Paizo Games General /pgg/

Completely ignoring exponentially-spawning undead like shadows or mass-undead-spawners like rawheads, why is everyone in Golarion not turning into some form of corporeal or incorporeal undead the moment they die with any regrets whatsoever?

There are hundreds of types of undead published so far, many of which have an origin of "Died while under X emotional condition, with Y regret, or due to Z cause of death." Anyone is bound to qualify for at least one type of undead upon death.

Nothing indicates that mundane burial rituals actually work (except in specific cases, like the "fallen" undead creature), and cremation just lends way to incorporeal spooks.

>Your party has 24 hours to prepare a Lvl.5 Warrior to Fight a Dread Wraith.

Can it be done?

>everything must be used all the time everywhere in a game
There are severe flaws in your comment.

I should mention that he has to fight it alone and in seclusion

In Golarion, the default setting, that is the case.

No one respond. These questions are utterly rhetorical, with no desired response beyond 'lol paizo are idiots'.

why the fuck would you draw a card
how much of a masochist are you

As for an answer, get a +1 ghost touch net and something that creates sunlight and a magic weapon. Open with the net, tie the rope you SURELY tied to the net to something, enjoy it not being able to escape while you wail on it

That concept is so stupid I can't even begin to formulate a reply that doesn't make you seem like a complete moron that failed to take into account the other aspects of the very setting you are complaining about which you willfully ignored in your original sentence, so I will sum it up with a single word.

Psychopomps.

Sure. Extended Death Ward right before the battle starts means the Dread Wraith can't hurt the warrior.

>The subject is immune to energy drain and any negative energy effects.

Throw him some gear from everyone else and bada bing bada boom.

Or yeah, get the ghost touch net and drag the sucker out into sunlight.

For reference, 3.X had somewhat more of an excuse in terms of types of undead, because the undead in 3.X tended to be D&D-original undead with unusual origins, like angels of decay (spawned from death by liquefaction, presumably through magical means), dream vestiges (an entire city that died in cursed sleep), entombed (people who died by being encased in glaciers), and necromentals (undead elementals).

Pathfinder is much more unoriginal with its monsters, in that a large portion of the bestiaries are real-world mythological monsters bastardized into fighting-heavy fantasy critters. Real-world mythological undead tend to be terribly same-y in their origins, with an awful lot of "died with regrets" or "died as a bad person," and thus Pathfinder's undead types tend to have same-y backstories as well.

d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/gaki/
d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/hupia/
d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/harionago/

These are some good examples.

Pathfinder's setting books generally do assume that every new monster in a bestiary is automatically canon. This is precisely why the Book of the Damned implies a cosmologically horrifically overrun by a thousand and one types of fiends and fiendish overlords, everything from asura ranas to sahkil tormentors.

Psychopomps seem terribly understaffed if Golarion's setting books showcase many adventure sites teeming with undead, and if there is an entire nation of necromancers with carte blanche to make the dead dance.

Pyschopomps and Sakhils are, no-lie, really cool in my opinion. I'd run a game focusing on them.

Cause they're too busy taking care of the undead that'd rise "normally" according to you to deal with idiots doing it intentionally.

I mean, the card that I drew got me imprisoned but I guess the masochist thing still stands.

Gonna be honest, it felt like our campaign waa just going to... right. Encounters were beaten in on average 2 rounds, and it felt like our jobs were basically done even before beating the big bad.

I like suspense, not knowing if you're gonna win and persevering anyway.
Sure, a Deck of Many Things may not have been the most prudent decision but I digress.

Sahkils are actually the most commonly-encountered fiend type in the long-running game I have been GMing. I have had many a subplot involving them. I like how the weakest of them embody petty fears like parasites (nucol) or insects (wihsaak) and the mightiest of them hit close to home by reifying more abstract insecurities like failing social relationships (pakalchi), a lack of acceptance (ximtal), and fear of failure and self-loathing (kimenhul). I particularly like how the kimenhul's gaze inflicts paralysis, something quite fitting for a fear of failure.

The most recent encounter saw a single 9th-level voyager soloing a CR 15 degenerated qolok sahkil, but that was under rather special circumstances.

I have even used sahkils in other settings and systems previously.

I also ran a subplot involving psychopomps recently, which culminated in assisting a memitim caught in a tense love triangle with a pair of shinigami.

Psychopomps would have to be seen constantly flying around and striking down undead where they rise. Some have Invisibility, but they will have to show themselves sooner or later to actually strike at undead, to say nothing of the veritable war between psychopomps and undead that would have to take place within and near population centers.

Look user, i'm going to be perfectly clear with you
I am running a campaign where the focal point is extensive and repeated use of multiple Decks of Many Things whenever my players want to
I know it, they know it, this is the kind of game we all agreed to
So i am confident in my authority to call you, and by extension, your party, retards
You didn't trust your GM's ability to write an interesting story filled with appropriate challenges. You didn't feel like he had put enough spice into your trials. You renounced something that was perfectly fine in it's own right because you found it BORING

And instead you chose the best way for the GM to directly fuck with your characters
I don't know if this post still has a point, i might've lost it some revisions ago, but listen to me, and listen well

You
Are
Fucking
Dumb

>"Died while under X emotional condition, with Y regret, or due to Z cause of death."

More like

>"Died while under (extremely severe) X emotional condition, with (lingering, deep-seated) Y regret, or due to (horrific, painful) Z cause of death."

There's a difference between being kind of morose and being stabbed and being severely depressed and being flayed alive. One makes a cadaver, one makes undead.

It would certainly make a modicum more sense if it was roughly an X% chance to become an undead upon death, where X is a small number, and if that chance is triggered, then the dead person becomes one of the hundreds of types of undead.

Just because it can happen doesn't mean it will. Same reason why literally everyone isn't a sorcerer because after god knows how fucking long even a dumbfuck Taladan potatoe farmer has a few dozen magical ancestors.
No. Because shit like that is literally just plot bullshit. Who does and does not become undead is pure fucking contrivance on part of the GM. until spells get involved.

Mengkare is trying to fix that.

At what cost?

Abstinence.

He can't sleep with any of the experiments without potentially contaminating the endeavor.

Swing and a miss.

I'm still trying to figure that out. I'm always the DM, but the current NPCs I'm focusing on should have rich backgrounds, and right now they're a bit basic.

How do I make a character like the one in the image?

Sort of makes me think of one of my players. I'm getting Draconic/Celestial vibes off of this, and my friend is playing an Agathion-blooded (Draconal) Aasimar Warpriest 5/Sorcerer (Red Dragon Bloodline) 4, and they're loving it.

Sorcerer with the Draconic bloodline
Eldritch Heritage feat chain
Maybe the Legendary Shifter
Draconic Disciple PrC

Hino Shinnosuke gallery:
>shinno.hannnari.com/s00.html

I think he also did work for Fire Emblem.

So I'm playing a Cleric necromancer in Book 2 of Vengeance, and I'm worried about my skelemens getting wasted with channeled positive energy, is there anything I can do to try and mitigate this with regards to things like spells or items? I know Desecrate can help but I'm hoping for something else as well.

Hmm, two things come to mind:

>Sundering/Shattering/Stealing enemy holy symbols
>Equip skeletons with tower shields to use, this one's pretty cool sounding

You forgot Draconic bloodline Bloodrager.

She looks too refined to be a Bloodrager, or a Barbarian with the dragon rage powers.

Just sharing this for Fennecanon:

youtube.com/watch?v=dCu-fE_ZwqY

>implying any of those classes have anything to do with how savage or cultured you are
Are you one of those fags that thinks every thief needs to be a Rogue and every Musician needs to be a bard?

do creatures with regeneration still die of old age? Asking for a friend

Yes. If anything they'd probably die even sooner than creatures without it.

Yes. Regeneration doesn't replace metabolism.

Do trolls eat parts of themselves that got hacked off to conserve nutrients?

[Starfinder]

I'm using a Riding Saddle to turn my combat drone into a Walker Gear, with the end goal of turning it into a miniature Ysoki tank.

Currently, it's equipped with an artillery laser, and my plan for the average turn is to (Guarded Step+Drone Attack+Character Attack) or (Drone Attack+Full Attack).

Would I get better damage economy by building my drone for melee? I was thinking about giving it a pike, and using it to fuck enemies with attacks of opportunity.

Sup pfg, I've recently reconnected with a long lost online friend and I'm thinking about getting them into the hobby by GMing a solo campaign for them.

First, this person is a very important friend of mine and I'd like them to have the best possible time while still learning the game. Can you recommend some APs with quality writing?

As for dealing with the fact that its going to be a single player game, I'm on the fence between letting em have multiple characters which might slow down the learning experience ruin RP, Let them have a few NPCs built entirely for support like maybe a pei zin oracle designed only to healbot or finally, completely adjusting the campaign around them. With the third option I'm considering completely adjusting encounters around their strengths. Gestalt and insane point buy are also options but that might make initally learning the game even harder.

Recruiting:
app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/98182/ruins-of-azlant-ap-by-sq

>Spider queen and Charlotte
Haha, Fuck no!

What is it now, Rory?

You don't have to be Rory to know these two fucks ruin everything they touch.

Does Rory even come here anymore

?

Do tell

The great voyager playtest continues. All throughout the past two weeks, we have been playing a great many sessions relatively light on the combat, though we still managed to run four battles. The two 8th-level voyagers reached 9th-level after the first. As usual, most of the sessions were a showcase in the voyager's skill monkeying across the Ethereal Plane and the Plane of Shadow. 6 base skill points, Intelligence as a key ability score, information exchange, and accomplished accomplice all add up to a remarkable proficiency with skill checks. They also got to use Sensitivity to Psychic impressions to solve a major plot point, and later, the selfsame power to crack open an ancient mystery, so thank you, Deimosaur, for including that in the voyager power list.

During this past fortnight, we brought towards Deimosaur a few minor rules quibbles with Deimosaur, like the precise timing of power channel, and minor wording ambiguities with temporal duelist at 8th level. One quibble still stands: during a critical moment in combat, one player argued that the "spending power points normally" provision in multitask at 9th level and greater multitask at 17th level circumvented the momentum/power point expenditure cap of augmented attack, because of the usage of "normally." This would effectively grant a voyager a free standard action with which to manifest mid-combat. I considered it a sketchy reading, but I conceded that it was valid nevertheless, so I had allowed it. Is this intentional?

A quibble I noticed myself is the helping hand parallel action, right from 1st level. It bars off attacks and magical items, but what of psionic items and alchemical items? Can a helping hand activate a smokestick, for example? What of a dorje? Speaking of helping hand, one player was complaining about how helping hand still suffered from any temporary penalties the voyager was suffering from, such as Strength damage; I do not think their complaint holds much water, but it is worth pointing out.

Another thing I had observed is that both players, seasoned veterans to the class, were still ofttimes confused as to how afterimages worked. At the very least, they were tripped up by things other than afterimage movement:
• They frequently assumed that their afterimages could talk, for whatever reason. The afterimage rules should explicitly deny this.
• They constantly forgot that parallel actions could use afterimages as an origin point. This is something I had mentioned to Deimosaur long ago, but it bears repeating: the rules should blatantly spell out "adjacent to you or your afterimage" in each applicable parallel action, because even long-time players regularly neglect it.
• They were often confused by how the rules for concealing afterimages or using them in conjunction with Stealth worked... probably because the afterimage rules fail to lay out such a thing. This actually came up multiple times, forcing me to gloss over it as "Yes, your afterimage can effectively use Stealth." This could use clarification.

It was also during these sessions that I discovered just how beautiful a feat Independent Action is. It does not need a downgrade, but I would recommend that any mid-level voyager take this top-notch feat. Independent Action allows a character to break free from just about any sort of mind-affecting effect given enough turns, which means rejoining a battle after having been taken out by a mind-affecting save-or-lose, or being able to shrug off any Charm, Suggestion, or Dominate outside of combat. It even allows for silly business like teleporting around with afterimages and rewind even while petrified. I have a quibble with it: on a successful retried save against a magical effect, is the voyager notified via hostile tingle? This is important in the case of subtle Charms, Suggestions, and the like.

On to the battle reports. It should be noted that at some point, the PCs traded in their Cyclops Helms, their +2 Dexterity items, and some gold for Belts of the Weasel. I would strongly recommend this item to any non-flying voyager. Being tripped is terribly inconvenient for any voyager, and this makes being knocked prone sting much less.

Battle #1 of the Latest Batch of Sessions:
• Party: Melee voyager (metronome) and ranged voyager (crossfire, metronome), both 8th-level

• Buffs on the Party: 7-point Inertial Armor, 7-point Defensive Precognition, 5-point Metaphysical Weapon on both weapons, 3-point Concealing Amorpha, 1-point Force Screen, and, in the case of the melee voyager, 7-point Offensive Precognition

• Enemy: One supposedly CR 15 nemhain: d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/nemhain

• Starting Terrain and Positions: cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/326756284831367169/393676651180982272/Battle_Nemhain.png

• Terrain Gimmick #1: This was the Ethereal Plane, so everyone could fly. Since the Ethereal Plane's rules are fuzzy, I ruled that only vertical movement incurred the doubled movement cost.

• Terrain Gimmick #2: The nemhain ignored all sources of cover and all negative terrain effects in this battlefield, since this was her demesne.

• Terrain Gimmick #3: The golden webs forced a DC 30 Reflex save upon anyone traveling through, above, or below them. Failure caused entanglement and immobilization in the webs. They also provided cover.

• Terrain Gimmick #4: The shards forced a DC 30 Reflex save upon anyone traveling through, above, or below them. Failure caused the staggered condition until the end of the creature's next turn. They likewise provided cover.

• Terrain Gimmick #5: The nemhain had an unlimited supply of 6d6 damage Colossal obsidian chakrams for use with its Telekinesis.

• Terrain Gimmick #6: To counteract the nemhain's major terrain benefits, the party and their allies conducted an occult ritual to prevent the nemhain from incorporeally occupying any of the asteroids. A similar ritual imbued the PCs' weapons with 1 electricity damage.

• Intended Difficulty: Easy.

• Initiative Results: The melee voyager, then the nemhain, then the ranged voyager.

• PC Who Got Focus-Fired: The voyagers were successfully able to kite around in such a way as to render focused fire unfeasible.

• Power Points Expended: The melee voyager spent 3 power points on Hustle to reach the nemhain during the first round, 1 power point for Destiny Dissonance as part of a power channel also during the first round, and 3 power points on a Deflect against a lucky Colossal obsidian chakram

• Notes on the Actual Combat: The nemhain started the battle already with an Antilife Shell up, but I ruled that teleportation could take a character into an Antilife Shell. That is how the melee voyager used Hustle, Destiny Dissonance, and blink to pound the nemhain with eight rounds of automatically being sickened; their very high Reflex blew right through the dangerous terrain. Since they had identified the nemhain's statistics from prior research and high Knowledge skills, from there, they figured out that all they had to do was kite away from the nemhain's measly speed 30 feet and play defensively to exhaust the nemhain's spell-like abilities. Once that happened, then they could chip away at the nemhain as though it was a fish in a barrel.

• The nemhain was incredibly lucky and managed to kill one PC thanks to very unfortunate dice rolls, but we knew that to be a statistical outlier. In other, hypothetical playthroughs of this battle, both voyagers would have won unscathed the vast majority of the time. The point still stood: this was a battle that allowed the voyagers to win through sheer defense and endurance, rather than offense. (The dead PC was raised later via occult ritual.)

Reports on the second, third, and fourth battles coming soon.

1) Literally and figuratively backstabbing his best friend for reasons he still can't convince himself we're justified

2) Leaving home

3) Her drunken one night stand with another PC

4) Not casting Emergency Force Sphere sooner

Of them all, #1 probably regrets their choice the most, followed by #3 and then #4.

Also #1 and #4 wouldn't do it again if they had the chance to go do things differently. #2 would do the exact same thing. #3 is fuzzy, she would probably do it again if she were drunk but not if she were sober.

So how often does homebrew stuff get posted to these boards, and with that, how often is the pastebin updated with more stuff?

depends

Depends on whether people think anyone gives a fuck about their homebrew my man. I could post some right now, but it has a very narrow focus so it'd only be interesting to an extremely narrow target audience. Namely:
>Is in a group that uses Spheres of Power
>Fucking LOVES the Transformation feat line
>wants to hyperfocus a single form they can use all the time
>is also a selfish prick who doesn't want to share
pastebin.com/3fHLFN08

Condemning every innocent soul in existence to the worst possible hell over a misunderstanding. If he could do it over again, it would go down exactly the same, because no one will tell him what he did wrong.

Homebrew doesn't get a lot of attention around here. Even most official playlists don't get a lot of attention.

Wow, such wonderful facts backed with... why, absolutely nothing? Why don't you explain a bit more in-depth, it shouldn't be that difficult right? Or do you have any actual, hard evidence whatsoever?

They used to, but then /pfg/ went and started hating 3rd-party developers and/or doxxing them. Nobody wants to bring their work here anymore, because why the fuck would they at this point?

So I'm looking at a Trappings of the Warrior occultist for kicks and I realize something. Am I faggot for wanting to make the weapon I invest focus into a Spiked Gauntlet, and having multiple weapons? Would I be right in assuming that most people would rule carrying a real weapon (like a greatsword) would mean losing the bonus BAB from the focus-invested gauntlet, thus making this plan pointless?

Well for one thing, any homebrew posted here won't be sucked into oblivion with downvotes, but it also doesn't have any hamfisted rules against going "wow this sucks!"

That is of course assuming that the homebrew actually sucks.

With those two factors in play, I think it would be super cool to see more homebrew here.

Yeah, I'd say you'd lose the bonus BaB as soon as you started using another weapon, because the gauntlet isn't what you're wielding

However, I'd hesitate to call this build useless, you could have some fun role play opportunities with this concept

>Gauntlet-Occultist uses big ol' shit weapon. Say the great terbutje or something
>acts like they're a Badass Motherfucker
>Weapon breaks in no time
>Then utilize your superior punching power to bewilder your foes

I'd maybe take a dip into brawler to make this work, and if roleplayed properly, any decent DM should give circumstance bonuses to intimidate checks to demoralize, or maybe to feint.

If you don't wanna go the two handed route, you could instead go for a TwF build, using your gauntlet-clad left hand (secretly your dominant hand) as your main weapon. This one also works great with that little dip in Brawler/monk.

I was actually considering nudging my GM into doing actual feat tax rules instead of "a thing here and a thing there", then making good on it with a dexfag occultist so I could unironically play a switch-hitting sword-n-boarder to go alongside a bloodrager. Doesn't seem like he or the group will bite it, unfortunately.

>invest focus in gauntlet, stick buckler on gauntlet hand so it can be considered wielded
>grab a rapier, then the one feat required for D2D with it
>grab a bow with my dinky ass 12 Str, then Precise Shot, maybe other feats for it down the line
>proceed to mainly use bow, but switch it up when in close quarters/flanking becomes necessary
>never ever get to play this because I'd never get the right chargen

My experience has been that most homebrew is just ignored. I've looked at several homebrew where I have been the only one to leave feedback.

There's nothing written about it as far as I know, but it's entirely reasonable for them to do so.

Now there's gonna be a fantasy Unit 731 devoted to experimenting with the regenerating and nutrient-conserving capabilities of trolls.

I think the dragonmarked houses worked together to create one in Eberron.

It was in the last book of the Thorn of Breeland trilogy.

As a follow-up to this post, my necromancer is also an Undead Lord, what do you guys think about how I built the Corpse Companion?

myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1439008

No way, really? It's funny you mention that. My players just got into Eberron, and I was already thinking about buying that trilogy because it's by the Hellcow himself.

Does Corpse Companion allow you to animate skeletal champions? It allows for variant skeletons, but I think the champions are a separate thing.

Also, have you settled on a good idea for your channel energy conundrum? The tower shield thing may still work.

The DM allowed it for story reasons, long story short the companion is the corpse of his dead brother and being a Champion allows him to be sentient, which makes for good RP.

Do Tower Shields help with Channeling? I know it states you can set them down to act as cover, but I thought channeled energy went through walls, at least a bit.

>invest focus in gauntlet, stick buckler on gauntlet hand so it can be considered wielded
You probably don't get good char gen options because you turn around and pull bullshit like this, you cunt.

Tower shields are as effective as being behind a solid wall for the purposes of line of effect, and total cover seems to negate bursts, so your tower shield wielding skeletons should be golden.

user, you sound like you need to calm down if some fag wanting to switch-hit with a buckler and gauntlet are making you mad. Nigga wouldn't even get the TotW BAB with the bow, since using it would then occupy his gauntlet hand.

Why are you mad over this build of all things, if this were an iceberg and we were determining how close to the tip the build is in terms of bullshit, we'd be in the fucking Mojave desert.

Fellas, level with me
Is it gay to play a skald
I mean you basically gettin burly men excited for a livin

What if they're scrawny men though?

Super gay, you faggot.

By that logic, Gene Simmons is gay.

I guess then the only thing I need to worry about then is proficiency, if I give them all tower shields will they actually be able to use them or are they just going to take a bunch of minuses to attack rolls?

Skeletons seem to keep armor and weapon proficiencies. No word on shields, but I'd assume they follow the same logic. If you're animating the corpses of mostly fighters you should be pretty good, but unfortunately your Corpse Companion has lost tower shield proficiency (unless you want to switch one of his feats.)

Fuck off Mede

He's also taken a level in Fighter which gives it right back, so no worries there. Regardless, he's also the only one so far with Channel Resistance and an explicit reason to always stick close to my character, so I'm not AS worried about him as the others, even if he's not as strong as some of the rest of my army.

I'm thinking of making a Metaforge, and I'm considering the Living Legend and Host of Heroes archetypes for Soulblade and Aegis, respectably. But I'm debating whether it's worth it or not.

Flavor wise, it makes sense, but I'm wondering if I'm making an error with the Aegis, as I lose a lot of customizability with the loss of the Aegis's Reconfigure. I can gain some flexibility with Initiator's Soul, but I'm not sure it's worth it.

Soulblade seems nice, but I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Eh, I didn't really like Host of Heroes for the Aegis. Living Legend with Soulblade is golden though since Int to hit and damage with Focused Offense at that point.

That is a good point, but Viking Fighters lose tower shields and heavy armor I think, which is why I was worried. Channel Resistance will help though, yeah.

That's true, but to be fair if it's a toss-up between having a Tower Shield and actually getting useful abilities through levelup instead of Bravery (which is useless on an undead), I'd rather give him Viking levels personally.