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Our group has many members. We are about to start a new campaign and are not sure yet who will be running. We want input from all about the new campaign.

We generally create our own worlds, maps, etc.

So my question is...

What questions should a round table group consider to help potential GM's plan for the next campaign?

Here are some examples..

Do you want the campaign to be…

a. Low powered
b. Medium Powered
c. High Powered

Do you want magic/the force to be...

a. Common
b. Not Common
c. Rare

Do you want magic items to be…

a. Common (Magic Item Shops available)

b. Not Common

c. Rare

d. Non existent

Do you want our heroes to be…

a. reluctantly pulled into the story

b. Actively Seeking Adventure

c. Not heroes but merc’s, assassins, spies etc.

d. Not heroes but villains

_____________

Other options are appreciated!

Has anyone here ever toyed with or worked on a classless version of Pathfinder. One in which you do not label yourself, but simply pick level appropriate "abilities" as you gain levels.

______

I only ask because I started one, and it is difficult. I have started to try and rank abilities 1 - 5 in usefulness so that I can adjust the cost. For instance, 9th level wizard spellcasting is a 5, so I separate it into 5 "Feats" and you can choose to purchase 1, or, 2,3,4,5.

Writing out all the options has grown tedious and I was finding that I was needing to make-up some more super powered "feats" for the martial type of concept.

The benefit here is that you can build what you want, the negative, some serious min-max issues.

I also include "feats" to increase HP, Base Attack, saves, and skills per level.

____

Alternatively if I could make a list of class abilities and their value 1 - 3 or 1 - 5, you could simply use this list to pick a class, but then trade out appropriate abilities as you see fit. So if consensus stated that 9th level divine casting is exactly equal to 9th level arcane casting, then you could play a cleric to the god of magic and trade spell lists.

___

So what systems already do this? Has anyone pathfinderized anything like this?

Hi everyone!

I have been reading through all the Simulacrum threads and I have had a lot of questions answered.

I still have questions about items.

When a character makes a Simulacrum I assume the Simulacrum is made with mundane items, if at all.

Nothing should stop you from giving a Simulacrum some magic gear right?

What about those outsiders that list magic weapons in their stat block?

My assumption is that they get a mundane version.

I was hoping to hear a few others thoughts.

Thank you everyone! *waves*

When someone w/ antimagic comes close to a gem holding a trapped soul is it released?

What about a jar holding a one inch tall person who was the subject of a binding spell?

I assume I know that it suppresses Baleful Polymorph. For this and the other two, do things go back to normal when they leave? Thus the soul goes back into the gem/ the guy turns back into a frog/ the other guy gets sucked back into the bottle?

Thanks in advance!

Ciao

It seems that by RAW the spells do not,
even though the dragon spells do, the
plant spells do etc.

What am I missing?

So in this style anyone can cast spells! OVERPOWERED you yell. I get it, but listen, I started this trying to help bring some non-casters in line with casters and I think it would simply be fun.

Here are the rules and rule changes.
This would represent how magic originally started. Then through thousands of years smart people developed a series of languages and movements that could take these and make them much more practical.

#1 Rituals take 10 minutes per level of spell to prepare. Once prepared the spell is "hung" as would be the case for a wizard after preparing his/her spells.

#2 This time can be divided by the number of people who successfully involve themselves in the ritual.

#3 To successfully involve yourself you must succeed on a spell-craft check = 10 + Spell Level. You also must know the ritual by heart OR have a book detailing your role in front of you throughout the ritual. Meaning six people doing a ritual to prepare mass fly would need to ALL have a ritual book in front of them or some of them would need to have learned it by heart.

#4 You may only learn rituals whose spell level are 1/2 your own character level. You may only ever know 2 rituals per rank in Spell-craft. To learn a ritual you must succeed at spell-craft check equal to 15+Spell Level and can only make one attempt per spell per new rank.

#5 One person is thew leader of the ritual. If that person has the ritual on their spell list, then the ritual time is divided in half. The spell that is hung, regardless who who is the recipient, is done so with the leaders stats in mind. Caster level is equal to the leaders caster level + 1/2 caster level per level in a non-casting class. The leader must make a concentration check equal to 10 + spell level to succeed.

#5 One person is the recipient of a ritual. The spell is "hung" in their mind. You may only receive 1 ritual spell level per character level per day.

#6 If the leader of a ritual has a feat that can modify the spell, including eschew materials, then they may modify the ritual as such, but all level increases per metamagic feat are still intact.

New Feats

Ritual leader

+3 to concentration checks during ritual checks. This increases to +6 when you reach 10th character level.

Strong Ritual

+2 to caster level for rituals that you lead. This may not increase beyond your character level. This may be taken more than once, its effects stack.

_______

What then? Please destroy this or improve upon it.

Add +3 to the caster l

Hi. I have for years wanted to run a campaign where the characters are asked to set up a colony on a new continent.

It would involve first the logistics of getting items and crew and a ship readied. Then landing and clearing out a safe area in this new uncharted dangerous land. Maybe meet some locals and at the same time find a good place to start building a small settlement.

They could spent time adventuring or trying to find new resources, mining etc. It would be pretty open ended and mostly character driven. Some dangers would always come up and they would be force to proactively handle them or re-actively defend the small settlement etc...

Then I heard a little bit (not much so don't spoil it) about Kingmaker.

Should I not even bother doing the work and just run Kingmaker? Is it better than anything most of us average to mildly above average GM's have to offer? Do I do a combo of both?

Please, if you have experienced Kingmaker, I could use your advice and maybe more info on Kingmaker without too many spoilers in case I get to play in it someday!

So I am having individual characters get attacked by a trio of Assassins.

The trios are most likely ninja heavy.

So if the character was 30 point buy (yeah) and is 13th level but has the equipment of 14th level, then what levels are these three assassins?

What class options make great assassin characters. I need 30 assassins, but copy and paste is awesome.

Any help is appreciated, I just don't understand the GM xp balance rules for challenges when it is a solo moment.

As a GM I was going to have a king invite the party to his domain etc.

I was thinking he would have an entire network doing things like clairvoy etc...

If he had 5 bodyguards with him in the throne room and whenever he roamed around,

what builds make the best bodyguards?

If a 5th level fighter gains weapon Training in an area not normally
granted to the Sohei monks then multiclasses into Sohei...

a. Does the new Sohei Weapon Training increase his former weapon training regularly or are they tracked seperately?

b. Can the Sohei use their Weapon Training rules to flurry with weapons from the weapon set gained as a fighter even though it is not on the Sohei list?

Any help is appreciated.

The group number is 10 and we have played together so long that we know each others strategies and generally we do very well.

That being said I moved away and now that I return occasionally to play with this group I can see that we have gotten in the bad habit (as GM's since we share the role) of allowing the challenges to be fairly linear.
GM: THERE IS THE PROBLEM so what do you do to solve it?

TEAM: Well we can just attack and win.

GM: Ok, do you want to do any prep work or research?

TEAM: Yeah we will prep, lets buff for two rounds before going in...

Anyway. I have been saddles with providing adventure ideas that will bring this group from 13th level to 15th level and I want then to be on the seats of their pants.

I can challenge them in combat. Add more baddies, archers, some enemy monks.

I need to challenge them from a narrative perspective without turning them off to the game. Do I make them make tough choices? What Type?

What do other GM's do to keep experienced players on their toes?

So we have 10 characters.

2 of us are going to NPC our guys to run an adventure that needs to last about 16 hours. (2 - 8 hour sessions)

We usually find, due to humor, that if we plan on 4 hours, we get 8 hours.

The overall campaign is a loose retrieval campaign where our characters are having to gather items for reasons yet unknown.

We need to gather two items in these two sessions.

We are ok with splitting the group since there are two DM's. We can keep them together some, I could DM for the other DM and some others while those sitting out play board games etc. Or The other DM and myself could each take 4 guys, put our own character with them and NPC them and do a lot of time with smaller groups.

Lengthy... I know....

So here is finally the question...

What adventure ideas could I do to get the best use of time and still have something that is extremely enjoyable and perhaps a little different?

Anyone have some examples of a two shot from the past that worked really well?

____

Characters Include

13th Elven Paladin
13th Air Wizard
13th Summoner
13th Bard (Dervish Dancer)
13th Bard (Detective)
13th Oracle of Battle
13th Rogue
13th Barbarian
2nd Rogue/ 6th Wizard/ 5th Spellwarp Sniper (3.5 edition)
13th Magus (Bladebound)

I play the Detective and the other DM plays the rogue so unfortunately a lot of the skills for these two sessions are in the hands of NPC's for all intents and purposes.

Any help is appreciated.

I feel like I am doing something terribly wrong. Is this always the feeling when trying to deal with words of power.

Dimensional Jump is 5th level. Is mimics teleport.

It can only be used with the selected target word.

Selected target word allows for one person, unless you use a boost word.

The boost word on selected allows for more than one person but increases the level of effect words by 3. Thus if you want to have a basic teleport that can bring multiple person's in this system, then you must use a boost and the level of the spell becomes an 8.

Is this right?

So can a simulacrum of an Ogre Mage benefit from its regeneration?

Can a simulacrum of a creature with fast healing, benefit from that ability?

I wanted to make a list of spell combinations. I thought maybe we could do a poll. (I know) So the rules are:

1. Only 2 spell combos are allowed

2. Please copy and past the former list and edit/add our own vote.
If you have a new option as being the best most useful spell combo,
add it, if you agree with one of the other combo's already listed,
then add an X to the right of it.

3. For This Tread only arcane spells

Pretty easy. Keep the list clean, add your reasoning for your addition under the list and we will be set. If it gets to be a popular thread and we get to 100 posts, then we will perhaps close it and determine a top 10 cool/useful combos list. Which brings us to the fourth and final rule

Please do not post/vote more than 3 times.

I will begin with one just for show, I'll count it as a vote.

Web/Cloudkill

I am looking to RP. All my friends live 4 hours away and we get together once or twice a year for role playing purposes. I am interested in a game once a month or maybe once every two weeks. I am willing to run, or play.

p.s. I am a 30 year old dude.

I did not know where to put this. I was looking on the board for gamer connections during my lunch break. I can't find it immediately and so since I am in a hurry I would appreciate if someone could point me in the direction of where people try to organize a group. I am in Fort Wayne Indiana, and a game every other week or once a month would be great.

Peace.

So I have the APG. I am happy.

One weird complaint. I love to set my view in reader to "Two Up Continuous" so that any pictures in the book that go across the binding are still side by side in the reader.

Here is the problem, they aren't. Instead of the odd page numbered pages being on the right, they are on the left and vice versa. Thus each two page grouping is 1 page off how it appears in the printed version.

If these were possible to edit I could simply add a blank page at the beginning and the problem would be solved. Does anyone know a method for changing this in my options, I have yet been unable to do so.

EDIT: I fixed it. Got rid of the cover page. I am an idiot.

So using a quicken rod a wizard casts transmute rock to mud on the natural stone floor of a cave. The PC's are of course in the area. Then immediately after he casts transmute mud to rock. That spell says...

<<<< This spell permanently transforms normal mud or quicksand of any depth into soft stone (sandstone or a similar mineral).

Any creature in the mud is allowed a Reflex save to escape before the area is hardened to stone. >>>>

So if they fail the reflex save, are they just trapped, forever? Do the others who passed it have to dig them out? Does this come down to hardness rules? etc.

Seems pretty effective when it came up at a table, but is it too mean, or is there an easy solution for the PC's? There is no save for the creatures in the area with the first spell, there is for the second.

Hi. I looked everywhere for an avariel conversion into pathfinder and I am at a loss. A few sites say they are working on the various FR races, but they are unfinished with avariel. I have used the search function and found nothing on the first two pages of results, I am impatient!

So the thing about it is, is that in 3.5 the level adjustment was huge. Now it seems odd to keep it that high.

So for reference here is a half celestial at level 1 which is a CR +1

RACIAL ABILITIES
Natural Armor +1
Darkvision 60ft
Disease Immunity
+4 Save vs. Poison
Acid Resist 10
Cold Resist 10
Elec Resist 10
DR 5/magic
Spell resistance = 13
Fly speed 2 x Base Speed at Good Maneuverability (+4 Fly)
Smite Evil 1/Day
Cast Bless 1/Day
Cast Protection from Evil 3/Day
+4 bonus to any three abilities
+2 bonus to the other three abilities

Now assuming that you never gave them any increase, you kept the SR, the spells cast, the DR at exactly that. Then throughout the career it would have a CR of +1.

Now this seems like more than an avariel would have, and in the most recent edition its level adjustment was +3 I believe.

So…
Anyone want to help pin down a good conversion for the Avariel? No. oh… ok. Never mind then…

Seriously, lets do it.

So let me start the ball…

I think they need low light vision like a dragon. In the old 2nd edition they could see accurately for 1 mile, a little hard to roleplay so the dragon entry reads…

“They see four times as well as a human in dim light and twice as well in normal light.”

Maybe it could be reversed?

They see four times as well as a human in normal light and twice as well in dim light.

Thoughts? Additions? What do people think about ability scores?

So a half dragon's type becomes "Dragon".

Under Natural Attacks (p. 300 ish?) It states "Some creatures treat one or more of their attacks differently, such as dragons, which always receive 1-1/2 times their Strength bonus on damage rolls with their bite attack. These exceptions are noted in the creature's description."

Now that is an exception noted in the block of the dragon.

I assume this does not transfer over to "dragon" creatures as much as it applies to true dragons.

Thoughts?

I guess I have been having questions about what is and isn't metagaming as it seems to be a subjective topic and probably shouldn't be.

Background: I played with a group throughout college, had a blast. Moved away, didn't play for years. Now (6 years later) we all get together twice a year to game. There are NINE of us (too many, but hey were friends)Five of them still live in the same town and also game every week.

Problem: I guess the time away kind of pushed a reset button for me. It allowed me to come back into things with an outsiders perspective. I started looking at things that have been done, and wondering if they are legit or better yet, reasonable. Some things may work within rules, but still seem a little silly.

Examples.
Please tell me Meta or not for each of the below:

a. I watched one player move two other players miniatures into strategically better positions without their notice.

b. They will call out spells that their characters are about to cast. So Bob the Barbarian runs up, Sam the Sorcerer will say OOC Hey man I am about to hit that square with a fireball. Bob moves. I say, isn't that metagaming? Sam the sorcerer says, " Ok then in character I call out that I am about to fireball and so move." Well to me that means that 1. the move should count, and 2. both characters have an innate ability to visualize the field of battle, have perfect perception of measurement and be able to use said perception to determine the exact boundaries of said fireball and thus avoid it. (Does this happen to others) I understand a character can call FIREBALL. But I don't think we should be given dimensions of location beforehand, even if the character said, "Centered on Mr. Dark Cleric Guy" My character might have issue judging 30 feet from that location. Thoughts?

c. One guy, who really is good at tactics, ALMOST ALWAYS points out to others a better spot or location strategically for them to be in. This one just bugs me. If argued, he would say that the characters increased intelligence means we can pool our minds together and still not come up with what the character knows to do. A good argument, still, others don't want the advice anyway, and he practically controls 2 - 3 characters per combat through simple suggestion.

d. They use what they know about GM'ing style of each one of then to make decisions on risk/cost analysis all the time.

e. How about when someone says, "I will hit you w/ a fireball if you are there." and the rogue's player responds that he has ridiculous evasion and will be fine. Now it can be argued that the character has seen this before so its not metagame. Maybe this is just risk analysis. Thoughts.

Now these types of things and more bug three of us. However, 5 of them play together weekly and this is their norm. How does one handle breaking that?

(We share a GM'ing job. Each time we meet, we have a new GM. When I GM, the poop may hit the fan!!! muhahahahahha...cough cough...)