die_kluge's page

If you are a player in my PbP - get out. I don't think any of them are on these boards, but you never know...

Brief summary. The party is on a flat boat traveling a river, and their boat captain uses a long pole to navigate. On this pole, has tied a human skull for decoration - a skull he found on a river bank years ago. He never found the rest of the body.

I was thinking it would be cool to drop some hints that maybe the party could cast Speak with Dead on the skull, and learn something interesting.

The party is 5th level.

Any ideas what the skull has to say?

(If you're a player in my CircvsMaximvs.com PbP - stay out!)

So, in my game, the local book dealer has a book - a strange book that he keeps close by, and he's become a recluse, and "odd". His sister, a paladin who is also the mayor of the town, gave up adventuring to take care of him. He doesn't cook, he doesn't clean - he just reads. His store is a mess, and he neglects anything that doesn't involve staying in his store, and reading.

The book in question, I'm reasoning, casts lesser geas on him every time he reads it. Basically, the book is a use-activated item that casts lesser gears 1/day on the target. The geas is to basically read the book, and since reading the book (which is written in Draconic) requires more than one day, the poor chap is always under the effects of the geas spell.

It's basically made the guy crazy, and a little paranoid.

I'm reasoning that the geas basically says "read the book, and do what it says." So, he's got the reading of the book down, but it's the doing what it says part that has him stymied.

I was thinking that the book could be some sort of ritual to summon a creature - it could be anything. But, since he's not a spellcaster (just a scholar who happens to read Draconic) he's managed to set up some sort of makeshift summoning circle (perhaps one he keeps hidden from his sister somehow) but casting the proper spells is an aspect of the ritual he is unable to complete. Since the geas can't penalize him for not doing things he is unable to do, he's floundered on this aspect of the geas, and repeats the other aspects of it (perhaps cleansing objects necessary for the ritual, etc.) over and over again. Apparently, he's been doing this for years now.

Any other ideas on what this book might do, or what the actions in the book might tell him to do?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120300111415

These are no longer in print. So, now's your chance!

I've seen others express similar concerns.

Can't we just drop the Favored Class mechanic?

Reasons:
It removes diversity from the game. Players will feel like they are at a mechanical disadvantage if they play something other than a "favored class". Elves with their bonuses to int and dex would make great rogues, but I'd get penalized for doing that.

As a mechanic, it's unnecessary.

Adds absolutely nothing to the game other than to enforce stereotypes and to "put a box" around people's creativity.

By removing it, you could put in more art. :)

Weird. Posted this, but it's not showing up. anyway...

Enjoy this free PDF.
http://www.mediafire.com/?hmj2zmwundk

It's a condensed 10 page version of the 96-page Artificer's Handbook. It's 100% open game content.

I see lots of folks on here complaining about the existing magic item creation system in core. It's basically why we wrote that book - because I hate it, too.

I welcome any feedback.

Free PDF.

http://www.mediafire.com/?hmj2zmwundk
100% OGC.

I condensed 3 chapters of Mystic Eye Games' Artificer's Handbook (I was the lead author) into a 10 page PDF.

I welcome any feedback.

In a completely unrelated discussion on another forum, we were discussing the problems with high level D&D, specifically as they related to PbP gaming. One of the users (Joshua Randall), posted some rules he used in his RL game that help curb the excessive delays caused by high level play.

I wanted to share some of these here to help give the developers ideas about some of the areas that really bog down high level play. I think Pathfinder is working towards fixing many of these, but I wanted to share the list just the same.

________________________________________________________________________

I've never run a PbP, but I have run two high-ish level D&D games. One of them was a game with 7 players, which caused me to introduce some rules intended to reduce complexity. I ended up liking those rules so much, they are now my default 3.5 house rules.

Reading these over, they sound rather draconion, but in practice everyone was fine with these rules.

* No player may have an animal companion, mount, cohort (via Leadership), nor any other "pet" type of creature/person. Each player controls one and only one PC. (This rule alone drastically reduced complexity and sped up combat.)

* For classes that normally rely on those things, there are plenty of extant variants. (Lots in PH2 -- companion-less Ranger, mount-less Paladin, etc.)

* You may not change shape, polymorph, alter self, etc. Period. (I rather like shapechanging, but it's just a horrible mess in 3.5, and rather than try to patch it, I just excised it.)

* Druids may use the PH2 shapeshift variant (grants Str/Dex/movement bonuses) or may swap out wildshape for another ability.

* If you play a summoner, you may summon one and only one creature off each level's summoning list. You must have the creature pre-statted, or your summon spell/ability fizzles with no effect.

* If playing a spellcaster, you are strongly, strongly encouraged to play a spontaneous spellcaster. If you play a prepared caster, you should prepare your spells off-screen, NOT AT THE TABLE. I suggest you maintain several lists (In Town, In the Dungeon, Info Gathering, Recon, etc.).

* Exception: if there's a specific named villain the party is about to face, and you want to craft your prepared spells specifically for that villain, I will allow this as part of the party's general prep time.

I think some of the 1st level spells could be cantrips.

endure elements (maybe reduce the duration) - from a mechanical POV, this spell does *nothing*

hold portal - who memorizes this?

floating disk - maybe reduce the duration and size. No one ever memorizes this spell.

ventriloquism - too fun to not use occasionally; too weak to waste a 1st level spell slot on.

magic aura - reduce the duration. Fun for the whole family.

Thoughts?

Folks in my regular (monthly) D&D group and folks in my local Meetup group have both mentioned the new Pathfinder RPG.

These are people I consider to be _EXTREMELY_ mainstream D&D players. You know the kind - never heard of any 3rd party product, don't own many books, and usually only buy WoTC material.

That's got to be good news for Paizo. I'm wondering if the "over 10,000" figure is low now. I have to believe the second week of downloads had to be as strong as the first. The word definitely seems to be getting out there.

You know, I'm loving the idea that Paizo is having an open forum to discuss this game, but I can't get over my belief that Jason and the other developers can't help but be completely and totally overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of input from the fans.

It's clear to me that people love this game dearly - that is evident in the many posts I read on here.

But I can't help but wonder if the chaos will end up being too overwhelming?

In Congress (or a college fraternity for that matter) when they have specific issues they need tackled, they create committees. These committees focus on a specific topic - and beat it to death. In the end, when they are done reviewing all the options and debating the pros and cons, they give their recommendation to the leader (Jason, for example) who can make the final decision to use that idea (or not).

It seems like it would be a MUCH more efficient method than what we currently have.

In reading this, I can't help but wonder why Pathfinder isn't riddled with great 3rd party open game content?

I mean, I see a thread where Jason wants input on good combat feats, and I'm thinking "I don't know... why don't you start with the 100 feats in the Netbook of Feats. They're all OGC."

Is there any particular reason why there is no outside content in the Section 15?

I was thinking about this from the Turn Undead thread, and while I realize Fear isn't really covered in Alpha 1, I wanted to see what others thoughts on this were.

IMC, I have houseruled the various Fear effects to just increase a higher and higher amount of penalties. Because, let's face it - nothing sucks worse than failing a fear spell and then spending the entire rest of the game night running through the jungle/dungeon/lavaflow because you rolled a 13 when you needed a 14.

My wife won't play with me anymore because of this rule. It wasn't even my fault! But she's made up her mind that I'm a bad GM because I made someone run through the woods when they failed their Will Save against a Pit Fiend's fear aura. :/

In short, Fear sucks. I'd much prefer to see something much more *fun*, to use a 4e term. :)

One house rule that I currently have in my 3.5 game is the option to allow all spellcasters to choose a 0th level spell that can be cast at-will at 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter.

Paizo's intention to allow this by default is a bold move, and one that I like.

But I also allow clerics to pick CMW as one of their at-will choices.

Solution? I modified CMW to only cure someone up to *half* their total hit points. So, if a PC is at 15/40 hit points, CMW can cure them to 20 hp, but not to 21.

The intention was to let them continue to foray into the dungeon, but not at full strength. It also makes the cleric really think about where and when he wants to use his other cure spells - "waste" one one in the middle of battle when someone gets close to zero, or hope they pull through so that it can be used to take them to 51% and beyond?

Thoughts?

I have to say I like the implementation that Paizo has done with Favored Class (giving it a bonus instead of a penalty) - but I have to ask - can we just drop the concept altogether?

It's really, really not necessary.

And I love the writeup in the Halfling section "It's their sense of community that sets them apart" ... favored class: rogue. Nice.

There is a new Yahoo! group for gamers in Richmond. You can join here if you are interested:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/RichmondGamer/join