I'm thinking of giving cavalry trained war horses a trample attack as per the Universal Monster Rules in my campaign.
But I can't figure out what the damage should be. Are there examples of Large creatures with trample attacks to go off of?
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Hey there, I'm looking to move Pathfinder into the 1800 - 1830 era. I'm taking an equipment list from an old GURPS supplement and using late-era musket and muzzle-loading rifle gun stats from the D20 Modern: Past supplement. What I'm having trouble with is cavalry charges and cannons. I think both should be nasty. A cavalry charge is a devastating attack. Being trampled by a heavy horse is very often a death sentence. The sight of a line of charging cavalry causes ranks of hardened infantry to break and run. And in general, in historical combat, a warrior on his feet was rarely a match for a warrior on horseback. My thought is to allow a combat trained mount to make all of their hoof attacks on a trample attack instead of just the one. Jumping out of the way of the overrun is now not automatic, you have to make a reflex save (open to suggestion as to what the DC should be) to jump out of the way. And lastly a combat-trained mount may as a free action as part of a charge activate frightful presence against all creatures at least 1 category smaller than itself that it would attempt to overrun (so possibly more than one if the rider has Barreling Overrun (which I'm going to allow)). A couple of other thoughts: the size modifier chart is ridiculous. I'm thinking of replacing it with: Small: -4, Large +4 etc. It should not be possible for a less than mightily heroic halfling to wrestle and pin a horse. But I'm really lost on cannons. The siege engine rules seem to assume you're targeting an object or fortification and have nothing to say about a cannonball fired into a dense crowd.
This is not a moral question or discussion. Is there anything a normal non-combat trained light horse can do that a mount summoned with the mount spell cannot do? There are some ambiguities in the way the spell is worded, and my interpretation is that the spell simply summons a horse that acts exactly like a regular horse that is trained in serving as a mount but nothing else. There are no restrictions on its use beyond what a character could normally do with a mundane non-combat trained light horse and a handle animal or ride check. Or am I wrong? Can (for instance) another character not climb on the horse and use their Ride skill to ride it around?
Hello, I'm running a Human Arcane Bloodline Sorcerer, and I'll be hitting 4th level after our next session probably. I'm aiming for battlefield control, but eventually the dungeon we're running is probably going to have a bunch of high CR evil outsiders, so there's that to keep in mind. Currently my spell selection is:
so far Grease has been my undeniable clutch spell. I have scrolls, notably duplicates of Mage Armor, Summon Monster I, and Shield. and at 4th level I'll get a new 1st level spell, my first 2nd level spell, and I'll get to trade out a 1st level spell. I have Improved Initiative, Spell Focus: Conjuration, and Persistent Spell. I took the Magical Lineage trait for Grease so will have access to a CR 18 Persistent grease as a level 2 spell. I'm planning on taking Augmented Summoning, possibly at level 5. My tentative plan is to take Summon Monster II and Hydraulic Push and sub out Color Spray for Silent Image. Does that sound smart?
I have an idea for an unusual campaign with Lawful Evil Hobgoblin PCs. The Hobgoblins are lead by a Chancellor-General in a strict military society, something like Germany under Otto von Bismark. There are laws, and there's no slavery, but it's proto-fascist. Spies have said that the neighboring lawful-good human empire (something powerful, baroque, pious, decadent, and corrupt like France under the Bourbons) is readying for an attack. All military age hobgoblins are called to the front lines. The attack comes. The war goes poorly and the humans overrun a portion of the hobgoblin nation. Now a band of teenage hobgoblins just too young for military service are hiding outside of their hometown where a company of human soldiers has occupied, led by at least one paladin. So it's Red Dawn with Hobgoblins. The action is taking place in a war zone. A governing occupation of clerics and paladins has taken over the urban centers, but there's a scattered and disorganized resistance with fragile lines of communication and supply. I've got the big idea down, but I need ideas for specific adventures and encounters. I'm starting the party at 1st level. I see early adventures being gathering supplies, creating a network by helping out farmers and others, and picking off isolated squads of human troops. The humans will have celestial animals and trained monsters on their side. The normal military presence defending the roads and small villages from monsters is gone. The hills around town contain a few old forts and catacombs where some equipment was stockpiled, but are now overrun with squatters of one species or another. I want to alternate between short traditional dungeons and wilderness encounters, underground resistance social encounters, and tactical combat with soldiers. There's going to be a lot of enemies with PC levels. Wide open to ideas.
So we're about to start a Pathfinder conversion of Return To The Temple Of Elemental Evil. The whole of the Pathfinder SRD is open to us for character creation, minus guns, psionics, and non-core races. I want to play a human arcane bloodline sorcerer. So here's the setup: We're starting at 3rd level with 1500 GP, but the only magic items we can start with are 1st level scrolls and potions. Our stat generation method is to roll 4d6 and reroll 1s and 2s. Which is pretty beefy. And I just killed the numbers, 18, 17, 17, 16, 15, 12. That's way better than this roll method usually gets. I'm thinking Cha: 18+2, Con: 17, Dex: 17, Int: 16 (for skills), Wis: 15, Str: 12 We've got 2 traits, and we're playing with Hero Points, but no other special rules. Beyond the generous stats, the DM is a hard-ass. Encumbrance is in effect and monsters are out to kill. I don't want spoilers on the dungeon, but I hear it's a tough one. If all the extra abilities Pathfinder doles out make things too easy, I know he'll up the challenge level of the monsters. The dungeon runs to level 15, but I'd be surprised if we get that far. Our last Pathfinder game ran for 6 months and we got from level 3 to 8. We have a 3-4 hour session and we drink beer and b$+*%~~&, so we only get so far. My concept is a sorcerer that relies almost exclusively on save-or-disable and buff spells. I'm going Human / Arcane bloodline My min/maxing strategy is to take the absolutely insane Magical Lineage trait, which allows a spell to be cast with a metamagic feat at a spellslot 1 less than normal 4 times with the Extra Triats feat. Once each for a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level save or disable spell, and then use the Persistent Spell feat to cast the spell at just 1 level above normal (forcing a reroll of a passed save and also adding 1 to the DC thanks to the arcane bloodline 3rd level ability). Combine that with Spell Focus and a 20 casting stat and knowing what monsters have what good saves, and I should be having success with disabling most of the time. My follow-up min/maxing strategy is to eventually take Improved Familiar for something with hands and language (maybe an Imp), learn the Use Magic Device skill, and have my familiar use wands and scrolls. So my traits / feat progression looks something like:
At third level, with my extra Human spells known I will know
I'm thinking my first 3 spells will be Ear Piercing Scream (fortitude save and a little damage)
and probably Magic Weapon for my 4th level Human favored class spell. Then maybe Mage Armor and one of the debuff rays. with Grease as my Magical Lineage spell for 1st level. Because Grease is the best. I haven't decided where I'm going with my spell list beyond that. I haven't decided what my magical Lineage spell for level 2 should be (though I know it will be either a fortitude save or will save) and I haven't decided what my first Spell Focus should be (though I'm leaning Conjuration because conjuration has a lot of weird save spells and there's Augmented Summoning as a possibility later on). As far as items go I know I'm going to want to start with about 10 scrolls of Mage Armor, a few potions of Cure Light and some basic dungeon supplies (50' of rope pre-knotted, a backpack, etc.) I've got 5 skill ranks per level I'm thinking on focusing on
Anyway, any suggestions, especially to the spell list would be appreciated. I have no interest in being a blaster, but I might pick up Fireball, because, eh, you gotta have Fireball, right? |