Unstable Nucleus's page

if you want the collectibles to be story elements that provide background details, imagine that they're letters say, and actually make the letters as physical objects (as best you can) and give them as handouts to the players. In my experience this not only makes sure they read it and pay attention to it, but that they'll refer to it later on if they're stuck or unsure about how to proceed.

You can signpost "there's more to find" by having the stack of envelopes on the table, and just hand one to the PCs when they find one. If there's more envelopes on the stack, there's more for the PCs to find.

That. Is. Fantastic.

I really like this idea. I'm always a big fan of props to add to immersion, and this sounds like an excellent way to not only capture the party's attention and make sure they know that they're somewhat important, but also lets them know that they've got more searching to do if they actually WANT to complete the set.

The secret clues we could find if we looked in the right places gave away some of his weaknesses so we could defeat him.

Do you find that this helps progress both the story and game play? Is it worth it to go to the shady parts of town for more than just the mechanical advantage?

That would be a little railroady to my taste. What about giving some benefits for finding them but not being necessary to advance? Maybe the location about a secret room, or information about the ancestors of an important NPC (or PC), or something alike.

Yes, I don't plan on having the "maguffins" (new favorite noun) be 100% necessary to collect. I plan on having them do exactly as you suggest, provide clues to treasures or secret hoardes. I also plan on having them reveal key/interesting background information, such as why the city is the way it is, where the bad guys came from, why the BBEG is the BBEG, things like that. I think requiring one or two of them to advance would present an interesting quest. "In order to get into the next area, you'll need to find maguffin #21", but I don't think that would be great for every advancement.

I think you could do something like that where the PCs find something mysterious and magical in a cache of goodies (like a key, say), and they find out where they're supposed to put it before they get the whole set, thus providing an incentive to keep a eye out for the rest.

I don't exactly want the maguffins to be keys or fragments that unlock a larger set, because I want them to be more story involved. I want them to tell a story in lieu of having an NPC explain every detail about the environment.

If you want the PCs to have a mechanical reason to search them out, you might need to have puzzles that can only be solved using in-game information. Like the portal will only open if you type in the Black Knight's middle name.

Hey, that's a fantastic idea! I do know the players, and I think they would be at least somewhat interested in it. I just fear the classic Dungeon Master problem: spending hours of work only to have it ignored.

...whenever anyone rolled a natural 20 on perception checks they would find a game for it

Did you have them in pre-fabricated locations? Or simply "appeared" whenever someone rolled a natural 20 on perception, regardless of area?

Hello everyone. In a few months, I'll be running a module set in a dystopian underwater city (think: Bioshock, Rapture). And I wanted to try my hand at a few different ideas commonly present in survival-horror video games.
One big project that I've been toying with would be a series of collectible items that would present background information from the citizens of the city from before they went bananas crazy. Similar in function to the voice-recordings you find laying about in Rapture, or the holo-tapes you find in Fallout, or the Archive Logs in Alien: Isolation, or...well, there are many examples.
In some cases, they could be part of treasure hoards, or maybe "rewards" for exploring.
I come to the forums today to ask: has anyone tried something like this? How did it go? If you have no experience, how do think it would go? Any tips, or words are warning? If you were a player, would this be interesting/compelling to pursue, or would it be kind of worthless? I'm interested in general opinions, if anyone wants to share those as well. Thank you very much!

Something that really sticks out to me here is

More annoying is that the way you gain more skill points is become smarter. To jump or acrobatics along with other skills you have to be academic and have a higher Int.

That has always bothered me as well; why would a Paladin, who's best "dump" stat would be int, have to become more academic to have more skills per level up? One could argue that, somewhere in between the lines, the character is working on and focusing/training different skills between level-ups, and in order to focus on more skills at a time, you would have to be smarter.

Well, for starters, great information for creating haunts can be found here .
Secondly, this idea seems pretty awesome. I might suggest the following:
1. Effect: perhaps the haunt triggers a Rage spell, and a confusion spell at the same time. This would be to symbolize the anger and betrayal the spirits felt when they were wrongfully killed for crimes they didn't commit.
2. Affect: when the party walks across the bridge, perhaps if they stray too far towards the side where the husbands were hung, they would have the spells listed above trigger on one/two of them, and see the ghostly image of 7 men hanging by the supports of the bridge. You can get pretty creepy with the audio/visual portions of haunts.
3. Per the haunt rules, the CR is typically 1+ the spell duplicated. So, I would say probably a CR 6? That's if you kind of average the spell levels. Rage being a level 3 Wizard spell (2 for Bards) and Confusion being a level 4 (3 for bards). However, because this particular haunt has the potential for the party to fight each other (something not every group enjoys quite like mine does) you might want to assign a CR 7 or 8. And then you have to calculate things like reset time and the Notice DC, so that might vary even more.
4. I would think that defeating the haunt could be done in a few different ways. You could, for instance, have the party attempt to seek justice by bringing the real criminals to the law. Or, simply put the husbands spirits to rest by doing ------. Like, consecrating the ground they're buried on, or something similar.

How in depth are you thinking to make it? Are the widows still alive? Why did the law enforcers believe the men were guilty, even if they weren't?
Anyway, hope this gives you some ideas! Keep in mind that haunts can take all kinds of different forms and effects. Good luck.

Personally, I like to think that the Mysteries that are granted to the Oracles are exactly that: mysteries. I have this idea that the oracle in question has been pondering the mysteries that grant him powers for years, and by unlocking certain "spiritual truths" (revelations) they unlock certain powers and abilities related to their mystery. I would role-play an oracle as exactly that; constantly exploring and trying to understand my mystery. For instance, a Life Oracle is constantly trying to understand the meaning of existence and life, but at the same time, probably fairly easy going, as he believes that Life will take him along the path he's meant to be on.

Purely my speculation, of course.

Also, as far as curses go, I think it's the price they pay for their inherent magical abilities. Clerics pray for the spells and are given them by a deity; a wizard memorizes and recites his spells through constant education and understanding. But a sorcerer and an oracle have "traded" their powers in exchange for something. In the sorcerer's case, it's a "muddying" of the bloodlines, (or purifying them, depending on the bloodline and how you look at it) and in the Oracle's case, it's the payment they receive from their individual curse. But that's just my two coppers.

I second the choice for a bard. Not only do they get decent skill points and have quite a bit of skills that you are otherwise lacking, but the additional healing and party buffs are sure to go a long way.

Action type is standard unless stated otherwise.

Ah, yes, thank you. Should have known.

Anyone know what sort of action it would be as well? It's not specified in the ability description.

Well, with 40ft per move action, 80 feet per round, (insert math here) I think it comes out to about 9 miles per hour. Which, when accounting for the fact that you can ignore all terrain penalties to over land movement, is pretty outstanding.

Whoops, meant to say that it was a Strength rating, not an enhancement bonus. Sorry, fixed it now.

By the Idea, that this is because it surrounds the whole Dragon 10 feat in each direction it should move with its biting head

This seems like it would make sense in a "real-world" example, but it would definitely be strange from a mechanics stand point. Implying that I could impact the radius of my emanation spells by stretching my hand into an adjacent square is...not good. Plus, this dragon is pretty big. Who's to say it couldn't extend its (presumably sizable) wings and stretch the AoE out even farther? I would stick to the mechanical "10 feet from every occupied space" and not include reach.

The Ancestor Mystery for the Oracle class is full of awesome and flavorful abilities, and one such ability is Ancestral Weapon.

What about ammunition? Pathfinder is kind of light in the "magically summoned weapons" field, so I don't have a great frame of reference. Personally, I would assume that ammunition is sold separately.

Is there a gold value limit? Say I wanted to summon a Composite Longbow with a +2 Strength Rating, because that's what my great-great-granddaddy used to slay orcs back in the day. Can I summon one? What if he used a +2 Strength Rating, but I'm only strong enough to accurately wield a +1? Can I summon a +1 for now, and then a +2 later?

Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
edit: I didn't specify it was a +2 strength rating

I absolutely agree that Pathfinder and D&D are made to be games, and not real-life simulations. However, the item weight system has bothered me. For instance, a character can carry literally as many candles as they want, or have 47 Flint and Steel items on them. The idea that a Tower Shield weighs 45lbs is baffling. Likewise, since a Light Wooden Shield and a Light Steel Shield do EXACTLY the same thing, but the Wooden Shield costs less and weighs less (even if it's only 6GP and 1 lbs), why would I ever use a Light Steel Shield?
I certainly think that this system works best though. Who wants to calculate the .2 lbs that a bell weighs? And who's to say that a Wizard COULDN'T carry 130 potions of Bears Endurance? These things certainly don't line up with the real world, where when hiking, literally every pound can count in some (extreme) cases.

Unstable Nucleus wrote:

@Secret Wizard: We're using 20 point buy. I was thinking of Str 16, Dex 13, Con 14 (+2 human racial), Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 7. Though, I'm certainly up for suggestions.

Ok, my submissions are varied:

- Unbreakable Fighter: Your job in the party is clearly to stand in the frontlines and take punishment. I think that using the Unbreakable archetype from UC, in combination with Crane Style (using a longsword and a buckler to have a free hand) could make you quite a force to reckon with in terms of AC, without the need of a large investment in DEX.

S16+2 D14 C14 I12 W12 CH7
Feats:
1. IUS, Dodge, (Diehard, Endurance)
2. Crane Style
3. Iron Will
4. Power Attack, +1 STR
5. Crane Wing
6. Step Up
7. Following Step
8. Combat Reflexes, +1 STR
9. Crane Riposte
10. Improved Critical
11. Critical Focus
12. Step Up and Strike, +1 STR

This seems like a very fun idea to me. I somehow missed the Style Feats from Ultimate Combat. Looking through them though, these are awesome.

First, a disclaimer: Axes aren't the most mechanically "optimal" weapons. Starting around 7th-8th level (when Improved Critical and keen come into play), weapons other than the 18-20/x2, 20/x4, or 19-20/x3 ones start to lose ground in DPR.

What type of melee weapon category might you suggest?

@Secret Wizard: We're using 20 point buy. I was thinking of Str 16, Dex 13, Con 14 (+2 human racial), Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 7. Though, I'm certainly up for suggestions.
I really like the idea of the Orc Double Axe; being able to combine it with Power Attack and 1.5X strength mod seems pretty strong. And a good way to keep up DPR when I have to move around.
I'd like to avoid a ranged build, mostly because the party may have 2 Gunslingers (a whole other topic) so our ranged combat is pretty strong already. I love the idea of a two-weapon fighting build, as suggested. I think it'd be really strong, and with the combination of shields as a second weapon, I could potentially maintain a decent AC at the same time.

Hello everyone! I've been reading the forums for several months now, and only recently have I started posting. However, in my time here, I often see threads that talk about making an "optimized (insert class here)" and everyone offers very good ideas from a wide variety of resources.
But today I bring you a different challenge. A few friends and I are beginning to think of characters and ideas for our second home-made Pathfinder campaign. We're long time players of 3.5, and only recently (very recently) have we started making the change to Pathfinder. In this particular upcoming campaign, we will only have access to the Core Rulebook, and Ultimate Combat. (Ultimate Combat is only available because of the interest in the Gunslinger class)
So, I come seeking the advice of the more experienced Pathfinder players. I'm making a Fighter, mainly because I think they're substantially better in Pathfinder than they are in 3.5. However, with such limited materials, I wonder how to make an effective fighter that will stay relevant even into mid-level play.
I already know that I will be human, and I would like to specialize in the Axes weapon group. Are there any particularly strong combinations of feats and equipment, available almost solely in "Vanilla Pathfinder" that I should look into more closely? What do people find to be the most effective techniques and tactics that are easily employable? What should I expect as far as Damage Output per Round and AC?
Thanks in advance for any tips and replies!

As a GM, I usually allow sheathing a weapon to be done as a swift action.