My mind first goes to a dracolich. Never looked for one or happened across one in the books I have, but found this - http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2kccs?Dracolich-Template
Does that help?
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Voadam - that village of house-sized mimics session you are referring to was straight out of an old Dungeon Magazine issue from the 1980's - I have it (at home, not here.) But back on topic... I've set dragons (green, black, white) and too many wyverns to count on parties before, but never have encountered one as a PC.
@Deighton, I think that Domain of Travel would make any deity who has that domain the exception. @Deadmawalking, I think you gave bad examples. A Pharasmin Investigator WOULD be focused on anti-undead, so would definitely join a campaign focused on that with a PC party for that role. On the other hand, I think what Mardaddy means is a Pharasmin Investigator would not be as interested chasing after a dragon's hoard or clearing a cave of kobolds, or trying to solve a cliffhouse mystery (unless there was some other "seek-out-and-destroy-the-undead" related hook.) Wrath of the Righteous has a focused goal of defeating a specific evil, exactly what an Investigator of some good-aligned deity would be assigned to jump in by his superiors.
Got it. Thank you. Yea, I've plotted out SO MUCH challenging nastiness for them there...
Yes, thank you, I already went to the link and read & understood that. No mention of "class list," hence my wondering if there was something else I might be missing regarding that specific term.
Certain mechanisms to keep a fantasy role playing game balanced and/or playable will never be logical or comparable to real life.
Hmm, well, we'll change that up then. It was the player himself (not a new player BTW) that said he was going to use the wand, grabbed a die, rolled a "1" broke out laughing and declared the nerf. I went with it unknowingly. And one of the players does read the Paizo boards; that is why I am avoiding specifics (like creature types/names of enemies that have not been revealed in game yet) in this thread. For my own edification, what do you mean by class list? "...just needs it on your class list" Were you referring to it can be used w/o a check as long as the spell(s) stored in the wand are one(s) that the class may cast?
Ha ha ha... End of Act 2: Two of the PC's got paralyzed & "kissed," the Pally rolled a "1" for his CLW wand (making it inert for 24hrs), and even after paying for various Remove curatives in town (many of which did not work the first time around - caster DC20 to heal some of those wounds y'know), the Rogue still has an uncured case of Ushabti Fever, he's down to 6 WIS. I saved the BBEG from the estate to sabotage and hound them throughout Act 3...
Two Paladins and a twice-cursed Oracle. They made it through the first act of Empty Graves, though one of the Paladins was brought to 0 with the very first trap. They had to go back into town to get bludgeoning weapons and return because none had any for one of the encounters where it was needed. They climbed to the entry to rest for a night and re-enter the tomb. I described the noises from gangs of ghouls and other monstrosities fighting each other during the night back and forth just outside their tomb. Act 2. Oracle drops out of the party, a Rogue joins the party. They have gone through the entire outer portion of the house and down into the crypt. So far the paladin who bought a CLW wand rolled a "1" and nerfed its use for the rest of the day, they have used up their CLW potions, the Rogue has caught a case of Filth Fever (does not know it yet because of onset delay) and also failed three sets of S/T vs. Ashabti Fever from the you-know-what swarm (with attendant ability score damages.) Additionally, one of the Paladins has also taken DEX score damage that is affecting his AC pretty bad but has decided to tough it out. They have not completely cleared the crypt portion yet.
After DMing only one game and participating as a player in four others, and seeing how things interact with that small bit of experience... I have set my DM rules as allowing all PF sources for race & class, no winged races, no 3rd Party material, no Gunslingers, Traits only if you do a backstory and the backstory supports those Traits.
Tonite we meet and work out the PC details, the only restrictions are: No winged races/ability to fly right off the bat at 1st level.
Other than that, 25 point buy; if you write a background, 2 Traits that have to do with that background, otherwise no Traits. Since this is epic fantasy, expect the DM to scale the AP upwards and add in additional challenges right from the start.
The cruelest thing the players have ever done? They have not done it yet, I am still waiting. The cruelest thing I've done as a party member? Engage in biological warfare against a tribe of 2,000 Barbarians (killed them all with Cackling Sickness within a week, the Succubus helped w/stragglers.)
The group I DM is both half-elf and ranged-fighter-heavy. Gunslinger(HE), Ninja(E), Magus(HE), Cleric(H), Barbarian(H), Fighter(H), Ranger(HE) So... no arcane casters - that is the aversion. And they are on an AP, so they *WILL* have problems if someone does not dip, and soon, to build up the levels.
I can only see this as useful for something like gladiators who are limited to their armor in the ring, or in an almost apocalyptic setting like Dark Sun and you adopt the piecemeal system TOTALLY to the exclusion of full sets because metal itself is so exotic and rare.
I was part of an expedition setting out from Korvosa to build a trade route through the Bloodsworn Vale in a sandbox Roll20 game. The DM populated the different portions of the Vale with rival tribes of boggards and hobgoblins with a young dragon in the mix, another section of the Vale was home to a tribe of 2,000 Shoanti bordered on their south with some giants. It was a great time and we had some fantastic roleplay. Unfortunately, since the DM gave no arching guidance on PC creation and had us do our own backgrounds and goals, many of the PC's making up the party had incompatible and even oppositional short and long term goals. Plus my availability schedule changed so I had to drop out of the group.
Way OOP, I'd never allow this as-is. As DM, I already regret allowing a Gunslinger into the current party, and that is just RAW with them being only 3rd level.
I'm running an AP, so I level them when the AP says so. For sandbox, I do use XP and award for encounters, use of Skills or Feats creatively and add bonus XP for epic, party-TPK-saving, timely critical successes or unusually creative ideas/roleplay.
Part of my first initial "welcome to the game" briefing with players is about how sometimes it is more beneficial to back off, retreat, buff out, then come back to kick butt; that you take chances if you spread yourself thin when the chips are down... and PC death is a real thing in the game.
There is a 3rd party source for Linnorms, but I'd like to see it official...
The problem with evil PC's in a party of non-evil is that evil by it's very nature is selfish, putting the wants and needs of ones self above other considerations. Sure, evil PC(s) will team up with others or fellow evil when it is in their own best interest, doing so even for an extended period when they can see the goal; but it is EXTREMELY difficult to keep a RP party going for multiple sessions when everyone has their own agenda. We had a mostly neutral party in one sandbox campaign and the DM had us do such extensive backstories and life goals for them that even THAT campaign fell apart as our goals and the opportunities during the sandbox play did not coincide - for roleplay reasons we discontinued the adventure because it just was not logical for us to continue together. I could envision a campaign where PC's are told by their dark "masters" they MUST cooperate and care for common defense of one another for a common dark goal, but that would be a themed campaign with a definitive direction, not sandbox play.
Traits are powerful enough that one of the players in our group gave up a Feat to get Additional Traits. And my brother-sister team (Druid & Rogue) with Kin-Bond has saved them a few time with re-rolls on ST's to make up for the bad REF save of the Druid and bad WIL save for the Rogue.
You could also have other things going on with NPC's that make the roll difficult to determine even if 100% successful. The last time my PC's tried a Sense Motive against one of my NPC's, the NPC was being completely honest in his reply, but was angry at the PC's for kidnapping him for mistaken identity, had not had a pesh fix in a while (borderline withdrawl), and saw an opportunity to gain monetarily from the PC's mistake (eyes flashing with greed.) So yes, he was 100% honest, but they had trouble reading it as such because of all the other conflicts and effects the NPC was going through, and I roleplayed it as such, "his answer seems sincere and logical, but there is a glint in his eye, like he sees you as somehow vulnerable. His hand twitches somewhat and his scowl reveals a deep anger." It was up to them to figure out the pesh withdrawl, why he is angry, or the meaning behind that glint through further questions. Which they did.
What is fun as a player is describing some cinematic action my PC is attempting and having it succeed or fail spectacularly (either one is fine by me.) Like describing doing a backflip off a non-moving cart and trying an Intimidation check before engaging in combat... And fumbling my Acrobatics, causing me to roll down an embankment, my weapon thrown 20ft away. The enemy was not intimidated in the least. Or nailing that Acrobatics check to cartwheel down some inn stairs that leads directly to the capture of an elf that robbed an NPC buddy. Or when I was in a tent housing herd beasts, weaponless, grabbed a dropped whip that I do not know how to use and tried to engage an enemy, only to fumble, wrapping the whip around my ankles and tripping myself, knocking my head on a fencepost and I'm out cold for three rounds... While the beasts are panicking and the tent is BURNING DOWN AROUND US ALL. ...good times...
The BBEG failed a CdG on a charmed/dominated PC in the AP I am running. It really brought the potential and finality of PC death to the game; which had been going fairly easy for them due to great decisions and roleplay up to that encounter. So, yea, as a DM, it is not off limits and the PC's are aware of that up front. I will use it if it tactically makes sense or NPC emotions vs. the PC's are high.
I think this may be the only game where when someone asks for something simple to play, the first suggestion is a raging priest who can share the rage with the team who also has a sentient tumor that can detach and reattach on command. Not a criticism, just cracks me up.
Plagues can still be an "iffy" prospect person to person even with Cure Disease, as they have DC levels. BUT to the OP, It depends on how you manage your game. If your game is, "I roll a Heal check to see if Gog is diseased, I got a 15, my bonus is +8 so... 23. What does he have? Tetnus, oh, that's nothing, we'll cure it before it gets too bad, ho hum." Then yes, I can see where there is an issue. In the games I've played (and DMed), we don't "just roll" to identify a disease, or make any skill check... the player has to describe what he is doing to identify the disease and we apply bonuses (or not, depending on whether what he is doing would help in the identifying) to the roll (which is HIDDEN) based on what he was describing he is doing. Maybe he got it right, maybe he didn't, players does not know for sure, all he knows is what is described in the story the DM is unfolding... SO - making it more dramatic or thematic through verbal descriptors can be a way to raise the tension and worry, but again, that would depend on how you already manage your game.
You can have handy, "cultural," events that just happened to be timed when the PC's are in a position to participate. Of course... with attendant sub-plots that happened to trigger hoping for the distraction of the cultural celebration to cover the nefarious exploits of bad guys. Our group is 3/4 through Book one, and I had New Years Day in Magnimar with celebration at the Serpent's Run that turned into an assassination attempt on a prominent personality the PC's helped thwart. It was a needed break from the Crow Piling before they hit the mites, and their actions provided more hooks for side-distractions even later in the AP.
Had a 5th level dwarf PC that was part of an expedition from Korvosa to subdue and pacify the Bloodswarn Vale and get a trade route going through it to Nirmathas. The expedition topped out at 300+ workers, mercenary guards, support staff and assorted specialists (even had some Order of the Nail and Abadar Paladins in the mix), all acquired through multiple sessions roleplaying the recruitment and city support. Well into the campaign, the expedition leadership decided to wipe out via biological warfare the 2,000+ Shoanti tribe we encountered in our way (via Cackling Sickness.) After it was over, I was actually able to roleplay the persuasion of the Adabar Paladins and my own dwarven contingent from Janderhoff to stay with the expedition despite those actions. Our DM was one that does not just say, "OK, roll it," you actually have to MAKE THE CASE to him in dialog and roleplay, and THEN you have you roll for it, with him giving bonuses or minuses depending on how well-thought out your case was and how adverse the situation is to the NPC's. It was tense!
"Cosmetic not functional" That is the descriptor I was looking for right there. Case closed.
Title says it all. Can the spell foul firearms ("soil" per the spell description) enough that they have a chance of not firing? I am on the fence with this. Would this not fall into the minor effects arena? Not talking the weapon is fouled every time it is cast, just that there is a chance of being fouled. I thought it could be a creative application of the spell. |