rvdroz's page

A total new fantasy game, not based on 3.5 called Path II. Okay, here goes. Do away with classes and possibly formal races and go with a total point buy system. Allow players to choose take flaws that would get them more points. If you want to really shake up the game, do away with all dice except one type (This is insanity. Can't give up part of the dice.) Or even go diceless... (The ghost of Amber rises up and SMITES THE POSTER AND FEW READERS FOR FUN) Make it harder to die but even more difficult to come back from death. Use a base spell point system, with the Vancian magic available as a flaw or lower cost option.

1) I am eagerly looking for Epic rules. Please keep those near the top of the list. Something to carry a game past 20th level.
2) I would like an book of classic monsters capable of character classes. Rules inside that book for level zero versions of each monster/humanoid class. I want all the monsters to have the basic ecology included, and the rolls it will take with each skill to know facts about the thing eating the cleric.
3) I don't care for Psionics. If you can't do it with magic or mechanics, why are you trying to do it?
4) I don't mind Prestige Classes, but they vary from too narrow to world-breaking. They need to be vigorously tested, along with any new feats and spells.
5) I liked the 2nd / 3e X-scape / Adventures books, rules tailored to an environment. You can work classes into these as needed, but the basic fighter/mage/thief/cleric mechanic carries a lot of weight. A good set of Oriental rules is overdue. Interest in middle eastern settings is up.
6) Rules on how to deal with crossbreeds in the core would be nice, or at least a set of options. Keeping the half elf and half orc in the PFRG implies a possibility of a character that is not human, but born of an elf and orc union.

We all have house rules. Some of those might be just the right piece to make everyone else's game just that much better. As long as we all agree, "The GM is always right", the game will go on. Any Game master not in control of his world might as well hang up the shield. The rules are the framework of the game. Trust in the GM is the way a game is successful.

Positive energy is the opposite of negative energy, but are they really the powers of good and evil? We'd call them good and evil if they were.

Expressing energy to hurt innocent folks might be an evil act, but is plugging in to negative energy an evil act?

What if you are using negative energy to restore a good undead creature?

The simplest solution is to allow access to positive and negative power for all clerics. Judge them by their actions, not their access.

Even at 10th level paladin, lay on hands is for out of combat healing. You need to take the feat Selective Channeling to make combat healing work, but you can do it... as long as someone else does the combat part. Just channel energy.

If lay on hands is supposed to be an out of combat effect, it works.

Instead of ECL for player races, how about using the "negative level" concept for player characters?

You need a hat. In 3.5 OGL, you get a choice of 9 hats. It's what you base your roleplaying style on. The twin struggles between order and disorder and between common weal and self interest allow for lots of conflict, which drives the plot. Other systems use positive and negative traits to get to the general point of white hat, black hat, or gray hat. It's a simple way to keep it straight.
I've always favored the freedom for all versus evil empire type of adventure, which was totally dissed by brand name game.

To reinforce this idea: If you do nothing else, consider making the Paladin's Lay On Hands a swift action. I play a Paladin in PFRPG Beta. Being able to do little bits of buck up healing while still fighting would encourage me to be more of the lawful supporter of the party than joining the mad rush to slay the evil ones as quickly as possible.

In a recent combat, use of the positive energy burst by myself and my cohort priestess kept the party going in the face of a very tough boss level encounter. It meant I was not swinging away at the enemy for most of the fight, but our party was able to maintain a respectable amount of damage dealt.

Positive energy burst is a powerful adjustment to the playing field.

This may be a silly question, but it applies to this issue more than most: Does Paizo have any issues with player generated content based on their work? It seems like an index would be a good volunteer project. Just take the existing index in the 3.5 OGL Books and reset the page numbers by using the free, downloadable PDF to search the document.

[decrepit man] Dice? Phooey. In my day we pulled chits from a cup and we liked it. You kids don't know how good you have it. Elf wassa class! There were traps everywhere. Every room had a monster with treasure and we did not care how it got there. We only had the really thin book. And we had to climb uphill in the pouring rain to game. Now all you kids get off my porch.[/decrepit man]

Here's a dangerous thought: How about a base number of points, place them as you want them? Floor of 3 and ceiling of 18, then adjust for race. Easy to run the math on. Everyone can play what they want. The "average schmo" theory gets to start with 60 points. Epic heroes start at 84 to 90, more than enough to play that tough bard someone mentioned. Maybe a talented level of 74 is more to your style. This way we can leave those special "character builder" dice gathering dust on the shelf, next to those special con dice and that huge novelty one you could not resist but the other players threatened to hit you with if you tried to use it during the game.

Don't drop the gnome. Aside from the cushy gig for Travelocity, being kicked out of the 4e PH has suddenly raised their stature in the gaming community. Besides, how else do you explain Gnome Titans?

One more Phaser blast across the bow -
The Elf / Vulcan connection has been fodder for a long time.
Orcs are very analogous to Klingons in their place in the world.

Maybe it is time that the Orc was re-envisioned. Carry parts of prior editions forward along with 3.5. Maybe giving them a head ridge will work.

Besides, it will make the base Orc a nastier foe, too.

I like the idea of treating the half-orc in a similar manner to the half-elf.

A hypothetical Orc player race would be a durable alternate to the Elves and Dwarves. You might even consider adding it to take the "brute" place of half-orcs. Then you make the new half-orc an option like the half-elf.

There are many races in the monster manual 3.5 that would be acceptable player races with just a little tweaking. The sorcerer bloodlines are signposts on that path. We might have to wait for the "PFRPG Monster Book" or "PFRPG Companion", but I'd love to see playable CR 0 versions of Dark Elves, Aasimar, Tieflings, Half Dragons, Part Elementals, and even Half Fey. For that matter, what is wrong with PC Kobolds or Goblins?

Also, I know this is a forlorn topic, but:
Why is it assumed that the other half of a given cross breed is human?

There are any number of artist with a good grasp of 3.5 style races that would fit more with the generic game, allowing Pathfinder proper to keep it's own unique look in the PF world book. Tinier elves are a legacy of that approach. Unfortunately, the best look at the typical races I ever ran across was put out by an artist using the pseudonym "TCatt" and involved only females.

Dead levels in the basic classes has been the biggest problem in 3.5 that PFRPG has fixed. A 20 wizard being more powerful than a multiclassed 18 wizard / 2 fighter is not a bug, it's a feature. The path to any great power is focus. That said, allow unrestricted multiclassing. The bonuses for favored classes and the detriments to later power are enough to make folks think twice.

One of the things I liked about 3.5 was the need to use certain types of weapons and materials to overcome DR, or be so strong you powered through.

In PFRPG Beta page 394, there is an allowance for high-bonus magic items to overcome this on sheer magic power: "Overcoming DR"

This makes it silly to have a cold iron or silver weapon higher than +2.

There are also no mentions of other possible special materials or weapon shapes this applies to.

Does +5 weapon negate the need for crushing or slashing?

I would rather see the last paragraph and following table dropped, my group is doing this already.

One other thing we do allow is for mithral weapons to count as silver for the purposes of overcoming DR.

Bonuses of +3, +4, or +5 have many other broad benefits: increase to hit chance, increased damage, increased ability to perform maneuvers, etc.

There is no need to gild this lily.

Not 4

I'm expecting the Pathfinder world to be expanded by folks looking for ways to update the stagnant waters of 3.5. The "toolkit" crowd is coming home.