theinuit's page

I was fortunate enough to get to sit in on a lecture Mr. Jones gave at my university on his research process for his other novel, The Desert of Souls, for a Medieval Studies lecture series. The lecture was great, and I bought the book and read it that night. Its a faced paced action bonanza and impossible to put down. I recommend it highly. I will probably be picking up Plague of Shadows soon simply because Desert was so good.

Please cancel my AP subscription. I will have my order backup fixed in a few months, but after that I would no like to receive any more products.

Concerning Lamm's Lambs from Part I, pages 16-17. Shouldn't their attacks with their pitchforks be -6 (1d6-2) since pitchforks are an improvised weapon and they have a strength of 7.

Mine are sitting on my coffee table in a haphazardly wonky stack, with a blank character sheet on top, to protect them from the Chinese food box that tops off the ensemble.

On my subscriptions page it shows that the payment method for my subscriptions failed on pathfinder #16. There is enough money it that account now, so is there a way that can be resent?

What do you guys think focused specialization should do now that specialization is different. I was thinking either allowing it to grant an extra spell per day of the chosen school for each spell level, like the old specialization. Or it could just do what it does normally, granting two spells of the chosen school per spell level while losing one spell per day of each spell level.

I see your Rhapsody of Fire, and raise a Dragonforce

Silent screams and shattered dreams of what we left at seventeen
Still lost within the misery and pain that lies inside
Here alone the fight to breathe still searching for the truth to be
Blackened by the burning fire held deep inside my mind!

Far beyond the lost horizon standing on the shore
Across the seas their hearts will bleed this life we're waiting for
Taste the steel in pain you kneel for glory we defend
Our fallen souls will rise to fight again!

Stay here with me this night we'll be together
Future in our hands we'll fight with freedom drawing near
Stand here with me for we will live forever
Tonight we stand and face it all

Another side effect of skill merging is that the system loses diversity. A blind character would now only receive a penalty to Perception checks, and a perfectly silent monster (such as anything incorporeal) would only have a bonus to Stealth checks. That means that a blind character can perceive a monster even if said monster is odorless, tasteless, silent, and incorporeal.

While a single Stealth and Perception check does make for an easier, faster game, it's less accurate. Keep accuracy in 3.5 and keep easier in 4.0.

In the specific case of perception, the skill is already broken up between the five senses and search, so a blind character would not gain a penalty to all perception checks, he would be unable to make sight based perception checks. As a matter of fact, the PRPG rules actually add diversity to the old Spot/Listen by simply printing rules for touch/taste/smell based perception.

In the broad case of all of the skills, I think that the PRPG has added diversity, rather than taken it away. Now my 12th level fighter with 12 charisma can have a +13 bonus to Diplomacy, as compared to +8 in the 3.5 rules. In other words, I can build a better Roy in the PRPG rules. This also applies to a lot of other character concepts that, while possible in 3.5, where definitely sub-optimal choices. A cleric of Garl Glittergold can actually have a good Appraise check. A Cleric of Irori can spread their skill points between the knowledge skills and have a respectable modifier in each. A character who isn't a rogue can be an effective lock opener, without resorting smashing it with their war hammer.

The only way to make the spell list more useful would be to increase its size, perhaps by adding a 4th page. If you moved everything on the 3rd page besides the spell list to the top of the page, and then used the rest of the third page and a 4th page for a spell list, there would probably be enough room. If there were three columns for each spell level, you would need about two rows for every level except for 0 and 9th, for which you would only need one.

What about a mix:
A natural 20 means automatic max damage.
If the confirm roll fails, you still do max damage, and if it succeeds, you do max damage plus another damage roll.

This means that rolling a 20 is always a good thing, and also it helps with the problem of rolling a 1 with a confirmed critical and possibly doing less damage than you did the turn before without getting a critical.

I agree with Grim, favoured classes support the idea that certain races are good at certain things.

I think that a bonus (eg. extra skill point) is better than a penalty (eg. XP penalty) just because it's more positive but also because it reinforces the idea of race/class synergy.

Shouldn't it be the features of the race that reinforce the idea of race/class synergy. The halfling gains a bonus to dex and cha, both (well, one more important than the other, but...) important rogue abilities. Additionally, its small size, as well as its bonus to acrobatics and climb checks all point to rogue. Does a halfling even need a bonus skill point per level to have better race/class synergy than say, a Dwarf, who gains no racial bonuses relevant to rogueing.

By giving the races that already have features pointing towards one class or another, it makes it even harder for a player to play a non-favored class character. I can see a dwarf Rogue who is adventuring to... maybe... return lost items and artifacts to his homeland, just as easily as I can see an off the streets halfling who has a compulsion to steal and a the capabilities to do so. So why does the halfling get more skill points when both races have synergies with the above concepts (The dwarven bonus to appraise and their stonecutting ability).

In short, favored class distinctions by the rules, whether they are bonuses or penalties, restrict player choice, and are the downfall of many an interesting character concept in favor of a stereotypical and often seen concept.

After trying and failing to come up with a mana point system to use in my games, it is nice to see someone succeeding at the same task. If I can convince my players to try it, then we will give it a go. If so, I will post the results here.

As others said above, the skill challenge system. It is an elegant way to involve every player in non-combat encounters, and it fits perfectly with 3.5.

Dude looks the same Sepiroth from Final Fagstasy 7. Notice that this is a bad thing.

I'd like to see more fighting styles for the Ranger. There are way more archetypes than the two presented, at the very least we need a mounted style. I'd prefer to see a mounted style, a skirmish/ambush style and something else (2 handed?) for a nice round 5 options.

I was going to say something similar in my change, but instead:

I would love for the Ranger to be able to select either favored terrain or favored enemy whenever they are given a favored choice. It is a simple customization option, and options are always good.

Okay, so the fighter died. Then the obvious target (in my opinion) should be the healer of the group. They didn't keep him alive, so they are now the target of his undead fueled hatred. Actually works in quiet nice into the first half of the adventure.

Actually, the healer of the group (a favoured soul) died as well.

No, not as a ghoul... just have their body propped up at his table, sharing a drink with him. That could be creepy enough.

This is the best idea I think I have ever heard. Ever. Since two pc's died, I think the fighter he envied is going to be at the table with a drink, and the favoured soul might end up as one of his ghouls, as roguerouge suggested.

More info on group:

There are no female characters in the group, so Aldern latched onto a fighter who showed the most worth in the goblin raid. The surviving characters have not looted his body, and are properly burying the body. They are actually planning on giving Aldern the deceased players lance, as Aldern was delighted at its effectiveness at killing boars.

I think having Aldern dig up the body would be great, he can perhaps even take the characters clothes and wear them during the confrontation with the players.

My group is meeting in a few days, after just finishing Burnt Offerings the last time we met. It didn't hit me until about ten minutes ago, but I am in a bit of a pickle with the Skinsaw Murders adventure. The character Aldern had his obsession over died in the fight with Nualia. I know it is still possible to run the adventure, and it would be quite easy to omit the obsession entirely, but it definitely adds another level of creepy to The Skinsaw Man. What should I do?

Persoinally, I'd like to see the Sorcerer turned into a gish class, up its BAB (and thus HD), allow light armor casting and give it one martial weapon.

Agreed

I like this idea alot!

Some things that I think could be tweaked would to be to also turn this Level 0 into a childhood/racial level, and to improve the idea a little:

It could be the level where you gain all of your racial abilities, and hit points gained could be along the proposed racial hit points in the alpha (halflings/elves 4, humans/half-elves/gnomes 6, dwarves/half-orcs 8).

Instead of your "pre-training", characters could be given a background bonus feat, which would include things like the feats presented in the RotRl players guide, as well as a feat similar to the rogues minor magic talent. This could also include a feat allowing for 2 extra skill points, and even Weapon Focus in a racial weapon, such as a longsword or rapier for an elf, or an axe for a dwarf. Many existing feats could also be allowed at this level, such as Acrobatics, Alertness, and Toughness, to name a few.

Its good to know that other people see this in a similar way that I do.
I think that increasing the number of skill points a Sorcerer earns would be a great idea, making it easier for a party to remove itself from the Fighter_Cleric_Wizard_Rogue standard.

Since both primary divine casters a relatively useful in combat, it would be very nice indeed to see an arcane caster filling the gish role. I have always house ruled in changes to the Sorcerer class make it different from the Wizard, but only really though about the gish idea after seeing the PRPG sorcerers many melee abilities. There seems to be a great demand for a gish class in dnd, since so many appear in the various splat books.

These types of changes go against one of the main design goals of PRPG, backwards compatibility.

(I wasn't sure where to post this, but I figure it is mostly new rules ideas, so I posted it here.)

Currently the PRPG Sorcerer is underpowered compared to the Wizard, a problem it suffers from in 3.5 as well. It is also still very similar in flavor, even with the various bloodlines. The idea I have is to turn the Sorcerer into something akin to the Battle Sorcerer variant in Unearthed Arcana.

Firstly, increase the Sorcerer's BAB to 3/4 per level, thereby increasing its hit die to a d8. Additionally, allow the sorcerer to cast spells in light armor without an armor check penalty. Perhaps fill in one of the dead levels with an increase of this ability to Medium Armor, or even Heavy Armor (although I am unsure whether the better armor types make the class to powerful).

Giving the Sorcerer a light or one-handed martial weapon prof also increases the combat capability. This would also allow for a minor reworking of some of the Bloodline feats, allowing a few combat feats to sneak in.

Unlike the Battle Sorcerer variant, it might not be necessary to decrease the known spells and spells per day of the Sorcerer, the class already runs far behind the Wizard in spells known and in spell levels.

The finished class has sufficient flavor and mechanical difference from the wizard, and is more powerful than the original Sorcerer, although I am unsure of whether it is in line with the Wizard, or any of the other classes, for that matter. One major problem this suffers from is backwards compatibility. If this or a similar concept were to be used, the Sorcerer would be the class that is hardest to update a PC or NPC in. What do you guys think?

I didn't expect my players to make a party with no primary casters. The best they have is a Favored Soul 2 / Crusader 2 and a Ranger 4. They always fail their Will saves.

In my game, the sorcerer has developed a relationship with Shayliss, and her father has yet to find out. Another has taking a liking to Ameiko, and her the same. Unfortunatly for him, she is on her way to Korvosa looking for new glass workers. He has recently been exiled from the city due to an accused rape of a nobleman's daughter. He is innocent, but it will be interesting to see if he is able to talk his way out of it with a penalty to charisma... if she even finds about about his issue.

I have a few players who don't want to create relationships with npcs of any sort, because they believe it will only lead to trouble for them. The rest of my players are usually okay with developing relationships with npcs, although my exiled player is probably regretting it a little right now. Little does he know that it is hopefully simply going to force his character to come to terms with the issue, rather than avoiding it with booze.

I am getting ready to run Rise of the Runelords for my friends (we start tomorrow).It is our first pathfinder game, so anything that helps us add to the experience is great. This should add a lot of personality to the campaign, especially since I can reference the lunar cycle (that is a nice touch). Thanks for making it.

Try thinking about the fly skill this way.

Riding on the top of an animal is not a natural movement for any of the basic races, so the Ride skill exists. Most characters are able to ride normally, but are unable to perform complex actions while atop a mount. This is the same for the Fly skill. While flying, a character can fly normally without making any checks, it is only when they try to do something complex that they need to make a check.

I am perfectly okay with the Fly skill for this reason. Especially when you can wait until you have an ability that grants flight to take Fly as a skill.