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Do you need to make a grapple check to tie up someone who is pinned?

Background - bar room brawl - no one has armour or weapons.

2 party members onto the BBNG.

Round 1 - partner successfully grapples our opponent. I move in and join the grapple (aid another)

BBNG tries to break free - and fails

Round 2 - partner is on a roll and converts grapple into a pin - excellent!

My action - I want to tie our opponent up.

The following is an action if your opponent is grappled.
Tie Up: If you have your target pinned, otherwise restrained, or unconscious, you can use rope to tie him up. If you are grappling the target, you can attempt to tie him up in ropes, but doing so requires a combat maneuver check at a –10 penalty. If the DC to escape from these bindings is higher than 20 + the target's CMB, the target cannot escape from the bonds, even with a natural 20 on the check.

The question is do I as an additional character have to make a grapple check and if so with what modifiers?


Monk fast movement would make him a good fielder in the covers.

High touch AC would be useful if fielding at silly point.

Fast movement would be useful if one of the batsmen needed a runner.

Ends up as a 12th man sort of role.


Combat expertise is a powerful feat.

One of my characters has deliberately avoided taking it as it would make my AC too high - effectively invulnerable to physical attacks. That would annoy the DM - and an annoyed DM is a bad thing!

I genuinely expected to see this thread complain that it was too good!


My character is going down the paladin/dragon disciple combo path.

I was wondering how bite damage worked if I wielded a 2 handed weapon and attacked for a bite as well.

I can see that if I was going with natural attacks alone, I would do 1d6 + 1-1/2 str. However, it looks like the bite attack, when making normal "manufactured" attacks, counts as a secondary attack and gets a -5 to hit.

But what is the strength bonus. 1.5 str, str or 0.5 str?

Here are some of the relevant rules extracts

Dragon disciple prestige class
Dragon Bite (Ex): At 2nd level, whenever the dragon disciple uses his bloodline to grow claws, he also gains a bite attack. This is a primary natural attack that deals 1d6 points of damage (1d4 if the dragon disciple is Small), plus 1–1/2 times the dragon disciple's Strength modifier. Upon reaching 6th level, this bite also deals 1d6 points of energy damage. The type of damage dealt is determined by the dragon disciple's bloodline.

Natural attacks (Bestiary 3 universal monster rules)
Secondary attacks are made using the creature's base attack bonus –5 and add only 1/2 the creature's Strength bonus on damage rolls. If a creature has only one natural attack, it is always made using the creature's full base attack bonus and adds 1-1/2 times the creature's Strength bonus on damage rolls.

Some creatures treat one or more of their attacks differently, such as dragons, which always receive 1-1/2 times their Strength bonus on damage rolls with their bite attack. These exceptions are noted in the creature's description.

Creatures with natural attacks and attacks made with weapons can use both as part of a full-attack action (although often a creature must forgo one natural attack for each weapon clutched in that limb, be it a claw, tentacle, or slam). Such creatures attack with their weapons normally but treat all of their available natural attacks as secondary attacks during that attack, regardless of the attack's original type.


BBC Radio 4 programme on Quantum physics

Quantum Theory and why God does play dice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00kwcqm

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Einstein's Annus Mirabilis, Dr Brian COX evaluates the effect his work has on scientists today, who are studying the confusing world of quantum mechanics.

Particle Physicists trying to discover how the very first atoms formed at the beginning of the universe, through to quantum theorists and those working on a unified theory of everything all cite Einstein as a major influence. And his theories remain unchallenged to this day.

Brian also visits the University of Vienna where scientists are "teleporting" bits of information, following thought experiments first proposed by Einstein in the 1930s.

Brian Edward Cox, OBE (born 3 March 1968), is an English particle physicist, a Royal Society University Research Fellow and a professor at the University of Manchester.[1] He is a member of the High Energy Physics group at the University of Manchester, and works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)[2][3] at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland. He is working on the R&D project of the FP420 experiment in an international collaboration to upgrade the ATLAS and the CMS experiment by installing additional, smaller detectors at a distance of 420 metres from the interaction points of the main experiments.[4]
He is best known to the public as the presenter of a number of science programmes for the BBC. He also had some fame in the 1990s as the keyboard player for the pop band D:Ream.


As the OP, I have enjoyed reading all your ideas and hopefully some more will turn up.

Many threads have debated the effectiveness of Rogues. This thread is instead aimed at capturing clever ideas that will make the class really fun to play and full of character.

That way when a rules revision comes along, designers will have a number of concepts they can test and work on.

Again, thanks for the responses so far.


Cool ideas for Rogues wanted!

This thread is to attract imaginative ideas for Rogues that will inspire the developers to a fit of creative frenzy.

We need concepts that will make Rogues distinctive, effective but definitely roguish (and fun to play).

The ideas may involve rules changes or not. Ideas like full BAB or more hit points are not that imaginative (and encroach on the territory of other classes).

You may already have posted your brilliant thought in another post. Feel free to add it to this one.

Please do not criticise the proposals (or do so very briefly) in this thread as I want it to be a succinct repository of cracking ideas. If an idea needs to be dissected then do so in a different thread. Ideas should be fairly short - the designers will refine any that grabs their attention.

Here are some suggestions (though whether they meet the cool criterion or not is for others to judge).

1. Magic Aura - all mid and high level traps are assumed to have Nystals magic aura on them preventing "detect magic" from working. (This requires no rule changes).

2. Hide in crowds or Easy to overlook - monsters cannot make full attacks against rogues. Suggest limit of 2x rogue level - this will stop dipping into the class to pick up this useful ability. You could add other restrictions - such as perception checks v rogues stealth or the monster must be distracted due to the combat that is going on.

3. Concealment - rogues moving next to a surface gain concealment and this would permit stealth checks. (this would include crawling along a floor). There would be hefty adjustments for bright illumination etc. It is similar to hide in plain sight - but encourages rogues to slink down the edges!

Have fun and I look forward to what I hope will be an enjoyable and thought provoking thread.


Is there a definitive FAQ on the topic of what you add or do not add when calculating CMB/CMD?

I know there are a lot of posts on this topic - but I am looking for one clear authoritative statement (if such a legendary item exists!).


Thanks for the responses - which I happen to agree with.

It would be nice if a future rules update tweaked the wording to avoid potential confusion e.g. ....you may automatically have posession of the item.


The rules for disarming include the following statement

"If you successfully disarm your opponent without using a
weapon, you may automatically pick up the item dropped"

How do people play this rule?

Is picking up the dropped weapon a free action or is it a move action (permitting an attack of opportunity - though the immediate opponent probably lacks a weapon).

It depends on what is meant by the word automatic and I would welcome guidance.


In the initial post, the thread originator said they could not accept healing (without a risk that it did not work).

Bear in mind that spell resistance does not work against supernatural abilities:-

Supernatural Abilities: These can’t be disrupted
in combat and generally don’t provoke attacks of opportunity.
They aren’t subject to spell resistance, counterspells, or
dispel magic, and don’t function in antimagic areas.

We just need to find a supernatural ability that heals.

Step forth "channel energy"

Channel Energy (Su): Regardless of alignment, any cleric
can release a wave of energy by channeling the power of
her faith through her holy (or unholy) symbol. This energy
can be used to cause or heal damage, depending on the
type of energy channeled and the creatures targeted.

Now I must admit, having a monk who is just about to hit the magic "13th," this is not a perfect answer.

I have looked at this in some detail - for example the spell descriptions often say SR: yes (harmless) - does this help?

Initially it sounds good - under saving throw descriptions it says

(harmless): The spell is usually beneficial, not
harmful, but a targeted creature can attempt a saving
throw if it desires.

Under spell resistance it says

The terms “object” and “harmless” mean the same thing
for spell resistance as they do for saving throws.

All well and good - it sounds great - but it is immediatly followed by: -

A creature with spell resistance must voluntarily lower the resistance
(a standard action) in order to be affected by such spells
without forcing the caster to make a caster level check.

This makes it quite clear - you must actively lower your resistance to be affected by other peoples' spells.

Still it could be worse - and operating a monk under pathfinder looks like it will be good fun - my AC was brilliant before - now it can be massive!!