I was wondering if anyone could point me to a reputable second-hand RPG book market.
I was recently in the hospital with my son for a month, and had two shipments from Paizo that I can no longer afford. They were delivered while I was away. I have a hardcover Abomination Vaults for Pathfinder 2, and the third book of the Outlaws adventure path. Both are brand new; I haven't even opened the shipping packaging.
Since the items are not defective, I'm unable to return them, so I'm looking to pass them on to someone else.
So just running the Math on a lvl 1 Tower Shield Dwarven Monk.
The basic concept is that if you are engaged with a foe, and in Mountain Stance, you can:
1. Flurry For 2 Attacks
2. Raise the Tower Shield
3. Take Cover behind the Tower Shield
(Presumably the previous round, you can Move up, activate Mountain Stance and then Flurry)
For 4 AC, which RAW (I'm guessing specific Tower Shield rules trumps general cover rules here, but I'm not here to argue)
Quote:
This lasts until the shield is no longer
raised.
So that is a rather nice Lvl 1 achieveable AC of:
15 (Expert Unarmoured) + 4 (Mountain Stance: Status) + 4 (Tower Shield: Circumstance) = 23 which you can do every round and attack twice (1d8 +4 and Forceful).
I call it the Great Wall Monk.
prototype00
I really like this idea. So much so that I am building a human monk based on it. I'll be reskinning the tower shield as a 6 foot wooden ladder with several steel shields lashed to one side. Then it's ladder fighting time, Jackie Chan style. "Taking Cover" behind the shield by swinging it around and dodging acrobatically through it.
As creatures of elemental water, you'd imagine living waterfalls would be well-suited to underwater combat. However, their primary attacks are hindered when attacking in water.
Aquatic Combat (CRB 478) wrote:
You take a -2 circumstance penalty to melee slashing or bludgeoning attacks that pass through water.
Living Waterfall (B 152) wrote:
Melee [1A] wave +15 (reach 10 feet), Damage 2d8+7 bludgeoning plus Push or Pull 5 feet
As written, it seems clear that the elemental takes the penalty to attacks.
This seems wrong to me; in my game, water elementals can attack in water without penalty. How would you all rule this in your own games?
I've got a nostalgic view of hero points from my time playing Deadlands with my first game group almost two decades ago. For the games I run, I try to adapt fate chips from that system to the one I'm using. Here is the result of my efforts to bring Fate Shards to the Pathfinder Playtest.
At the start of every session, each player will draw three shards from the Fate Pouch, and the GM will draw one shard plus one shard per player. The GM always draws last. Any shards left over at the end of a session are saved and recorded on the player's sheets. These saved shards are drawn out before everyone's normal draws.
There are four types of shards: Minor, Moderate, Major, and Miraculous. The Fate Pouch starts with 24 Minor, 12 Moderate, and 6 Major shards in it. The Pouch does not start with any Miraculous shards, though those can be added during the game.
Miraculous shards are added whenever the group accomplishes some significant deed. Unlike other shards, they are also removed once used, so they can only be used once. The GM must exchange a Miraculous shard for a lesser shard of their choice from the Pouch when they draw one.
You can use a shard on your turn as a free action, or as a reaction when it's not your turn. When you use a shard, you cannot use another until the start of your next turn.
Shards can affect your actions, or the actions of enemies that would affect you. Describe what is happening to change the outcome (remembering your training, just blind luck, divine intervention, etc...), and apply the desired effect from the options available.
You can use an equal pair of shards to apply the fate effect to an ally instead of to yourself. Using a pair of shards in this way counts as using a shard, and you still cannot use another shard until the start of your next turn.
Any shard can always be used as if it were a lesser shard, including counting as an equal pair for applying the fate effect to an ally. A Miraculous shard that is used as a lesser shard is only discarded - it is not removed from the Pouch.
Some events are predestined and most shards of Fate cannot change them. Shards cannot force rerolls of natural 1's or natural 20's, and they cannot reduce damage from actions involving those rolls. Miraculous shards ignore this rule.
The effects of each type of shard are as follows:
Minor Fate Shard : (1) Use this shard to reroll one d20, or force an opponent to reroll one d20 against you. The second roll must be taken. (2) Use this shard to immediately take a Step action. You can use this as a reaction after any opponent's action has finished. (3) Use this shard to suffer only half damage from an effect.
Moderate Fate Shard : (1) Use this shard before any d20 roll to roll twice and take the better result. Can also be used against an opponent to make them roll twice and take the worse result. (2) Use this shard to immediately take a Step or Stride action. You can use this as a reaction to interrupt an opponent's action; if this move takes you outside the range of your opponent's action, it does not affect you. Alternatively, you can use this reaction if your opponent would move out of your range to follow them and complete your action. (3) Use this shard to take no damage from a single effect.
Major Fate Shard: (1) Use this shard after any d20 roll to roll again and take the better result. Can also be used against an opponent to make them roll again and take the worse result. (2) Use this shard to immediately take an extra action on your turn (increasing your total actions that turn from three to four). Alternatively, use this shard to take an additional reaction between turns. This can be a reaction you have available or the Step or Stride reaction from the Moderate Fate effect. (3) Use this shard to ward off death. When your character is dying or would die, use this shard to instead recover some HP (Level + Con Mod) and regain consciousness. However, using this effect discards all your other fate shards.
Miraculous Fate Shard : (1) Use this shard to increase your check result by one step (critical failure > failure > success > critical success), or to decrease an opponent's check result by one step. (2) Use this shard to immediately take an additional turn. This can be used as a reaction to interrupt an opponent's turn. (3) Use this shard to give a Major Fate effect to you and all your allies. Each ally chooses the effect to receive. They can spend these effects immediately or during their next turn.
** spoiler omitted **We'll have to figure out how they bypassed its SLAs (not to mention potentially out-bluffing it), and trapping it so that it couldn't fly/climb/swim away.
Dimension door + portable hole?
Silence + grappling?
A powerful Hold Monster?
Subdual sneak attack?
Kidnapping something that can fly and cast spells is a cut above what generic poachers are usually capable of, so I suspect that they probably had magical assistance or were high enough level to knock it out swiftly.
Eg: if he managed to sneak up on it, Uro could definitely manage to do 22 damage in a single hit.
I hadn't actually thought about the mechanics of the coatl - I was just looking for an appropriate creature to be questing for. Having it be a juvenile that doesn't have full power makes it more plausible to have been abducted for sure. Something for a local tribe to venerate, not an outsider who is worshipped as a god by the entire culture.
Kirth, my intention is for Ixotl to have been in Sasserine for some time, tracking down a queztlcoatl. He visited most of the exotic animal merchants in town, and finally tracked the animal to the Blue Nixie. With it being out of town he has taken to working on the dock, blending in with the locals while he waits for it to return. He is surprised to see someone who matches the description of another animal trainer onboard - one he has learned of but not yet spoken to. Jumping to the obvious conclusion, he confronts him, keen to ask some questions.
Edit: Rereading the thread I now realize the ship the party is on is not the Blue Nixie. I suppose he could still have tracked the sacred serpent to the Nixie and then follows that lead to Uro. Dockside ambush is still a go!
Fair enough. Still feeling out the vibe I want (and horse-archer isn't quite it).
Current vision is an aztec-inspired eagle warrior with a wood owl companion (who is a messenger from the land of the dead and carries away the souls of my enemies to their proper place). Though raised and trained at jungle warfare, has had to learn urban customs as his quarry are more frequently city dwellers than rival tribesmen.
I'm liking the sling even more than the atlatl in that role, and that is going to be his staggering/knockout/killing weapon.
I'd also like to nominate Ranged Threat as the bonus feat for the Atlatl, as it currently has 'feat' as a placeholder.
Would it be acceptable to swap the Lledrith Sidhe exotic proficiency from short bow to atlatl, as wood elves get martial proficiency in bows and slings and the sidhe get weapon specialization in bows and slings?
So the Concentration DC for firing from horseback is 15 or 20, depending on if doing so is categorized as violent or extremely violent motion. The DC for firing defensively is 10+Opponents BAB.
Skill focus would directly add to the ability to pass those checks. It is straightforward, but a bit dull, I agree.
Perhaps Mounted Combat should be changed to give some bonus to concentration checks as the feat as written only supports mounted melee. The feat currently provides +1 circumstance bonus to attack and damage rolls (+1 per 5 additional ranks in Handle animal) against adjacent opponents. The feat could easily add double that bonus to concentration checks for firing from horseback: so +2/+4/+6/+8.
A character could then take both the skirmish and mounted combat feat as the synergy between them allows for that horse-archer fighting style, or exotic shortbow proficiency could just grant those feats if you wanted that weapon to be intrinsically used that way. The other abilities granted by those feats are extremely situational for an archer, (ex: you could pounce with a bow, but why would you want to?), thus mitigating the granting of both feats.
Such characters would still need to invest ranks in concentration (and also Skill Focus), distinguishing exceptional horse-archers from mediocre ones.
Wood elf forest warden looking for sacred animal abducted by poachers. Tracked them to the Blue Nixie. Confronts the party when the ship returns to port. Not associated with the Vanderborens or the Jade Ravens, but has a common enemy.
So evidently sbcglobal doesn't play nicely with some platforms/email servers/whatever when it comes to attachments in forwards. Given a chance later in the week, I'll resend Sunday's email as a new email rather than a forward, and see if that helps.
You're right, Helio -- any of those not spelled out would need to be.
Severing Strike wrote:
A useless arm cannot be used to wield a weapon, hold an object, or carry a shield; a creature with only usable wing cannot fly; a quadruped with only one usable foreleg moves at half normal speed.
So some of those are spelled out. A biped with one leg can only hop -- I'd call it 5 ft. speed, for the sake of argument.
The thing is, I really want D&D/whatever to involve severed limbs. In 1e/2e there were any number of monsters (slicer beetle), traps (devil's mouth in the Tomb of Horrors comes to mind), and magic items (sword of sharpness) that could do that; in the 3e there aren't, and that makes me sad.
Regarding the scaling of severity:
If we consider a useless arm as similar to disarm, and a lost leg reducing your speed, these are reasonable BAB +6 effects (Maneuvering Strike or Slowing Strike), but they don't really scale well in severity except by means of duration.
So we make them permanent at BAB +11. The regenerate spell comes on line at 13th level, so the life span of "permanent" is actually pretty limited, in practice.
That leaves BAB +16; "dead" (head lopped off) is a pretty critical condition, albeit resurrection still means it's not necessarily permanent.
That sounds good. Speed reduction similar to moving while prone: 5' as a full round action, provokes AoO's.
OK, so this weekend, I divvied up all the various conditions into severity levels: minor, moderate, severe, and critical, corresponding roughly to what you could inflict with a [strike] feat at BAB +1, +6, +11, and +16, respectively.
Even conditions that don't fit neatly into chains got severities assigned to them, which allowed me to massively slash the word count for barbarians (what things you can resist in which levels of rage), prestige paladins (mercies), etc.
I've been looking at severing strike again, and it falls outside the normal inflict-condition guidelines.
Rendering an arm useless is similar to a disarm attempt, only with a different resist mechanic (fort save vs CMD). The duration ranges from 1 round to 10 rounds to permanant
Severing a leg or wing should apply some sort of movement penalty, but what? A bipedal creature with one useable leg has its speed reduced to half, to 5', or something else? A winged creature with one useable wing probably loses the ability to fly entirely.
Something I've noticed while building the boss monster for Friday: Since battle fatigue reduces most other defenses, why doesn't it lower SR as well (analogous to AC vs spells)? Offensively, it lowers caster-level checks to penetrate SR, so the converse should be true for balance.
That he does! I LOVE having him in the play-by-post, and hope when/if that ends he'll reciprocate.
Thanks for the compliments!
Prepping for my local game takes most of the free time I have for PRG stuff. I've considered running a PbP, but that will probably have to wait until I've got my degree (so a few years still) when I have more free time. Content to just kick ass and take names in the current PbP till then.
Not sure why Theo's so cheerful... Recently, I've turned his sorcerer to stone (he got better) and abducted their cleric to Abaddon (with the fighter's cohort, no less). Currently, their fighter is cursed and is about to turn into a graveknight, they are being hunted by assassins and vampires, and they're stuck trying to help someone (a malevolent hag) who'd already murdered half the party once. To top it off, none of that other stuff really matters, as they are all probably going to die facing down a Pit Fiend this coming Friday, so there's that. Anyways, kudos on your optimism!
Paladin is one of my favorite classes - the favorite, if fact. I have used the class to build a villain in my campaign (a Hellknight turned graveknight), and one of my players is using the class as well.
I particularly like the different synergies given depending on classes taken before Paladin. I would be sad to see it go.
While the static bonuses do start to make the d20 roll rather irrelevant around middle levels, I think that the variety of challenges and different rolls allow for a specialized party to rely on eachother more than ever.
A fighter can easily hit most, if not all, monsters at that level, doing significant damage to them with little retaliation, while the rogue has a much harder time hitting and avoiding getting hit.
The reverse is true for traps. The fighter will get scythed, stabbed, and smashed repeatedly while the rogue discoveres and disables the traps with ease.
In the context of single encounters or entire adventures, there are enough different types of rolls that need to be made that every character should have events that challenge them, that overwhelm them, and that are trivial to them.
Most systems I've played in have difficulty challenging amateurs in the same party as specialized professionals at the specialist's focus. Given that the audience for Kirthfinder are people who want to use a more complex, detailed system (vs. regular PF), some of the onus of building appropriate challenges falls to the referee.
In my campaign, I have characters with vastly different offesive, defensive, skill, and magical capabilities. The defensive warrior has AC effectively 40+, while other character's AC remains in high teens and low 20's. The arcanist is continuously greater invisible and flying, while the other warriors are a mounted, charging single-target killer, and a two-weapon mobile BlendTec. Given the diversity present, any single challenge or roll type cannot challenge all characters equally.
Without scrapping the d20 foundation entirely, and switching to a percentile based system, (as an aside, my preferred percentile system was devised by the DragonQuest system in the 80's, with higher skill increasing the range where you were more likely to critically succeed, in addition to increasing the likelyhood of overall success), or switching d20 rolls to 3d6, or making some other fundamental modification to challenge resolution, that the d20 system offers familiarity and ease of outside source integratability that would be lost with such a change.
Acknowledging that the d20 system does have regions where it mathematically begins to fail, I still would use it as a skeleton, as a basic framework for building upon, because the experience with that system as a player and as a GM allows me to devote the limited time I have to gaming in playing a system I am adept at.
The meta-aspect of the rules is worth considering when contemplating such a modification: 1)how broken is the current system when used at various play levels? 2)how complicated is the solution, and is it easy to implement? 3)is the solution effective, in terms of how much work it saves the referee?
If I have a tenuously-tethered bridge, and I want to set the Acrobatics DC to cross, with failure of 5 or more resulting in a fall, I can make some basic assumptions based on the party makup, to help me set the level of challenge I want. I look at the average members of the party (who are un-encumbered, and without significant dexterity or acrobatics skill) and assign a difficulty that results in a better-than-half success rate, say DC 15. I know immediately that the rogue and arcanist (who flies) will find the bridge a trivial challenge. The clerics and barbarian will cross, with some trouble. The fighters will find the bridge terrifying.
Using a table-lookup roll system as I envision based on your description, the average members of the party would see no major difference in their chances for success, the rogue would have a insignificant chance to fail, and the fighters would have an insignificant improvement to their chances to succeed.
If the finer gradiations only occur at the extreme ends of the charts, how comprehensive are those changes, and what real effects do they introduce in play? If the modified areas are the top and bottom 10%, maybe not much. If the modified areas are the top and bottom 25% or 30%, then the frequency of those hightened successes or failures would actually impact the game at the table.
I'd be interested in helping develop such a chart, but the real impact would need to be considerable in order to justify its implementation.
Been playing for two weeks now. Have played solo, with small groups, and with large ones.
The game feels dynamic and tense with groups of all sizes. Have had lots of successful missions, and a few failed ones too, so the difficulty level is tuned just fine.
Thanks for making such a carefully crafted, intricately detailed game!
If you want, you can use statistics for Varyag for your Wilding, or you can use Dorn, but exchange one racial ability for Beast Shape I 1/day.
The varyarg are cool, I'll use them, or if you only want one wilding, I'll use the Erenlander and let Grand Moff have it. Do they become wolves involuntarily at night in accordance with the wilding paragraph earlier, or has the generations since the pact bred that trait out? Also I couldn't find the stats for the bearded axe.
One aspect I was trying to work in was he was born without the ability to change or be magically healed. So he's crippled spiritually as well as physically. In a culture that values strength and brutality, he is a pariah.
He is deeply shamed of this (though he had no say in the way he was born, obviously), and wants more than anything to prove himself and be welcomed and accepted back into his clan. He originally set out to find a way to unleash the beat within, but the world is a harsh and unforgiving place and his ignorant quest has become a fight for survival. Outside the shelter and safety of his clan, he's had to resort to desperate measures just to get by; measures likely responsible for his current incarceration.
This is an excellent idea and I like it a lot. You can perhaps use a standard Dorn with Warg Heroic Path, which would simulate his efforts to become one with the beast.
To simulate Faolán's search for the beast within, he will indeed be tausing the Warg heroic path. I was planning to take weapon bond (claws) trait, and using claws primarily, but they are available through the Beast HP, not Warg. Would you consider him a lycanthrope for purposes of taking the feat Aspect of the Beast to get claws at level 1?
I was looking at the map, and was wondering if both Dorn and Erenlander stock were part of the stranded colony; if so, can I use a Northern Erenlander for the basis of the Wilding, instead of Dorn?
Oops, read this thread after discussion. Caspian, I sent you the bookmarked version I had. I'll be waiting for the PDF from Kirth, as it's probably more recent than what I sent.
If you want, you can use statistics for Varyag for your Wilding, or you can use Dorn, but exchange one racial ability for Beast Shape I 1/day.
The varyarg are cool, I'll use them, or if you only want one wilding, I'll use the Erenlander and let Grand Moff have it. Do they become wolves involuntarily at night in accordance with the wilding paragraph earlier, or has the generations since the pact bred that trait out? Also I couldn't find the stats for the bearded axe.
One aspect I was trying to work in was he was born without the ability to change or be magically healed. So he's crippled spiritually as well as physically. In a culture that values strength and brutality, he is a pariah.
He is deeply shamed of this (though he had no say in the way he was born, obviously), and wants more than anything to prove himself and be welcomed and accepted back into his clan. He originally set out to find a way to unleash the beat within, but the world is a harsh and unforgiving place and his ignorant quest has become a fight for survival. Outside the shelter and safety of his clan, he's had to resort to desperate measures just to get by; measures likely responsible for his current incarceration.
Ok, got a rough draft ready. It's far from complete, but highlights the concept sufficiently.
Faolán:
male human (Erenlander, Wilding) fighter 1[/b]
hgt: 5'0 wgt: 135 lbs
eyes: brown
skin: pale
age: 16
move: 30'
Concept:
Bestial warrior hungers for meaning in life beyond his people's feral existance.
Appearance:
Dressed simply in a well-fitting suit of orc-leathers and wolf-pelt leggings, Faolán's appearance goes beyond disheveled - it's uncivilized. The irises of his yellow eyes are massive, with no whites showing at the edges of his eyes, and matted lengths of dirty brown hair frame his lean, lanky face. His figure is gaunt and scarred; ribs, cheekbones, elbows, knuckles, and knees strain against his taut skin. His skin is stretched so tight in those places that the bones beneath are visible. A pair of small, hooked blades dangle from the sinewy rope he uses for a belt.
He figets constantly and paces ceaselessly when indoors, eyes darting and nostrils flared. When outside, he calms, though his demeanor becomes predatory, rather than relaxed.
Rough Backstory:
Born the runt of his litter to a family who already had too many mouths to feed, Faolán was never destined to be a warrior. His emaciated form lacked the fat pups need to survive the winter, and he was not expected to live. When he did not die, it was taken as a sign, and he was given to the shaman, to be raised and apprenticed.
Faolán learned many things at the twisted old man's hand, not the least of which was the miser's penchant for medical experimentation. Faolán endured many painful episodes as the shaman attempted to discover more effective remedies for the tribe. When the bitter old man deemed him grown enough, he added magical manipulation to his mundane meddling. The shaman was mightily surprised to discover that Faolán did not respond at all to such cures. The superficial cuts he administered refused to close to his healing charms, and this infuriated him.
He declared that Faolán had been born without a soul; the boy was exiled from the tribe and forced to make his own way in the world.
Incomplete Crunch:
HP: 14 (1d12[12]+1con+1fc)
AC: 21 (2 armor, 5 dex, 1 dodge, 3 insight)
BAB +1, CMB +0 [+6 w/ Cedeku], CMD 15
Str 8, Dex 20 [18+2], Con 12, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 10
Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +1
Traits:
Personality: Latent Wolfbrother
Body: Ambidexterous
Spirit: Superior Intellect, Weapon Bond (Cedeku, Dex)
Flaws: Healing Resistant (Fully Immune)
Well, for one - there is no barbarian. I've rolled barbarian into fighter. To emulate barbarian you need to take Berserker warior's way and then Rage talents.
Second question, they stack. You first apply racial bonus and then trait bonus.
Third, subraces gain all the basic abilities of the parent race, and similarly named abilities are added to those of the parent race. For instance, all elves gain Martial proficiency with bows; Erunsil keep that and gain fighting knives as well.
Four, yes I was. I started creating "talented classes" a bit before, though. In fact, my original inspiration was Skills & Powers from the times of AD&D. But I used a lot of Kirth's stuff, adapted for my games.
Now, having said all that, could you please wait a bit with your character? I'm starting to fear that we have too many elves in the party. Just give me a moment to make a list of players and character concepts, and then we'll see.
nightflier wrote:
Heliopolix, there is this piece of text in Midnight CS:
The Wildings
While the few brave souls that have been beyond the remnants of the Fortress Wall tell tales of the wildings, there is little real evidence they even exist. The stories claim these utterly savage people are more wild animal than human and that they can change into fearsome beasts at will. They are said to have no tongue but grunts and howls, and that they hunt in packs, surviving off orcs they kill with nothing but their teeth. In truth, the wildings were once of the Northman race from the village of Hommen, several hundred miles north of Bastion. In the widespread warring that closed the Second Age, the village was abandoned to the orcs by the garrisons defending the Fortress Wall. Desperate to survive, and faced with certain annihilation by Izrador’s armies, the villagers entered a pact with another dark power. An ancient spirit of the Marches, a demonic manifestation of all that is savage and wild in the beasts of the north, made a dire offer of salvation—and the villagers accepted. Each villager was blessed with the strength, speed, and instincts of the northern wolf, but each was also cursed with its form. Able to range the Marches at will, hunting and surviving as a people, the villagers were cursed to wear the form of the wolf every night from twilight to dawn. Now, safe from the orcs but damned to a bestial half-life, the descendants of the original villagers have become the wilding race—a lycanthropic people forever roaming the Vale, forever hunting the orcs they believe are responsible for their fate.
This became the basics for the Shadowland race called Varyags. Perhaps this would suit your concept.
Thanks for all the feedback.
I was inspired to the original concept by the Latent Wolfbrother talent. Snow elves seemed interesting, but I have no problem playing another race. I do want to be from the north, so it seems Dorn, Erenlander, and the Wilding you posted are all suitable to my concept.
