With the new NPC rules from Alien Archive it shouldn't be hard at all to just substitute numbers in existing stat-blocks. Adjust Encounter Levels according to how far ahead your party is, and just look at the Array tables to see what the new combat numbers should be.
Up to the DM, but I'd say absolutely. But the DM should read it carefully and decide which passages would get nixed from a Wikipedia article. For example: Spoiler:
Partitioning the station’s different neighborhoods
into dozens of electoral districts over the years—many times in ways that favor one faction over others—means that, while most syndics are democratically elected, some corporate or criminal enclaves are dynasties in all but name. That would get tagged right away as "citation needed". We know it's true because the author who wrote it is essentially the God that created the world. But on the "info sphere" that would definitely be an editorial opinion or a rumor or a conspiracy theory, not a solid journalistic or historical fact. In that spirit, I'd advise a DM to flag every such section and create 3 or 4 "fake news" alternates for each opinion or rumor or theory.
I also found it odd that science officer and engineer get their own skill but pilot/navigate/gunnery is all the same. I think I'd have preferred a "starship operation" skill with the associated stat varying based on what role you were filling (using Dex for astrogation is weird to me too). Again, gunnery is NOT a skill check, it's an attack. It's based on BAB. There's just an option to use your ranks in the pilot skill as your BAB for that attack. It is NOT a skill check.
Monsters and NPCs are build based on these Pathfinder Unchained rules: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/unchained/monsters/index.html
Well consider that it's much cheaper to rent monthly and cook your own food than to rent nightly and buy every meal. Looking at Airbnb and at various hotel sites, the cheapest rooms imaginable start around $30/night. That's $900/mo. A room at the YMCA starts at like $400/mo. For that same $400/mo I live in a house with my wife and another married couple (no kids). When the 4 of us were in a small sh*tty appartment it was $250/mo. So using that as a vague guideline, you could divide that cost of living by 4 and that'd be closer to the cost of living for a permanent resident.
Yeah, Spray 'n Pray stinks. Just like in real life. I agree about short bursts, tho. Maybe treat it as an extra attack against the same target on a full attack and all attacks are an additional -2 or -4.
Unarmed Strikes are labeled as archaic and nonlethal. The feat "Improved Unarmed Strike" says:
You have trained to make your unarmed attacks lethal and strike with kicks, head-butts, and similar attacks. But the actual listed benefit of the feat doesn't mention lethality or nonlethality:
Vampire template. +2 CR to any living creature with 5HD. Pick a base creature with more than one natural attack, preferably with naturally low Con and high Cha. Example: Wyrmling Sea Dragon You end up with a CR 6 with great saves, 27 AC, and 3 Energy Drain attacks at +10. Energy Drain only triggers once a round, but at least one of those 3 attacks is bound to hit each round for 2 negative levels and decent damage. I once built little girl Changeling Vampire triplets all named Suzy. They were a Ninja, a Freebooter Ranger, and a Sensei Monk, each with two claw attacks. They were wonderfully creepy and almost TPK'd. The Freebooter would pick a PC for her bane and they'd say "Kill that one, Suzy!"
The Ninja would use Vanishing Trick and they'd say "Where's Suzy?"
Even if they never successfully hit or do damage, the biggest thing they're doing is absorbing hits. Every 1d4+1 celestial hawks you summon is 1d4+1 attacks that don't hit your front liner. They also provide flanking bonuses and prevent movement through their squares (depending on size). Add in SLAs on higher level summons, and they never even have to hit or do damage. Or just summon an augmented celestial rhino at 7th level and have it powerful charge the BBEG for 4d6+21. Then compare that to the 7d6 from Cone of Cold and see which you like better.
I can definitely see element-specific lift capacity being stronger than telekinetic "lift anything" capacity. That makes perfect sense to me balance-wise. I'm fine with a Hydro being able to create a 50,000 ton tidal wave. I like that an omega-level master of magnatism can lift an entire stadium. This is how I want fantasy to be. Fantastic. And while it is out of balance, it's only by a coupla orders of magnitude. The 9th level spell Clashing Rocks creates "two Colossal-sized masses of rock, dirt, and stone" 30ft apart, and smashes them together. I estimate each to be at least 1,000 tons. But a large creature (cow or horse) weighs about 1200-1400 pounds. A 20th level Telekineticist can't lift two horses, let alone their riders and gear. The Telekineticist can't even lift the average mounted party to the top of the Hydrokineticist's 50,000 ton tidal wave. This is way, way, waaaaaaaaaay underpowered.
There's already rules for the flour thing. So if flour works only momentarily, so would arrows. They don't stick and remain visible. The arrow would hit, confirm that there is an invisible creature right there, and then disappear. Glitterdust sticks and remains visible because magic. Nothing else does.
This has to be a typo. It says An investigator has the ability to augment skill checks and ability checks through his brilliant inspiration... As a free action, he can expend one use of inspiration from his pool to add 1d6 to the result of that check, including any on which he takes 10 or 20.There's no single check mentioned for "that check" to refer to. Also, the 20th level capstone says True Inspiration (Ex): At 20th level, an investigator can use inspiration on all skill checks—even ones he isn’t trained in—and all ability checks without spending inspiration. This clearly implies some missing line about trained skills. I'm guessing there's also something limiting it to Investigator class skills.
Stuff about undead not being evil Actually, only aligned undead detect as evil. Ghosts of good alignment are just as unnatural, but have not the slightest blip of an evil aura. It's the same with outsiders. [EVIL] type outsiders don't detect unless their alignment is actually CE, NE, or LE. I think the devs overlooked this distinction when giving mindless undead evil alignments. A creature can be [EVIL] by nature without behaving as per the CE, NE, or LE alignments. [EVIL] type outsiders and magic exist independent of the alignment spectrum. Alignment does not represent the nature of a creature, it represents the behavior of a creature. Mindless undead, just like mindless everything else, behave as True Neutral.
Play an oracle with crippling social anxiety. Take the tongues curse, which says "In times of stress or unease, you speak in tongues." Any time you are forced into an uncomfortable social situation, you lose the ability to speak common.
I hinted at this a little before, but I'll focus on it now Dexter, the forensics expert and serial killer on Showtime, is Lawful Evil by my approximation. He is the kind of kid who kills animals for no reason, and he grows up into a serial killer. I don't know if anyone but me is a fan of the show, but if not, here's the relevant points. Dexter has a code that he adheres to. Mostly this code resembles good. But he is not good. He is lawful. Some people just get creeped out by Dexter. They are sure that he's up to something. Because he is. He's evil, and they can smell it on him. However, the only Evil acts that he commits are the murders of serial killers. The only evil thing he allows himself to do is kill villains. But he doesn't do it for any righteous reason. He likes it. No, He loves it. In fact, he needs it. He has an evil, insane need to kill. So, he focuses that need towards doing what his lawful code says is "good." So he's evil. He would also be a great party member. He's talented, and he is entirely predictable. He's not gonna kill a PC in the night. He's lawful. Yeah, he kills villains because he likes it, but he still kills villains, just like everybody else. My point is, evil PCs can be legit. I'd rather have a loyal, evil PC than a chaotic wildcard PC. I can trust the loyal, evil PC at least.
I am DMing a group that just got two new gunslingers. Pretty soon, I ran in to this little gem:
Confusion with no save? Disarm or trip with no check? All for a touch attack with no penalty? Someone convince me this isn't broken.
I wish I knew the answer to this, but I don't. I'd look it up in the PRD, but why bother? I already thought about it and didn't know the answer, and I can't try again, even with new information. I am incapable by RAW of finding this information in a book or other resource. I should just throw away my corebook, since any rule I don't know off-the-top-of-my-head is forever inaccessible to me.
30 INT is to high. I think people forget that the extra +5 from 20 int as opposed to 10 is less than the full benefit of skill focus. for being good at stuff, stats are waaaaaaay less important than having max ranks in a skill. People also forget that even the heroic NPC stat array is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. That's right, almost NO ONE has a 20 in any stat. The world record for deadlifting would imply a 22 str (1015 lbs), but I'm sure that's more like a 19 modified by feats (like one that lets you lift triple instead of double ("Run" for powerlifters)). Of course, super heroes are super, but Batman isn't. Batman doesn't have or need horribly broken stats. His Str isn't that high. He's forever getting tossed and bashed by strong baddies. Also, He always uses escape artist when he's pinned under rocks or grappled. He fails plenty of fort saves, too. That's why he has gas masks, anti-venoms, and just about everything else in his belt. However, I'd have to say the exact opposite about B-man vs S-man level wise: Batman is a mid-level character. Superman just has a ton of racial HDs and abilities. Superman, Hulk, Thor, and the like are still CR a billions on HD alone. Kent and Banner have expert levels if anything. They're reporter and physicist respectively. Same with Wonder Woman, but to a lesser extent. She has a bunch of racial HD, but many, many fighter/barbie levels. Thor certainly has some fighter, but he mostly weilds a major artifact and is a god. Major Artifact goes for Flash, Green Lantern, and Iron Man as well. Batman probably has +4-8 CR for his insane super-wealth. Batman has good equipment and decent levels.
The Alchemist can take the vestigial arm discovery twice resulting in a four-armed character... How opposed would you be to building a double-shielded Goro? |
