Mark Chance 476's page

Merry Christmas! I put together two PDFs, one with more than 30 new monsters for 1E AD&D and another with a short FRPG scenario. Enjoy!

AD&D Monsters: Apsara to Zebez
The Abbey of St. Martin

:)

I decided to start hosting Dinner & Gaming nights again, doing so once a month. I like to game. I like to cook. (I even considered going to a culinary arts school until I figured out I have anosmia.) So, I fixed taco salad, got a couple bottles of sangria, and broke out the Swords & Wizardry, In Search of the Unknown, and a couple copies of my WIP Optional Skill Resolution Rules.

With only two players in attendance, I was flexible with class and race combinations. Alex made up Brother Zaphod, an Elf Cleric/Magic-User who had been raised by weasels in the woods. I imagine them to have been giant weasels. Christopher made up Weeble Kneecracker, a Halfling Fighter/Thief who is also a skilled chef and a pariah from polite Halfling society. This stalwart pair of rookie heroes hired two men-at-arms and a torchbearer: Maximilio, Baldrick, and Leofrick.

The party traveled north into the hilly woodlands between the frontier village and the realm of the hated barbarians. After some traveling and searching, they found the entrance to Quasqueton. Weeble picked the lock on the door, and the group moved into the hallway beyond. They were startled by magical mouths that pronounced a grim warning.

Weeble crept forward, searching for traps. He determined there were none, but his intense concentration led to him being surprised by a pair of ghouls. Weeble was clawed and paralyzed.

The hirelings and Brother Zaphod battled the ghouls, killing them. Brother Zaphod suffered a moderate injury in the process.

Skill checks using my OSR2 system were made to convince the hirelings to work for free in exchange for spiritual betterment, to open the locked door, to search for traps, and to determine the weaknesses of ghouls. Based on this brief session of actual gaming, I think the system works pretty well, although I did leave out one detail regarding the characters' starting skills, which I'll have to amend next time we play S&W.

Thanks, Endzeitgeist! :) You da man!

I established Spes Magna Games roundabout December 2009. Between then and now, I've written and published almost 20 gaming PDFs, mostly for The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. On average, I guesstimate I've made about $25 a month from the sale of my PDFs. That's not a lot; I'm in no danger of retiring early, but that's okay. I run Spes Magna Games because I love the hobby.

Those of you who follow my site know that I teach at a small, open-enrollment public charter school in Katy, Texas. I've been there three years. Aristoi Classical Academy strives mightily to offer tuition-free the sort of classical education normally available only in private schools charging several thousand dollars a year per student. As far as I know, we're the only public school in Texas that offers a classical education.

A few years before I started teaching at Aristoi, the previous administration irresponsibly took out way too much debt in the form of bonds. The school's debt situation the year before last was bad enough that the Texas Education Agency could've shut us down. This year we're no longer in danger of being closed because of bad debt. Our current administration has worked heroically, and this year our debt has been reduced by about $1.4 million dollars (approximately half of the overall debt). We did this by cutting some salaries, freezing others, streamlining costs, eliminating overhead, consolidating jobs, et cetera. About a half a million dollars was saved through these efforts.

The state education commission has been so impressed by Aristoi's financial and educational accomplishments that we have been approved to expand our enrollment from 325 to 440 students for the upcoming school. We've also been green-lighted to add a 9th grade class for the 2014-2015 school. To fully meet the needs of our incoming, larger student body, we need more space. Aristoi's school board and administration have a plan to grow the school's facilities.

Part of that plan includes raising $550,000 for construction and purchasing adjacent, undeveloped land.

At Aristoi, we don't teach to a state test. We educate the whole child, mind, body, and spirit, and seek to fill the students' hearts with great tales of heroes such as Jason and Argonauts, Don Quixote, George Washington, Stuart Little, Sherlock Holmes, and Frederick Douglass, to name just a few. I know classical education works better than traditional public education for many students because I've seen the difference it can make in the lives of children, including my own.

I've been a gamer longer than I've been a teacher, and I've also seen the hearts of gamers in action. We gamers know the value of education, the importance of friends, and about the wonders of imagination that can be inspired by great stories. So, here I am, asking for donations. But I'm not forgetting the lesson I learned from First Lieutenant Freehill while I was stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. I'm not asking anyone to do something I'm not willing to do.

Spes Magna Games has donated $50 to Aristoi's indiegogo campaign. I'm asking you to donate one-tenth of that amount just one time. Help us at Aristoi inspire our students to aspire toward lives of heroic virtue.

Thanks for your time and attention.

Did you ever think about banning the paladin from your game world just to avoid all the "a paladin can't do that" arguments?

I ban the arguments instead.

Check out the free version of Stars Without Number. It's got some good sandbox advice in it. This article is worth checking out: Bringing Some Old-School Principles Into Pathfinder. There's also this one: History in the Sandbox. What's more: Nonlinear (Sandbox) Games.

It's a 10' by 10' pit, and they are frost giants. The pit is barely big enough to fit one of them....

Quite right. The frost giant is about 15 feet tall. The pit covers him to about halfway up his torso. Just stay in the pit and lob rocks while enjoying the cover. :)

The Dragon Warrior

The dragon warrior’s dedication to ancient practices rooted in martial dragon cults grants him a small portion of draconic power. When a character gains a level as a dragon warrior, he must select one of the chromatic or metallic dragon types....

Go Bram Stoker vampire. Dracula could wander around in full daylight.

The DM wants to "punish" the player....

I know that as a player, what I really want is a GM that uses the game to teach me life lessons.

At long last, Dodeca Weather is nearly complete! I've done another round of edits. I've added a short section about magical weather events, and outlined a short section about weather and skills. Once I'm done with this, I need to print a hard copy for a final proofread. I'm shooting for 31 May as the release date.

A smart fighter would kill the summoner, not eidolon, first.

A smart summoner wouldn't give the fighter the opportunity.

If you think an AC of 45 is good for an end game fighter, you're not trying very hard.

I manage 45 as a wizard.

Anything you can do,

No, you can't.
Yes, I can. No, you can't.
Yes, I can. No, you can't.
Yes, I can,
Yes, I can!

Anything you can be
I can be greater.
Sooner or later,
I'm greater than you.

No, you're not. Yes, I am.
No, you're not. Yes, I am.
No, you're NOT!. Yes, I am.
Yes, I am!

:)

Batman is a bard. He can do the Batusi.

The problem is that because of tax feats only humans can play certain concepts at level 1.

That's not a bug. It's a feature.

I wonder what sort of domain powers would be granted by Libation?

:)

Libation Domain

Granted Powers: You can augment your spells with a libation. A libation is a pouring out of wine or other liquid in honor of your deity.

Libation (Su): If you pour out a libation as part of the somatic and material components of a cleric spell that you cast, that spell takes effect as if your caster level were one level higher than it actually is. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier. A libation costs at least 10 gold pieces and weighs 1/2 pound.

Greater Libation (Su): At 8th level, your libations increase in power. In addition to boosting your caster level, your libation also applies one of these metamagic feats (chosen at time of casting) to your spell with no change in the spell's effective level: Bouncing Spell, Disruptive Spell, Ectoplasmic Spell, Elemental Spell, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Flaring Spell, Focused Spell, Intensified Spell, Lingering Spell, Piercing Spell, Rime Spell, Silent Spell, or Toppling Spell.

Domain Spells: 1st—bless, 2nd—blessing of courage and life, 3rd—prayer, 4th—blessing of fervor, 5th—cleanse, 6th—heroes' feast, 7th—greater restoration, 8th—euphoric tranquility, 9th—mass heal.

Bonus dice are never multiplied on a critical hit. Only static bonuses are multiplied.

'Scout' isn't really a profession, it's something a soldier might do, butn the Profession involved would be soldier.

"Soldier" is also something soldiers do. When I was a soldier, I often soldiered. :)

Just get rid of AoO entirely. :)

Make up a cleric. Choose an appropriate alignment. Select Liberation and something else as domains. Say your cleric worships Cayden. Problem solved. :)

1) Neither is "better" - it all depends on what you prefer. Which is "better", Indian food or British food?

Indian. Definitely Indian. :)

Because that is the way 3.5 did it. Didn't know that Pathfinder doubled the dice.

In 3.5, a longsword with a critical hit also did 2d8 points of damage.

Sometimes you multiply damage by some factor, such as on a critical hit. Roll the damage (with all modifiers) multiple times and total the results. Note: When you multiply damage more than once, each multiplier works off the original, unmultiplied damage.

When I started my new campaign, I used several virtual feats and universal feats. The game worked just fine.

Universal Feats
Expanding BAB

Demon: "Where are your companions?"

Paladin: "I'm not going to tell you. Do your worst, fiend."

I'm not seeing the dilemma.

This is the way a paladin should handle the situation.

Yay! I win the Internet! :)

To put it in a more mudane circumstance, "Hy lord, does this dress make me look fat?"

No, your fat makes you look fat?

"Nay, m'lord. It is vision that makes you look fat."

Demon: "Where are your companions?"

Paladin: "I'm not going to tell you. Do your worst, fiend."

I'm not seeing the dilemma.

Wouldn't it be easier to just hit a repressed physicist with a gamma bomb?

Finished The Last of the Mohicans and started Great Expectations last night.

Basically, how do you make detect thoughts useful without being game-breaking?

You don't. You let the spells do what they're meant to do, and you make up adventures that make sense and are still fun.

While not exclusively a PF blog, there's also Spes Magna Games.

Shell out the extra bucks for advanced giant chickens.

I've been pondering about using the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game to simulate a low-magic, swords-and-sorcery sort of world. Yes, I know there are other games on the market that already do what the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game isn't designed to do. To answer your question: because I enjoy tweaking -- even torturing -- game systems so that they'll do new things. So, with that out of the way, let's move on and look at the this low-magic world (and let's call that world Cìhan). Here're my initial, rough draft thoughts, and I'm looking for thoughtful comments/criticisms.

Character Classes
The inhabitants of Cìhan have some knowledge of magic, but neither arcane nor divine magic are as ubiquitous as they are on other worlds. When making a character for Cìhan, players find class choices constrained.

1. Alchemists, bards, clerics, druids, inquisitors, magi, oracles, sorcerers, summoners, witches, and wizards are prohibited. These classes simply do not exist in Cìhan.

2. Paladins and rangers exist, but they do not gain the ability to cast spells.

3. Barbarians, cavaliers, fighters, gunslingers, monks, and rogues are unchanged.

Paladins & Rangers of Cìhan
Instead of spells, paladins get bonus feats starting at 4th level. These bonus feats must be chosen from among channeling feats and combat feats, and the paladin must meet the prerequisites before a feat can be selected. An additional bonus feat is gained at 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th levels.

Rangers also get bonus feats starting at 4th level. These bonus feats must be chosen from either combat feats or any general feat that provides a bonus to skill checks (such as Alertness). Of course, the ranger must meet the prerequisites before a feat can be selected. Like the paladin, an additional bonus feat is gained at 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th levels.

Magical Feats
Now that we've removed all spellcasting ability from Cìhan, let's add some of it back to the world. After all, we're doing low-magic, not no-magic. Here's where magical feats come into play.

Many magical feats give a character the ability to cast spell as if he were a member of a specific spellcasting class. This ability includes all of the normal rules for that class. So, for example, a character with Wizardry has a spellbook, suffers arcane spell failure for casting spells with somatic components while wearing armor, modifies his spells' save DCs with his Intelligence bonus, et cetera.

Alchemy
You have unlocked the secrets of alchemical magic.
Prerequisite: Int 13, Craft (alchemy) 3 ranks
Benefit: When you gain this feat, choose one speciality: bombs, extracts, or mutagens. You can prepare your chosen specialty as if you were an alchemist. Your effective alchemist level equals one-half your ranks in Craft (alchemy).
Special: You can gain Alchemy up to three times. Each time, select a new specialty.

Bardic Magic
You can use artistic performance to cast bard spells.
Prerequisite: Cha 13, Perform 3 ranks
Benefit: You can cast spells as if you were a bard. Your effective bard level equals one-half your ranks in Perform.

Bardic Performance
You can use artistic performance to create magical effects.
Prerequisite: Cha 13, Perform 3 ranks
Benefit: You gain the bardic performance class feature. Your effective bard level equals one-half your ranks in Perform. This means you initially have the following bardic performance abilities: countersong, distraction, fascinate, and inspire courage +1. As your effective bard level increases, your inspire courage bonus increases and you gain inspire competence, suggestion, dirge of doom, et cetera (as appropriate for your effective bard level).

Divine Magic
Your faith in a higher power grants you divine magic.
Prerequisite: Wis 13, Knowledge (religion) 3 ranks
Benefit: You can cast spells as if you were a cleric. Your effective cleric level equals one-half your ranks in Knowledge (religion). You also acquire the cleric's aura and spontaneous casting class features.

Nature Magic
You draw divine power from the natural world and the elements.
Prerequisite: Wis 13, Knowledge (nature) 3 ranks
Benefit: You can cast spells as if you were a druid. Your effective druid level equals one-half your ranks in Knowledge (nature). You also gain the druid's spontaneous casting class feature.

Sorcerer Bloodline
You have an unusual heritage that grants you special abilities.
Benefit: Select a sorcerer bloodline. That bloodline's class skill is added to your list of class skills.
Limitation: This feat must be chosen at character level 1st. You do not gain any other benefits from your bloodline unless you take the Sorcery feat.

Sorcery
Your unusual heritage grants you arcane power.
Prerequisite: Cha 13, bloodline class skill 3 ranks, Sorcerer Bloodline
Benefit: You can cast spells as if you were a sorcerer. Your effective sorcerer level equals one-half your ranks in your bloodline class skill. You also gain bloodline benefits (excluding bonus feats) as a sorcerer of your effective sorcerer level.

Wizardry
Your study of arcane magic has taught you to cast spells.
Prerequisite: Int 13, Knowledge (arcana) 3 ranks
Benefit: You can cast spells as if you were a wizard. Choose an arcane school, and gain its normal abilities and limitations. Your effective wizard level equals one-half your ranks in Knowledge (arcana).
Special: You gain a spellbook with starting spells as if you were a 1st-level wizard when you select this feat. You do not have the arcane bond class feature.

Magic Items
Creatures with a caster level above 10th are very rare in Cìhan (and those that exceed this caster level are limited to supernatural creatures). Consequently, Cìhan does not have the full spectrum of magic items that might be found on other worlds. When generating treasure hordes, the easiest thing to do is simply disallow any magic item with a caster level higher than 10th or that has prerequisites requiring a spell higher than 5th level.

Furthermore, as a rule of thumb, restrict a character's magic items to a value of no more than 900 gold pieces per character level. Please note that this guideline isn't intended to replace normal character wealth by level parameters. Thus, a 5th-level character in Cìhan would not be likely to have any single magic item worth more than 4,500 gold pieces.

Sample NPC: Gürsel Feridun of Cìhan
Human rogue 3
CR 2; XP 600
CN humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Perception +5

DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 25 (3d8+8)
Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +0
Defensive Abilities evasion, trap sense +1

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee masterwork rapier +6 (1d6/18-20), or
Ranged Touch electricity ray +5 (1d6 electricity)
Special Attacks electricity ray (30 ft., 4/day), sneak attack +2d6
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 1st, concentration +2):
1st (4/day) - burning hands (Ref 12), shield
0th - detect magic, prestidigitation, read magic, resistance
Bloodline Djinni

STATISTICS
Str 10, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 13
Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 15
Feats Dodge, Sorcerer Bloodline (B), Sorcery, Weapon Finesse (B)
Skills Acrobatics +9, Bluff +7, Climb +6, Disable Device +9, Escape Artist +9, Knowledge (planes) +7, Perception +5, Sleight of Hand +9, Stealth +9
SQ finesse rogue, trapfinding
Languages Auran, Common

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Bloodline Arcana: Whenever Gürsel casts a spell that deals energy damage, he can change the type of damage to electricity. This also changes the spell’s descriptors to match this energy type.

Electricity Ray (Sp): Gürsel can unleash an elemental ray as a standard action, targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. This ray deals 1d6 points of electricity damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels he possesses. Gürsel can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier.

EQUIPMENT
arcane scroll (blur[/b], CL 3rd), [i]oil of bless weapon, potion of cure light wounds, potion of mage armor (x2), masterwork rapier, thieves' tools, plus 30 gp

And once again, I'm late to the party..lol

This is becoming my calling card, always showing up right at the end of the festivities.

Don't fret! I'm Catholic, so I celebrate Christmas all the way through the first week of January. :)

Why doesn't the crystal cannon ball shatter coming out of the barrel?

It's a self-perpetuating cycle, though. Because character A is a level behind the rest of the party, he can't contribute as meaningfully. So he gets less XP....

One level difference does not make a character incapable of meaningful contributions. XP isn't based on degrees of contributional meaningfulness.

The so-called dark halflings don't dwell in the "underdark" but instead lurk in the spaces beneath human communities. Dark halflings conform to normal halflings in most respects. The notable differences are as follows:

* Dark halflings have darkvision 60 feet.

* Dark halflings gain a +2 racial bonus on Disguise skill checks to pose as a human child, and ignore the check penalties for disguising themselves as a different race and age category while doing so.

...I have seen no GMs willing to finish the full attack and kill the character.

It's not about whether I'm willing to do it. It's about whether the bad guy is willing to, and that is going to vary a great deal based on situation, the specific bad guy, et cetera. As a GM, I've certainly had bad guys engage in some serious playing-for-keeps behavior, to include dropping an ice storm centered on a KOd PC and retreating with a grappled PC so that the PC could be disemboweled with greater ease.

Let's take an example from an embraced source, Making Craft Work which allows full plate to be made in 1 week's time. If you allowed 1 week instead of 9 months, you could have 38 sets versus 1 set. Does that seem reasonable?

Define "reasonable". From Making Craft Work about full plate: "Yes, this is unrealistic. No one finishes a suit of full plate in seven days. The goal of this system, however, isn't realism, but usability."

I mean really...how do you make crafting enjoyable? If you can answer that question you will be able to sell a book.

Well, not a book, but certainly an 8-page PDF.

It's just payback because Paizo released an adventure that featured an evil wizard who lived near the beach. Paizo had it coming.

Invisibility is broken by an attack. Sleight of Hand is not an attack. Therefore, Sleight of Hand does not break invisibility.

Spes Magna Games is beginning a "Dodeca" series of 3rd party material that is intended to restore the d12 to regular circulation. I think so far they only have "Dodeca Encounters."

Thanks for mentioning the free Dodeca Encounters. The beginning of the school year really threw my writing schedule for a loop. I'm almost done with both Dodeca Weather (for randomly determining weather) and Dodeca Decor (for randomly determined dungeon fluff and crunch elements). I hope to have both out by mid-September.

:)

Anguish's suggestion above is good. Also, how does this assassin find them? How does this assassin know which room the alchemist is in? The answers to these questions may also prompt ideas for ways the PCs can become aware they are being hunted. It could be as simple as the innkeeper saying, "Hey, Alchemist. An old friend of yours was looking for you today. Told him what room your in. Hope you don't mind."

Nice thread, TOZ. Reminds me of my 1E days with my dwarf fighter/thief. If the party needed a heavy front-line fighter, he ditched the leather armor in favor of platemail. Took a pounding on a lot of thief skills, but he could tank with the best of them. :)

...an unoptimized monk has a decent AC when fighting defensively with Crane style (10 Base + 2 Wis + 2 Dex + 1 Dodge + 2 Monk + 4 Fighting Defensively = 19 AC + Items = 20+).

Fighting defensively adds +2 to AC, not +4. Total defense adds +4 to AC, but makes attacking -- including via AoO -- impossible.

Has anyone even looked at a non-hypothetical scenario?

*snip!*

Interesting analysis, underling, but obviously this feat chain forces the GM to challenge its user with nothing but single foes who make single melee attacks. :D

Opposite qualities cannot exist at the same time in the same space. Your visibility reacts with his invisibility, creating a rift in the time-space continuum, causing 20d6 points of untyped damage to everyone in a 10-foot radius.

Either that, or what BigNorseWolf said.

What book contains the stats for the Katana sword?

No single book can contain the stats for the katana! Kiai! :)

After quite a slump in writing output, I'm back in stride. I've nearly completed the first draft of Dodeca Weather, a PDF that harnesses d12 power to determine your campaign's weather.

I'll be looking for playtesters soon. If you're interested, shoot an email to mark at spesmagna dot com.

I guess as long as this sort of thing is applied to all the characters where applicable, it'd be okay.

Sorcerer: "Eek! Undead! Cleric, channel energy to harm them."

DM: "Uh oh. Do you have ranks in Knowledge (religion)? No? Hmm, minor XP penalty."

Later...

Druid: "I cast heat metal on the orc's greatsword."

DM: "Uh oh. Do you have martial weapon proficiency? No? Then you can't call a greatsword a greatsword. Minor XP penalty."

Alternatively, the DM could avoid being unnecessarily silly.

Yes. Unfortunately, removing unholiness from a magic weapon is not easy. The Recondite Order is rumored to have perfected the technique with a specially consecrated font full of holy water collected from the summits of seven sacred mountains on Celestia. Unfortunately, the Prince in Scarlet laid waste to the Order's citadel. Of course, the Prince couldn't actually enter the font's chamber, so instead he left his Dread Reavers to guard the site. Since the Dread Reavers are undead, they're likely still prowling the citadel's ruins. :)

64. Is extremely magnetic - NPC's will generally assume this character is the party leader.

65. Is extremely magnetic - small ferrous items of negligible weight stick to the character's skin.