Shawn O'Leary's page

Great Poem! Well Done Kevin. Something for St. Patricks day for these old Irish ears to hear.

Sorry I meant smart DM.

Hey Brian,
Sounds like a smark DM you have. How has the game been going? Have you had as much fun as you thought you would or more? Let me know. I t hink an apostle would fit in more with an adventuring group anyway. Thanks.

Favored Classes are a way to show what adventuring professions a member of a typical race usually learned and/or excelled in. Lets face a half-orc barbarian is your typical half-orc. They're excellent at fighting, raging and living in the wilderness while at the same time a half-orc wizar is unusual and not a common sight. Just like your halfling were typically roges becuase they excelled at it you might find a paladin or cleric.
I think favored classes should remain to relfect a racial prefreces for a certain professions. However, instead of it tying into multiclassing you could instead just offer a small bonus to xp when adveancing in their favored class. As for humans and half-elves the first class they gain levels in is considered their favored, the one where they excel in, and thus would only get the xp bonus whe advancing that class. Thoughts everyone?

Hey Bian,
Give it some time. You are asking during working hours and most of uare at work. Since I work nights I happen to catch your post. As far as my opinion of an evenagilist priest? Well any cleric for starters can evangilize, how else do they spread their god's message? I do't really see them as an adenturing type person. They would stick to civilization and the cmmmon races. Of course there are always exceptions:1. The main focus of the campaign is an eveangelc priest who gets captured by heathens who then covnerts them to his faith who later then aid his home against an invasion of monsters. 2. The main character in the campaign has a mission to convert everyone he meets. He isn't worried about adventuring and exploration he just wants to spead his god's message to the exclusion of all else and has body guards (the other pcs) to help him.
I have never played one and don't have any interest in playing them. As I said I don't see them as an adventuring type per se. I would be more intereste in a warpriest or a daring explorer in service of the god of luck. I have that issue of Dragon and I can look if you need me to. I also have the complete divine which has an evengelic prestige class in there as well. Hope that helps.

Shawn

I love them all really. Other colors would be nice as well, say Gray. I love gray. Now if there was a tee of a paladin human or elven, minus magna ears, that would be cool. Or a "I smite villiany in the name of <place varisian god's name here>.

Sorry Jason, didn't mean to spell your name wrong.

It would be difficult at best I guess to incorporate any changes in the current skill system. However, I am in favor of simplifying the skill list (ie combininb skill sets as you have done with stealth) and keeping the same skill rank advancement. It allows versatility and customization. And it also maintains its simplicity. This way it also allows a pc to specialize in a particular skill or skills he wanted. Unless the DCs to accomplish skill checks change for some radical reason I see no reason to do a major overhual on the skill system.

Now, I have one question I would like to present to Mr. Bulhman and anyone else who is reading this: Is a fly skill really necessary? Why not incorporate flying ability into the fly spell design. The ease and versatility of flying could be built into the power level of the spell as the caster advances. Any magic dedvice that allows flying could have that manuverability class built into the level at which the fly spell was used in its creation. Any thoughts anyone?
In all the years I have been gaming the skill at which a PC flys was never in question why does it need to be one now?

In all honesty I have never been a big fan of psionics. The whole idea of creating magic like phenomenon with your mind and not be magic seems a great deal mor appropriate in a sci-fi setting. Also, take in account that psionic characters can empower their abiliteis by adding a few points and thus do more with what they know than a wizard can. If anything psionics if utilized at all should be used as an alternate magic system and dubbed "mind magic" and thus have a "mind-mage" whos abilies are still magic but is able to tap those supernatural forces via his mind. It should be rare and encountered even less. Better yet, just replace it wth the current magic system and call the psion's wizards who have a point based spell casting system; which in effect is all it really is anyway. It was strange to say the least playing a game in which the psionicist was throwing fireballs left and right. Gee doesn't seem like psionics at all but magic! Psonics have no real place in a fantasy setting unless there is no magic at all and they can't throw fireballs or other pyrotecnics.

Where is the beta 2 release teaser? I'd like to take a look at it, especially since the paladin is my favorite class. Please let me know.

I throughly enjoy the artwork as well. Its both exciting and dynamic. However, there are somethings that I need to say as others NO POINTED MANGA EARS on ELVES! The gnomes are kinda strange too. They look like nothing more than short humans with different skin color. Whats up with that? The half-orc should look more human. Its one of those things I hated about 3.5. The half-orc still looked like an orc enough to be viewed as a monster by others and thus feared. If anyone recalls the 1st edition Player's Handbook the pc half-orc, a half-orc of human-orc mingling was in the top 10 percentile that could pass as human, alibiet ugly humans. That illusion should be maintained. Get rid of the manga ears on him, lighten the skin color and make his features less pronounced.
As a personal taste I would like to see the half-elf get rounded ears and appear more human to the casual observer but beautiful by human standards. Too many artists depict half-elves as looking human with pointed ears anyway with facial hair (ie Tanis Half-elven of Dragonlance fame just to use an example) and just doesnt appear right. Dominant human features just supereror abilities (ie sense such as lowlight vision and hearing to humans but not quite as good as elves) I think that would have a greater appeal. Anyway, those are my thoughts on the pc folk found in Pathfinder.

Make it short and concise like the wonderous item contest. Priortize some important features you wish to see for the country. ie. ruler, armies, exports/imports, a major npc or two,a brief history, etc.

Beyond that the country becomes too complicated and too long to read. The idea I feel is to make the country interesting and fascinating without too much complication.

As far as maps go? No need. Perhaps a brief description of major terrain with proper names or not at all. depending on what the judges want. That way the DM could use it in any home brew or established campaign he or she wishes without too much trouble. Also do not forget the complication of adding an attachement to the submission. What happens if it doesn't go through? The judges certainly don't have all the time in the world to let everyone know that hey, your country made it through but there is no map. Sorry, please submit again.

Thank you all for this wonderful opportunity. I do hope I make it to the end. I love creating, I love writing, and I love D&D. In the end this is a wonderful experience. I'm already having fun! Again my thanks.