Swordsmasher's page

here's my ranger Homebrew.

Swordsmasher's Ranger

I reworked a bunch of stuff, got rid of spells, added more combat feats and changed them around some.

Also, I took Jump out of Acrobatics, and Added it, Climb, and Swim to Athletics.

Some of the feats in the combat style feats list are also homebrew, but basically (not complete writeups):

Rapid Strike: works like rapid shot but with a melee weapon.
Flurry Strike: as a standard action you can make an attack with your main and off-hand weapon.
Combat Archery, Combat Rifleman: Allow the user to shoot at a target without provoking an attack of opportunity.

and I wrapped Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot into one feat, which I called Precise Shot.

here's a preview

Rifleman: If the Ranger selects rifleman weapon style, he gains proficiency with two-handed firearms and begins play with a battered blunderbuss or musket, and only he knows how to use it properly. All other creatures treat his gun as if it had the broken condition. If the weapon already has the broken condition, it does not work at all for anyone else trying to use it. This starting weapon can only be sold for scrap (it's worth 4d10 gold when sold).
The ranger can choose from the following list whenever he gains a combat style feat: Amateur Gunslinger, Deadly Aim, Focused Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Reload, and Weapon Focus. At 6th level, he adds Combat Rifleman and Improved Precise Shot to the list. At 9th level he adds Disengaging Shot and Pinpoint Targeting.

Hunter (Ex): A number of times per day equal to the Ranger's Wisdom modifier, the ranger can name a creature as a Favored Enemy (see the Ranger Favored Enemies table). Naming a creature as a favored enemy requires a swift action. The ranger gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks against his favored enemies. Likewise, he gets a +2 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against them. A ranger may make Knowledge skill checks untrained when attempting to identify these creatures. If the ranger chooses humanoids or outsiders as a favored enemy, he must also choose an associated subtype (such as elves for Humanoids, or fire for outsiders). (Note that there are other types of humanoid to choose from—those called out specifically on the table below are merely the most common.) If a specific creature falls into more than one category of favored enemy, the ranger's bonuses do not stack; he simply uses whichever bonus is higher.

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Enjoy!!!

Here's the wizard I am going to be using in my campaign. I fiddled with a lot of stuff, including adding in some of the Item familiar stuff from the Unearthed Arcana, with some tweakage.

also, just so you know, in my campaign Metamagic feats work on a per day basis. Each feat allows itself to be used once per day when the caster is casting the spell (casting time is not increased unless the feat specifically says so). The caster can also activate his metamagic feats an additional number of times each day equal to his Constitution modifier. So, if Gandalf Jr. Has a Con of 13+, and two metamagic feats, he could use each of his metamagic feats once per day, and then activiate one of them one more time each day.

I changed the powers some of the familiars grant.
I changed many of the granted powers of the specialist schools.
I also changed the spells per day column for some of the higher level spells s it fit with the rest of the pattern for spell advancement.

Here is the Link to my wizard.

The Wizard

I got me one of them Google Sites linked from d20pfsrd, trying it out now.

I uploaded a few of them handy pdf's that contain some of the house rules I am using. Some I made up, some I collected from the d20srd.

I use them in conjunction with each other. so, hopefully the links and downloads work!

Class Defense Bonuses

Armor As DR Spiced Up

Here's how I am running the half-orc as of right now.

+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom or Charisma, -2 Intelligence: Half-Orc's are strong, and can be very wise and have strong personalities, but they tend to be unlearned.

Medium: Half-Orc's are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Normal Speed: Half-Orc's have a base speed of 30 feet.

Darkvision: Half-Orc's can see in the dark up to 60 feet.

Intimidating: Half-Orc's get a +2 bonus to intimidate checks due to their fearsome nature.

Orc Blood: Half-Orc's count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.

Half-Orc Ferocity: When the half-orc gains the Bloody condition (obviously 1/2 max hp or less), he gets a +1 bonus to attack rolls.

Powerful Blows: Whenever the half-orc deals damage with a melee attack, he adds 1 ½ times his Strength modifier to the damage (he adds twice his strength modifier when attacking with a two-handed weapon).

Languages: Half-orcs begin play speaking Common and Orc. Half-orcs with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Abyssal, Draconic, Giant, Gnoll, and Goblin.

First, I want to say How much i love Pathfinder and how much I love UC. Good work.

Now.

I have always been looking for a good Armor as DR system. What follows is my thoughts and feelings after several sessions using the armor as DR rule printed in UC.

-I am the gamemaster.

-The Defense Score rule needs work. Honestly, my players and the bad guys were getting hit left and right. Without the armor as DR they'd be D-E-D! After the first session, I wrote some modified Class Defense Bonus rules culled from Unearthed Arcana, and that seemed to work ok.

-As written, the characters base attack bonus and all feats, abilities, etc. that increase the attack bonus are meaningless, due to the fact that the actual attack roll is nearly meaningless, unless the opponent has dodge and deflection style bonuses out the wazoo.

-What does become important is the damage roll. The pc has only a few options when it comes to increasing his damage roll, and the Armor as DR rules as printed almost railroads the weapon wielding pc's into getting bigger and badder weapons.

-And, unless I am doing something wrong, as soon as everyone has magical weapons, the system no longer works anyway, unless the armor is Adamantine. So, most everyone will be walking around with low AC's in armor that offers 0 protection against anyone equal to or slightly higher than themselves in power.

-During the game, the players were getting frustrated because they were rolling well on the attack roll (meaningless as the bad guy had a defense of 11, it was a 1st level adventure) and they couldn't get past his DR. Ultimately, they ended up pulling a Goku vs. Raditz vs. Piccolo, where the two strongest in the group would try and hold the enemy down while they took turns attacking him, because being pinned and held bypasses the armor as DR.

-And, strangely enough, at the end of the latest adventure, the pc's made level 3, two of them went and took a level of sorcerer and picked the Arcane Strike feat.

In conclusion, I really think there is a need for an armor as DR system, especially if you are using Firearms in your campaign, as I am, but I feel that this system is flawed, and either needs more work, or needs to be redone. And there needs to be a defense bonus system added to increase the AC/Defense naturally as one levels ie the base Attack Bonus. And the critical defense roll is confusing until you get the math down.

What are some of your experiences?

1. Does Adamantine armor still grant DR 3/-?
1A. If so, does it stack with the DR/Armor granted by the armor?

2. Is there a minimum damage rule somewhere?

3. Can I also assume that spells that grant AC (such as Mage Armor, etc.) grants DR/Armor when cast by the spellcaster?

I came up with this after reading through Ultimate Combat (AWESOMENESS INCARNATE!) and not finding an official one.

I loved the gunslinger, and the gun rules, and i love the armor as DR rules, however, i do think that unarmored warriors should get a treatment as well (not MONK style).

this system was designed to be used in conjunction with the Defense variant and the Armor as DR variant in Ultimate Combat. It is based on a character's armor proficiences. The defense bonus granted is effective against touch attacks. The defense bonus is based on character level and armor proficiencies, so it doesn't matter what classes you have when determining your defense bonus.

Character Level: 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/14/14/15/16/17/18/19/20

No Armor Prof: +0/+0/+1/+1/+1/+2/+2/+2/+3/+3/+3/+4/+4/+4/+5/+5/+5/+6/+6/+6

Light Armor: +1/+1/+2/+2/+2/+3/+3/+3/+4/+4/+4/+5/+5/+5/+6/+6/+6/+7/+7/+7

Light,Medium:+2/+2/+3/+3/+3/+4/+4/+4/+5/+5/+5/+6/+6/+6/+7/+7/+7/+8/+8/+8

Lgt,Med,Hvy: +3/+3/+4/+4/+4/+5/+5/+5/+6/+6/+6/+7/+7/+7/+8/+8/+8/+9/+9/+9

I have been gaming for over half my life (i am approaching my fat-beard stage of development, early 30's and all that). I've run dozens of different games across the board, and read hundreds of gaming manuals.

Ultimate Combat is one of the BEST gaming manuals I have ever read.

I loved 99% of the book.

The only issue i had with the book was the absence of an armorless combat rule. The armorless combat option could be used in conjunction with the armor as DR rules, for those characters or campaigns that do not use armor.

i have seen many different systems used in different ways through the d20 systems, but i would like to see one that is viable for the Pathfinder game.

and coming this week to a Pathfinder game near you, Samurai Jack-tion!

here's something I cooked up while listening to Alestorm and drinking Rum. It's an Aristocrat class, and i called it the Aristocrat because honestly i couldn't think of anything better at the time. In my campaign i am using them as heroic only, so only really important npc's get to level in this class.

so here it is. (p.s. It's a Draft 1 format right now, so....)

Aristocrat
Aristocrats are those born into wealth or a high position. Many are content to live these lives of luxury, but still others want more. They turn to adventuring to increase their wealth, business ventures, and political holdings.

Hit die: d8

Class Skills
The aristocrat's class skills (and key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str), and Survival (Wis).

Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier

Base Attack progression: Medium
Good Save: Will
level / Class Features and Such
1st: 1st Passion, Influence, Retainer, Wealth and Power
2nd: Fighting Flair, Scorn -1
3rd: 1st Combat Instruction, Untraceable Funds
4th: Shrewdness, Resist Charms
5th: 2nd Passion, Improved Retainer I
6th: Scorn -2, Holding
7th: Leadership, Improved Wealth and Power
8th: 2nd Combat Instruction
9th: Uncanny Cognizance
10th: 3rd Passion, Scorn -3, Improved Retainer II
11th: Improved Followers
12th: 3rd Combat Instruction
13th: Improved Holding
14th: Scorn -4
15th: 4th Passion, Improved retainer III
16th: Supreme Wealth and Power
17th: 4th Combat Instruction
18th: Scorn -5
19th: 5th Passion
20th: Improved retainer IV, Power Of The Kings

Class Features
The following are class features of the aristocrat.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: An aristocrat is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields (except tower shields).

Combat Instruction: An aristocrat gets the best combat instruction that money can buy. At 3rd level the aristocrat may select a favored weapon. The aristocrat gains a bonus combat feat which can only be used while wielding that weapon. At 8th level and every five levels thereafter the aristocrat gains an additional favored weapon and a bonus combat feat which can only be used while wielding a favored weapon.

Fighting Flair (Ex): An aristocrat may use his Charisma modifier instead of his strength modifier on melee attack rolls.

Holding: An aristocrat gains a tiny village, small castle, or medium sized mansion with enough land to support all of the vassals required to run the day to day operations of the type of estate the aristocrat wishes.
At 13th level the Aristocrat may upgrade his holding to a small town, a medium sized castle, or a large mansion.

Improved Followers (Ex): An aristocrat's wealth, power, and influence spread far through his realm, and many beings flock to his banner. He gains double the amount of followers of each level from his Leadership feat.

Influence (Ex): An aristocrat adds half her class level (minimum 1) to Diplomacy checks made to influence the attitudes of non-player characters, and can use Diplomacy to influence a given creature's attitude one additional time in a 24-hour period.

Leadership: An aristocrat has earned enough favor that people flock to him to support his causes or whims and desires. He gains Leadership as a bonus feat.

Power Of The Kings (Ex): An aristocrat's wealth, political power, or business ventures have become so great that he commands many lesser people's lives. He gains five times the normal amount of followers of each level from his Leadership feat. In addition, his holding improves to a small city, a fortified citadel, or a huge mansion. Also, his family's fortunes or business venture's mature fully, and he gains an amount of money equal to 1,000,000 gp's.

Wealth and Power (Ex): An aristocrat is teeming with money, and in most cases that equates to power. Whenever an aristocrat class level is gained, the character gains 1,000 gp's x his aristocrat class level. This includes 1st level.
At 7th level, the aristocrat's family fortunes expand, or his business ventures improved. He now gains 5,000 gp's x his aristocrat level whenever he gains a class level. At 16th level the aristocrat becomes the epitome of wealth and monetary gain. He now gains 10,000 gp's x his aristocrat level whenever he gains a class level.

Passion (Ex): At 1st level the Aristocrat selects a skill. He gets a +2 bonus to all checks made with that skill. At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (10th, 15th, and 20th level), the aristocrat may select an additional skill. In addition, at each such interval, the bonus to one skill (even the one just selected) increases by +2.

Resist Charms (Ex): An aristocrat gets a +4 bonus to saving throws against enchantment spells and effects.

Retainer: An aristocrat has a loyal follower that aids him in his daily life. The loyal follower is a 1st level non-heroic npc who gains xp and treasure rewards as a cohort, and is treated as a cohort for all intents and purposes. The retainer begins play with no weapons, armor, or equipment. It is up to the aristocrat to equip and arm his retainer. Should the retainer ever die, the aristocrat must pay a sum of money to the retainer's next of kin equal to 100 gp's x the retainer's level. If the aristocrat does not pay this mount, he cannot gain the services of a new retainer. If the aristocrat wishes to gain the services of a new retainer, he must buy out his current retainer's contract for a sum of money equal to 10 gp's x the retainer's level, and then offer a contract to a new retainer for a sum of money equal to 10 gp's x the retainer's level. A retainer is always an npc and can never possess heroic pc class levels.
At 5th level an aristocrat's retainer becomes more powerful, and can possess 1 level of a heroic class. At 10th level, and every five levels thereafter (15th and 20th) an aristocrat's retainer can possess an additional level in a heroic class.

Scorn: Starting at 2nd level, all attacks made against an aristocrat suffer a -1 penalty. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels beyond 2nd.

Shrewdness (Ex): An aristocrat knows the value of knowledge, and may use his Intelligence modifier instead of his Wisdom modifier when making Will saving throws.

Uncanny Cognizance (Ex): An aristocrat is proficient in seeing through others plans and true intentions. Any Bluff and Intimidate checks made against him automatically fail. This ability has no effect if the creature attempting the Bluff or Intimidate check has four or more hit dice than the aristocrat.

Untraceable Funds (Ex): An aristocrats political and commercial dealings are now unknown to common folk for the purposes of gather information checks. In addition, the DC of any gather information check made against the aristocrat for the purposes of uncovering any political or commercial information have the DC increased by +5.
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That's my baby. It's a 1st draft, and in constant revision.

My thoughts:
I am iffy on Wealth and Power. It might need reduction in amount of cash.
if i have any more thoughts, or any playtest notes and/or glitches, i'll post em.

thanks for reading

I am not looking for a feat or class ability to add this.

What i am looking for is if anyone has actually added the Dex mod as damage to all ranged attacks in much the same way as strength is added to melee attacks, and what their experiences with the rule were like.

I have bruited it about for a while, and I am going to try it in my new campaign, and i was looking for others input.

thanks

So, tonight while rolling up a character with my 9 year old she discovered I had several dice (d6's) with pictures instead of number 1's.
So, she rolled her stats (4d6, drop lowest, she got: 7, 16, 17, 16, 17, 13).

So, anyway, she asked me why the pictures counted as 1's. I told her that's the way the dice makers made it. So she said "Why don't we have them count as 6's, and the 6 count as 1."

Smegging brilliant!

So, my 9 year old's house rule is that if you roll a d6 with a pic as a number 1, it counts as a 6 if the pic comes up.

Do you guys have any dice rules?

and how do i get the link to be clickable?
:)

I've never had a player take this feat in any of my games.

I was just wondering if anyone out there has taken it, and if so, what kind of benefits can it really give you?

Apart from the rare occasion when the GM might deny the wizard of his spellbook, I can find no other application for this feat.

In fact, I am thinking about homebrewing the darn thing to just allow the Wizard to select a number of spells equal to his int modifier that he can spontaneously cast by expending already prepared spells.

anyone?

Ok, I see the whole 25 x spell level x caster level thing, but i also saw somewhere else a price for ink and materials to scribe the scroll? I am a bit confused, and I am only charging the pc's 1/2 the 25 x cl x spell level for the scroll. what is the extra cost, and where can i find it?
or is it considered to be subsumed in the 25 x cl x spell level already?

Is there anyone out there who made their own? or is there a site that details the process?

I am thinking about taking the top from my old card table (it's cardboard). The top is held onto the metal frame with small l-brackets, so I am taking some plywood, gonna cut it to fit the mateal frams, and screw it on with l-brackets. then of course i will sand that sucker, and then i am going to use a sharpie to draw the squares using a measure tape and a straight edge.

then i am going to take some clear plastic, an affix it to the board, so i can dry or wet erase.

just looking for some advice or other methods before i build.

thanks

More Specifically, are they NPC classed or Hero classed? And what would be the best way to switch between the two?

do i add the cost of special materials to the price of the armor for crafting purposes. if so, it will take 98 weekes (with taking 10 on a +27 armorsmithing) check to make mithral full plate.

if i add a special material (say mithral) to an item, does it get added into the craft equation for the time it takes to make the item?

because if so, if i did this right:

full plate 1,500
mithral +9,000
equals 10500
in sp it is 105000
my dwarfs craft check is +27, so if i take 10 that makes 37.
the dc to make the armor is 19, so if i add 10 to complete faster that makes 29.
multiplying the two means i craft 1073 sp per week
so it takes 97 weeks to create.

the fastest my dwarf could craft regular full plate is 13 weeks.

am i right?

So I go online and I find a really beautiful roman mini for my upcoming game, and I order that sucker, and a few days later in the mail i get an unpainted metal mini with a shield i apparently have to glue on.

I am slightly dissapointed because i assumed because the pic showed a wonderfully painted roman centurion that that's what i would get.

but anyway, I learned my lesson, and now I am taking the opportunity to learn how to glue and paint minis. so, does anyone have any adive and/or good websites with extensive information for the art-challenged individual like myself?

thanks.

I am not sure if someone already made one or if there is an official one, but here are some of my ideas.

if there was a firearms combat style for rangers, what feats would be on the list?

I would think Deadly Aim, Far Shot, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot.

6th level Improved Precise Shot, Rapid Reload (Modified for Firearms)

10th Level Pinpoint Targeting, Shot On The Run

With a Nod to maybe Mounted Archery.

What do you guys think?

I just went through the book again, and I didn't find a cost for gunpowder. Am I missing it, or is it considered to be part of the cost for bullets?

thanks.

Anyone do anything interesting with Action Points?

I'm speaking old school style, not 4e style.

Right now I award my players 5 + 1/2 character level when they level up.
They can spend any amount of action points during an encounter (but certain effects can only be used just so may times).

Here are some of the things they can do.

1. Add the result of a d6 to the d20 roll. (Once per die roll, any number of times per encounter. I also allow them to spend more than 1 in a turn.)

2. Roll the d30 instead of the d20. (Usable once per encounter. Recalculating critical hit ranges can be a slight headache if you don't know ratios.)

3. Instantly Stabilize if your dying.

4. Use a power or ability that is only usable 1/day a second time per day. (2 action points, 1/day, this option cannot be used to select this option)

5. Apply a metamagic feat to a spell without increasing its levels or increasing the casting time (1 action point, + 1/2 the amount of levels the spell would be increased, minimum 2 action points). Can be used on spells already prepared.

6. Increase Speed by 5ft. for 1 round. (1 action point)

Also, if i make a mistake and my player's catch me, I award them an action point. If one of the players springs for chips or soda they get an action point (extra if the chips are cooler ranch doritos and the soda is throwback dew, heh heh).

And I liked the idea of healing surges, but my players are into the grim and gritty idea of hp, so they hate them. However, I was toying around with spending an action point to gain temp hp equal to 1/4 your total, usable maybe 1/encounter.

what are some other uses you guys use them for?

I keep seeing this word. What does it mean?

Also, is there a site somewhere that has a glossary for obscure gaming terms?

thanks.

Are the rules for temporary hit points exactly as they were in 3.5, or have they changed somewhat for Pathfinder? I was looking in the Pfsrd and all i could find was the basic rules for them (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering---final/combat---final#TOC-Temporary -Hit-Points).

also, if a character is at negative hit points, and they receive temporary hit points, are they able to act?

thanks again for all your help.

A few of you have seen me around the board a bit. thanks again to all who have helped me. My group and I have been together for quite a few years now (nearing 17 years! wow). Anyway, we tried 4th and it didn't suit us, and on a whim ran a Pathfinder and it was like we were coming home again!

So anyway, a couple of questions did pop out last session.

1. Does the damage added from Power Attack multiply on a critical hit?

2. My player is a barbarian/rogue and he has Unexpected Strike. Is there any way he can add his sneak attack damage to the attack of opportunity gained with the unexpected strike?

3. The same player is trying to build a spring loaded dagger into his leg armor, and I was wondering what skill that would be.

thats all i can think of for now. thanks a lot.

I am creating some feats that require Armor Training as a prerequisite, and I was wondering what the proper notation would be for them.

Such as
Armor Training I
Armor Training II

or
Armor Training +1
Armor Training +2

or

Armor Training x 1
Armor Training x 2

any help would be much appreciated.

If things go according to plan (yeah right? lol) one of the pc's is going to be crucified by the Death Knight Campaign BBEG and i was wondering if there were actual rules anywhere for this.

ok, the other night the pc's were facing down a pair of npc's. one of them charged the parties barbarian, who used his unexpected strike power and scored a crit, dealing over 50 damage. the npc failed the fort save and died from massive damage. i want to use this event to turn the barbs sword into a legacy weapon, and i am looking for some good Omen ideas to clue the player on. any ideas?

also, the sword currently has the broken condition due to almost being sundered by the 2nd npc, and tomorrows adventure the mending spell is gonna fail. the wizard gets to tell the pc his swords magic has changed and improved drastically, which is the first clue.

the wizard reveals to the player that there is a nearby volcano in which resides a macguffin which will aid the pc in repairing his sword.

i intend to use the quest to introduce the player to his legacy weapon.

thanks for idears.

My first house rule to the Pathfinder system deals with how we roll critical damage.

We maximize one die roll, then roll the second (or third for x3 damage).

So if Billy gets a crit with his longsword, which normally deals 1d8+4 damage, his crit damage would be 1d8+16.

Is it possible to declare a power attack when Sundering? My player tried it tonight, and I allowed it, but i subtracted the power attack modifier from his CMB roll.