Valdast's page

To make it really difficult.

That's about it. The designers want planar binding to be really difficult, as in many ways it should be. It reinforces that this is a task that ought to be difficult and that it is easy to make mistakes with. It also provides a mechanical explanation as to why it's so easy to screw up.

Alrighty, Kermah is ready for whatever this may throw at him. (Except for Fortitude saves :P)

One question though, may I take Spell Focus instead of Scribe Scroll as per Pathfinder Society? I don't have to have it that way, and what I would use it for is to gain Spell Specialization at first level rather than third.

Otherwise, here's the

I'm wanting to play this character as somewhat inspired by Sheldon of Big Bang Theory. Playing on his intellect while his somewhat low Charisma being his idiocy in conversations and sheer offensiveness. (More emphasis on the intelligence than the offensiveness though.)

Str: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Dex: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
Con = 8 (Foible)
Int = 18 (Focus)
Wis: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11
Cha: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

Looking for an Admixture Wizard to blow stuff up with.

EDIT: This will be really fun to try out...

Do you guys still have an open slot for anyone?

I'd love to participate in this :)

(I'll start off with ideas after I get a reply... Expect me to play some sort of martial build or possibly a Wizard Blaster, if we have some sort of map)

From liberal reading, yes.

From what I understand, no. From what I understand, the buckler lets you use it as an off-hand, not as your main hand.

Dotting for interest

If he gets a full attack on you, you're probably dead. But... you still do need to have around a +64 bonus on your attack to hit his regular AC.

With +56 on his lowest iterative his melee is going to ruin you.

He could summon archdevils to his side, assuming he hasn't already called them, and he can summon multiple Pit Fiends. DC 31 with any offensive spell with his once/day Wish.

You need at least +20 on your Fortitude save to survive his Annihalation Ray.

Overall, if he is able to get a turn, he wrecks you one on one. Party of six? You probably could kill him if you didn't mind losing some of your party to keep your damage up.

Probably. I had one of my players try and figure out a way to kill him, but I can't remember what it was... I think a persistent Mass Suffocation was how he did it.

One question, why are you splitting up the Hellknight Enforcer and Eldritch Knight levels?

List of Spells with no Somatic Component. Ones marked with (*) are not on the Sorc/Wizard Spell List

By no means do I claim this to be comprehensive, as I also checked up on the list above and found some that I missed, but here's a start.

Dragon Disciple does end up losing the same amount of CL as the Arcane Archer, so I think it ends up being a question of effectiveness. As well, the other strength of it (advancing your bloodline) means that you'd have to take Sorcerer instead of Wizard, and you'd be put even further behind than you already are.

One possible thing, could you try mixing in Dragon Disciple for the last 8 levels rather than Hellknight or Arcane Archer? It does have an issue with being (possibly) a natural attack focused build, but it could be a THF build as well?

Opinions?

The only thing with Arcane Armor Training is that it consumes your swift action, meaning that you'll have real trouble actually using Spell Critical. Personally, I'd advise taking the final eight levels as something else, whatever turns out giving you the most effective ASF reduction.

As well thematically, clockwork constructs are the only type of construct that doesn't require capturing some sort of energy source to power them. Albeit you have to still construct them, but it is also representative of both the difficulty and to make the capturing route easier.

Summary: Clockwork Guardians
CR of the encounter: 16
Type: Ambush
Background: A set of guardians for a powerful artifact, these automatons are a part of the citadel. These, though not the last guardians, are the last encounter (presumably in a series), as the players descend towards the crystal. Perhaps the crystal itself is blocked off by a planar boundary, and in a world where Plane Shift is inaccessible to the players, they have to move through a realm of shadows and unknown creatures before this. (Undead or Aberrations?)
Encounter: The players begin by finally escaping the planar barrier to find a hall, cold black ebony covering everything. The players are in nigh-impenetrable darkness, save for a line of blue stretched in front of them, as if shining under a door. Perhaps one of them strikes a torch, or summons light. This reveals statues along the walls, items of intricate engineering. They can identify them as Clockwork devices, inactive and unwound. As they move through the hallway, an arrow; crackling with fiery energy, shoots past them! With a Perception check to determine the surprise round, the combat begins. Two Iron Archer Golems stand at the end of the twenty foot wide hall, each ready to continue firing. After one round, the Clockwork Soldiers (of which their are ten), pop off the walls and block the way, five on each side. The Iron Archers use their flight to fire above the Clockwork Soldiers, and avoid penalties. If any target takes flight, the archers prioritize that target, aiming to take him/her down as soon as possible.
Comment: There is no spellcaster support in this encounter, so buffs are difficult to get past. As well, the party may be able to spend resources to heal themselves before progressing, and perhaps should before entering this encounter, depending on what they've done beforehand. Overall, I haven't had a chance to play this encounter yet, so it'll be a surprise to me what happens.

Nope. It's a homebrew class, so therefore... yep.

Dotting for interest

So, one thing that I'm puzzled at is what kind of targets should melee try to reach. What's a good target for AC, to hit, damage, at each level?

I guess, what I'm really looking for, how on the fly should I get? How many NPCs should I have? How many of my encounters and plans will be thwarted by my players doing something I didn't expect, even if I plan for it?

What do you like to do when you need an NPC or monster on the fly? How do you keep track of your players' spells? How do you know when you've given your players too much (or not enough) loot?

And how do I prevent my players from dying because they all chose caster classes? Have I already given them too much choice?

1. Depends on how you're playing the game. My recommendation is that you start small. Keep the action around one small town, and have them deal with those issues. Have an idea of what's going on outside the town's borders, but you don't have to expand until you feel comfortable. As far as starting NPCs, simply look at what the town needs and who the major people are. Not everyone needs a personality and real stats, but the major people the players will interact with somewhat do.

2. As far as encounters and plans being thwarted, that's part of the fun. (I think). No matter how much you plan, their will always be occasions when your adventure will go directly off the rails and into the freeflowing adventure. So therefore, don't make massive detailed plans. Have an idea of who the major players will be, and have them react. Encounters themselves will be interesting, and just flow with how they play the game. If they manage to pacify the Kobold tribe instead of destroying it, you can still give them the XP since they achieved their goal.

3. Loot... is a funny thing. Since you are the GM, you can keep track of the monetary value of all the items you've given them, just by writing down how much everything is worth. As long as it stays near WBL, it should be fine. Crafting can throw you off, and I'm sure that at least one of them will take a few crafting feats. How you want to handle that is up to you, and I'm sure others can give better advice.

4. For easy NPCs I usually look here: NPCs
It has a list of NPCs from less than CR 1 to CR 20.

5. Keeping track of spells is simply a matter of writing them all down. It's best to keep it somewhere where you can re-use the same piece of paper(or in a document), so that you can use it for more than one adventure.

6. I've had no adventures with an all-caster party, but it can be done. If you have real concerns, you can talk to them and let them know that it'll be an all-caster party, and it might get some of them to switch. But there's no requirement to have a melee beater at all.

7. I'm thinking that if you're just getting back into GMing, running a pre-made adventure or two will help you get into the swing of things.

Hope you have some fun adventures!

I'll look over making an edited build, comparing a Hellknight Enforcer(Signifier), and the EK build to see what ends up turning out more nicely.

So a major group discussion will help a lot. It'll also make the group much more cohesive in combat as well, though I'm not going to force them to play a class they don't want to play.

Allowing for a whole lot of flavour development will definitely help the players I have, as most of their previous characters have been fairly simple, although interesting. It also allows me to create more items that lets me test them in roleplaying rather than just rollplay. I'll also try to optimize combat speed so that any random encounters don't end up taking up most of the adventure.

Mwahaha! This will be a wonderful campaign!

I actually really like what you people are saying, as it lets me have this idea of what I want to create and also, (especially Hangar's advice), lets the players have a really cool idea and explore.

I'm still wanting to have some of my own stories, and especially having the return of whatever destroyed this area (perhaps one of the Spawn of Rovagug? oo... that would be fun).

I'll probably have a discussion session with the players beforehand to ask what kind of environment they would like as well, making it easier for me.

326. As they sleep, a faerie dragon arrives and wakes up a PC with a Good alignment. The small dragon attempts to communicate with the PC with chirps, and attempts to direct him/her towards a gathering of faerie dragons. What happens next is up to the GM as to why they have gathered.

So, I'm planning on starting up a sandbox campaign soon, and I'm wondering about how other GMs have handled making these. What do you start with? How do you decide what to make?

Mostly I'm just fishing for ideas here. I'm borrowing heavily from the Kingmaker ideas, but I want to completely homebrew this adventure rather than just take the hexmap from another book, and since I really want to tailor this to the PCs and create an adventure they'll like.

My current ideas involve the following:

So, the political system I think would end up being similar to Skyrim's methinks. Multiple smaller Kings, each in a coalition that elects a High King from among their people. The PCs are adventurers that have been tasked with taking a new area back from the wilds that surround the empire that the Kings control. Whether or not they end up being part of this empire once they've begun their kingdom is up to them.

However, the area is not very hospitable to them. Although once inhabited by people, the area was overrun in a bloody conflict, resulting in the destruction of the kingdom that was once there. The expedition then, also has a second purpose, which is to discover more of the details about what destroyed that kingdom.

Some hardy folk will have set up isolated camps, perhaps one or two that are on the eastern side of the kingdom. Very small, these areas are constantly harassed by the monsters that lie within, and have become some sort of bulwark against the creatures that lie within. Perhaps the first real quests could be trying to clear out these areas, and allowing the party to create a "base" within these bulwarks so that they can return and report their findings.

As to what destroyed the kingdom, I'm still unsure about that. I'm not wanting to bring in something extraplanar that much, so perhaps some sort of Lich or some evil spellcaster?

The actual environment I'm not sure about how large it will be, (that's something I could use some help figuring out). This will be more on the northwest, and perhaps will border northern seas. At some point this campaign could stretch into the more arctic reaches, but the main settlements will be in a semi-temperate zone (almost like the middle of Canada environment maybe?), which makes it somewhat difficult. If I make it the more northern kingdom, then I can also try to keep outside politics to a minimum, as the main kingdom will serve as a bulwark between the party and the south. (Perhaps later on that could become relevant, but not initially).

In either case, any other cool ideas that I could steal borrow and make it more awesome :)

I think this could be really cool.

As far as loot goes, I think it could easily be resolved via PM? Overall I think with the treasure distribution it'll be very much determined by the players themselves and the group they're in rather than a specific sort of ruleset.

While that may be annoying, having that variety allows for people to just decide things on their own. However, it does put more responsibility on the players to make sure that loot distribution goes quickly, so overall... I'm not sure.

He's the sorcerer count of a land, looking to expand his control throughout the larger empire that he's a part of.

I'm somewhat questioning whether I should just switch his Paladin levels with Fighter levels, just to get rid of my forceful reflavouring of items.

@bigrig107

Yep, that would be the major benefit. Smite is somewhat useful, and I'm reflavouring for him to be Smite Chaos rather than Smite Evil.

@Cubic

He's not going to be summoning very much, and he'll already have a summon up before they arrive so I don't see him having much trouble with summoning. (Interesting feat though, could be useful for some other shenanigans.)

I should probably clarify that I'm the DM of our campaign, so I'm just using the full mechanical benefit of the Paladin levels for him. This isn't supposed to be for player use, just for me since I can defy the rules a bit.

So, I'm just looking for a review of this creature that I'm designing as for how threatening you'd consider it.

He's supposed to be a fairly effective switch-hitter, using both martial and magic to deal damage. As well, he'll also use Metamagic'd Scorching Ray to deal even more damage from range, or when he can't full-attack.

EDIT: As well, he has a single Mythic Tier, which he's using for Mythic Weapon Finesse.

As far as RAW goes, there's no way to block the possession via Immunity. It's not any sort of Compulsion or Charm, it just happens via a single Will saving throw.

Firstly, you could not use the feat as printed as you don't have the Mercy class feature needed as a pre-requisite. Therefore, homebrew is probably the best option if you want something thematically similar to the Ultimate Mercy feat.

Quite simply, I'm wondering how much experience people have had with this archetype. It does seem like it could take up a lot of time, and also would cut into the combat section of the Broodmaster.

You do get two Eidolons by default, but how effective are they as you go up in level? You do get more at certain breakpoints, but how do that work out?

I actually like the idea of retraining your old Sorcerer levels or what-not into Dragon Disciple levels. It would take 1050 Gold and 21 days (assuming that your GM doesn't rule Dragon Disciple as synergistic with Sorcerer).

I would say it would work, and would provide a couple interesting ways for GMs to make some cool characters. However, making the same character for a PC would probably require some discussion with the DM to see how it would work.

From what I believe, it increases all the effects.

It adds extra Lay on Hands if you have the Ki Points for it. Your default Lay on Hands are not increased.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/variants/armorAsDamageRed uction.html

What's the general idea for these rules? I'd like to hear what people have done with this system, and just some general experience with the system in comparison to the normal AC system.

(I'm using this in conjunction with the Wounds and Vigor system, so that should be taken into account to some degree)

I'm probably going to grant the Parry/Riposte system to the players, albeit at only one per attack action.

I'm thinking about adding the Trip+Bullrush action to it, although I think it can be better simulated by use of the Awesome Blow feat.

Not sure what exactly to use for shields then... I think I'll leave it as default for now, but I'll look for some other options.

As well, I'm using Dark Lincoln's houserule for player progression, thereby removing +s from weapons, armor, and such.

Dark Sign:

You have been cursed with undeath. But it is not the kind of undeath you would expect, instead it is a unique kind.

Upon starting the game, those cursed are granted 3 Humanity. Every time the cursed individual dies, 1 Humanity is lost to the winds. If the player has no Humanity remaining, they take on a haggard and hollowed form, their formerly normal body replaced with that of a Hollow. Those afflicted take X penalties (still thinking that up), and unless they gain another Humanity before they die again, they will fully Hollow and lose control of their character.

---

I'm also going to give out variants of the starting items as well. If anyone chooses the Pendant, I'm going to use it to open up some other storylines.

Binoculars: ???
Black Firebomb: High-powered alchemical weapons, dealing X amount of damage. (How much HP do most things have early on? This should easily one-shot normal enemies, and do a decent chunk to boss monsters)
Divine Blessing: This holy water is a gift, and is blessed by the gods. It will fully heal any Good-aligned character, though its effects are lessened for those who do not believe in the Gods.
Master Key: Allows entry to places that would normally be inaccessible. Some places are better left unopened...
Old Witch's Ring: Grants a basic affinity for fire spells. (Grants certain [Fire] spells as spell-like abilites. As well, it allows you to speak with a certain NPC...
Pendant: Does nothing... but opens sidequests?
Tiny Being's Ring: Grants the Toughness feat for free?
Twin Humanities: When these twin sprites are used, two extra Humanity points are added to their counter. They cannot be split among two individuals.

---

I could also potentially use some help for a basic idea for the following creatures:

The Bed of Chaos
Dark Sun Gwyndolin
The Four Kings
Gaping Dragon
Sanctuary Guardian
Moonlight Butterfly
Gravelord Nito
Prowling/Titanite Demon

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I will grant each player a "Estus Flask", which is a multi-use Potion of Cure Light Wounds, that can scale as they gather Firekeeper Souls. This grants them some healing to stay alive at least.

---

I'm also not approving the Magus or any other that uses a lot of spells. I will give out some scrolls to those who choose to pursue UMD, but most of them will be based off of the actual spells seen in-game. A couple healing spells (self-only), etc.

I'm also thinking about having the UMD be split between two disciplines, one for Sorcery and one for Miracles, seeing as they operate that way in-game. (yes I'm really wanting the in-game ideas to be in the actual campaign)

Also, I will post my system to represent the Dark Sign below after I'm finished work (or on my break) to see exactly how balanced you people think it is.

I think you misunderstand a bit. Their will be no full spellcasters. Anything with higher than a 4 level spell progression is taken out of the game.

This is because Dark Souls doesn't have any (or very little) magic to speak of, so their will not be any real magic aside from a few casters that will be NPCs.

I'm hesitant about removing Monks however, as they could perhaps still be good.

10 point buy sounds rather interesting though... I was thinking about 15 points.

So I'm thinking about crafting a homebrew campaign for Dark Souls, with the following stipulations.

No Magic beyond 4th-level, and using one of Dark Lincoln's houserules to eliminate a lot of the true magic items.

No crafting feats, or Leadership.

Starting level is I dunno...

I'm mostly looking for advice of how to create the various bosses mostly. I could potentially look for analogues in the Bestiary, or I could try homebrewing some of my own...

If he's simply starting out with it, then I don't mind.

If it was in the middle of the adventure, then yeah I would be inclined to make it cost something.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/variant-rules/variant-rules-3rd-party /4-winds-fantasy-gaming/The-Loss-of-a-Body-Part/Prosthetics

It is third-party, so it might not be of greatest benefit, but I really go with my first choice and make it not cost anything. If you're not getting mechanical benefit, I wouldn't care.

(Depends on who your GM is though, talk to him/her about it to see what they say)

I would say... doesn't matter.

Personally as a GM I would handwave it away. No sense in making something cost anything when it provides no mechanical benefit aside from simple flavour.

I do have access to the pfsrd, so I've probably seen it and gone eh.

One thing I am interested in however is traps. Can anyone direct me to the rules for making traps and such? I'm wanting to take advantage of my Craft skill

Alright, so here's the first version of this:

It does have about 5780 gp unspent, so... extra items?

One other thing worth noting: You cannot get Snake Style until at least 3rd level because you need 3 ranks in Sense Motive.

EDIT: and how are you gaining the Shield AC bonus and getting the two attacks?

I'm thinking about using the Battlesnake one now. Seems like it'll be pretty nice. I'll post the reworked build here once it's done

Prehensile Tail seems a little odd to me. Dragon Maw also runs off Strength, so I don't know whether it's off benefit to use that.

It's possible that I could maybe use Multiweapon Fighting with GM approval, using two Agile Weapons and the tail weapon... though that would get expensive really quickly.