My gaming group and I put Pathfinder’s new classes through a playtest on Friday. I played the Summoner, and thought I would share some of my thoughts on the class here.
In short: The Summoner acts somewhat like the arcane version of the Druid. Instead of an animal companion, however, he has a mutated Outsider called a Eidolon. The Eidelon can appear in one of three forms: quadruped, biped, or serpentine. Every level, the summoner can spend evolution points on the Eidelon to give them any number of abilities such as flight, tentacles, poison, or extra limbs. The Summoner also gains the ability to cast Summon Monster as a spell-like ability, gaining the ability to cast higher incarnations of that spell as he levels. To round things out, the Summoner has a small spell list, and 1d8 HD. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: eidolon, pathfinder, playtest, summoner, trogdor
We suspended the Grand Campaign for an evening to playtest Paizo’s new Advanced Player’s Guide classes. An evening of chaos and mayhem followed.
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Tags: alchemist, Campaign, cavalier, eidolon, grand campaign, inquisitor, mad bomber, paizo, pathfinder, playtest, roleplaying, summoner, witch
I write you this letter from Queen’s Landing. I’ve just returned here from the Barony of Halswood in northern Staenland, after concluding the business your last letter requested my companions and I deal with.
Tags: grand campaign, pathfinder, Ranger, RPG
So Paizo is currently running an open playtest of four (soon to be six) new classes slated to appear in their Advanced Players Guide, due out some time next year. I’ve taken some time to look over the four classes currently out (and I plan to do the same for the next two) and I have to say that, overall, I like what I see.
Tags: advanced players guide, cavalier, new classes, oracle, pathfinder, summoner, witch
As I sit in the grey dungeon that has become my home over the past several weeks, I have come to two conclusions. The first is that this power that I have fated upon is dark and treacherous and it has no business being in the hands of any mortal. This is the very power of the gods, unrestrained. I have stared into the face of the divine and walked away with its glow and its stench. I am unfit to know such things, to be who I am.
Tags: campaign journal, grand campaign, mauril, pathfinder
We run into the occasional problem with one character being utterly hopeless in a group skill everyone else can do. Say for example the party needs to sneak somewhere, but the Cleric has no stealth at all. We can’t very well leave him …
We’ve tried several mechanisms to work around this issue – mass Aid Another works, but it feels cheesy – six people are crowded around one guy, helping him be quiet? It feels wrong even if it’s legal. Having only one character Aid Another feels more reasonable, but it’s also kind of weak sauce at high levels … oh, boy, a +2. The guy listening for us has a +18 Perception …
After some discussion, we came up with a possible House Rule – Aid Another on Skill Checks might confer a scaled bonus based on the margin of success. For example, a Rogue Aids the Cleric on his Stealth check. Normally this would be a DC 10 for a +2. Perhaps for every 5 ranks of success, we get another +1? So the low-level Rogue rolls a 21, and grants a +4 Stealth. If the same Cleric was being aided by a 19th level Ranger with some Skill Focus, he could reasonably roll say a 38, which would confer a +7 … after all, he knows a lot more about sneaking than the low level Rogue.
It’s a thought at least, and something that might make Aid Another seem like a good investment of an action even at high levels.
Tags: Aid Another, House Rule, pathfinder, Perception, Skills, Stealth
Lately we’ve been looking into using a lot of different mounts in Pathfinder, and run into some interesting questions.
Tags: evasion, Griffon, horse, mount, mounted combat, pathfinder
More of Rath’s letters from the Grand Campaign.
Tags: Dragon, grand campaign, Griffon, pathfinder, RPG, Spaartha, Tantathia
Rath’s letters from the Grand Campaign
Tags: campaign journal, Fantasy, pathfinder, Ranger, RPG
The Grand Campaign is being played with the new Pathfinder rules, along with 3.5 add-ons as desired.
Our gaming group isn’t nearly as optimized as most, so we’re likely not hitting the best possibly mathematical combination of skills, feats, and spells, but then again, we don’t care nearly as much about that as telling a good story.
Tags: 3.5, Archivist, Cleric, D&D, Favored Soul, Fighter, grand campaign, paizo, pathfinder, Ranger, Rogue, Wizard