[Pathfinder] 101 uses for a 10ft ladder

When designing and equipping a character, I tend to purchase a few mundane items to better flesh out the character concept. For example, my shapechangers come complete with a full wardrobe (for any situation and either gender); my transmuters carry around spices, cooking equipment, fine wine and several spell slots dedicated to Baleful Polymorph (it’s probably not cannibalism that way); and my physicists all carry crowbars. So, it was only a matter of time till I concocted this monstrosity:

Carter  Greyling   Male Human LG Paladin 8 Init: +0 Perception: +0

Defense   AC: 19; Touch 10; Flat 19 CMD: 24 (26 vs Overrun) HP: 84 Fort: 11 Ref: 5 Will: 9

Offense   Speed: 20 Melee: Stairway to Heaven (Ladder) 10ft reach +9 1d10+15*; Paddle of Justice (Oar) +9 1d10+15; Silvered Spiked Gauntlet +10 1d4+8; Cold Iron Spiked Gauntlet +10 1d4+8 Spells Prepared: 1 – Lesser Restoration, Magic Weapon; 2 – Bull’s Strength

Statistics   Str 19 Dex 10 Con 14 Int 8 Wis 10 Cha 14 Base Attack: 8 CMB: 12 (14 Overrun) Feats: Catch Off-Guard; Improved Overrun; Power Attack (taken into account); Toughness; Transcendent Mercy Skills: Craft (Woodworking) 3; Perform (Air Guitar) 6; Sense Motive 8 Gear: Masterwork Full Plate; Masterwork Spiked Cold Iron Gauntlet**; Spiked Silvered Gauntlet +1***; Wand of Cure Light Wounds (10 charges); Cloak of Resistance +1; Ladder; Oar; Pig****; Javelin of Lightning; Universal Solvent; Scroll of Delay Poison (CL 5); Adventuring Gear; 297gp; 8sp

Special Abilities   Aura of Courage; Aura of Good; Aura of Resolve; Channel Energy +4d6; Divine Bond (Weapon); Divine Grace; Divine Health; Lay on Hands 6/d +4d6; Mercy (Diseased, Sickened); Smite Evil

* With the Magic Weapon spell and his Divine Bond, Carter can swing around a +1 Holy Ladder <groan>

** The phrase “Filthy Hippiez” is crudely scratched on the back of this left-hand gauntlet.

*** The words “Vamp”, “Ratpeople” and “Lawyer” are carved into the back of this right-hand gauntlet.

**** Yes, a pig.

- jatori

New Pratchett – Unseen Academicals

Why doesn’t anybody tell me these things? How did this slip through my elaborate network of informants and ne’erdowells? (I’m looking at you pb and j…)

http://www.harpercollins.com/features/pratchettbooks/description.aspx?isbn=9780061161704

A new Pratchett book is out – and I want the world to know about it. I’m getting it first thing in the morning. Or at the earliest convenience of the local bookstore.

 

[Blog Carnival] Maybe I should include this in my new player interview kit

This month’s blog carnival topic, Morality: in-game and RL, is quite a whopper of a topic. There’s just so much that I could write about, but luckily, this month’s theme comes with its own internet quiz meme-like list of questions. Memes. I love them. And as some regular readers may know, I was killed by and then replaced by a self-replicating meme 5 months ago.

What are your limits as a player?

Any action that would in any way hamper the fun for the rest of my group. I don’t always get it right though, but I try to learn from my mistakes.

How evil can you be?

Pretty darn despicable, but only on the very rare occassion as a player. As a GM, however, I sometimes take being evil too seriously (note: this does not mean vindictive and mean-spirited), trying my best to unnerve and unsettle my players. Unfortunately, the players end up unnerving and unsettling me more often than the other way round.

Do you just like to play by alignment or do you like a more realistic moral system?

This really depends on the genre and system. The alignment system of DnD is such an integral part of DnDness for me that I can’t play DnD or craft a character (Craft a Character is a 7th level item creation feat) without writing down LG in the alignment box. Then, when playing with WoD, I really get into the vice/virtue system, using it to help flesh out my characters. In BESM, I base character morals on how long they take to power up their big finisher moves.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done as a player?

Destroyed the world. Seriously. My character accidentally fulfilled the criteria for the end of the world prophecy. That was the last time I deliberately set out to play CN. LG is so much safer.

How much difference is there between your real life morals and your in-game morals?

As a player, not too much. Sticking with the DnD examples, I tend to stick to a select few alignment choices (LG, NG, LN and occassionnally LE) and then I tend to hammer my interpretation of those alignments to match my RL morals. Works every time.

If a God mandates Kolbolds are evil and must be destroyed, could your character kill a Kolbold pup in cold blood?

Sadly, I must confess to playing the occassional religious zealot and they would follow divine orders to the letter. However, most of my characters tend to be either agnostic (and only carry silver symbols to use as improvised weapons against vamps and wererats) or intelligent/wise enough to question authority when they realise that blindly following a law/order/divine mandate is not necessarily the best course of action. Of course, any attempt to discuss my character’s views and share her concerns with the powers-that-be ends up with the rest of my party getting bored and then starting a thieving and/or killing spree. ^_^

- jatori

P.S. You can see PB’s answers to these questions here.

[RPG Blog Carnival] What goes around, comes around

The carnival this month is about morality.  Given that this is a bit tricky to write about, I’ll be using the questions posed in the post about this months topic, with a final thought at the end.

What are your limits as a player?

My characters tend to be chaotic and as such they add to their code as they go along. Betrayal can be ok, sometimes, if the price is right. I’d happily kill anyone deemed evil, but if something doesn’t feel right about the situation it won’t happen. I’ve found though, that if there’s a paladin in the group I tend to go overboard with the wanton destruction.

How evil can you be?

Pretty darn evil, I don’t have this nic just for the fun of it. Although I’m not the organised take over the world kind of evil, it’s all about the destruction, peeving off the biggest person I can find and kicking ass.

Do you just like to play by alignment or do you like a more realistic moral system?

I prefer a more realistic system, alignment tends to be restrictive because we all have different views on what stands for what.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done as a player?

I suppose it would be the death of  umm 15 peasants because they were in my way.

How much difference is there between your real life morals and your in-game morals?

There is an entire universe between my real life morals and my in-game morals. In game I let loose and don’t really care about the consequences, in real life it’s all about the consequences. Although  both in-game and out karma tends to be a factor.

If a God mandates Kolbolds are evil and must be destroyed, could your character kill a Kolbold pup in cold blood?

I’d probably try to keep it and raise it. Baby animals are my weakness.

———-

When we game we tend to look at morality in terms of alignment choices or your level of humanity, but do this arbitrary choices really reflect the characters moral code, or even your own? Probably not, but it does help to have something to fall back on when your character needs to make those really tough calls: kill the baby or go against orders? My experience has tended to go along karmic lines…when ever my rangers acted against nature, they would die at the ‘hands of nature’. If calling it karma doesn’t work for you how about cause and effect? Clearly everything you do has a consequence/ripple effect on everything else. I figure that, that’s how morality works…we have the code to shape our actions.

[Pathfinder] Let’s build a cosplay character

This post would actually better suit a forum discussion, rather than a blog post, since it deals with a rules interpretation question. While sitting around and toying with new character ideas, I thought it’d be interesting to see to what extent I could manipulate the core Pathfinder ruleset in order to bring some rather outlandish or extreme character concepts to life. Now, I know I promised to explore an illusionist build first, but, today, this is just a minor rules discussion (not a complete character build), so I’m not really skipping out on the promised illusionist build.

I’ll be basing today’s rules discussion on an attempt to recreate Mifune, a character from the popular manga/anime Soul Eater. Wikipedia describes Mifune like this:

Mifune is a skilled swordsman, who quits as the bodyguard of a mafia family after saving Angela Leon, a young witch that they captured. He uses the Infinite One-Sword Style, which allows him to utilize a number of swords scattered around the battlefield. He generally carries around one or two large scabbards filled with katana and wrapped with caution tape saying “Keep Out”. He is able to precisely launch the swords out of the scabbard and often wraps the area with the tape. He can use swords as platforms, swing multiple swords at once, instantly discard one to pick up another, and his strongest ability allows him to cause a number of swords to float around his body.

To emulate his ability to throw katanas around (and make the build financially plausible – throwing enhancements to multiple swords would be quite expensive), I planned on using the Throw Anything feat, which reads:

Throw Anything (Combat)

You are used to throwing things you have on hand.

Benefit: You do not suffer any penalties for using an improvised ranged weapon. You receive a +1 circumstance bonus on attack rolls made with thrown splash weapons.

Normal: You take a –4 penalty on attack rolls made with an improvised weapon.

Sounds great, doesn’t it. However, the text for throwing weapons not designed to be thrown reads as follows:

It is possible to throw a weapon that isn’t designed to be thrown (that is, a melee weapon that doesn’t have a numeric entry in the Range column on Table: Weapons), and a character who does so takes a –4 penalty on the attack roll. Throwing a light or one-handed weapon is a standard action, while throwing a two-handed weapon is a full-round action. Regardless of the type of weapon, such an attack scores a threat only on a natural roll of 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. Such a weapon has a range increment of 10 feet.

To me, Mifune sounds like somebody that could throw multiple swords per six second round. Now, here comes the confusing bits:

• Does a thrown non-throwing weapon count as an improvised weapon?
• Can the restriction of throwing only one non-throwing weapon per round be considered a penalty that can be negated by the Throw Anything feat?

I vote yes and yes. Now, what about the critical threat range and multiplier?

- jatori

[Pathfinder] Let’s Build Some Characters

I think it’s about time to end my blogging drought. The usual reasons for my lack of writing apply (work*, travel and all the rest). Today, I’m going to continue with my build-a-character series of posts (I wonder if I can turn this into a Build-a-Bear-esque business venture. Remember to warm (or not) your character’s heart before putting it in).

Remember, I started this series of posts to help me develop a character for a Pathfinder game. Well, we’ve already had a few sessions and I’ve been playing a transmuter. There’s nothing exceptionally special about the transmuter build (that doesn’t mean there is something exceptionally special about the way I play the build – I disregarded AC, dexterity and wisdom and pumped a lot into strength and just generally wade into melee with my club in a very undignified fashion). So, since I’ve already got a character and have already played a few sessions with him, why am I still mucking about with different builds?

1. I always need a stockpile of NPCs (ideas and/or full stat blocks) for games I run.
2. Having a stockpile of PCs (ideas and/or semi-statted) helps reduce downtime when player death occurs (especially when raise dead is not possible or not desired).
3. It’s one of the fun parts of RP for me.

Anyway, today’s post is only a preview post. Here follows a list of character builds I intend to share over the next few days. If you  are interested in seeing one in particular, let me know.

1. A paladin, that uses a ladder, Catch Off-Guard and his Divine Bond to bring you such hits as “Stairway to Heaven”. <Groan>
2. A crazed illusionist that’s convinced of his own divinity. He makes liberal use of Shadow Conjuration to cast beneficial healing spells and cures. The best part: recipients of his healing magics actually have to actively not disbelieve his divinity.
3. A two-handed-weapon fighting ranger. That’s right, two-handed, as in great axe, as in not double weapon – because two-weapon fighting is for wimps.

- jatori

*Interestingly, this time, work involves me trying to explain to clients/superiors why circular reasoning is a bad thing, without blatantly calling them idiots. It’s tougher than you think.

Feat Discussion: Transcendent Mercy (Purity unsullied)

Here’s your daily feat (for a given value of day). As always, be sure to read, consider and reply:

Transcendent Mercy [General]
Prerequisite: Character level 7th, Cha 15, mercy class feature, channel energy class feature
Benefit: When you channel energy you may apply the effect of your Mercy class feature to the channel, giving all creatures within the area of effect of the channel the benefit of your mercies. Only mercies that are accessible to a paladin 3 levels lower than your character level apply to this feat. Thus a 7th level paladin can apply her fatigue mercy to all creatures affected by her channel, similarly a 6th level paladin/3rd level rogue could apply both the fatigue and the disease mercy to her channel ability.
Special: You may not use the Transcendent Mercy feat in conjunction with the Selective Channeling feat (or any other ability that would allow you to selectively ignore individuals from your channeling). Should you lose your mercy class feature for any reason you irrecoverably lose the benefits of this feat; though you may select the Transcendent Mercy feat again when you gain a feat and qualify for it.

I fireballed his barbarian, so he became a bard

International readers may not know, but South Africa is hosting its very own [Insert Country Name Here]’s Got Talent. One of my old university RP buddies is taking part and you can see him (and his brother) at their audition:

Hmm, not bad. I fireballed the one with the ex…  um, beard. Twice. In the same fight. He didn’t make his saves, while the villains did.

On a side note, the other brother lectured me at university.

Good luck, Louis and Willem!

- jatori

[Strictly speaking, this wasn't a gaming post, but it's my blog, so bleh!]

[Zombie Tuesday] Descent of the Zombies

A new custom monster for Descent: Journeys in the Dark board game: a zombie.   Use miniatures from Zombies!!! or Last Night on Earth board games to make Descent even more scary.

With the new Disease ability: Disease tokens indicate that a hero has been stricken with a disease. The victim must roll a power die for each disease token at the start of their next turn. When losing fatigue, if a hero has no fatigue to lose, they lose a wound instead. When receiving healing, any disease tokens are discarded first before any wounds are healed.

Thanks to Descent: Creations

Braaainnzz…

Run, Zombie Run!

We all know those classic zombies that decay for out enjoyment on the silver and big screen. There have been many movies that have depicted some form of zombie like undead, corpses that are re-animated for various reasons (most stories seem to follow the idea of viral outbreaks as the main cause for the walking dead). I am more interested in those that defy the norm

There has been a not so recent revolution when it comes to the idea of the walking almost strolling undead menace. I am of course referring to those fast zombies, no longer the walking dead but the sprinting dead. These corpses, with their sudden onset of athletic prowess, would put world-record-holding-sprinters to shame, as they dart across the screen hunting flesh.

I happen to like this idea of fast zombies. I remember the first time I witnessed this phenomena was when I watched the remake of the1978 zombie apocalypse, Dawn of the Dead by George Romano. It was quite a revolution in my eyes, and I found it a nice spin on an old favorite. Even though I remember thinking at the time, if there actually is a zombie apocalypse similar to that, well then I will be screwed.

Many movies have followed similar suite with Zombies doing their bit for the Olympics; many people I know have criticized this change of pace, they have commented that zombies are walking dead with the emphasis on the walking part. There have been other undead personas that have undergone remodeling over the years (most notably vampires), I find it amazing that every now and then people have found new ways of entertaining us with their views of old horrors.