redking88's page

OK, if you are like me you like Pathfinder, but have an issue with the homosexual, bi-sexual, gender-fluid, and other NPCs that frequently appear in Pathfinder (now numbering in the 100s).

I want to set up an online project to go through these NPCs and edit their background to remove any degeneracy that does not align with your personal comfort zone. Sometimes this is very easy, other times the NPCs need a complete reworking.

For example, perhaps we can take Azaz Arafe and Khelru, the homosexual lovers from 'Lovers in the Scorched Hand' and rework them as siblings. That shouldn't be too hard to do.

Here is a list we can start with -

http://wesschneider.tumblr.com/post/93277599246/50-lgbtq-characters-in-the- pathfinder-rpg

We also need to identify the other LGBTQ+ NPCs and revise them to heteronormative standard.

I realize that some may not like this project, but no one is telling you how to play YOUR game. This is for MY game and the games of other people that think like me, the numbers of whom are not insignificant.

As opposed to trading a feat (and time and GP) for a power of a different sort, which is what the current crafting model does... which you call "broken."

I didn't call it broken, and didn't use that word. What I did offer is a fix for the problem of paying feat costs and XP costs, of which the feat costs are terrible. For example, how many players that play in a convention or one off game will have item creation feats? The answer is none.

That is in no way, shape, or form true.

Why do you say that?

Moreover, you could get to situations where a PC could be able to cast a spell one day, level up to be more powerful, but until they built up enough XPs again to pay for the spell, be less capable than before (at least with the spells that cost XPs). And that's just silly.

If a caster spends 5000 XP on a wish spell to get a +1 inherent bonus to a stat, he is not less capable, he is differently capable. He has traded XP for power of a different sort.

How is it fun for one player to wind up several levels behind other players for the crime of making each of them a cloak of resistance +2?

Why would someone do that? In any case, assuming that that there is a total of 4 members in the group, the total XP cost for that would be 640 XP for 4 cloaks of resistance. As the caster level for that (in 3.5) must be at least CL 6th, that means that the PC is at least 6th level and has a minimum of 15,000 XP, with 7th level being 21,000 XP.

So your disaster scenario has been averted, and actually it is quite a reasonable XP cost.

XP is not a finite resource, one could set up a farm with plenty of high-CR creatures and resurrections. It'd be inconvenient to do so, but it could happen. Especially since PCs get pretty crazy sometimes.

Perhaps if you view XP as something that simply comes out of creatures when you kill them. A lot of groups don't even give XP for killing monsters, but grant ad hoc awards of XP for stuff that they did during the adventure. Even if you strictly apply "XP for kills" I can't see XP being granted for rigged matches against captive monsters.

And again, XP costs are NOT inherently balancing, not in the slightest.

Inherently balancing because XP is a finite resource that imposes opportunity costs on item creation.

Also, yes, casters are OP, but being a teamplayer shouldn't be a burden for them alone.

They don't have to craft for the rest of the party, and probably won't in a big way.

All of this without considering the fact that higher level items take way too much time. Sometimes going around 20 days without an item it's just not worth it.

I don't really understand this. Are you talking about the excessive amount of time it takes to create items in Pathfinder? That is one of the rules they threw in there to thwart item creation because they have nothing like XP that is inherently balancing. GP is a poor substitute because it can easily be transferred between characters.

You DO NOT penalize a player simply for picking a class. Neither a castor nor item crafter deserve to penalized just because they exist.

No one is penalized. Instead they are given a choice of what they want to do. The terrible choice in 3.5e was having to choose between item creation feats and cripple their casting PC, or having no crafting at all.

In Pathfinder, sure, you can make whatever you like but instead of using XP to create items (which is inherently balancing, obviously so), they throw other obstacles in your way.

XP costs are a bad idea. Pathfinder did away with all of them for a reason.

In 3.5, if you fell behind a level you got more XP from any given encounter than your higher level friends. This isn't true in Pathfinder - in Pathfinder, if you fall behind in XP, you will always be behind in XP (unless you go on a solo adventure).

Would it be THAT bad for a caster to fall a level behind? I don't think so. In any case, think over the implications of the changes that I am suggesting. The caster now only uses a single precious feat for item creation, which leaves rooms for other feats such as metamagic. Don't you think that such a caster could afford to be slightly behind the other PCs?

They also made it a skill check to create an item, as well as being able to bypass various requirements. In 3.5, no check was necessary, and you had to meet all prerequisites.

Something which is incredibly boring! Effectively they had to find annoying ways to prevent you from crafting (and this is AFTER you paid a feat tax!) instead of offering you the simple choice of an opportunity cost vs item creation.

Uh, they removed the XP tax because it was absolutely hated and so people would actually use item creation feats. The Artificer from 3.5 was a very liked class specifically becasue it got bonus creation feats and got around the XP cost.

People say that casters are OP. There shouldn't be a problem with them falling a level or two behind, especially if they now have a magical item.

Pathfinder encourages casters to take Creation Feats, so I don't know why you think they removed the wrong thing or why you'd want to do the opposite.

What do you mean by "encourages"? Any item creation feat taken means that you can't use that feat slot for other feats.

As to what you've presented... I actually don't understand it, would you need to "buy" the feat every time you wanted to make an item?

You take the feat that I presented, then purchase (permanently) the other item creation feats with XP. You may have to alter how much XP will be required for each feat and not follow my table because Pathfinder greatly increased the amount of experience gain, and that table is balance for 3.5e.

One of the problems with Item Creation in 3.5 is that magical item creators are punished by having to take item creation feats that weakens the item creator in other areas. In fact this was one of the main reasons that the designers of pathfinder dropped experience point requirements for item creation in pathfinder. Bizarrely, they kept the feat tax for item creators, and removed the XP requirement for making items. In other words, exactly the wrong way around!

Now in Pathfinder they had to find ways to balance your new ability to create items without XP by having costs in time and so on. Not to mention the feat tax. Now we can remove the feat tax, and restore XP costs for creating magical items, something that was inherently balancing.

Here I will offer a new feat, which is an umbrella feat for taking other item creation feats that you can purchase at any time. For a wizard this can replace the 1st level feat 'Scribe Scroll'.

Item Creator [Item Creation]
Prerequisite
Caster level 1st or manifester level 1st (or equivalent).

You may now purchase any item creation feat that you meet the prerequisites for with Experience Points. Only item creation feats that directly create an item (for example, Scribe Scroll or Create Wondrous Item) may be purchased, and feats that affect the cost in GP, XP, or speed of creation may not be purchased via this feat (for example, the Magical Artisan feat).

The cost of each feat has an escalating cost, depending on how many item creation feats are purchased. The cost is capped at 5000 XP.

1st Item Creation Feat 100 XP
2nd Item Creation Feat 300 XP
3rd Item Creation Feat 600 XP
4th Item Creation Feat 1600 XP
5th Item Creation Feat 3700 XP
6th> Item Creation Feat 5000 XP

An item creation feat may be purchased at anytime, as long as the character has the available experience points. If purchasing the item creation feat would cause the character to lose a level, the feat may not be purchased.

I am seeing a lot of excitement around the Dungeon Master's Guild. The fact that fans are able to sell in game world products is spurring this growth, I believe.

Will Paizo be doing something similar for its IP?

This here -

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?489135-PEACH-Psionic-Base-Cla ss-The-Pugnator

I think I disagree with you.

Brandescar prison and the rather harsh punishments (also if you go with a medieval style society rather than modern liberal laws then the laws of Talingarde are not particularly harsh indeed they are a bit soft in places) are for serious criminals. There is no suggestion that petty theft , prostitution or similar crimes end up in Brandescar indeed the fact that there are only 4-6 criminals in all of Talingarde who end up there makes it unlikely that most criminals end up there.

There aren't 4-6 criminals in all of Talingarde. Executions in Talingarde happen quite swiftly. In WotW the PCs are due to be executed within three days of arrival. Brandescar is more a death camp than a prison.

In a truly lawful and good society Blasphemy will be directed at those who actively attack the faith of Mithra, not those who hold private and different faiths in reasonable religions which probably covers most elven and dwarven faiths, as the pantheon of Talingarde is not established but largely seems dualistic I don't see a lot of room for innocent worship going wrong, if you add a bunch of extra deities you would have to decide on their status I assume most good/lawful deitites would be tolerated.

That isn't supported by the text of WotW. Dwarves are clearly persecuted for their belief that their racial god created the world, and they dare not speak their beliefs out loud. How do you suppose that Mitra became so dominant in the first place? It isn't because they were softies. Speaking of which...

The only group we know to be 'persecuted' are the worshippers of Asmodeus who practice the following completely reasonable religious practices

1)Human sacrifice
2)Slavery
I think I can see why in a reasonable and just society such a faith would not be tolerated

Actually in Talingarde human sacrifice and slavery are illegal and anyone practicing it is dealt with under the law. Worship of Asmodeus on the other hand is illegal and punishable by being brutally burned to death. The individual believer of Asmodeus may actually oppose human sacrifice and slavery for various reasons (for example utilitarian reasons) but that will not save him from the flames. The believer of Asmodeus is burned to death only because of his faith.

In WotW the PCs have choices about what they want to do. They can establish slavery if they like, or choose to keep it illegal. Just because they are evil doesn't mean that they must have slavery in their society. For example, they could decide that the chance of slave revolts could undermine their rule. Or that the presence of many foreign slaves could undermine the social cohesion that they are attempting to build.

The PCs don't even have to destroy the church of Mitra. Certainly they are within their rights to do so but the PCs can choose the high road and pass of law establishing freedom of religion. The motivations of the PCs for doing this might be cynical (going too far all at once and destroying the church of Mitra without grassroots support could inspire rebellion) and strategic (for example, freedom of religion subtly undermines the church of Mitra because it used to be the state religion), but it does establish the PCs as enlightened rulers.

I am not trying to whitewash Asmodean rule. What I am saying is that all states operate under the principle that the state has the monopoly on violence. No matter what alignment, the state will use its monopoly on violence to enforce its worldview. What the PCs are doing throughout this entire campaign is challenging the monopoly on violence held by the state of Talingarde and proving to the people of Talingarde that the PCs now hold the monopoly on violence. Until this question is resolved there will be continual unrest.

As to the original point I am making a big effort to make it clear that the church of Mithra is actually largely good, popular and that the King is largely just and fair

I don't disagree with any of that. However the fact is that even LG regimes can stamp on the desires of minority interests. An example is giving in WotW of Dwarves getting into trouble for blasphemy for saying that their god is the creator of the world. In Talingarde Mitra is considered the creator of the world and saying otherwise is blasphemy and proscribed by law. Anyone violating this law could end up in Branderscar prison just as easily as a murderer.

Mao Zedong's primary contribution to political theory is that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun", and that is also true of a Lawful Good regime. It is the unalterable reality of the state, even a Lawful Good state.

90% of the people of Talingarde probably either support the Darius led state and the church of Mitra, or don't oppose it. What is left are people that would like to engage in certain forms of thought, speech, activities, occupations, or religious beliefs that are illegal in Talingarde.

Just like the Dwarf that blasphemes, a prostitute could also end up in Branderscar prison. The non-violent saleman or consumer of drugs too. The regime of Talingarde is indeed popular - popular with the majority on behalf of which it has instituted a majoritarian Lawful Good authoritarian state.

For one, recruiting the Black Dragon is ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY. A crew of 14th/15th level characters who are probably Vampires, Liches, Graveknights, or some other horrid monster by this point are more than capable of being seen as a capable enough threat that the princess' daddy would want to come save her from them.

You are right. The villainous characters will probably want to kill or enslave the black dragon.

How do you figure the party would capture her? Grappling or dominate spells?

Well, I expect her to put up a fight. You could debuff her strength or dexterity to the point where she is helpless and cannot move. Or you can slap some manacles of cooperation on her when she is dying, then heal her.

http://goo.gl/DjtrRi

Perhaps the manacles could be refashioned as a nice necklace. Something to suppress sorcerous powers would be helpful too (any item like that exist?).

I forgot to point out that Princess Belinda has a charisma score of 40.

More advice for "Way of the Wicked".

The author overlooks an alternative ending to this AP. Spoiler warning if you are a player -

At the end of the AP the PCs are expected kill Princess Belinda and end the insurgency against their rule forever. But why kill the Princess? A better way would be to capture her, use a magical item to suppress her sorcerous powers, and drag her back to the capital city.

Once back in the city she is not put on trial or anything like that. Instead her role in the insurgency is whitewashed and blamed on "wicked advisors" and unnatural supernatural influence. Instead she is forced to marry the Asmodean King of Talingarde, and thus cementing the Asmodean rule.

There are plenty of things that could change throughout the AP. Anyone else think of any?

This kind of defeats the purpose of the AP. Which is, essentially, generic fantasy reversed.

This is the player's opportunity to be Skeletor or something.

The AP doesn't really work if everyone isn't unrepentantly evil, and loving it while sticking it to the paragons of pious purity personified.

In one part you literally need to rescue a dragon in distress so it can slay a princess, and this is CRUCIAL to completion of the AP. That's the kind of stuff that's written.

The point has been missed.

The author of the adventure path concedes that a lot of players are going to have trouble playing out and out evil characters. I have suggested a method by which players can be evil but still justified in their resistance to a Lawful Good fascist regime (of course they are going to institute a Lawful Evil fascist regime eventually, but they can rationalize that away).

One could even play the PCs as enlightened mason or illuminati type people, those that want to overthrow the existing order and establish a state based on rationalism.

Way of the Wicked allows players to be the "bad guys". However there can be quite a lot of psychological resistance to being really bad guys. Here are some ideas for character creation.

The characters start in prison. They have been convicted of serious crimes. Now generally it would be quite easy to say "OK, my PC is a murderer" but it lacks pathos. The PCs in this adventure path want "revenge" against the state of Talingarde, but seeking "revenge" for your justified imprisonment for murder is banal and shallow. No, that will not do at all. Instead have all the PCs imprisoned for victimless crimes.

The PCs should feel like they are bringing down a hypocritical system rather than just being evil for the hell of it.

Prostitution and pimping
Atheism or blasphemy (against the state religion)
Worshipping Asmodeus or other forbidden deity
Drug dealing or consumption of drugs
Habitual public intoxication
Slumlording
Gambling (especially hypocritical because the guards are gambling too)
Underground arena membership (unauthorized prize fights)
Lèse-majesté (criticizing or mocking the king)
Sedition
Rumour-mongering or inciting unrest
Violating government monopoly by smuggling (for example, bringing in cheap salt from overseas)
Tavern brawling (opponents in brawl turn out to be drunken clerics. You get them blame for assaulting clerics)
Possession or drawing of pornography
Fornication

And so on. Now the PCs are imprisoned for exercising, for the most part, basic rights. The Wicked can now feel a little righteous in their goal of bringing Talingarde to its knees.

That's sounds like an adventure from Birthright, 2E.

It involves an attempt by an evil noble to replace a rival noble with a doppelganger. Is that what you are thinking about?