mem0ri's page

Staying short and simple ...

I have a homebrew setting in which there are twelve gods and goddesses. For most of these deities, existent domains have fit relatively well. For example, the god of justice has domains including Law, Honor, Judgement, etc. However, I apparently picked a few focuses for my gods that are not well covered by existing domains ... and would like to solicit the community's help in either finding workable domains or coming up with new ones. The gods with whom I am having domain trouble follow:

God/dess of Wealth, Contracts, and Trade

God/dess of Harvest, Fertility, and Drink

God/dess of Art, Music, and Emotion

It doesn't really matter the alignment or persona of each of these deities, as the concept is to create "positions in the godhead" that can be filled by different personages as history moves forward ( there have been 3 "God wars" in 1500 years, each resulting in some shuffling and some new faces ).

Running a session --tonight-- (yes, I'm giving oh so much time for replies, heh) and running into an unexpected obstacle ... hoping to get some help/answers/pointers here.

The party is comprised of 4 characters, all level 2.

They will be discovering an ancient underground temple complex ( think more on the lines of the size of a village rather than a single building ) that was once dedicated to gods of good (btw, custom-built world ... not Golarion). However, long ago this complex was abandoned and an unknown chaotic evil has risen from the depths below the mountain.

The idea is that the characters enter an environment that is very ... cthulu-like in that there is an 'old one' partially awake in this underground complex tearing at the sanity of any who are there. They are entering this place in pursuit of a lesser bad guy.

What I need/want are ideas for underground dwelling chaotic evil creatures who may be twisted/insane and worship this old one. The kicker, however, is that they need to be of low enough CR for a level 2 party to handle.

Note: Goblins, Orcs, and Kobolds are out. I need something that's not quite so 'common'.

Any ideas?

I started this discussion on Rules Questions as it was a question related to where rules on large weapons and restricted spaces might be found. Turns out, there aren't any ... so I posted a proposed home brew solution. It didn't get a lot of replies and now (I'm a new forum user) I've seen a House Rules board ... so I'm transferring my proposed solution over here. I'd really like some feedback ... let me know your feelings on it and any possible improvements you can see:

Confined Spaces and Combat:

Combat penalties are determined by adding weapon length to character height or width (based on restrictive space) and then dividing the space available by that number to achieve a ratio. A character's width is considered to be 1/3rd of his or her height so long as they are generally of human proportions. The ratio is then checked on a small table for penalty. In the case of both height and width restrictions, the most restrictive ratio is used, the two ratios do not 'stack'.

Example calculation: I have a 6 foot tall character wielding a 5 foot long two-handed sword. This character is walking through a corridor 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide. My height ratio is 8/11 = ~0.73 and my width ratio is 5/7 = ~0.71. Taking the most restrictive ratio, 0.71, I consult the table below for my penalty and see that I will receive a -2 to both attack and damage.

Table:
1.00 or greater -- No penalty
0.75 - 0.99 -- -1 Attack/Damage
0.50 - 0.74 -- -2 Attack/Damage
0.25 - 0.49 -- -4 Attack/Damage
Less than 0.25 -- Weapon cannot be used

Special Rules:

* Thrusting weapons (spears, daggers, most piercing weapons) are treated as having 'zero' weapon length because of their nature to be used in a way that neither requires height or width.

* Bows and thrown weapons are treated as thrusting weapons.

* Crossbows and guns are immune to all confined space weapon restrictions due to their compact nature and trigger-activated mechanisms (though reloading may be an issue in particularly tight spaces).

Considerations:

* The above chart does require calculation, but generally a DM will know well before the game session whether or not characters will enter confined spaces and be able to jot down a few notes on expected penalties beforehand.

* Yes, slashing weapons can be used in a thrusting-only manner as most of them have pointy tips, but it is still not the 'natural' way to use the weapon and so, I feel, deserves penalty.

* I'm not sure that restricted height should matter as much as restricted width as full overhead swings are not terribly common, though partial overhead (diagonal cuts) would seem quite common. Perhaps height calculations should only take 1/2 the weapon length into account? Or does that take things into the 'too complicated' category?

* Anything I'm missing?

If this question has been asked before, I apologize. I ran several searches on the forum, however, and found no matching thread. As such, I'm starting this one ...

I have a situation in which characters will be moving through confined spaces during a dungeon delve. We're talking long, winding hallways that are approximately 5 ft. wide and 8 ft. tall at any given point.

Taking in those space restrictions, it seems a bit odd to allow a player to use a two-handed weapon without penalty ( human body 3ft wide and 6ft tall, two-handed sword 5ft tall ... not even possible to do a 'baseball swing' or 'overhead smash' with it ). That said, I see no indication in the rulebook (perhaps I missed it?) of combat penalties for large weapons in confined spaces (it could even be argued that medium weapons would suffer in such spaces).

Seeing as dungeons/caves/tunnels/etc are all a common feature in Pathfinder ... it seems odd that there aren't any rules to handle these situations. Any help?