Schmoe's page

I'll preface this by saying I haven't had a chance to playtest. Unfortunately, I don't have the time for any table time right now, so playtesting is not possible. That being said, I still want to provide my thoughts on the inquisitor in the hope they will be useful or at least thought-provoking.

Overall, the class seems to be in a bit of an identity crisis. On one hand, many of the abilities want to contribute to individual combat ability, but limited armor, weapons, HP, and BAB make it unlikely for the inquisitor to make a meaningful contribution. On the other hand, some abilities contribute to spell casting, but limited casting progression relegates the class to a support role. In addition, the class has a decent number of skills, but his skill selection really only make him useful as a "front man" or tracker/skirmisher, and his class abilities only complement the tracker/skirmisher role. Finally, the interplay of judgements vs. solo tactics (oddly named, as it requires teammates around to receive benefits) confuses me as to whether the inquisitor wants to be self-sufficient or a good teammate.

I'd like to give some detailed feedback on some of the specific abilities.

Domain - I think this should grant domain spells as spells known. Even if this is accompanied by reducing the general number of spells known to compensate, doing so helps to tie the Inquisitor to his faith, and helps define his method of Inquisition. Wouldn't you think an Inquisitor with the Fire domain would use fire and brimstone in his techniques? I would.

Judgments - I see three problems with this ability. First, the benefits only apply to the Inquisitor, but the Inquisitor isn't good enough at either combat or spell casting to make them useful. Second, the benefits don't really kick in until the 3rd round, and by that time the fight will usually have been decided. If the fight is still evenly matched, the benefits are minor enough that they probably won't be the deciding factor. Finally, the Inquisitor has a very limited number of uses of the ability.

Monster Lore, Cunning Initiative, Track - These look good. Seems to want to make the Inquisitor a "monster hunter" role, despite what the skill list indicates. Shades of skirmisher here.

Solo Tactics + Tactical Feat - Aside from the confusing name (I would have expected that the Inquisitor could use these without anyone else around), this looks useful. Seems to want to make the Inquisitor a "works well with others" role.

Bane - A decent ability. There is some confusion in the wording. When the Inquisitor drops/sheathes the weapon, does the duration continue to expire? If so, there is no way for the non-consecutive rounds clause to apply. If not, there is no need for the limitation on returning the weapon before the duration expires. Reading this, I'm inclined to think it can only be used 1/day.

2nd Judgment - Here the judgments begin to become somewhat more useful, and 3/day at this level (8) is a decent number of uses. However, it still suffers from the problem that the Inquisitor is neither a primary combatant nor a primary spellcaster, and it still takes 3 rounds before full effect.

Evasion - A strong ability that arrives late. Puts the Inquisitor more firmly in the skirmisher role.

Greater Bane - Makes Bane even better. Makes the Inquisitor want to take a primary role in combat. This is a good upgrade and seems appropriately placed in the level progression.

Exploit Weakness - Seems to be a very weak and confusing ability. The first part only happens on a critical hit (which occurs infrequently enough) and only applies to either creatures with DR the Inquisitor can't already overcome (probably rare, given judgments and equipment) or regeneration that cannot be overcome (also rare). The inquisitor will not be dealing a lot of dice of energy damage, and there aren't many creatures with vulnerability to energy types, so the second part is extremely weak.

There are also two points of confusion with the wording of the ability. First, the phrase "if the creature's regeneration can be bypassed" has me completely stumped. I thought the creature didn't regenerate already because of the ability? I honestly don't know what that is referring to. Second, the placement of the energy damage description after the critical hit description could lead people to think the extra energy damage only applies after a critical hit. Or does it? This could be made more clear by either describing the extra energy damage first, or specifying the extra energy damage occurs in the round following a critical.

3rd Judgement - Just a minor upgrade to judgments. Previous criticisms still apply.

Slayer - While it begins to address the slow build-up problem of judgments, it comes very late. Judgments still have the problem that they are primary combat or caster buffs to a secondary combat or caster chassis.

True Judgment - If I read it right, this is a very strong ability and a fitting capstone. Basically, every three rounds the Inquisitor can get a free attack as a swift action that forces a save-or-die. If the attack is not a free attack and is part of a normal attack sequence (either one attack out of a full attack, or a standard action), that should be specified.

Spells - The spell list looks pretty useful. There is a good mix of buffing and blasting, with some utility thrown in. However, the Inquisitor will always feel like a distant second fiddle to a primary caster due to his limited number per day, limited known spells, and retarded progression. He will be able to contribute meaningfully at key times with proper selection, but not as often as he would like. His most powerful spells will have been in play already for several levels from the primary casters. The Inquisitor will get the most use from his spell list by primarily choosing buff and healing spells with a few key offensive and utility spells.

...

So, at the end of the day the Inquisitor looks like a skirmisher who wants other people around, that can provide a secondary role in combat or spellcasting but a primary role in neither, and yet whose abilities would most benefit a primary role. The most effective Inquisitor I can imagine is one who sneaks around, tracking down enemies, then using ranged combat and buffs (spells and bows) to support a battle. While it could be effective, that's definitely not what I pictured the class to be based on flavor text and my own imagination of what an Inquisitor would be like.

I think the class could be improved by deciding on whether the Inquisitor wants to be the lone ranger, or if he wants to lead the pitchfork-wielding mob. If the former, I might recommend something like the following:

* Increase to full BAB
* Make judgments take full effect sooner, or increase the effect
* Expand weapons available
* Decrease number of spells known (perhaps reduce the ceiling of known spells per level by one)
* Remove Solo Tactics
* Allow domain spells as spells known

If the latter, I would recommend changes along these lines:

* Make judgments apply to team members
* Instead of bane applying to the Inquisitor's weapon, make it something he applies to a single foe, so that all weapons striking the foe are treated as Bane weapons.
* Increase number of spells known (maybe an extra 1/spell level)
* Remove Cunning Initiative
* Remove Evasion
* Allow domain spells as spells known

Wow, that was a mouthful. I have some more general feedback on inquisitor vs. monster hunter, but I can save that for another post :)

I'll preface this by saying that I haven't playtested Pathfinder, so I apologize in advance. Unfortunately, I'm not in any gaming groups right now, so I can't put the rules through their paces. That being said, I can't in good conscience let the Bard's Deadly Performance slip through without comment.

This looks like one of the most over-powered abilities I've ever seen on a class.

Deadly Performance (Su): A bard of 20th level or higher

with 20 or more ranks in a Perform skill can use his
performance to cause one enemy to die from joy or sorrow.
To be affected, the target must be able to see and hear the
bard perform and be within 30 feet. To use the ability, a
bard makes a Perform check. His check result is the DC
for each affected creature’s Will save against the effect. If a
creature’s saving throw succeeds, the target is stunned for
1d4 rounds and the bard cannot use deadly performance on
that creature again for 24 hours. If its saving throw fails,
the target dies. A bard can use this bardic performance
ability utilizing any type of Perform.

Let's look at what a typical 20th level Bard can do, without magic items or spells.

23 ranks (+23 modifier)
22 ability (+6 modifier)
2 Masterwork instrument (+2 modifier)

For a total of a +31 modifier. With the Jack-of-All-Trades skill he can take 10 on his Perform check. This means that the Bard can throw around DC 41 save-or-die spells every round. And he can do it for 20 rounds. I didn't even factor in bonuses the Bard might have from Skill Focus, magic items, or spells. At 20th level, it would be very easy to up the DC to 50+. I don't know of a single CR20 monster with a Will save of more than +25 or so. That means that this ability has a 95% chance of killing anything the Bard targets. 20 times a day. And it's not affected by Spell Resistance.

I can understand the desire to give the Bard something special, and powerful, but this is overkill. I would strongly suggest detaching the save DC from a Perform check, in order to bring it back in line with 9th level spells. Perhaps even make it more like Phantasmal Killer, since the Bard can use it so much more frequently than casters can cast their 9th level spells. Or make it cost 4 uses of Bardic Music. Or something.

If I've missed some critical limitation to the Deadly Performance, I apologize. As far as I can tell, this is broken.

Last week during my Shackled City campaign, I had one of those DM'ing moments that made me smile all over. Following Life's Bazaar, the party had decided to visit the orphanage to check on Terem. They were asking a lot of questions about Terem's past and how his parents died, so, on the spur of the moment, I decided to throw them a bone. I decided that his parents had been killed by Triel in a fire, after her affair with Terem's father turned sour. I also decided that Triel was a Lathenmire, and that the incident had been the source of much gossip and rumor-mongering years ago, and Triel is now a black spot on the Lathenmire family that they would like to keep buried.

By revealing this, I was able to make the players feel rewarded for taking some initiative and looking into events a little more. At the same time, I was able to plant some seeds for later adventures and also give the party some "dirt" on the Stormblades, as the Stormblades are quickly becoming the party's most hated rivals.

The real reason I'm telling you, though, is that it would not have been possible without these boards. All of the wonderful ideas here are what inspired me to take extra steps to make the Stormblades a foil for the party. The contributors here have also pointed out weaknesses in how the adventures are linked together and provided suggestions for making them more cohesive. And I think that I even first came across the idea of Triel as a Lathenmire here on these boards.

So to everyone here, thanks! I'm looking forward to using your collective wisdom to torment my players for a long time to come. :)

I posted this on ENWorld, but its buried in a 22-page thread, so I wanted to post it here to get other people's reactions.

Looking at the effect on Paizo's products, the cancellation of Dragon and Dungeon looks like a big challenge, but not without potential. Dragon and Dungeon were tried and true products, but the WotC license also prevented incorporating some (mostly 3rd party) material. They now can start bringing in all sorts of cool things, like monsters from the Tome of Horrors, or 3rd party prestige classes, or ties to 3rd party campaign settings. In fact, if Paizo can provide a medium to put all of the great 3rd party material to use on a regular, recurring basis, it may be that the 3rd party market will improve and flourish.

In fact, I might even go a little further and say that Paizo could improve their chances of success by incorporating more of the 3rd party material that is already somewhat established. Has this been talked about at all? Anyone else have similar thoughts?

One of my players has a half-orc ranger who also took the Wyrm Blooded local hero trait. His story is that his father was on an expedition to the Hellfurnaces, where he was captured by some orcs. The orc healer, a female, nursed him back to health, as the tribe wanted to get some information out of him. During this, the two of them fell in love, and they both ran away from the tribe.

His parents settled down in Hollowsky, where his father eventually became constable of the town. The PC was raised with little experience of racial animosity and is somewhat naive on those things.

My question is how to tie everything together and what I could do in game to give the player some good role-playing opportunities. My idea is that the tribe of orcs was allied with the dragon from later in the path. Through this alliance, the dragon helped to create some half-dragon spawn to lead the tribe. The PC's mother could be the daughter of one of these spawn.

So, how would the dragon react to the PC?

How does Dhorlot react to the PC?

How can I (or should I) tie the orc tribe into the path?

Hi all. I'm finally starting the SCAP tonight, after wanting to do so for nearly a year! Tonight we'll be going over characters, introducing the setting, and other introductory stuff like that. I want to have a couple of minor role-playing encounters to help give the players a feel for the city, but I don't have any good ideas yet. Would anyone care to share some ideas for minor introductory role-playing encounters?

Does anyone else think this would be cool?

"The party has been in hot pursuit of Bloody Bruce, scourge of the seven seas who has the crucial information that can lead them to the source of the outbreak of savagery in Scuttlecove. They commandeer a ship and follow him across the ocean to the fabled Isle of Dread. There, passing through Dead Man's Inlet, Bloody Bruce flees up a nameless, dark river, calling on strange powers to grant wind to his sails and lend him speed.

On the journey up the river, the crew of the party's ship grows restless and fearful, and strange monsters attack them from the shore.

Finally the journey ends at the base of the central plateau, where a majestic waterfall fills the air with spray and makes the ground tremble. Bloody Bruce has left his ship and most of his crew behind. They battle the party, but eventually surrender. Leaving their own crew behind to watch over the pirates, the party ventures onto the plateau where they discover Bloody Bruce in council with a priest of Demogorgon and his Bar-lgura minions. They win the battle, but learn that one of the tributaries of the nameless river is actually a tributary of the River Styx, and to finally put an end to the Savage Tide they must journey to the Abyss to confront Demogorgon. Unfortunately, the only ones who know how to open the gate are Bloody Bruce, the priest (both of whom may be dead), or the pirate first-mate, who is back with the ships. With time ticking down, the party races back to the ships, only to discover that the pirates have managed to overcome their captors and sink the party's ship.

The only option now is to force the bloodthirsty pirates into service, commandeer the pirate ship, and sail into the maw of the Abyss with a mutinous crew."

I think that would rock!

Obviously, there would be a lot of opportunities for the party to improve the situation, but as a default course of action it would be pretty cool.

Anyway, based on the past adventures by the authors I'm sure the actual adventure will go a different direction and be incredibly awesome, but I just wanted to share.

So, I have to ask... Has anyone's group managed to defeat Kyuss yet? I realize that it's still early, and most people probably aren't too close the the penultimate encounter of the campaign. Having read Kyuss's stats, though, I'd love to hear if anyone has managed to actually defeat him, and if so, how.

I picked up issue #136 yesterday and had a chance to browse through "The Coming Storm." Wow, what an awesome adventure. The backstory is mythic and mysterious without being cliche, and the creatures are exotic and challenging. I love the flavor of this piece, and I'm definitely going to try to find a way to use it in my campaign. I mean, it has kamadans. How cool is that?

Consider this a giant "kudos" to Greg Vaughan and the Dungeon staff.

I'm interested in placing Cauldron in Greyhawk. Has anyone done this? Are there any conversion notes somewhere that I should read? If not, any ideas? I was thinking about placing it in Hepmonoland.

The Shackled City AP is generally regarded as a very difficult campaign, and I've seen a lot of posters who say that they started at 2nd level, or with an introductory adventure, or something else along those lines to make sure the PCs were prepared for the difficulty. I just wanted to share what I'm doing, which I think has worked out very well

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The Burning Plague is a free adventure off the WOTC site. It's a fairly straightforward adventure with a couple of challenging combats that should get a group of 4-6 characters to just about 2nd level by the end. I tied this in by having the mines in the hills near Hollowsky. The mines are owned by Lord Ankhin Taskerhill, who was very happy when silver was recently discovered in the mines. Events proceed pretty much as detailed in the module, with the appearance of the plague and the disappearance of the miners.

Meanwhile, Adrick Garthun is trying to move in on Lord Taskerhill's business. He discovered Jakk, the wayward orc from the Torn Claw tribe that was destroyed 10 years ago. (I changed Jakk to worship Nerull) Playing on Jakk's desire for revenge, Adrick wrote the following note and had an agent disguised as a priest of Nerull deliver it to Jakk:

"Supplicant,
The Reaper has spoken to me, and through me, to you. Journey to the mines of Hollowsky, where the humans toil the stone and water seeps, and there spread the benediction of Nerull, so that His blessing can touch those who would deny His grace. Do this, and you do His work. <symbol of Nerull>"

I altered the plague so that, instead of being divinely inspired, it's simply the result of a few Contagion spells and a ready supply of rotting corpses, which Jakk has piled into the spring in the mines.

Faced with the difficulties at the mine, Lord Taskerhill's financier, Stefan Doverspeak (from The Burning Plague module) hires adventurers (the PCs) to fix things. The PCs journey to Hollowsky, being ambushed by 4 orcs along the way that wear tunics of the old Torn Claw clan. These are orcs that Jakk has recruited to reform his old tribe. Jakk's attempts to reform the tribe have been derailed by his new mission, however, and these are all he's managed to recruit. The ambush serves as foreshadowing for the encounter with Jakk.

After arriving at Hollowsky and gathering some information, the PCs journey to the mines to do their thing. While adventuring, however, Adrick moves in and offers to buy the mine from Lord Taskerhill at a steep discount. Faced with the disaster of the plague and disappearing miners, Lord Taskerhill agrees, and by the time the PCs return to Hollowsky, the mine's ownership has changed hands.

The adventure serves a couple of purposes:

- It gives the PCs some experience before starting the SCAP
- It introduces them to the region
- It introduces the PCs to some of the politics of Cauldron
- It sets up Adrick Garthun as a shady dealer and a possible supplier of the Last Laugh coins
- It creates a situation that could have further political ramifications down the line

Anyway, I just thought I'd share. My group right now has cleared out most of the kobolds in the mines, but hasn't returned to Hollowsky yet. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. Also, if anyone finds this useful, I'd like to hear that, too.

Can anyone recommend any good, introductory adventures for newbies with 1st level characters? Looking back through the Dungeon issues (back through 2005 anyway), I've only found one: Within the Circle from issue #130. I don't have that issue handy, so I don't know if it's any good. Are there any others? I'm open to sources outside of Dungeon, as well.

On a related note, it would be awesome if Paizo offered a browseable index of adventures by character level. That would really make things easy for DMs.

Now that I almost have my graduate degree, and I have some time to breathe, I'm considering introducing some of my work colleagues to the wonderful game of D&D. Although I've mostly run home-brew campaigns, if I do this again I want to primarily use published material to save myself prep time. I've narrowed it down to the Shackled City or Age of Worms. The World's Largest Dungeon would be a lot of fun, too, but I don't happen to own that. The one thing is that my colleagues would be complete newbies. While I've read most of the adventures in both campaigns, I don't have any play experience in either of them. Does anyone with experience in either of the campaigns have suggestions on why it would or would not be good for introducing newbies to D&D? I'm a DM with about 20 years of experience, so I'm more concerned about the effect of the campaigns on the players, rather than on DMs.