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Okay, okay, I die on a slightly different hill: that a system randomly telling you what you are and aren't allowed to play is dumb.
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May 9, 2017 16:42
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gently caress yeah I'll die on hill WrongFun. And when the Grognards finally overwhelm me I'll wisper: "I enjoyed myself"
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May 9, 2017 16:50
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wiegieman posted:Okay, okay, I die on a slightly different hill: that a system randomly telling you what you are and aren't allowed to play is dumb. That and the system randomly telling you if your character can meaningfully impact the game in any meaningful way.
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May 9, 2017 17:18
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The irony of randomly rolling for actual mechanical stuff is that it's a much dumber idea in D&D than it is in some other games. Like I'm sure it was alright for OD&D, but like a lot of things in D&D it should've been reexamined as editions evolved. In D&D you don't want a bunch of bell-curved mean-weighted scores, you want like two high ability scores and the rest can be 10s. You don't want to choose your class based on what stats you rolled, you want a balanced party. And so on.
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May 9, 2017 19:14
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Gamma World's random rolling created the Rat Breach, therefore it is good.
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May 9, 2017 19:18
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Halloween Jack posted:You don't want to choose your class based on what stats you rolled, you want a balanced party. Actually you just want mages and clerics. 
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May 9, 2017 19:52
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Kavak posted:Gamma World's random rolling created the Rat Breach, therefore it is good. And the Fridge! Granted those characters took a little license with the concept, but they both got played and it was great! Speaking of, we just hit our AP patreon goal and will be running a few sessions of Gamma World 7e actual play! Super excited to dig into that character creation system again.
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May 9, 2017 21:22
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Dragonmech: Steam Warriors: I EAT GUNDAM The Gear Eater believes mechs are evil and bad and a representation of all that has gone wron with the world. All steam engines, they believe, must be destroyed - but especially mechs. They get unique, magical abilities to help them do this, but no one is sure where - possibly the old gods, possibly the lunar gods, or possibly both, or neither. Something is giving them powers, though. Gear sneak onto mechs and break them from the inside, especially citymechs. There's a bounty on them in most places, and some, like the Irontooth Clans, will kill them without even a trial. Their abilities, as a note, specifically do not work on animated or necromantic mechs. They have a d8 Hit Die and to become one, you must have any Chaotic alignment, Wis 12+, 8 ranks of Disable Device and the Wrecker feat. Their class skills are Appraise, Concentration, Disable Device, Gather Information, Knowledge (any), Listen, Move Silently, Profession (any except engineer), Search, Sense Motive, Spot and Use Rope. They can't gain further ranks in Craft (mechcraft), Knowledge (steam engines), Mech Pilot or Profession (engineer). In fact, they actually get a penalty on all skill checks related to steam powers, clockwork, steam engines or other complex machines equal to their Gear Eater level and can never become proficient in any steam or clockwork weapons. They also get a penalty to using those. However, at level 1, they get Greater Wrecker, which lets them add their Wis bonus to any roll to sabotage or wreck a machine and makes any repairs take twice as long. At level 2, they can sabotage a machine without even needing to make a skill roll, given enough uninterrupted time to work and a Wis check that ranges from DC 6 (for Fine machines) to DC 20 (for Colossal V) and never takes more than 1d4+2 hours (for the biggest machine). However, this power can't be used on mechs in total - just a specific system within them. It can, however, render a sentient machine unconscious (but not dead). This is usable once per day, plus one more at levels 5 and 9. At level 3, the Gear Eater can now cause crits against steam-powered constructs and other machines normally immune to them, and get +1 crit range against them at level 7. At level 4, a Gear Eater may use rusting grasp once a day as if they were a druid of their total level. At 8th level, they get an extra use per day. At 6th level, they can deactivate steam powers with a touch attack, knocking out (Wis bonus) powers for one minute or one power for (Wis bonus) minutes, as often as they like. At 10th level, a Gear Eater can generate a wave of anti-machine hate once per day which is so powerful that it interferes with mechs, making a Wisdom check with DC based on size of the mech to stall the mech's movement and render its limbs useless for as long as the Gear Eater concentrates and makes another Wis check each round, which gets progressively harder. Gear Eaters can work together to stall a mech, giving a bonus to the Wis check and using the highest Wis bonus among them. (This is...theoretically good, as the DC ranges from 15 to 30.)  The Ghostgear is a rogue-focused class that focuses on stealth, climbing and swimming to better steal and murder. They are steamborgs, but far more out of utility than any desire to improve themselves as people. They have a d6 HD, and to become one, you need a BAB of +4 or better, 4 ranks in Climb, 4 in Craft (mechcraft), 4 in Hide, 4 in Listen, 4 in Move Silently and 4 in Spot. Also, you need the Power Soruce feat or steam engine class ability. Your class skills are Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (steam engines), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Tumble and Use Rope. You gain proficiency with all simple weapons, the kukri, the rapier, the shortbow, the short sword, the shuriken and all light armor. You also slowly gain implant bonuses to spend and steam powers as you level. At 1st level, you can sit still for as long as your body will hold out. While you do, you get +5 to Hide and Move Silently checks. You can also shut off your smokestack for up to ten minutes before you start suffocating. At level 3, 6 and 9, you get +1d6 sneak attack damage, which stacks with any other sneak attack ability you have. At level 4, your implants are now very quiet, giving +4 to Move Silently checks at all times. That's it! That's the class. The entire class. The Grease Prophet has no art. They are mysterious people, divine spellcasters who forsook their holy magic for mastery over technology. They are able to make steam powers from essentially nothing, use constructor magic and even turn themselves into constructs. As yet, only four are known to exist - two on Nedderpik, one on Durgan-lok and one stowed away on Haven. All four are dwarves, and it's believed that the coglings may have a few of their own. Each of the four known ones used to be a druid that got interested in technology in secret, and grease prophets resemble druids of machinery. However, they lose their ability to cast divine spells entirely - that power is now used only to create spontaneous steam powers from scrap. All of the old gods reject them, and only Dotrak finds them worthy, though they see Dotrak as just one name for the mystical aspects of technology as a whole. They get a d8 HD, and must be Neutral in some way, as well as having 8 ranks of Knowledge (nature), 5 of Knowledge (religion) and 8 of Knowledge (steam engines). They must also have the Craft Steam Gear feat and the ability to cast at least 3rd level divine spells. Their class skills are Concentration, Craft, Handle Animal, Heal, Knowledge (mechs), Knowledge (steam engines), Listen, Mech Pilot, Profession, Spot and Survival. They gain proficiency with all steam weapons and armor, and may use any steam power weapons with full proficiency. Grease Prophets can no longer cast divine spells or use any spellcasting-related class abilities, but need to track spell slots anyway, and gain caster levels every time they level up. This is because their spell levels fuel their spontaneous steam powers. They decide what they want to make, then sacrifice a spell slot to make it. They can use as many power components as the spell slot they sacrificed has levels, and it lasts for (Grease Prophet level) rounds. To regain spell levels each day, you need to spend an hour meditating on technology, but you get them back without the usual divine caster Wis check. You still need poo poo to make your powers out of, but on any Colossal or larger steam mech you are assumed to have anything you'd need. Otherwise, it's a DC 15 Search check on smaller mechs, so you should probably carry random machinery. Only the creator can use these spontaneous powers - they stop working for anyone else and crumble to scrap, and they can't be combined with other devices by any means. Creating one is the same sort of action as casting a spell. Also, if you had cleric levels and the Engine or Knowledge domains, you may still cast domain spells, but do not gain any new ones as you level. You can, however, trade your domain slots to create steam powers, as above. Grease Prophets may use Handle Animal on constructs and clockwork devices, just as clockwork rangers do. If you have the Animal Companion class feature, however, you are limited to dire rats, grease lizards, Medium or Large monstrous centipedes, Medium monstrous spiders, and Small or Medium vipers. Any other companions leave immediately, but familiars do not. However, for Animal Companions that qualify, add the Grease Prophet class levels to those of the original class to determine the companion's abilities. Further, Grease Prophets add their class level to all Knowledge (mechs) or (steam engines) checks starting at level 2. Also at level 2, they may use Sludgestep, which is identical to the druid Trackless Step ability, except it works only in gear forests, engine rooms and other highly steam-driven areas. Also, they get the Gearstride feat free, even if they don't meet the prereqs. Starting at level 3, a Grease Prophet can use Clockwork Shell and take on the form of any Small or Medium steam or clockwork construct once per day, as per the polymorph spell, except it lasts (Grease Prophet levels) hours or until willingly ended, and doesn't provoke AoOs. You must be familiar with the form you take on, and while in that form, can speak only Mekanik, the native language of the tik'tok race. You also can't use your other Grease Prophet powers. Your HD cannot exceed your Grease Prophet level. At level 4, you may become a Large construct, a Tiny one at 5, and a Huge one at 8. At level 6 you can transform twice a day, and at 9 you can transform three times. At level 10, you can become a Gargantuan construct...or a mech, as long as you obey all other limits of the power. If becomign a mech, you instead cannot have PU that exceed your level. You also count as one member of your own crew but take up no space aboard yourself. You can see as if you had an optical orb/imagemaker combo in a location of your choice and can hear anything inside your hull or within 50 feet of you. When you return to your natural form, you take damage proportional to any damage you suffered as a mech, but will heal normally (though more exotic crit effects may take magical healing). Anyone inside you when you turn back is automatically put on the ground harmlessly where you were standing as a mech. Anyway! At level 4, a Grease Prophet automatically passes any Reflex save to avoid gear forest hazards. At level 7, you may sacrifice two spell slots at once to create a larger device that uses components equal to the total levels sacrificed. Druids who become Grease Prophets lose most of their druid powers, but get a bunch of extra powers in exchange based on how many Druid levels they have. (You get all you qualify for, they stack.) For 1: You can take an animal companion from the approved list. For 2: 1/day you may smite or repair an engine-powered construct with a touch attack, causing or healing 2d6 damage per grease prophet level. For 3-4: You may use your 1st and 2nd level spell slots to spontaneously cast equivalent level constructor spells (1+Wis mod) times per day. For 5-6: Your steam power creations last twice as long as normal. For 7-8: You can spontaneously cast 3rd and 4th level constructor spells, too. For 9-10: You can maintain two different steam power combos at once, under the normal restrictions. For 11+: You may trade in any number of druid levels to immediately gain that many Grease Prophet levels, with the caveat that at the end of this you will only have whatever powers off this list you qualify for with your remaining Druid levels. Oh yeah - and if you ever want to stop being a grease prophet? You can't take any full divine caster classes still unless you undergo atonement as if you were a fallen paladin in order to regain divine casting, plus any other conditions the GM sees fit to apply. Further, if you do regain your casting, you lose all abilities except your bonus to Knowledge checks and your animal companion, if you had one. Next time: PSIBORG! PSIBOOOOORG!
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May 9, 2017 23:12
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Mors Rattus posted:Dragonmech: Steam Warriors: I EAT GUNDAM NO COGS NO SPRINGS NO MASTERS
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May 10, 2017 00:36
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LatwPIAT posted:Actually you just want mages and clerics. That's a weird way to spell "All Druids"
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May 10, 2017 00:40
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PoptartsNinja posted:That's a weird way to spell "All Druids" Is your font wrong? "Bards" is coming out all weird.
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May 10, 2017 00:46
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 Rifts World Book 11: Coalition War Campaign Part Seven: "Females who can handle the weight and bulk are also allowed to wear standard 'Dead Boy' armor." But really, how could a woman bear an extra eight pounds of weight over the light armor? I can think of no real-world analogue for such a situation.  Coalition War Machine Intro by Kevin Siembieda with additional text by Patrick Nowak Oh, gently caress me. It's time for the longest, most lovingly-crafted section of the book: equipment. We've got 90 pages of this to get through, so let's get started. Siembieda is like "Oh, sure the Coalition could beat any other military force on the planet, but they just don't wanna." It points out the only rivals for its dominance are the New German Republic and Atlantis (ha ha, I've seen the numbers you wrote for Atlantis, Siembieda, don't kid yourself), with only the Gargoyle Empire being explicitly more powerful on sheer numbers. In any case, this section is the unveiling of five years of secret Coalition preparations, because five years is all it takes to develop a new, high-tech modern army, everyone! Countries just poo poo new technology and models out of a goddamn mil-spec play-doh set as far as Rifts is concerned. CS Weapons and Equipment By Kevin Siembieda So, it notes that most of the old equipment for the Coalition Army is being passed down to security forces like the ISS, though some outposts may take years to get the new equipment, and some veterans in elite positions may hang on to the old devices, no doubt because they're doddering fools. The new stuff is a big power creep and keeping the old, low-damage weapons is if no real benefit. It also notes that Coalition has discovered Uranium Rounds (despite that explicitly being a huge Triax secret in Triax & the NGR) because of the environment, despite the Coalition never being shown to give diddly fucks about environmentalism previously.   Old corebook pistol, new "improved" design. To compare the power creep in effect, here's some old Coalition weapons and some new, revised counterparts.
  Old and new light rifles.   The original heavy rifle and its replacement.   The old rocket launcher and new missile rifle. If that's not enough, the Coalition also gets improved missiles nearly across the board, with improved damage on nearly all of their missiles:
Fusion Blocks, CS Hand Grenades, Vibro-Blades, and Neural Maces are reprinted; we get flashbang grenades, teargas grenades, and flare grenades added, and a slightly larger vibro-sword to be used by power armor. In general, I understand reprinting some of this stuff, but at the same time this book is entering into a shameful amount of content copied over from the corebook.  Trade out two letters, get a brand new weapon! But that's not all! We have more more "new" weapons!
 Sway to the left, sway to the right, shimmy like genocide- that's the Coalition Shuffle! New CS Body Armor As might be expected after the above material, the new Coalition armor is, well, more powerful. In fact, it's now stronger than any suit of armor in the corebook - at minimum. We also get the usual laundry list of features, the most interesting part is that the white-parts are light-sensitive and turn a dark grey in low-light. But there's no mechanical effect for that nor any illustrations of it, so gently caress it. (Easier solution: don't paint part of your armor white, Prosek).  The normal, heavy, and scout armors. So, we get the CA-3 Light "Dead Boy Armor", which despite being light, has more M.D.C. than any of the corebook suits. "The helmet is often given a plume or ponytail of hair-like fibers to denote female officers and wilderness scouts; spikes are used for psionic officers."  We have the CA-4 Standard "Dead Boy" Armor, which are now twice as tough as they used to be and the equal of Triax armor. There's the CA-5 Juicer "Dead Boy" Armor which is even more protective, but requires superhuman strength. CA-6C Heavy "Dead Boy" Armor is basically as tough as a light power armor suit, but requires cyborg strength, and the CA-6EX Heavy "Dead Boy" Armor is the same but comes with a powered exoskeleton so anybody can wear it. The Special Forces CA-7 Heavy "Dead Boy" Armor is actually just a standard suit with things like punch daggers, a grotte, and attachments for a jet or ammo pack. Finally, Dog Pack DPM Light Riot Armor has been upgraded but is still fairly crap, considering.I really don't like the new armor design much - putting a skull on your chest works for the Punisher because it's a iconic rendition, but the weird inhuman looking skulls don't really really fit with a faction that's humanocentric. (Also, why is the skull on top of a ribcage?) What's more, you still have a vague skull silhouette to the helmet, which could work if the new armor was more understated so it stands out, but it's not, so the eye is drawn to that goofy chest skull. Lastly, Vince Martin just isn't great at mechanical or armor-looking designs, so it looks less like future skull solders and more like a weird football uniform. I mean, look at those boots! It looks like they're wearing baggy socks, not jackboots.   Special forces armor and the "classic" armor.. I've made my weight about in jokes at Breaux's expense, but look at how much more like armor that looks! How much more creepy is that skull helmet!... though I could do without those skull kneepads, but most of you probably didn't notice them until I brought them up... He's gotten a lot better over time at it, and it at least shows in the designs we'll see coming up. Breaux's designs look like that the Coalition should look - blocky and brutalist, and though he might not necessarily transcend Long's work on the line, it's worth considering. Vince Martin's designs, on the other hand, will too often look like alien monsters in skull cosplay. Next: Stop that SAMAS!
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May 10, 2017 01:02
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Horrible Lurkbeast posted:gently caress yeah I'll die on hill WrongFun. Even I, As a proud wearer of the Scarlet 'G' some goon gave me years ago, feel that enjoying yourself is really all that matters. I do not enjoy PBTA games, but I'm really glad they exist for the people that do. Random rolls can be great, but any game that requires you to earn your fun by gating anything interesting is not great.
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May 10, 2017 01:44
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The pump pistol could slide forwar- yeah, I got nothing.
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May 10, 2017 02:43
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If he gave the new pistol some iron sights it'd be the first reasonable weapon he's ever drawn.
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May 10, 2017 02:44
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Maybe you don't have to pump it very far? Or the spring is incredibly tight and it's drat near impossible.
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May 10, 2017 02:52
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The best part of Dragonmech now is imagining the Cult of Coily the Spring Sprite being untouchably important.
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May 10, 2017 03:16
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wiegieman posted:Okay, okay, I die on a slightly different hill: that a system randomly telling you what you are and aren't allowed to play is dumb. Right. "Rolling for stats" isn't badwrong in and of itself. Rolling for stats in the particular way that D&D asks you to do it, for the particular results that D&D outputs when you do, and how that relates to the rest of the system, is badwrong. But you could just as easily do something like: roll a d6, and assign an 18 to the corresponding ability score, then choose your class.
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May 10, 2017 03:19
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Mors Rattus posted:Dragonmech: Steam Warriors: I EAT GUNDAM So Armor Hunter Mellowlink? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUx0pqA80UU *puts on face paint*
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May 10, 2017 03:22
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D20prestige classes: why would anyone ever play this. Minus the weird divine caster, that one was okay.
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May 10, 2017 03:35
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MonsieurChoc posted:So Armor Hunter Mellowlink? A mecha series about a guerilla on foot who kills mecha? That's an awesome idea.
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May 10, 2017 03:44
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It's time for some…  HORRIBLE ADVENTURES Fair warning: THIS IS A HORROR BOOK.  And not a very good one, either. You know how being turned into a vampire is supposed to be about being cursed and having your soul stolen by an inhuman fiend, while in D&D 3rd Edition it mostly means you get a bunch of stat boosts and superpowers? Jason Buhlman, three additional designers, and another eighteen staff writers and freelancers at Paizo attempted to deliver a book about running scary games in Pathfinder, starting with that as the premise. Last August, they published Horror Adventures, a sequel to the pretty okay epic-level Mythic Adventures book and the terminally inconsistent Occult Adventures psionic book. How well does it pull off horror? Well, it has character kits for using magic to emotionally abuse people and feats that give you vomit-based combat maneuvers. It made me nervous to see what they were going to do next. I'm not sure that was the goal. Trigger warning This book sucks and I'm going to spend a lot of time ragging on it. Credit where credit is due, it does do one necessary thing all books about horror games should do: it deals with consent in a mature way. Consent is very briefly mentioned on the first page of the first chapter, not especially well: quote:First and foremost, understand that horror games are meant to be creepy. If you don’t want to risk being actually frightened, you don’t have to play. If you do want to play, make sure you’re familiar with the Horror Games and Consent section on page 190. ...but once we get to page 190, there is lots of good advice. In particular, the very first sentence: quote:If the story’s objective is to unsettle the players rather than their characters, the GM needs something before even starting to seriously think about running such an adventure: the players’ consent. There's a lot of good advice here. Consenting to a scary game "doesn’t in itself indicate to your players that scenes of torture, sexual violence, child endangerment, or other brutalities are on the table." Players deserve to have an idea of what's in store. GMs need to be up front, and not attempt to hide potentially sensitive topics to surprise the players. If a player does object to something, GMs shouldn't badger players to figure out why. If a player is uncomfortable - regardless of whether it's something they initially brought up or not - they deserve accommodation or space, depending on what they need. That doesn't mean the advice is perfect. The author mostly talks around what people may or may not find acceptable. It would really help to be more explicit, especially since the introduction unhelpfully compares "a horror movie aimed at teenage audiences" to "one exclusively for adults", along with later mentions of "R-rated content." Sexual violence is called out specifically, but sexualized peril in general and intimate abuse - two especially common trigger topics - aren't mentioned otherwise, and there's no good advice on how to deal with specific phobias. It would help to be more explicit, especially if they did so in a way that acknowledges that more than just material from this book and its associated Bestiary might cause issues. Unless you already know the potential downfalls of horror in a mixed group, you may not have a good idea of what sorts of themes have the potential to cause problems. This advice could always be better, and it could stand to be on page 1. It should probably be in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. Even so, I'm glad it exists. It's the best part of this book. It is all downhill from here. Several Unique Things Going back to chapter 1, there's some brief discussion about how to get into your character's head, as a hero who lives in a world full of terrifying things. There's a brief list of character hooks every character should have. One idea will be familiar to anyone who has played Burning Wheel or Mouse Guard: what does your character do reflexively when something startling happens? This is all good advice for getting attached to and immersed in a character in general, although it doesn't have much to do with horror per se. Unfortunately, Pathfinder is so fixated on placing players in a purely reactive role that it can't offer much advice on how to play in a horror game. The player's role is simply to be scared by whatever the GM offers. Beyond admonishing players that characters who no-sell shocking occurrences aren't any fun, I can't imagine any advice for players to become more involved in such a reactive game. Special Guest Star Don Knotts To begin, Horror Adventures needs to patch the fact that fear effects in Pathfinder are basically save-or-die. Vanilla fear is a stacking condition. First you're shaken, which is -2 to pretty much everything. If you're shaken and get shaken again by an effect that does not explicitly say it doesn't stack, you're then frightened. Frightened characters have to spend all of their actions fleeing from whatever scared them as best they can unless they're trapped. If something scares you again while you're frightened, then you're panicked, and have to flee anything that is vaguely scary, in a random direction if there's no obvious escape, and do nothing but cower in fear if they can't flee. This isn't a working system. Shaken is a relatively minor debuff, but with two applications you're immediately hors de combat. If every group of moderately creepy monsters has a significant chance of sending half the party fleeing, then nobody ever gets to fight anything or half the party just gets murdered. (j/k casters all have good will saves.) Horror Adventures attempts to solve this problem by splitting fear into a seven-step track, with a firebreak between "lesser fear" and "greater fear". Lesser fear has three steps, and includes everything that causes the shaken condition, as well as any moderately creepy thing the GM decides will inflict the lowest level of fear with no save. Greater fear is anything that causes frightened or worse, and has four steps, going from frightened to complete catatonic paralysis. No amount of lesser fear can stack up to a greater fear; instead, you're just staggered (you lose half your actions, an already-existing 3e/PF condition) for a turn if you'd rack up a fourth stack of lesser fear. Old fear: shaken - frightened - panicked New fear: spooked - shaken - scared - (staggered 1/rd), frightened - panicked - terrified - horrified The greater fear track doesn't matter very much. You already probably can't play at frightened, and definitely can't play at panicked, so the fact that things are even worse above that doesn't matter very much. What matters is the lesser fear track. Shaken isn't changed, but spooked and scared are new conditions. Scared is just shaken plus an additional -2 on fear saves. Spooked is an odd duck: it gives you -2 to fear saves and perception checks but +1 to initiative, which is apparently to make up for the fact that getting spooked happens without a save. There are a total of two examples of characters becoming spooked, both of them in this section: quote:For example, Merisiel is exploring a haunted graveyard. Her GM declares she is spooked by her surroundings. She falls into a sinkhole filled with rotting corpses, which would also make her spooked. If she fails her Will save, her fear level increases to shaken. quote:For example, entering an abandoned asylum during a moonless night might cause all the characters to gain the spooked condition, while discovering a cabinet filled with gnawed bones might cause a character to become scared for 1 minute after a failing a Will save. These examples aren't ever elaborated upon, here or elsewhere in the book! Are spooky things automatically spooky, but have a DC (what DC?) for stacking into shaken? What happens when an already shaken or scared character encounters something that is merely spooky? Is literally anything and everything in this book going to cause PCs to suck up a near-constant -2 to fear saves? How long is someone spooked after the spooky thing goes away?  Most importantly, who can really keep a straight face after writing "spooky" on their character sheet in pencil? Less Fearless Paladins are immune to fear in Pathfinder. Given that paladins are already not very good at most things, you'd think that Pathfinder would just let them shine for once, and talk a bit about how to deal with fearless characters in a fearsome world. Failing that, you'd think they'd offer some sort of optional replacement ability for Aura of Courage, one that doesn't subvert the genre but still lets paladins be special and relevant for once. If you thought that, you thought wrong. In a sidebar, Horror Adventures suggests converting immunity to fear to "fear resistance". These characters should track fear normally, but reduce the effect by two stages on the track for how they actually behave. However, they also ignore effects that are merely spooky or cause shaken entirely: those effects don't stack up fear on them at all. So scared is spooked, frightened is shaken, panicked is (counts on fingers) scared, and... wait, how does this interact with the rule that lesser fears can't stack up into a greater fear? (It doesn't say.) Not only is this a bunch of annoying paperwork, it doesn't deal with the fact that "fear" is also a tag attached to spells and powers and attacks. Is a paladin in a Horror Adventures game immune to Cthulhu's DC 40 instant death fear aura? Who the gently caress knows? And I Can't He-elp Mahseeeeelf Pathfinder has a bad record for dealing with mental illness in a sensitive way. GameMastery Guide has some pretty bad rules for randomly developing mental illnesses.  This is from the description of the Allip in Bestiary 3. Horror Adventures tries to redeem GMG's lousy rules for (ugh) Insanities, but that's going to wait until Chapter 5. For now, we're replacing ability score damage with Sanity Points. But you don't just have a Sanity Score, like Call of Cthulhu. Instead, you have three different derived stats based on your mental stats: Sanity Score, Sanity Threshold, and Sanity Edge. Sanity Score is all three mental stats added together. If this reaches zero - and you will stop having a functioning character long before it reaches zero - you are more or less permanently afflicted with Insanity, the spell from Pathfinder Core. What does that spell? It's the same as the Confusion spell, only permanent. Okay, what does Confusion do? It inflicts the confused condition! Why couldn't they just say going to zero sanity inflicts the confused condition permanently? Much more important than your overall sanity score is your sanity threshold, which is all of your mental stat modifiers added together, minimum zero. Any time you take equal to or more than your sanity threshold in sanity damage from a single source, you develop a "madness", a permanent chronic mental illness. "Cease," you interrupt. "Doesn't that mean that most martial classes will always develop a permanent mental illness any time they take any sanity damage at all?" Correct. In fact, most sources of sanity damage are will save for half sanity damage. Most non-spellcasters will always develop a permanent mental illness the first time they see a gruesome death, and the first time they encounter a "horrifying creature", which includes "aberrations, evil or chaotic outsiders, and undead". Skeletons are highlighted as an example. Depending on how the GM wants to run it, this could mean each different sort of creature, so a character without at least a sanity threshold of 2 - including most non-spellcasters - will end up with multiple permanent mental illnesses after the first time they encounter a mixed group of demons or undead. Sanity damage from seeing monsters is based on their CR. Meeting one of Pathfinder's Cthulhu-mythos-inspired monsters causes more sanity damage than your typical evil monster, and meeting the monsters taken directly from Lovecraft's work does even more than that. This isn't even covering class abilities, spells, and traps that cause sanity damage - we'll be seeing more of those later. There are two different (ugh) "madness" tables, and which one you end up choosing from depends on whether you've exceeded your sanity edge. Sanity edge is the third derived stat, and it's half of your sanity score. If you develop a "madness" while above half max sanity score, it's from the Lesser table. If you're under half, it's from the Greater table. I'll deal with chapter 5 when I get to it, but the short version is that Lesser means your character has a nasty conditional debuff whenever it's active, and Greater means that your character probably needs to retire. "Madnesses" (seriously, gently caress that name) aren't always active. They all become dormant when your total sanity damage is zero. Some of them have effects while they're dormant, but they're at least reduced. After going dormant, lesser ones don't manifest again until you take more sanity damage than your sanity edge, while greater ones are always active as long as you have any sanity damage at all. While you can suppress them by healing up your sanity damage, whether lesser or greater, they're basically permanent: they can only be removed with wish and miracle. Obviously, you're going to want to remove sanity damage. You can do that with magic: the restoration spell line, heal, and the wish/miracle variations can all remove sanity damage. Alternately, bed rest for an uninterrupted week will remove your CHA mod in damage. The only way to speed things along without magic is a surprisingly mature design decision: if you get the help of a counselor, like a mentor or priest, then they can roll an INT or WIS check to give you their INT or WIS mod in additional sanity healing per week. Of course, it's a naked INT/WIS check, not a Heal check, so it's a crapshoot for most characters who aren't...a wizard or cleric. The only thing worse than death is these rules. Next: Born With A Taaaaaaaaail Cease to Hope fucked around with this message at 06:28 on May 10, 2017 |
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May 10, 2017 05:45
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I think a POW 10 Call of Cthulhu investigator is actually more stable than a Pathfinder adventurer in one of these, and will develop fewer mental illnesses.
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May 10, 2017 06:05
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So far this looks like another example of the fine Pathfinder tradition of spending zero effort playtesting their new subsystems. At least it's not so immediately insufferable as the abject nonsense that was Sacred Geometry.
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May 10, 2017 06:37
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I would hesitate to even call the Occult Adventures classes a worthy/deserving follow-up to 3e psionics.
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May 10, 2017 06:43
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Cease to Hope posted:Sanity Score is all three mental stats added together. If this reaches zero - and you will stop having a functioning character long before it reaches zero - you are more or less permanently afflicted with Insanity, the spell from Pathfinder Core. What does that spell? It's the same as the Confusion spell, only permanent. Okay, what does Confusion do? It inflicts the confused condition! Why couldn't they just say going to zero sanity inflicts the confused condition permanently?
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May 10, 2017 06:46
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Yeah. Pathfinder psychic magic is just not that interesting. They were too afraid to get away from the spells-per-day system Pathfinder uses, and they didn't really bring anything new with the classes. 3.0 psionics was a goddamned mess, but at least it was an interesting mess, and 3.5 psionics was interesting and overall better balanced than the 3.5 core PHB.
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May 10, 2017 06:46
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Occult Adventures deserves its own F&F. it has problems, but they aren't as funny/terrible/enraging/baffling as HA's problems.
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May 10, 2017 06:56
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gradenko_2000 posted:I would hesitate to even call the Occult Adventures classes a worthy/deserving follow-up to 3e psionics. I had fun playing a Jojo with a punchghost.
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May 10, 2017 06:57
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Occultist is a great class full of flavor and probably my favorite Paizo-designed class. The rest of the book I could take or leave. I have heard things about HA, so eagerly watching this one.
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May 10, 2017 09:31
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I am so excited for puke powers, you don't even know.
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May 10, 2017 10:11
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I am currently playing a pf game where my PC has been afflicted with one of the corruptions from Horror Adventures for some time. It's done....interesting things to the game. I think I'll wait for the review to get there before talking about what they do to a session in-depth but I will certainly have things to say.
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May 10, 2017 10:26
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I was the biggest Paizo fanboy for the longest time after Pathfinder came out but... Horror, in a d20 game? I mean, I can see how that would be horrible but I can't imagine trying to even do Abbott & Costello meet the Mummy style horror, let alone Mountains of Madness stuff. Maybe d20 Call of Duty meen the Mummy.
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May 10, 2017 10:58
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8one6 posted:I was the biggest Paizo fanboy for the longest time after Pathfinder came out but... Horror, in a d20 game? There's two aspects of 'horror' that I find difficult to reconcile in a D&D-esque game: The first is the idea that you're going to be scared of something that's "unnatural", in a fantasy realm where, well ... unnatural is a part of life. I suppose the one way to deal with this is to establish that SOME things are "normal", like elves and dwarves and wizards, and some thing aren't, like Deep Ones might still be "odd" and different enough from your default fantasy milieu to give Elf McElflington the willies. The other is the idea that you're going to have to run away from something because it's going to kill you. It's really out of place in standard D&D gameplay because it's a cornerstone to the risk-and-reward cycle for you to kill something, and then you take its stuff. You're not supposed to walk into a lair, encounter The Thing, and then ... not want to kill it. I mean, you could certainly buff the mechanical stats of the The Thing enough for it to deal so much HP damage and be so resistant to spells that it's "actually" scary according to the rules, but where does that leave you in terms of actually advancing and progressing? I'm actually in a 3e game right now set in Eberron where we do have a Sanity mechanic in place, and failed Sanity checks do inflict fear effects and temporary mental conditions, but even if we got past the first hurdle where Sanity checks are triggered by poo poo that is still too goddamn weird even for Eberron, the second "problem" is ultimately glossed over: it's A Thing, we fight it, we kill it.
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May 10, 2017 11:26
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I think there's value in using horror trappings in D&D and Pathfinder. I even love stuff like Lovecraftian weirdness and sci-fi monsters in D&D. But you're never gonna get the actual effect of horror in a D&D-like because the genre is trying to do very different things. The things that make Pathfinder good for murder-hobo kill-and-take-their-stuff gameplay make it work less well for horror. You mine horror for cool scenes and memorable monsters for players to beat up. The point of using horror trappings in Pathfinder isn't to be afraid of vampires, it's to beat up draculas.
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May 10, 2017 12:04
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My players met a bunch of Ettercaps summoning one of Atlach-Nacha's servants from the Abyss two weeks ago. Then there was a lot of fire.
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May 10, 2017 12:23
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Cease to Hope posted:Well, it has character kits for using magic to emotionally abuse people and feats that give you vomit-based combat maneuvers. Shades of Freak Legion! quote:The player's role is simply to be scared by whatever the GM offers. Beyond admonishing players that characters who no-sell shocking occurrences aren't any fun, I can't imagine any advice for players to become more involved in such a reactive game. Aaaand the old 2E Ravenloft setting.
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May 10, 2017 12:28
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DragonMech: Steam Warriors: Su...per...maaaan... The Hissing Psiborg is a psionic cyborg. Psionics apparently handle machinery better than magic does most of the time, and the psiborg continues to pursue psionic power while also seeking steamborg implants. However, as most of their flesh is replaced, they are forced to store some of their psionic energies in their water reservoir rather htan their body. Because only a small amount of water holds the energy, the loss to steam isn't actually a problem, but it means that as powers are used, the water is etherealized and hisses through the body - hence the name. The heat also tends to make them glow red around the edges of their metal. You get a d8 HD and must have a BAB of +3 or better, Craft (mechcraft) 5 ranks, Psicraft 5, and Knowledge (steam engines) 5, along with the ability to manifest at least 1st level powers and either the Power Sourc e feat or the steam engine class ability. Your class skills are Autohypnosis, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft (mechcraft), Disable Device, Heal, Jump, Knowledge (psionics), Knowledge (steam engines), Listen, Profession (engineer) and Psicraft. Also, good Fort and half decent BAB. At each level, you get new psi powers and power points as if you'd gained a level in Psychic Warrior, but no other benefits of that class whatsoever. You also (very slowly) gain new artificial part bonuses and steam powers. At level 3, you get the Attune Artificial Part psi power for free. That's it!  The Iron Giantkiller is an anti-mech specialist. They are the peak of anti-mech infantry, trained by the Guild of Footmen in the weaknesses of mechs on the field. They are cheaper than mechs, and take less to train than mechs do to build. This plus their incredible talent mean they're worth as much as a small mech - which they're usually equipped to take on. They have a d10 HD, and to become one you need BAB +6, Dex 13+, 4 ranks in Climb, 8 in Craft (mechcraft) and 4 in Disable Device. You also need proficiency in heavy and hydraulic armor, and the Boarding and Mech Adversary feats (with any adversary). Your class skills are Balance, Climb, Craft (mechcraft), Disable Device, Jump, Knowledsge, Profession, Ride, Search, Spot, Survival, Tumble and Use Rope. You gain proficiency with giantkiller armor, good BAB and good Ref. An Iron Giantkiller adds their Iron Giantkiller level to any check to pull down or trip a mech as well as when using any special equipment like a toppler, as long as they aren't using mech-mounted weapons to do it. They also increase the bonus from the Boarding feat to +4 and can climb mechs at their full normal speed. At level 2, they get a +2 dodge bonus to AC against attacks from Huge or larger weapons - including mech unarmed attacks. This applies only in medium armor or lighter. At level 3, they treat heavy armor as medium armor for purposes of run speed and encumbrance. At level 4, they may adjust their crits against mechs by up to (Iron Giantkiller level+Int Bonus)*2, as long as they're not using a mech-mounted weapon. At level 5, they increase their critical multiplier by 1 against mechs when using personal-scale weapons, and at 10th level this increases to 2. At level 6, they add their Dex bonus to damage against mechs solely for the purpose of overcoming Hardness. At level 7, they treat weapons as one size smaller than they actually are. At level 8, they double their crit range against any mech they have the Mech Adversary feat for, as long as they aren't using a mech-mounted weapon. At level 10, they improve the normal max Dex bonus and reduce the Armor Check Penalty of heavy armor by 2, and increase their movement speed in hydraulic armor by 5 feet. You may be wondering what the Guild of Footmen is - it's a five-year-old organization founded in Glatek that now exists in most major cities and some citymechs. They are highly protective of their techniques and only ever invite people to join - they accept no applications. They will also kill people who ask too many questions. They have no particular interest at present besides selling their mech-killing services to anyone that can afford them, but some claim their upper ranks have a mysterious agenda. However, for now, they just kill mechs for hire, even if that means facing each other in battle, though they'll usually try to avoid directly attacking each other. They have an intense rivalry with anklebiters, but generally do not encounter them often.  The Irontooth Flea is the fastest type of mech pilot. The mech devils are knwon for agility and speed in battle - but they can't match the acrobatics of the Fleas, because that's all a Flea cares about. They don't fight so well, but they work hard to get as much speed as they can out of their mechs. They are exclusively Irontooth, usually people who wanted to be mech devils before getting addicted to speed. They often race each other, and races can last days or even weeks, testing both mech speed and pilot skill through dangerous areas. Even competing is an honor, and only those that fail to finish a race are truly defeated...and usually dead. They have a d6 HD, and must have Dex 18+, Int 16+ and 6 ranks in Mech Pilot. They also must have the Mechwalker, Mechidextrous, Mech Dancer, Mech Fu, Natural Pilot and Speed Freak feats, and the Fast Movement ability, either on mech or personal scale. Further, they must either be an Irontooth clan member already or earn membership in an Irontooth clan. Their class skills are Balance, Climb, Craft (mechcraft), Hide, Jump, Knowledge (steam engines), Knowledge (mechs), Listen, Mech Pilot, Move Silently, Spot and Tumble. They have half decent BAB and mech BAB, and good Ref. Any mech piloted by an Irontooth Flea gains 10 feet of movement speed per Irontooth Flea level - which isn't supernatural at all, it's just maximizing the inherent ability of the mech. This does stack with any fast movement traits and the Speed Freak feat. At level 1, they get Agile Mech +1, increasing by +1 at level 3 and 5. They add this bonus to the Ref save of their mech as long as it is Colossal III or smaller. At second level, they may also use half of their own Hide and Move Silently skills while in a mech, though they get a penalty based on the mech's size. At level 4, they use their total Hide and Move Silently skill instead, and treat their mech as one size smaller for purposes of the penalty. Next time: Space cyborgs.
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May 10, 2017 13:01
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Was there a class of gearbots or monsters call the Cog-niscent yet? It just feels apropos.
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May 10, 2017 16:44
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Oh poo poo, I should continue my Ravenloft reviews one of these days! I honestly completely forgot.
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May 10, 2017 16:52
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