So, I inadvertently ended up GMing a game (GM stepped down, I stepped up), and it has been pretty fascinating. I've helped DM a lot and played, but never been the main one for a game of Pathfinder.
I just had a player use his Wild Arcana Mythic Archmage ability within reach of a few very doomed and soon to be toasty worgs. He doesn't seem to have any ability that prevents an AoO, and he has not cast defensively (Though, if he decides that he wants to, I will let him).
He says it shouldn't provoke, and cites that Quickened doesn't.
I pointed out that Quickened is not what he did, a quickened spell is a swift action spell, but a swift action spell is not a quickened spell.
Is there a ruling on this? I have looked, but my search-fu does fail me frequently.
Additionally, and a side issue, am I being overly rules oriented? I sometimes feel I'm being a little overly strict with this player, I've seen a few games where he can get out of control if given too much rules bypassing leash... never maliciously, just natural player behavior. He's a pretty nice guy, but opinionated, like me.
Second off, my posts have occasionally gotten people worked up a bit, not at me, but at what what other players have done that I ended up asking about (Not saying that this is the case here, but I never really know what will cause that XD). So, relax, chill, and read on. The players involved are my friends, and to date everything they've ever done is from ignorance or misunderstanding. Never maliciousness.
So, had an interesting conversation with a friend/player. He was lamenting that he couldn't afford an awesome amazing 100K+ weapon in a game we were in at our level.
Unless he were allowed to start a business in the game of course, because apparently you can make absurd amounts of money doing so.
I pointed out that we really didn't have downtime in that game, so, it really wouldn't work, he disagreed, but he seemed to drop it.
Fast forward to a game where that friend/player is the GM, and we have another player join, one who is a good friend of that GM, and has shown him ways to "break" pathfinder in the past (Last time being the Candle of "Hi, I'm Pun-Pun"). Lo and behold, he was allowed leadership (Previously banned, GM says it was always restricted, but no, it was effectively banned, you couldn't take it, it could only be given for story reasons (Such as becoming Mayor of a town, etc.)), and has turned his leadership into a Large Business.
Which kinda tells me where the original player got the "Make tons of money for awesome stuff" idea.
My concern, is that in the past, both friends have displayed a lack of understanding of pathfinders rules, frequently mistaking their homebrew from other games with actual rules (More one than the other), or making their own without a proper understanding of what our group has come to refer to as "Base Pathfinder rules" (Almost anything published by Paizo, mostly as a result of me saying, repeatedly, "Well, that may be how it is in your version of Pathfinder/DnD, but in the actual Base Pathfinder game it works [this way] for [this reason], and if it doesn't, then [list of balance problems] results.", thankfully my group values me for this, and doesn't find my tendency towards LAWR a problem).
Could be jumping at shadows on this one, but, rather know what I'm talking about ahead of time. I've arrived at this, by one person telling me he found a system in "Base Pathfinder" to make enough money to afford an amazing item, and in that person's game, someone who routinely shows him new "Creative uses of game mechanics" starts playing, using that supposed system.
If it ends up that his set-up is just a roleplaying prop. I will owe him an apology (And actually deliver it, wouldn't be the first time), and I officially will stop caring. I have no problem with him having leadership, or a merc troop. I'm only concerned about balance. Hell, playing a character in charge of a Merc troop sounds like it could be fun.
So:
1) Is there a good guide on using the business running (Alternate profession, also downtime rules) somewhere?
2) Does any of the following make sense to anyone, we're level 6, and we started with 33K gold.
He's apparently making a mercenary company, and letting his followers/cohorts run it.
Heck, his character seems purpose built towards this goal.
3) Can you seriously make lots of money with this?
4) I don't really have any problem with a player making tons of money (Opposite really), I'm more concerned about the other players taking this to other games. We have several games going on at the same time, and any understanding, tactics, etc shown in one game, rapidly end up in another. Several of these games GM's frequently use me as a sounding board, and rely upon me for rules based questions (Severe blind leading the blind here...). Do you think this game system would cause balance issues?
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Full Disclosure: I was originally going to make a Knowledge monkey/item creation wizard. I didn't want a combat role. GM made it a lot more difficult for me to do so, and still be valuable to the party... so I made a Blockbuster blaster wizard. After this other characters reveal, I asked, and received permission (Sorta) to to take leadership myself, and am taking on an apprentice. The Apprentice is not mine yet, it's a level 3 NPC, and I'll be taking care of him. The apprentice will specialize in item creation for the party. And I've spent almost as much time building his backstory and personality as I did my character (I do not have Leadership yet, as I must ear it storymode, unlike the other player). My intent isn't to game the system, I just recall how difficult item creation was in his game last time, and thought having it in the party would be helpful. My character has no items made by the apprentice, and I have not benefited from their feats.
I realize that this does potentially make me look the pot to his kettle. XD
But, I've never played a character who has had another character they're responsible for, and I'm going to have so much fun doing so! :D
It's entirely possible that the other player wants to do something similar and, as I mentioned above, if that's what he's up to (And not attempts at creating game mechanics advantages), more power to him! :D
If he does start making tons of money, I intend to make sure that he doesn't try to utilize the apprentice to start mass-producing magic items for him. The apprentice is there to help the party's utility and flexibility, as well as for role play, not to be a cog in a money making machine.
When it comes to healing (ignoring the boos and hisses) and buffing, I always end up thinking more of a divine version of the wizard, so, that's what I'm going to try and do.
I'm going to be using one of the following: the third party Priest class (why wasn't this just written as a archetype? Probably the increased spellcasting), the Lazio Ecclesitheurge archetype, or the third party Theosiphist archetype.
The idea is a more booky support type, that's not really good at hacky stabby combat.
Thing is, aside from diplomancers, archers, and characters whom I never got to use their classes fully, I've never played support.
Or, really, a caster for that matter.
So, any tips, tricks, or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Well, as long as it's not "do something else noob", though, if someone makes a good case for it, I'll certainly listen. I'm mainly just tired of combat, and want to find something else to do.
(Typed via tablet, links coming, hopefully autocorrect doesn't screw me too much.)
You put yourself in danger's path to save your allies.
Prerequisite: Bodyguard.
Benefit: While using the aid another action to improve an adjacent ally's AC, you can intercept a successful attack against that ally as an immediate action, taking full damage from that attack and any associated effects (bleed, poison, etc.). A creature cannot benefit from this feat more than once per attack.
It says it was answered, but I couldn't find it in the faqs.
And finally, is there a definition somewhere for what qualifies as Adjacent for Game terms? "Next too" seems obvious, but I was hoping for exact wording.
Hey, so. I just started running a Pathfinder game, after ending my first ever game as a GM (Savage Worlds Variant), and scheduling with our group has been difficult. With most of us being in College as well as jobs and such, it's becoming an issue in terms of story progression (and people also don't like missing games, the more important one in my opinion).
I was wondering if anybody would have a suggestion for a website that hosts forums (Free or otherwise) where I could move my game too, it being something I'd never looked into before.
Yes, I'm aware that Paizo has campaign threads (First place I looked). Kinda wanting to make it so that the beginner RPer's can learn to RP without having to worry about prying eyes. XD
Don't you just LOVE that moment where you learn something about your character you legitimately didn't know already?
Where they grow past what you had defined for them, and they become more than what you had originally planned?
I had a character whom had no faith in gods, at all. She made her own way, and didn't even use hero points. XD
But, she was beginning to despair of her ability to help others. No matter how much she tried, the number of people who needed help, seemed to increase, not decrease. I had meant her to effectively begin to give into despair, to make questionable choices, to see what would happen to a character who's goal was unachievable, and knew it, but refused to give up.
Then she found an arrow. A magic arrow. And a giant demon that was about to eat them, was shot by said arrow. That demon reached over, grabbed her, and hugged her instead.
The arrow had unlocked it's alignment, and allowed it to choose what it wanted to be. It was incredibly confused by the situation, but, was willing to try and think it's way through things.
When she fired the arrow, she saw a symbol of Sarenrae. She thought it was a bit "Too little, too late.", but, that arrow had potentially saved the lives of various party members. And, she kept using it.
It became a powerful weapon against evil, burning with holy fire what couldn't be redeemed, giving a chance to those who could (And failed the will save XD). And she felt hope for the first time, perhaps, with this artifact of those gods who never do anything, she could make a difference after all.
But no amount of powerful weapons can make one character able to take on all the evils of the world, I knew she would fall eventual-
And then she found out that the arrow wasn't a magic weapon.
It WAS a god. A lesser god, child of other gods, not yet born. And it, SHE, had been fighting alongside her all along.
This is a long post. TL;DR? My Friend doesn't care about rules, does what he wants as a player or GM, and I'm tired of dealing with it, and getting treated like s@+% by him for it.
First off, the player and GM in question, is my friend. That relationship has gotten strained recently-... okay, not recently. For the last year almost.
It's gotten to the point where I'm effectively the rule police, and that's not a position I'd like to be in. Especially considering my lack of experience, both in depth and duration. This has put me in conflict with that player/GM frequently, and while I'm generally as polite as I can be without lessening my argument (polite, but as forceful as the argument needs to be), he feels no similar constraint, and will yell back, and insult me frequently.
Be it reminding him that, No, he can't cast quickened scorching ray. One, he has no spell slot for that high for it, two, he didn't have scorching ray prepared, and three, you're not a spontaneous caster, you're a wizard/cleric mystic theurge. Yes, I know you don't have it prepared, you had to ask the GM, "What's that fire spell that's Spell level 2? Scorching ray? Okay, I have three prepared. I'm going to quicken..." etc.
Or that you only get one AOO on a given action. I think he was about to rule otherwise and throw out Pathfinder's version, until I reminded him that I was all for him throwing it out. I have snap shot, improved snap shot, and 9 possible AOO with an average hit of 150 damage for a single attack (GM's, don't give your players OP artifacts and millions of gold, please), and it would be a massive buff for me. He didn't overturn it.
Or my favorite, when he didn't give the party a saving throw against a Home Brewed phantasmal killer turned creature, because no one had tried to "Disbelieve" or even mentioned that they thought it was an illusion. You know, aside from when we had, 2 sessions earlier at the very beginning.
I've posted tangentially about this here:
Wizard here.
Wizard here.
Wizard here (Turns out he wasn't casting from spellbooks, he was putting scrolls IN books, everything else is mostly right).
Wizard here (Later got in an argument with him about the candle. I said he couldn't make one anyway, we only started with 3K, he said it was only 1K gold or so. I showed him a CRB with the price in excess of what we had, and his friend said that they must have gotten it from a magazine or something).
GM here (He later, as the wizard, assaulted a party member with far more deadly force as revenge for a surprisingly similar situation, the irony was as delicious as it was disappointing that I found it delicious).
GM here.
Wizard here.
There's a few more, but, these are really the relevant ones.
He was convinced that GM's are supposed to be the player's true enemy, and while we weaned him away form that, he keeps coming back to it. And now it's true, because me and him are effectively opposing each other, which is not something I want or like.
He thinks that the base rules are no fun, and that his rulings make things more fun, contrary to what is said (I'm the only person who says anything, because no one else knows enough to call him on it, I've organized people to do so, but now I'm effectively organizing the players behind his back...), and when called on it, gets defensive, and loud.
He thinks throwing impossible bosses/monsters at us that we need to gimmick to death his "Challenging" ("Well, you didn't NEED to fight the graveknight that was destroying you, you could have destroyed it for free by using that door mechanism that I didn't adequately describe. Yes, I'm aware that most of the players are only on their 5th or so session of their first RPG, are underlevel for this and I threw it at you in a ridiculously close space") and fun. We're up against a 1,000 foot tall demon 9it dwarfs mountains) that is literally making a Solar Angel (A OP broken one too) quake in her boots, and he has told us that if we try to do our usual thing, we will all die, so we best think up a strategy that will take it out in between sessions (Mine is shoot it with arrows, yes I'm aware that is a stupid idea).
I'm tired of his throwing out the rules when he wants to, without any warning to us, I'm tired of not knowing how things work in a system that everyone should know, just because he thinks his logic and sense of fun is superior to the rules, and never ONCE consults us, the players, on anything. I'm tired of being the watch dog, and keeping an eye on things, because if I don't players die when they shouldn't, and the rules are frequently used to pick on one player in particular because the GM doesn't like him, while he treats another player with a degree of favoritism that's so blatant EVERYONE knows it. And I'm tired of not being able to talk to him about ANY of this, because he just gets pissed and stops listening. I'm tired of him changing things during gameplay for no reason other than his own logic/sense of fun, and doing it on a player by player basis...
I thought he was getting better. He had told me, after pointing out that killing a player by dm fiat is perhaps NOT the best way to go, and that the player actually had a nearly 50-50 chance to survive the encounter (the gm let the player try, and wonders on wonders, he survived easily), that I was to never contradict a ruling of his. I told him to his face, that if he ever said anything like that again, I was gone. I wasn't calling him out because he was bad, or because he sucked. I was telling him what the base rules said, and not allowing him to steamroll people. Just because he has a lot going on in his life, doesn't mean he should take it out on us, his friends. We had a moment of actual healing, everyone was happy, everything is working better-ish.
And then he threw that demon at us, and started obviously changing DCs on things mid-game, to the players detriment.
I'm tired of all of this.
But I'm even more tired of being bitter and angry about this, of being unable to separate his actions from the friend I used to know. I can't say a nice thing about him anymore, and I can see that that is affecting my other friends, I'm not able to differentiate things with him anymore. My judgement is heavily respected in my group of friends, far more than it should be, what I have to say typically has a lot of weight. Even more so, my decisions do too. If I leave his game, his game dies. No, not because I'm awesome and full of myself, I know this because several players have outright TOLD me this. And the two that remain wouldn't remain long. This could also partially destroy our other game, which has all the same people in it, with a GM whom is quite simply, the second best GM I've ever HAD. And considering this is his SECOND campaign? The guy is going to be an AMAZING GM when he gets a bit more under his belt.
I can't talk to him, I can't leave without causing an absurd and disproportionate amount of damage to our group, and I can't keep being this bitter and angry, you can see it in my writing I'm sure.
Can you help me paizo forums? Can you see something I'm missing? :(
Hell, not to throw a pity party, but just some positive encouragement might do for now.
Or just advice on how to weather it, from those who've done so already, anything really.
Also, if anyone thinks I should delete this, as it has no place here, or I'm being a whiny... wimp. lemme know, I will do so.
This is something that's been discussed off and on in the group I play in, but no one has really directly called the players in question on this tactic after they used it. It's a dead topic, but, I finally got frustrated enough with that player's Supposed experience, but in actuality complete lack of knowledge about the system he's using, to ask.
In a fight, a pseudo pacifistic wizard had taken no damage spells, and had nothing to hurt people as a result. Just battlefield control spells, and for some reason he decided to not use those.
Instead, he used Mage Hand's (Yes, plural, he had multiple prepared, and one as a SLA for his race, which somehow means he can have more than one going at the same time) to try to break the monster's neck.
The GM didn't really like this, but it was his second time DMing, and the two players were arguing that this was possible had literally decades of experience each under their respective belts. So, he allowed the wizard to slowly throttle the monster to (Almost) Death (It got better).
The player was pissed. He hadn't wanted to cause it pain or hurt it, just remove the threat it represented, and periodically brings up the injustice that decision represented to his character.
So, here are the questions:
1) The primary argument was that since they can lift 5 pounds, they can apply more than 5 pounds of force each. And having 3-4 of em adds it together. the average human neck only needs 15 pounds of pressure to break. The GM could find nothing in Mage hand that said it could be used to do anything other than lift things.
2) If you have more than one prepared, or from different sources, you can have multiple going according to these two highly experienced players. Oddly enough, aside from their experience, we've seen nothing to indicate this is possible. Seems pretty obvious from the description that you need to be focusing on it to me.
Note: I'm aware of how unbalancing this is. It renders the grapple system useless, it makes first level wizards (And bards) ridiculously powerful assassins, or just AMAZINGLY good Darth Vader cos-players. The GM has since decided that no, this will not work as such. A cantrip should never be able to just directly kill people, not without extremely convoluted circumstances that massively buff or aid the effect (Acid splash a rope someone is hanging onto over a pit, etc).
I keep having discussion with my Political Science Professor and my Economics Professor about things I've learned in Games (Video or pen and paper) and how they apply to real life.
Some of them:
-In MTG *When I learned), you had essentially a 60 card limit, so, if the cards you wanted to add were more than that number, you had to make trade offs, and choose between them. This helped me learn: Scarcity and Opportunity Cost
-MMO's helped me learn to how to math out the most optimal use of my "resources", and how to get the most bang for my buck with the least buck spent. This helped me learn: Same as before, add in Supply and Demand and more.
-In Pathfinder/DnD/RPing in general I learned exactly how important communication is in general. Most conflicts come from lack of communication, most can be solved through communication. Most, but not all.
There's more, but that's good for now, what have games taught YOU? :D
So, we use the Alignment point system in general (Lots of new players, it's a useful crutch/training wheel setup) in two of our campaigns.
In the last full session we had, a LN Mystic Theurge who was 1 point from evil, and one point from neutral, assaulted another partymember out of rage and frustration (And honestly, a degree of pettiness/capriciousness), earning himself a drop from Lawful, and a dip into Evil. His deity is LN, and this would be enough for him to lose his clerical powers.
In terms of alignment, there's no coercion going on, no railroading, no unfairness.
(In addition, this player is the GM that I mentioned here: Linkage, so any complaints would be EXTREMELY hypocritical).
This is NOT the question, I mention all of this JUST so that hopefully this doesn't become an alignment thread. XD
The question is:
Mystic Theurge requires you to be able to cast 2nd level divine spells, if you can no longer do so, what happens to your Mystic Theurge levels?
This isn't too urgent, the GM has refrained from applying the Evil point just yet, to give the player a chance in the combat we found ourselves in (Assassin used the assault to try and attack the party). But, we would like to know before the next session. Thank you for reading. :)
(Or, just search "Pathfinder breaking the chains of slavery" on Amazon)
Sent an e-mail to Paizo, but, what do you guys think? More copyrighted images (Zelda, yes, that one) inside it, and just LOOK at those sock-puppeted reviews...
(Hah, imagine the egg on my face if they actually had permission to use those images XD )
Getting close to having enough of one of my gms constant disregard for the rules unless he likes them, even to the point of of essentially cheating when he's a player.
So, please, post stories. Stories of happy moments in pathfinder, moments of epic teamwork, hilarious one-liners, those moments where everyone pauses, and nothing is heard except laughter for several minutes.
Help me, and others here, remember the good times, and that this is a game where we have fun, first and foremost. :D
From PFS, should be cleansed enough of spoilers:
Party was ambushed by a gang, which they defeated. The surviving ambushers were dying, their leader barely alive, when the cleric of Asmodeous (sp) began to interrogate her, as the parties Paladin stayed across the alley, totally not ignoring things at all. Honest.
The parties cleric discovered that the gang wanted to kill their employer, whom EVERYONE hated. The Paladin immediately turned around, ran over, and started desperately healing them all, as the cleric started telling them everything they knew about the employer, and the other party members helped them get their stuff back together and put them on their way, with the promise that they would wait a few days to attempt their objective, so that the party would be out of town.
So out of alignment, and yet, so frikking hilarious. XD
So, last session we ran into a cr 25 Brown/desert worm pretending to be an oasis.
It engulfed/swallowed the bard, and three other players who were not at game that day. They were grappled/pinned inside the worm, so no saving throws were allowed for them or their items for the crushing damage, or the acid damage, and they and their items took about 45 and 25 acid damage, destroying all non adamantine gear. This damage was not halved, we didn't know about that rule, and it's unknown if it will be applied retroactively.
One player had only adamantine gear (including an adamantine bag of holding, no idea wth there XD), the next had their armor and weapon survive for the same reason, the last two lost everything except for 1 weapon.
We did manage to defeat it (really good damage rolls, and a powerful npc ally), but the gm downgraded it to a cr 20 since it didn't use its most powerful abilities, from it's conservative (lazy) nature, and the fact that we likely killed it too fast for it to decide otherwise. XD
So, is there any way to protect yourself from gear destruction like this? Would acid resistance have applied to the gear as well? And how much hardness and hp difference would magical/wonderous items (non arms and armor) have versus their mundane counterparts?
(Typed on my tablet, likely tons of auto correct issues)
The security belt says: "Once per day on command, the wearer can touch a single item of up to 10 cubic feet and shrink it into a tiny cloth duplicate as the shrink item spell. With a move action, the wearer can draw one of these items from one of the belt’s pockets and return it to normal size."
So, how many items can be kept shrunken at a time? If it's shrink duration is constrained as normal, the shrink spell lasts 5 days (Item is CL5, Shrink lasts 1/day per level). So, you could revolving shrink 4 items (Because 10 foot boulder's are fun) and keep them that way, but, that's only if the item uses the shrink duration.
Had an interesting conversation with one of my GM's (Who's also a friend).
One character had gained the Half-Undead type/template, whatever. Either way, Positive energy was bad for him.
I had joked around with him too, Roleplaying not knowing (He hadn't said anything IN character. :P), "healing" him with a CLW wand twice before he managed to sputter out a "STOP! OW!", nothing major, we're all level 14, so 2x 1d8+1's is an annoying poke at best (He got me back with a couple conjure water's, and we called a "Truce").
The next session, the Paladin decided that his character hadn't been paying attention to the "Undead" portion of his change the previous day, and did a channel to top off the group, including him (Again, it was like 25-30 HP, no real big deal when the average party member is around 180-200). It was in character, non-malicious, and the player didn't remember the character's status change till after saying he would cast it, he Roleplayed it from there.
The GM immediately said (Before anyone could react), that, "Any retaliation by the undead player would be considered a malicious and vengeful act, moving him 2 points towards evil."
I was a bit offput, and as I can apparently rarely resist questioning things, did so here. After a bit, it became clear this was NOT one of those instances where you can discuss things, eventually after I pointed out how small the "Offense" was (Meaning: Any "Revenge" conducted would be pettiness, or, joking, not a truly evil act), I pointed out that moving someone's alignment that drastically over so small a potential action (When the Player had never even indicated that they might do so, beyond maybe the customary Conjure water of Annoyance) that 2 points was over-reacting, 1 point would still be overreacting, and hell, I'd done the same damn thing to him already too and he hadn't been dinged for it before. The GM said that, "Your Morality is skewed then, and your ethics wrong."
I pretty much said that we'd have to disagree then, since it was clear that aside from insulting each other (Glared at him there), that we would not be agreeing anytime soon.
This GM has been under pressure lately, and on a hair trigger when it comes to arguments, my engaging of him wasn't to cause one, but to prevent a potential party/friend's circle issue (Everyone picks at that Bard). The question here isn't how to manage a GM that's letting his anger (Or his desire to protect a socially awkward Paladin from the constantly picked on but Socially overbearing half undead Bard) control his decision making (I'm usually pretty good at doing that), but what potential arguments, or logic, I can use the next time it comes up.
That poor bard gets enough crap from the group OOC, I don't particularly want to see him get crap IN game too.
If this is the wrong forum, I apologize, I don't think this belongs in conversions... and I'm unsure what this qualifies as. It's more of a "Help" than a advice... So, again, I apologize for my lack of Forum-fu. :(
One of my GM's likes to use 3.5 dungeon generators, and as a result, we get a lot of items that don't/can't exist in pathfinder (Like the +2 armor with an additional +12 worth of qualities...). We recently killed a dragon, and people decided to butcher it, for various purposes.
The thing is, is that I'm making a new character, and I was told to take what was half of "My" items, and add it to the WBL for our level (because we're so far above the WBL, anyone starting new would be at a massive disadvantage). Looking at that though, I realized I'd likely be either at a substantially higher APW than the party, or a massively lower one. So, I decided to try and see if I could calculate the actual parties APW, and then present it to the GM. I don't want to ask the GM for help on this, because he has a tendency to make snap decisions, so it's best to just do all the research, and present him with the end product for his decision then. Otherwise he's more likely to rule with what he feels is right, and not be budged when presented with anything later, nor matter what it's nature, without substantial arguing, and ruffled feathers amongst everyone concerned.
First question, do you think figuring out the APW is the best option? Or, should I just go with what I was told? I don't want to start a fight, but I also don't want to be over/under powered. That would hurt the party too much either way.
Second question, is how to calculate the value of items that have charges that replenish per day. Yes, I saw the equation on the d20 website, no, I don't understand how to implement it. I have an Amulet of mighty fists that our Sorcerer somehow gave 20 (Or was it 23?... sigh, character sheet's kinda messy now... pencil fades so much...) charges of Strong jaw as well, for my natural weapon fighter that I'm retiring, and I don't know how to calculate the charges portion (I understand the amulet, and I'm pretty sure it gets an extra 50% tax on it for being a wrong slot item/additional effect for the spell charges, if I'm wrong, please let me know).
Third question, anyone know the value of these items?
We found a chest of holding (Or equivalent), it can hold multiple tons worth of items (It was more than 8 tons, less than 12), and is also made of magical adamantine that cannot be scraped for it's materials, so don't try (We were gonna try, the GM didn't like that. XD Heck, I think that's why he made it of holding, so we wouldn't scrape it). I have found nothing on this, and am starting to think I'm looking in the wrong places, or it's homebrewed entirely. It's the size and shape of a sarcophagus (Because it was originally...).
Various parts off the dragon (List from GM, yay skype history):
198 scales
49 teeth
12 claw
15 flasks of dragon's blood
3 dragon horns
46 yards of hides
20 yards of leather
1 dragon heart
2 dragon eyes
1 10ft dragon tail
1 dragon head (I think this one was more novelty... Ala WoW.)
Any and all help/advice is appreciated, especially with the crafting portion.
So, some of my friends were considering doing some PFS after one of our campaigns ended (3 campaigns at once is enough thank you! XD), and I was kinda looking to get a character ready for then. Just to have on hand essentially.
I've never played PFS, and most of my experience is in heavily modified game play (Why does everyone have to make their game special and unique? XD), the thought of actually having a campaign with set limits... makes me feel a bit relieved.
I had 3 idea's I wanted to go with.
1) Healer, pure healing, all the healing and then more healing.
2) Don Quixote the Synthesist Summoner (He became the windmill! Get it? It's a joke about the number of attack synetheists ge- nevermind...)
3) The Mysterious Stranger Gunslinger from Fallout
I'm going with the Healer as my first option. I love healing. The first time I played an MMO, I fell in love with healing. The big brawny people can take the damage, the damagers can deal damage, the CCer's can prevent damage, but I LOVE filling the HP pools back up. :D
But, all too often in pen and paper RPGs, healing becomes less valuable than doing as much damage as possible to end the encounter faster, and that makes me sad.
So, I want to try and build a healer. But, Pathfinder seems to have the problem I mentioned above, healing is usually less valuable than damaging/CC. Both from throughput (How much can be healed at a time, generally not enough to match what's coming out), and in duration (Not very many worthwhile heals to cast...or just heals in general).
So, of the three healing classes, Cleric, Oracle and Paladin. Which can:
Heal the longest: Has the most access to various meaningful heals and healing abilities.
Heal the hardest: When someone takes a big hit, they can fix it.
Bridges the gap between the two the best: Because healing for big numbers is kinda pointless when you can only do it once, and healing forever is also pointless, if you can only heal so much each time.
I am willing to attack if needed, but generally as little as possible (Sometimes finishing off the last guy is the best option), but I'm seeking to be able to heal as much as possible. I would prefer to be doing as little "I plink with my crappy crossbow" as possible.
Also open to buffing, and debuffing for when no healing is needed.
And crappy crossbow/stabbing when no healing or anything else is needed. -_-
Which class would do this the best? What stats would be suggested? What feats would be optimal? What items should I build towards? :)
Other information: I generally find myself acting as party conscience pretty fast, not because I'm a nagger (... I can be), but because I generally can recognize that butchering the innkeeper to steal their Inn isn't the best option.
I also enjoy having a higher charisma/diplomacy, and as many skill points as possible. Partly because not all healing is the HP kind. :)
I was also hoping to try and play a Tiefling character I made a ways back, but they were Old, and would receive a -3 to physical stats as a result, not sure how detrimental this would be in PFS play. I liked the idea of a Good Tiefling character as a healer (Likely a follower of Sarenrae).
Any help would be appreciated. :)
(Sorry for how much is here, wanted to make sure that everything possibly needed was her- oh hey, the kitchen sink.)
So, I was building a backup/backstory character for my Ranger (Her Paladin Mother), and I remembered that Paladins have the LG alignment requirement.
This isn't really an issue, not complaining, etc, but it was also something I'd never given much thought before.
Why is the ALIGNMENT the requirement?
Why isn't it the GOD'S interests/priorities the requirement instead?
Sarenrae is NG for a reason, she (Over simplifying big time XD) moderates her desire to fight evil, with the desire to redeem it as well. She moderates her actions in general, actions have consequences after all.
Why wouldn't her Paladins reflect this first and foremost?
Why wouldn't they be just as balanced and redemption/healing oriented as she can be? Nothing against smiting some evil if needed of course.
This goes really for any God with Paladins, or Anti-paladins.
Paladins of Abador could be LN, and more closely aligned with his goals and plans. They'd be more about stabilization and progress than righting wrongs, it would actually make for an interesting character.
It seems almost like Paladins AREN'T divine champions of their Gods, but more simply champions who happen to also have a God that powers them, with their Alignment being more important than anything else.
Heck, mechanically, a Paladin could alignment shift to NG by performing something that Sarenrae would approve of, and yet, for some reason she'd take away the powers she'd granted due to the Paladin class mechanics. But, if they refrained from performing that action, they'd retain their LG nature/alignment and powers granted to them by her.
I'm not saying it's likely, but it's possible.
So, why aren't paladins tied in alignment to their deity? The newest book (Inner Sea) included several Paladin codes for the various Deities, why not just follow those? I see no problems with this myself, but, this isn't how things are done, so clearly there has to be a problem I'm not seeing. There has to be something I'm not seeing.
Additionally: I could be misunderstanding a large part of this. I've always understood that Alignment flows from Actions, modified in part by the intent behind the action, the action's results, and the characters reaction to the results. So, as near as I can tell, a CG who faithfully followed a CG God, would perform CG actions, and be CG, even though they quite Lawfully respect and observe their deities laws. Likewise a LG who followed that same CG God for the same reason, would be performing CG actions in service to that God, and their alignment would change as a result. If it didn't, that looks like it could open up all KINDS of strange loopholes.
This should be quick, in this guide:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?257365-PF-Oradin-Mini-Guide-O r-How-to-be-a-Healbot-minus-the-bot
It mentions:
grarrrg wrote:
Meditation Crystals (Adventurer's Armory)
It's a Holy Symbol that basically allows you to convert Channel Energy uses into Lay on Hands uses (1-to-1). 'Charging' it takes a Standard Action (same as Channeling), but getting the Lay on Hands out takes 1 minute of meditation (no actions). So obviously not an "in combat" item. Recommend converting any extra Channels at the end of day into the Crystal, and then recharging your Lay on Hands throughout the next day.
Little fuzzy on if one Crystal can hold multiple charges, but these things are dirt cheap (100gp) anyway.
Bolding is mine.
I did a search to see if I could logic it out, or even just find an outright answer, and was mostly unsuccessful.
My feel is that, with that price, it's likely a one charge thing.
Buuuuut, if I don't ask, I'll always wonder what could have been.
So, does anyone know? Preferably with links?
If no one does, I'll be presenting it to my GM as a One charge thing.
I asked in Rules just to clarify that it was not pathfinder rules, and having received confirmation, am now here asking for help in rectifying the issue. :)
Other thread: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qth7?Spellbook-as-scrolls-and-related-shenanig ans#1
I'm gonna try and keep this short.
Wizard is using spellbooks as scrolls, and acted like it was how it was supposed to work. He was a player who learned in 2nd edition, so likely not malicious (Since that was a popular 2nd edition homebrew rule).
I'm now asking for advice because:
The wizard used this as part of a loophole that ended up with him getting near infinite Wish usages (Before the game even started!), and a crap ton of money/valuable items (I have no idea how it works, cept for "Pretty well actually"). This is part of the reason why he is has 30 int, he should have around 22 or so otherwise. The GM managed to incorporate this into the campaign (And that level 20+ Wizard is coming to get his stuff back :P), he did not raise many objections at the time, the Wizard being a good friend, the person who is GMing the other Pathfinder game we're in, and is supposed to be the second most experienced player in our group.
The Wizard is casting higher level spells (Those he has no slot for (Max of level 3 spells, spell is level 4), but could eventually cast when he levels), and saying it's fine because it's in the spellbook, he "Knows" it as a result. He does have the stat for it as a result. (Clarification, it was pointed out at rules that he can still ADD higher level spells to his rulebook. I think this is likely how he got the Wish spell, I bet he added it to spellbook somehow, and then cast it from his spellbook, since his interpretation was that it was reusable).
I don't think the Wizard is being malicious, he's just very mistaken. The GM is new, and learning, and got steamrolled by an experienced player. Aside from this, the game is going GREAT, and most everyone is really enjoying themselves. :)
I am a neutral third party, and have been "Assigned"/requested to look this up, and report back to the GM. :)
Any help would be appreciated.
Ideas generated so far:
-Spellbooks used already that belonged to high level wizard were artifacts that could be used this way, normal spellbooks do not work this way.
-Or, spellbooks can be used this way, but it's consumed, and causes damage to nearby spells in book, possibly even destroying the book (A chance to do so).
Spellbooks cannot, and will not be allowed to work this way, 900g to make a reusable scroll of Wish? Oh god! XD
Wizard says he can use his spellbook as scrolls, GM wasn't sure, but the player insists, and the GM has allowed it till now. It's getting to be an issue, because the wizard acquired the spellbooks of a level 20+ wizard, and our wizard is running around with 30+ Int, and is claiming he can cast everything from the spellbook.
The GM finally asked me to look it up for him, because I have a tendency to track down weird things easily. The GM is pretty sure it's shenanigans, but doesn't want to confront them until he's had independent confirmation, and he knows I post our shenanigans here on Paizo. :)
According to what I've found, it's a popular Homebrew rule from 2nd edition. Since our Wizard started playing in 2nd edition, and there's no references in 3.5/Pathfinder, I'm thinking it's old training/knowledge.
I'm now asking for any comments you guys have on this in regards to rules, I will likely end up posting about this in Advice later too, because:
The wizard used this as part of a loophole that ended up with him getting near infinite Wish usages, and a crap ton of money/valuable items (I have no idea how it works, cept for "Pretty well actually"). This is part of the reason why he is has 30 int, he should have around 22 or so otherwise. The GM managed to incorporate this into the campaign (And that level 20+ Wizard is coming to get his stuff back :P), he did not raise many objections at the time, the Wizard being a good friend, the person who is GMing the other Pathfinder game we're in, and is supposed to be the second most experienced player in our group.
The Wizard is casting higher level spells (Those he has no slot for (Max of level 3 spells, spell is level 4), but could eventually cast when he levels), and saying it's fine because it's in the spellbook, he "Knows" it as a result. He does have the stat for it as a result.
My character took a dip into wizard, and I went to him to try and trade spells, he's advised me to not scribe scroll, just make a second spellbook.
I'm fairly certain that the Wizard is mistaken, not intentionally causing issues, so please be nice, he might find this thread someday. XD
Same with the GM, this is his second time GMing, he wasn't ready to get steamrolled like this. XD
If you've read some of my previous posts, I have a ranger that's had some fun times with a level 3 party that also had a Wizard and Oracle.
Our quest continues. XD
Our party of 5 level 6's (Me (CG Ranger(Wizard) heading for AA), Soon to be Mystic Theurge (LN Wizard/Cleric), Fighter (NG Viking), Alchemist (CN Insane) and Paladin (LG, former Oracle) were ambushed by some bandits
Yes, we were actually ambushed by bandits.
We lived the dream!
Well, more accurately, they tried to ambush us. I spotted them (Favored Terrain AND favored enemy! That's rare! :D), and put an arrow into the Lookouts head before he'd even finished sighting his bow. No time to order their surrender. :/
My pet Roc dragged another out by it's neck, which I thought was rather overkill, but if the GM wants my Companion to be a Brutal bloodthirsty killing machine, who am I to argue? XD
The Wizard/Cleric used some weird Fear effect thing, and 9 of the apparently 16 bandits failed badly. The Alchemist exploded two of them, and the Paladin crit one hard enough he did a passable Garen impression.
One round, 5 dead, 9 in fear, 2 unaffected.
Bandits PANIC.
Leader (One of the unaffected) starts sprinting away, the other unaffected and several of those who weren't as affected by the fear are screaming and trying to crawl out of their little murder holes and flee us.
Viking uses his move action to try and get closer to the apparent Bandit Leader.
I use a Run action, and get ahead of him, ordering him to stop. He does, crying in terror.
Wizard/Cleric hits them with a Mass Hold-person.
Fights pretty much over.
My character was actually feeling pretty guilty, it was almost a massacre.
(16 CR 1/2's was... underwhelming, but hey, random encounter and all that. Sometimes that's how it ends up.)
We round them up, tie them up, and spend about 15 minutes arguing IRL about what to do with them (It ends up being considered In Character too). Paladin thinks we should release them, but turn in the Leader. I think we should head for the nearest town and turn them in, not completely trusting the government of the nearest City. We argue for a few minutes, with my character (Who's spent the last decade acting as a sort of bounty hunter in the area) refusing to release bandits where they could start to prey on less well armed travelers.
The Paladin insists that we cannot delay, and if I will not release them out of a fear of them committing more evils, then we should just kill them where they stand.
Wizard chimes in here, refusing to kill enemies that have surrendered, and that we should turn them over to the rightful authorities. Killing is the States right, not our own.
I reiterate that I desire to hand them over to the rightful authorities, because it's their job. If she has no chance to capture them, then she'll kill them, now though, there's no reason too.
Paladin argues that that is what the City will do, I argue that we are not the city. GM confirms (When I ask, using my Profession (Bounty Hunter) as a "Knowledge" check essentially) death is what awaits the Bandits. Commissioned adventurers are permitted to bring in bandit heads (Holy crap! XD) and get paid for it, but, you need to be commissioned to execute bandits, we are not (I am).
Paladin argues we have no provisions for them, I point out that they should have their own. GM confirms that all but one have 3 days worth of rations, Leader has about 3 weeks. Plenty for us to get to the city.
Paladin points out that it would make our cart harder to move. I took out rope, said we could tie them to it, they could walk, we could walk slower.
Paladin argues it will delay us. I point out that a day or two extra won't cause us any problems.
Paladin argues that this could fatigues us, going longer and with more to carry/pull/watch. I point out that I'm a Ranger, half my first level spells make long distance travel stupidly easy.
Wizard asks for a vote, Me, the Wizard and the Viking vote to take them with us to be turned over. Viking says he's voting specifically that his honor dictates that killing a helpless opponent is disgraceful, and is really voting against killing, not so much for turning them in. Paladin votes to kill. Alchemist votes that we decide soon, or he's going to likely do something we all regret (Insert slow crazy smile).
So, we proceed to take them with us. We finish confiscating their equipment (Except armor, we confirmed that they were not wearing much clothing beneath their armor, so we let them keep that). I find a gold arrow with a heart on it's arrowhead in the Leader's equipment. In fact, it was likely the arrow he had readied. I try to get the wizards attention, but he was busy arguing with the Paladin.
Bandit leader is wearing an eye patch, and due to both paranoia and curiosity I inquire about the condition of his eye. He refuses to answer, so I angle him away from his men (And our party), and carefully tilt it open.
Eye's fine. And the makeup he has around it is quite well done too.
Yep, guy's wearing makeup.
After a few moments thought, I ask him if he'd like for me to remove his makeup, he does, so I do, making sure no one else sees that, then bring him back to the group sans eyepatch.
The Bandit Leader acts oddly around me, and when I try to Sense Motive, the GM tells me that the Leader apparently finds my character to be quite attractive.
Oh.
Uh.
Okay.
Huh.
Well, I did play a Female character intentionally, so I could learn more about female characterization (I have a hard time writing Female characters).
Still, threw me for a loop, did NOT expect that.
Well, away we go!
Paladin nitpicks and argues the whole way, most of which with the Wizard about spell details and such. never get a chance to have him look at the arrow, and I forget about it.
Hell, I even forget to add it to the Party Loot list.
Get to city, turn over bandits, actually get paid (Which surprised me, 50g a head too).
We end up with 2K to split 5 ways, and nearly another 400 for a party account when all our misc and gold is counted. Which is nice, since we hadn't earned/found a damn thing for the last three levels (Wizard activated a CR 16 Construct (Actually, looking back at the Construct, I think CR 16 is LOW for it's capabilities) that took our lunch money, and our toys).
We restock, and are about to start the next part of our Quest, when I notice the time, and point out we should be heading out IRL.
We do so.
As we do so, I remember the arrow, and both I and the Wizard roll a few skills checks.
We end up with this:
Un-named Arrow (I'm naming it "Cupid's Arrow")
+4 Gold Arrow, Returning, Unknown effect
Unknown effect: Damage from the arrow can instead be negated (After rolling it), and the target makes a will save where the damage is the Save DC. Upon failing, the the target will fall madly in love with the next person they see. Unknown duration, unknown strength, unknown nature, unknown unknown unknown. The Wizard rolled a 40+ spellcraft on top of a 38 or so Kn:Arcana, and was unable to find out more than that.
Oh, expect that it's an artifact of some sort.
And now my character suspects why their group was ambushed, especially with the Leader's constant glances. D:
Problems with arrow: Can it really be toggled on and off by the person firing? Or can the arrow do something on it's own? My character is the only one that really does archery, and she doesn't like the idea of mind alteration/control. Specifically has Enchantment as one of her Barred schools. She also doesn't trust something of this potential power in the hands of anyone outside the party (And possibly the party too, though it is the party's loot, not just mine).
being bale to figure out how to bypass the "Charm" effect would be nice, a +4 arrow? Hells yeah! RETURNING?! OMG YES!
I'm running a MW Composite Longbow, so this is a potential awesome thing.
I don't mind it, it fits in story-wise quite well, and love the flavor it's giving the encounter/campaign. :D
However, the way the story is going would benefit greatly from the character eventually losing that doubt. That won't be anytime soon (Likely 8-12 months from now), so no real urgency, but I'd like ot know now for working with the GM on the characters story. :)
So, in one of the campaigns I'm in, we had our next session. And I was stuck home due to a Paper I should be working on even know. But comparative analysis between the political economic models used in Hongkong/Taiwan and those used in Brazil/Chili can wait, I have Pathfinder to talk about.
So, everything went fine, went to the ruined tower as planned, looted stuff, some random things.
Then I get a message in skype randomly from the party's Oracle, some paraphrasing occurred, but any spelling errors and grammar are likely original to the comments. I also have reordered events in minor ways to allow for easier reading. These changes should be negligible.
Oracle: "We need your character sheet."
Me: "What? Why?"
Oracle: "We're about to die, we'll die without you."
Me: "What? Uh, second, bringing up mythweavers... uh, need to update, but here (Link) I'll tell you when to refresh when I've updated."
Oracle: "Okay"
Me: "What's happening?"
Oracle: "We are fighting a manticor+2 lamia's 2 cr 5 and a cr 6 we are screwed, because no on showed up but me, B and C" (All characters are level 3)
(Supposedly a fourth person was there too, but may have left)
Some minor talking occurs, I get him into a call so I can hear them. My Ranger does great in her first combat (Under someone else's control... -_-), apparently helping quite a bit.
Leaving the second Lamia.
Which is a "baby". (Later determined to be the equivalent of 9)
The dead Lamia has fallen on her after she was choked to death by the Wizard using creative use of game mechanics. I don't notice the "Baby" part until now, so I ask:
Me: "BTW, what alignment is the Baby?"
Oracle: "CE"
Me: "The Baby is CE? Seriously? wtf? How does that work?"
Oracle: "the parent is CE, racial its CE"
Me: "Stil la baby right?"
Oracle: "its young"
Me: "Well, my character would, once the danger is past, try to help/save the baby. Unless she returns to being pure ghosting, rather than this partial ghosting, God, that is &$^%ed up, kinda glad I'm not there"
At this point I hear someone mention doing something untoward to the baby. I respond (Still in skype).
"PELASE DON'T KILL ZE BABY! HELP ZE BABY!"
"we just killed her parents"
And this is where I found out we had just orphaned a Lamia.
I start sending a bunch of texts, but get ignored.
The "Cub" is tied up in spider webs (I have no idea where those came from), and set to be dragged after us, by order of the Oracle, so that the Lamia doesn't kill us.
And then the Skype call was closed. A few hours later, another player (The party wizard) comes on, the session is over. I ask:
Me: "So, how did everything go for you guys? :)"
Wizard: "fun, met a chaotic aligned enemy. And went full rage mode trying to snap it's neck with Mage Hands"
Me: "Apparently my ranger killed 2 things, and a child got to wtach thier parents die on them, Did the Mage hands work?"
Wizard: "Not in breaking the neck no but sure as hell choked the life out of the thing"
Me: "Well, when plan B works, where plan A fails, who cares right? XD So, you guys went to the Tower, started exploring, and this was teh first encounter?"
Wizard: "eyup"
Me: "So, any desicions made on the Lamia cub? Or is it still tied up, and being dragged?"
Wizard: "nope. I won't kill it, Chaotic and evil as it may be, it's still a child."
Me: "Same here, hell, unless she (Heard DM say "She") does something and tries to kill someone, my ranger would beat the S&$# out of anyoen who tried I figure A) We raise it (That sounds complicated) B) Find some good Lamia's to raise it C) Find some druids, same as above"
The player then stopped replying to chat, and proceeded to have musical skype dropping issues.
The DM got on an hour later, so I texted him:
Me: "So, tried to kill everyone eh?"
DM: "actually, the Oracle went ballistic and killed a mother defending her cub instead of the off-the-wall angry and violent manticore"
Me: "Damn, wish I was there, woulda tried to help...wait? The Oracle said I kileld two things? Did I kill teh mother?! O_O Oh god, please no"
DM: "he had you take those shots, yes."
Great, my character the Orphan, just added to the Orphan population... The DM continued:
DM: "she made absolutely no attack, she was even keeping the manticore from initiating combat earlier on"
Me: "Shoulda made him tell me what was up vefore using my character. er, before... *%$k, A Lamia in an intelligent creature right?"
DM: "yes"
Me: "Not a humanoid?"
DM: "Monstrous Humanoid, and manticores are Monstrous Beasts"
Me: "Ah, so not an animal then...”
Editing for private comments, I continued:
Me: “'CE means I'm supposed to kill it' and all that"
DM: "Just because a humanoid creature is Typically one alignment does not make them all that same aligment"
Me: "Oh god, did NON ONE DETECT EVIL?"
DM: "he pulled up the stats for it and kept making judgments based on that"
Me: "I assumed you guys checked, No sense motive, nothing? Wtf, I'm goen one session, and they start Murderhobo-ing..."
DM: "no sense motive, when they asked what alignment "Lamia'S" are, Plural, I told them evil, and he went leeroy jenkins from there, I believe the Oracle detected evil, and they did make a knowledge check, but didn't get much from it, he ASSUMED the chaos part."
Me: "Was worried he had Metagamed it, doing that, then the events that followed... it's like asking for a GM to screw with you. That's when you change teh Alignment to NN, and cackle XD"
DM: "no, he told everyone it was evil, he kept demanding everyone attack the lamia, she's dangerous and evil and able to kill everyone with a blink and all that.. THat's what he conveyed."
Some time passes, more talk of the topic, but things I can't post.
I comment there is some things I want to do, he asks what, and so I post this:
Me: "Priorities:
Check mother (Perhaps father? Was there another?)
Check Baby
Divine intervnetion?: Started worshiping this nice nifty new goddess, maybe she'll help take pity on a poor child who just got orphaned? :(
If Mother can be helped, do so, try to Diplomance when possible, try to help
If mother can't, try to help baby as best as possible.
----Give baby the blanket, wrap her up, give her my Teddy bear
--------Murder anyone who gives her crap about Teddy bear
Never trust the oracle's judgment, again
----Oracle never get's to diplomacy me, character did't trust him before, this seals the deal
My character is an orphan herself, SHE IS NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS &^%T"
We get onto the topic of alignments as a result. At face value (Without interviewing the Oracle) there could be some Alignment points as a result. The Oracle is LG (Apparently NG now, not a result of this session, changed between sessions and I didn't know), and I am asked if I believe these actions were Chaotic or Evil. I typed part of my response in word, and part in skype, should be obvious which is which. I responded:
"The Problem with LG has always been the same problem. Most people don't understand what LG actually IS. To oversimplify, The Law provides stability and allows people to live their lives free from tyranny, Good protects those who can't protect themselves from those who would cause them harm (Oversimplified, I know). A LG character needs to be able to balance Good and Law, and still to some degree embody Compassion, Mercy, Truth, Justice, Honor, etc.
The oracle met the letter of the alignment, he failed the spirit. He stood against evil, when he didn't need to, and in fact could have tried to avoid the confrontation. Perhaps even making a positive impact on the creature. People can change, even monstrous humanoids. He either didn't even make an attempt, or made a perfunctory one only. He relied on Alignment being the whole story, Law is about finding the Truth, and applying Justice. He did not find the truth, or apply justice. He let the technicalities of the alignment system solve the issue for him.
In short, He was neither Lawful, nor Good. Nor was he Chaotic, or Evil.
He was Neutral. Through and through. Not neutral in motivation, goal or desire. But in Action, and outcome from those actions.
That's my opinion. I've met very few people who can actually play LG well. Thankfully, I've read enough books to see plenty of Good examples for myself (Michael Carpenter, WOO).
If my character dies, and I can't/don't res her. We'll get to see me play LG. :P
Monks have no other option really. XD
There almost needs to be a third alignment variable, one that emasure how well the individual or organization actually lives up to the ideal's/beliefs theyr'e supposed to epitomize.
So we can get LG organizatiosn that restrict freedom through Law, and commit evils in goods name
And vice versa"
At this point, the fact that the session had ended just as the last monster went down was brought up.
And the possibility that the Mother Lamia might MIGHT still be alive was raised.
I was ALL over that, another character was ghosted this session (A Pally healer), and it was determined, based off of what we knew of her, that she would likely be willing to disregard the Oracle and heal the Lamia. Next session, I would try to convince her to do this (What, we can't make that decision for her after all! XD). I comment:
Me: "Of course, the lamia is going to immediatly try to kill me and Raina, understandably, God, I hope I rol la good Diplomacy"
That was that for that topic (So far), I will of course post updates as I gather more complete information. that was not however the only thing that occurred, the DM also had this too share:
DM: "one of the things the wizard and the oracle said today disquieted me a bit as well.."
Me: "?"
DM: "they said 'The GM is by default our greatest enemy'"
Me: "..."
DM: "I can see where they come from, but... That's not the role I'm taking"
Me: "the GM is not the enemy, the GM is the storyteller who helps the party along"
DM: "...I am not here to be your biggest nightmare or enemy, I am the storyteller <_< yes"
Me: "if the GM ever becoems an Enemy, you're doing it wrong"
DM: "or the GM is doing it wrong"
Me: "well, I didn't specifiy who "You're" was XD I've always thought of the Gm as the "Patron" of teh group personally The god who guides them, but leaves them free will"
DM: "I've heard a good amount of horror stories about GMs actively trying to kill their players"
Me: "They both think that's how you make challenging games"
All identifying information has been edited out. All private information and comments has been edited out. All unflattering commentary has been edited out. All information pertaining to things may be of a sensitive nature have been edited out.
I have been allowed to post this.
So, what do you guys think?
Edit (For Clarity): As near as I have been able to tell thus far, The Oracle got some information from the GM, assumed a bunch more based partly (Or mostly) on OOC knowledge, ordered the Wizard to kill them, and Cohort-ed my Character to do so as well. In case it wasn't clear >_>
So, in a every other week game (next session this Friday), we recently became aware that the somewhat-evil corrupt self-serving bloated empire that we are currently located in may actually be an evil corrupt self-serving bloated empire.
We were all shocked of course.
It came about when a man who was crusading quietly for political reform was assassinated (By a Succubus), and we acquired some of his information from his adopted daughter (Parents had likely been executed by said Empire).
We had about 8 players present, but as usual, 3-4 of them dominated the conversation.
The information pointed out a ruined tower that would likely have more information we could use, perhaps even to confirm or refute what we had just learned (I'm perhaps oversimplifying things, but trying to keep it short). I could see that the GM was trying to lead us to this dungeon, as this was the first session, I decided to comply to at least get the story rolling. I was the 3rd most experienced RPG player there. One player had been playing since 2nd edition, the other... seems to know anything and everything.
The Most experienced tried to convince the party to use Prestidigitation to make graffiti everywhere, spreading what we had learned in a two-fold plan. He claimed that we could then find out who is behind this by finding the person most agitated by this action, and we would get the added benefit of causing the cities populous to become further disgruntled against the Government, and possibly more than that.
The second most experienced (The player who had been playing from 2nd edition) wanted to round up a mob and go to the White Tower, the cities version of the Tower of London and the Pentagon. And throw a holy Symbol of Sarenae (SP) (A god whose worship had been banned from this city, and possession of her symbol was considered Treason) into the tower, when it went up in flames as the Tower was likely unhallowed ground (According to the player). He said if it didn't, he'd use magic to make sure it did. Thus proving that the government is evil and paving the way for a possible revolution/ouster of the current imperial government.
Did I mention we're all level 3? Yeah, we're level 3.
We called it to a vote, and the Party voted to go to the ruined Tower for the likely dungeon crawl.
Both experienced player's were annoyed and frustrated that their plans had not been utilized, and the second most experienced was thinking of having his character go off and do his plan without the rest of the party.
I made sure to not comment on their plans at the time, and afterward I tried to make them see that their plans had been risky, overly complex, and based off of assumptions that may or may not have any logical basis. The most experienced shrugged it off, and while still irritated was willing to move on. The second I made no headway with, and I think may actually go for the his plan anyways (I give him about 2 in 5 odds max of doing that, maybe 1 in 5).
I naturally (IRL) have a CHA that's pretty high when it comes to Diplomacy and Mediation (Which is good, because I'm not a particularly good looking individual XD), the biggest reason why their plans failed the vote was because I made them fail the vote. The party was fairly evenly split between the two plans till I spoke up as the "Mediating reasonable third party". I pointed out that we didn't really have enough information, and it was all from one source (thus unconfirmed), we could likely go to this ruined tower to get more, that we could always come back with that information and implement one of the other two plans then. The rest of the party bailed on the first two plans, and went with my plan almost unanimously, and the GM's lightly trod path (Not quite a railroad XD). My plan seemed balanced, reasonable, and didn't exclude the other plans from future consideration, and appealed to the less experienced players anxieties towards taking sudden drastic actions. I had designed it to be that way. :/
Further information: After both of the experienced plans had been proposed, I asked the GM (This is his second campaign, his experience is both less than mine, and greater than mine, so roughly even) what the NPC's adopted daughter thought, and asked her opinion. He said that she was horrified at all this talk of violence, and didn't know what to think. I asked again a few times, and was able to pick up that the Gm had given us what information he was going to give us, everything pointed at that tower. And he had no idea what to do about the other two plans, but was willing to roll with it.
Questions:
Primary question: Do you you think those two other plans were wise?
Secondary question: Based off of what I pointed out above, do you think my handling of the situation went too far? I'm used to being the middle man in groups, should I have left any of that to the GM? Or as a party member was I within my rights?
Secondary question: If the Second player goes with his "Storm the castle" plan, what do you think our reaction should be?
Note: There is no drama from this, we're all good friends, and not letting stuff come between us. :)
So, I was building a character for a different campaign, and spotted this:
Two-World Magic
Benefit: Select one 0-level spell from a class spell list other than your own. This spell is a 0-level spell on your class spell list (or a 1st-level spell if your class doesn't have 0-level spells). For example, if you are a druid, you could select mage hand and thereafter prepare it as a 0-level druid spell; if you are a sorcerer, you could select know direction as a 0-level sorcerer spell known.
Totally grabbed that for my Summoner, because who doesn't like Prestidigitation?
However, I remembered that my Ranger from another campaign that just started has a placeholder trait (So we could start immediately, and I need to fill it before next session).
From what I understand of the Ranger's spell list and how it works, Ranger's don't get any 0-Level spells, and cannot learn any at all. Period. There doesn't appear to be any support for the actual use of this trait. I could take it, add it, but I would still have 0 uses of 0-level spells.
But as I've found more often than I'd like, my understanding isn't always accurate (Read: Frequently Inaccurate).
It could very well be that it's not listed because it doesn't apply to them, but if they somehow got access, then they could. Sounds sketchy to me, but I don't know the system well enough to just apply logic and call it a day. And I've seen enough "Holes" which assume some degree of prior knowledge with PF or similar systems to know when to ask.
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Got into an interesting "Conversation" with another player today. The character I was playing had a Fly speed of 50, and the other character had a run speed of 40.
He claimed he could outrun me and that I could never catch him, assuming I could only fly at 30, when I pointed out otherwise he in turn pointed out that Flying has NO run action, and thus he could sprint faster than I could fly.
I didn't know anything about this, and it seemed odd to me (Why couldn't a flier increase their own effort and fly faster much like a runner could?), but as he knows much more about pathfinder than I do (Or the GM in fact), we went with his interpretation.
Having had time to look some information up, I've seen nothing in any books about this, and only this (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2m3u2?Running-in-flight) here.
Can anyone please point to actual book references I can use? :)
Especially since that player is the GM for another campaign I'm in, and I'd need a solid book reference before I could talk to him about it.
A few questions regarding my switch-hitter ranger.
1) Treantmonks guide emphasized Str over Dex. To what extent do I continue this once gameplay starts. I have good enough stats to have an 18 in both Str and Dex, and I'm curious where I should put my +2.
Also, what should my stat priorities be after this?
DM is kinda new, and used a method of stat rolling I'm putting on my list for "never use myself". I ended up with: 18, 18, 18, 16, 17, 16.
Which is ridiculous. And I've got the THIRD best stats in a group of 6. I'd feel guilty, but I'm "average" so I don't. If he wants a "Heroic" feeling game, than whatever, just gonna make balance harder early on I think.
My thoughts: I don't know where to put that +2, but my instinct is to get whatever I can, but prioritize Dex. Planning on using my first Ability increase to finish the 17 in Wis though.
2) With that dex, should I bother with getting a breastplate, or stick with something that lets me use more of my dex bonus? (we're starting with level 3).
My thoughts: No idea here, AC would be roughly the same.
3) We have a rogue (Everyone's calling him a Thief, not sure why, I don't think that's his backstory) AND another ranger. No, I'm not switching classes XD But, should I dip into rogue for a level or two in a few levels? if so, when?
My thoughts: I want trap sense so bad. I don't care too much about the cost, but if it's big enough, I'll sigh and walk past. :( Evasion and the free talent are almost worth the extra level too, but I have a tendency to see things that offer me additional utility and start drooling, and stop thinking.
4) Any particular items (Enchanted or otherwise) I should keep an eye out for? I'm down to 12GP or so, so I can't really buy anything, and I have a pretty extensive kit that I made.
Extension of this question: When should I be starting to keep an eye out for other types of Arrows? The other ranger is a Hippogryph rider that is going dedicated archer, and as she is new I'm foreseeing any arrows we find going to her.
5) Anything you think I should know, please tell me! :D Except about my animal companion, already got that taken care of for when I hit 5.
I am wordy, I have a hard time summarizing, I apologize if this is an issue.
My RPG experience is limited, most of the games I've played never make it past the first session (None except for a 4 month Savage worlds campaign have made it past 2). So, kinda feeling lost, and I want to make sure my character can pull its weight, and pick up any slack that comes up. So, any advice, or help would be greatly appreciated! :D My first session is in two days, so I hope to be ready by then.
I'm playing a Cleric, it was a Glitterfane from the Rhune setting, but some interpersonal drama (Always the drama...) shot that game, so now it's a Fey, of some sort, using the Glitterfane racials in a more basic Pathfinder game (New GM is very nice). We get an extra Feat to start, just cause (Previous GM's rule). My DM was nice, and let me roll up stats separate from him (He can Veto them, if they're too high or low), and after throwing out several that were hilariously low, and several that were heartbreaking awesomely high, I got (Racial bonuses marked in): STR(12) Dex(12+2) Con(14-2) Int(14) Wis(16+2) Cha(18)
Question 1) Is this a good set-up? I read the guides, but I'm not real sure I understand some of the reasoning (So didn't obey them yet), I'm open to switching them around, but I can't fudge the numbers. I'm going for a buffing support cleric (That heals (Duh), apparently heals are desperately needed in this group).
Domains are something I have NO experience with, and we're not using the basic gods apparently, I have no information on the ones we are using. I am (Due to the original back story, and talks with the new GM) using Animal, with the subdomain of Feather as one of them (If it matters, I did get Handle Animals as a free learned skill using some sort of backstory thing/option, as well as Knowledge (nature) from the same source). This cannot be changed at this point. My other domain however, has not been selected. And, I have some leeway in it (Implied by GM) since I don't have the Gods information too work with.
Question 2)From the looks of it, I should be aiming for Glory or Healing... could have sworn there was a third... (Though Trickery looked nice too...). I'm looking for buffs, healing, or utlity. But I'm not really sure what I'm doing here yet. Suggestions?
Almost done! Two questions left! As a Glitterfane/Fey thing, I get Fly as a skill, and a flight speed of 15. I'm getting a feat called "Expanded flight" (Suggested by previous GM, okayed by current GM, and apparently no where on the internet) that increases my flight speed by 20. I love maneuverability/flying in games, took it immediately.
Question 3)However, are there more ways to increase flight speed? If it matters, I get fly as a learned skill from my racial, and a rank in it from the Feather Sub-domain (I think). Would putting more ranks into it increase my speed?
Last question!
Question 4) I was originally planning on getting selective Healing/Channeling (Can't remember exact wording) as my second feat (The non-free one). Channel energy looks pretty awesome. Would this be wise? Should I be looking elsewhere?
