OOC (out-of-character)

[reefwood]

Enric, thanks for moving these threads into their own forum! Can you also add the Pathfinder: War Stories [Storming the Beach] thread when you get a chance?

I decided to make this OOC thread for anything not a part of the actual game, such as scheduling.

As a reminder, we are set to play on Thursday, Sept 3rd @ 7pm at my house. See you then!!

[Enric]

Yeah, I'll do that when I get home. I also forgot to set up moderator privileges for you, so I'll make sure to get to that as well.

[reefwood]

A quick update on tomorrow. Our landlord is stopping @7:30pm by to replace a broken burner on the stove. Shouldn't take long, but I'll be busy with that for a bit. We probably won't get rolling with the actual adventure until after he leaves, but that should be fine since it always takes a bit of time to get set up, make last minutes changes/corrections, etc. And I actually have something for you two to work on for the game while I'm busy.

Also, Enric... do you have a power drill I can borrow?

[Enric]

No, sorry - I saw your earlier post, but I don't have one.

[reefwood]

Just a reminder that we're meeting @ 7pm at my house. The landlord stops by around 7:30pm, and the adventure should be getting underway by 8pm.

See you two tonight!

[reefwood]

FYI... there will be a couchsurfer staying at my place tonight. She is quite curious about observing D&D in action and may hang out with us for a bit while we play.

[reefwood]

Once I hit the road next Friday, I won't be back in Portland until at least Oct 10th. The next possible date for a session will probably be late Oct or early Nov.

I do have a 3-player adventure mostly planned out that was supposed to be the conclusion to the first session, but then again, the first one stood alone on its own pretty well, and it's not like I have an overarching story mapped out. Mostly just general scenes that could be pieced together and detailed in different ways. The main army is aimed at Verdas, but the "part 2" session was actually going to take place after that offensive was launched anyway, so the PCs could do something else in the meantime. Perhaps even investigate the trouble at Longtree if there was interest from the players?

Maybe I'll just toss out a date when I'm ready to delve back into this and base what I set up depending on who is able to make it. That might just be a good way to handle this campaign in general, especially since it doesn't matter much if there is a different line-up each time. And of course, there would be a preference on date for whoever couldn't make the last session. Any thoughts on all this?

I usually prefer Wednesdays followed by Tuesdays but can pretty much do Sun/Mon/Thur at least some weeks.

[reefwood]

Rules/System
The final version of Pathfinder is now available. I purchased the PDF and was reading through it on the road. There are several minor changes to classes, feats, combat, and just about everything else, and I would like people to use the finalized rules. I can provide you with a copy of the PDF or you can buy it for $10 at the Paizo site (which includes a single-file version and one-chapter-per-file version). Or if you can find it elsewhere for free, the most up-to-date PDF has the "Cover" listed as the first bookmark.

Scheduling
This is still a ways away, so I'm not looking for anyone to commit to a certain date yet, but let's aim for the next session to be between Nov 15 - Nov 30. If there's any days in there that you already know you can't play, please let me know.

[Rabbit]

Mondays are out for me and Nov 22nd is John's Birthday so that might be out (or maybe some day around it.)

Other than that I am currently open for that stretch of time.

[reefwood]

Scheduling

Oct 16, 2009 14:07:32 GMT -5 Rabbit said:

Mondays are out for me and Nov 22nd is John's Birthday so that might be out (or maybe some day around it.)

Other than that I am currently open for that stretch of time.

Good to know about John's b-day, and I also realize now that this time frame includes the Thanksgiving holiday. I have tentative plans to be out of town from Tuesday the 24th til Sunday the 29th, so let's try to find a date that works among these three:

Tuesday the 17th
Wednesday the 18th
Thursday the 19th


Starting Wealth
I have realized/learned two things about the previous starting packages. Their average values lined up pretty close to the standard starting wealth amounts, but the lack of limits set on certain items could have led to PCs having some very pricey equipment early on. For example, you could get a masterwork quarterstaff that costs 300 gp or a masterwork composite longbow with a +4 Str rating that costs 800 gp. That's a big price range, but luckily, it didn't seem to cause any imbalances.

Anyway, I'm going to keep the value on par with standard starting wealth but add some caps on spending to make sure equipment stays in check.

[reefwood]

Woo! I'm excited about finally getting to the third installment of this series.

First off, I want anyone using a preexisting character to convert their build to the final version of Pathfinder. I can provide you with the files, or you can find what seems to be all the info at the PRD. Whatever you use, I'm happy to help, and I have listed many of the changes in the Pathfinder Rules/Changes thread. If the final rules present a change that does not mesh with your old build, you are free to adjust the old build to make that aspect work (if possible) or remove it. Also, I do ask that players not look at the monster stats unless needed for a creature you will use, such as an animal companion or familiar or summoned creature, or for a class feature such as wildshape. And even then, I prefer you don't look up creatures that you won't have access to yet.

Secondly, I have enjoyed keeping player knowledge to a minimum before character creation/advancement, but for now, you know that your task is to investigate the disappearance of a unit, and the rumor mill says zombies are to blame. Once characters are created, I'll provide more details, and equipment can be changed until game time. Additional equipment appropriate to the mission will be provided at game time.

Everyone will be at 3rd level. Returning PCs (except Nero) will start off with everything they had/earned in the last session they played. New PCs will begin at 3rd level, and starting equipment packages are outlined in my last post in the Boot Camp (character creation) thread. Players are welcome to switch between using returning PCs and creating new PCs as often as they'd like. You can even switch between multiple returning PCs if you get the chance, but only returning PCs get to use spoils from their specific previous victories, and only new PCs get to start off with fresh equipment packages.

Enric... can you send me the list of Nero's equipment? Also, the wizard rules seem to be spelled out more clearly in the final version.

icnavid... looking through the Boot Camp (character creation) thread shows that Sir Grolton started out as a half-orc but was changed to a human before game time. Therefore, he is a human unless you changed him back at the last minute to a half-orc just before game time, but even the level gained after the game shows him as a human. I cannot remember why you made the change, but maybe it was to remove the -2 ability score that half-orcs had in the Beta version? From what I can gather, he went from having a +2 Str & +2 Wis to only having a +2 Str as a human, and he gained more skills, so maybe it was for the skill points? Also, there is no longer a warhorse, but mounts can be combat trained. As an animal companion, this is a special quality that a horse gains when a druid reaches 4th level.
EDIT: It does look like a creature can gain Combat Training through tricks of the Handle Animal skill, so I guess your animal companion horse could start out with Combat Training and just wouldn't gain that bonus at 4th level.

Rabbit... there are currently no warforged stats for Pathfinder yet, but it should be easy enough to convert them. It might be +2 Con, +2 Int, -2 Cha or Wis, and most of the rest staying the same.

[Rabbit]

Dec 2, 2009 4:05:19 GMT -5 reefwood said:

Rabbit... there are currently no warforged stats for Pathfinder yet, but it should be easy enough to convert them. It might be +2 Con, +2 Int, -2 Cha or Wis, and most of the rest staying the same.

Cool. After more thought I will want to play a warforged. I will use the above stats and standard warforged features unless I hear differently from you.

Edit: Can I assume it is OK to use warforge specific feats, and they will work the same?

[icnivad]

Yeah, it looks like he is human on my character sheet, too.

It looks like Humans no longer get to chose a weapon to gain racial weapon familiarity in (unless I'm missing that somewhere?). If this is the case, then it drastically affects my guy who would no longer be proficient in his primary weapon. I might have to rethink him.

[reefwood]

Dec 2, 2009 12:23:32 GMT -5 Rabbit said:

Dec 2, 2009 4:05:19 GMT -5 reefwood said:

Rabbit... there are currently no warforged stats for Pathfinder yet, but it should be easy enough to convert them. It might be +2 Con, +2 Int, -2 Cha or Wis, and most of the rest staying the same.

Cool. After more thought I will want to play a warforged. I will use the above stats and standard warforged features unless I hear differently from you.

Edit: Can I assume it is OK to use warforge specific feats, and they will work the same?

I was looking more into the conversion, and I believe this is how it works...

Each of the non-human/non-half-human core races receive one +2 physical stat and one +2 mental stat and one -2 (usually physical) stat. Warforged in 3.5 receive +2 Con, -2 Wis, -2 Cha. Con will obviously be the physical stat that gets the +2. It doesn't make sense for the +2 mental stat to be Wis or Cha, so it will be Int. As for the -2 stat, seeing as how both of the 3.5 ones are mental stats, it makes sense to keep it a mental stat in Pathfinder too, but it will only be Wis or Cha. Not both of them. I'm going to look over the rest of the warforged stats and will post an answer about them and the -2 stat later today.

Good question about warforged feats. It would be silly not to allow those and should be easy enough to make any conversions, if needed. Just let me know what feats you might consider whenever you figure that out. What I can say right now is that conversion will probably depend on how similar feats or prerequisites have changed. For example, all the feats in the Power Attack chain have been tweaked, so if the warforged feat has PA as a prereq, it will probably be tweaked in a similar manner.

Also, be sure to review the character creation rules in the first post of the Boot Camp thread for things like military skills and bonus feats.

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Dec 2, 2009 13:01:58 GMT -5 icnivad said:

Yeah, it looks like he is human on my character sheet, too.

It looks like Humans no longer get to chose a weapon to gain racial weapon familiarity in (unless I'm missing that somewhere?). If this is the case, then it drastically affects my guy who would no longer be proficient in his primary weapon. I might have to rethink him.

You are talking about the lance, right? Off the top of my head, there are two options to remedy this through tweaks that I will allow:

1) Switch out a feat for Martial Weapon Proficiency. Spending a feat to do the crazy amount of damage Sir Grolton will do seems like a fair trade.

2) Switch out his 3rd druid level for a class that has martial weapon proficiency. Changing a level is a pretty huge tweak, but seeing as how he hasn't had a chance to use his 3rd level yet, it won't have any actual impact on what has happened so far. Of course, this means he'd lose access to 2nd-level spells.

Basically, I'm aiming for a tweak that won't undo abilities that a character had in the past and won't affect too many other things in general. It seems like option #1 would keep Sir Grolton pretty much at the same place as he was before. He could do it with only losing Power Attack, which he just gained at 3rd-level, so at least it wouldn't be missed.

Also, you could create a new character who is simply a much more focused lancer. Creating a fighter will provide two fighter bonus feats that could be used for things like Weapon Focus and adding Cleave to the Power Attack. Although, previous spoils would be lost.

EDIT: Another direction to take the tweak would be to switch out for a weapon in which a druid is proficient. It won't have the extra charging bonus specific to a lance but would still benefit from all the mounted/charging feats.

[icnivad]

It looks like improved toughness changed in this version making it not as useful. Would you mind if I swap that out for martial weapon prof. It seems like the most logical choice since he would have needed the weapon proficiency at first level anyway, and if I'd started with these rules, I probably would have let toughness drop.

Another thing that changed pretty drastically is how the system handles animal companions. It looks like they completely removed the alternative animal companions at higher levels, which drastically weakens this feature (A 6 HD horse is not nearly as good as a rhinoceros at level 7 and a dire bear is way better than a 10 HD horse at level 13). If I'd known I could not rely on my mount as much at higher levels, I think I would have shuffled my stats around to focus a little more on spell casting. Would you mind if I swap a couple stats to increase casting at higher levels?