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This article got me thinking:

That has more to do with theme than it does with any specific character. Wonder Woman is optimistic. Gal Godot’s Diana wants to be a hero. She leaves Themyscira to be a hero, and while her faith is tested, her resolve ultimately holds. She climbs out of the trenches in WWI because there are human lives at stake and she’s going to protect them. Hers is a movie about a superhero making the choice to be a superhero, without any expectation of praise or reward.

That’s more or less the elevator pitch for superheroes as a concept, but it’s strangely at odds with everything we’ve seen from the DCEU thus far. Prior to Wonder Woman, DC’s output included two grim deconstructions of Superman and a third film about supervillains. All three have been skeptical of altruism as a concept, as if the most implausible thing about superhero movies is the hero’s willingness to help other people.

Source

What if there's a thirst out there for real heroes, who want to do the right thing? Good doesn't mean Nice, but for the sake of this thread, let's say that Good means wanting to do altruistic things. It's the journey there and the character themselves that is the challenge.

Writing Challenge!

If you like, create a HERO. Let's flesh out their backstory, toss in some stats if you like. They can be gritty or bright, but at their core give them that classic "hero quality" of wanting to the right thing. Give them some altruism. Give them some flaws.

I'd love to see what you come up with!

What is the possibility of the CRB getting a technical writing reform, on par with the Beginner Box?

One of the greater obstacles in joining a PF game for the first time is the amount of text and organizational murk in the CRB that Pathfinder inherited. This is NOT Paizo's fault--that they produced Pathfinder on the schedule they did is nothing short of amazing. Heaven knows the toll it took on their staff.

Cleaning up the language, format, and streamlining where rules are located would be a great help. I'm reminded of how d20srd.org became such a mainstay of the 3.0-3.5 days. Many users on the forums have also wished for a "Pathfinder 2.0" to just be a cleaned-up version of the CRB.

Alternately, is there a crowd source for this, or a 3PP?

Codifying some related questions for a FAQ request:

1. Does a breath weapon require the ability to inhale? Exhale?

2. Can you use a breath weapon while suffocating?

3. Can you use a breath weapon while pinned? (A nod to this thread, which could use its own votes).

I've read over some yes answers, some no answers. Others advocate that it be on a case-by-case basis. For example, a living creature should have to breathe, but an undead one should not. ...or perhaps the undead one must still exhale?

I am curious how this works (it's become a point of contention between some local DMs as well, but I am curious), so please hit FAQ if you agree, as well as visiting the other thread.

Or, if you have a firm resource or reply, feel free to respond.

In either case, if it is useful, please hit FAQ (or direct me to a thread to hit FAQ there as well; I may have missed it, and it would be appreciated).

Just seeking some ideas for alternate capstones for warpriest. I'm looking for something that's a little more "always on" for them, and wondered if others had some suggestions or ideas.

If an Unchained Monk takes this ki power:

Qinggong Power (Su): A monk with this power selects any of the qinggong monk ki powers for which he qualifies based on his monk level. A monk can select this ability multiple times. Each time, he must select a different qinggong monk ki power.

And say, from there they take Cloak of Winds, which under the original Qinggong list is a SLA, is Cloak of Winds then a SU under the Unchained, or a SLA as under the original?

The Qinggong list contains this clarification, which Unchained Monk seems to lack...but references it indirectly/indirectly?

Feats: These ki powers duplicate the effects of specific feats. A monk does not need to qualify for a feat to select it as a ki power. For example, a qinggong monk can select Spring Attack as a ki power even if she doesn’t meet the prerequisites for selecting Spring Attack as a feat. Activating one of these ki powers is a free action on the monk’s turn; until the start of her next turn, the monk is treated as if she had that feat. Some of these ki powers that duplicate feats may also be activated as an immediate action; these powers are noted in the ki powers list.

Monk Abilities: Some ki powers are standard monk abilities. Even if a qinggong monk selects a different ki power in place of a standard monk ability, she can select that monk ability later as one of her ki powers.

Spells: These ki powers duplicate the effects of a spell, and are spell-like abilities. A qinggong monk’s class level is the caster level for these spell-like abilities, and she uses Wisdom to determine her concentration check bonus.

Is there a part I am missing? How do we type these Qinggong powers for an Unchained Monk?

...concept could be a dwarven bread baker PrC, ala Pratchett.

Under the new FAQ, can a druid fly while wearing medium or heavy wild armor?

Question is: If a creature is in a chokehold, can it use a breathweapon? "In a chokehold" assumes the maneuver was a success: that is, the creature is not immune to suffocation, critical hits, and must breathe.

I've never had this worked out. What is, and isn't, doubled on a spirited charge? Is it like Vital Strike?

It just looks too good.

Odd question. I remember back in the day there being an alignment scale, which rated the "goodness" of an alignment. It went something like this:

< -- LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE -- >

Was this something from 2e, something my old DM made up...? It's been a while.

The two players are just good friends, they played together pretty frequently. I wasn't there for the whole campaign; it had a core of four players who went the whole way, with a number of people coming and going as things went on. I sort of drifted in for a while and then out, then back in in time for the finale. I was lucky enough to be there when it all went down though.

Apparently, the wizard's player just checked with the paladin's player to make sure he was okay with some moral quandries coming his way from her character, but assured him that it wasn't anything set up to try and make him fall. The GM ran with it and allowed the wizard to do a number of things in secret via notes and stepping into another room when necessary. The other players knew something was going on but they were never certain what. They certainly weren't expecting her character to break down like she did. The pally's player said he couldn't shake the feeling out of game that the wizard was going to turn on them eventually, or that she was using the party for her own ends. He was genuinely taken by surprise, which made his reaction and what he did next that much more awesome.

After that there was a lot more open talk between the two and the rest of the party about where they wanted to go with their characters. The party was a lot tighter after that.

I'd have loved to be part of it. It reminds me of some great stories that remind me why I love paladins, and love great players who put in that extra effort. Here're some of my favorites:

A paladin several years ago lost everything but her sword, and raising it high over her head, lead the way into the overlord's keep. In 3.5, this is a big thing, and given the poor mechanics of the original 3.5 paladin, it's even bigger, but she challenged them to not back down...and did it with style. If she was willing to go forward, how couldn't they be, they with all their equipment, rest, and health, and still hold their heads up at the end of the day?

It wasn't followed by a blind charge--she listened, acted with wisdom, but she stuck to her guns.

Another, a paladin committed grave acts under a sort of geas, and waking up from that he found his god had deserted him--the memories came back like clouds. He made his way under this cloud of guilt to a friend's house, and refusing to enter, asked her to come with him while he spoke with the priests. He felt unable to enter the house--the children inside represented innocence, and he was not, at the time. He then went with her and her husband to the Atonement. The man had held him down until the geas had ended, and prevented the damage from being worse--so they became witnesses at the trial, and he asked the priest to bless their family while he interceded with the god, because of what they'd done.

Another, a paladin refused payment a village had offered for ridding them of a necromancer, and during the speech by the mayor, not only handed back her share of the money she received, but asked what else she could do. She destroyed the necromancer's tools as well, and then had the area re-consecrated to another deity. Of course, this same paladin threw a fit when a vampire got away, and poured vials of holy water over the escape hatch... a final and frustrated “take that!” as she danced madly atop the stones, throwing paladinic dignity aside.

One other paladin argued for a reduced sentence for a group of young gangsters, and arranged to have them serve the second half of it as part of community service...under a number of the churches, whichever one appeared to have the best chance of converting that particular gang member. Sometimes, it came back and bit him in the butt, but he also gained a number of lifelong friendships from it, and eventually, a lot of help tracking down other members. The boy who aided him looked him in the eye and said, I know you're a good man, and you'll stick by your word, so if I help you, you have to promise me you'll do your best to bring them back alive, so they get the same chance I did. We didn't have a lot of choice, some of us, ending up where we did.

So he did, though it made the final battle harder.

What's your story? Your favorite? What made you keep playing a paladin, inspired you to play one in the first place? I saw some great stories hinted at in other threads, and I'd love to read about them.

Yeah, I believe the best way to counter the "lawful stupid" conception is with information, and different experiences. I can hope it inspires someone. But I want to hear the stories. Hell, that's why I play.

Oh, yeah. And the potato chips.

Anyhow, since this is dedicated to stories, please don't use this to rehash old arguments. As nice as shooting the breeze is, it's stuff that's been said. There are other threads for that. :)

I'll apologize in advance if I leave anything out. :)

It's come up in several places, but I'd just like to throw out there--and put forward a hope that the final Pathfinder changes will make it possible for defenders to be defenders. I hope this will be attacked from several angles--it itself is a complex issue that deserves a multilateral approach.

A survey of the boards shows these suggestions, some echoed by Jason, some not:

- Lifting or lessening the restrictions imposed on movement based on armor could help.

- Adding abilities to paladins, fighters, (monks?) to intercept/slow the BBEG before it gets to the wizard could help. The classic "defender" role, the guy in the heavy armor and shield.

- Adjusting the movement/action disparity between martial classes and casters could help.

- Adjusting the to-hit and AC values of monsters to bring them more in-line could help.

- Including more feats for the S&B fighter to make their role more interesting could help.

- Including more feats for defender-style fighting to make this role more interesting could help.

These are aimed at seeing the defender being a defender, and taken together would seem to approach it from several levels. ...It seems a complex problem, to me, overall, that "just a few feats" or "alot of feats" wouldn't fix. (Besides, "just add a feat!" when it comes to patching just...please no. I don't want my character walking around as "one big patch!" :) )

I like the above ideas, and while we've to some degree, all been treating Pathfinder as the Holy Grail to Fix Everything, I'm going to just say I hope at least it'll alleviate the issue, and make these sorts of PCs more interesting to play.

To anyone, if I've missed your suggestion, it wasn't intentional. I had to sacrifice specifics for generality here, or risk taking up 20 or so pages.

Not quite as bad as the title suggests. The question arises from seeing some strange uses of PrCs that result in characters combining the effects of smite and rage, for example. With the new DR bypass and AC bonus, the two can make a devastating combo, even if the thought of a raging smiter is just beautiful.

Is this a good idea? A bad one?

A choice that comes down to the DM and character customization?

So how does it work? Perhaps I'm blind, but I can't find it!

I imagine fighters taking this feat somewhat often, for instance, and fighters are not casters.

Is this like artificery, ala Ebarron, where the character makes a skill (crafting) check to emulate certain abilities to render certain effects? Could they, with an appropriate skill check, put flaming on a weapon, for example?

Or, is this limited to +1 or +2 style bonuses?

Or, could they do the first example, but it's limited to lower-level effects?

Craft...it's a tool that could use some work. A few threads have touched on this or that aspect (mostly on combining them, or the economics of the skill), but two items in particular could use some help from a mechanical perspective:

1. Complexity
2. Time

As a skill it's intimidating to players, and the time it takes to use it is prohibitive.

If you've never used it, here's an example of how it works:

Bob the Sneak wants to make a set of thieves' tools, masterwork. He's been in The Profession for some time and knows what works for him and what doesn't. That damn ogre guard broke his tools the last time he was caught, so he's in need of replacing them.

1. First, he figures out his modifier. Bob's modifier is +11. He adds a +2 to this for a masterwork craftskit, for a total of +13.

2. Second, he finds the DC to craft, which is 15 for a high quality item.

3. Third, he finds the cost of the item he's aiming to make, which is 100g.

4. He converts this price to silver pieces, for a total of 1000.

5. Now, Bob starts to craft. Under the craft rules, he will roll 1xweek. Assuming Bob gets a roll of 10, his total is 23, which beats the 15 required.

6. Bob tracks his progress for that week. He multiplies the 23 by the DC (which is 23 x 15). 23 x 15 is 345, so he has 345 "points." He has to have 1000 "points" (the price of the item in silver pieces) to have crafted the item.

7. Bob tracks his progress for next week. We'll assume the 10 again. 23 x 15 is 345. So, he's accumulated 345 + 345, or 690 of the "points" he needs to make his item. It's been two weeks so far.

8. Assuming he rolls a 10 again, Bob's finished his item, for a total crafting time of three weeks.

Not so bad, right? It's just complex.

Now, let's have Bob make a masterwork dagger. He likes stabbing people, so he would like something pretty to stab them with.

1. Bob's a "schmott guy," and has a +11 in his crafting check here, too. A masterwork kit gives him a +13.

2. He finds the crafting DC, which is 12.

3. He reads that masterwork portions of items are crafted separately, so figures the cost, in silver, of both the base item and the masterwork.

Dagger: 20
Masterwork: 3000

4. Now, Bob starts to craft. Under the craft rules, he will roll 1xweek. Assuming Bob gets a roll of 10, his total is 23, which beats the 10 required.

5. Bob tracks his progress for that week. He multiplies the 23 by the DC (which is 23 x 10). 23 x 10 is 230, so he has 230 "points." He has to have 20 "points" (the price of the item in silver pieces) to have crafted the item. So, he's done with part one.

6. Bob finds the DC for crafting a masterwork component: it's 20.

7. Now, he begins crafting the "masterwork" portion of the dagger. He tracks his progress for next week. We'll assume the 10 again. 23 x 20 is 469. He needs to reach 3000 to finish. So far, it's been two weeks.

7. Bob's player breaks down and cries. It will take seven weeks total to finish the masterwork component of his dagger, for a total of eight weeks from start to finish.

At the end, Bob finalizes his costs. The cost for crafting the tools is 100/3, or 33 gold. The cost for crafting the dagger is 2/3, or roughly 7 silvers, plus 300/3, or 100 gold and 7 silvers.

Had he failed on his rolls by 5 or more, he would have needed to invest more time and materials. The failure reads: "ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again."

I think this means "one half of one third," since one third is what you'd invested, which is...alot of bookkeeping. :) It could use some clarification.