mjb235's page

Alright! Let me throw some rolls down here and (hopefully) remember how to format rolls on Paizo...

That is all fantastic information thank you!
Yeah dealing with crafting limits and settlement purchase limits is going to be difficult. We're currently looking into shipping/teleportation circles and using multiple settlements for selling.

And as for the money thing this is the kind of campaign where anything goes. Otherwise none of this probably should have been allowed. XD For this game we're specifically trying to "break" the game. As long as we can justify that's how the RAW is meant to work. *Shrug* (and yes we could seriously destroy it. But I guess we're... Breaking it within reason...?)

Yeah admittedly I haven't looked at the Kingdom Building rules in a while (since it'll be a while still until he has that level of influence anyway) so I couldn't remember what level of control you need to have in order to use the Kingdom Capital.

That's a good start though. And depends if he's willing to try to setup Sandpoint to secede from the Varisian empire... Which is its whole other 'deal'. :D

So the question is: What amount of Influence, Gold, and/or time, should need to be spent in order to win a race? And is there a good metric to put up against a settlement's size?

Edit: Varisia is just a bunch of city states! This might make it easier he just needs to gain influential control over Magninar. >.>

Title Question.

I have a player character that, due to circumstances, is playing entirely behind the scenes. Using Downtime Rules exclusively.

And for fun we're trying to play as strictly to the rules as possible, even if that means him becoming grossly OP.

But the PC has the goal of becoming the ruler of Sandpoint and possibly attempting to use Kingdom Building rules to make it the Main port of his Airship fleet. (Downtime magic item crafting is silly)

I think politicking should be something the Influence Capital is perfectly suited for.

Thoughts?

Yeah I've been listening to the podcast on my drives to work and I'm really enjoying it. Thanks Yakman.

And the written formats are what I've mostly seen. Though sometimes it's hard to find stuff specifically for Anniversary. Since a lot of threads go back to the 3.5 edition. (But not so hard I haven't found a good trove of information)

That's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for thank you!

I'd still love if anyone knows of a solid post discussion podcast for RotRL (or just a discussion of all of the APs in general)

But I'm very interested in Strange Aeons too. So this will be helpful.

I'm preparing to run a RotRL game and I do a lot of listening to audiobooks and podcasts at work. I've seen a bunch of threads on Actuals Plays but I'm curious if there are any GM focused 'Review' podcasts?

I'd be really interested in an audio format of someone going through AP modules and talking over encounters, possible pitfalls, and potentially community alterations or suggestions.

Does something like this exist?

Well, off of the top of my head I think I would have to stick to the basics. More or less:

Conjuration God Wizard: Open with improved initiative and maybe even Toughness (If I didn't want my friends possibly ruined on a crit). Discuss item creation feats after we know which campaign we're involved in.

Life (Or Animal) cleric: Of some bent. Clerics are really strong classes in and of themselves. Being able to heal and buff allies (And at higher levels bring them back from the dead) is a perk.

Reincarnated Druid: Again helps with survivability for me and my friends. Admittedly it loses out on 2 levels of wild shape. Which may be a dealbreaker for some. But since the emphasis I have is on getting out alive I feel like a Druid in and of itself can still contribute meaningfully. (Plus it gets an animal companion and contributes more healing/control to the team)

Sorcerer: Unsure on bloodline. Sylvan possibly (With the Boon Companion feat that would eventually allow the party to have 2 fully realized Animal Companions. 3 if the cleric goes Animal Domain.) But having another 9th level arcane caster in general is very effective, also one that can focus on ranged attacks. On top of having someone that can abuse their charisma score and take spells that would allow the party to obtain more meatshields companions.

I don't think "Per Encounter" is that metagamey. Yes players and GMs could get into a RAW argument over the "exact nature" of what an encounter is. But the basics is that it's an ability that your character can only use so many times before they have the ability to rest and recover. If you think of a "Day" as a "Period of time between when I rest 8 hours". Then you can easily think of an "Encounter" as a "Period of time between when I rest 5 minutes"

I'd wager because it takes narrative power away from DMs. Say you want your players to. Be stuck underground afraid,unable to rest, and slowly running out of healing items. "Whoops, loljk I'm a kineticist everyone is back to full!" (I suppose, I don't actually know how it works so sorry if I offended any kineticists)

That said I tend to to the opposite way. When I see an ability that says "X times per day" (and it's usually like 1 or 2) I'll think "Well... that's going to be painfully situational."

Fishing: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Turtles diligently!

Bluff: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Influencing cutthroat with LIES

The main concern I have with just using the price of the cyber arm is that it is only meant to effectively imitate or replace a "lost" arm. Also the price of that cyberarm is relatively low to more or less replicate a second level class feature of the Alchemist.

All resources are available more or less. Mainly if I have an idea of a "base cost" I can bring that to my DM and we can negotiate on the price from there. But my character has also been salvaging parts (And full robots) when given the chance. So materials should be available.

As for my version of the psionic technomancer I basically just took the Technomancer prestige class and swapped out spell costs to equivalent power point costs. I'm thinking the power point cost might need to be increased but I haven't gotten to the level to actually playtest it yet. The biggest problem is the feature where you get a few free spells. And I want to convert those to powers but I haven't gotten that far yet. :)

I'm playing in the Iron Gods Adventure Path and I'm playing a Psion going into a home brewed psionic technomancer prestige class.

What I'd like to do is make a mechanical arm (Like Viktor from League of Legends for those that play it) that protrudes from my back with the technology rules. The idea I have is that it acts as the Alchemist's vestigial arm and then I'd like to add the capability to cast Scorching Ray a few times a day for fun.

I can muddle through the craft technological item rules. But I have no idea what a good price on the vestigial arm portion of the device would be. I tried to search for a comparable item through the forums but my search-fu must be weak.

Does anybody have any suggestions or comparable item knowledge that could help me?

I'm not sure if this is the method. Because of the weird part about "keeping 3" but the grid method I know of works like this:

You build a 3x3 grid with physical scores and mental scores arranged something like this:
.
.

STR DEX CON
INT |__|____|__|
WIS |__|____|__|
CHA |__|____|__|

Then you fill the grid with your rolls

STR DEX CON
INT |16|__9_|10|
WIS |17|_11_|12|
CHA |_7|_15_|18|

Finally you pick scores. Say you pick the 16 for your strength that means you can't use the 16 for Intelligence and you'd have to use either the 9 or the 10.

So maybe try that? I personally think it's a really fun system.

Edit: Of course I didn't fully read Joana's post. Joana linked the better way to explain it.

I actually really like this system. You'll definitely see certain character very consistently going first. But that seems to be the intent of this system and I think that's a good thing.

It would change combat pretty significantly. But one idea is taking the spells and actually making them go off +X Initiative later.

So for instance Quicken is +0; Standard is +3 and Full-Round is +5. (Off the top of my head. So grain of salt and all that). Then you'd do your action say "Oh, I move over here and cast this spell" then the effects of the spell happen a bit later on.

And issue I can see with this could be certain situations involving the normal move action for spellcasters. Before a wizard could cast a fireball then step into the area they cast into after the effects. That wouldn't be as easy anymore. Also it makes "readying" against spell effects simpler since you could delay your action until after the spellcaster then try to whack them to make them lose the spell.

But that's one option you could try

I have to agree with Beopere. If you looked up the class description of Summoner it's literally that.

Also, who run Barter town?

I would appreciate an updated file as well please :)

Thank you in advance

Personally I've always felt that there is a lot in this game that's mainly there because it's "always been there". But the more I play the more I want to get away from all of the rules, so take my opinion as you will.

That said I've thought about how being intelligent doesn't really reflect how many "skills" your character has. For the intelligence based skills, sure. But why would a more intelligent person be better at climbing? And someone who's trained to be a soldier in an army might not be the smartest person in the world, but I'd think the army would have trained them for basic battlefield conditions which (might, though probably not) include climbing, swimming, and acrobatics. Which a first level 8-int fighter can't be trained in.

One solution would be to group the skills up and give each of those skill groups different attributes that you base your bonus skills off of. Fighters get 2 "Physical" skills, 1 "Nimbleness" skills, and 1 "Intelligence skills" along with their normal skill bonuses.

A second solution be just increasing the base amount of skills certain classes have.

And a third would be changing the attribute certain classes use for their bonus skills. (Fighters can use the lower of their strength or dexterity for skills, for balance or something).

These are just my thoughts. And I hope you find a way to work with your DM to reflect the character concept you want to play. Which in my opinion shouldn't be hindered by rules.

This is interesting. As food for thought I had been considering playing around with a houserule where you'd basically just use the character's saves as their own "ACs".

Armor would use a modified Armor as DR. But you'd basically have you Fort AC, Ref AC, and Wis AC. And they would increase with level sort of like how 4th edition did it. I believe I had simplified it down to Melee attacks target Fort, Ranged attacks target Ref, and "Magic" attacks target Will.

I never had the time to test it/flesh it out. Too many rules already built on the assumption of how AC scales. Like I think power attack would have to become -2/+2 or +3 instead. But I thought it would make an interesting variation to play with sometime in the future.

What about Juju Oracle?

New eidolon evolution: Pouch

I'm not sure about a player archetype. But it already sounds like an awesome villain. A variation of the classic citizen by day, villain by night theme.

That's an interesting thought. I'll have to see if his character still holds a torch for her.

I also thought Of altering the ghost in the manor to be the final of the 3 "foxes". He was with her when she started going crazy and she killed him.

Hey guys,
I'm going to be running RotRL coming up here soon and the players decided for a shared background that involves them being on the chase of an infamous thief named "Goldie Fox

So being too good for me to let go of I'm statting up her and her crew as a fox themed Goldilocks group. I'm not entirely sure what to do with them but I had an idea.

I'd like to make her Aldera Foxglove. when The players meet her in her noble persona. Realizing she's Goldie Fox sometime around defeating her last of the 3 henchman. I'd keep the normal storyline and "transformation" of the source material. Also the wizard has a prebuilt love interest story with a past run in with Goldie Fox. So she'll definitely be a disguise artist of some sort.

What I'm curious about is do you think it will ruin the intrigue of book 2? Or do you think there are any other big issues I'm overlooking? Thanks for any help!

As a younger gamer I always wanted to have an army of war chickens. And to remedy that later when I was given the opportunity of DMing I always placed an Endless bag of War Chickens in my campaigns somewhere. If held open it would spill armored chickens into the square the user occupied. The chickens would spread out creating difficult terrain for everyone but the wielder and deal 1 lethal damage a round. The chickens would dissipate after 3 rounds (In sort of a water ripple effect, so first the square the bag was opened then the next square out, etc).

I always flip flopped on whether the bearer had to stand in the same square or not. Usually they had to at least drop the bag or stay in the square somehow.

Hey, sorry for the late reply. It did work out for me and I had a lot of fun.

I definitely agree with Mcbobbo especially since I chose a shaper for my psion side and the thassilonian specialist (Sloth/conjuration) for my wizard side. So there are a lot of staple wizard things that I just can't do. That said I flavored all of my summons as Lovecraftian horrors for the extra flavor it got me.

It's definitely not the level of Godliness a pure wizard would be. But it makes me happy, and that's all that's really important. (I guess it makes the other players happy too...)

Possible spoilers ahead!

From what I can tell RoW is a very linear high speed adventure. And with the Geas it'll be harder to justify why 2 of the characters just "can't go". You might want to consider having them roll up 2 different characters and playing with those when your two other friends can't make it. Though you could still use those adventures to detail out background story in Irrisen or about the winter witches. (Bonus points if you put it in the past around the life of one of the previous Jadwiga!)

However if you want to keep the players using their PC's perhaps you could run dream sequences? Baba Yaga is immensely powerful and it's definitely possible her magic could reach those under her Geas. This would allow you to play out sequences where the players might learn information about what's going on. And if you wanted the PC's to obtain items "waking up" with them wouldn't be too out of hand seeing how weird the magic is in the worlds now.

Those are my suggestions. Of course if you're willing to run the campaign more laid back and give the PC's some rest then statting up some side-ventures wouldn't be too bad indeed.

I'd probably get rid of the 3-18 spread and just use the modifiers. I also like having less ability scores, but I'm not sure how I'd go about it so I haven't really subscribed to that method of thought.

But I'd at least change the ability scores so that instead of a spread like:

STR: 18
DEX: 12
CON: 13
INT: 7
WIS: 12
CHA: 15

(Made up on the spot, so I haven't checked the point buy)

It would just be

STR: 4
DEX: 1
CON: 1
INT: -2
WIS: 1
CHA: 2

Then at every 4th level you'd get to add 1 to one of your stats, but you can't pick the same stat twice in a row.

It'd certainly make distinguishing higher stats easier and quicker.

You know, I'll never get my players to agree but I'd love an email of the rules as well!

I'm really excited to see where this has gone. Especially since so many of the houserules I used at the time were already incorporated into Kirthfinder! You people are genius!

You know, it may not be the best option because of action economy and all of that. But I really enjoyed the Magus/Alchemist I built.
Kensai Bladebound Magus where I focused that spell list for combat. And I used the Alchemist side for utility and bombs. You could also go with vivisectionist for the sneak attack if that appealed to you. And with Dervish dancing Dex based mutagens make you quite a bit better.

As for the prestige class thing that popped up, I always ruled that in order to take a prestige class you needed to qualify on one side only. It did lead to some weird situations where a Eldritch Knight/Cleric could do pretty much everything but I actually never had any players try that *shrug*

I noticed that the general themes I'm seeing for this AP are very boisterous and "Proudly Russian" as it were. But for some reason I can't get this Piece out of my head when thinking about it.

Shostakovich - Piano Concerto No. 2: II. Andante

Because Rules as Written suggest

"The rules in this book are here to help you breathe life into your characters and the world they explore. While they are designed to make your game easy and exciting, you might find that some of them do not suit the style of play that your gaming group enjoys. Remember that these rules are yours. You can change them to fit your needs. Most Game Masters have a number of "house rules" that they use in their games. The Game Master and players should always discuss any rules changes to make sure that everyone understands how the game will be played. Although the Game Master is the final arbiter of the rules, the Pathfinder RPG is a shared experience, and all of the players should contribute their thoughts when the rules are in doubt."

If you're a rogue, how did you get Power Attack at first level?

Son of the Veterinarian wrote:

mjb235 wrote:

Hm, interesting point. I hadn't noticed that the Runelord of sloth was a religious leader. I'd have to have the character find some God. Or talk to my DM about a possible antithesis for Lissala.

He was head of the church, that's not the same thing as being head of the entire religion.

For one thing he wasn't a Cleric, he was a wizard. As by the end the church had become a largely secular way of gaining power and prestige rather than something honestly devoted to Lissala.

There are a few threads about the possibility of Lissala being a LN goddess who's church was corrupted, and her write-up in Pathfinder Magazine somewhat supports this view. Even though the word of god is that she was always intended to be LE.

Yes but he is going from Sloth to Zeal and with Zeal you need to be Zealous for something that could be a deity or a philosophy. I also believe Lissala should be LN.

I actually really like this idea. I realize if my DM feels like going directly for Golarion's lore then she'll likely have to be LE, but I like the idea that Lissala could be LN. (I might have to play a Mystic Theurge at this point... Hahaha) I'll definitely have to run it by my DM.

And actually now that I'm looking at it Sin Mages don't get the ability to summon Sinspawn. That seems to be a feature exclusive to the Cyphermage prestige class. So the point could be moot. That said with some finagling from your DM I could see a variant of the Leadership feat where you might have somebody "volunteer" to be a virtuespawn. Some sort of exemplary person that embodies that particular virtue.

Hm, interesting point. I hadn't noticed that the Runelord of sloth was a religious leader. I'd have to have the character find some God. Or talk to my DM about a possible antithesis for Lissala.

What about summoning Sinspawn? Think it'd be possible to refluff them as "Virtuespawn"? Though that name wouldn't give them much credit. The sinspawn abilities are pretty heavily "evil" slanted so I could see it getting a bit of a rework. Perhaps if the Virtuespawn were more like buffer/helpers but I've haven't really researched conjuration spells yet so I don't know the precedent for that.

As for Leadership at least I personally wouldn't be able to do it. My group tends to have 5 players and at least one of them always plays something with an Animal Companion/Eidolon/Conjuration build. So things already tend to get clunky. Perhaps if I left the Cohort to deal with the "day to day" things.

I believe the RotRL Anniversary Edition has more information on Thassilonian magic in one of the appendices.

Fair enough, I'm not very versed on thassilonian magic as is, so I'll have to catch up on that!

That said, does anyone have ideas of any way that a Virtue Wizard might be different from a Sin Wizard? The mechanics of the archetype don't necessarily even scream Sin Wizard, so much as just a super focused specialist.

Possibly Spoilers, if you're playing in RotRL or Shattered Star proceed with caution

Hey guys, I was looking over the Thassilonian sin archetype and thought it would be interesting to have a wizard that started with that and possibly learned or leaned toward virtue instead of sin.

In particularly I'd love to try playing a wizard that starts as a Sloth Wizard and slowly uncovers Zeal magic instead. If using just fluff I had planned on going with a neutral summoner that leaned toward Evil summons that eventually leans toward Good summons (*shrug* Best I feel can do without changing too many rules)

That said has anybody given any thought to what that might entail? If you were a GM would you give any RP/Gameplay bonuses to a character who tried for that sort of growth? Also, in the world of Golarion, does that not work? I know the original thassilonian wizards left virtue magic because they did not find it powerful enough. So perhaps they were missing something? I'm not sure. What do you think?

If the entire dungeon fits on a map, I will draw most if not all of it down. We also got one of those big rolls of butcher paper and I'll sometimes sit down with a ruler and pencil and just draw it out (Then if I'm ambitious or thoroughly bored I'll color it in with colored pencils)

Then I have a bunch of scratch paper cut up into different shapes that I use to cover the map as best I can. That way when players move into and out of rooms I can just lift up the page and I'm good to go!

I've been toying with picking up some light grey translucent plastic to simulate "fog of war" but I haven't had the time xD

Another option based on funds or resources is draw it out like I suggested on a large roll of paper (Can pick one up at Ikea I think?) and ruler the squares out, then you cut the dungeon up into rooms. So that you just place the paper down and place the minis. If you have an easy way of getting cardboard boxes or drink a lot of beer (Whoops...) you can cut those boxes up and use it for backing on the rooms, so they're a bit more sturdy.

Thank you!

Well I wanted to clarify that with the cerebremancer I'll be playing is a Wizard anyway, as it's the Mystic Theurge of Wizard/Psion. I also might be able to convince my DM to let me use get the guild benefits from Inner Sea Magic so I my be able to get rid of a few of the caster level issues by the later levels.

The question, I guess then, would be:
Am I going to really hinder my party (Or myself) by playing a cerebremancer instead of just a straight wizard in this campaign?

Howdy folks,

My wonderful DM will be running the RotRL Anniversary soon and we have a great setup!

Cleric of Cayden Cailean
Monk/Free Hand Fighter Crane Style Dervish Dance Mister McCheeserson
Ninja for the skillz
and Something else not an arcane caster.

Which leads me to play the Arcane caster. That said I know that wizards get a lot of goodies in the AP and I would like to fill that role to give people Hastes and Enlarges and Buffs. Because making other people amazing is kind of a cool feeling.

Then again, I also want to play a Psion. Particularly the Shaper "Astral Construct" type shaper. So should I just suck up my Psionic obsession and roll a good ol' fashioned wizard? Or try something unique and go with a Cerebremancer? What do?

TL:DR Wizard or Cerebremancer? (Probably build something ridiculous like Thassilonian Sloth (Conjuration)/Shaper Psion/Cerebremancer)

I've had it happen to me a few times AS a DM. Mainly it's been more tough lessons about how the PC's do what they want to do, and not what you want to do xD.

In a one-shot I did I wanted to start it out with a bar brawl, getting the PC's a couple of NPC's that might stick around (Depending how they handled it). So the PC's, newcomers in town, get some drinks at the local tavern and what do you know two miscreants approach them. Walks up to the Dwarf Samurai and starts trying to pick a fight.

Of course my player plays it off real coolly and says something along the lines of "This isn't your fight, lets enjoy a nice drink and continue with our day". Not happy with that answer the miscreant smashes his mug across the dwarf's head. Player says "I hope you've released your anger and we can continue amicably with our drinks" O.O

I did end up provoking him into a fight, but still feel that I really should have left it at that. It was a great moment.

Another option, and this one would need to be done with a very open mind, but a decent look at power creep (Then again, you are allowing additional options as is, so you're probably already having a higher powered game) is allowing certain class abilities from other classes.
This wouldn't be like "I purchase wizards spellcasting" and now your fighter is effectively God.
But more like the ability to get Rogue Talents, or +1D6 Sneak Attack (Maximum level as 'though' you were a rogue, so no rogue double sneak attack!), or Rage Powers (As long as you allowed a player to purchase a significantly weaker rage in the first place)

Again I would take care to limit how powerful you allow it, Perhaps you can only take abilities as though you qualified as 1/2 level in that class. And all prereqs and such apply. But it's something to work out. And something that might let your players have a bit of fun playing a Barbarian that can vanish using ninja tricks. Or a Cleric that has 2 1st level Wizard spell slots.

Something to look into.

Also rewards could include:
Additional Skill points
Contacts
Traits (Though that comes with feats with that one feat)
"Campaign traits" where you could say that a player who slayed many orcs could 'purchase' the ability to be know as "Orc slayer" and gain a +2 Intimidate vs orcs or something.
etc.

I assume you're having your characters level at "story intervals" or every other session or whatnot? If that's the case then you could just use a regular XP progression (Slow, Medium, or Fast) and when they would "level up" instead they just get to choose between your choices. (I.E. 1 Feat, 1 Ability score increase, 1d4-1 Hero Points)

In the end it probably depends on what type of world you're going for.
In a world where Physical and Emotional maturity is 10x slower than a human's then you're going to see Elves that require generations of humans to raise.

In a world where only Physical Maturity is 10x slower than a Human's then you'll get situations where 18 year old "fully matured" children are prancing around casting fireball at dragons. (Look out Anime)

ANd in a world where only emotional maturity is 10x slower than you're going to see fully grown adult elves who can't change their own diapers.

I think dramatic prose might suggest the first. But that's only because most elves wouldn't stop "studying" until after they'd reached maturity. Which is why you see most elves being master magicians. They've studied magic for 3 to 4 times as long as most humans. But in play that doesn't really stand out.

And alternatively you could say that elves in the world are patient and take their time with things. Where as humans go willy nilly into danger looking for power and prestige. Casting those spells that they haven't quite mastered yet so they can gain "POWER OVERWHELMING". I guess take your pick?

Oh man. This needs to happen.
This is a fantastic archetype! I'm gonna pitch this to my resident Gunslinger player and see what he thinks. Maybe I'll make a villain for them as well... HAHAHAH.

Now if only I can find a way to let the 3.5 feat 'Brutal Throw' to work with cannons...