates some distance and starts casting again. Obviously, this won’t translate directly to pathfinder, but gaining the pinache abilities though an arcana gives the flavor to the Magus that feels right to me. The other option would be a swashbuckler with some casting somehow. FFXIV’s Red Mage gains access to cure and revive spells as well, but not until very late levels. I was thinking there was a way to gain cure spells from bard at high levels, but haven’t had time to look yet. The white Mage side is there, but distant. I’ve also played a bard as a Red Mage in a previous campaign. The bard quickly became the focal point of the class. I have a gestalt bloodrager/paladin in one of our gestalt games. Again the flavor of those classes superceeds being Red Mage like. The closest I remember was a class back in 3.5 (forget the name at the moment) that reminds me of the Magus.
Nope, I’m looking at a Magus. Bard does not fit the character I’m envisioning. Maybe if I was doing a gestalt character, but even then I doubt I would go with bard. Bard is much more of a support role than the character I’m talking about. While I see where you are coming from, bard does not mirror the current rendition of Red Mage.
Red mage has long been one of my favorite classes in Final Fantasy and playing one currently in FFXIV has reinforced my love for this class. I was looking around for new character ideas and came across the Magus options in the advanced class guide. Here I found the flamboyant arcana that lets me pick up derring-do and parry reposite for one arcana. This inspired me to make a Magus “Red Mage”. This character will use damage and battlefield control spells (toppling magic missile to start) at range. When the bad guys close in I will blast them with a spell strike and back away. Another key part of the Red Mage is they are flamboyant. I was thinking about somehow using Charisma as my main caster stat, but skill points are useful too. I was thinking with a 20 point build doing 16 dex, 14 cha and int. Probably putting my dex and/or int higher with racials. For my traits, I want the one that lets me prepare toppling magic missile as a level 1 spell. I’m not sure about the other. This spell alone could carry me through the first few levels. For feats, I need toppling meta, weapon finesse, and combat reflexes as quickly as possible. For skills, I know I want maxed out diplomacy and acrobatics. Obviously high perception is useful. I think I would like high perform as well. What do you think? And how can I improve it?
I agree with unicorn. Make sure to talk to your player about either option I presented. I personally love book one. It is quite different than most hack and slash encounters though, so I understand the reservations. This is also very dependent on the DM and their ability to make RP encounters fun.
Have you done any research on the campaign? I’m not sure about dates, I run them independently. I think I read that they all happen at the same time once except a few. To answer your second question. Doubling the number of characters per encounter is a start. The biggest problem I see is that 7 players really throw off the balance of crew to party ratio. I would lessen the number of crew members and give them fewer options for persuading others to join them (this seems to be the main point of the first book). Maybe let them influence others every other day or limit them to 3-4 total PCs influence attempts per day. They could also work together on ship actions. Also, I’d make two riggers and maybe a specialty job for another player. I would remove probably remove Sandara from the campaign and give her role to one of the players (she is the friendly npc that helps the group). Her role is important at the start of the campaign. Third question. I think the biggest problem is the hunter. The teams action economy is already through the roof and adding an AC is going to make it worse (from experience). If you are ok with this then go for it. The other part of the animal companion is that they are in a lot of danger at the start of the book. The powers that be on the ship actively want to torture and punish your players. The best way to hurt a hunter would be through their animal companion. An animal companion surviving the first week on the ship is unrealistic to the campaign. You could use this and have scourge kill the animal companion. This should be an effective way to bring about some hatred for scourge. The other realistic option is they find their animal companion after they are more in control. I don’t know what I would do with the Merfolk part of the character either. They will shine at some points in the campaign, but other times will be a major hindrance. The seventh player (unknown) also presents a problem imo. You said they want to be the muscle on the ship. You already have a barbarian and a brawler. Adding the hunter your front line is pretty crowded. If they just want a strong character that will shore up what the party is missing, I suggest an air kineticist or Druid. Then again you could use some more “face” characters in the party. A bard is probably the most impactful character at this point. My point is the party doesn’t need another heavy.
I don’t mean the illusionist archetype but combat style. I want to use illusion type magic to control the battlefield. I don’t want to deal any damage myself. I play gestalt a lot, but this style of character is somewhat outside of my wheelhouse. I played one once that was a bard, but that campaign didn’t last long. For this character I would rather boost their primary activity than make them more versatile. Stats are high. A 17 and 18 nothing under 10.
I’m thinking of making an illusionist for an upcoming gestalt game. What classes do you think would make a good combination for a gestalt illusionist? Is mesmerist a good illusionist?
My suggestion is to play more of a back line caster rather than a frontline basher. This will give you a handicap vs playing a wizard in the same role, but still give you and “out” if combat gets too rough as you can stab/nova your way out of a desperate fight.
We could debate for hours if power attack actually does exactly what it says too, but that would be just as pointless. The feat has already been approved, by the grand authority in our games, as we have translated the words. The question of how the feat works was never the point of the thread, only how to qualify for it on a character that is already a level 2 human hunter. Now, half the tread is a debate about the merits of the feat and the rules surrounding it (and apparently dead people attacking?). If I had a rules question about the feat I would ask in the rules forum...
So rage won’t increase str/con? Enlarge person won’t increase str? Do pet classes have the same stats on their pets? I see no reason not to go full on monk, maybe brawler if you want to fight bare handed. I would take into consideration some kind of ranged attack. If you aren’t married to fighting with your fist a player in a recent game of mine played a paladin/kinticist which worked pretty well.
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