I think 5th ed does this pretty well. Certain monsters are considered "legendary" which gives them legendary actions and have lair actions. Usually 3 actions and can they can used at the end of someones turn. The actions generally cost between 1-3 "uses" and they recharge at the start of the creatures turn.
For dragons I think their legendary actions break down into, perception check, tail attack, and wing attack (2 action cost).
If I'm recalling the red dragon right its lair actions are summon magma, a tremor attack, and a gas attack of some sort. Those actions are done on initiative 20 and it can't do the same attack twice in a row.
I think either option could work for you, but if you think your players will complain about the extra turns the boss is getting the lair actions might work better. Then the fight has turned into party vs boss vs environment.
If you are absolutely set on having GMPCs then simple is best. With all the other work of running monsters and the story, building more complex classes will just bog you down more. You don't want the GM "turn" to be longer than all the other players.
Which to that case a fighter would be the way to go. With most bonuses being relatively static you can easily have their turn occur without taking much in the way of extra time. Especially for a player who is inexperienced to begin with.
Depending on your experience level I would still recommend sticking with less complex classes, but the more comfortable you are with rules and class features that you can quickly decide what you plan does potentially give you more leeway in class choice.
Of course a lot of the choice depends on what sort of game you are running. If there are going to be a large amount of social actions and the party will require a "face" it's best to lean away from those classes. After all you don't want to end up having the players watch you have a conversation with yourself.
There was an old 3.5 book that went into detail regarding this. Weapons of Legacy, I think it might have been called. It had some weird rules, feat and "quest" requirements. Like kill a CR 5 devil with no help to unlock the next portion of the weapon, while also reducing skill points or max hp.
Still the concept was interesting and I used it a few times.
Instead of the items "growing" based on use though, I created a rough progression path based on how my players said they were going to level their characters. For that particular campaign I also had players choose an element that their characters felt more in tune with during creation and used that as an additional spring board for how their weapons could adjust.
Even with that I still changed things as we went. For instance, initially a player planned on going longsword all the way, but after a string of lucky rolls and some entertaining roleplay he decide to keep using a morning star he had picked up during combat.
The important thing is to keep your players and their characters in mind when you are growing those weapons. What might seem cool to you, may not mesh with a character. Though that doesn't mean you need to tell your characters about their weapons. I took great delight and occasionally allowing some ability to activate without a player knowing it existed, it also gave them a greater interest in the weapon they had picked up so it wouldn't get tossed to the side as easily.
In terms of limiting items the first link My Self posted about scaling magic items will give you an idea on pricing and power level. There are several pre-made items that will give you a decent scale to compare to for creating your own weapons.
For one game the way I did it was that the animal companion was more a "spirit of nature" that could change.
The player could choose to "change" that companion every morning when doing spell preparation, but had limits on the number of different forms to choose from based on level. Something along the lines of 1 at 1st level, and then an additional "version" of the companion at every 5th level. Each one had its own separate "build" as some feats don't work for all creature types.
The player seemed to enjoy it, generally with my homebrew games there is a lot of travel to different environments so the starting animal doesn't necessarily work very well in other environs and provided different tactical options going through the game.
Moving in another direction, is Bolt Ace even worth going beyond level 5? Beyond maybe hitting level 11 to take signature deed. Once you hit 5 and grab your "chosen" crossbow you and grab imp. critical you'll probably be critting enough to keep your grit up anyways.
Though from that stand point, besides Hunter what are other classes that would be worthwhile multiclassing into? Warpriest maybe to up your crossbow damage further, though going that route you will get more bang for your buck using a hand or light crossbow.
There was precedent set with the synthesist summoner that a summoner could take the power attack feat even if he didn't have the base strength to use it because when the summoner was combined, his strength did meet the requirements.
To answer your question: Yes, he would only be able to use vital strike and greater bull rush with his greatsword.
Edit*
Here's a link to the thread. SKR's response was at the bottom.
I'm sure this question will come up even more with the release of the ACG in August. Warpriest shenanigans at higher levels that are doing 2d8 damage and then wondering where it goes from there once enlarged, and then adding impact or bashing enchants to weapons and shields.
The problem with the quadruped form is that without adding a random arm that has a hand you can't cast spells while combined. I recall seeing that debate in the "One Synthesist thread to rule them all" with a reply from SKR saying that. Additionally I think the campaign will be Skull & Shackles, and I'd like to have hands to help out on the boat even while "suited up!"
I'd like to try to get the maximum I can out of my above concept.
I did not note a race though, and I think that will come in to play. I'd like to try to stick with Undine race, since if I'm understanding correctly while merged you still keep all of your own racial bonuses. This would include the swim speed that Undine have, and I would probably swap out a racial ability for the amphibious quality noted in the ARG. I am willing to give if to meet my concept I need to play a Half-Elf for the additional EPs.
I have a rough concept of an Eidolon form in my head. Now it's a matter of putting it to paper. I should note that this is for a synthesist summoner, and that the DM is requiring a rough build and level break out to go over before allowing in game. Considering the largest issue that is often run into with Summoners is their Eidolon being created improperly, and I haven't made one before I turn to the boards for assistance! As I believe in working things out somewhat in advance, I have until Saturday to submit my rough build to the DM.
Concept::
Biped Form with 4 arms (claw or slam attacks), 1 bite attack, a tail stinger with at least 5ft reach (even better if the poison evolution could be added but not required), and wings for flight. I'd like to go Large size at some point and get the Frightful Presence evolution. Also working toward to max it's physical stats out.
Since the party's only other melee will be a rogue, who is more of a face/skill monkey and perhaps a Warpriest I'd like something that can dish out decent damage and still survive the inevitable retaliation.
General Questions::
1. Does the Imp. Damage evolution stack with improve natural attack?
2. What are thoughts on getting around DR?
3. Instead of spending the evolution points to make your natural attacks magic, is taking the feat Eldritch Claws a better route?
4. Only Bite has an evolution to add 1.5 strength, are all other primary natural attacks limited to just strength?
5. Slams vs Claws whats the difference when adding extra limbs? Is it the fact that you can rend with claws, in which case does that mean you could potentially rend more than once if you hit with 4 claw attacks?
Additional thoughts on useful feats for the Eidolon would be helpful as well.
My group didn't care for the floating stat on half-orcs. We use +2str, +2 wis, -2 cha. A few of the members mentioned that is what pathfinder beta used, but I'm uncertain about that part myself.
What I'd like to see is a "non-combat Bestiary". Thinking up puzzle encounters or diplomatic situations to put your players in is hard. harder than, say, cracking open the Bestiary, finding a CR-appropriate monster, and having it attack the PCs.
The NPC Codex was a good start, but what I'd really like is a Codex of environmental hazards, traps, freak natural disasters, couriers bearing bad news, chase scenes, intelligent magic weapons with complex agendas, magical diseases, skill-check challenges, haunts, cursed treasure, and whatever else you can think of-- all CR-rated and accompanied by a list of suggestions as to where and why a group of adventurers might encounter them.
If its a custom world, then its time to add a custom creature. Since you're looking for something low CR and cthulu style, I would take goblin stats and then just think of a describe a new creature. I'm making a guess here, but if you are planning to continue along with the old god plot hook, this also gives you a low-lvl mook that can be upgraded and changed as the story progresses. Just changing the stat block to more powerful creatures as the PCs level up.
Since this "old one" has been partially awake you could have a group of humans there as well. They might have found this old complex previously, but during their looting process succumbed to the "old ones" whispers. It might have been a large group that killed each other so only a couple are still alive. The could be twisted in that they have done ritual scarring to themselves or even begun to transform, having like gills or webbed hands/feet, or perhaps even a fin showing their transformation and decent into madness.
That's rather impressive, I want to play in one of your games heh.
But it is a good point, I think alot of people just have the BBEG as a singular point at the end, not someone/thing that you ever interact with before hand. Most pre-made adventures are set that way too.
Fleshgrinder wrote:
It's one of the reason I am adopting the Island Design Technique
It makes your plans looser and able to be shuffled around more.
I didn't even realize there was an official name for how I ran most of my games. I've been doing that for years.
I'm usually pretty good at interpreting what actions my PCs are going to do, and usually have multiple scenarios created in my mind for their actions, but usually they end up choosing the exact path I expected them to. Even when they don't there are plenty of "Islands" that can be situated to fit whatever mess they ended up making.
Rapid Reload applies to weapon types, not specific weapons like weapon focus does.
Prerequisite: Weapon Proficiency (crossbow type chosen) or Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearm).
Benefit: The time required for you to reload your chosen type of weapon is reduced to a free action (for a hand or light crossbow), a move action (for heavy crossbow or one-handed firearm), or a standard action (two-handed firearm). Reloading a crossbow or firearm still provokes attacks of opportunity. If you have selected this feat for a hand crossbow or light crossbow, you may fire that weapon as many times in a full-attack action as you could attack if you were using a bow.
Normal: A character without this feat needs a move action to reload a hand or light crossbow, a standard action to reload a one-handed firearm, or a full-round action to load a heavy crossbow or a two-handed firearm.
Special: You can gain Rapid Reload multiple times. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of crossbow or a new type of firearm.
I would take inspiration from Luven Lightfinger and Arora's Whole Realm Catalog for categories of items that lay outside the norm.
This! Aurora's book was by far one of the greatest supplementary books released during 2nd ed. Over the years the many different groups I've run with have always loved it.
2nd Ed Skills & Powers had a subset of Traits and Disadvantages in addition to the standard non-weapon proficiencies (think skills). They always made for a good time.
This would be relatively easy to implement if you put a little bit of time into it. Traits already exist, so all you really have to do is create some disadvantages. The minuses should be of a similar level to traits. Then when you have your players choose traits, have everyone also choose 1 or 2 disadvantages.
I think my favorite combo was the Thief that took 1 trait and 2 disadvantages. Nothing like being a kleptomaniac while being compulsively honest with a photographic memory. It certainly lead to some interesting RP.
I've pulled this one. Without tooting my own horn too much I consider myself pretty good about changing and thinking up new ideas on the fly. So I recalled an item the PCs had picked up but not identified yet, and changed it to a cursed item. By the time the next session rolled around I had the characters on the hunt for an artifact that would free them from its curse. Going through the process I had several "dreams" occur while they were traveling. Half the time they couldn't tell the differences between reality and the dream world.
The PCs loved it.
Recently I had a TPK in a city with the Undead Uprising disaster from the GMG. Rather than ending it there, I had all the PCs raised with alignments changed to Evil. The party is now working for the enemy now working toward furthering the destruction rather than stopping it.
A couple questions in regards to some of the revelations.
First does the Armor Mastery ability stack with the Final Revelation?
Armor Mastery (Ex):
You become more maneuverable while wearing armor. You can move at your normal speed in medium armor that is made of metal. This does not grant proficiency in armor. At 5th level, whenever you are wearing metal armor, you reduce the armor check penalty by 1 (to a minimum of 0) and increase the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed by your armor by 1. At 10th level, and again at 15th level, these bonuses increase by 1.
Final Revelation:
Upon reaching 20th level, you become a master of iron and steel. You gain the benefits of Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Focus, and Improved Critical with any one metal weapon that you are proficient with. Your armor is like a second skin to you—while wearing metal armor you are proficient with, the armor’s maximum Dexterity bonus increases by +5 and you take no armor check penalty. In addition, any metal you create with your magic (such as wall of iron) has its hardness increased by +10.
The next question would be if the Armor Master ability would stack with the fighters Armor Training which functions the same way (excluding the movement speed changes)?
I'll share a little story from when I was in college.
During my time there I met a girl who was interested in d&d. When we first started talking about it and I tried to convince her to join she declined and when questioned why she always said it never worked out for her. Eventually I convinced her to tell me why she wouldn't join and why things never worked out. She went into this story of how the group she played with in HS (who were also anime fans) always had monsters with tentacles attack, and she often suffered the most.. attacks from such creatures. After she finished I smirked at her and said "Don't worry, if tentacle monsters attack there won't be any discrimination, I treat all my players with an equal amount of evil."
After further convincing she joined our group and was a wonderful member for the next two years. She didn't fall into any of the "roles" the OP described, nor did our second female player who joined the next year.
Incidentally the second girl who joined was the girlfriend of one of the DMs. The closest thing I ever saw to any favoritism is she died quickly while the rest of us were tortured to death by an Ancient Red & a Death Slaad.
Also no tentacle monsters ever attacked beyond a Kraken who promptly ate the dwarf who accidentally summoned it, but that's a story for another time.
This may seem silly, but I'm having some trouble understanding some of the wording of Spell Turning.
Spoiler:
Spells and spell-like effects targeted on you are turned back upon the original caster. The abjuration turns only spells that have you as a target. Effect and area spells are not affected. Spell turning also fails to stop touch range spells.
From seven to ten (1d4+6) spell levels are affected by the turning. The exact number is rolled secretly.
When you are targeted by a spell of higher level than the amount of spell turning you have left, that spell is partially turned. Subtract the amount of spell turning left from the spell level of the incoming spell, then divide the result by the spell level of the incoming spell to see what fraction of the effect gets through. For damaging spells, you and the caster each take a fraction of the damage. For non-damaging spells, each of you has a proportional chance to be affected.
If you and a spell casting attacker are both warded by spell turning effects in operation, a resonating field is created.
I suppose the main question is I'm just not understanding the math behind spells that exceed your total spell levels.
Ex. You can turn 10 spell levels, a 30th level spell is cast on you. 30-10 = 20; 20/30 = .66. So you take 60% of the spell effect. What's 60% of a Dominate person or similar non-damaging spell?
For the second bold part, what is the proportional chance to be effected? Is that what the 60% is actually referring to? Meaning we both have a 60% chance to be effected?
Any assistance in further breaking down the spell during events that the spell targeting you is greater than the spell levels you have left would be appreciated it.
It seems crushing enemies with large objects or using them as pillows is common.
I had a druid that liked to change into a bird, fly over enemies, and then change into something large and heavy. Typically rhinos. The DM hated on me alot.
As others have mentioned don't forget the hoard items. A dragon in that age category is probably smart enough to realize its vulnerable to fire. No reason why it couldn't have a ring of fire resistance as part of its hoard that it keeps on itself.
First thing, don't screw over short races. I've played in adventures where if you didn't have a least a 30 ft. movement the entire mountain would cave in on you, no save. Worst. Trap. Ever.
Fortunately no one is short.
Some call me Tim wrote:
Read the description of the spell, Earthquake, and the section on Cave-Ins in the Rulebook.
I missed the cave-in section in the rulebook, I'll have to double check for it.
Some call me Tim wrote:
Here's what I would consider. First round, give the players a chance to react. Building shakes, dust and small pieces of plaster fall from ceiling.
Second round treat the area at the center of the temple as slide zone from the Cave-Ins section. Third round it becomes the bury zone. Have these zones expand outward at perhaps 40 ft. a round (depends on layout of temple). You could make more than just the two types if needed. Remember falling rock will start to make terrain difficult, shaking might require balance checks.
The round types are exactly what I was looking for. Since if they are too slow it would be boring, too fast and it would be game over. From that example the party would basically stay 1 round ahead of anything too terrible until they started failing checks.
Some call me Tim wrote:
You don't give a level for the party so you might have to adjust DC and damage based on the party. You will probably have to tweak it some as there are so many variables, but in the end if a character with a 20 ft move decides to run for the exit in the first round he should have a good chance to make it.
Should have mentioned that. The party is made up of a druid, rogue, cleric who are 5th, and a ranger whose 4th.
Some call me Tim wrote:
Another thought I just had would be to treat the whole seen as a chase (as detailed in the GMG). Each round the players have to choose between two routes of escape with various checks and DCs. That might even make for a fun series of scenes instead of a flat out foot race to the exit. The more I think about the better I like that.
Hmm chase scenes, I'll have to look into. If it something that can work out well it means I'd be able to expand the Temple to either be largely, or include the ruined town around. Starting with the crumbling temple leading to a giant sink hole forming around it extending to the town outskirts.
Thanks for the ideas, it helped give me some better focus.
I've worked on building a Indian Jones style temple that when the artifact is removed from a set room the whole thing begins collapsing. What I can't decide is how to actually run that part of the encounter.
I'm wondering if anyone else has done something along these lines that may be able to give me ideas on how they ran it or even ideas on things to add in during the escape.
This is why I find Perram's Spellbook really handy.
I've been using it as a player and it's great to have the full spell rules on hand right when needed. I even printed out spell decks for the rest of the spellcasters in the party.
Never seen that site before. I've seen other similar pages, but I like the set up on there with the different print options. Too bad it doesn't include the 3.5 spell compendium.
I guess I'm old fashioned. I do everything on paper. I have a 3-ring binder and put in lined sheets and graph paper to keep things organized. My prep is just writing down as things come to me, I usually always have paper/pencil nearby and then I just move my thoughts into the binder as they become more concrete.
For a large 1-20 campaign in my mind I have the overall story laid out. I have a beginning and and ending with a few important plot points in between. I still live it up to the players to make it that far, and will feed mini adventures off as I need for when they go the wrong way. In my binder have have a separator just for those times. Also useful for random 1-shots.
I also choose a general theme that my campaign revolves around and do my best to incorporate it through out the world. For instance the current one I'm running I've chosen "Madness". While they've only seen a small bit of it, it will slowly grow larger as they progress further. In the case of small instances they run across more of the crazed villager who was once just funny but turned violent or strange weather patterns (for the survivalist to notice). Slowly cultist will start appearing spouting doomsday dribble and so on. Along with that I generally create 1 adventure/dungeon that is fully tied to the theme. Currently working on an Alice in Wonderland type scenario this time.
I rely a lot on my memory and changing things on the fly. I only usually plan for things 2-4 sessions ahead based on what decisions my players are making. As we play I make notes in my "Notebook of Doom" as my players call it, and then transfer to the binder for archiving and easier reference. Then every time a major plot point happens I create a new subsection in my binder.
One thing I love to do to make the world more interesting for players is to bring their backgrounds into play, generally I'll have 1-2 "quests" for each player that will reward them with a unique item if they succeed. This serves as a nice change of pace from the normal adventure.
I'll apologize now for jumping from topic to topic with no random order, but hopefully it will help ya some.
Ah yes, one additional reason I stick with paper myself is electronic devices are forbidden at my table, and if I expect my players to abide by my rules then so should I.
- Clerics receive Heavy Armor Proficiency
- Clerics receive Turn Undead free
- Save or Suck spells actually do bad things. ie. Finger of Death is save or die.
- Haste is 4 AC, 4 reflex saves, and 1 extra partial action
- Leadership is not available
- Random 1 level dips are not allowed. (ex. going 1 barb just for rage as a fighter. But as a Sorcerer dipping lvl 1 fighter to qualify for E.K. is ok)
In that case wouldn't it also rule out using unarmed strikes if you have the feat Improved Unarmed Strike or have multiclassed into monk? I thought natural attacks were considered "weapons" for most purposes.
There's always the Kender Taunt. I don't have access to my Dragonlance Campaign book here, so I don't recall the specific rules for it. But I do recall something along the lines of forcing the target to attack you.
I have a player who is looking to be a Magus is the next campaign. One of the things I generally allow is the Spell Compendium, and he was asking about spells that could possibly be added as part of the Magus base spell list.
Just curious if other GMs have run into players asking to expend the limited spell list and what issues they did or did not run into doing so.
You gain intuitive insight into the workings of traps. You gain an insight bonus equal to 1/2 your caster level (maximum +10) on Perception checks made to find traps while the spell is in effect. You receive a check to notice traps within 10 feet of you, even if you are not actively searching for them. Note that find traps grants no ability to disable the traps that you may find.
Once a trap has been found there are any number of ways to bypass it depending on how creative PCs are. There's the standard "hello Mr. Barbarian" as described above, but depending on the trap other options may be available.
While I'm glad to see the XP costs going away from crafting, I still keep them for wish/miracle spells. As one poster mentioned its a matter of giving part of yourself to your deity as a cleric.
As for spells, my group runs using older rules. We like the save or die spells, it makes combat more exciting. Because we roll spells like that, we actually decided to keep the new resurrection differences.
While I understand the idea of not wanting to leave people out or make an unlucky roll cause a PK, it just doesn't have the same excitement.
I will shiver in fear for my rogue when someone mentions Dragon Mountain from 2nd ed. I wonder how many people who started in pf or 4e would quit before finishing it..
One of my more recent interesting characters is a Gnome Wizard/Archmage. Before that though he was in the modern world and was a pervy college professor who did research in physics, pharmaceuticals, and engineering. Transferring to the Forgotten Realms he does sculpting, golem making, and tries to apply modern rules of science to magic to "figure it out".
Hes currently well known at several establishments run by ladies of the night and provided sculptures to several of the higher class ones. In addition he's currently trying to repair his Greater Stone Golem Athena who took a bunch of acid damage last fight.
In Dragonlance campaign I have an afflicted kender who spent the last 8 years downtime waging war on Ogres for invading Kendermore. The DM and I got together a few times between sessions to determine what he did, went through several battles. The kender and a monk friend successfully destroyed a smaller goblin force of 2,000 troops, it was a good time.
In an Eberron campaign we had 2 years downtime and my Drow Druid spent the time traveling and learning the land including making various contacts throughout the main continent.
I'm a little confused by the spell progression and just want to clarify what I'm thinking is the correct interpretation.
It says that you progress as a paladin/ranger, but that you start at level 1 with specific spells. Does that mean you are basically taking the paladin/ranger spell progression lists (which start at 4th level) and starting it at 1st level, but still allowing progression beyond 4th level spells?
One thing you could recommend for the wizard/sorc of your party (if you have one) is a Staff. Instead of the normal enhancements a weapon would get, allow it to grow by giving it additional spells or even more charges.
I'm running a campaign where each character is getting a unique item that will grow as they do, something similar to what you are wanting. Instead of starting out with them I'm tying them into the campaign story. By the time they finish the first adventure set I have worked up they'll each have picked up their item.
One thing I was mulling over was items besides weapons or magical staff. For the fighter in the party who already has an ancestral weapon (using a first level feat), I'll be upgrading his armor instead. So there's that for your plate-wearing tank type.
For other body slot items, just add additional abilities. For example boots that give a Dex bonus that increases over time, gains that "Boots of Striding & Springing" ability, and eventually can be used to grant "Haste" for x rounds per day.
Yeah, they have it where when using Flurry of Blows, it's assumed you're using ALL your body parts to land whatever hit you can, knees, elbows, headbutts, fists, tail, etc.
I still use 3.5e's method, however. In 3.5e, you used your Flurry of Blows as a "primary" attack. You can still use an "off-hand" attack and get another Unarmed Strike in and take TWF penalties (and, of course, build off of it with ITWF and GTWF). Then, if you had natural attacks, you were allowed to use those as "secondary attacks" and take the usual penalties for attacking with secondary natural weapons. Using FoB used up ONE of your "hand" attacks, so if you had two claws or four claws, or only 4 tentacles, or whatever, one is used for the FoB.
It's all spelled out in Sage Advice FAQ on their website. Made stuff like Marilith Monks or Mind Flayer monks pretty lethal.
Which meant, yes, using a Marilith Monk 1 as an example, she'd use up one of her 6 arms to do a FoB at -2 penalty to all attacks. Having Multiweapon Fighting for free, she'd be able to use all her other arms for an extra attack, at no additional penalty (and get even further with Improved and Greater Multiweapon Attack feats). In addition, she can then take -5 penalty (or -2 with Multiattack feat) to throw in her tail attack.
Marilith Monk with all those feats, on a Full Attack, can get off 21 attacks.
I had a friend with a LN Druid/Monk that planned on wildshaping into animals and using FoB for Unarmed Strikes, followed by secondary attacks with bite or claws in animal form.
I'll have to look into that. Seems odd that with flurry you wouldn't get extra attacks if you have extra limbs since it states you're gaining two-weapon fighting with a BAB using your level. Was just hoping there were multi-weapon fighting monstrous feats in the bestiary or a way to figure out the attack bonuses of the additional attacks using the flurry with Pathfinder rules.
