Velix Okah's page

I think the problem is more capability.

At level 5, both the fighter and wizard are vital additions to the party.

At level 15, the wizard can warp reality and influence kings. The fighter simply got better at fighting.

The way that Fighters got a free army in earlier editions was a good way of solving this.

There are a LOT of cookie cutter players and concepts in roleplaying games, and lots of uncreative people to perpetuate them.

However, every so often, you get a player character who creates something you've never seen before, something unorthodox, but not for the sake of being different.

For example, I was running a game at a convention as a DM, and this guy wanted to play a rogue. However, he chose traits that gave him access to the heal skill, became Lawful Good, and Dr. Gamsy was born! Slayer of corrupt business leaders and part time church healer.

It was similar to a few tropes I'd seen before, but it was nevertheless incredibly unique. What are some other concepts that are really different?

I had a really gullible GM running a Kirthfinder game once, and one of our players wrote a completely nonsensical, truly amazing backstory. It was 26 pages long, and he alternated between different styles of writing throughout, switching from sonnet poetry to Dicken's long sentence structure to quotes from the Quaran.

He kept on rewriting the backstory too, to fit the situations he was in (he happened to be a former pilot for an airship for 10 years, as soon as we found one).

I never found out until I read it after our GM moved away. Then he told me his whole story, and I thought it was brilliant. Said he got his inspiration from reading old Call of Cthulu stories at 4 in the morning.

As much as you might hate doing so, cater to the Mary Sues. It makes them have a heck of a lot of fun, but don't be afraid to punish them if they do something stupid.

If there aren't any hormone high kids at the table, but fairly quiet ones, find subtle ways to get them involved. They don't normally need much encouragement to have fun; those are the cool cats with huge imagination.

Also, get comfy with the fact that you may have 7 rogues at the table. I get that a lot for some reason when GM'ing teens.

Submitted. Pretty excited for this twist on an old favorite!

I use a variant of xp with much smaller numbers. It takes 15-20 points to level up. The group gets 1 point for overcoming small problems, the kind that can be solved with 1 or 2 skill checks, or a trivial fight. 2 points for an average encounter that shouldn't seriously endanger anyone in the party. 3 points for a particularly dangerous or climactic fight. Bonus points for defeating an encounter in a particularly creative way or for completing a goal set in advance by the players with me like "we want to own a boat/tower/guild!"

I like it because it's less arbitrary than GM whim but the calculations are easy. Players see the next level approach in a consistant, reasonable way. I never really had a problem with players picking inappropriately easy fights to collect the rewards but I suppose it would discourage that.

I like this. A lot.

"Still use" XP? You make it sound like getting rid of XP is a logical, natural extension of roleplaying, and that if one "still use[s]" it, one is an immature RPGer. I don't particularly like the implications in that statement.

Assume best intentions, Scholar.

My group used to have a "kill everything" mentality when they found out everything technically had a CR and thus an XP value.

After a run-in with a nunnery, and a subsequent conversion to an Evil campaign, I decided to start using pivotal moments in the story to simply level up my players. It's made the game have a more realistic feel, which I've been trying to get to for a while, and now my players are really having a ball roleplaying instead of finding what to kill next.

Though, I still enjoy XP for games where I don't DM, mostly power-gamey min-maxy ones some of my colleagues play, where every second party member is a summoner or SAD caster.

Both are hilarious and fun in their own right, and I enjoy not and also having the system.

I think you should give it a % chance to hit after the regular d20 roll (I'm thinking 40% or so).
This gives a reason for it be used by even the party wizard, for example (unless he couldn't hit in the first place).

6. Bob the Human Fighter
This is not his first time old Bob has gotten his +1 longsword soiled, and it won't be the last. Or will it?

He's been fighting goblins for a few years, along with his friends, a cleric, wizard, and rogue.

He uses a longsword, a heavy shield, full plate armor, and his feats are geared towards hitting things. He doesn't really talk much.

Back in the good old days (approximately three years ago), I had just begun to take up DM-ing with a group of friends overseas, but no one had any books except the 3.5 Players Handbook.

I had an idea of how a +1 flaming sword worked, so I decided to throw them into the campaign whenever it was fun.

I've run homebrew since then, as when I discovered the Wealth-By-Level rules, I thought "Gee, this kinda sucks."

Back in 3.5, I had a guy.

He created his own homebrew ghost slayer class that I didn't really look over, but when I did, I noticed how awfully overpowered it was (Had an ability that effectiely gave double Fighter BAB).

He insisted on dual wielding bastard swords, and always showing his "true face" to the enemies before battle (3.5 angel ability).

Despite this, he was never able to do anything, ever. He never participated in combat other than "showing his face", as it was "beneath him", and didn't talk to any humans because they were filthy.

I tried catering to his hate of ghosts by introducing a ghost dungeon, but he dumped wisdom, so he never actually overcame his fear of them, despite training for it for the past 6 levels.

It was really funny, now that I look back on it.

Start looking at a "Mr. Hyde" alchemist.
Alchemists have the potential to have four arms, vestigial twins, can drink mutagens to gain increases to physical scores akin to a Barbarian, and have lots of juicy discoveries that improve survive-ability.

Most notably, the Fast Healing, Mummification, Extra Limb, and Feral Mutagen discoveries can fit it well.

Plus, you get to be a snappy nerdy guy who throws bombs really fast.

An anti-witch barbarian "Beserker" could be employed, as suggested. Make a big scene of having a large box be dragged into town with chains wrapped around it. They open it up to reveal a hulking barbarian with scent, who tracks down arcane casters!

But they only use it in dire circumstances; the rest of the time, he is locked up and treated cruelly. He's actually a nice guy at heart, if the PC's befriend him before he lops their heads off.

The past tense (imperfect form) of Build in English is Built, not Builded, I think.

I can nitpick the grammar some more, or would you prefer me not too?
Otherwise, the material itself looks quite good. Impressive how you covered ALL of the feats!

If you follow every little post I make and topic I've made, you'll notice they all more or less relate back to having an Epic Six campaign.

This is also part of that.

As we all know, Rogue's are kinda lackluster compared to all the other cool classes. I've fixed this so far by making sure ~1/3 of all encounters are traps.

But I thought the rogue (now second level) needed something more. Instead of Trap Sense, he gets Rogue Sense: He retains the bonus against traps, but also gains that same numerical bonus on attack rolls vs. flat-footed and flanked opponents.

Since we'll only ever go up to level 6, it will only become a +2, putting him on close to par with the Full BAB classes when doing his job.
It's been great so far, and everyone cheers when he gets a succesful sneak attack in!

Do you think this would work in a normal game?

10 foot pole
Rope
Bombs
Lamps
Lamp Oil

Or just slap a Belt of Strength onto the companion.

I had a Necropolis being controlled by the big bad lich villain.
His main schtick was that he could control anything in the city using an undead computer.
It used the raising and lowering of skeleton's hands instead of binary to compute, based on Deep Rot.

The party eventually got him by figuring out the combination to his tower-safe by using Control Undead, and exploded his phylactery by using the computer to control one of the many magical lightning bolt ballista located throughout the city.

That was a fun campaign.

Divine Madness by HayclonicFalconX

Are there any GOOD Pathfinder games that occur by email? I've never ever managed to find any anywhere, and I'm not terribly interested in doing it by blog post.

Don't be afraid to imprison or even kill your players. If their characters went into an obviously dangerous area or picked the wrong fight, have them feel it.

I thought that the Eldritch Knight class became pretty much obsolete after the Magus showed up. Is there something I missed or is it just a personal preference.

Eldritch Knight 10/Scryer 1/Fighter 1

Magus 12
12d8 HP
4th Level Spells
BAB +9
Base Saves: Fort +8 Ref +4 Will +8
Arcane Pool Tomfoolery, No Spell Failure in Medium Armor, Spellstrike, Spell Recall and Knowledge Pool.

Looks to me like the Magus is a winner, though arguably so. The Eldritch Knight will have more HP and will be better at hitting things, probably getting more static damage through power attack, and have access to higher level spells.

However, the Magus has more versatility with his arcane pool, and can do all sorts of crazy shenanigans with Spellstrike.

You can enter Eldritch Knight in a more "core" way if you take a single level of Divinist Wizard (Scryer) and a level of any Martial Class (I prefer Fighter).

No being forced into weird races ftw!

Darksol the Painbringer wrote:

Scavion wrote:

Falchions rock.

But Nodachis are better.

Falchion dice are less likely to roll off the table. ;)

Falchion dice are also more likely to crit you IRL.

19) Leaping Lizards: Local Tarrasque Circus Runs Amok!

20) Bees Knees: Local Alchemist Discovers a Powerful Hallucinogen From Common Insect Parts, Promptly Outlawed

I personally think you should play a marital sort. Take feats that synergize with the warrior you have already.

Have you checked out the Advanced Classes Guide?

If your DM allows it, you could be a Brawler who punches out and wrestles dragons. Always good fun.

Or you could be a slayer, who has some AMAZING role-playing opportunities, especially with his tracking and skill-monkeying. It's not offing the druid any, and you're basically a combat capable rogue. Check it out!

25. Buy a cow and a scroll of Flesh to Salt. Instantly break the economy.

Thanks for the tips guys!
I think I'll throw in magic weapons and armor more than magic-focused wondrous items.

And plenty of unusual flavor magic items. Eheee.

Aw, but if you go Half-Elf, you could go Half-Drow and wear a dark, forbidding cloak!

Don't forget to be Chaotic Neutral. And complain about how you are no one's slave.

Should it be done?

I'm about to run an E6 pathfinder game (where we only go up to 6th level), and I'm considering making it low wealth/magic.

Our party is doing 3d6 rolling for stats, to make it even more low-powered.

How closely should I follow the wealth by level guidelines in the Core? Will it make them too underpowered if I were to adjust it down?
I'm thinking that they may be to high for this campaign.

Our party consists of a bard, wizard, a druid duo, a barbarian, and a monk who rolled really well.

Why can't you take the feat?

It looks like the OP is saying that he's optimized a trip build, but in order for it to work to it's full potential, his other party members must be able to take more than one AoO a round.

I'd say let them do as they choose, and if are lucky enough to just so happen to be near the trip target, they use their one AoO.

*edit*
There don't seem to be any magic items granting it, and it'd be largely up to working with your DM.

There's a 3rd party race from Unapproachable East, the Blooded One, that grants Combat reflexes, but your party's races are probably already set.

Rogue with Major Magic talent, select the Unseen Servant.
Have the servant carry a cloak around that always blocks where you are sneaking.

RAW for stealth, you get full cover, and you're undetectable.

Gnome/Halfling barbarians.

Getting one level of Divinist Wizard (Scryer) and one level of fighter. You can prestige into arcane knight by third level.

Fighter who specializes in using a whip. There are LOADS of cool feats for it.

Rule 1: Always bring along a cleric.

Use light weapons if you ever want to be a warpriest. Seriously.
Daggers that are easily concealed and light, but can be whipped out for 2d8 damage? Yes please.

In all seriousness though, light weapons are better for diplomatic/political/role-play-heavy campaigns, where any weapon at all is terrifying. A longsword might be great for wading into melee, but a dagger is quicker to draw and hold at a noble's throat.

If your DM is trap-happy, I'd say go Half Elf. The racial bonuses to Perception and Skill focus is a boon. Low-light vision will help in the couple hundred dozen dark places you'll be in, and that bonus versus enchantments will come into play ;)

Definitely stick with scribe scroll, so you can make scrolls of spells you won't use as often, just in case. Heck make a scroll book.

Don't forget the cheesy goodness of Paragon Surge for half-elves either; a free feat at any time is incredibly powerful. Heck, there's a whole guide on it.

Had a SINGLE session where ability scores were rolled with 3d6's, in order.

Paladin got 18,17,14,4,16,17.

Everyone died at least 3 times while the paladin just kept trucking.
That was a good time.

Ooooh! Thanks sandbox! This looks really nifty!

Truthfully I don't see why you'd bother since you can take on EK at 3rd level these days without any real trouble (base assimar). Thus you only end up 2 levels behind in spellcasting, and 1 in BAB. If you really want to cast spells and hit things with your beatstick, that's a pretty solid combo (but I imagine you already know much of the above).

Or you can be really cheesy and take one level of a Divinist Wizard instead of being an assimar.

The clauraudience/clairvoyance effect counts as being able to cast a 3rd-level spell, RAW.

So, my friends and I have decided we're going to get an Epic Six campaign up and running for Pathfinder.

However, the EXP system works differently for Pathfinder, with set values for monsters, and a slow/fast/medium pace.

For anyone familiar with the format, my group wants to know whether we should keep the 5000xp per feat after level six, or change it to something higher.

We plan on medium progression and random rolling for character creation.

Any advice/experience is appreciated!~

It's not a terribly original idea. This is essentially the placeholder villain type for any Big Bad.

Carry a ten foot pole.
Poke around for traps, pole vault a gap, create a bridge across a gap, lever up something heavy, knock over things from a safe distance, poke a dragon and get a 5ft head start, bar doors, see if the jelly on the ceiling will dissolve you or not...

I was thinking about unconventional characters today, and decided to roll up a level one Gnome Barb for giggles.

20-Point Buy
Str 14
Dex 14
Con 16
Int 11
Wis 7
Cha 15

I'm thinking of eventually taking the Eldritch Heritage feat for abyssal bloodline so I can get claws and Str bonuses, but I'm having a hard time thinking about why a Barb would need knowledge planes.

Any roleplaying/optimization tips? I'm pretty steadfast on the stats as is.

Abyssal bloodline is a boon to any Barbarian, both for the claws and the inherent bonus to Strength; although the Skill Focus feat tax is quite lame. What barbarian is ever going to use knowledge planes?

Shadow bloodline is useful for any character who relies upon staying unseen, particularly rogues and bards. You should have already skill focus Stealth, and the effective Hide in Plain Sight + Dimension Door is great fun.

Honestly, whenever I take the feat, I do it more for fluff than anything else.