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Good to hear! I hope that means we can get you set up and into the Pathfinder game soon as well! :D Yes, I will get that finished later today after getting my first Mandarin assignment out of the way. :-)
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The vision I have for her background is that she was either the daughter of one of the Harrowers (who effectively play a role of Varisian nobility) or being groomed to become one and that she is rebelling at the moment from all of the related plans that her clan has for her in this regard, which is why she's out adventuring. I suspect that it would be very hard to "run away" from a group of powerful Diviners, so I suspect that she must at least have the permission, if not exactly blessing, of her clan...whether or not she actually knows that is the case. In fact, thinking about it now, it may be that her clan leaders connected her with the Pathfinder Society, perhaps by means of mutually arranged "circumstance" rather than explicit introduction, as an outlet for her to vent her youthful need for rebellion and to gain valuable experience and maturity needed by the clan before later being brought back to assume her duty as a Harrower. Hee, hee. Oh, yes. This is going to be a fun character. How deep does that rabbit hole go, young fortune teller?
I'm uncertain yet whether I'll actually take her down the road of the Harrower PrC, but I'm certainly placing her on the path towards it so that I can decide when I get there whether she should continue taking Witch levels, fully concentrate on the Harrower PrC, or perhaps just dip a little. Either way, I'll take you up on your offer to place harrowing on her spell list because it simply makes sense for the flavor of the character. Also, I really wanted to have this wrapped by the start of the week but got caught up by RL responsibilities. I'll try to get her finished to a point appropriate for first review this evening. I'm actually rather close now.
If I do that, I'm likely to take Cauldron as her first Hex and spend the bulk of the remainder of those funds on the material cost for potions she could have brewed given her initial spells pre-game (presuming you indulge me some pre-game crafting, of course; I'll still go through with rolling for success and such). Sweet! She'll definitely be a potion crafter from the get-go then. Besides, I rather like this background notion of potion sales being the family gypsy wagon biz. ;-)
If I do that, I'm likely to take Cauldron as her first Hex and spend the bulk of the remainder of those funds on the material cost for potions she could have brewed given her initial spells pre-game (presuming you indulge me some pre-game crafting, of course; I'll still go through with rolling for success and such). Oh, snap. I don't suppose the Cauldron hex actually allows me to sidestep the Brew Potion prerequisite of caster level 3. I'll need to rethink this and rearrange that agenda in her level plan.
Do you own the Harrow deck?As you're pondering concepts, T&M, you might think about the fact that Varisia has a large native culture with a strong witch-like tradition... The Varisian Harrowers strike me as very much along the lines of what one version of a witch should be... I was actually considering going to my local gaming store this morning to pick one up, mostly just for the flavor; however, for game effects, I was planning on annotating my character sheet with info appearing in the Harrow section of PF7: Edge of Anarchy so that we could use a dice method similar to what is described therein in order to simulate random deck draws. For example: + + = Charisma + Lawful Evil + Traditional = The Tyrant - A paternal influence brings pain. Hmmm. I guess we should start the binding of this character to the fortune of the cards now, and I should build an interesting detail regarding her father into her background. On a related note, I'm also leaning toward taking the Harrowed feat from the General Feats section of the Campaign Setting book, but those effects only rely on which suit/ability is drawn and therefore can be simulated with a simple d6. Unfortunately, the average starting gold for spellcaster types (70 gp) doesn't actually give me enough funds to purchase a Harrow deck for her to begin with (100 gp), but I suppose I can take the Rich Parents background trait to cover the cost. If I do that, I'm likely to take Cauldron as her first Hex and spend the bulk of the remainder of those funds on the material cost for potions she could have brewed given her initial spells pre-game (presuming you indulge me some pre-game crafting, of course; I'll still go through with rolling for success and such). Starting out with a Harrow deck and an assortment of stock potions from the family business seems to be a reasonable way to balance the idea of "Rich Parents" with the seemingly incongruous notion of a gypsy upbringing. I'm also toying with the notion of spending a feat on Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Scarf, Bladed) for the flavor of it, even though the power gamer in me resists given that I don't really see her as being much of a serious melee combatant. That said, I realize that one of the things that makes me nervous about the Witch class is the dependence on the relatively delicate familiar. It seems prudent to consider instead taking the Scribe Scroll feat and using a portion of those initial funds to craft "backup copies" of each of her initial spells (again, presuming you'll humor me doing this pre-game). Yeah, I like that. I'll may still add the scarf proficiency later, but the power gamer here feels responsible to protect against one of the possible design flaws of this beta class design.
As you're pondering concepts, T&M, you might think about the fact that Varisia has a large native culture with a strong witch-like tradition... The Varisian Harrowers strike me as very much along the lines of what one version of a witch should be... Yes, that does work well...gypsy witch archeytype it shall be.
Where in the real world are people based, just to get an indication of when not to expect posting? Personally, I'm from Denmark, homeland of Vikings and Muhammad Cartoonists :) But seeing as I work from home, on a computer, I'll be available most days (not weekends though) from around 9am GMT - 11pm GMT) I'm located in US/Pacific.
One thing I've done in the past that works well is to initially provide a map showing the static environment that is labeled on one axis with letters and on the other with numbers. In addition, a list of start coordinates is provided. Then, through the course of combat, tactical maneuvers can be clearly communicated via calling coordinate changes. When things get complicated, it helps to give occasional full summaries of all positions (i.e. at the end of every round). Basically, this is the D&D equivalent of chess match notation.
In response to your feedback issues Shisumo, I have no issues with any of it. I am liking Ar'dreth's build, the no map method is cool as long as we get regular updates and am excited to see a witch in action.Oooohhh. Intra-Party Conflict = Merlin vs. Morgan le Fey? Eh, well, I was actually kind of leaning towards the crazy tribal witch doctor image (i.e. witch as hedge wizard), but it's possible that I'll change my mind and go for the Morgan le Fey archetype instead.
THIS. It pops up almost ever game I play in and I just can't see why the party always need a cleric. I don't really mind, it just gets annoying after a while. I have nothing against a group that starts with a cleric, or a player that wants to play a cleric, just the guy who thinks we need a cleric to open a door. I find it funny too, though.Except for that healer comment(pet peeve of mine)How so? To be fair, I think that the Witch class is cool above and beyond the fact that it gets access to all of the core healing spells at the same rate that a Cleric gets them. This allows me the option of being able to play another spellcaster character in a group that already has a couple while also being able to fill one of the valuable party roles...without having to choose Cleric to do so. By the way, I also have nothing against playing a Cleric. It is a powerful class that can be quite a lot of fun to play.
I think I'd like to go ahead and activate the first of our alternates to replace Kaertya - T&M has already mentioned wanting to play a Pathfinder witch, and I think a more dedicated healer might be a useful addition. Say hi, T&M! Hello! I'll be crafting the character over the weekend since work must occupy my time today. As I go, I'll send messages to this thread with drafts and requests for comments or suggestions from all of you.
Although I agree with many of the reasons stated in this thread regarding why it is useful, I suspect that it is not nearly as useful as some other feats you should be taking at earlier levels instead. What I suggest you do is to make a list of all the feats you want to be capable of through the "career" of the character. Then, make a list with a row for each character level, indicating where you will get character level feats as well as class fixed and bonus feats. Now, start assigning feats to the available slots, paying attention to the prerequisites of the more advanced feats you want to be capable of (actually, because of this, I generally keep track of my "ability bump" levels in this list as well). If you're building a Ranger, I'm presuming you're focusing primarily on either Archery or Two-Weapon Fighting and possibly picking up feats from the other as a secondary fighting style. Both of these styles have a pretty hefty list of relevant feats. Again, as useful as Quickdraw is, consider the number of rounds of any given combat where it might actually come into play. Now, consider some of the other feats you've listed as interesting or required for your combat style in the same fashion. For both of those combat styles, there are three or four relevant feats I can think of that are likely to have significant impact nearly every round of combat, where Quickdraw is likely to be relevant only once or perhaps twice in any given combat. Of course, there are certain fighting styles where Quickdraw is an absolute must as soon as possible. Obviously, the big one here is a thrown weapon specialist. I would be far more likely to say that a dagger-throwing Rogue should take this at 1st level than your Ranger.
A few comments on the issues that T&M raised over in the play thread. This is all good by me. As I said in my lengthy spoiler, the exercise was valuable for me in order to understand how the Scion combat works as much as anything. Recreating the box text in the form of ticks and actions would have been tedium that I wouldn't expect you to subject players to, but it definitely helped me get a feel for how things work. To be crystal clear, my intent was not to imply that you were at all being unfair. Also, I'll never ask that you sacrifice creative license nor anyone's fun for the sake of accurately turning the crank on the rules driving a concurrent discrete time event simulator. I try very hard to leave that sort of thing behind at the office. Anyway, I think this is going stunningly well so far, and I'm really starting to both enjoy and understand the game. I hope everyone else is having fun with it as well.
Glad to hear your OK, and look on the bright side, chicks dig scars. Ah, well, my legs, and this one in particular, were already highly "decorated" with an assortment of cycling-related scars. There's even one cool-looking pedal bite that gives the appearance that my leg got clawed by some animal or something. Oddly enough, I've been rather lucky with my arms, but this accident broke that streak, leaving me with a good 2" x 6" swath of road rash on my left forearm. Fortunately, that healed rather nicely. I knew that the knee I had surgery on today was going to be a problem from the moment I saw it after the accident. I hit it hard enough and fast enough that it effectively "friction cauterized" itself and was immediately covered with a thick black scab rather than being bloody, like you want. I never realized that chicks dig this stuff. Maybe I should go out to the clubs and pimp my scars. ;-)
I suspect that all of you may have forgotten to choose a "Favored Class" and apply either the hit point or skill rank bonus that you get from it. It's another interesting variation that PFRPG brings to the game, but it is also new and therefore easy to miss. Okay, I'm going to repeat this one more time since no one seemed to notice when I mentioned it the first time. All of you should choose a "Favored Class" and take advantage of either the extra hit point or the extra skill rank. During the first few levels, one or two points can definitely make the difference between life or death. With only four of us, having any one party member disabled may spell doom for the rest of us, so I'm asking you to pay attention to this for both altruistic as well as selfish reasons. :-)
Don't I get a Fortitude save for half damage? ;-) The doctor yesterday gave me a prescription to a minor general antibiotic (20 doses: take one every 6 hours; grants +1 to Fortitude saves for 6 hours). Tensility: Expert 7 with 13 Con Between class (+2), ability (+1), and antibiotic (+1), I currently have a +3 to Fortitude saves. Ouch! Tensility takes full damage from the surgeon's first attempt. Thankfully, the surgeon didn't think a graft was necessary; therefore I was able to walk out of there afterwards. On the other hand, I did leave there with a sizeable chunk of necrotic flesh removed (-3 hp) from my knee, a scrip for some high dosage Oxycodone (20 doses: gain 1d4 temporary hit points; temporarily lose 1d2 points of Wis; benefit from up to two doses may stack; effect lasts for 3 + 1d3 hours) and another scrip for a second, more powerful antibiotic (20 doses: take one every 6 hours; acts as potions of Remove Disease with caster level 5). Now, let's hope the damn thing heals properly this time. Either way, I'm pretty certain it's going to leave a nasty looking scar. Anyway, you obviously don't need to worry about my being unable to post daily at this point. Thank goodness!
I've got to go in for a (hopefully minor) surgery today. Although I suspect this won't be the case, I might end up missing a day or two of posting. I'll post again here when I know more. Until then, don't necessarily wait for me and, if need be, I'm okay with having Pol choose appropriate actions for Galahd.
Alright, I'd like to get started. I don't want to have a lot of prelude before the action, so I'll just assume that the two characters of the two players that are dropping out have had to leave (and have already done so) and the two characters that are joining have just arrived and joined the group. The two characters that have yet to be created will show up when they are finished. Is that acceptable? Sounds appropriate.
Don't sweat it. I was glad to have the map you gave since it was sufficient to show the static terrain. In fact, I could easily cope with using maps like that, a coordinate system convention (e.g. letters A-? starting from left going right and numbers 1-? starting from bottom going up), starting coordinates for combat participants along with initiative order, and something similar to a chess match record of coordinate changes after each participants turn, perhaps giving a full recap of coordinates at the top of each round. Using this combat so far as an example, what I'm thinking of is a shorthand summary notation similar to the following:
A interesting variation of this might include turn order reminders after each move statement.
And, of course, I could imagine more complicated variants including other useful information such as status changes.
Yeah, okay, I'm a nerd.
It is not, as of the current rules, language or intelligence dependent. You could not challenge a chair, since it is not a foe (but this language does need a bit of clarification). Besides, precision based damage is not going to do you much good against a chair. With apologies for the tangent, I feel compelled to mention that you just inspired a riotous encounter for my players involving an overstuffed leather construct.
I don't know. I'm about to make an Oracle to play in a PbP game; however, now that I see it, my initial reaction is that the class is largely inferior to the Cleric, certainly more so than the original 3.5ed Sorceror was compared to the Wizard before PFRPG smoothed that balance out (thank you for that, by the way). When I compare the power of Channeling to that of Revelations, I'm left a bit cold by the latter. New ones come too infrequently, and quite a few of them simply don't scale well in power over career progression. One extra use per day every five levels?! Meh. I'll reserve judgement until I've had the chance to really playtest, but I suspect that Revelations will need some tweaking. Also, the number of extra spells per day and spontaneous casting isn't really an even trade for the limited number of spells known and the lost level of spell progression, especially given the Cleric's existing albeit limited ability to spontaneously cast. Anyway, for whatever it's worth, that's my first impression of Oracle. I'll report more later after I've played one for a while. All of that said, I think the Cavalier is an excellent class and quite well done. Bravo!
Now that the Oracle has been released, I've got to admit that it looks rather inferior to the Cleric; however, in the spirit of playtest, I'll go ahead and give it a shake anyway. I might end up being something other than a Fire Oracle, if that's okay, but I don't yet have a strong lean towards any of them. On the other hand, not that it's applicable for this character, really, but I do very much like the Cavalier class.
And on a side note, I've played a scout before, and I had a double bandolere of knives (for throwing at things in 30 feet), a long sword, a buckler, and a short bow. Which weapon did I use the most? The bow. I would move 30 feet from combat, use precise shot, do full damage, next round, acrobatics my way out of any threatened areas I was in, go to 30, and fire again. Shot on the Run would have been a nice addition to this technique. I had a nice fighter/scout in LG (rest in peace) that combined skirmish and Spring Attack rather nicely.
My specific concerns, to echo and reinforce other comments read earlier in the thread are that the basic editing functions should be available via the proper Command-key chords and that, most importantly, printing must work well. Excellent print output is one of the user experience delights of running a Mac, and this is definitely the kind of app where printing capability is key. My recommendation is that you do it, even with the WINE bottle, in order to have a Mac offering available. Then, you can use the percentage of income you normally feed back into R&D from the Mac sales to fund development of Mac native versions of your UI components so that you can ultimately later "upgrade" your Mac client base to a fully native version. Further, if you were smart about how you built the Mac-specific UI components, it's possible that you could come out the other side of the process with the ability to also sell an iPhone version. Being able to have all of my characters in my pocket at all times would be perfect, especially if I also had a desktop version available that worked on the same data sets. From my set of gaming friends, a couple dozen of them have iPhones, whether or not they use Macs, and almost all of them would buy that version in a hasted second. Anyway, presuming it works well and prints nicely, I'd certainly buy a Mac desktop version. Thanks!
Otherwise, I'll be pushing for the newbies to finish creating characters before Sunday (pretty please, with an adventure on top?). You will definitely have my character by Sunday (i.e. done by end of Saturday). It's been a busy week all around, so I'm glad you've been understanding. I am a bit worried that the party appears to be shaping up without a front-line combatant. If JZ has no interest in playing a fighter type, perhaps I should hand off the role of rogue to him and make a more martial character. JZ, it's your call.
My comment was a joke. ;) I have no objections to a prophet, though your "combat beast" comment does echo some of the concerns I've seen tossed around the forums about geasa.True and yes they are rightly deserved. The unfortunate thing is that Celtic/Irish legend actually helps solidify the powers with the example of Cuchulain. It is also a great double edge sword if used correctly Cuchulain lost his powers because he was feed dog meat without his knowledge or consent. Either way I am will to work with you on this. If you've interest in Cuchulain and Celtic mythology but haven't read The Táin, I'd recommend you give it a whirl. It's actually a rather fun text and is available online from several sources.
As for you're concept T&M, it's interesting. I'll allow it, however the validity of you're character's beliefs are unlikely to be affirmed during the course of the game. I mainly created the concept because I was having a hard time coming up with a solid background for a Cleric given the lack of a well-defined pantheon. I may allow things outside of core on a case-by-case basis. But for one thing, the material from the upcoming Advanced Player's Guide playtests will be allowed. So, if you'll permit it, I'd like to wait for two days until the first installment of the APG playtest material is released, from which I'll make an Oracle character. I know there's a relatively new cult of a fire deity/spirit led by an oracle of fire (as in the upcoming class). If appropriate, then, I can be a member of the new Fire cult you mentioned earlier in the thread. Sound good?
Okay, then I suspect I should be concerned if her only combat abilities are due to Brawl. Even with Crushing Grip, it's mostly non-lethal damage, correct? I'll read more on how combat works and make some revisions with this in mind. Also, I'm likely to go back and rearrange Epic Attributes just a bit. There was one a Stamina Knack that I almost took ("Solipsism"). Combined with some of her other traits, it should help make her harder to kill off.
Lets see, so far there's a cleric, a rogue, a bard, a ranger, and a sorceress right?You still in on this too? Possible Cleric??? Yeah, I'm still on. I was cooling my heels waiting for a response from lordzack since I was rather confused about the composition of the party after his mention of the two "DM characters". Anyway, for whatever it's worth, the cleric is also female and quite charismatic.
Oops, I missed that Tensility wants to be a rogue. I'll think up something else very soon. To recap, as far as I can tell, the current party is:
The players expressing interest in joining, in order, are:
Darkmeer, is this correct?
So, I'll work on background story and physical description during breaks from work through the course of the day and should have something ready to go by the end of today. Brainstorming regarding background added to character sheet. Mostly only lacking description, avatar, and name now.
I believe I have a full set of crunchy bits here, but I'm sorely lacking fluff. Worse yet, in brainstorming backstory and motivation for my "private investigator scion of Vidar", I think I've finally come up with something good, but it motivates me to rearrange the crunch a bit in order to swap secondary and tertiary emphasis between physical and social. This probably wouldn't be so bad, since it appears that we are a bit lacking in the social category. Before I do that, though, I'm interested to understand how much or little direct combat should be expected in a Scion game. EDIT: Actually, thinking about it a bit more, I probably don't really need to rearrange the crunch to accomodate her background story, especially since the crunch fits being a Scion of Vidar rather well. So, I'll work on background story and physical description during breaks from work through the course of the day and should have something ready to go by the end of today. Either way, I'm still interested to know what to expect regarding intensity of combat in a typical Scion game. Also, I'd appreciate a review of the crunch by Shisumo, and am interested in feedback from any of the other players who feel so inclined.
I should note that my interest in the curve blade will be ongoing but is rather secondary, since Galahd obviously has no gold to afford it yet. This is largely a reaction to the comment in the Core Rules that "the elven curve blade is exceptionally rare" and concern as a player that my unfortunately low initial wealth roll will have the secondary effect of losing Galahd guaranteed access to the item. To be honest, I suppose this reaction in part stems from the fact that the side of me that has often played the role of DM in games in the past argues that, if I were running the game, I would in fact honor that comment in the rules and assign improbably low odds of there being even a single such blade available for sale in the entire city. Anyway, my real point is that there is absolutely no reason to hold up starting the main event for excursions into a tangent specific to my character that, at best, may result in the knowledge of where such an item might be obtained whenever the funds for purchasing it have actually been earned. Cheers!
When inside the Golden Goblin for that midday meal, Galahd will enquire about the availability of a (Common-grade, or ~5 sp/night) room. If one is, he'll rent it and pay for tonight in advance, asking to be shown the room in order to leave his rather bulky bedroll behind during the remainder of the day's errands. Note that this ploy is intended, in part, to give Galahd even more of a chance to know the interior floorplan of the inn and, otherwise, to simply make certain that he has a place to stay at the end of the tournament. Note to DM: (As should be obvious from the comment about the external observation of the inn, he is "all eyes and ears" while inside the inn, taking as many active Perception checks as the DM thinks appropriate.)
I'm getting pretty close to having all of the crunchy bits here. For fluff, I don't have a background, appearance, or even name yet; however, I do have a solid concept, and this is the most important part anyway. I've got to go to work now, but here's a peek at what I'm currently working with, extended as an invitation for commentary and constructive criticism. Tensility's Scion (in development Cheers!
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