The Amazing Saberman's page

Hmm... I feel that giving Doom access to his Doombots would be too much of an advantage. Then again, Batman know Gotham like the back of his hand, so that gives him a pretty big home-field advantage. I'm going to assume that they both have the same amount of prep-time here, with Batman having access to all the technology in his cave.

I'm gonna say Batman.

Bruce wouldn't be stupid enough to take on Doom and his army of robots in a head-on assault. He would use guerrilla tactics and keen observation of his foe while trying to determine where the REAL Doom resides. The home-field advantage would make capturing the Dark Knight almost impossible. Also, keep in mind that Doom's weakness has always been his ego. He's fighting, essentially, a man in a bat costume. Doom is a dictator who fights the world's smartest man and three other of the world's most powerful heroes on a regular basis. There's NO WAY he wouldn't underestimate Batman, and Bruce would use this to his advantage. It would be the battle to end ALL battles, but i think Batman would succeed in the end, though probably at great cost, as I'm sure most of Gotham (if not all) would be destroyed in the process. All-in-all, Batman might not even consider it a true victory due to the price he paid for it. It might even cause him to break his "no kill" rule.

For the current AP I've been running, I just level the PCs up whenever the book tells me to. If I ever feel the need to reward them for any TRULY remarkable actions the players make that can't be resolved with gold or XP, I just throw them a Hero Point. They seem to enjoy it.

That's not likely to happen with my group, as interfering with a duel is deathly dangerous, and the rest of them got the hints as to how powerful Plugg and Barnabus really are. They've even tried to tell him too. In fact, Xian Wu, the group's monk, and Jackie Calico, the rogue, layed it out pretty bare bones for him.

However, both the player and the character are very Stubborn, so it's not likely to end well.

This was during the actual mutiny, though. When the PCs are supposed to fight him. It was a close fight, though, but Plugg was just better equipped at the time.

The Amazing Saberman wrote:

Oh, I see, now. the 202 equals one share yada, yada, yada; ok, I got it. Yeah, I'm kind of lucky my group is so diverse and full of seasoned role-players. I've got one guy in my group who's playing an undine that was born and raised on the Shiv. He knows NOTHING about civilization (once believed that Cheliax was a person) and mostly just picks up watever he can use underwater.

You're lucky. My friends are the kind that even thought they know I've spent a chunk of time prepping everything for game night, they still feel a need to pull those switches that say, "DO NOT PULL: INSTANT DEATH" just to screw with me. Which is why the Half-Orc Gunslinger named East Clintwood is *probably* going to bite it when he get's his requested duel with Mr. Plugg.

** spoiler omitted **

That's funny because one of my PCs did the same thing and would have been killed if one of the other PCs hadn't come to his rescue. :P

Shares are basically a percent of the loot (see above in my example for how to calculate share).

And the magic item clause is in there to actually prevent fights over certain items and everyone actually gets a " fair share." every group is different, and yours may not need that to be part of the system. Mine is full of greedy bastards that think their monk actually needs that +2 Flaming Axe for example.

Oh, I see, now. the 202 equals one share yada, yada, yada; ok, I got it. Yeah, I'm kind of lucky my group is so diverse and full of seasoned role-players. I've got one guy in my group who's playing an undine that was born and raised on the Shiv. He knows NOTHING about civilization (once believed that Cheliax was a person) and mostly just picks up watever he can use underwater.

Sounds pretty good. How do you determine how much one share is (not that good with money)? Also, I'm not sure my PCs would be okay with purchasing magical items they've earned in fights. Why would someone pay for an item that they can just pick off the body of the enemy and take it right then and there (which was common for real-life pirates anyway).

My current Skull and Shackles group is playing the offspring of their characters from Serpent Skull, so I'd consider what I'm running to be a sequel of sorts.

I'm not up on the latest incarnation of Spider-man, but going by my memory of his abilities from the 70s-80s...

Spidey has super-human strength, but not super-strength. You could probably peg his str at somewhere in the Storm Giant range. Maybe 26-28.

His constitution would be very high, he's no wolverine but it is canon that he heals much more rapidly than a normal human. Plus he is not merely strong, he can take a punch. His con is not as high as his str, but it's pretty high. Probably 22 or so.

Agility is tricky. Yeah, again he's super-human, but he's not Flash, nor is he even the Beast. Is his agility higher than his str? I don't think so. Heck, even Kingpin, when he was just a big fat dude, could peg Spidey every now and then. So probably about equal to his con. Again I'll go with 22.

Intelligence is top-end human. There is no indication his intelligence was bumped up by the spider bite. And no real rationale why it would have been, so 20 is probably tops.

Wisdom - probably dirt average. Spidey is a lot of things, but "wise" isn't one of them. I'd go with 12 at most. More likely to go with 10.

Charisma - also well within human range. He was supposed to be a nerd, so I'm tempted to say even below average, but I'll say charisma is comparable to wisdom and stick with 10 - 12.

I would put his spidey sense as an extraordinary power and model it after uncanny dodge with some improved evasion thrown in. I'd have to put something in there for tracking too since he uses his spidey-sense to track his little spider-bugs he plants on his enemies.

His webslingers would be crafted items, probably custom ones. No big deal, but perfect for him.

I would put max ranks in bluff.

Now, what class would I make Spidey?

It's hard not to put rogue in there. I'd probably put at least a level or two of ranger. I dunno about monk. Yeah there are some mechanical things about monk that fit (unarmed fighting, for example) but something about the flavor doesn't fit my idea of a wise-cracking, gadget-using,...

Actually, it's canon that Spidey is much more dexterous than Beast. In his first encounter with the X-Men, he outmaneuvered Hank quite easily. In fact, one of Spidey's great tactics is to hop around his enemies and pick at them until they wear down. It's why Doc Ock has such a difficult time getting ahold of him even with all his lightning-fast tentacles.

Well, let's look at his powers:

Super-Strength, around the 33-34 range at least.

Super-speed and agility. Most people say his Dexterity should be higher than his Strength. TSR's Marvel SAGA rules had his Strength and Dexterity at 14 (human maximum is 10) but in the Marvel Universe there are a lot more super-strong characters than super-agile characters. By comparison, Captain America was 10, Gambit was 11, Beast was 12, and Nightcrawler was 13. Nothing short of a cosmic-level entity (or Mayday Parker) had an Agility higher than Spider-Man's. I'm comfortable pegging this in the thirties.

His Constitution is likewise outrageous. Look at the beatings he survives, and remember he has a healing factor. Just because he's fast doesn't mean he's not a brick.

His mental scores weren't boosted by the spider bite, but he's an easy candidate for INT in the 18-20 range. Compare him to Reed Richards and Tony Stark, who are described as having outright superhuman intelligence-- he's very nearly on their level and the only thing that's held him back has been spending almost all of his time as Spider-Man. Wisdom and Charisma are between average and low-average; his superhuman willpower is a result of his class levels.

Spider-Sense. This is Improved Evasion and Improved Uncanny Dodge at the very least and quite possibly immunity to surprise as well. I'm tempted to say some sort of INT-based Monk AC bonus is at work here.

The spider-climb is trivial. He's got a racial Climb speed (from the template) and a substantial racial bonus to Acrobatics checks over and above his Dexterity score.

His fighting style screams Flurry of Blows, but he doesn't really have a lot of martial arts training and his unarmed attacks aren't devastating compared to his Strength.

So... some kind of racial template plus a Rogue archetype that switches out Sneak Attack for Flurry of Blows and Monk's AC bonus on INT. Given the things he fights on a regular basis, he's ridiculously high level.

Well, in current Marvel continuity, he's been trained by Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Wolverine, and Captain America in hand-to-hand combat, so I'm assuming he's not that bad at it.

Check the Graveknight template in bestiary 3 with acid as his element. To become one you must:

** spoiler omitted **...

That sounds pretty damn cool. I might try something like this for Carrion Crown.

Probably go with a good rogue archetype and take Craft Magical Arms and Armor to make things like bracers of Web and Gloves of Spider-Climb. Then go Improved Unarmed Strike or something along those lines so he can fight enemies with his fists and whatnot. Also, Uncanny Dodge, Spring Attack, and Evasion are musts. He'd have amazing Dex (obviously), second-best would be Int, then Cha, then Str, then Wiz, and Con would be the least important.

As for the captain : That's as close to mutiny as it comes. Let them have a duel over it, which basially they did already. Or the captain steps down. He could have his first mate keelhauled/hung from the yardarm, but it does not look like those things will fly over well.Not with the crew either. Even with pirates there is a Chain of Command, because otherwise : no "captain". It's not a honorific. It denotes the (wo)man-in-charge

"Harrigan's Folly" ? They must be pretty co**sure of themselves. That guy is supposedly a Pirate Lord and Free Captain. Guess many lesser pirates will blanch, and either take cheap shots (currying favour) or staying away from the guys as not to antagonize Harrigan. Who... will probably go the extra length to chop off their heads. Simply out of self-respect. To quote "Game of Thrones" : Kingslayer, not your average nickname

Well, from what he's told me, he plans on giving the first mate a month in the bilges as punishment for the attack. We've all talked it over OOC and we kind of like the tenuous relationship between the first mate and captain, how he, at times, acts like a jerk to him and questions his orders just to keep him on his toes. All of the characters have a past connection, too, as everyone is playing the offspring of their characters from Serpent Skull, so we're all trying to avoid killing one another. At any rate, I'm still a little unsure about the name of the ship. I've told them I'm completely on-board (pun intended) with it, but I've also informed them that I don't plan on going easy on them.

Last session the ship's first mate lured the captain into an abandoned alley at Rickety Squib's', threw him up against a wall, and antagonized him. He then used bardic spells to strip him the dexterity required to properly use his guns and the two fought. It ended with the captain unconscious and the port town's doctor (a pc) confused as to what was going on. After waking back up, the captain brooded in his quarters,charting out the crew's next destination and deciding what to do about the first mate. What do YOU guys think he should do? What should the punishment be for something like this? The first mate claims to have done what he did for the good of the crew and the captain (he feels that the captain isn't taking his job seriously enough and that he makes rash decisions without thinking things through). Also, the crew plans on naming the ship "Harrigan's Folly". How do you think this is going to go over with other pirates in the Shackles? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Rendered lovingly in pencil by myself are the personal jolly rogers that my four players pitched to me. They plan to one day captain a ship each, each flying their own flag, but allied with the others.

The jolly rogers are here. Clockwise from the upper-left they are of the Spellslinger, Witch, Oracle, and Druid.

The slinger's flag depicts a simplified version of her abundant hair, as well as her twin pistols. The witch's replaces crossbones with the north and west winds. The oracle's is pretty simplistic, with traditional crossbones and a skull showing off her dreads, and the druid's displays the symbol Castrovel, possible origin planet of the elves, and her birthplace.

They're all very One Piece-ish.

I've got an undine as one of my PCs who's going for the Namor build. He's gonna be king of the seas! Or so he hopes. Everyone else is human, though.

Is there any way to turn a wizard into an effective melee combatant somewhere down the line? I was thinking of having him take one level of Magus (just to get the martial weapon proficiency and the dual-wielding magic/weapon ability), then spec into eldritch knight. Idunno, any other ideas?

I was just thinking this would make for a great AP. A group of PCs trying to solve the mystery of who killed Aroden would be pretty damned interesting. It's the ultimate murder mystery!

I remember reading about an old hermit that has lived on the coast who spends his time staring into the eye the storm for the past 100 years on Megelogotti Island in the Inner Sea World guide.

Well that's interesting...

Got mine just a few minutes ago. Played in my first few Society scenarios on Friday. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this new development unfolds.

The Amazing Saberman wrote:

This gives me a lot to consider. I thought about playing a Holy Gun and going Judge Dredd, but I already have a dwarven inquisitor who's pretty much that already. Now I've got a character in mind who starts off working for Cheliax, then becomes a vigilante somewhere down the line (I like to make little on-going story-archs for my characters). He's gonna start off as a ninja for a couple levels then, when he becomes a vigilante, spec into urban ranger.

Just FYI, the Holy Gun archetype is not legal for PFS play. See here:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/additionalResources

However, nothing stops you from multi-classing Paladin and Gunslinger (take a look at the Mysterious Stranger archetype).

Well, I've decided against the character anyway, so it's moot at this point. Is it possible to change factions?

After seeing other people's comments, from a backstory standpoint, my vote is make a Zorro character. You know, if we get to vote.

I can see him being Chelaxian in background but now supporting Andoran. Complete with mask and fancy hat. Stay away from the whip and go with the rapier. Maybe a free hand fighter archetype possibly prestige class into duelist later... I'm writing this down for myself as a future PC.

I've actually already played a character just like that (his name was Diablo) and I've been kicking around the idea of bringing him back. None of this is set in stone, so go ahead and vote away, guys. If anyone has any suggests, please feel free to throw them out there.

This gives me a lot to consider. I thought about playing a Holy Gun and going Judge Dredd, but I already have a dwarven inquisitor who's pretty much that already. Now I've got a character in mind who starts off working for Cheliax, then becomes a vigilante somewhere down the line (I like to make little on-going story-archs for my characters). He's gonna start off as a ninja for a couple levels then, when he becomes a vigilante, spec into urban ranger.

Another one I played was a little elf boy (used Simple Template: Young) wizard (+4 Dex for template along with the bonus from being an elf? You know he was a mother-******). He was very rambuncious and a little obnoxious, (plus he cursed a lot due to being raised by barbarians) but had a gentleness to him. He became party leader pretty darn quick.

I once made an elven paladin who rode a gorilla named Carbunkle. I described the beast's dimeanor as that of Jack Nicholson's DNA reconstituted in a gorilla body. He was very gung-ho and would sip watered-down mead out of a flask in secret and whisper "I'm a monster," as he viewed drinking as somewhat sinful. He wound up making a fake moustache out of horse hair and glue and attempted to infiltrate a tavern full of thugs, murders, and various ne'er-do-wells. He barged in yelling "greeting thugs and/or criminals! I, too, am a thug and/or criminal!" His charisma was very high and he rolled several 20s on bluff checks made to convince the patrons of his villainous background, so they welcomed him in and he was able to successfully gain information on the local assassin's guild (or, as he called them, "the Black Spider Ninja Clan"). It ended with him having to lie to a member of the local nobility and he just stood there, sputtering like a fool, unable to tell a lie. Fun was had by all.

Maggiethecat wrote:

The Amazing Saberman wrote:

Jiggy wrote:

Silver Crusade. Make it your solemn duty to protect your comrades (and the general public) from the evils of the world.

That's not too bad an idea. Do you have to have a chosen deity? Do you to be lawful? (I was gonna make him neutral good)

Technically no, any character can worship any deity (as long as they're within one step in alignment from them) and be any alignment and still join any faction. There's no rule against it. It just may get yo a few weird looks if you're CN in the Silver Crusade. NG is perfectly acceptable; I have a NG Cleric who is a member of the Silver Crusade.

You know, except evil of course... ;)

From what I hear, evil characters aren't even allowed in PSF. Least that's what the Organized Play guide says.

And thanks for the advice, everyone! It's given me quite a bit to think about. I'll probably wind up going with Silver Crusade.

Silver Crusade. Make it your solemn duty to protect your comrades (and the general public) from the evils of the world.

That's not too bad an idea. Do you have to have a chosen deity? Do you to be lawful? (I was gonna make him neutral good)

I've been considering making a vigilante-style character for PFS and I'm wondering what faction, if any, might be best suited for such a character. He's not really that into liberation, more along the lines of battling highwaymen, bandits, maurading monsters, that sort of thing; so I don't think Andoran would fit. I was considering Shadow Lodge but I've read up on them and I'm still not really quite sure what it is they do. Any thoughts?

Thanks, guys!

What are the rules on using a template for a PFS character? Let's say if someone wanted to use the Young template, would the rules condemn it? Probably a stupid question, I just didn't see anything about it anywhere in the Organized Play guide. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough?

Not to beat a dead horse, but on the rum ration question: how can it knock you out in the Heave game?

Unless I'm missing some fundamental rule here, the rum ration needs to have some kind of variable, cumulative, non-lethal effect for this game to be possible, and as written, it doesn't.

Geeking a bit after reading Wikipedia's article on blood alcohol and playing with washington university's blood alcohol level chart: If a rum ration contains 6oz of alcohol - that's 12 normal drinks - one of them is enough to knock out a fast-drinking low-tolerance character, and would leave a slow-drinking high tolerance character sloppy drunk (fatigued).

Playing Heave essentially means consuming a lethal amount of alcohol and trying to make yourself vomit before the alcohol suppresses your gag reflex or knocks you out and you die. I guess that's why they call it heave - Lovely game!

Lovely game, indeed. Our barbarian nearly died playing it. In fact, some of the players bet on the one NPC they were having trouble with earlier. Towards the end of the game, he groaned about wanting to quite, but the PCs managed to Diplomacy him into continuing. Poor bastard wound up drinking himself to death. He won, though.

Let's say a DM wanted to create their own theory for what lies at the center of the Eye. Let's say Aroden's corpse resides at the center, deep beneath the ocean. Let's say, somehow (magic) someone was able to resurrect this corpse as some kind of horrible "super-lich" abomination. What do you think the CR for said "super-lich" would be?

I pride myself in being able to make villains that everyone REALLY hates. So, anytime one of the PCs cuts up or gets mouthy with someone they shouldn't, a little humiliation can go a long way. I remember our bard was running a message up to the a pirate in the crow's nest. The PC gave him the cloth with the message on it and guy unrolled it, looked at it, looked down at the PC, laughed, then spat in his face and said "message delivered". A bunch of pirates laughed on his way down, including some of the PCs.