Slatz Grubnik's page

I think this is a great move and a fantastic way to transition to "Pathfinder 1.5" as I imagine it (without forcing people to buy new books if they don't want to upgrade).

I am curious if Paizo could support more than one system. I recall people clamoring for a "modern" system long ago. Either that, or supplements for non-Paizo systems. Could either of these be done?

The one thing I didn't see listed that I was really hoping for though was an alternate magic system (i.e. NON-Vancian casting). Without that I think the book will be fairly incomplete.

I very much liked Words of Power. I'm also a fan of 3.5 Psionics. If it's possible to have a blend, I'd love to give that a shot.

Back to the earlier discussion on the role of perceptions in viewing 5E versus past editions, let's not forget the huge role played by customer goodwill. There were a number of questionable decisions by WotC that accompanied the release of 4E. The release of the basic rules of 5E for free has garnered a lot of goodwill, which is not a small thing for WotC in my opinion.

Agreed. And the fact that they intend to update it with more content later as books are released is awesome! And they already have an adventure and some monsters for free as well. They certainly have my attention!

Fwiw, I was totally ignorant about piracy and how one might do it but learnt about one avenue for such from a paizo.com post explicitly arguing against the practise.

So although the poster wasn't advocating piracy, by arguing against it so thoroughly they were at least helping enable it. That might be another argument in favour of low tolerance.

If you want to discuss it more, please see the links I posted previously.

I've moved the Piracy discussion, as well as the Censorship discussion, elsewhere.

137ben wrote:

Where are people getting the idea that Wizards has a "no PDF" policy?

4e PDFs are all for sale.
3e PDFs are all for sale.
2e PDFs.
1e PDFs.
BECMI/OD&D PDFs

And, though not many have been released yet,
5e PDFs.

Seems like they've been pretty supportive of PDF sales.

Despite their retraction of PDF sales some years ago, I'm also quite confident that WotC will continue their current stance of selling PDF material on dndclassics to include the new edition. When PDFs of the core books do become available I expect prices to be relatively high - most 3E, 4E and 5E transition material there now is a good bit higher in price than classic 1E/2E/Basic material.

I still can't access my OD&D files. >:(

Censorship is censorship. It doesn't matter who's doing the censoring.

I'm think with regards to the summoner they might do what JJ suggested once, which is for the class of have a specific creature that levels up with you, much like an animal companion

I recall having an unfinished idea in Google Drive that took the idea of "eidolon models", and combined it with your idea. Essentially, you chose a creature that fit the "model" (angel, devil, etc), and it advances similar to an animal companion (though, it advances slightly more than that in my initial idea).

Alas, it went on the back burner, and never left.

Adjule wrote:

One thing I like is that it looks like they are moving away from high numbers and so many modifiers. It will be strange getting used to a fighter and a wizard having the same to hit roll, but I am sure it won't take long.

That is actually something I DON'T like about 5E: proficiency bonus being applied unilaterally to all classes for every situation. A wizard should not have the same bonus to hit that a fighter has because a fighter has trained really hard to be good at fighting, a wizard has not.

I would have preferred to see a continuation of the 3.X/PF system of unique progression by class for various abilities. For example a 1st level Fighter would get +2 to attacks, +2 to primary save, +1 to secondary save and +1 (possibly +0) to skills. A Thief might have +1 to attack, + 2/+1 to saves and +2 to skills. Wizards get +0 to attack, +2 to spell casting (for attack rolls and DC), +1 (or +0) to skills. These bonuses would then progress at different rates by category for each class.

I don't think the above progressions would have made the game that much more complex which is what I believe they were trying to avoid (complexity) by having "one Bonus to rule them all".

Well, once the different characters are built (5e), the Fighter will have a higher Melee/Ranged attack (depending on their focus) than a Wizard.

Sure, the Wizard might have a magic attack bonus that equals the Figher's melee/ranged, but the Wizard surely will be relatively poor in melee/ranged compared to the Fighter.

Thanks for the help everyone. I can't access Yahoo, so I'll do what I can with PCGen.

I'm surprised they still use Yahoo. I'll browse it when I have the opportunity, but I purged all my Yahoo accounts, so I hope I won't need to rejoin.

I understand what you're saying 8th Dwarf. I wasn't truly expecting a totally complete "open source" answer, despite my wording before. I will take a look at the software you suggested. PCGen will suffice for now, though I do hope progress will be made on it.

And if there is any way I can contribute to making PCGen complete, anyone reading this thread, please let me know.

What would you term complete? And how can PCGen improve this?

The very first thing I noticed was that there's no longer an NPC generator. There was when I used it a long time ago, but not any more. This was a feature I used [strong]very[/strong] frequently.

A previous poster mentioned not all sources currently available for Pathfinder are also available for PCGen (such as Mythic Adventures and Gamemastery Guide). And many still are still in Alpha or Beta, I'm noticing.

My stance is my own, and I'm not here to pick a fight. I'm simply going to say I'm a big advocate of the "OpenSource" movement, and leave it at that. If you have other questions, or want me to be more specific, please PM me.

PCGen looks okay. It's changed since I last used it (pre 6.0). I just wish there was a better alternative to Hero Lab that is actually complete. I won't pick up HL, and if there isn't really anything comparable right now, I'll just do without.

I do appreciate any past (and future) responses however, so for that, thank you!

Now that the Basic rules are available for free, and you have had the chance to look it over once or twice, how do you feel about it? What are your thoughts?

Coming from a group that still plays 3.5 (Pathfinder when it rotates to my turn to GM), I'm very happy. There seems to be elements of each previous edition in a way that makes it simpler than 3.5. At least, that's how it look to me.

Back on topic: I didn't participate in the playtest, so can someone explain what they mean by this "bounded accuracy" I keep hearing about?

It was explained here.

Any news on the release date?

Late August was the last I read on their Kickstarter Update.

Okay, cool. I'll check it out when I have the opportunity =)

JavaScript Editor is new to me, I'll check it out.

Ivan, I used to use PCGen long ago. Can you tell me how supportive of Pathfinder it is? How many of the supplements does it include, if any?

Thanks for the input so far! =)

So, when I say Epic levels, I'm talking about going up to level ~50.

I typically play wizards, and even I have trouble staying relevant. All the advice for making effective wizards assume you're stopping at 20. After a while, level dipping just isn't an option, and it's discouraged by the DM anyway. Spell DC's just don't matter after a certain point, though I realize I probably should be focusing on spells that don't require saves anyway, but still, I'm going to have a few that do.

Epic Spellcasting just doesn't seem worth it to me, am I wrong for dismissing it? If so, how do I make the most out of that feat?

Are they any alternatives to HeroLab?

Everybody knows that 6E, sorry, D&D NextPlusAdvance will be announced few days afer EnWorld announces their super-mega-campaign-arc for 5E. It happened with War of the Burning Sky and it happened with Zeitgeist, so it'll happen again. :)

Wait, EnWorld is still a thing?

I may be a bit of an extremist, but I'd lump all the full casters in one class. There'd be one list for all to use, and you'd have to "specialize" to gain access to your appropriate spell list. Similar to what 3.5 Psions do. Except in this case, your "specialty" determines your Magic stat, and bonuses at various levels would emulate bloodlines, domains, or schools, based on your choice. Sure, it'd be longer than the standard classes as written now, but if we're talking about simplifying things, what's simpler than Fighter, Mage, Thief?

This post is only partially tongue-in-cheek. I actually would like to see some simplification and unification of classes. That being said, PF is a fun game, but I've been having fun with some other games for a while.

Irontruth wrote:

I understand you don't care Scott, but other people do care about camera's in their home that are hooked up to the internet.

Like your laptop, tablet, or smartphone, right? All of which feature both microphones and cameras, all of which sit in your home or on your person, and all of which are internet-accessible.

So it's cool if you really do have a problem with having a potential recording device like that, but I don't think very many people do. I think most people (and by most I mean very nearly everyone) has accepted that recording devices are more or less ubiquitous and that getting hung up on their mere presence is pointless.

So, sure, if you eschew laptops, cell phones, tablets, and webcams, I guess it's not hypocritical of you to criticize Microsoft for sticking a camera on their console (though still paranoid). But, come on. Are you really one of those people? Any of you?

I do recall a story about a government agency taking snapshots with citizens cell phones. But that was a couple years ago. I'll attempt to search for the actual article, but my point is that it's entirely plausible, and has been actually done before.

IMO, it's no longer paranoia. It's the reality.

That being said. I don't really care that much. My "give a crap" broke after actively trying to do something about it, and everyone shrugged it off as pointless. Seeing the futility, I stopped caring.

I see a bleak future. And I can't wait for it to happen. It's already started.

Something tells me, dunelord, that you'd hate any version of the game pre-3.0...

Slatz Grubnik wrote:

Hama, I'll have to respectfully disagree.

My current family night D&D (3.5) is playing in a high powered game in which the GM encourages power gaming. We're all having fun with it.

However, I'm finding it a little difficult at the moment, and can't help but think I could be better in some way. I have a thread here that gives some info, and asks for help optimizing my character.

I said that it becomes powergaming when everyone at the table stops having fun. Meaning that the character blows through encounters with ease, not letting others shine. If you're all making ridiculously overpowered characters (like i sometimes do when a bunch of us get together), then it isn't powergaming. You're not doing it to the detriment of everyone elses fun.

I see your point. In that case, happy gaming! =)

Hama, I'll have to respectfully disagree.

My current family night D&D (3.5) is playing in a high powered game in which the GM encourages power gaming. We're all having fun with it.

However, I'm finding it a little difficult at the moment, and can't help but think I could be better in some way. I have a thread here that gives some info, and asks for help optimizing my character.

For anyone that is curious or asks my current ability scores are: STR 21, DEX 22, CON 22, INT 44, WIS 16, CHA 16

And my current saves (with buffs in parentheses): F +29 (39), R +27 (37), W +30 (40)

My current feats and powers shouldn't matter, as I can restructure them anyway. For the purpose of what I'm asking, let's pretend I have 7 non-epic feats, 4 epic feats (21, 24, 27, and 30), and 3 epic psion feats (23, 26, and 29). I also have a total of 56 powers known (5 up to first level, 4 up to second level, 4 up to third, 4 up to fourth, 4 up to fifth, 3 up to sixth, 3 up to seventh, 3 up to eighth, 26 up to ninth).

If anyone would like more info, just let me know.

I'm currently playing in a 3.5 game in which the DM plans to take to very epic levels (65). My current character is level 30, and he's an Elan Psion (Shaper). He has the power *psychic reformation*, which allows him to reselect feats, skill point allocations, and power selections for 50 xp per level backwards he wishes to *reform*. It's an extremely powerful campaign, and our ability score generation shows that (5d6, reroll 1s and 2s, add highest 3). I'm conserned that my character is underperforming, and would like to know what I can do to optimize my character. I can essentially re-select feats, choose new skill point allocations, and new powers known. What is your recommendation?

Note: Our enemies have been chaotic in nature, (LvC campaign, we're Lawful), and generally focus around chaotic outsiders. Our enemies tend to have high AC, ridiculously high saves (compared to my DCs, which at the moment is Power Level + 27), and extremely high DCs (in the high 50s and 60s). They also usually sport a SR that has me rolling 18+ in order to defeat.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

@OP

Let's look at a Longsword vs a Battleaxe, shall we?

Longsword
Price: 15 gp
1. Average damage (d8): 4.5
2. Average critical damage (x2): 9
3. If you apply the percent chance to score a critical to the extra damage (10%, 4.5 extra damage): .45
Total average damage (#1 + #3): 4.95

Battleaxe
Price: 10 gp
1. Average damage (d8): 4.5
2. Average critical damage (x3): 13.5
3. If you apply the percent chance to score a critical to the extra damage (5%, 9 extra damage): .45
Total average damage (#1 + #3): 4.95

Results?
The battleaxe is cheaper to buy and has a higher top end damage, but other than that, the two are the same.

I too am interested in a PF+OSR breed (POSR?)

What would you do for classes? It seems like they get a LOT of stuff in PRPG compared to OSR.

@JohnLocke - I haven't checked out DCC yet. I have people in my Gamers Circle on G+ that rant and rave about it.

I've played many different systems, and find that I like the rules-lite systems like Swords & Wizardry are more to my liking. I'm also a fan of the Dragonlance 5th Age Saga System's magic system. Though, I started with 3.0, and very much enjoy PRPG, I recognize that I just don't have the patience or attention span to play PRPG anymore.

Which is why I'm curious about, basically, if S&W were to incorporate some stuff from PRPG.. what would it look like?

I love OSR.
I love Pathfinder.
Is there some sort of unholy union of the two that exist somewhere? I very much would like to find something like that..

And then he says that he uses house rules that ignor the issues other eople are having, so it's not an issue for him.

In other words, he doesn't play with the rules being talked about.

Not sure I quite understand why this is a big deal...

"Wow. so complex. I didn't even have to look it up."

Ja?

And?

To me, that reads as if he's just being snarky with how simple the rule was to him now. That's all.

So, . . . your basis for saying others are wrong (and giving some attitude) is that you don't actually play by the rules.

Where's he saying that? Because, that's not what I'm reading..

Share the load =)

Slatz Grubnik wrote:

I'm assuming that's a no to my question.

I'm in no hurry to do a Linux version, not because I have anything against Linux, just because I don't have the bandwidth.

Ah, I see. What about my proposition above? If you find that you don't have time for it, why not put it up on sourceforge and recruit others to do the job for you? That way, you're not devoting significant time or energy in producing the Linux version yourself, and it gets done for those of us who don't use Windows. =)

I'm assuming that's a no to my question.

Oil burns, kids! Invest in an apron!

The next poster is, in fact, the first Martian.

This program looks amazing! However, I do wish there was a Linux version. If you can't port it yourself, would you be willing to put it on sourceforge.net for others to do so?

Disclaimer: I'm a fan of the Free Software Foundation. (Free as in speech, not beer.)

So I'm a player in the OP's game. Actually I'm the wizard that initiated the "first strike." I wanted to just kind of shed some more light on the player's side of what happened to see what everyone thinks. We went into the town knowing that there was a barrier around it, but we didn't know what it did, other than that it held in the towns inhabitants. We also knew that the town was inhabited by animals the night before (our rogue did a scouting mission into the town), however our characters knew nothing about Lycanthropy (it hasn't existed for 2,000 years) and so we went in to investigate at dawn. When we got inside the town we found a man naked inside his house and when he spotted our rogue he screamed, "they're here" and attempted to run off. I put him inside a resilient sphere cause i was confused about him sounding the alarm but a couple dozen villagers were already headed towards us with weapons drawn. they began to surround us and demanded to know what was going on, we explained the situation and asked them to stop surrounding us, when they demanded we put our weapons away. All but the barb did and we asked that they did the same however they refused. The man in the sphere (once the spell released) whispered to the "leader" that they should just kill us to be safe and then the GM said they advance towards you. at that point i hit them with a deep slumber and thus began the combat. after we had run their leader into one of the buildings and set it ablaze (that was the rouge's doing) the rouge decided to kill the sleeping villagers before they could attack us as well. This, I believe is a complete picture from our end of what happened... maybe this will shine some more light on events.

From what I gather:

So.. from what I can tell, the players were anxious to actually have a combat encounter, made some hasty decisions, everyone (including GM) got flustered and things escalated..

In the end, I don't think there's anything in your, or the GM's, story that didn't make the party sound evil to me. Then again, I wasn't there, but that's my observation from all the input.

Which do you use?

Yes ;)

Slatz Grubnik wrote:

Does one really need a rule printed for each and every contingency of absolutely anything that might happen, a player might request, or a DM might have to do? I say use common sense, roll some dice, and make stuff up. I'd rather not have to look up rule X on page Y in book Z each time my players ask me something. I'd rather say "i'm ruling X for now, we'll look at it after the game, and see how it differs, and i'll decide on which rule i'll use" for the sake of just getting on with the game. I don't mind doing the extra work, so long as it doesn't impede or interrupt the game.

+1 :) Emphasis Mine. ;)

Though I started with 3.0, it turns out I'm "old school" in the way I DM, lol..

Does one really need a rule printed for each and every contingency of absolutely anything that might happen, a player might request, or a DM might have to do? I say use common sense, roll some dice, and make stuff up. I'd rather not have to look up rule X on page Y in book Z each time my players ask me something. I'd rather say "i'm ruling X for now, we'll look at it after the game, and see how it differs, and i'll decide on which rule i'll use" for the sake of just getting on with the game. I don't mind doing the extra work, so long as it doesn't impede or interrupt the game.

Sorry, my vote is on Seoni.

It'd be nice to see other cosplay Iconics too =)

My suggestion? Get a new GM.
Or
Sit down with him and have a talk. Tell him about how you have already made this great character concept, and ask him what you can do to bring it to the game.

I'd go with the latter option. =)

3x CR 2 creatures equals 1800xp (600x3=1800). As for what CR that totals is only relevant as a sort of gauge to how difficult of an encounter it's going to be for your PCs. Since it's above the given XP allowance for 5, but less than 6, you can either call it "better than cr5, not quite 6", or just use the XP budget for 6 and call it a day.

Slatz Grubnik wrote:

xJoe3x wrote:

For those that want to read a bit more about what the boss man had to say on declaring actions and cleave:

link fixed

Thanks, I accidentally deleted that post trying to fix another. I was not used to linking that way.

NP =)

For those that want to read a bit more about what the boss man had to say on declaring actions and cleave:

link fixed