squankmuffin's page

Could I be difficult and suggest Shadow template? Or is that a step too many?

Something akin to Commune would make sense.

S/He'd have to be pretty high level to be anything like Michael. And probably mythic. A Knight of the Cross in training could be interesting in terms of someone wanting to be worthy of it.

A War Oracle might make some sense. He's very paladin in terms of character, but I agree with others that he doesn't really fit with a Pathfinder paladin. At least not fully.

The Dresden Files RPG is great. It's FATE and very story teller. And the RPG books have great margin notes...

It depends what the players want. If they just want to explore and mess with things, or want something more character based then it can be fun to let them do what they like and see where it ends up. But you have to be careful not to lose momentum or have players feel like they're not really going anywhere.

Individual goals makes a lot of sense, as long as they're not all opposed (unless this is what players want). You don't want to be constantly splitting the party while one player is looking for maguffin 3.0. It will help if players know their characters from the start.

Make sure you're catering to your players. If someone wants combat, let them have it. If someone else likes interacting with NPCs then go with it. This should just happen if it's sandboxy, but it depends if players are correctly reading situations. It also depends on your players. If you have 4 who are all about beign murder hobos and one who just wants to roleplay, it can lead to frustration if every session is about smashing things.

The karma idea is interesting, but may not need to be overly rigid. There should be consequences to actions, but if it feels contrived that the merchant you conned out of 3GP at level one organises a militia to destroy you years later, then it can derail the game.

Sounds like it coudl be very tricky, but awesome if you can pull it off.

I'd imagine it would apply for things like Protection Against X. It'd be a bit mean to have to memorise all the possible Resist Energies on the off chance, for instance.

Ah, Matthew said that.

It wouldn't make sense to effectively get higher level spells for "free". I mean, why not just memorise "cure light" and get "cure critical"??

I play a kitsune sorceror in one game. Like many others, I looked at it and went "oooooh....oh...ah..."

The idea is fun, but it's just not good enough unless you follow it all the way to the end and forget all about things like, ooh, further boosting enchantment, say.

Plus I don't like the idea of having no flexibility further in the game. I mean, if we go somewhere I don't expect to or come across a certain sort of enemy frequently or it makes charcter / story sense to specialise in certain schools then I'd be annoyed if I had my hands tied by having to continue with tails.

We have one group entirely made up of arcane spellcasters. At one point we were considering an all wizard party, but that seemed a bit too silly.

I was jumping up and down to be a Life Oracle in one of our parties, but I can see the whole healer thing being pretty low excitement for some.

It can also help to let players plan things that the characters would reasonably have time to plan via email so you don't have to waste half a session throwing ideas about and not having time to actually do anything.

Think about how your character would react to other PCs. Are they suspicious, friendly, flirty, guarded... How do they want to come across to people and what can they not help showing? Maybe they want to look like they're helpful but get bored easily or want to look indifferent but occasionally show that they do care really. Or they're freaked out by social situations but their actions show how much they value the others.

That's a good place to start. If you fill in some backstory (like Ciaran suggested) then it's a lot easier to get into character because you know who they are.

It can be helpful to have a secret, depending on the character. Is there something they don't want people to know, or just something they won't reveal until they know people better. That can make it fun for you if you know there's something the other players don't know. Make sure your DM knows, mind.

It doesn't have to be dramatic to be roleplaying. It could just be that all the other characters are delighted to be invited to hobnob with royalty, while your character is a fish out of water or finds the whole thing terribly boring. Just make it your own.

I'd imagine the group will be fine if your character changes a little as time goes on (you may re-assess or decide you really can't keep up that accent). Characters should develop anyway, and an unfriendly character can mellow / warm to people as time goes on (if you decide it's all a bit too unfriendly).

Luxuriant's last point is a very good one. I'm in a game where the other characters THINK they're helping my character by stopping her doing something stupid (protecting an ogre who's pretty much her morality pet). But they slumber hexed her to do so. She is having NONE of this. Luckily, she's dedicated to one other character or she'd have left.

As long as the characters have some sort of loyalty to at least one other character / concept / God / Quest you can keep it going.

We've found it's useful to share some more background stuff as this doesn't always come out in gameplay. Realistically, though, if you travelled with someone for months you'd know a fair bit about them. This allows characters to make connections / alliances etc. Also gives people more idea of characters' motivations / limits etc. It depends on your group, but if people have very strong characters, it's useful and kind of fun. And two of our characters sort of hooked up. That wasn't exactly planned, but did make sense... Not that you have to get everyone paired off / triangled off... :/

I feel that planar binding should be kinda tricky, or it's far too easy for the spell level. It is nice having charisma, though...

If your charater would summon, it's only a step on from that. A risky step, but how are you going to make new friends if you don't try?

Dude. Bogeyman. Make sure you know what the characters would be scared of first, or it'll flop. Unless you just Phantasmal Kill and leave it at that. But nicer to see if they notice losing a lock of hair, for instance, and then play the long game once they think they're safe...

My summoner's eidolon is very willing but incredibly stupid. He also speaks with an upper class British accent. Which may or may not be related, depending on your personal prejudices.

He is now large, which is a problem as he hasn't realised he's grown, resulting in him occasionally getting stuck in small spaces and not knowing his own strength. Anyway, we were in a certain house of traps, doom and horror (no spoilers...) and it was all getting a bit tense. Eidolon was told to go outside and guard the exit. But he got bored and charged through the door - setting off assorted traps that didn't hurt him because he's made of shadows and has a reasonable miss chance. He gets increasingly bored, since he can't manage to get out of the room he's in, so he bounds about, setting off all the traps and being entirely unharmed. Handy escape route is gained and lulz start to balance out some of the squick.

(probably considerably funnier if you know the house in question...)

He also refers to succubi as "horny ladies" and hell hounds as "chav dogs".

UnArcaneElection wrote:

Dreaming Psion wrote:

squankmuffin wrote:

Finding out right at the end of the campaign that it was all for nothing... and you have to go back and do it again.

"It was all just a dream..."

Worse yet, some time after realizing this, the adventurers discover that waking up from the dream was itself just a dream (works better if waking up was really hard, and now they have to do THAT again).

Worse yet, the entire adventure takes place a week before earthfall. Oh good you solved this petty problem, aaaaand you're all dead.

Wow. Thanks for depressing me, everyone... :op

Summoners have high charisma, eidolons tend towards low wis / int...

Finding out right at the end of the campaign that it was all for nothing... and you have to go back and do it again.

If you like the function of the rune as identifying the eidolon and its summoner, but the mark doesn't fit in your setting, how about a thin insubstantial silver cord? It mimics the cord between body and astral self during astral projection, thus indicating the magical bond between summoner and eidolon. For extra fun, you could relate the cord visually to the eidolon's range limitations (perhaps having it disappear or appear broken if you cast Unfetter).

Ooh! That's great for flavour. And would work remarkably well with my character's eidolon as he thinks he's a dog (I wasn't going to waste points on my eidolon's int/wis - which makes him a slightly unreliable but hilarious scout).

To me, the whole "glowing rune" thing seems like a huge liability - an idea that is reinforced by how many summoners go out of their way to conceal it.

After all, it's essentially broadcasting to all enemies in the area that in order to stop the monstrous eidolon, all they need to do is kill the weak-looking guy with the same symbol on his head.

I've never played a summoner (too confusing), but still. It's sort of like if clerics had glowing holy symbols on their foreheads - that is to say, ridiculous and seemingly intended to provoke confrontation.

That is a very good point. Doesn't apply to my shadow summoner, although the whole no shadow thing is a delightfully creepy clue. Though my shadow fox is only so much of a threat, being made of shadows and all.

Synthesist summoners have marks too, don't they? Would make it tempting to find their weakness and then pick off the squishy summoner, handily standing exactly where you were already attacking...

We have a summoner and a synthesist summoner in our party and I don't think we'd considered the glowing rune thing (it took the party quite a while to work out that the cute gnome and the big-giant-bear-thing were linked. Perhaps it should have been more obvious...)

I can imagine it being quite a threat at lower levels. Makes lots of sense at higher levels, especially when you're approaching twin eidolons (if you get that far on your AP...)

In our party, neither of the summoners is entirely sure what their eidolon is (one views theirs as a protector, the other as her "monster friend"). Having the runes must be pointed out at some point, so there's role play potential there. I'd always seen my character's eidolon as part of her rather damaged psyche. She doesn't see it that way...

I can see why it could be a problem in Senko's setting. Depends if it's a game breaker. Well, if Senko thinks so, that seems fair enough.

Edited to add:

It also depends if your eidolon is out all the time, in manner of companion (mine is). In this case, it can cause more problems in generally walking around towns etc. Tempting for a baddie to just jump out of an alleyway and pick off the little summoner. It's possibly less of an issue if only in combat as it may not be that much of a problem to work out where the eidolon came from. I think Senko was debating between the two.

It can be a way to make up for a lack of sense motive. ;)
Always possibility of a good cop / bad cop scenario. Depending on how you roll.
Can be useful if you want to make sure you're not overheard (general people avoid the party due to scariness).
Useful to announce your arrival in a big way, or to encourage people not to talk about said arrival, depending how you play it.

Doesn't the shadow caller (fetchling summoner archetype) specifically drop that detail and change it to the summoner no longer casting a shadow while his eidolon is active?

Yep. I have a shadow caller. To be honest, they're both so unusual looking that it's a bit of a clue anyway. I loved the idea that the eidolon crept out of her shadow. It's fun.

Though I managed not to read the bit about glowing runes until level twelve, anyway.

Thanks to everyone who contributed and sorry it was a bit vague (at least two other players use this forum and one hasn't noticed so far and I didn't want him to put two and two together).

I spoke to the GM about it. He didn't take offense or anything, but didn't quite get the strength of reaction. But he agreed not to use >thing< again if it was a problem. It's certainly not something that needs to be in the AP, beyond the first time, so it's not like we're derailing the game because, for instance, someone is playing Skulls and Shackles and is a bit worried about any mention of water.

I don't think the player is particularly worried about it coming up again, so that may be problem solved.

Some good advice, here. TheJeff's plan may work. TBH, the triggering thing is kind of unsettling / creepy / a bit squicky anyway. As much as I hate to say this, as the only female player, it might be easier / more expected from me anyway (no, I don't play with a load of knuckle dragging sexists, I'm just quite an emotional player :p).

If it just doesn't come up again then problem solved. The GM isn't the most empathetic at times, but I can't imagine he'd want to freak someone out to this extent.

Thanks for the Xcard idea. That could really help, actually. It wouldn't be too hard to work it in with breaks and things... we're quite flexible on breaks anyway, so it wouldn't be a big deal. And, as I said, other people have noticed so one of us could do it if it happened again.

The "player doesn't want to make a big thing about it" is more of a "player would rather people didn't know >thing< occured" than "player is being overly passive". It's tricky...

GM takes it as a bit of a joke, I think. GM isn't malicious. Just missed some subtext on this one.

I know "trigger" can be very much overused, but it's fairly valid in this case.

It's an Adventure Path. But I'm pretty sure at least one of the occasions was the DM working it in.

I'm trying not to be too specific, as I know other players may use this forum. It's not a thing you'd expect to keep coming up, and it's a big enough thing that many people wouldn't consider it silly / OTT to have a reaction to.

I believe the player is working on it but finding it hard to deal with as this particular character isn't very able to deal with it, either.

One of my friends is really phobic of >thing<. We discovered this when >thing< occured in the plot and he freaked out. I'm not sure the DM quite realised how much of a problem it was, as >thing< has now come up twice more, quite possibly to provoke a reaction from the player.

The player doesn't want to make a big thing of it, but it's pretty obvious to a few of the players at least that it is a genuine issue. Is it the player's responsibilty to tell the DM to back off or can someone else jump in?

It's a fairly common trigger, but I'm not sure I hold with trigger warnings for everything on the off chance... but now it's come up, how best to deal with it?

My summoner's eidolon is her very best monster friend. He's a shadow fox who thinks he's a dog. He's not very bright, but he tries. And speaks in a very British accent (I had a pipe on hand when he first spoke, and it seemed to fit).

I think it's fun to play both summoner and eidolon, but it depends on you and your game. And quite how you think about your eidolon - whether it's some aspect of the summoner or a creature that existed independently before your summoner wandered along. I've seen quite a few different interpretations on that.

Oops. Managed not to see this before I started my thread. What a noob I am.

I'm currently making metamagic wands using silver and gemstones. Because I can. I've kept them fairly plain / functional. I wanted to colour code them as I was worried about my characters accidentally using the wrong ones, quickening when you wanted to extend, for instance.

I wondered if anyone had any ideas on specific colours / colors for different types of metamagic? I'm happy to come up with my own, but wasn't sure if there was any sort of concensus / preference on this?

Sorry if this is highjacking your thread, but I thought two threads on the appearance of metamagic rods might be overkill.