"Ragged Vestiges" Campaign Now Recruiting

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  • Yoshara
    Yoshara
    Posts: 48
    5 of 7 characters created! Wooo!
  • gaaran
    gaaran
    Posts: 740
    5 of 6, as arsheesh is just spectating. And embir has her character done, she just needs to put it up on the site :)
  • Yoshara
    Yoshara
    Posts: 48
    Even better if you ask me. Though I hate that Arsheesh won't be able to play.
  • gaaran
    gaaran
    Posts: 740
    yeah, it's unfortunate that he won't be able to join us.
  • Nir
    Nir
    Posts: 42 edited November 2010
    Loriens' Bio: check.
    Got to still do my equipment.
    Post edited by Nir on
  • RaseCidraen
    RaseCidraen
    Posts: 890
    I swear I'm not being lazy about it! I am slowly plugging away... mainly working on equipment. The rest is cake!
  • Ironhead
    Ironhead
    Posts: 59
    Just to clarify something, the map isn't open to debate. I understand that it isn't of the same quality as the Mongoose cartographer's work, but it is what we're using until I find time to make a more attractive version. If any of you have the time to work on a more eye pleasing version, feel free to; BUT, everything shown on the current map needs to be included.
  • RaseCidraen
    RaseCidraen
    Posts: 890
    Now that I'm not reading impaired, I have equipment done, and am just now formatting!
  • Vandor
    Vandor
    Posts: 31 edited November 2010
    The only issue I have with the map is that many of the labels are too small to read, even at max magnification.

    Other than that, it's the standard elder version of Greyhawk style, clearly delineated hexes. I oftan do such maps myself, as they work really well for fantasy military / wargame linked campaigns.

    I could take a stab at making one with CC2 or CC3...or other programs, like Age of Wonders map editor. Seems like the water hexes are rivers with a few lakes here and there.

    Since one of the upper left labels, "tern Wolfwood" is cut off, this has to be a screencap, or excised portion of a larger map...I'm curious, what might that original map be? I tried googling some of the locations, nothing popped up.

    Side note, I now have Hardback of the advanced player's guide. My FLGS guy was ecstatic, since I paid in cash.
    Post edited by Vandor on
  • RaseCidraen
    RaseCidraen
    Posts: 890
    Ironhead made the original map: it's an issue that's been run into before, where uploading a map to ObsPort will snip off parts of it. The actual map is quite legible, and very large. I'll have to see if I can't make a wiki page linked to it sometime soon.
  • gaaran
    gaaran
    Posts: 740
    Sounds like we're almost ready to get going! Is there any information about the setting that we should know before we get started figuring out a time to play?
  • arsheesh
    arsheesh
    Posts: 850
    Hey guys, I'll just butt in here with a suggestion. I had similar issues with one of my maps. I did what Rase suggested and created a direct wiki link to the map. However I had originally uploaded my maps to Photobucket (an image hosting site), and even though none of the portions of my map were cut off (like they can sometimes be in the maps section of the Portal), the resolution wasn't all that good. Then I switched over to "Image Shack":http://imageshack.us/ (another media hosting site), and the resolution was much better. Just a heads up in case you decide to go this route.

    Cheers,
    -Arsheesh
  • Vandor
    Vandor
    Posts: 31
    Or just an http: link to the map on photobucket.
  • gaaran
    gaaran
    Posts: 740
    flickr has been my go to image site, and i have a pro account, just sos you know
  • RaseCidraen
    RaseCidraen
    Posts: 890
    I think that we can combine all of the ideas mentioned: I have an example of something similar "here":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/planescape-campaign/wikis/the-armory Where it's just as simple to combine the image with an HTTP link of the bigger image. That way you can preserve the master copy, and still have a viewable link. Alternately, We can create an image map, and have even larger individual parts of the map... the north, the cities, etc etc etc. It all depends on what we want to do. Anything is possible!
  • Yoshara
    Yoshara
    Posts: 48
    I can't believe I didn't think about that idea for my campaign rase, sectioned maps, thank you! Your awesome.
  • Nir
    Nir
    Posts: 42
    Lorien is done.
  • Nir
    Nir
    Posts: 42
    I was glancing over the alternate monk variants. The last one was the Zen Archer who replaces his unarmed & regular weapons that allow him to use flurry of blows for bows FoB. As well as changing some monk abilities for those more appropriate for archery use. See link: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/collaborators/work-area/apg/monk-alternate-class-features

    So I was thinking: why not have the monk chose a different set of weapons to apply his FoB to instead of bows. What about a sword master variant - Kensai. Or any other weapon group of choice for that matter.
    What's your opinion?

    I was also looking over the feat Belier's Bite (BB) that Ironhead OKed earlier (for my PC). I'm just concerned that the feat is overly powerful. I'm comparing it to weapon specialization (WS), and it seems to be more powerful. And WS is only available to fighters, and of 4th level too. What's your opinion on this too?
  • Nir
    Nir
    Posts: 42
    And where's everyone being this weekend? No posts?
  • RaseCidraen
    RaseCidraen
    Posts: 890
    Hey guys - sorry for the absence this weekend... still had a lot of cleanup to do regarding Halloween. I'm pretty much done with everything (Halloween included), and I'm pumped to get going.

    I'm glad you were inspired by the idea, Yoshara! If you need help developing the image map, please let me know. I've had a fair bit of experience getting mine put together, so I'm more than willing to share the knowledge.

    Nir, I'm not sure about the different sets of weapons for a monk. Something about a monk lugging around a two-handed axe doesn't quite sit right with me :P
    As for Belier's Bite, well:

    You are adding on 1d4 damage to the creature, per round, rerolled every round. I mean, I'm no expert on balance or anything, but I don't think that upsets things too much. I mean, I worry about 1.5x Str damage all the time when I'm using a two handed weapon. Keep in mind that when comparing to WS, the fighter has to pick up Weapon Focus, which is +1 to hit, then he gets +2 to damage with WS, and you can continue up to GWF (Another +1 hit), and GWS (Another +2 damage), for a total of +2 to hit and +4 damage. Granted, at that point the monk is already doing 3d6 per fist (Assuming a medium sized monk).

    Oh, and now a big question for all those involved! How do we all know each other? :)
  • Yoshara
    Yoshara
    Posts: 48
    Rase - Thats why you don't go fighter and just make a barbarian with monkey grip with a large greataxe. 3d6 + 13 at lvl 6 while raging. I threw one at my party in my "The Great Ascension" Campaign and almost killed one of their group.

    and how do we know each other? Well we are level one, so I am fine starting out in the same city not knowing each other.
  • RaseCidraen
    RaseCidraen
    Posts: 890
    I hadn't even thought about a large greataxe and monkey grip.. Although I think they got rid of Monkey Grip in Pathfinder. I'll have to settle for less ridiculous methods of being awesome. It's a shame I can't attack things with my HP :P

    I think Ironhead may want us having at least passing acquaintance with each other.

    The last time I *almost* killed one of my group was when I threw a ghoul at them. Really low level blighter, but he took the party's paladin down 3 CL before they took him down. Actual kills are much more frequent than the almosts - Second to last session I ran had the group run into a bunch of skeletons that the BBEG designed - and the player who made them powergamed the BBEG very effectively: Skeletons that explode in bursts of negative energy when killed, which heal the other ones. Large skeleton KO'd a draconian as it's last act (Consequently, the last act of the battle, as the draconian simultaniously destroyed it), and the draco got slammed backwards into a pit of lava (oddly enough, as a favor to the party, who would have died otherwise.) He subsequently exploded, (Flame draconians explode on death - messy, damaging, and fun), and the party was very, very sad. Which, I suppose, was the point, although the character death *was* sanctioned beforehand (Player wanted to bring in a new PC, so I obliged him).
  • Vandor
    Vandor
    Posts: 31
    As to party acquaintance, I'm good with "You've all adventured together for 6 months." And leave it at that, unless people want to form a back story.
  • RaseCidraen
    RaseCidraen
    Posts: 890
    I've always been fond of at the very least, a loose background framework where the details are fuzzy and might get filled in as time goes on, sort of a "Hey, remember that time where you and I got arrested in that bar, where the fight took place?" "You mean the one where we were just drinking and got arrested by corrupt police?" "Oh yeah, I lost X gold to those jerks.." kind of thing. And because everyone is connected in a loose, not too well defined way, it allows for some interesting revelations and whatnot. But it depends on what everyone wants.
  • Yoshara
    Yoshara
    Posts: 48 edited November 2010
    Personally I like first meeting PCs as a PC character or us saying "So you have been together for 2-3 days". That way I can form an actual relationship in my mind than trying to come up with one. Its just one of those roleplaying aspects that I enjoy.

    Rase - Ya, that Barbarian was doing some good damage to them, basically that fight ended in the PCs' favor, no one died. When we started game we were short a player for the difficulty I wanted to play and I didn't want to scale it down so what I did was bring in an NPC character in the party and I let a PC who wants to, to play her during combat and I roleplay her (she doesn't have much depth, my fault).

    This is her - "Syana Rynwor":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/thecampaign/characters/syana-rynwor

    Shes a ranged fighter with a Greatbow and all the fixings. The first attack came from her, she moved out into the arena and fired two arrows (rapid shot). Rolled a miss and then a 20. Now I will copy paste from the adventure log here...

    "To explain the very awesome rolls that the player of Syana performed. He rolled a 20, critting with a greatbow at a x3. Now in my games, more of a house rule, you can crit multiple times with one attack as long as you keep rolling 20s. This player rolled a 20 on the first dice to confirm, a 20 on the second dice, continued and rolled a 20 on the third dice. The way its done is you take the number of 20s you roll and times that by the critical damage. In this case he rolled 4 20s. Now because you crit with the first 20, you get that damage already so you going to take the first out of the equation and the x3 is going to be multiplied by 3. This gives us a x9 crit. So he rolls 9d10+(7
    Post edited by Yoshara on
  • Ironhead
    Ironhead
    Posts: 59
    Check our homepage and let me know what you think, folks.
  • Yoshara
    Yoshara
    Posts: 48
    Thats an awesome song Iron.
  • RaseCidraen
    RaseCidraen
    Posts: 890
    I think that it could work that the characters all have a rudimentary understanding of each other at the beginning: for one reason or another, their travels brought them to the tavern in Hillhold. For whatever reason, they decided to throw their lot in together (potentially to defeat the bar tab), and thus here we are, with a motley group of individuals, learning to trust/mistrust each other as circumstances dictate. I can totally get behind that :)

    That's a pretty brutal house rule... that has the potential for turning almost anything into a vorpal blade of life-ending. Which is kind of cool, because it accounts for those certain lucky strikes/combinations of mad crazy skills - depending on your level.

    That's epic that we have a trailer now! I like it. I just wish I could see all of it. Not for a few more hours at any rate.
  • Nir
    Nir
    Posts: 42
    Re: monk weapons.

    The reason I'm asking is that I have dislike to D&D's approach to making martial arts characters so oriental in the first place.
    Do all the elven monks have "Lee" as their last name?
    Must all monks fight with Japanese weapons (even in a world where there are no orientals)?
    Any why, why, why, must they all fight with peasant weapons and chop sticks?

    Rase how do you feel about the monk choosing a weapon that doesn't do more damage than his initial unarmed attack? Say a rapier?
    It seems a little underpowered to me though, considering that he's giving up increasing his damage in later levels and the only advantage is a higher critical range*.
    Not to mention that he his fists are free, weightless and always accessible. The rapier is not (on all accounts).
    _ * I didn't mention the advantage of having the ability to enchant the weapon because of brass knuckles availability. _

    I played in a group once where we were allowed to customize our PC's slightly, and we had a rule for the monk changing his weapons of choice (WoCh).
    What we did was this: the damage dealt with the WoCh was always the same as the unarmed damage of the corresponding monk level, due to his martial skills improving with his weapons (not just his unarmed attacks) over time.
    And the monk could do so with any weapon he was proficient with (since the damage would be the same as unarmed damage anyway).
    If he wanted another weapon that was not on his list, he would have to acquire it using a feat/trait/etc.

    BTW, The monk would not get 1.5x STR using FoB no matter what weapon he uses. Even 2 handed.

    Enough said about the monk. Let me go and check out the changes to our homepage...
  • gaaran
    gaaran
    Posts: 740
    Nir, about the monk weapons, without changing any of the stats, changing the weapons they use would be a non-issue. However, monk weapons all deal a d6 with a x2 crit. This balances out the fact that they can be used to eventually attack seven times in a round. Using a "monk rapier" for flavor should be totally fine, but it would have to be aesthetic only, because otherwise you get an advantage over the standard monk for criting (unless you worked it out where a feat allowed you to do it or something).

    In response to being able to choose a single weapon and use your unarmed damage instead of the weapon damage, that's over-powered again because you can enchant the weapon much easier than you can your fists. (and about the brass knuckles, i don't believe you can use them and still get your unarmed attack damage, because again, that's an unfair way to enchant your fists, and if you can, that sounds like an oversight on the game developer's part, because then every single monk should use them, being that it's just better.

    Just my two cents, I say use what ever you want aesthetically (for example, in my current campaign, one of my players uses a two bladed sword that can come apart at the middle to be two swords, but i treat it, mechanics wise, no different than a two-bladed sword), but when you start making any changes to the numbers, class balance becomes an issue.
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