Thril Kreen Barbarian

james knowles's page

RPG Superstar 6 Season Star Voter, 7 Season Star Voter, 9 Season Star Voter. Organized Play Member. 330 posts (464 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character. 1 alias.


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Vow of Poverty: 3.5 Vow of Poverty was so ridiculously broken. It was like gaining the automatic bonus progression on crack, but only for your character and not everyone else, for the cost of a single feat.

The current VoP sucks, 'cuz like what almost always happens when they bring out the nerf hammer, they go too far in the opposite direction instead of finding a reasonable balance.

As for the "some value" of your 1 item. I tend to let the PC go nuts and not put any limits on it (other than level appropriate of course). I mean, you're gonna be so far behind everyone else item-wise, might as well have something cool to show for it. Legacy items that level up and gain powers over time are excellent to use in situations like this.

Vow of Silence: It states that the monk is allowed to use gestures and motions to communicate, which to me implies that all the skills you listed should work fine...although with perhaps a +5 or +10 DC modifier depending on the situation.

Vow of Truth: as written, the vow only applies to the monk. Your example would be a role-playing option depending on his alignment and personal beliefs.

Vow of Peace: as written, it only allows for the 2 listed options. However, I would allow any non-violent option (such as those you suggested) as well.


Bard (buff party)/Witch (de-buff enemies) is a favorite combo of mine.

Sounds like your party is light on the skill monkey/sneaky bastard side, so perhaps Rogue (unchained of course) would be a wise choice [not all support happens in combat]. The more traps you avoid, the better, and Rappan Athuk is loaded with traps.

If 3pp is allowed, go Time Thief, for roguish support...and cool time manipulating abilities.


I don't want to arbitrarily impose anything, hence the question seeking advice from other GM's. And it's a simple question, IMO. How many do you consider to be "reasonable"?
So far, the majority answer seems to be "however many the PC needs to do whatever he wants on a round-by-round, or action-by-action basis, so don't worry about it", but very few actual numbers.

Perhaps I'll just invent a number, like 4+ number of attacks per round or something.
Anyways, thanks to those who tried to help.


How about this solution:
Archery/Thrown weapons: with a single free action you can draw as many arrows/thrown weapons as your number of attacks each round.

This could simulate the advanced weapon training implied by more attacks per round from BAB, feats, etc..., and would still allow me to keep the # of total free actions available fairly limited to prevent shenanigans, but not completely screw over ranged builds.


So, this is a question more for the other GM's out there. How many free actions do you consider to be reasonable and allow players to take each round?
My thoughts are that between 3-4 sound about right, but many players complain that they should get 8-10 or some other ridiculously high sounding number.
Am I being too conservative with only allowing 3-4, or is that within the realm of reason?


I've reduced the number of Item creation feats in my games to 3:
Master craftsman: works as written +includes forge rings. At 10 skill ranks it also includes craft rods.

Craft Consumable Items: works same as master craftsman, but for potions, scrolls, and wands. At 10 skill ranks it also includes staffs.

Artisan
prereq: spellcraft 8 ranks; master craftsman or craft consumable items.
benefit: decrease the time needed to craft magic items by -10%. If you have 18 ranks in spellcraft, decrease the time needed to craft magic items by -20% instead.


So you convinced your DM to grant you all of the advantages of being young without suffering any of the drawbacks?

Dude, play what you wanna play...and your DM will allow, but am I the only one that finds this completely absurd? A six year old couldn't even carry a cache of spellbooks.


Some of my Favorites are:

Dreamscarred Press: all the psionic races and classes from Ultimate Psionics; The Path of War classes.

Rogue Genius (formerly super genius) Games: Time Thief (my absolute favorite class ever) and Shadow Assassin.

There's also a 3.5 book called Mythic Races from Fantasy Flight Games that has over 20 really flavorful races that are pretty easy to convert to pathfinder.

And lastly, on the old 3.5 DND forums, there was a guy...Mavericwolf, I think, that made a class based around controlling and using spellfire in different ways that was pretty sweet.


My use, or lack thereof, of maps depends mostly on 2 things:
1) The skill level of my players. With veteran players I tend to skip the maps, due to the player's better understanding of the rules and how positioning, terrain, etc works. With newer players I use maps in every encounter - at least at first. This gets them used to developing the aforementioned understanding until eventually they no longer need the maps as a crutch.

2)The size of the encounter. For encounters with 10 or fewer total combatants (including the PC's) I tend to skip the map, but with larger encounters I always use them, mostly for my benefit instead of the players - As I get older, the memory sometimes isn't up to par.


I like the warrior of holy light archetype: trade spells for extra lay on hands and other abilities.

Also having at least one of them take the eldritch heritage feats could add some much needed diversity.


You do realize that as a young character you're limited to NPC classes and also take a -2 penalty to STR, CON, & WIS.


Claxon wrote:

My main thought about it as a player is that magic doesn't need to be better, it's already stronger than what non-magic user can do.

And depending on how your party handles wealth, the cost doesn't balance it out.

Is this opinion coming from actually playing with them, or just based on reading over them?

Really? Nobody in all of the world has used them?
Cool! Looks like I'll get to be the 1st one to dive in and see how bad they break my game.


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To the OP:

Your ruling is clearly not RAW, as nowhere is it written that there is a penalty for a failed Aid Another action - to diplomacy or any other check. You either succeed and provide a +2 bonus to your ally; or you fail and provide no bonus to him; or the DM determines that the aid another action isn't possible for that particular check.

I do agree with you that there should be a penalty for failure of said check, but this is my opinion and not RAW.

I believe your enforced penalty was way too harsh (a simple -1/-2 to the diplomatic characters check instead of gaining the +2 bonus would have been a much better solution). However, this is also based on interpretation and is not RAW.

For me it comes down to this:

If your players were aware of this non-RAW penalty for failure, and how severe the penalty would be and they made the attempt anyways, that's on them and they should deal with the consequences.

But, if they were not aware of this, then that's just you being a jerk and good for them for not putting up with that.


Has anyone tried out the esoteric material components rules from Unchained? If, so, how did you and your players like the system?


Start damage reduction at 1st level and increase it at every level, and perhaps throw in a natural AC bump here and there (no more than 2-3 points spread out over the 20 levels). This solves the AC problem without doing something wonky like adding CON to AC.

Add linguistics, knowledge (arcana and religion), sleight of hand, and stealth to his list of class skills. This better represents his roguish abilities and heightened Intellect.

grant the sunder feat chain and perhaps power attack as bonus feats throughout the build. This would better represent his "rage" than the actual rage mechanic.

just my 2 cents. good luck with the class.


Anguish said wrote:
I'm personally a huge fan of DSP's psionics and PoW materials. Pretty much every game I'm a part of - player or DM - includes some. So yeah, I'd recommend them. Strongly.

And yet you didn't recommend them or any other classes. Instead you seem to be more worried about why I want to limit the list.

The reasons are irrelevant, but since you seem to be hung up on them...
1) Some of the classes don't fit the theme I'm going for for this new campaign.
2) Some of the classes I just don't like and don't allow in any campaign.
3) Some of my players are new and having fewer options initially is better for them. (for instance, if they know upfront that wizards and gunslingers are banned, they don't waste time conceptualizing those types of characters for this game - but save those concepts for a different one).
4) I already had a basic list in mind, but as an experiment I wanted to see what the community at large would choose in this situation. If there were more like-minded people who embrace 3pp classes over the paizo ones, of if there were more purists who prefer "only official product".

I'm sorry that you really don't understand what I'm doing, but I hope this clears it up. If so...cool, If not...cool. Either way, happy gaming to you.


5 days since the last response means that's probably all I'm gonna get, so thanks again to those that took the time to respond.

My final list of 20, and the reasons behind them is as follows (for anyone who cares).

6 psionic classes: cryptic (psionic rogue), marksman (psionic archer), psion (psionic full caster), psychic warrior (psionic combatant), soulknife (psionic combatant), vitalist (psionic healer/full caster).

I'm a huge fan of psionics (especially dreamscarred press's pathfinder update) and wanted it to play a prominent role in the campaign.

3 arcane classes: bard, sorcerer, witch.

wizards and arcanists just don't fit the theme I'm going for & I can't stand summoners or any of the occult classes. bard just barely beat out magus as the 3rd arcane slot, but I decided that the support of the bard was more important than the extra firepower of the magus.

3 divine classes: druid, oracle, shaman [combo of adamant entertainment class & kobold press class, not the paizo hybrid one].

organized religion isn't a thing in this world...yet, so most of the existing divine classes don't really fit. I really like different aspects of both the adament and kobold shaman, so I decided to mix them together into a single class to fill the 3rd divine slot.

8 combat/skill classes: unchained rogue, spell-less ranger (skirmisher archetype only), unchained barbarian, warder [path of war class], warlord [path of war class], stalker [path of war class], shadow assassin (renamed just "assassin"][rogue genius games class], and time thief [rogue genius games class]

unchained rogue and barbarian have become the "official" versions in my games; I've never liked spell casting rangers, so the skirmisher archetype is now my "standard" ranger; the path of war classes add so much more diversity than the [insert standard combat class here]; the shadow assassin has so much flavor and rounds out the sneaky bastard/skill monkey options; and the time thief is IMO the coolest class ever designed and is included here, even 'tho it technically doesn't fit the setting.


And stupid shit like this is why I limit players to 3 free actions each round


I like the idea of controlling with cold spells, even if the damage drops off somewhat, thanks.

QuidEst wrote:
Psychic Anthology has a Spiritualist version of Bladebound that's a more interesting Magus than Magus. You can even use your spell combat for healing.

Perhaps, but that would require me to invest in paizo's crappy psionics knock-off "psychic magic", when I'd rather just use actual psionics.


Psion (shaper) with advanced constructs and boost constructs feats.


As the title says...

Several spells can deal roughly equal amounts of damage, but the thing that (to me anyways) makes shocking grasp the go to spell is the No saving throw part. Am I just missing some spell in some splat book that works equally well? or are all Magi doomed to be cookie cutter versions?


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This sounds amazing. I really hope you guys can make this happen.


Thanks for the responses. I was hoping for more, but I'll take what I can get.

So from the 8 people that actually made a list + my 1 friend from work, these are the top 20 votes so far:

Barbarian, Bloodrager, Hunter, Bard, Oracle, Rogue, Ranger, Sorcerer, Slayer, Druid, Warpriest, Brawler, Monk, Shaman, Skald, Mesmerist, Psychic, Kineticist, Fighter, and Inquisitor.

I'm kinda surprised that there aren't more votes for psionic classes, and kinda disappointed that there aren't more votes for some of the cool third party classes out there, but overall it kinda falls right along the lines I thought it would.


For my next campaign, I'm considering limiting the available classes from the ungodly number currently available to a list of 20, but which 20?

It's gonna be a sort of lost world setting (no metropolis's and perhaps only 1-2 large cities). Arcane and Divine Magic mingle freely with Psionics, and while magic items can still be found, they cannot be made by PC's (no item creation feats...at least not in the beginning).

Certain classes (barbarian, druid, ranger, etc...) seem like natural choices, while others (gunslingers, traditional clerics, traditional wizards, etc...) seem like natural exclusions.

So, If it were you, what 20 classes would you allow and why? (3pp and 3.5 classes are allowed...or at least will be considered).


so they took the 10 page chapter 4 from the old pathfinder chonicles campaign setting book and super-sized it into it's own 192 page book with new and expanded options...cool.


Race: Undine. mainly for the aquatic theme (plus the swim speed is nice).

Class: Oracle(waves)= obvious water theme; Cleric(Gozreh) = tridents are cool...and thematically appropriate, but mostly just cool; Alchemist = INT synergy +mutagens for combat buff; and If psionics are allowed, the Cryptic is a really cool psionic rogue-type character.


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My 2 favorites currently are
Magus/Oracle(wind): vortex spells with a 18-20 (eventually 15-20) crit range is pretty cool.

and
Druid/Ninja: turn invisible with vanishing trick, wildshape into something nasty while inviso, scare the crap out of your opponent when you attack them and become visible again.


Rangers are actually a fine choice, just have him take the option to bond with his party members instead of getting the companion if you think it's too complicated for him. Later on, once he gets the hang of it, he can always retrain for the pet. As for the spells, they don't come online til 4th level, plenty of time for him to learn the other parts of the game before tackling spellcasting.

When teaching my son to play, I also made flashcards for some of his abilities to help remind him when they applied, or what they did (for instance, his 1st favorite enemy was orcs, so everytime we encountered an orc, I gave him the flashcard with the bonuses listed on it). After 2-3 levels, he got to where he didn't need the flashcards anymore.


Give them each the leadership feat for free, ignoring the level prerequisite. That way they get the help they need, and you still maintain some control over the group.

Also, checkout dnd.chromesphere.com for single player adventures that can easily be expanded for 2 players.


Sounds like a prime opportunity to try some of the race-specific feats that normally get passed over for combat ones, or to do something completely silly like take skill focus (swim) or some other nonsense.


Personally, I've been done with the Bestiaries since #4, but that's just me. I've got tons of 3.0/3.5 monster books that are very easy to update to pathfinder, so New Paizo monster books are relatively useless to me.

However, since they seem determined to keep spewing them out...

There's already a precedent in the game for the metal/wood/void elementals to already exist in the game. Just look at the metal, wood, and dark tapestry (arguably another name for void) oracle mysteries; the void-touched sorcerer bloodline; and the metal and wood elemental wizard schools.

As for Mr. Jacobs statement that "I prefer not to include monsters in Bestiaries that don't fit into our setting in some way." , really? You've already included tons of them that have nothing to do with Golarion. Kaiju, the Cthulhu elder gods, If Paizo can justify those fitting into their setting, they can justify anything fitting into the same setting...if they choose to.

I get it that maybe Paizo just doesn't want those things in their version of the game, and that's fine with me. Just like they didn't want epic level stuff, or psionics (thank god for Dreamscarred press!).

So, long story short, if Paizo can't or won't include something that you want to see, look to 3pp, or older editions for what you want...or if you're talented enough, make it up yourself and have fun.


1 level of oracle (wind) for vortex spells (critical on spell combat staggers target).


Alchemy items seem way overcosted for the effect they provide. I've been thinking of reducing the gold piece cost to create/purchase them by 1/2. Any concerns that this change would "break the game?".


Featherfall only targets free-falling objects/creatures, so you can't just stand there and drop the stones without blowing yourself to bits, you need to be free-falling as well to be immune to the concussive blasts.

Featherfall is unaffected by Empowered/Maximized/Intensified feats (Em and Max because it has no random Numeric variables, and Int because it does not deal damage). Casting the mythic version (or even the augmented version) does not change this fact, so the 5d6 damage from the augmented version is never modified by those feats.

While dropping the stones may be a free action, withdrawing them from your pouch/pocket/wherever is a move/standard action, and it's completely upto DM fiat as to how many free actions you get in 1 round (I typically allow 3) & how many stones you can drop in 1 free action (to me 1d4 sound reasonable).

I salute the OP's creative thinking in conjuring up this combo, and hope he finds a like-minded DM that allows it as written. But for me as a DM, I would never allow the 9000 points of damage claimed by the OP, because I don't believe it works the way he believes it works...However, I would allow it to deal a more reasonable 30-35d6 damage (depending on number of stones dropped), as it is a pretty cool combo.


Magus/Oracle(wind): because using vortex spells with a keen scimitar is just cool.

Druid/Ninja: turn inviso, wildshape while invisoo, reappear as a combat monster and rip them to shreds, also good for emergency escapes and such.

But my all-time favorite was a Halfling Lycanthrope (werewolf) Barbarian/Sorcerer. She had contingency as her only 6th level spell set to trigger enlarge person when she "wolfed-out". Imagine laughing at the 3' tall halfling charging at you and just when she reaches you she suddenly transforms into a 9' tall raging werewolf and literally rips you to shreds...lol, good times.


If psionics is allowed, the cryptic from Ultimate Psionics (by Dreamscarred Press)is perfect for this exact purpose. They're basically a psionic rogue with cool trap and pattern-related abilities.


The Ragi wrote:
Time for the Warder to shine, with her own character sheet: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6mcwru555o56lli/warder_sheet.zip?dl=0

Your character sheets are pretty cool. Have you considered doing ones for some of rogue genius's classes like the shadow assassin or time thief?


this sounds amazing...wish i'd come across it with more time to spare. good luck with the campaign.


would you allow http:timethief?

If not I'd go with a oracle(wind)/magus with some diabolist prc thrown in for good measure.


As someone just now getting into the adventure card game (I skipped runelords and went straight into skulls and shackles), I welcome and apprieciate the delay. It gives me time to actually play the game without feeling like I have to rush thru it to move on to the next set.

I do have 1 question 'tho. Can the characters from s&s still be used if I later also buy wrath, or mummy, or whatever other base game, or do you have to use the characters from that specifice base set?


Occult Adventures, AKA: Paizo's psionics book that they refuse to call psionics because some people dont like psionics, so they're gonna re-skin it into "psychic spells" in the hopes that people don't realize that it's psionics...when its really just psionics.

As to the OP's question: I don't know what the best AP would be, but I think an all psionic "occult adventures" Kingmaker campaign could be quite intriguing.


They do 2 AP's a year, right? What if instead of 2 completely different APs, they did a 2-part series. The 1st 6 issues go from levels 1-12ish, then the next 6 continue from 13-20. They put enough connecting material and recurring npcs/themes for those who played the 1st part, but leave enough of it undefined so that even if you only play the 2nd half, you're not completely lost.
BOOM! a 20 level AP with no extras in all those cost categories James Jacobs was speaking of, and no interfering with the scheduling/support of the APs.

What say you? would you guys buy into this concept if Paizo were to try it? I sure as hell would.


Orthos wrote:
deinol wrote:
james knowles wrote:
As a side note: what are the odds of ever getting a fully pathfinder conversion of the shackled city hardcover you guys released a few years back? That series (later combined into the hardcover), is still the best AP Paizo has ever done (IMO), & I'd love to see an official conversion.
Zero. Wizards of the Coast has the rights to everything that was done in Dragon/Dungeon magazine, even if it was produced by Paizo.
Yep. Same goes for Savage Tide and Age of Worms for the same reason.

well that sucks, I was hoping it might have fallen into the OGL territory. Guess I'll have to go back to the incredibly time-consuming task of converting it by hand.


James Jacobs wrote:
Philo Pharynx wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
I do believe that some folks are tired of 1st level adventures, but given customer feedback and looking at sales and play data from our products and the PFS program... well, that data tells a very different story.
You done loads of AP's that go from 1 to teens. Does your data say that doing one will sell so poorly that it's not worth trying once?

Kinda tells us this yes. As you've pointed out, we've done lots of them. They work. VERY well. Not super interested in trying to "fix something that's not broken."

If folks WANT us to do an AP that starts at higher level... please let us know! (Or if you want us to never do that and stick to starting at 1st level, let us know that too.)

Yes, Please stop with all the level 1 nonsense and give us a 6ish - 20 AP. there, you have officially been notified. lol.

As a side note: what are the odds of ever getting a fully pathfinder conversion of the shackled city hardcover you guys released a few years back? That series (later combined into the hardcover), is still the best AP Paizo has ever done (IMO), & I'd love to see an official conversion.


any word on a reprint for these and the other out of print face cards?

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I regret not having someone else read the submission rules to catch that stupid "PRD only" caveat. lol.

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so armor A has generic function B: which is very underwhelming, but
grants a cool-sounding bonus effect to a class feature of class C...but class C isn't proficient with armor A. wtf?
and this made it past the 1st 2 culls, while several items I thought were better didn't???

As for my own item, I'm afraid i got DQ'd for a spell [that while cool, obscure, and something i'd never seen used in an item before] is not in the PRD (didn't even notice that little caveat when reading the submission rules). guess it just wasn't in the cards for me again this year. lol.

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Got the entire AC/DC catalog on random play


Tels wrote:


Occult Adventures is Paizo's answer to those who desire psychic themed classes and stuff in the game. However, Paizo is not fond of the Power Point system, so Psychic Magic functions just like normal magic does, only it's powered by a different source.

I just got done reading the Occult Adventures thread, and that watered down bastardization of psionics sounds horrible to me. I guess I'll just have to try and find a DM that allows 3rd party stuff.


Tels wrote:

Fun fact, Occult Adventures comes out later this year with 10 new Psychic themed classes.

Psychic Magic does not mean psionics, however. Psionics is solely the realm of Dereamscarred Press. Paizo has opted to use the Psychic Magic system, one of their own creation, instead.

I hadn't heard about occult adventures so I'll have to check that out, and I absolutely love Ultimate Psionics. Unfortunately, many DM's (including mine) don't allow 3rd party stuff, so until Paizo decides to finally do an official psionics book guys like me are just s.o.l.

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