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Join this new forming group seeking terror and adventure through one of Paizo's published Pathfinder Adventure Paths. Ron will be your DM host, he has been running games for many years, but for this game we need at least one additional players. Time and place will be settled based on group interest, but aiming for games within 10-15 or so miles of Redlands roughly once every two weeks. Jade Regent, or Ironfang Invasion perhaps? And maybe some home brew adventures.
I like multi-classing because it is fun. What everyone says is true about spellcasters... splitting levels slows down spell progression. But I would hasten to add that multi-classing can toughen up a character or contribute in other ways that make them stronger than going for more spells. With three person party that has no cleric or rogue going into crypts, for an adventure that is ideal for four member parties... your character will be vulnerable. You can toughen up and contribute in other ways. With your strength so weak and -4 on melee because of the blackened curse, there is no point in talking about melee options. But you do have a 13 dex... a ranged combat build would help you contribute even when spells run out, or save the blasting for when it really matters. That could be an archer fighter, or a far strike monk who flurries with thrown daggers, or a ranger. Taking a sniping rogue or ninja could be interesting as well... the whole rogue/magic thing is always fun to play, and it could help you detect and evade traps. Good luck!
When I was in Montana last month I learned about Wolf Lichen. They would stuff a dead sheep with it, and when wolves ate it they would die. Think it would work if you stuffed a cow, and left it near the mouth of a dragon cave?
I like how Barbra Hambly did it in _Dragonsbane_. Poison a heavy barbed iron lance, wait over the entrance of the cave until the dragon sticks its head out, and jump on it from above. Praying helps.
What does that even mean? My friends never play evil characters, so they wouldn't ask. But you have someone that wants to emulate the lord of lust, or greed? You could take it with a twist. Like the lord of love, or charity, or fidelity. But more seriously, I would have his start as a wizard with an appropriate specialization. I would offer a prestige class that he could work toward, which is a lot easier to construct than a regular class. It could be the basis of some of the adventure, trying to find research and artifacts to help him reconstruct some of the past abilities of the rune lords.
I had similar thoughts, and investigated a bit a while back. I haven't seen anything in the RAW that would prevent you from using these styles with armor or weapons. I assume monks can do them with weapons too. One can imagine the spirit of the crane style even while holding a quarterstaff in two hands. Moving beyond RAW, I do tend to agree that someone in plate armor standing on one leg with their arms tucked in and longsword sticking out from their armpit sounds like it would look pretty ridiculous, and wouldn't probably work as well as hoped. But maybe we shouldn't take it so literally. Having done the martial arts for years, these stylized stances are really best though of as (a) where is your balance point (b) how is your weight distributed (c) what are the strike and defend options from that position. Usually, the one legged stance is considered transitory... you are simply passing through it to move from one position to the next it is useful for training purposes because with practice, you are constantly in control of your center even while moving forward or retreating, because the transition has been practiced to pass through your center (i.e. weight on one foot, balanced, pulled in). To stand and hold it like karate kid is not realistic and you only see it in the movie because it is a Hollywood thing. (Having said that, someone will say their dojo does it... would be interested to hear more, I have never seen it in the wild.) Anyway, this is how I justify it. Someone in plate trained in Crane style would have trained similarly, always bringing their foot that is not on the ground close to their other foot when transitioning between stances, when waiting to act, having most of the weight on one foot regardless of the specific stance. You can do this while having the other foot on the ground, it may not look like it but it is very deliberate. Our sensei would stop and test us whenever he wanted to make sure we could lift one of our feet and tap the floor while still being rock steady. The "Wing" part of it would be using not just the blade, but your positioning and elbows and shoulders. Someone swings at you, instead of just using the blade to deflect, step into the strike, use your elbows and shoulders to help off-balance the striking arm, and push to opponent off-balance. Someone who intensely trains in "peripheralization" and control of their center, could train to do so in plate armor, no problem. I am no expert on western fight styles, but would quite expect someone covered it in some sword fighting manual at some point. I guess the point of the feat is that you have moved beyond this as just another part of your general fighting style, you have practiced this one aspect to the point that you are really, really, good at maximizing its effectiveness.
Perhaps an Oracle with the Haunted curse. The DM could have fun "playing" Hobbes messing with Calvin. Then have Calvin be able to plead, convince, or otherwise convince Hobbes to help out with access to unseen servant or mage hand spell. Could be fun role play.
I am surprised no one has mentioned Improved Feint. I am in a campaign and my Rogue 3/ Fighter 2 can now use her move action to feint, which makes the opponent flat-footed. She is partnered with a Barbarian. You could call him Mr. Steady. He hits with a +11, and does pretty good damage. My rogue is Ms. Bursty. She only hits at +6. We just cleared out some wererats. It was the case that Mr. Steady hit every time, and was solid if plodding. Ms. Bursty hit maybe 1/2 the time, and then only made the feint around 1/2 of her hits, so maybe 1/4 of the time. But when she did hit... *wham*. She got a crit with her 2d6, power attack, and got 35 points of damage. Everyone was stunned. I could see my DM get that uneasy look. But the reality is, it is really bursty, so it is okay in balance. Mind you, in this engagement my rogue had a +1 mithral longsword... the barbarian had a mwk battleaxe, no silver. So he was hitting, but DR was sucking up a lot of his effectiveness. When the rogue hit, it was usually one hit, one down. When she hit, it felt really good. :)
Unarmed strike. I had a rogue take unarmed strike, it was the funnest thing ever. Her hands should have been registered. She had a license to kill.... ... and was never disarmed. :)
+1, this exactly is how my group games as well. Fantastically beautiful minds must think alike..
+1. When I am DMing, I do something similar, for the most part. Free market, baby!
Fantastic! That is what I was looking for. I thought I was going crazy. Thanks everyone. And LazarX, I did note your comment about the town size as well. Cheers.
Dirty Rat Dirty Rati just like to say it
The standard is half. I agree that is probably the standard -- but is that a convention, or is that a rule in the core? Just curious.
Hello, I couldn't find anywhere in the rules that specifies the rate at which magic items can be sold. I am talking about the items adventurers find, rather than the ones they make.... Do you allow characters to sell at the full base price, or at a certain percentage? And knowing in advance we will see a "yes" to both of these methods... do you know why do you do it that way? The reasoning is more interesting (and a pointer to a written core rule the most interesting of all.)
If you're running Pathfinder RPG rules, you should use Fast progression in all 3.5 modules/APs. Heh, I am running the same campaign, and ran into the same problem. They ran into a big baddie... if I am more specific it may ruin it for others... when they were too low in level and nearly got a TPK. Nearly.
I really like the idea, Crispy... it will be a rocking fun time period to mess with. Your list of civilizations is fine. Other ideas for contemporary civilizations -- The Thracians - thought to be descended from Ares. Warlike, bloodthirsty, powerful fighters, disorganized, untrustworthy. If they ever got their act together they likely could defeat any other nation. But they are the barbarians barbarian. The Sarmatians - plainsmen the Greeks thought they were descended from Greeks captured by Amazons... used wagons hauling yurts. Lots of female warriors. (Well, at least 20% of female bodies in graves that have been dug up were found in male armor... they aren't sure that meant they fought, though.) Said to be ruled by women. Cimmerians - there were some back then. Nomadic horsemen, though, not frozen mountain barbarians like Conan. (Conan is cool.) Teotihuacan - Not the Aztec, these predated them, but their civilization started around 200 BC in the Mexico basin, and by 100 AD their city of 200,000 inhabitants may been the largest on the planet, or one thereof. Huge pyramids. You could have it as a distant growing power across the big water that the Phoenicians or Atlanteans have contact with. Maybe they try to colonize Europe... now that would be a reversal.... Kush - south of Egypt, they vied for power along the Nile continuously with their northern neighbors, and they conquered each other at times. Warring States - China had broken down into a host of warring kingdoms by this time. Another distant land that you could trade with. Personally I would focus on creating new archetypes for each civilization, or new classes, rather than restricting core and base classes to specific civilizations. Egyptians can't have mages because that is an Atlantean thing? I would hesitate to add restrictions rather than add new options. Something like a new Sun Mage for the Egyptians with unique powers, and such, and only they have that, while Atlanteans have the Techno Mage, for a bit of steampunk. Maybe they have firearms, and their fighters have an archetype for that, etc. The Kush could be great summoners, the Teotihuacan elementalists, etc.
Hello, yes, that should be a detect undead spell in the requirements, I mistyped. I think I will go with making it use a slot, probably the head or neck slot. I agree with the Admiral, that this would be abusive slotless... you could create dozens of low level effects and carry them around. The alignment restriction IS a cheap way to reduce cost, and honestly that is the only reason I used it. (Though I am not sure what spell effects would naturally indicate alignment restrictions.) If I factor that out I come up with: (Cost detail: Continuous use spell – spell level (1) x caster level (1) x 2000 gp x 2 for 1 min/level spell) That equals 4000 base, 2000 construction.
I had a friend who ran a Paladin/Bard. That is mind-blowing in itself, but he did a decent job. I think the hardest scene was when the party was staying a night in a tunnel on the road (ruin from a long lost civilization) when he decided to detect evil on the local group of soldiers from the allied lands that were patrolling the road and also staying over night in the tunnel. Well, one of them was LE. He wasn't doing anything to provoke anything, just joking with his pals and having a meal around the fire, when our Paladin walks up and tells him he is evil and tries to start a fight. The rest of the soldiers are nonplussed, and suddenly he is dissing with a dozen guys with ranseurs who are allies of our leige lord.... It wasn't the first time he did that. He didn't actually fight that time, but we had to pull him out of it. That incident ended up creating a lot of trouble for us later on. :)
Thanks for the comment, I did put the x2 multiplier in there but I can see why it isn't easy to find.... :)
Hello, my mage got scared by his first encounter with some vampire spawn, and is afraid their is worse on the horizon. He has the Craft Wondrous Item feat, and I was thinking this may be a reasonable first self-designed magic item. Only is it reasonable? I don't know if having a continuous detect undead is breaking things, but I did cut some abilities out and figure the DM can get around it if he really wants too.... Comments welcome. Obsidian Earing
Description
1st round: When the user spends a full round action to concentrate, he can determine the number of undead auras and the strength of the strongest undead detected as per the table at the bottom of this entry. If the strongest undead aura’s strength is overwhelming, and the creature has HD of twice the wearer’s HD, the wearer is stunned for 1 round and subsequently can no longer use the benefits of the earing for 24 hours. 2nd round: Should the wearer maintain concentration, requiring a standard action every subsequent round, he can determine the direction of the undead aura’s, and whether they are moving closer or further away. Concentrating in this manner is similar to concentrating on a cast spell, which is subject to interruption if the user takes damage or any other appropriate circumstance as described in the standard rules. Users add their intelligence modifier + 1 when making saves to continue concentrating. While concentrating the wearer can move and talk normally, but cannot take standard actions. HD - Strength
1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt can block the detection abilities of the obsidian earing. The wearer gains no benefit until after having worn the earing for 24 hours. If a non-good creature wears the earing it is silent and behaves like an ordinary earing. Construction
(Cost detail: Continuous use spell – spell level (1) x caster level (1) x 2000 gp x 2 for 1 min/level spell; requires user to be of good alignment reduces cost by 30%; no space limitation = entire cost doubles.)
I exclude encb. to a certain point. My players are not usually trying to tote alchemist's labs, or grand pianos. Yes, I sticking to the rules and adding a little common sense when things seem weird, in my experience, never results in player/DM issues. My characters often buy pack mules because of this very reason. My first mule actually lived through a lot or trouble.
Jeraa, Abraham, Kierato I think your explanation makes sense and appreciate the response. Thanks!
It would have DR10/magic or DR 5/silver depending on what attack hit it. How does the attack itself matter? Reading into it some: So in your thinking, would the +1 mithral longsword (which counts as both silver and magic) strike against the lesser DR, the DR5/silver? And maybe the barbarian, who had an ordinary battleaxe, would hit against DR10/magic? Or the Dr5/silver....?
I was in an adventure last night against some vampire spawn. Damage reduction played a big part in the encounter. (We didn't know what we were getting into and most of our blows were bouncing pretty harmlessly off of them. We did prevail, thanks to the rogue with her +1 mithral longsword.) So, turned out these creatures have DR5/silver. Fair enough. However at one point one of them turned gaseous and attempted escape... and the gaseous form spell has a DR10/magic. We were scratching our heads, because we didn't really know if the silver and gaseous form DR both were in effect or not. What were we trying to hit...
I didn't find it explicit in the rules. We left it at DR10/magic, but curious if anyone knows if there actually is a rule on the books.
Does anyone out there have kids? I have a 4 year old who is a 36" halfling. No way can she keep up with me, average male human at 70". I think the original creators had 4 year old kids, too. Anyway, I think the answer is obvious how they got a 20' movement... short legs. Concerning fast goblins and such, *shrugs*. Have no idea. I think the enlarge person speed thing doesn't look right, though. A 10' hill giant has 40' movement. I don't see why a enlarged halfling shouldn't get +10' move. Or an enlarged human for that matter.
You only gain bonus spells for levels that your character can cast. As your 4th level character can only cast 2nd level spells, you only benefit from a bonus spell for both first and second level. You won't be able to take advantage of your 22 charisma fully in terms of bonus spells until your sorcerer is 12th level and gains access to 6th level spells. Each of the meta feat descriptions detail the level conditions of their use... a Quicken metamagic application requires taking a slot 4 levels higher than the spell. To cast a 0-level cantrip as a quickened spell, you would need to have access and burn a fourth level spell slot. Pretty dang expensive... but if your caster is scared of the dark, you can get some light on the situation *fast*. :) When your sorcerer gains access to 4th level spells you can start taking advantage of this feat, for cantrips to start. Until then I don't see any benefit in taking it.
Moribito II : Guardian of the Darkness by Nahoko Ueashhi. If any of you have seen the Moribito cartoon series, this follows up after that ends. She returns to Kanbal to tie up some loose ends, and predictably, gets into trouble. Balsa is awesome!
On that note, how about a fighter who is really passionate about his god? Not a clerical bone in his body, but with the zeal of the best of them. On a mission, stops in the dungeon to pray, has specific rituals that he fights hard to protect, or carries a sacred something that everyone isn't sure he would choose over the life of his heretic companions. Dipping a level into Oracle would help fluff that up. (Or even Adept. :)
I played a human fighter I quite liked, who was an archer build but strong in intelligence. He had a life as a professional bowyer, and started play as a 34 year old, and after a few levels hit middle age... his physical stats went down, his others went up. He had a mid-life crisis at that point, realized that he couldn't go toe-to-toe forever, and starting taking levels in wizard. But kept doing it in armor (resulting in frequently spoiled spells) and getting a bit more into melee than was healthy. It was messy but it was fun.
Thanks everyone, for the reference in the book. I never would have found it; I haven't read that page more than once, and that was quickly, while getting on to the rest. :)
Wouldn't mind a pointer to the RAW statement on that in the Core Rulebook, but assuming this is the case, what I am hearing is that the totals for x1.5 strength bonus would look like this: Str(normal)(x1.5 Total) Actual Percentage
Adding +50% to very tiny whole numbers creates this. I wonder that an average person with a 10-11 strength gets no benefit two-handed. I am an average Joe and I bet I would get a little extra bite out of an ax swing with both hands. :) I wonder if in my games I should just house rule that one gets +1 damage when using two hands, regardless of strength. (I could hear the fighter's howl, as soon as I wrote this.)
Hello, seems like a silly question, but I couldn't find it explicitly stated anywhere. Fighting with a two-handed weapons increases your strength bonus on damage by x1.5. Now, a character with a 12 strength normally has +1 damage. And typically, the rules are that a bonus will be a minimum of +1. I assume someone with a 12 strength would deliver +2 damage total with a two-handed weapon. Someone with 17 strength normally gets +3 damage. The bonus will be x1.5 points of damage. So +4.5 damage... Does everyone play this as +5 damage? Somewhere I remember a statement that all fractions roll-down, not up (meaning this would be +4), but I have been through so many versions of D&D this may be a dead rule.
I love the wizard. But a rogue/monk will probably be my start point.
Thanks, Paul. I get it. So all paths restart at 1, and they are 6 editions long. It does sound attractive.
I am tempted to start buying into Pathfinder and this subscription. However, the way this is worded, the new arc seems like it will not start at 1st level... what level does it start? Seems like when it says "adventurers return to city" anyone that didn't subscribe a year ago is kind of behind on the story anyway? Anyone help me with that?
If Paizo is really looking for advice, I think SargonX pretty much nailed it above:
I am not going to be happy unless I retain some fragility at first level. I can see others on the forum aren't going to be happy unless they get +10 or more hit points first level. Others aren't going to be happy unless they are allowed to insert "reality" and bias for race, class, sex, ability score, etc. The thing is, any of these systems are fine as long as they are happy. So let them be happy... don't get in their way. Make the base "rules" easy to understand and somewhat "non-biased", and offer a pick list of variants or flavors that can appeal to the various types of players. Then get out of the way. To tell you the truth, if I don't like what you do, I will make up different rules anyway. And if you REALLY have a strong thread of shoving stuff at me in your writings I don't like, that restricts me too badly from my style, I will just not bother with your stuff at all. So give me some room.
Hmmm. And then there is the other approach... if you aren't happy with first-level durability, have everyone start their characters as second-level characters. :)
The difference between first and second level characters in 3.5 is substantial. I have a new campaign going right now... at first level they were sneak attacked by two first-level thieves when they came through a darkness veiled door and 5 of 8 characters were knocked below zero from max. Luck had something to do with it, but lots of room for luck at low hit points. (The wizard saved their butts.) They literally had to stop the dungeon crawl, haul their comrades out, abandon the quest... it sucked for everyone, especially me because I had to throw my adventure away and start over. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that some of these new suggested hit point rules look way too generous. Look what happened with these same characters a little later on at second level. (At second level, I let characters roll HP, but whatever they roll, if it is below average on the die they get the average number so their HP are always at least average). They just chewed through the following in a single encounter, with no magic items (Edit: reread this and realized they did each have a healing potion and used a couple), no rest, and a single vanilla war cleric: 19 zombies, 1 ghoul, 1 medium water elemental, 1 first level thief, one half-breed yuan-ti, one fourth-level half-orc fighter, 12 first-level warriors, 10 0-level slavers, and 2nd and 3rd level fighters. They are all standing, having taken the ship and released the slaves. Yikes! I have to throw the kitchen sink at these guys. (But yes, they were truly frightened, so I guess I did my job). First level could be stronger, but we are talking only a few points would make the difference and preserve SOME sense that the characters can be challenges and perhaps even vulnerable. I like the flat system, but think even +6 hit points is too much. I would say +3 is sufficient as a one-time first-level bonus to the standard rules. Oh - and I also think there is enough spread between classes based on hit die and just the fact that the fighters have good CON... we don't need to add additional hit point spread between characters based on racial or strength bonus. So I would suggest that is built in already, we don't exacerbate it, and we stick to something more straightforward and fair.
Marvelous! Coincidentally, I was trying to find the original print of this game online and the prices were outrageous second hand. This really is a great little board game, I have good memories of it. |
