superpriest's page

With so many skills being rolled together (Hide, Move Silently, etc.) it seems somehow awkward to still have like 10 different Knowledge skills. We're experimenting with rolling Knowledge (arcana) into Spellcraft (Concentration is restored as a separate skill);

Knowledge (the planes) and Knowledge (religion) are combined as Knowledge (Powers & Planes);
Knowledge (nature) is subsumed into Survival;
Knowlegde (dungeoneering) is subsumed into Profession (miner);
Knowledge (local) is combined with Gather Information as Streetwise; and we have 2 other Knowledge skills: Lore (history, legendary places, etc.) and Warfare (tactics, strategy, siege engineering, ranks & insignia).

Those are decent ideas, except Profession (miner), which is pretty lame and not really what dungeoneering covers.

Spiritual Weapon. It's a great spell, but the description is way too long. It should be such a simple effect, but it's so hard to determine what it does when looking it up during play.

Regenerate could probably be simplified and made into a 3rd- or 4th-level spell.

I would also prefer to use "enhancement" and especially "enchantment" solely for their game term definitions and no others.

I agree with increasing 2 skills to 4 skills. The DM already has to redo skills if he wants to convert 3.5 material to by-the-book Pathfinder (and can always ignore the skills if he doesn't care).

I strongly prefer the 3.5 system to the 3.0 system. Maybe the 3.0 system is simpler for Medium characters (maybe), but it becomes much more complicated and limiting for characters of other sizes. This works OK for games like Star Wars, where almost everyone is Medium, but D&D has so much size variety.

The 3.5 system covers everything and is pretty easy in my opinion. Even if you think it was a needless change, it would be another needless change to revert.

I agree, "enchant" needs to refer to Enchantment, the school of magic.

I don't totally get this feat either, unless the point is to imitate Inigo Montoya and Westley dueling in the Princess Bride. ("I'm not left-handed either.")

Why 32 point buy? The standard seems to be 25 or 28 points. Maybe with that kind of point buy, the barbarian would be on target rather than slightly too powerful.

After the long back and forth, it's nice to see someone agrees with me.

Yes, you are absolutely right about the discounts. Those should not be discounts in the creation costs--they should only affect an item's resale value (or simply be removed entirely).

I would make Trapfinding a feat and give it to Rogues for free.

In my Age of Worms game, the wizard had to take a level of rogue just for Trapfinding, because we had no other rogue. The wizard put all 8 skills into Search and had a good Int, but she had to give up a level of spellcasting. :(

I like d12, because when else do you use a d12. Plus, changing it would be pointless if you replaced it with something more wordy, like granting Toughness for free.

Since calculating and weighing options doesn't feel particularly barbaric, I made the following suggestion on another thread: rage points equal one round of rage apiece, and you can use one rage power each round while raging, at no point cost. Many rage powers would have to be rebalanced or restricted to higher levels, and in the end would work more like combat feats than psionic powers.

Yeah, it makes more sense for the rage powers to be combat feats that barbarians can take as bonus feats. However, keeping points for the ability to spread rage durations out would be good.

It just doesn't seem good to introduce two new different systems for using physical actions during a combat round.

I can certainly understand the desire to give more skill points. I think this will be an optional rule in the final system. I would prefer to keep the base numbers close for backwards compatibility reasons.

Jason, I think that is being too conservative. Skills from non-Pathfinder stuff are already going to be a little off.

I am very much in favor of giving more skill points to the classes with the fewest skills. The 4/6/8 progression is good; the 3/4/5/6 progression is pretty good too.

superpriest wrote:

I am running it now in 3rd Edition. Two of the five PCs have died, but only one was because of getting "screwed" by the Tomb. The other was because the wizard has something like a 14 AC and 23 hp. Poor character design.

"Poor character design?" What level is the wizard?

Drow beguiler 7. Con 10, Dex 10. Some bad choices there (point buy).

I am running it now in 3rd Edition. Two of the five PCs have died, but only one was because of getting "screwed" by the Tomb. The other was because the wizard has something like a 14 AC and 23 hp. Poor character design.

The treasure system was created to work like you described. However, it sounds like you need to throw more monsters at your party. Monsters fight well without much treasure. If you need to use NPCs, look into ways to have spells going on them before the battle starts, such as greater magic weapon.

Psionics require no physical actions and can be used in wild shape without any feat. But I agree that a druid/psion is not very min/maxed. A straight druid is damn powerful, however.

1. Dragotha
2. Raknian/Theldrick/Bozal Zahol

You don't have to be any particular level to use a wand or staff. All that matters is that the spell is on your class list. Even if you're a ranger who can't cast spells, if the spell is on the ranger list, you can use a wand.

I use Gelatinous Cubes all the time. I also love Beholders but rarely get to use them.

The OP is correct: You can use whichever spells in the staff are on your spell list. Staves are not arcane or divine like scrolls; they hold spells like wands and follow the same rules (for each individual spell). These are called "spell trigger" items, and their activation is described under that heading in the DMG.

Monsters of Faerun is pretty decent, but you have to update all the monsters. I probably wouldn't buy it if I didn't already have it.

I really liked these adventures.

The only thing I didn't like was a D&D rules item highlighted by the adventures: Vampire gaseous form is really slow. It's simple for the PCs to kill a vampire and follow its gaseous form back to the coffin. After a while this gets boring.

ECL and CR and completely different. That for some characters they are the same doesn't matter; they represent different things entirely.

Other: The Greyhawk gods are pretty crappy compared to FR gods.

How to sell D&D...?

Introduce them to the Dead Alewives (sp?) skit.

Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing this morning.

"Dungeons and Dragons... Satan's game!"

Make the lines less clear. If the mayor is framing someone, make the mayor Lawful Good, and the framed party Neutral or Evil. Evil, but innocent.

Look for plots in TV shows where characters aren't clearly good or evil. For example, The Shield has morally ambiguous characters and behind-the-scenes deals, and the right thing to do isn't always obvious.

The only difference between darkvision and normal vision is that darkvision is black and white. Otherwise, you can see everything you could in the light.

I like using dragons, but I only do so around once per campaign, to keep them special. And in Kings of the Rift, which is an awesome adventure. I had one battle where the PCs fought around 10-12 dragons (about 6 black, 2 blue, 2 green, and 2 bosses). Aerial combat is a little tricky, but the only real problem I had was that the statblocks in the MM1 suck. The new format is way better and easier to run.

As for WotC pushing dragons, I am sick of it. As someone on this board said, "Tiamat: Stop ****ing!"

There is a color kirre painting. It was used for 2nd Edition trading cards. I don't have a scan, but I remember it. It's out there somewhere.

I vote Forgotten Realms.

PC Name: Hargen, Half-Orc Fighter 15
Adventure: Library of Last Resort
Location of Death: Last Resort
Catalyst:
-Tilagos Girallon
-Doomshroud Night Twist
Long Description: Moving up to attack the Girallon, Hargen was unlucky--it had Combat Reflexes. Wounded when it full attacked, he died the next round. And was instantly reincarnated as a half-elf.

The night twist killed him with weird. Reincarnation turned him into a goblin. This meant Hargen had no equipment that fit him, and he would surely die again.

When Darl Quethos attacked the party, Hargen died to a full attack by the efreeti noble. He was temporarily raised by the paladin, and later reincarnated as an elf--a terrible blow to his hit points, but at least he was Medium.

PC Name: Hargen, (many races) Fighter 17
Adventure: Kings of the Rift
Location of Deaths: Undercity, Carrion Pit
Catalyst:
-Necrozyte
-Mother Worm
-Mother Worm again
Long Description: Hargen came into this adventure an elf. After a full attack from Necrozyte, including a smite good, Hargen was dead again. He was instantly reincarnated, rolling a 63... halfling! Stuck with no Small equipment again.

Later, the Mother Worm moved up and paralyzed him. Next round, she killed him and the druid's animal companion. Hargen was instantly reincarnated. Rolled 63... halfling!?

Getting up to fight again, Hargen ended up taking the last swing of the worm's full attack, most of which were against a pile of earth elementals. He died and was instantly reincarnated. This time he let the druid roll. Rolled... 63. Halfling.

Yes, the DC is wrong. Also, if Zyrxog wins initiative, the party is probably still partially down the tunnel leading to his room. So his mind blast can't hit everyone at first.

Eric, you did an amazing job on the conversion, and I was very happy to use most of it in game. Thanks for being thorough!

The way they killed Dragotha was imaginative and should be rewarded. It's not even close to a sign of a bad DM. Obviously, a player or two misread some rules, but there's a way they could have done it using the same plan and the RAW. I'd be happy with it.

PC Name: Jasir, Human Bard 13
Adventure: The Spire of Long Shadows
Location of Death: Under the Ziggurat
Catalyst: Naga Sorcerer
Long Description: The party would not bargain with the naga, and despite it using Heal twice, the naga couldn't win the battle. So it went out with a bang, using Finger of Death on the bard, whose Fort save came up very short. The druid attempted an instantaneous reincarnation, which failed because of the death effect, so the party traded the naga's tome for a true resurrection from Agath.

PC Name: Hargen, Human Fighter 12
Adventure: The Spire of Long Shadows
Location of Death: Inside the Ziggurat
Catalyst: Kyuss Knight
Long Description: Hargen took a full attack, then made two unsuccessful sunder attempts, provoking attacks of opportunity. The second one killed him. He was reincarnated as a half-orc!

I thought the adventure was cool enough, although my players liked it a bit less. They had no problem with the Abyssal Ghoul, however; only two characters could hit it, so they did. The ghoul only attacked one of the fighters and never dropped him. It took 5-6 rounds.

The traps would have been incredibly annoying if the wizard had not just taken a rogue level, gaining +22 to Disable Device in addition to her +24 Search. With the bard helping her, she disabled all the traps by taking 10 (and almost no game time).

The players weren't too happy about the unintelligent monsters, but we had several fun role-playing encounters: the salamander, Flycatcher, the xorns, and Moreto.

The only thing I didn't like in the adventure was the oculus demon. It was really cool, but soooo hard. If played to full potential, it's nearly impossible to beat.

PC Name: Jasir, Human Bard 9
Adventure: The Champion's Belt
Location of Death: Shrine to Kyuss.
Catalyst: Alkilith Demon.
Long Description: The demon's cone of cold killed him from full hp. If the wizard hadn't moved around a corner, the cone would have killed her, too. This was the first death, surprisingly, and Jasir was quickly reincarnated... as a human. No fun!

The doppelganger fighters are really strong and hurt my PCs badly both fights. Telakin, on the other hand, was extremely easy. His scroll nearly killed one or two PCs, but he died to a fighter and some summoned wolves before doing anything else. Zyrxog was a hard fight and great battle. He ended up plane shifting away with 3/5 PCs stunned, because he would have died otherwise.

Nobody died in my HoHR. I lost my first PC in the Champion's Belt to the Alkilith Demon.

Druid is the most complicated class in the Player's Handbook, and I definitely do not recommend a new player start as a druid. Actually, I don't think druid should even be in the PH in its current state of complexity.

Which issue has the Alhaster map?

It's a pretty poorly written ability. I'd ignore it and just use the Will save.

All the 3E games I've played in or DMed (including multiclassed characters):

Aasimar 1
Air Genasi 1
Catgirl 1
Drow 1
Dwarf 7
Elf 2
Feytouched 1
Gnome 2
Human 18
Half-Elf 6
Halfling 2
Jozhal 1
Kobold 1
Mermaid 1
Minotaur 1
Mul 1
Rakshasa 1
Thri-Kreen 2
Tiefling 1

Aristocrat 1
Barbarian 1
Bard 4
Cleric 9
Druid 1
Fighter 13
Monk 3
Paladin 1
Psion 4
Psychic Warrior 2
Ranger 6
Rogue 12
Sorcerer 3
Templar 1
Wilder 1
Wizard 9

Rogue/Fighters and Cleric/Fighers are popular with my players. Elves and Gnomes and very unpopular.

I watch Law & Order, CSI, American Justice, and Cold Case Files. I do like seeing serial killers and similar villains in D&D from time to time.

There is a link in the first post. And it's WIKER.

superpriest wrote:

Delericho wrote:

Phil. L wrote:

I'm just wandering whether WotC will ever make the new stat blocks available to the OGL companies.

Do they need to? I was under the impression that a stat block was just a way of presenting information, and that the license only covered the information itself, rather than presentation. Of course, I might be wrong.

That should be true, but I've heard that WotC says it's not possible for other companies to use it. That makes no sense to me, but it's what I heard.

That's really interesting... Can you recall where you heard it?

It came up during a project for a d20 company. They said that a WotC rep posted on EN World that the stat block isn't usable by other companies.

Some companies use it anyway; they may not realize WotC doesn't want them to, or maybe they don't like WotC can legally prevent them from doing so.

Phil. L wrote:

I'm just wandering whether WotC will ever make the new stat blocks available to the OGL companies.

Do they need to? I was under the impression that a stat block was just a way of presenting information, and that the license only covered the information itself, rather than presentation. Of course, I might be wrong.

That should be true, but I've heard that WotC says it's not possible for other companies to use it. That makes no sense to me, but it's what I heard.

Go to athas.org. They have 3.5 rules for PCs and conversions for every single Dark Sun monster. And they're rather good, and much more extensive than the Paizo magazines had room for.

The only "fair" method is your 2nd option, the method that began with Savage Species. It keeps the character the same as the other PCs at all points. So that's what I use.