mr. bitters's page

Congratulations, Flak! And to think you almost decided not to submit it. :)

If it is something that happens mid-campaign, it should happen as a collaboration between the player and the GM. Players hate surprises that interfere with their character concepts just as much as GMs hate surprises that interfere with their plots.

The DM can give the player some choice without being dull enough to make an intelligent devil a benign resource. They could drop hints that the imp is acting shady, and give the player an opportunity to either work out a deal with the imp or come up with a different plan. Seems a reasonable middle path.

In any event, in our group there is an overriding feeling of "if you aren't going to play by the rules, why play this game at all--why not a different game?"

I understand your other points, but just to put another perspective on this particular point:

Games like Pathfinder are immensely complex, and even the game developers don't claim that the entire interacting web of rules is perfect in any sense. Part of the fun is the open-endedness, and if you can build on that with your own rules and additions then why not do so? I don't feel restricted by every line of text in every book, and unlike other multiplayer games, my changes are easy to implement since they affect a very limited number of players.

After all, suggesting that you go play a different game because you think lawful barbarians should be able to rage would be rather silly.

original names:

Badrock
The Rust Loop
Ironstone Mark
Ravizen's Jaw
Elysia's Demise
The Ashen Cliffs
Uthgrawl
Eiriko

What bugs me is that according to the rules (or DeathQuaker's fluff explanation) shadows would have no problem wandering about in broad daylight, and the Priests of the Light God bringing all their power to bear against them would be more successful fighting off ghouls. That's extremely unsatisfying to me.

"The sinister shadow skirts the border between the gloom of darkness and the harsh truth of light." (bestiary)

Except this seems to be due to a personal preference on the shadows' part, because you could tie one to a searchlight at high noon on Mercury and this malevolent symbol of twilight would be A-OK. :P

Normally this could be "cheesy" but -- it means you are charisma based, arguably one of the weakest stats to be based off of in the game. SO it wouldn't bother me too much if someone did this.

Unless they manage to play an intelligent undead who gets hit points from Charisma. I don't know if there are any with lowish level adjustment, though.

Insectile template makes a 6 armed rogue/master thrower, the latter giving you 2 projectiles per attack roll. But that's a mash of editions.

Encountering some shadows, my level 7 inquisitor realized this would be a perfect time to cast searing light. Undead vulnerable to bright light, 7d8 damage, and the shadow loses 34 hit points!

...except the entry for shadows in the bestiary never mentions that they are vulnerable to bright light. So they take 7d6 damage for being normal undead. 28 damage.

...except the entry for searing light doesn't bother to say what type of damage it is, so being incorporeal, the shadow gets to subtract half that damage. 14 damage.

Good job, paizo. Shadows are not only not vulnerable to light, they are *resistant* to it.