niel's page

In regards to the Alchemy Domain, two things.

One is that the Domain doesn't show up on the sidebar, instead it is under Acolyte of Apocrypha.
Two is you comment about the Craft (Alchemy) skill.
Neither the granted ability nor any of the spells require Alchemy and work just fine with your created potions or any potion.
Touch injection of a poison or potion with a immediate onset should have several useful options.
Extend or empower on a potion or elixir can always be useful, even at the cost of a spell.
And delayed effect for a potion as immediate effect seems powerful.

This domain seems to work just fine without any focus on Alchemy, though obviously having the skill would be thematic.

And thank you for this guide, this domains are something I had missed and I like several of them very much.

My wife has a pin that says, "Move aside Coffee, this is a job for Alcohol!"

I disagree, which is why there's alcohol in my coffee.

(Specifically, I used O'Donnell's Cappuccino as cream. Sure it's only 15% alcohol, but it's bonus alcohol.)

What about a kineticist instead?
You take an energy blast (targeting touch AC) and can use it infinitely.
Water gives a defense of either +4 AC or +2 shield AC.
Other elements give DR, hit points, natural armor, or something else.
Sure it's only a d6, but he'll always have a fallback when he's out of spells.
You only lose 1 caster level and don't need to use any feats.
And you stay at range rather than getting into melee.

By the time 1d6 is completely irrelevant, he will have enough spells he'll never worry about using his blast again.

Really though, pearls of power, wands, or even a Int boosting item to give him a couple of more spells will work out better in the long run.

Unless he's just missing out on being in melee, in which case a character rebuild to magus might be a better idea.

There are several ratmen at the reaper miniatures site.
Search using 'wererat' in figure finder.

Ohh- Mediterranean!

If we go by Rome, I'll take ya'll to see the family niche at the Vatican.

(Not that I've ever seen it :)

cruise ship.
self contained, set up for crowds
see some whales

Mutants and Masterminds can work for a bunch of concepts.
It's d20 (based) so is familiar, earlier editions more so.
The difficulty is that it is a super hero game, so characters want to be built with hero powers.
If you set power limits and keep to them, then allow more points for character builds than the power limits start with, you can get some nicely complex characters that don't break the concept of the game.
But it helps to be familiar with the system (as always).

It does take some time to get used to the idea a damaging hit causes a save rather than causing damage.

Now I have an urge to run an Urban Arcana game where the Boss baddy is a necromancer who is attempting to shift to the afterlife echo of the French WWI trenches where some evil MacGuffin was hidden back in 1920. The heroes would be Dept. 42 or something like that tasked with preventing that.

Hmmm..

Sounds like that should be a Bureau 13 game.

Dibs on the Hellboy substitute- I'm thinking Kid Frankenstein, son of The Bride and The Monster.
Maybe he wants to be an actor, but can only get sideshow or stuntman jobs.
Hey Rube!

However, in my dreams, someone hit my car in a hotel parking lot, which made it roll down a hill into a swimming pool. Then I rescued a living stuffed rabbit that was losing stuffing but was very sweet so I determined to save it.

Pff, amateur.

I woke up this morning from a dream where I had offended Baba Yaga (who lived on the second story of the 200+ year old jail found in the courthouse green of the county I grew up in- that would be Mathews County, Va.)
Bab Yaga was chasing me because I had moved the bike rack made of cast iron pipe which was on the landing of the rusty steel and concrete stair which led to her house.
I took off running, thankful the county had replaced the water treatment plant which was there when I was a kid, 'cause I could run across the grass which replaced it.
I woke up trying to figure out if I should duck into the nearest church or if She would care if I did.
Also thinking, why doesn't she run faster?

I had no idea how many unread books I have. A pleasant problem to have.

The problem is the inevitable guilt when you go by the library or bookstore or want to go by the bookstore/library and remember how much you already have to read.

However, if you make sure all your book shelves are on exterior walls, books make great insulation.
It's good for the environment!

Or so rationalizes the man who bought more books today.
Strahd for 5th edition! (except I've never played 5th edition)
And 'Disciple of the Wind'. (It's book 3 of the Fated Blades series by Steve Bein- and I enjoyed books 1 & 2- I had to get it!)

possibly I have a problem

I shoot my crossbow at the elliptical.
(I didn't like the way it was looking at the monkey.)

Yay, dogs!

Ho-ray!

edit: that doesn't look right

Hughrey?
Hurrah?
maybe Yipee?

Anyway- Three cheers for success!

That sucks, Patrick.
I don't suppose the security company has work on other sites?
(though I'm sure you've already thought of that)

I also now realize I'm assuming your hospital (like mine) uses an outside contractor for security which may not be true.

Would your experience with security at the hospital help you to get work with another security company in the area?
Since they aren't letting you use your experience with the hospital to work in another department (which is just silly, in my opinion)?
Intelligent bosses would realize someone with proven ability, who can be trusted to work in the hospital environment, would be valuable wherever he works.
(Hell, our environmental and food service department are chronically understaffed.)

Admittedly,in my experience at least, the higher-ups get all concerned with what they name 'politics' (which seem to be more like dick measuring contests) rather than making sense.

it's just good to say hey again, fawtl or not.

Most definitely agree.

So what's everyone up to these days?
(games and otherwise)

I remember that there were fawtl's heading to Texas, seemingly in mass.

Patrick, what did you do at a hospital?

I've been on the maintenance staff at one in Williamsburg, Va. for over nine years.
It's one of about 10 in a non-profit corporation.
From people I've spoken to, every hospital still does things differently for overtime, part-time, and basic staff sharing.

niel wrote:

Howdy, all.

Seems like a nice place you've got here.

Thanks! It's been very nice to have some of the old crew come and stop by. I missed the friendly drama-free interaction we used to enjoy in FAWTL once upon a time.

I enjoy BSing with my virtual buds. It also encourages me to stop by Paizo more often, which also helps me inject a bit of energy into my PbPs.

I can't post on Fawtl any more.

"Well, you ass me," the old lady said, "dat boy had sumthin wrong wi' him."

The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R S. Belcher

I miss caffeine

Miss Caffeine?

good to see you Niel! Hope all is well with you

I seem to be doing well, thank you for asking.

NIEL!

Howdy, all.

Seems like a nice place you've got here.

Someone needs sugar and caffeine.

For atmosphere.

“The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind.”

“Pleasure to me is wonder—the unexplored, the unexpected, the thing that is hidden and the changeless thing that lurks behind superficial mutability.”

“Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane.”

“From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Tales of H.P. Lovecraft

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age.”

“Never Explain Anything”

“To be bitter is to attribute intent and personality to the formless, infinite, unchanging and unchangeable void. We drift on a chartless, resistless sea. Let us sing when we can, and forget the rest..”

“At night, when the objective world has slunk back into its cavern and left dreamers to their own, there come inspirations and capabilities impossible at any less magical and quiet hour. No one knows whether or not he is a writer unless he has tried writing at night.”

“I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century and among those who are still men.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Outsider

“If I am mad, it is mercy! May the gods pity the man who in his callousness can remain sane to the hideous end!”

“It is good to be a cynic — it is better to be a contented cat — and it is best not to exist at all.”

“I have seen the dark universe yawning
Where the black planets roll without aim,
Where they roll in their horror unheeded,
Without knowledge, or lustre, or name.”

“Pleasure to me is wonder—the unexplored, the unexpected, the thing that is hidden and the changeless thing that lurks behind superficial mutability. To trace the remote in the immediate; the eternal in the ephemeral; the past in the present; the infinite in the finite; these are to me the springs of delight and beauty.”

“Religion is still useful among the herd - that it helps their orderly conduct as nothing else could. The crude human animal is in-eradicably superstitious, and there is every biological reason why they should be.
Take away his Christian god and saints, and he will worship something else...”

“I never ask a man what his business is, for it never interests me. What I ask him about are his thoughts and dreams.”

Creative minds are uneven, and the best of fabrics have their dull spots.”

“Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

“Contrary to what you may assume, I am not a pessimist but an indifferentist- that is, I don't make the mistake of thinking that the... cosmos... gives a damn one way or the other about the especial wants and ultimate welfare of mosquitoes, rats, lice, dogs, men, horses, pterodactyls, trees, fungi, dodos, or other forms of biological energy.”

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.”

“Ultimate horror often paralyses memory in a merciful way.”

“Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places.”

“We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”

I've been running a dino shaman in a castaways/land of the lost campaign.

We did it a little different- since there were no dinos back home, I was regular wildshaper til 6th level when I switched to dino shaman after "attuning " myself to the land, but I never recieved the archetype abilities gained before 6th.

Here's some input from my experiences,

With dino shaman, you won't get wild shape till 6th, so you will spend what seems like a looong time waiting for it.

In the meantime, Shillelagh is your friend.

You have:
1-dodge
1(human)-Improved iniative
3-Power attack
5- (Gm decided natural spell was just a feat tax for druids, so I get natural spell for free)
7- Improved natural attack (Bite)
9- Powerful shape
9(druid bonus)- Vital strike

Wild speech at 7th allows you to conserve wild shape uses as you will not have to end its duration to talk to the party.

Powerful shape pretty much only effects manuvers, usually only giving a bonus of + 1 or 2 and working with size limits on grapple.

I used different shapes for different battles and couldn't convince myself to put feats into one type of atack, so I avoided weapon focus completely and didn't want to sepend a feat on the improved nat attack, which pretty much gives a + 1 to damage.

I'd take wild speech at 7th, skipping improved attack.

I took the feat Quick Wild Shape at 9th.
Quick Wild Shape
You sacrifice power for speed in changing form.
Prerequisites: Wild shape class feature, caster level 8th.
Benefit: You can wild shape as a move action or a swift action. However, you are limited to forms available to a druid two levels lower when changing form as a move action, or four levels lower as a swift action.

I reccomend toughness as soon as possible, maybe bumping dodge till 5th.

My two main problems were AC and action economy- I wanted a round or two to buff before fights and didn't usually get them.

Extend will help with that, making your buffs last longer.

Anything to help AC will be a life saver.
You're a front liner and can expect to be a large target most of the time.
You might want to go the UMD and wand route for Mage Armor and Shield. Potions also work.

You may need to tailor your build to your GM.
Does he like one big bad or small evil parties?
That can make significant differences in your build requirements.

It looks like you are the only caster, so that may make a major difference in your play as well.
Remember, you are a full caster, even if focused on wild shapeing.

A monk dip will delay your wild shape even further and your AC bonus from Wis is only 2.
IUS is good for opening access to other feats, which you don't have space for.
Taking up to 4 levels of Monk would not increase the BAB drop but would give a few more feats -at the cost of even more delay to wild shape.

Good Luck.

Mothman wrote:

I just found out that one of my cousins is back in hospital with a bad infection after a bone marrow transplant a few weeks ago. In intensive care and on dialysis, the prognosis is not good.

Sadly my cousin didn’t make it. RIP Paul, you were a good man, you will be missed.

You have my condolences.

My thoughts are with your family.

Word.

(Or not, as the case may be.)

str 3d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 2) = 9
dex 3d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 3) = 9
con 3d6 ⇒ (2, 3, 2) = 7
int 3d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 6) = 13
wis 3d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 4) = 15
cha 3d6 ⇒ (2, 6, 1) = 9

desk bound Mystic Theurge with a crotchety demeanor, all the way

Very impressive work!

Well concieved and well executed.

Congrats

As far as I know, there are no seperate morale rules.
'Morale' is a type of bonus, like dodge, sacred, armor, or profane.
It is listed so that , when adding bonuses, you do not add two of the same type, which is prohibited except for dodge bonuses.

I believe Shaping Focus says "to a maximum of four higher, to a maximun level equal to your character."

So a 6th level druid would not be able to use the feat.
A 6th druid/2nd rogue with the feat would wildshape as an eigth level druid.
A 6th druid/6th ranger with the feat would wilshape as a 10th level druid.

Your example of a lion shaman 16/ alchemist 1 (if he had the feat) would elemental shape as a druid of 16(base) - 2(not a lion shape) + 1(having the feat and one level of alchemist) = 15th.

d) all of the above.

And possibly even on the same side.

I like playing druids because you can base your roleplay on feelings rather than needing facts. A sort of 'go with your heart' type of thing.

A druid who is pigeon-holed into one thing is being played like any other class who is being overly simplified. People aren't simple, characters don't need to be, either.

If you must put a unified concept on the class, I like to think of the druid as someone who dances to a different music. Fighters think about attack and defense, clerics about the tennants of their faith, wizards are concerned with arcane power. A druid hears the sound of the world and follows that muse.

First edition had all druids as part of a single group, clustered in areas by grove, but ultimately all one group. To the extent that the higher levels of druid had limited numbers and progression involved defeating those above you in the organization. Pathfinder does not include this, but there is a holdover in thought that all druids share a single goal. Incorrect.

You can play a druid as someone who feels a greater connection to the simpler world than the complex. Religion is reverence without the need for a god, politics is style rather than country, war is about outcomes rather than victory, etc., etc., etc. Rely on yourself rather than needing your allies to do for you.

A druid can be someone with their own strength who has chosen to act in such a way as to be an example for others to follow. Or they can be someone who acts as they see fit, without needing the approval of another or a hierachy to verify their choices.

I wish our CEO would double my paid vacation time.

Easily done.

Wait- didn't you get the memo?
All paid vacation time was reduced to zero.
And zero doubled is what you have.

I wish I could throw my cold away like an apple core.

I'll be out of town from thursday thru monday on a trip with the beloved wife.
DRA can run San Pen as necessary while I'm out of touch.

Just out of couriousity, What are the Dungen master's domains?

I'm guessing Trickery and Glory.

Reaper has a dwarven monk named Burl Oakenfist (or something like that).

Go to reaper minatures figure finder, enter male, Dwarf, empty hands, any, martial character and check the results to the right.

I'm no good at links, but you can have fun using the figure finder.

It's a special gaze attack.
It's not whether you can see the moustache- it's whether the moustache can see you!

niel wrote:

Be aware 'The Keep' is only the first book of Wilson's Adversary Cycle and that the other books of the cycle are being re-written. The cycle includes Repairman Jack novels as well as others.

Why is he rewriting them? To tie them all in?

He's been upgrading the individual books one by one.

Currently reading the horror classic, The Keep by F. Paul Wilson.

Be aware 'The Keep' is only the first book of Wilson's Adversary Cycle and that the other books of the cycle are being re-written. The cycle includes Repairman Jack novels as well as others.

Pacing and game comfortable so far.
I'm good.

Shaving requires a balance.
Shave the face with a good quality razor. Disposibles suck.
Don't shave the upper lip.
A quality moustache shows class.
And you don't have to worry about shaving the curvy lip parts.

niel wrote:

Jess Door wrote:
niel wrote:
Jess Door wrote:
Brother is going to move away from me, to VA.

dumb brother. :( I will miss him. It's a good move for him, though, I think.

Where in Virginia?
I'm in Newport News/Williamsburg near Fort Eustis, Thing is in Portsmouth.

Dunno yet. Final negotiations for job proceeding, but it's looking likely. NASA is not a good place to be right now.

Yes, my brother is a rocket scientist. Well, I guess an engineer. I and my two brothers are all engineers... What can I say? Being a geek runs in the family!

Let us know where he ends up. We'll do what we can to make him feel at home.
Is he a gamer, too?

He loves board games, especially long strategy games, or games like Settlers of Catan. Not a role player, though. My other brother introduced me to gaming, and my parents were gamers in the early 80's, but I'm the only big gamer in the family at the moment. :)

Gamer or not, he's FAWTLy family.

That bonded item argument he presented was lacking.

1.If you can get close enough to take away the bonded item then you are close enough to kill the wizard, and the bonded item is not at the top of the priority list at that point.
2.The item is not used when you cast spells if you pick something like a ring so there is no way to find out which of your items is the bonded one.
Just because the GM knows something that does not mean the NPC's are supposed to know it.
3.In a low magic world casters are the best class to be. While other classes are trying to get magic items you will have magic at your fingertips literally.
4.The crafting skill can allow you to make another item. Just be sure to take the correct one. I would just spend free time making backup items if he goes into meta-game mode.
5.The concentration check is hard at low levels, but later it becomes trivial.

This is the kind of return arguments I was looking for.

How are the combat based characters going to advance their weapons in this world? What will happen to the fighter is his sword is sundered? Will he just have to soldier on with only a dagger? Maybe for a short time, but I'll bet that he would eventually be able to replace it.

If your bonded item breaks, it leads to a short period of time where your wizard sucks. Just like your fighter will be less useful if his sword breaks or is lost. However, it's not the end of the game, your bonded item can be replaced with just about any magical goodie that you get along the way. So unless the GM is planning to give you nothing except coin and jewels, you'll be able to use something to replace the bonded item.

A fighter can carry multiple weapons, switching between them as necessary. And could just pick up a club or staff. A wizard can have only one bonded item. Loss of a piece of equiptment affects them differently.

Has there been anything official said about changing types of bonded items during the wizard's career?
For example, if I lost my amulet, could I bond to a wand I had found?
Would the cost for changing the bonded item be covered by the value of the found wand or would it be in addition to the cost/value of the new bonded item?
If I still had my ring, but wanted to switch to a staff, do I just break it and spend a week without? Or keep the ring, incorporate into a staff and never go without?

Not really going to be low magic, just more lost world type terrain, so no cities to buy magical supplies like scrolls or wand materials.
In most game there is no reason to know what the supplies are that you need to scribe a scroll or put a spell into your spell book or replenish your casting bag, but when you're in the wilderness 'spend 100 gp times the level of the spell to put it in your spellbook' has new meaning.

niel wrote:

Jess Door wrote:
Brother is going to move away from me, to VA.

dumb brother. :( I will miss him. It's a good move for him, though, I think.

Where in Virginia?
I'm in Newport News/Williamsburg near Fort Eustis, Thing is in Portsmouth.

Dunno yet. Final negotiations for job proceeding, but it's looking likely. NASA is not a good place to be right now.

Yes, my brother is a rocket scientist. Well, I guess an engineer. I and my two brothers are all engineers... What can I say? Being a geek runs in the family!

Let us know where he ends up. We'll do what we can to make him feel at home.

I was discussing an up-coming campaign with my GM last night, as we began talking about party roles.
(It will be our first full Pathfinder game.)
He implied a wizard would be a bad idea for campaign reasons (lost world adventure, little access to other wizards and few items available).
He then went on to suggest that the arcane bond was horrible as the item could be broken or taken, costing too much to replace (lost world means little access to casting goods we don't make ourselves, let alone straight cash) and making it impossible to cast without heinous concentration checks.
I like the bonded item, but wasn't able to come up with an argument to answer him.
What do ya'll think?

Brother is going to move away from me, to VA.

dumb brother. :( I will miss him. It's a good move for him, though, I think.

Where in Virginia?

Taking the alias's out for a dusting?

Nice work.
How do they stat up?

It's official. I declined the grad school offer. I feel like it is the right choice, although it's been a very difficult one.

Congratulations! The courage to make the tough decision is what will bring you the happiness you deserve.

May God have mercy and look with favor on the souls of the living and the dead, the virtuous and the sinner, the faithful and the unbelievers.
Amen

Condolences and best wishes to the family and friends.

COOL.

Not carried by the Paizo store, I guess.

EDIT: Of course, you could just use this table and not spend money on yet more dice.

But with Ten Commandment Dice (tm), I can roll for a radom sin at need!

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?