VoltySquirrel's page

I know this is spiteful, but as a Broncos fan, I refuse to take part in this discount. It still hurts. D: (But seriously, thanks for being cool, Paizo. Discounts are always nice. ;P )

Every once and a while, you find the rare player who wants to break the mold and get a little weird with their character. What are some of your favorites, both those of your own design and those you've played alongside with?

For me, one of my favorites was this rogue build my best friend ran. Rather than run the typical nimble thief, he wanted to try his hand at a rogue who's a big brute who will rob you blind by clonking you on the head with his club. He was inspired by a particular character in TES IV: Oblivion, who was an assassin with no real subtlety. The build may not have played to the class's strengths, but it made for some truly fun moments in the campaign. For instance, his version of looting a safe was to just nick the darn thing and blow it open with explosives back at base. If we wanted to get into a room through a locked door, he'd just bust the lock with his warhammer and burst into the room. You may call that borderline fighter/barbarian play, but he added the needed deviousness to it that made it all work.

I recently rolled up a new character for a new campaign I'm joining, and I got shafted hard when it came to my HP roll. I rolled a 2 on my d8, which with CON bonuses gives me a measly 4hp. Essentially, I can be potentially one-shoted by practically every weapon in the game, which is a problem for a melee-focused class like the Magus. Now, my GM seems like the type who's fairly harsh at low levels, so I get the feeling that I'll become a target for NPCs. Now, I've tried my best to work my way around this, such as springing for Studded Leather instead of just Leather in order to bump up my AC, but even still I can tell this is going to be a rough 1st level. So, what else should I do to try and avoid having to re-roll in the first hour? I'm guessing one option would be to try and avoid melee combat altogether, choosing to instead rock the 1d3 from Acid Splash/Ray of Frost, limiting my melee interactions to situations where I can get a confirmed kill without getting hit. Any suggestions?

So, slight noob here, so if anything seems obvious, it may not be to me. Sorry. Anyway, I just rolled up a Bladebound Magus and while I've always been dying to give the class a try, the two core mechanics of the class have given me pause, those being Spell Combat and Spellstrike. While I understand how they both work, I don't quite get how the two are different. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Specifically, what's the difference between casting and spell and then attacking and casting a spell through my weapon, and in which situation would I use one or the other?

Also, I read somewhere that with spell combat you can do this thing where you can make a melee attack, take a five foot step back, and then cast your spell, all without taking an AoO. I'm assuming this is true, but any clear confirmation would be nice.

So, I'm about to start playing a game on Roll20 with this dude, and while I'm eager to start playing again, I've run into one issue: he wants to house rule crits. To be frank, I can't wrap my head around the rule change. I've had a friend on Twitter explain to me the basics of it, but any extra help would be appreciated. (And, yes, I know, I probably should just ask the GM, but he's yet to respond to my Skype inquiries.)

So, here's how he describes the rule change:
- I do not like the Critical hit system in both D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder with a fixed double/triple damage.
New System: The threat range is still kept (if not written on item, the threat range is a natural 20). If an item has a higher multiplier than x2, each reduction in integer increases the threat range by 1 until the multiplier is a x2 (a x4 becomes a threat range of 18-20).
If the natural attack roll is within the threat range, the attacker deal "n" degrees of critical strike if the total attack roll totals to more than [Target's AC+5n].
If the natural attack roll is not in the threat range, the attacker deal "n" degrees of critical strike if the total attack roll totals to more than [Target's AC +10n].
For each n degree of critical, attacker deals n*(damage dice). So a triple critical with a trident is a (3*1)d8=3d8. STR modifier does not get multiplied.
If the target receives at least 1 degree of critical, target must roll DC13 Constitution check. Failure means the attacker rolls for critical effect (or I can use the SRD's Critical Effect Generator).
If you critical fumble (rolling a natural 1 on an attack roll), roll DC13 Constitution check. Depending on how badly you fail I will give you a negative effect.

Anyone willing to sort of simplify the wording here for me?

Okay, so, I'm a first time DM and a mildly inexperienced player of RPGs. A week ago I started a campaign with me and 5 other guys on the Crypt of the Everflame module. We have a monk, a barbarian, a wizard, a rogue, and a ranger. Beyond the ranger, no one can really cast healing magic. I have two other people who want to join, but I can only take one. One of them wants to be cleric but I'm not sure if he'll be enthusiastic enough for the game. I've tried to get him to roll up his cleric but as far I know he hasn't actually done anything with it yet. The other is enthusiastic, but is insisting on playing paladin. That's fine and all, but I don't think he realizes that he would end up as the primary healer for the party. So far, I've just used a pregen cleric to heal the party in the period of time in which we don't have any healing magic of any kind, but as soon as the adventure is done, she's gone. So, my question to you is this: who should I pick to join the game? The cleric or the pally?

So, I'm going to be running a 20-point buy game pretty soon and I was wondering about the skill ranks given every level. My question is this: if a PC in my game is a fighter, who gets 2+INT Mod skill ranks per level, with an INT score of 8, does that mean he gets 1 rank at first level due to the -1 INT Mod or does he at least get two, no matter the ability mod? I'm probably going to house rule it so that they would either way, but I still would like to know what the official rule would be.