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[Kadzar]

Yeah, I only took the character tree concept, the idea that each player has a stable of characters that they can choose from for each adventure. That's the only thing I'm taking from Dark Sun, and even that is modified from the original idea, where you would have one of your non-active lower-level characters level up when your currently active characters levels (at least that's how I understand it, but I don't have the Dark Sun book, so I'm extrapolating from what came up when I Googled "Dark Sun character tree", things like this and this). My implementation would have all non-active characters gaining levels at the same rate as active characters, so at this point it the concept might be more inspiration than anything else.

[BlackFlyme]

AAAAAaaaaaaaaaannnd an argument over how a headband of intelligence works. Literal screaming at each other across the table between problem player and two other players.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The books say that a headband gives your level in ranks in one skill, with the skill being set once the band is created. It does not specify whether these are the retro-active points you gain, already preset to a skill, or if they are in addition to the normal retro-active ranks from an increased intelligence. Official sources contradict one another. Not that this is in any way unusual.

Someone found a quote from the creator of Pathfinder in a thread asking the very same question, and he said it's in addition, despite the FAQ saying they are the former, not the latter.

Problem player said that what the creator said does not contradict his interpretation, and that our wizard shouldn't get both the set skill and the extra skill points. We pointed out that once the band has been worn for 24 hours, its bonus goes from a temporary bonus to a permanent one. He disagreed, saying that it is not considered permanent or temporary. Despite the rules saying this:

Permanent Bonuses: Ability bonuses with a duration greater than 1 day actually increase the relevant ability score after 24 hours. Modify all skills and statistics as appropriate. This might cause you to gain skill points, hit points, and other bonuses. These bonuses should be noted separately in case they are removed.

He exclaimed that next chance he gets, the wizard's headband is going to the bottom of the ocean. And that he will do it with every headband the wizard gets. Plus he threatened my goddamn parrot again.

There was also another DMpls moment, but this time I was in on it too. We killed a huge plant-like creature. I wanted to undead it, but the DM pointed out that there is no space on the ship to carry it. About that time the wizard pointed out that he had a running tally of all the corpses that he had been keeping on the ship, which surprised me. That sick fuck has quite a few corpses down there, including some of the notable characters we've killed. At least I can make undead sooner than he can, though I'm not sure if I can make anything special with just animate dead. Create Dead will be fun at level 10.

[Rolan7]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He exclaimed that next chance he gets, the wizard's headband is going to the bottom of the ocean. And that he will do it with every headband the wizard gets. Plus he threatened my goddamn parrot again.

Blatant metagriefing is blatant.  If your group insists on keeping him, I hope you can at least agree to kill him IC every time he meta-griefs like that.  If he throws that headband overboard?  I'd murder the character for being insane.  Unless he comes up with an actual good reason for why his character would do that - which sounds completely beyond him.

[Neonivek]

Seriously I never had a player who could have stayed in the game pulling that crud constantly.

I had a player who was kicked out of a game for a LOT less then that (pausing the game constantly, doing dumb crud, and generally not being pleasant)

What is he doing to make you tolerate him? Does he buy you all a pizza every game? did he drug your drinks? Is he secretly all your dad?

[BlackFlyme]

He hosted it at his place tonight. Was the first time in a long time. DM was the one to buy pizza again. I offer money, but get turned down almost every time.

I don't know how he is in other games. I play the least in this group, and everyone else has several campaigns with different DMs and players within different groups.

[NullForceOmega]

Great session last night, party got tasked to escort the queen to a distant archeological site near the western border of her kingdom, passed within a few hours travel of their northern neighbor, a nation in the midst of political unrest.  Third day out they end up in a pitched battle against hardened mercenaries hired by a northern noble, turns out cavalry specializing in anti-cavalry maneuvers is not terribly useful against magical living tanks.  Turned into a full-bore curbstomp when half the queens escort (the company the players belong to) literally leaps on top of the two hills the mercs are using to mount their ambush, at my players suggestion.  Well played guys, awesome run.

[Gentlefish]

Friday night's session was good. Playing a Master of Many Forms (which the DM thinks is broken) and stood in a doorway as a cave troll, nauseated, letting the warlock (who complains that we never do anything on combat) blast the fungal gargoyles for fun and profit. Then we run across mushroom folk, whom we saved from the gargoyles and are now friendly to us (and are also plat type so I can turn into them).

[Dutrius]

This happened several years back, so I can't remember some of the details.

Me and my family were playing a Rolemaster game with a campaign my dad created. We started in the castle of an Evil Wizard, who offered us a feast. To prove that the feast wasn't poisoned, the wizard started eating, so we started eating as well. During the meal, we noticed there was one more character with us that none of us had made (Some of us were playing two characters, because a party of three is a bit small). After the meal, the Evil Wizard pulled out a potion and drank it, revealing that it was an antidote to the poison in the food. He then told us to go on a quest to recover an artefact of some sort, and in return he would give us the antidote. The extra character turned out to be an DMNPC, who threatened the Evil Wizard by demanding the antidote, and promptly got vaporised.

He gives us some equipment and sent us on our way, also sending one of his minions with us to tell us where to go.

That night, we go to sleep in a cave without checking it properly. In the middle of the night, we get attacked by little rock creatures called granites. One of them bit me while I was sleeping. As I was playing a squishy mage, I instantly got knocked unconscious for the entire fight, and would have later died if the cleric didn't heal me.

The second night, we checked the cave properly. No granites, good. We get attacked by troglodytes instead. This time, my mage was woken up before he was attacked, and was somewhat useful in the fight. I didn't have much in the way of offensive spells, so I had to improvise. I positioned myself behind the fighter and cast a ray of light from my hand towards one of the troglodytes' face, dazzling it so the fighter would have an easier time. We won that encounter after a while.

The next day, a pterodactyl attacked us as we were making our way across a mountain path. The bugger kept flying around and no one could hit it, so I had a think and eventually cast a freeze spell at its wings, causing it to plummet like a stone. It went splat against the mountainside.

Sadly, we had to stop playing after that and we didn't get around to continuing.

[Sergius]

pTW.

[Sergius]

Ok, so, actual experience about this. This is from several weeks ago, first session (we're about 3 sessions in, well, I am, as I'm new to the group)

Played Pathfinder for the first time. Would also count as playing 3E-analogue for the first time, at least pen & paper.

Joined this cool gang of players, they seem to be more on the gamist side (for now) than my last group, the one with the control freak DM that wants every PC to be an actor in his play or something.

So, they're playing this Evil(TM) Party. The twist is that it's the same campaign where they're playing a Good(TM) Party, so in a way they're going against themselves, but I think the Evil Party is going to become the antagonists at some point. Also there's plane-hopping.

They're also not Evil Sadistic Crazy Chaotic Stupid, they're sorta stereotypical movie villain, with some silly world-takeover plot. Also involving plane-hopping.

Essentially the party is Evil League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: There's an Inquisitor "Van Helsing", a gunslinger "Quartermain", and a wizard whose analogue I forgot. So of course I decided to join as a monk called Betty. All started as level 10 characters.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The party just left a dungeon/ruin thing where they were supposed to fight an Evil Lich. Of course, they all instead become best buddies and swapped Facebook likes and all that, after leaving the lich that they ran into a hero party, and this is where I dropped in out of nowhere (I was sent by the evil elders or whatever group of leaders they have to join them). Of course everyone starts ganging and using their uber-minmaxed characters (I don't even have feats because I haven't even had the time to fill the sheet, heh) doing 200 hp damage per round and whatever, still getting tanked pretty badly tho.

So I go like, well, I'm a monk with crazy speed, I run all the way across the battlefield to hit the enemy Wizard before he has time to do any nasty stuff. Unfortunately, I can't move and Flurry, so I only get one hit. I roll a natural 20.

"Roll to confirm"

Natural 20. The DM doesn't let me roll damage, just: "describe how you kill him"

Oookay... well, Betty runs over him, gives the wizard some sort of atomic nipple twister thru his robe, and then pretty much rips the whole skin from his chest, and he bleeds to death. (here I find out the DM has this as a house-rule, confirming a natural 20 with another is just instakill. Well, at least against NPCs, AFAIK). Pretty fun time. So next round I just run back to the group and help them to gang on the enemy paladin or fighter or whatever he was, I don't remember. We kill the group (we probably were evenly-ish matched level-wise. not sure).

We only played a few hours Sunday morning so we leave it like that. I realize my Monk is really low-tier so it's going to be time to truly minmax him with whatever archetypes and guides I can.

BTW, our ability scores for the Evil Party was: 25 ability points (flat) to distribute among all the scores. No point-buy, just straight up add to each score. I think with a cap of 20, not sure. Mine was: Str: 20, Dex: 14, Con: 14, Wis: 17, IIRC. Also maxxed HPs for both evil and good parties (but Good PC gets rolled ability scores).

The best part is that I get to use Betty's voice for all my roleplaying and taunts.

[Eldin00]

PTW. Just noticed this thread, and as someone who's been doing pen-and-paper RPGs for over 30 years, this thread most certainly coincides with my interests.

[NullForceOmega]

Awesome session last night,  During the return trip from escorting her majesty (18 year old 9th level mage, single, father recently murdered (not politically motivated)), the party 'leader' (char data: 27 year old fighter 3/mage 2, single, recently inherited lands and title from an uncle) is awoken in the middle of the night by sounds outside of the officers' tents.  He goes out to investigate and spots a figure moving away from the encampment, follows said figure into the nearby woods to a small waterfall and stream, and of course the figure turns out to be the queen taking a midnight bath unescorted.  He barely manages to avoid doing really stupid shit, follows her back when she's done (out of an actual sense of obligation, his unit is part of the queens personal army, The Hounds.)  Two nights later he gets woken up again, same deal. When they get back to the capital some promotions and awards are handed out, and during the ceremony her majesty makes a faux pas and kisses said leader on the cheek instead of the forehead.  Later that night during the party as the now captain is making the rounds and being sociable and visible, he finds himself slow-dancing with the queen, after a brief exchange of words, he makes a fairly major faux pas, realizes it immediately, takes off and goes on a full-bore rage bender tearing up a large section of the palace cellars and dungeon.  Meanwhile the party thief (15 year old daughter of a countess, married to the company CO) becomes best friends with her majesty, and finds out that the dear queen has been harboring a crush on party leader since she was fourteen and enrolled in the nations magic academy.  All of this wouldn't be a massive problem excepting that the party leaders back story is that he's the black sheep of his noble family and was a sergeant in the capital city guard where he murdered his CO while drunk.  Needless to say, the amount of 'Oh God' during the session was extreme and wonderful.  On top of all this, the party paladin is going to be marrying a common girl in a few months.  All in all a good night.

[CS Dog Boy]

Awesome session last night,  During the return trip from escorting her majesty (18 year old 9th level mage, single, father recently murdered (not politically motivated)), the party 'leader' (char data: 27 year old fighter 3/mage 2, single, recently inherited lands and title from an uncle) is awoken in the middle of the night by sounds outside of the officers' tents.  He goes out to investigate and spots a figure moving away from the encampment, follows said figure into the nearby woods to a small waterfall and stream, and of course the figure turns out to be the queen taking a midnight bath unescorted.  He barely manages to avoid doing really stupid shit, follows her back when she's done (out of an actual sense of obligation, his unit is part of the queens personal army, The Hounds.)  Two nights later he gets woken up again, same deal. When they get back to the capital some promotions and awards are handed out, and during the ceremony her majesty makes a faux pas and kisses said leader on the cheek instead of the forehead.  Later that night during the party as the now captain is making the rounds and being sociable and visible, he finds himself slow-dancing with the queen, after a brief exchange of words, he makes a fairly major faux pas, realizes it immediately, takes off and goes on a full-bore rage bender tearing up a large section of the palace cellars and dungeon.  Meanwhile the party thief (15 year old daughter of a countess, married to the company CO) becomes best friends with her majesty, and finds out that the dear queen has been harboring a crush on party leader since she was fourteen and enrolled in the nations magic academy.  All of this wouldn't be a massive problem excepting that the party leaders back story is that he's the black sheep of his noble family and was a sergeant in the capital city guard where he murdered his CO while drunk.  Needless to say, the amount of 'Oh God' during the session was extreme and wonderful.  On top of all this, the party paladin is going to be marrying a common girl in a few months.  All in all a good night.

"A good night" was an understatement. As the perpetrator of said faux pas (I rolled a 1!) I was laughing so hard while still dreading the results of the DM's response roll.

[Rolan7]

I hope I'm doing this justice...

> Hanging out in the undead continent-spanning metropolis
> Party wizard Gemariah sees ancient tome about the Philosopher's Stone in the museum
> Is a transmutation specialist, begins plotting
> Gets arrested testing a teleport item, locked in antimagic
> We bail him out
> His raven familiar had escaped its cell, summoned spiders, and ordered them "kill everything that isn't Gemariah"
> In common
> Gemariah immediately re-arrested with 10X the bail
> Powerful noble (quest giver) pulls strings for us to get charges dismissed
> Gemariah "goes shopping"
> We hear bits and pieces of the heist, most of it handled by PMs.  Our characters hear distant sirens.
> "Can a will-o-wisp pick things up?"
> "I cast rope trick..."
> "What's the magic mouth even do"
> "The only reason that worked at all was the grease spell."
> He plane shifts from the rope trick dimension to the other half of the world
> Hides in another rope trick, reads book

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

> Liches and death lords *gate* in
> "GEMARIAH STONESHAPER, YOU ARE WANTED FOR HIGH TREASON AND GRAND THEFT"
> "Who is this Gemariah Stoneshaper you speak of?" *becomes a beholder*
> Suppresses the rope trick with antimagic eye, shunting everybody out
> Teleports away
> Casts rope trick again, and grease, and obscuring mist.  Resumes reading.  As a beholder.
> Liches and death lords gate in *again*
> They slip on the grease
> Shunted out by antimagic again
> He casts a fireball into his own antimagic, which works because evocation
> The grease ignites
> They manage to terrify him with an aura
> "okay" *teleports away again*

He's still totally going to die but I love how much rage he's inducing in authorities.  The true measure of a character.
Oh he teleported to the base of a villain we made peace with.  Who's pissed as hell but maybe this will actually work.
(meanwhile the party is being tazed and interrogated by undead police.  Fortunately we have no idea what he did)
...
> villain washes his hands of the situation
> Gemariah casts stone to flesh on the villain's floor

So tempted to play an arcane spellcaster next

Edit:  He's in the ethereal realm with the antimagic beholder gaze.  They have ghost-touch weapons.  Their weapons are rapidly flickering between magic and suppressed, and can't hit him when they're in his gaze.

[AlleeCat]

What is the point of casting Stone to Flesh on a floor? Besides grossing people out and making people make weird squishing noises when they walk on it, of course.