sacklunch's page

In all honesty I hope that we don't see the same kind of feat bloat the pathfinder comes to suffer from. Basically less feat over all but the one that exist are all actually useful and not taxes... I'm looking at you combat expertise!

Wow this is really bad. I Found the +10 to concentration to be to harsh to that spiritualists archetype that has spell combat, but the meta magic solution to such an issue shows that paizo really wasn't thinking gish with psychic magic.

You just hate fun, don't you?

Yes, yes he does. Seriously though who says you have to follow that rule. I'm currently running campaign with child heroes. The key is to let the kids find a magical macguffin that bestows them with knowledge and power beyond there years. Then you can have goblin child flinging fire balls.

It's more useful for builds that have natural attacks. A lizard man kineticist might make good use out of it, though it would really only be good at lvl 5 when you could use it for full attacks without burn.

I have been on roll20 for 2 years and I can tell you you need to be patient. Often people make the mistake of applying to games that are full but the GM forgot to take down the LFG fown or applying to games that are filled to the brim with applicants. It's better to take sometime and try to apply to new games as they come up.

Also another key is to make sure you read and follow any application instructions the GM lists. Failure to do that gets you ignored. Also when you do apply be polite, use full sentences, and proof read before you post. Make yourself stand out. Post like "can I join your game" generally get ignored. Also try using looking for group forums as well since some people advertise there instead.

it seems to have started working randomly. I didn't do anything.

I'm currently trying to place an order to the occult adventures pdf, but every time I press the place order button it just sends me back to payment method. I receive no notice telling me something is not correct and have double check my provided credit card and it was filled out correctly and is not maxed out. The order remains in my cart and there seems to be no sign that I'm being charge for my attempts to buy it.

I would seems that the Elf favored class bonus is now out of date. Too be fair it was a pretty terrible choice to begin with, so doubt few tears will be shed. Honestly you will either have to wait for the developers to update the elf favored class bonus for rogue or just take one of the default favored class choices. An extra HP or skill point a lvl are still very useful.

I once made a campaign where all the players were human children from a small Midwestern American town who get magic powers (ie class abilities). Ironically it was being forced to play a kid that caused the most grumbling at first, though they all loved it once they started playing.

As for only allowing one class, I would only do that for a one shot, but even then I'm not really interested in that. Class is where players get the bulk of there game play tools, forcing them all to have the same basic tools can get quite dull and also prevents some players from getting a niche to fill. While some classes have deverse enough archetypes to get around that problem a bit it still is quite restrictive way to play mechanically. Basically my advice to any GM looking to try this is to pick the class your using carefully. All rogues for example I can see ending very badly :p

Its a solid prestige class if your campaign is mostly in one setting but if your constantly in different areas you can end up being kinda of lame. Also while a dimension step SLA is really sweet to have you cannot use it often enough to really make it such huge focus of your feats.

That Rob guy reminds me of a guy who used to play in a group I ran. I normally use point buy in my games but he always said he "doesn't do point buy." So I relented and let him roll. He came back with insane stats shortly but I as a rule demand all roles be made in the roll20 campaign page where they are checkable (I run online games). He b#!~%ed and moaned when I told him to reroll. Ironically he still rolled very good stats, better than the point buy, but he still was really unhappy because he didn't get all stats 16 and above.

Luckily for me he eventually quit my game when I made a campaign crafting was manditory since the setting was one where buying magic items would not work. So I told the party they would be getting free skill points and two crafting feats so that they would be able to handle there crafting needs. Of course I was told by him that "he doesn't do crafting" but this time I did not budge and he quit.

The main problem with looking at past games is that I am entirely reliant on the players in question to honestly tell me about past game. I try to midigate this issue in my interviews by not saying the criteria I am rating them on and then asking them to tell me about their the fun best character they ever made.

You would be surprised about what people will admit some times. I had one guy brag about a rogue character that constantly went on solo missions. I knew from that that the guy was the type to enjoy splitting the party often and from the general sound of the other details he gave he liked spot light hogging. Just to be clear this guy was not scouting but going off to do lots of things on his own.

1. This is a lot like just playing with friends or people that your friends will vouch for. This is the best way to avoid toxic people.

I do that when can, I have a fair amount of online friends that are good players, but sometimes you lose people to real life issues and need to bring in a random.

In regards to banning alignments I did that more so I would never have to hear the excuse "but I'm just playing my alignment" again. I have heard that far to many times. The worst example was the guy who tried to secretly TPK the party buy collapsing the only entrance to a tunnel the party was in. He was told no directly but still argued that he was just being CN... All in the first session... Sigh

I have been playing pathfinder for about three years and have been GMing for most of that. I am only able to play online games (generally via Roll20) due to real life reasons. Problem is online games tend to pull in some rather troublesome players. Over the years numerous campaigns have been sunk because of those said individuals. I have learned how to deal with these players more quickly once they start acting up but I have lately been trying tactics to prevent problems from happening in the first place. I want people's opinions on the tactics I have used so far and suggestions on what else I can do to avoid problems.

First I should state that in my games I put a strong emphasis on group cohesion both in character and out of character. I expect my players to not have fun at the expense of the other players. I have to do this to keep my online games stable since it is far too easy to lose good players. So I make it clear to all players that PvP of all types (including stealing from players, stealing loot before its split, social checks against platers, ect). Sadly clearly stating rules from the get go has proven ineffective.

Here are the key tactics I have tried so far:

1. Through screening process: I interview all my candidates and have a list of standard questions that I have designed to spot problematic behavior. The problem is that while this has managed to get me some great players it still doesn't spot all problem players since some people are very good at answering correctly rather than honestly.

2. Banned the CN alignment: while the evil alignments generally are also banned in my games CN is banned twice as hard since players in my games generally use it as an excuse to do whatever they want in game rather than actually make a compelling character.

3. Banned the rogue class: The rogue is generally a pretty weak class but I have learned to ban it from my games.It became clear to me that 70% of the time the problem player was playing a rogue. Hell even player who are my friends and long time players in my campaigns suddenly started causing problems the second they play this class. I have come to realize that to often players use playing the rogue class as an excuse for committing disruptive behavior. I find this to be a shame since nothing about the rogue class actually mandates this kind of behavior, but sadly so far in my DMing experince too many players seem to think it does. At least the rogue class is easily replaced by the investigator.

So does anyone have any suggestions on how to approve my current approach? Does anyone have any new ideas that can help me?