oynaz's page

Splendor, you know what a lever is? Do not show your physics professor your calculation is what I am hinting at. Pushing over a 6' tall 1540 lbs book case which is not weighted is not hard at all.

Which rule covers it? Why,the rule of cool of course.

@Alpyra:

Try approaching the problem the other way round. There clearly is a power mismatch between the player you talk about and the rest of the group. But consider that the problem is not that he is overpowered, but that the rest of you is underpowered. As pointed out, AC 20, dam 2d8+8 is definitely on the weak side for a 5th level fighter. If I were asked to nerf a perfectly ordinary build, I would be annoyed as well.
Sounds like you nerfed his magus into unplayable as well. No wonder he sulks.

So, consider the possibility that you might be wrong and he might be right, then sit down and talk it through.

Remember, the goal is to have fun.

Not railroading at all assumes either an amount of time to prepare or an ability to wing it that I, for one, simply do not possess.

Remember what the thread is about. You just advised a new gm against railroading at all. Welcome to the jungle! :-)

In a perfect world, railroading would not be necessary. The world is not perfect, so my advice to a new GM is:
Avoid railroading if you can, but do not be afraid do it if you think it is needed. And if you do it, do it blatantly.

With more experience, this becomes much less of an issue.

Call me a pursit as well. Players who dont like railroads are not going to forgive you for railroading them. Know thy players. Seems the OP is on the right track by looking to tailor the adventure to the players.

To avoid the players missing the action dont plan the action until you have the players locked into a particular path.

After more than 25 years of role playing, I have yet to see a group of players who did not forgive the old Blatant Railroading Trick.

Don't be afraid to call a 10 minute timeout if the players did something unexpected and you need some time to reorganize.

Subtle railroading is hard, and it is annoying for the players. As a new GM, blatant railroading is OK.
Example:
The princess has been kidnapped, and you have mapped the BBEGs castle and planned lots of fun encounters there. Meanwhile, the players have convinced themselves that there is a sinister plot going on in the nearby city. It was fun at first, but now the players are frustrated chasing non-existing clues, and you have run out of material for the city.
As an inexperienced GM, it is now OK to say: "This night after discussing things, you decide that the clues in the city are red herrings, and you decide to go to the castle."
Purists may disagree, but your players will forgive you.

As others have noted, ignore the XP system, and tell the players when it is time to level up.

Don't let the game descend into Lawyers & Accountants. Pathfinder strictly by the book means using a lot of rules which might not add to your game. Feel free to ignore these.
For instance, replacing the encumberance rules with common sense normally works just fine.

Or you could do like me: drop the xp system and simply inform the players when they gain a level. IMO, xp in Pathfinder serves no real purpose.

I asked around before for advice about which character to play. Thanks for your replies everyone, you helped a lot. I have finally decided: The Chosen One it is. The reason? I felt like having an animal companion, and waiting 5 levels for it (the Arcane Druid - a wizard with the Animal Ally feat) was too long. On top of it, my brother made a joke about herding mammoths, and it came to me: Using Smilodons to herd woolly mammoths! Brilliant!

The Chosen One is from the Land of the Mammoth Lords, and comes from a tribe which have tamed smilodons and are using them to herd mammoths. For some yet-to-be-decided reason, he has decided he is The Chosen One. Possibly he went on a trip south, and saw everyone else herding sheep using dogs, and jumped to the logical conclusion. The smilodon will start off as a large kitten, and grow large and powerful.

So, I have decided on a concept. The next step is building the guy. Here goes:

The Chosen One
Human Sylvan Sorcerer

15 points
STR: 8
DEX: 12
CON: 12
INT: 13
WIS: 10
CHA: 16+2

Flaw: Pride
Traits: Eyes of the City (perception becomes class skill - re-flavored to Eyes of the Plains), Magical lineage (fireball, I think), Desperate Focus.

I want him to mainly do crowd control and buffs, with the occasional blast. The Chosen One has others do the hard work!
I have two feat lists, and offensive build and a defensive build.

Feat choice list, offensive build:

1 Toughness, Boon Companion
3 Spell Focus
5 Spell Specialization
7 Dazing Spell, Bonus Feat: Quicken Spell
9 Craft Rods
11 Combat Casting
13 Piercing Spell, Bonus Feat: Improved Initiative
15 Spell Mastery

Feat choice list, defensive build:

1 Toughness, Combat Casting
3 Boon Companion
5 Great Fortitude
7 Dazing Spell, Bonus Feat: Quicken Spell
9 Craft Rods
11 Piercing Spell
13 Iron Will, Bonus Feat: Improved Initiative
15 Spell Mastery

A note about Craft Rods: I want to use it to make metamagic rods. Dazing Spell for 7000 gold? Yes, please! I see two problems, however: First, how do I switch easily between them? I might have to fit Quick Draw in my feats. Second, how can I get enough spellcraft to make rods with feats I do not know? The DC is 28, but I can only reach a spellcraft of 13 at level 9 (class skill, 9 ranks, 13 int). How can I scrape together the last 5 skill points needed to take 10?

And, which 1st lvl feat for my sabertooth tiger?

Thoughts?

At the end of the day, there is only one solution: Ban the summoner. There are lots of excuses and theory-crafting, but come on: The summoner is an example of a brilliant idea, but horrible execution.

We tried both the synthesist and he summoner in my group. The synthesist player suggested banning the class himself. My group have played RPGs for 20 years, and are very good optimizers. The guy playing the summoner was the exception - that was his first take on an RPG. His character was still by far the strongest character in the party - after the synth changed class at least.

Or look at it this way:

Take the arguably strongest class in the game: The wizard.

Take one of his strongest abilities: Summon monster.

Remove the main disadvantage: The full-round casting time.

Multiply the duration by 6.

Take what is now the the most powerful ability in the game - probably overpowered, but that doesn't matter, because the summoner still isn't using it: He has an even more powerful option in his eidolon.

OP: Talk to your player. Either you need to hit his character heavily with a nerfbat, or he needs to make another. You not going to be able to challenge him without wiping the party. At the very least, you are going to need to spend a disproportionately large amount of time designing the encounters.

So, my group will start a new game soon - this time I am going to be a player after GMing for many years.

We are going to play a Paizo adventure path - the GM will not tell us which, as he feels the title spoils the ending of the first book. Fair enough (and please do not spoil it for me if any of you can guess which one form that little information.)

But what to play? Sooo, many cool options, so I turn to you.

The party so far:
Healer/Blaster Cleric of Sarenrae with fireball as Preferred Spell and quick channel + heal domain for heals.
Vanilla Paladin
Barbarian/Vivisectionist grappler/sneak attacker/archer
Another Paladin with oracle dips - this guy will probably make an arcane caster instead if I do not.

All are good optimisers, so it is not very important what I make - even with an unbalanced party we should be fine. And, well, the cleric and the barb/vivisectionist have most roles covered between them anyway.

I have a number of ideas:

The Chosen One - sylvan sorceror with low wisdom and extreme levels of arrogance. Is convinced he is The Chosen One, and get absolutely baffled when things do not go exactly as he planned.

Urban Barbarian / Beastmorph Alchemist - a very versatile take on the switch hitter. Uses reach weapon, Combat Reflexes, Dispelling Bombs, Infusions and the healing discoveries to have a trick up his sleeve for practically any situation, while still having the ability to hit people very, very hard.

The Arcace Druid - Wizard, probably specialing in Conjuration. Using Nature Soul, Animal Ally and Boon Companion feats to gain a leopard companion, while still being a full-blown wizard. I'll probably make him a small, annoying elf.

The Old and Tired Dwarf - A dwarven veteran of many wars. Enjoys the feel of metal armour on his body, and bashing in an orc's skull. Unfortunately, he was to old to prevent the tragedy that befell his home town when the ogres came. He was one of the only survivors, and took to wandering the world as a mercenary, to old to fight properly, and too depressed to care. It was here that he found out that he was an Empyreal Sorcerer, and now has a chance of redemption.

Knife Master Rogue / Teleportation Wizard / Arcane Trickster - a distinguished nobleman, inspired by the Discworld Assassins. Well-educated, polite, handsome, and extremely adept at stalking you and cutting your throat.

All of them sound like great fun to me. Your opinions? Or perhaps suggestions?

There is a lot of people in here who seem to assume that having actions happen doing your move action ends the move. I cannot find that anywhere in the rules, and without that the whole concept collapses.

As gm, I would slap anyone who suggested using a 2-hander and armor spikes at the same time.
That is Elastic Tape Measure Award territory in my opinion.
As I read them, the armor spike rules forbid it anyway

I would perhaps allow the suggested idea (attack with a 1 hander in 2 hands then quick draw the shield) per Rule of Cool.

I once had a group of 3 who refused to go out adventuring because it was too dangerous. They did roleplay doing the dishes, though.

No, I am not kidding.