Wystan Dragonhand's page

This may sound wierd but try listening to your local AM radio stations. Some of them, like the one we have here, run legal advice shows at some point during the week. You might be able to get some help that way.

Thanks. That's alot of AM stations to go through, but I suppose it can't hurt. I'll try it.

Wystan Dragonhand wrote:

My current frustration with this is trying to get any response at all from Wizards. I'm trying to figure out if I can recreate a number of the cleric Domains found in their accessory books to follow Pathfinder rules. I've sent 3 certified letters to their law group (which is where I was directed by their customer service) and they haven't even deemed me worthy of a response. I want to publish these new Domains but I refuse to do it without making sure that I can. I'm not willing to put my personal finances and such on the line for that (I'm obviously a very small publisher.. :) ) I just wish I could get some sort of response of direction from them. If anyone has had any success with this please tell me how you did it, as I am currently running into a thick stone wall.

As a part of a large corporation that is (justifiably) very protective of its IP, they will be extremely reluctant to provide you with legal advice regarding their IP. You should not be contacting their law department on this. You should speak, personally, to a lawyer. Not one of theirs. Just a lawyer familiar with IP law, and who can determine exactly what WotC can and cannot legally bar you from doing with their game system, and who can advise you on whether it's worth pursuing the path you want to take.

You're absolutely right, and thanks for the tip. The problem is, I'm having trouble finding said lawyer (since I prefer to discuss such things face to face) and until my own publishing company begins to pay off, I am rather limited on funds. But that is a balance I will have to figure out. Again, thanks for the advice.

My current frustration with this is trying to get any response at all from Wizards. I'm trying to figure out if I can recreate a number of the cleric Domains found in their accessory books to follow Pathfinder rules. I've sent 3 certified letters to their law group (which is where I was directed by their customer service) and they haven't even deemed me worthy of a response. I want to publish these new Domains but I refuse to do it without making sure that I can. I'm not willing to put my personal finances and such on the line for that (I'm obviously a very small publisher.. :) ) I just wish I could get some sort of response of direction from them. If anyone has had any success with this please tell me how you did it, as I am currently running into a thick stone wall.

I definitely think that having alternate paths of progression would be an interesting option for monks (which are one of my favorite classes to play by the way as I am a martial artist myself). Feats do seem to address this to a certain extent but they don't come close to mirroring the prowess level of particular skills that a monk would have if he focused on a particular style.

For instance, if a human monk reached 6th level they are rather exceptional. The damage they can do with bare hands can punch through wood and weapons and they are rather resilient of mind and body. They, however, have a grand total of 4 feats. Now it is possible to arrange these feats around a general combat concept or ideal in order to reflect the discipline of a given school of martial thought, it simply doesn't seem to cut it when you compare it to a similarly skilled fighter (who can take many more feats and thus progress much further in the fighting style if feats alone are used).

I tend to substitute abilities rather frequently. For instance, one of my players is currently playing a monk in a frozen land. She spent most of her time on the tundra, not near mountains. As a result she learned to lighten her steps, to minimize the effects of deep snow, ice or snow crusts concealing long drops into nowhere. In terms of game mechanics we replaced her slow fall ability with one called light step. It has the same distance as slow fall and progresses similarly, but has a completely different effect. In fact, in that campaign I can't think of a single character that uses every aspect of a normal character class. You could do something similar by using substitution levels or alternate abilities that replace the abilities a standard monk receives as they grow in skill and rise in level. Just a thought.

I'm currently working on publishing a homebrew world using the Pathfinder ruleset. In all honesty, it matters more how much you and your players enjoy the world than how much it catches on. In my case I'm hoping to sell enough to break even, but at least I'll have the book in my hand to be able to say I did it.

If your players aren't that keen on your world, ask them why. Ask them what changes would make it more interesting to play in. It's possible that they may be bored with the setting but likely they will have a plethora of suggestions on sprucing it up. Who knows, with a slight modification based on their suggestions maybe the community at large will take as much an interest as you hope. If not, you can still say you created a whole world of adventures for those who want to open their eyes to the possibilities of it.

As I and others have said, if you enjoy working ont he world and playing in it, don't give it up. By all means mold it and change it if you think its necessary but I would encourage you not to abandon it all together. I know how much work goes into creating a world, and to me it is way too much effort to just throw it all away.

Overall summons are more utility spells than damage dealers. Most of the exampls people are giving are creative uses for what options you have. For the most part you're right, a bunch of skeletons for instance may not inflict much damage before they fall to dust. However, while the beastie is attacking them it isn't attacking you, allowing you to cast more spells unthreatened or a rogue to sneak around for a flanking sneak attack. One of my favorites is a celestial badger personally for a low-level combatant. They don't do much damage but they can rage, have an okay amount of hit points for a low-level creature and give flanking opportunities. I think everyone else already pretty much covered most of my other common uses for summoned creatures.