Walker_in_Shadows's page

Now that we're forced to wait and everything is out of my hands I'm starting have jitters and worries. Anybody else having issues?

I actually feel surprisingly calm. All my nervous energy was used up in a last minute dash to the line last night. I thought I'd be obsessing about what could have improved my entry but I feel like a line has been drawn under it. Life is all about monsters now.

The difference this round is, you know your name is going to be up there come Tuesday. We're all still in there for another week at least. I'm going to try not to stress and just enjoy it.

We'll see how I feel when the first critiques come in...

Here's a different perspective.

*Inspirational perspective*

Now that is why I want to be part of this. That's a seriously motivational speech. I'm both terrified and thrilled that you and the other judges will be tearing my next entry apart to find both the good and bad in it (let's hope you find more of the former).

Putting my work out there for all the gaming world to see and analyze is a real buzz. I reckon this competition is as much about character as anything else. Can you take all that criticism and turn it into a whole can of awesome the next time 'round? I think we're going to see some pretty special entries as the competition goes on, judges initial comments notwithstanding.

What have you lot been up to while I've been away? Smurfs and Jacobs everywhere.

So, I got mine in with 17 minutes to spare. Cutting it a little too fine for my liking!

As far as GM/Player goes, I'm generally the GM these days (although I'm taking a short break from GMing Kingmaker to play in a game of Mage: The Awakening for a change). I was a player a lot though, in the 3.x years. Come to think of it, I usually GM'd back in 2nd Edition and I only ever played 1st. Guess I like to skip roles with every edition.

Right. Draft written and with the proofers. Editing down from 450 words was a killer. Just a couple of names to amend and I'm done.

*wipes sweat from brow and pours a large whisky*

There! After an agonizing evening of stone cold creativity last night, I finally have a draft I feel is suitable for submission - once I have applied a LOT of polish and tweaking to it.

I'm writing this on my iPad in a bus taking me on a field trip with the school i work at. We will return this afternoon, leaving me a few brief hours VERY close to the submission deadline to finish the entry. Pressure. NOT. AT. ALL. *Gah!*

I know exactly how you feel. Good luck with it. At least we have what feels like an extra evening here in Europe. A 10pm deadline is a much better prospect than 2pm.

Well done everyone who is done and submitted. That's seriously impressive.

I'm having a stupidly busy week and am well behind where I'd like to be. On the train to work now, but I don't anticipate getting much actual work done today. Don't tell my boss!

Thanks everyone for your support so far. It means a lot to hear such positive comments. I'm working furiously on my round 2 entry in every spare moment I have (although it's game night tonight so a pause is in order). I'll be back when this organization is finally done!

Jacob Trier wrote:

Finland, I presume?

Ja, akkurat! (...or something like that.) Yep, Finland. :)

Andrew Newton wrote:

Is the UK part of Europe these days, or did Cameron just get us kicked out because of the banks?

You're from the UK? Alright, three Europeans it is, then. :)

Make that four. Another Brit here. One who is still a long way from finishing their round 2 entry!

Daniel, I had the same thought. I was holding off so I didn't get my hopes up too high, though I couldn't help but daydream/brainstorm this morning as I was walking the dog. She may get some really long walks in the next couple days as I finalize my next submission.

Yeah, I've had my hopes dashed before so I didn't want to get too carried away. Like you, I couldn't help jotting a few things down this morning (just in case), so I'm not going to be starting entirely from scratch. Just mostly.

However, I'm now going to have to join the other Jacob in going to bed as it's late and I have an annoying thing called work in the morning.

(And when I say join him I don't mean, you know, join him.)

Great job everyone. It's an amazing feeling, isn't it?

I kind of wish I'd done more prep on that organization now, though.

You're no fun anymore!

And now for something completely different...

Number 1. The larch.

And now...

Picture of a horse chestnut tree

The horse chestnut.

Cheering crowd

*************************

Monty Python eh? Alright, I'll give you that one. Sometimes a lack of order can be fun, too.

I stand by Hamlet, though!

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:

Where is all the fun gonna be if all the answers are provided before Round 2 starts? Sometimes a bit of disambiguity leads to more creative ideas. More rules and constraints choke the creative veins and keeps nutrients from reaching my lobes!

For myself, rules and constraints spark my creativity and lead me to new and exciting places! Consequently, I have decided to ask for lots of them, so as to deliberately gain an unfair advantage over you should we oppose each other in Round 2!

I agree about rules sparking creativity. Free reign is fine but so much great art is founded upon set forms. Petrarch's sonnets or Dante's Divine Comedy are great because of the things they do with rigid formality, not in spite of it.

Playing around with rule constraints takes you a step above. The reason the line "To be or not to be, that is the question" is so memorable is partly because it is the only line in that soliloquy that is not in iambic pentameter. It has eleven beats to the line, whereas the text surrounding it has ten. The reader or audience member is subliminally influenced by the change of form into noticing the line as especially important.

Rules give you something solid to hang your flights of fancy on. Rules rock!

"Hey. Amy's husband. Why don't you all go to PaizoCon? It'll be awesome."

With a small baby myself (and living in England) I won't be making it. You guys go instead. You'll have a great time!

I think there are ways to get the feel of different editions that maintain balance. Your basic game could just feature the Fighter, Cleric, Rogue and Wizard with all the rules of the game but with no options. Subsequent 'modules' could add more choices - feats, skills, powers, Warlocks whatever.

Let's take the Fighter as the (let's face it, easiest) example. A 3.5/PF fighter has masses of options for customisation. But, you can create a very simple, default character by taking certain feats. Say, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialisation, Toughness, maybe Power Attack. A fighter built like this is as viable as any other, they just aren't very flexible. They hit things and they hit them hard. That's it. Much like a First Ed Fighter. If all the bonuses are included straight into the class table, the player need never know that all of these choices were made for them. They pick up a character sheet that looks something like a PF stat block and go off to kill some monsters.

A second player who has a bit more time starts with a bare bones Fighter (without all the bonuses Basic Fighter has picked up) and uses the Feats module to become a TWF or Combat Maneuver specialist. They look more like a PF Fighter. The two are balanced, but one is more complicated and flexible. Throw in a bunch of tactical movement powers and they might be looking more 4E like.

I'll be very interested to see the playtest. The industry is big enough for more than one big player and I would love to see D&D back on top form. Not at the cost of Pathfinder, but I'm confident Paizo will be thriving for years yet.

Hi all,

I'm planning on bringing in a new character to a long running game and I'm looking at a Dwarf Fighter/Witch/Eldritch Knight. I'm starting at level 16 so there's plenty of room to play around. I'd like some ideas for jazzing the guy up. I want him to be sinister and scary, without being (totally) evil. It does not need to be optimal (it's not that kind of game). Let's just say I want him to be flavourful, but effective.

The basic concept is that the dwarf, Vaskar, was a mercenary warrior who, impressed by his fighter/sorcerer companion's skillful synergy of melee and magical abilities, decided to learn the ways of wizardry. His innate dwarven resistance to magic stymied his attempts until he was approached by the raven familiar of a dark mage he had slain, who proposed an agreement. He would teach Vaskar magic in return for a share of any spoils his new powers granted him. The raven has since been revealed to be polymorphed mephit (probably a shadow mephit) and the pair have been led down a gradually darkening path.

So, I'm currently thinking Fighter 1/Witch 10/Ek 5. Ten levels of witch gives me major hexes which I quite like (especially retribution), but I could be convinced to drop it to eight levels (I want the upgraded evil eye). I'm intending to have a shadow patron (like the mephit), but could be persuaded otherwise. I realise strength would probably be a better bet for combat, but shadow is spooky and that suits me well.

The game is heavily house-ruled, the key thing being that I can cast spells in whatever armour I'm proficient in. I want to hold my own in melee, so heavy armour, shield and dwarven war-axe (or similar) are key paraphernalia.

So what feats/spells/hexes and items would compliment the character. Nifty combos (feats that go well with certain spells, for example) are especially welcome.

Any ideas welcome!

9am wednesday for us on the east coast of Australia - hah!

OK, you win!

I've been toying with ideas since my item was submitted but I haven't wanted to get too far ahead of myself. I think I've got an original idea and I'm hoping three evenings will be enough to get the mechanics sorted out.

I think this is a particularly difficult task as it's such a new concept in d20. I too have little experience of playing or GMing a character with an archetype (I've played one session as an undead scourge paladin and it did give me a different angle to the standard paladin but not enough to actually test the rules).

The difficulty is in coming up with an idea that isn't cliched but is instantly recognisable as a classic concept in fantasy literature or gaming (and isn't a ninja).

Midnight for me. So very dramatic!

The witching hour in eastern Europe and southern Africa, and Paizo's judgement is terrible to behold!

Walker_in_Shadows wrote:

Neil Spicer wrote:

Joshua Kitchens wrote:

As I have completely forgotten from last year, what time are the Top 32 going to be announced on Tuesday? Was it 2pm PST?

Yep. 2PM PST. 5PM EST. For everyone else, figure it out from there. Or set your local time in your profile and the main RPG Superstar page will do it for you.

It'll be 10pm here in London. Grrr. We have to wait a whole eight hours extra. (That is how time zones work, isn't it?)

9 hours for us in CET time zone.

Yet a whole day for those miserable bastards in the west pacific!

I reckon we'll be happy with those extra hours in the evening though, if we get through to round two.

Joshua Kitchens wrote:

As I have completely forgotten from last year, what time are the Top 32 going to be announced on Tuesday? Was it 2pm PST?

Yep. 2PM PST. 5PM EST. For everyone else, figure it out from there. Or set your local time in your profile and the main RPG Superstar page will do it for you.

It'll be 10pm here in London. Grrr. We have to wait a whole eight hours extra. (That is how time zones work, isn't it?)

The +1 ability point is for every four class levels or four additional hit dice after the base. The base monster doesn't have those additions as it is the starting point for a monster of that kind. In the same way a basic (1st level) human doesn't get any ability bonuses, neither does a basic (4HD) pixie.

Sudoku should be listed under the definition of Lawful Evil.

"You shall pay, Asmodeus, for blighting us with these interminable number puzzles. Mark my words, fiend, you shall pay."

*Shakes fist*

Derek Vande Brake wrote:

12. Puzzles that the players must solve. Especially difficult ones like a giant Sudoku puzzle. ;) (I did this one. My players, via death threats, extracted a promise never to repeat.)

We had a DM do this! He also replaced the numbers with correlating symbols. So first we had figure out what the puzzle was exactly, then code the symbols to numbers, and finally solve the puzzle.

So did we. It was 2.30 a.m. and we'd been exploring a puzzle-filled dungeon for around 10 hours when we realised with horror that the next door would only open when we'd completed a sudoku puzzle of arcane symbols. The happy libation of red wine all evening suddenly seemed a terrible liability. I can still hear the GM's demented laughter as it dawned on us. He sat back and smirked as we approached the puzzle with grim-faced stoicism.

"So tired...Can't focus on symbols...Must finish puzzle...Hate sudoku..."

Rumor is that Neil actually makes an entire dollar per word, but sets some aside for charity.

I guess that explains why his forum posts are so long. He does get paid per word for those, right? All in the name of charity.

Is there a resource for 3.5/PFRPG which includes racial stat adjustments and racial abilities for Ithilids, so that they may be used as a playable class?

Is this even feasible?

Thanks for any help!

The best places to look for something approaching a playable Illithid character would be the Flayerspawn Psychic prestige class in Complete Psionic. It has a similar feel to Dragon Disciple. It allows a psionic PC to slowly develop the powers and look of a Mind Flayer through class abilities and Illithid Heritage feats, slowly growing tentacles, developing mind blasts and even extracting brains. It could be adapted for an abberant bloodline sorcerer, maybe.

The other option is the Half-Illithid template from Fiend Folio. It gives a lot of the powers with an ECL of +5 without the need for messing around with racial hit dice. It's still probably too unbalanced for anything other than a few sessions.

The prestige class is probably the best way to go if you're planning a long term game. A slow decline into madness and monstrosity could be fun.