I had a voodoo cleric in Legacy of Fire that made earrings out of shrunken pugwampi heads. Not exactly a necklace, but very satisfying.
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H.P Lovecraft - Inquisitor and hunter of the Dark Tapestry Interesting choice. He and Bram Stoker would be a good team.
Another fun idea is making Sun Wukong, the Monkey King from the Chinese classic Journey to the West. Using the vanara as a base, you mix in some monk and some kind of spell caster to duplicate his mystical abilities. Of course, deciding on which class(es) to use would be the challenge; Sun Wukong was an adept shapeshifter, could conjure protective circles against demons, and control the wind and water.
Suppose you were going to be involved in a game based off of the idea behind the graphic novel/movie; a justice league of famous figures, real and imagined throughout history and different cultures. Who/what would you play? The character can be based off of any historical, mythological, or fictional character, as long as it has a bases in actual real-world history; a character from Dracula or a Midsummer Night's Dream would be acceptable, for example. I'd play William Shakespeare, the original Bard. Perhaps many of his more fantastical plays would be based off of his early adventures before he retired to write. What would you do?
Shameless Bump. Any other thoughts, ideas, or suggestions?
Lot's of good stuff. Thanks for the input! A lot of good ideas to think on. You're probably right about the mysteries; other than Metal, I can't seem to get any others to fit. I really wish there was some kind of clockwork mystery available. I'll most likely go with Metal unless something else pops out at me. The Seeker archetype would fit nicely with the concept.
Take the curse: Goin' on a year now I ain't had nothin' twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries! Is there an upside to that curse?
I may take a single level of wizard to get the Spellslinger archetype; free feat as well as the arcane gun and mage bullets.
For the love of Iomede do not take Haunted. Lol, not likely. I'm thinking of maybe Tongues (speaking in the language of the machines), or perhaps lame. Sadly, there aren't a lot of curses to choose from.
I want to design an oracle for an upcoming pathfinder game set in a steampunk fantasy setting; at this point in time, I don't have many details on the campaign world. Basically, I want to make a technological savant with a magical bent; I'm basing the concept on Kaylee Frye from the Firefly series. I want the character to be good with machines, but rather than just being really smart, I want the character to be intuitive; like Kaylee, the "machines just speak to me." The game is 7th level with a 25 point buy. I'd like some advice on which mystery and curse I should take, as well as some general advice on feats and spells; I'm not very familiar with clerical spells. In addition, since this is a steampunk setting, guns will be more common and available, so I'm thinking I should dabble in their usage. As far as religion goes, this character isn't really into gods and the like. His power is based on a philosophy that mixes the (literal) Ghost in the Machine (that is, machines have indwelling spirits) and the Clockwork Universe Theory (short version, the universe to a mechanical clock wound up by a supreme being(s). It continues ticking along, as a perfect machine, with its gears governed by the laws of physics, making every single aspect of the machine completely predictable).
As a player, I was never fond of minions. While I understand their purpose, I always felt cheated whenever I killed them; their deaths were no challenge, and thus no satisfaction was gained. I actually hated dealing with them, because even though they popped whenever you hit them, you couldn't actually ignore them; they may have the durability of wet toilet paper, but they can still hurt you. They almost felt like a combat tax; waste a few rounds dealing with the crap so you could actually fight the worthy foe.
My current character is a Tiefling sorcerer of Rakshasa descent who specializes in destruction magics. Based off of the character J'zargo from The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. One of my favorite characters was set in the Eberron setting. A young female artificer who was naturally gifted in all things mechanical. She worked on an airship as the mechanic. Based off of Kaylee Frye from firefly. Another is a cantankerous, brilliant Oracle of Life who walked with a limp (lame curse), used a cane in combat, and made the lives of his adventuring party miserable. Based off of Dr. Gregory House from House.
I'm trying to decide on a 2nd level defensive spell for my blaster sorcerer, and I can't choose between Blur or Mirror Image. Which would be better for the unavoidable situations when things are trying to inflict stabbity doom on my character?
You're sending a mixed message here. One which is my point that elves do have a bonus of their own which is something to consider as an alternative to the human spell knowledge bonus, and Two the canard that the human additional spell knowledge trumps all others. Which are you subscribing to?Properly focused, an Elf sorcerer is a more potent caster than his Human counterpart. I was being a tad snarky in the first bit. My apologies. :) The second bit was my actually point, that being that human and elf pretty much balance themselves out, although I personally favor human.
I ultimately decided to change out one of my first level spells for Unseen Servant. In addition to the uses already listed, I've found the Unseen servant makes an excellent scroll caddy and torch bearer. Plus its worked great with loading my light crossbow for me while I'm running about, thus saving me a move action. Good spell.
Properly focused, an Elf sorcerer is a more potent caster than his Human counterpart. And properly focused, a human sorcerer is just as potent, *and* has a few more spells to use for his concept. Really, almost every race can make a good sorcerer. the trick, like you said, is picking a concept and running with it. But I can't agree with your elf/human comparison, because each race has advantages over the other; I think that they would come out fairly even.
Set, i want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. For as long as 3E has been out, I've been trying to reconcile the association between acid and the element Earth, without much success. But Now i finally have a way of visualizing it and not being frustrated. I'm playing a blaster sorcerer myself, and went with a focus on Cold because, as has been stated, everything is resistant to fire and electricity. That left acid or cold, and I couldn't deal with acid, so I choose cold. i wish you had posted this a few weeks ago. But again, thanks a bunch. :)
All fighters really need are two or three things, IMO, and then they're golden. 1. Give them the ability to use all of their attacks and move (or even just pounce). 2. Some of the feat chains they get should be automatically built into the class; Vital Strike should be a basic part of the class design, along with armor training, weapon training, and the rest. Or, failing that, it should at least become a single feat that scales as the fighter levels. 3. An extension of 2, many of the feat chains are pricy, mostly in part to the fact that fighters have so many feats that they can afford to pay them. But just because they *can* pay for them, doesn't mean they *should* pay, especially when most of the feats are junk. 4. Parrying. I like the duelist ability to parry by using one of the attacks for the round. If fighters could do that, it would add an awesome, fighter specific ability that fits virtually every fighter concept. As for nerfing spells and casters, I'd rather not. I'm one of those wizard-lovers, and I feel that the great majority of spells work fine; some could be toned down, a few should be beefed up, but most are fine. Don't make other classes suck just so plain Jane fighters can feel special; I'd rather not play 4E.
-_- If you're going to play the "Let's Fix the Fighter" game, you should start by making the fighter better instead of making other classes worse. Of course, I don't believe the fighter needs much of a fix, so I can't really comment on the subject.
Ah, I see the gnomes have struck again. Evil little buggers. I learned my gnome hatred from WoW, but that's a whole 'nother story.
It seems I've overlooked the usefulness of this spell. My uses of unseen Servant has been restricted to sweeping the hall, or opening the front door. Basically domestic stuff. I've never given much thought to what it was capable of as an adventuring spell. I'll have to add this one to my list of spells known.
Since you aren't going to be using it too often just buy a couple of scrolls. You really think you'll use it more than 2 or 3 times?I'm surprised noone talked about Contact Other Plane, a spell that requires an Int check to avoid a Charisma decrease. Maybe. It really depends on where the campaign goes, and what events transpire. It also depends on how my concept evolves as I gain in level; my sorcerer is big on gaining patronage from the Marid nobility, as well as dealing with many outsiders. Contact Other Plane seems like the best way for an arcane caster to do that on a regular basis. *shrug* We'll see what happens. :)
I'm surprised noone talked about Contact Other Plane, a spell that requires an Int check to avoid a Charisma decrease. Believe it or not, I actually like Contact Other Plane. Not because it's such an awesome spell, mind you; sorcerers especially feel the pinch with that one if they fail their intelligence check. I like Contact Other Plane because it harkens back to an age when magic was still somewhat unpredictable and dangerous; fireballs expanded to fill a certain area, and thus you had to be smart with them; haste aged the caster a year whenever cast. I always enjoy dangerous magic more than the safe, cookie-cutter spells casters deal with nowadays; I might end up taking Contact Other Plane for my sorcerer when (if) he gets high enough level to cast it; fortunately, my character has a really good intelligence (16) to go with his awesome charisma, so he'll have a decent shot at not losing any charisma.
Why would you consider Unseen Servant a must take? I haven't seen much use from the spell in recent years by any of the mage players in the group I play with. Is there some awesomeness that I'm missing?
Oh I agree, important magical/scientific research should be above petty copyright bs! Lol, indeed. Even when 3E came about, and the names got ditched, I remained a traditionalist when it comes to spell titles. It's just how I roll.
It's still Leomund's Secret Chest in my games, as is every other named spell; Mordenkainen still gets credit for his spells, as do Bigby, Tenser, Otiluke, Elminster, Abi-Dalzim, and the rest. Heck, I still refer to "hideous laughter" by its true and proper name.
I never understood how the whole party is able to fly around level 7 or 8. How is that happening? It's not happening. Unless you have a party full of mages, then it's not happening. It's just another example of people making mountains out of mole hills; some one can fly and potentially ruin your precious little encounter, so the spell must be OP/broken. :/
The problem with many of the mythical beasts is the fact that they became too generalized; the minotaur was a fearsome creature because there was only one, and he was cursed by Zeus (not that that is uncommon, mind you; half of Greece was cursed by Zeus, and the other half by Hera). Similarly, Medusa is badass when its just her. Once you have an entire race of Medusa, they become lame. You are correct. I was merely going with the D&D/Pathfinder meme; medusa and gorgons are different creatures in the game. I respect your nerdrage on the subject; I feel the same.
The problem with many of the mythical beasts is the fact that they became too generalized; the minotaur was a fearsome creature because there was only one, and he was cursed by Zeus (not that that is uncommon, mind you; half of Greece was cursed by Zeus, and the other half by Hera). Similarly, Medusa is badass when its just her. Once you have an entire race of Medusa, they become lame. Once a particular creature becomes an entire race, its power and majesty must become watered down, otherwise the civilized world will drown in legendary killing machines. Thus Ogres are now relatively low level bruisers, scary when first encountered but soon just sword fodder.
These are all good points; avoiding spell redundancy is an often overlooked aspect of sorcerer builds; having both fireball and lightening bolt is a waste. it would be better to pick up a feat that will change the shape and/or energy type if you want for variety out of your blasting.
Hmmm, after reading this back and forth, I may need to add invisibility to the don't learn list. I must be stuck in the dark ages, because i didn't know invisibility still allowed so one to spot you if they have a high enough perception.
IMO, the blindness effect became secondary once the afflicted creatures started getting new saves every round. I notice that regardless of the actually duration, most enemies I hit with it will be unblinded within three rounds. So now I only use it to deal with hidden enemies.
All good points, and it brings up something that I've been thinking about for a while now. Wziards, clerics, etc, all get the hype as being the magical classes; fighter, I often hear, are boring because they have no magic. They're "mundane," or "sidekicks." But really, in a fantasy setting, all the PC classes are magic users to a certain extent. In most setting, magic drenches the world; the obvious magic users aren't the only ones to take advantage of this. Some of the example above demonstrate how the mundane classes also use the magic of the world to accomplish their goals.
At first glance, alter self is gold for a sorcerer, but I find myself not liking it very much. While it certainly provides versatility, it lacks the one thing that would make it truly worth casting: a decent duration. Alter Self, like most of the polymorph spells, suffer from a low duration, rendering it nothing more than a combat spell, and a useless one at that, since all of its benefits are more favorable for melee attackers. A good use for the spell, like the varies polymorphs, could be covert in nature, but I usually find a few minutes not long enough to infiltrate a gnoll encampment, find the hostage, release the hostage, and creep back out undetected. All of the other benefits of the spell also don't last long enough; using it for Darkvision, as mdt has said, isn't all that useful.
I agree with you about See Invisibility; with the stealth mechanics being garbage in the system, the only two real methods of stealth are invisibility and hide in plain sight. See invisibility is a must have spell; along with arcane sight, it is one of the spells I even pay to make permanent.
Well, I'm pretty sure its been established that Dream is a lame spell for *anyone* to have. I doubt even wizards would bother to scribe it in their spellbooks. I know I've never bothered, at any rate.
Alarm is an awesome spell, and I'll tell you why. It is incredibly difficult to bypass without tripping. Unless you dispel it (which means wasting a 3rd level slot on a first level spell) or can teleport past it, it will go off. I once played an arcane trickster who HATED that spell, because he had no way of bypassing it; not a good situation for the self-styled King of Thieves. Early warning system. Leave an alarm or three behind you as you explore dungeons or old ruins or really anywhere. It's useful when you suspect you're being tailed by someone or something. In quite a few games, our PC's aren't the only ones searching for the mcguffin or what not; many a time we do all the work only to be ambushed by rivals for the prize. In one instant, an alarm saved our PC's from an assassin hiding in plain site as we trekked through a mountain pass. The wizard was expecting an attack (though not from the assassin) and set an alarm in the middle of a path. The assassin tripped it, and though no one could see him, we were alerted and allowed to react before it was too late by having the druid summon a huge earth elemental (yay tremorsense).
Alarm is an awesome spell, and I'll tell you why. It is incredibly difficult to bypass without tripping. Unless you dispel it (which means wasting a 3rd level slot on a first level spell) or can teleport past it, it will go off. I once played an arcane trickster who HATED that spell, because he had no way of bypassing it; not a good situation for the self-styled King of Thieves.
I can agree with most of those spells, but I have issues with those last two. I have never, in all of my years of gaming, ever had to cast Hold Portal. Nor do I know anybody who has. I can't really see needing to cast that spell so often that a sorcerer should have it on his spells known. Mount is a decent spell, but unless you DM likes to target your horse a lot (which is possible, and a perfectly logical tactic) I can't really see it being used that often.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I agree with you. But to keep such an effect viable at higher levels, you would potentially need to heighten it as well; 10d4 isn't nearly as impressive when divided by two. And that's not taking into account varies resistances. My sorcerer, a crossblooded orc/elemental, would get an extra 20 points if it was cold based, or just 10 with any other element, so I guess it's not that bad. Intensified shocking grasp is very nice, but I tend to avoid melee touch spells. Too risky.
Heh. My Infernal Sorceror is getting DC's of close to 22 at 6th level with Charm spells (Cha 20, Eagle's Splendor, Bloodline Arcana, and SF: Enchantment = DC 20 + SL). Once he gets to Dominate people, I think I'm gonna try to steal a country. Similar DC's for my blaster sorcerers heightened, intensified burning hands. Sure, using a higher level slot for a low level spell doesn't sound awesome, but sometimes you can't fireball.
Heighten Spell should be mandatory for sorcerers; with a limited spell list, the ability to keep some of those low level spells viable should not be underestimated. I once played a cleric whose favorite tactic was to Heighten a Command spell; even at 12th level, getting the big bad to "approach," or "surrender" for a round was amazing. I'm sure there are some low level sorcerer spells that would prove just as useful. grease, for example.
As time goes by, I start to wish that sorcerers received their own spell list; the class feels kinda sloppy to me, as though they thought of it at the last second. What I'd like to see are more spells designed for multiple purposes; Otiluke's Freezing Sphere is a good example of this. It would be a huge undertaking, of course, but if sorcerers had their own unique list of spells that were modeled after the Freezing Sphere, you'd have a more unique class that also possessed abilities different from a wizard. But don't let me derail my own thread. ;) I will say that after thinking about, I can see Feather Fall being of enough use for a sorcerer to grab. It wouldn't be the first spell I picked, but it's worthy of consideration.
I agree with you. One of the first items I picked up for my character when he had the funds was a Helm of Comprehend language and Read Magic. It was in the shape of a metal skullcap, just like Merlin's in Excalibur. We got a good laugh out of that.
Mage's Lucubration This is probably the best, and most obvious, answer.
That's a good point. Adding expensive material components to the list. Whic is a shame, because Stoneskin is a nice spell to know.
I wouldn't word it that extreme since they do get a fair number of spells. The correct term would be one theme ponies., the bloodlines basically being the backbone of one's theme. I guess that's a fairer assessment then I allowed. Good point.
The magic staff has improved since 3E days thanks to the recharge mechanic, but I personally would never buy or craft one. You still don't receive as much bang for your buck, IMO. Maybe if they weren't so expensive I'd like them, but as is I'll pass. That's not to say that I won't use one if I find or loot it; a "free" Staff of Fire is nothing to sneeze at, after all. But as far as buying one or spending a feat to craft them, I wouldn't waste my time and resources.
I think shadow conjuration/evocation are some of the strongest spells a sorcerer can get. As more and more supplements come out, wizards gain in versatility and power while sorcerers lag behind; being restricted to 6 spells of each level is bad enough with just the core rules, but once more and more options become available, sorcery feels more painful (IMO anyway). The shadow conjuration/evocation spells open *a lot* of new spells for the sorcerer. Yes, the shadow versions require two saves in most cases, but it's still better than nothing. Not to mention that with shadow conjuration/evocation, you can access some of the neat utility spells that you might not want to learn, yet might prove useful at some point.
But aren't sorcerers, by design, one trick ponies? Their whole purpose is spamming the same few spells they get over and over. That being said, I disagree about summoning. I don't think sorcerers should pick up *every* summoning spell, but they should try and have the highest level one they can cast; summons offers variety and utility to the poor sorcerer, and depending on the level of summons, can even provide additional spells. |