Alternate Rules: Unarmored Combatant

So I did some research last night (about two weeks ago at this point) and it seems to me that Unarmored Combatant is a little bit over-powered. Basically, what I was trying to do with it was to simulate the Monk unarmored bonus to AC to account for the advent of firearms and the fairly impractical nature of putting are leather armor to help stop bullets from hitting you. I figured this wasn't a big deal because the 3.5 book Tome of Battle has a feat called Superior Unarmed Strike that gives a non-Monk a Monk style unarmed attack that improves over time. I juiced it up a little so you weren't stuck dealing 1d4 damage with your fists for three levels of play, but you still don't get to do 2d10 damage with your fists at high level like a Monk does. 

Now with Unarmored Combatant, there are three tiers to the feat, each improving its armor bonus. This culminates in a +10 armor bonus at 20th level on the third tier feat. The problem is that a Monk ends up with +5 at 20th level, and to have the equivalent bonus, he'd have to have a 20 in Wisdom as well. Not completely outside the realm of possibility, but it is still a robust score. The point with these feats is to be able to do something your class normally can't do, but not be better at it than the class that is an expert at it. 

So I think what I'll do eventually is alter the series and bring it to just two feats instead of three. The first feat will still require Dodge as a prerequisite along with an above average Wisdom or Dexterity. All it will do is add a +1 Monk style bonus to your AC or your Wisdom modifier, whichever is higher. Like the Superior Unarmed Strike feat, if you are a Monk, it will treat your Monk level as four levels higher when calculating your AC bonus. The second feat will have similar requirements to the second feat in the series, but will offer a unarmored AC bonus that increases with your level starting at +1 and capping at +4. This makes it good, but not better than the Monk's ability. 

Now, that isn't especially great, at least not compared to the +10 at 20th level of the third tier of the feat series as it stands now. However, it does make a lot more sense when compared with the mechanics of the Monk ability and the Superior Unarmed Strike. If you take it at earlier levels, even if you have the bare minimum of stats to take it (Dodge feat and a 13 in Dexterity) it still comes out to a +3 bonus to AC, which is the equivalent of studded leather armor without the armor check penalty, the spell failure percentage, or the weakness of being ignored by guns. However, this does present a problem at higher levels. With only the base requirements it ends up as a +6 bonus to armor, which is the equivalent of chain mail or a breastplate without the armor check penalty, spell failure percentage, or the weakness to firearms. But it can't be improved by the upgrade system or magical bonuses. 

It isn't quite so over-powered, but it is much more in keeping with the power level of the Monk ability. With a Dexterity of 16 or something along those lines you can easily scoot the bonus up to +9, which puts you right up there with full plate with none of the weaknesses of the armor. 

I think in future version of the campaign book I will alter the way the feat works, but I won't change it now, as my players have designed their characters around it working in a certain way. 

Mercenaries Continued: Part 5

Man, now that I've got five posts about mercenaries in the bag I find myself kind of running out of steam. I mean there is plenty I could write, but like I said last time, I feel like if I get into specifics I might as well start writing myself another campaign book or something and that feels like it would be cheating on the Orcunraytrel campaign. I think I can meander about nobles this post though, so we'll go with nobles today.

So we have these noble races, we call them nobles because they primarily live in and rule the city-states and have the majority of the money and control the majority of property available in this continent. I see them set up in clans and families. With like a half dozen or so families ruling each city through a council of some kind. In some city-states this might vary with one family having essentially made a monarchy of themselves in some city-states. In the cities I see them as pretty much absolute power. They have all the jobs that out of work folks want to get hired for, they run the banks and the loan offices, they run everything and anyone who wants a job needs to go through them essentially. If you pay taxes, you pay it to them, law enforcement serves at their pleasure and better keep its nose out of what they do and so on and so forth. They're nobles that happily abuse their power as the cliche' villainous noble of fiction is what I am saying.

So we have all these nobles that utilize mercenaries to enact their will and fight for stuff they want. My next thought is, what do they fight for? We've already established that the Shale empire is a pile of ruins containing highly valued psionic artifacts and stuff that schools and universities and very rich private collectors pay them to dig around for. I envision this continent as having conventional banditry and brigandry (?), so mercenaries would obviously be hired to protect against that sort of thing. Now one of the main facets of this campaign is that the nobles use mercenaries to hack each other apart because they have long lives and low populations and don't want to weaken their houses by having dozens of them dying in battle when they can have a few hundred mercenaries do so for them.

Now I am thinking each city-state is sort of surrounded by a handful of towns that handle farming or lumbering or that sort of thing. These people owe fealty to the nobles of the city-state and are taxed by them and tithe what they produce to the city-state, perhaps the city-state even owns the town and the citizens just rent the space they occupy or something crazy like that. I'm imaging that a big brunt of mercenary work stems from the archaeological digs, but another big chunk comes from seasonal rearrangements of borders. City-state X decides they need a town right on the edge of their area of control and decides to take it. The other city-state is notified (or perhaps not) and the mercenaries head to somewhere away from the town they want (so as not to destroy that which the nobles desire) and beat the piss out of each other. How the battles play out would partly be determined by the mercenary captains and the nobles themselves. I imagine mercenaries having something of a camaraderie like you see with some of the Northmen in Joe Abercrombie's books. I also imagine they want money, but not to die for the shithead nobles. So with this in mind, I imagine mercenary captains meeting on the eve of battle or communicating in some way beforehand and setting the boundaries for issues regarding surrender and looting enemy companies and that sort of thing. Some captains might be a wee bit more bloodthirsty and eschew that sort of friendly behavior in the hopes of straight up hatemurdering potential competition.

I'm also thinking that non-noble races can purchase rank for themselves, should they want some manner of power within a city-state's walls. This would require a pile of coin, and a noble of a certain rank to vouch for them in some way. I think there would also be a certain cap to the rank a non-noble could buy themselves, and they would be more limited in scope to that of born nobles. Obviously, those that purchase their nobility would be much maligned in noble society. Of course, allowing this sort of thing forces me to actually come up with all the legal rights and such that a particular rank of noble has, and I'm not sure anyone would be interested in this sort of thing, but creating these sorts of things does kind of offer a means of actually showing that nobles do possess tangible power and aren't just folks with lots of money and such. 

I guess I didn't have quite so much for you today, a little bit shorter than my usual mercenary post length. As I said, I'm kind of running out of steam. I think this will be the last mercenary related post for a while. So I guess that is all for now. 

Bruce Banner: Adventurer

Alright, so this appears on Saturday instead of Thursday because Eric told me we weren't going to do Iron Man this week, then posted the Hulk on Wednesday while I was working. Anyways.

My understanding of the Hulk is that Bruce Banner got hit with some gamma rays and now his anger is a living thing inside of him that he has to control. So there are two routes you can go, the Barbarian route or the Alchemist route. I am choosing Alchemist because when Bruce hulks out, in most representations, he becomes a completely different individual. I know there are smart Hulk versions and that sort of thing, but I am going with this version. When Bruce gets mad or injured, if he can't control himself, he physically and mentally changes to become the Hulk. There is an Alchemist based prestige class called the Master Chymist that utilizes the mutagen in the same way, even going so far as to give the mutagenic form a completely different alignment from the Alchemist's normal form. It is meant as more of Jekyll/Hyde thing, but so is the Hulk. At least in my opinion. Who knows what Stan Lee was thinking when he made the character (he created the Hulk, right?). I've seen an interview with Stan Lee where he says his brother came up with the name Mjolnir for Thor's hammer.

So the big problem initially is the whole alchemy aspect of the Alchemist class. I guess we can say that Bruce Banner is a scientist, so he can make things? I dunno, that's the best I've got. Sorry. Class based rpgs are rigid and really hard to do this kind of thing with. Additionally, the bombs are a problem too, and here I don't even have a thin justification for their presence. ::shrug::

I was initially thinking of using the Ragechemist archetype of the Alchemist, but that version of the mutagen can end up raging itself into a coma. Instead, I think I'll just go with Alchemist 10/Master Chymist 10. The Master Chymist is a neat class, it allows you to mutagen out a few times per day without using a mutagen, it can also force you into a mutagen form if you're injured and fail a Will save. I feel like that is a very Hulk-like mechanic that fits this concept well.

Anyway. As human scientist, Bruce's stats wouldn't be terribly impressive. High Intelligence and Wisdom, fairly average everything else. Maybe above average Constitution, as he did survive the fallout from a gamma bomb test or some such.

Bruce will end up with eleven feats at 20th level. My thoughts on what he should take are as follows: Great Fortitude (because the Hulk is fucking tough), Greater Unarmored Combatant (because the Hulk doesn't wear armor), Improved Unarmored Combatant (because the Hulk doesn't wear armor), Ironhide (I know he doesn't fit the race requirement, but come on, the Hulk's skin is tough), Power Attack (because the Hulk hits hard), Toughness (because the Hulk should have a lot of hit points), and Unarmored Combatant (because the Hulk doesn't wear armor). I'm not sure what to take for the next four feats, but stuff that improves his ability to bull rush or overrun opponents, as the Hulk has a tendency to charge in and run down his opponents. Iron Will also might be appropriate, as the Master Chymist prestige class can force a character to enter into the mutagen state against his will and Bruce Banner might have practiced resisting that. 

As a level 10 Alchemist, Bruce will end up with 5 discoveries. My thoughts on which discoveries he'd have are as follows: Feral Mutagen (to simulate the Hulk's punching and smashing and whatnot, and to qualify for Master Chymist), Preserve Organs (to simulate the Hulk's toughness and to simulate Bruce's ability to Hulk out when injured and shrug off said injury), and Spontaneous Healing (to simulate the Hulk's toughness and general unkillability). There are two more discoveries to take, but I can't think of what they should be. I wonder if the one that makes the Alchemist's skin toxic would be appropriate? I mean, the Hulk probably tastes like gamma radiation, and I imagine that doesn't exactly taste stellar.

Additionally, as a level 10 Master Chymist, Bruce will end up with 5 advanced mutagen abilities. My thoughts on which ones he'd have are as follows: Extended Mutagen (so Bruce can Hulk out for long periods of time), Furious Mutagen (to further increase the natural attack damage of the Hulk), Grand Mutagen (to further increase the physical bonuses of the mutagen form), and Growth Mutagen (so the Hulk is Large size when Bruce enters the form, which will up has fist damage to 2d6 and that is impressive).

As far as gear, pants, the Hulk should have stretchy pants.

I think that is about the best I can do with creating the Hulk. The bomb aspect still bugs me, but there isn't an archetype that trades it away for anything relevant to the Hulk. There's one that grants sneak attack in its place, but I don't really think Bruce Banner is prone to hacking up bodies and such the way a Vivisectionist would be. Oh well, like I said, this is the best I've got. 

Cultural vs. Racial Traits

Alright, so I have a beef with Pathfinder and 3.5 DnD, and it is a beef that strangely enough 4th Edition fixes somewhat. It is also a beef I am guilty of at times.  

So we have the Dwarf,  a race from folklore known for axes and hammers and craftsmanship and so on and so forth since the time of the Vikings and when Odin was still Odin and hadn't been folded into Santa Claus. In 3.5 DnD, Dwarves are pretty much as they've been depicted in fantasy games and novels since time immemorial. They have a knack for stonework and figuring out stuff based on stone like secret doors and passages and that sort of thing, they also have bonuses on attack rolls against Orcs and Goblinoids because they know special combat tricks to fight them. It makes sense, as Dwarves are typically enemies of those types of creatures in fantasy. They also have a bonus to their armor class vs. Giants, not because they're small, but because they're trained to fight these guys in the same way they're trained to fight Orcs and Goblinoids. They're also good at appraising the value of stone and metal items, because Dwarves are good with stone and metal. They also treat Dwarven waraxes and urgroshes as martial weapons instead of exotic, because they are Dwarven weapons. Dwarves also have some bonuses to saves vs. poison and disease and saving throws. They're also hard to knock down and they are slow, but their encumbrance doesn't ever affect their movement because they're so hardy. The Pathfinder version of the Dwarf hits all those same notes, but the effects are altered a bit because of some rules and mechanics changes that happen between 3.5 and Pathfinder. 

Now, 4th Edition Dwarves. The hardiness is there, as is the encumbrance speed, and the standard bonus to Constitution. The stability is there as well. The stonework bonuses are translated to a Dungeoneering bonus, and they are proficient with hammers. What they lack is the bonus to fighting against Goblinoids and Giants. This ability appears later in the Player's Handbook as a feat that gives a defense bonus against Giants. I'm sure the Goblinoid one is in the game somewhere, but fuck if I know where it is, I haven't perused a 4th Edition book in over a year. These stats are the same in the Essentials version of the Dwarf race as well. 

Ok, my first beef is that all Dwarves everywhere, regardless of upbringing, apparently know all things stone and metal. To the point where they can guess the value of items with some degree of skill with no education or experience whatsoever. The second beef is that Dwarven DNA apparently has some genetic predisposition to using hammers and axes to beat on things, and yet another genetic predisposition to use those axes and hammers to beat on Goblinoids and Orcs and to avoid being hit by Giants. These are not genetic traits. It's like saying Hitler wanted to throw Jews in ovens because it was in his DNA. He was born and his DNA just filled his brain with the knowledge that the Jewish people were susceptible to ovens and gas chambers and then he just woke up one morning and knew how to get them all on the trains with no planning or secret meetings with other officials of any kind. Just woke up, brushed his stache, and said, "Do this, this and this, and the evil Jews are done." and everyone related to him knew all these same things. 

Ok, that is a bit inflammatory and not a particularly good analogy. What I am saying is that I like the style of fighting against Giants as a feat available to Dwarves. Dwarves are known for that kind of thing, but not all Dwarves would necessarily know how to best fight Giants, unless they were taught it. The resistance to poison and disease and magic is a genetic thing. If you're a Dwarf, you're born with it, it isn't some secret Dwarven alchemical beer recipe that all young Dwarves get dipped in after they're born that their father quaffs after consuming the placenta. It makes sense for all Dwarves to have those abilities. If you are a Dwarf raised amongst Thri-Kreen in a massive wasteland of a desert, how the fuck do you even know what a Dwarven waraxe is or what stonework looks like and how to tell if there is some sort of architectural flaw that means there is a secret room or door? 

I dunno, it is goofy. I kind of do the same thing with some of the races in Hekinoe. What I think would be more appropriate would be going back to what I did in the first Hekinoe campaign. Instead of one trait at first level, you gain a background trait, a cultural trait, and a racial trait. Cultural traits are much more appropriate for stuff like bonuses against fighting a certain race your race has been an enemy of for ages.  Hmm, a thought occurs. If Goblins and Orcs have been fighting Dwarves as long as Dwarves have been fighting them, and Giants have been fighting them as long as Dwarves have been fighting them, wouldn't A) the Dwarf opposed race in question have come up ways of circumventing the Dwarven techniques, and B) come up with their own dirty little tricks to fight Dwarves? I dunno, it suddenly seems very odd to me that Giants don't have a fancy little ability called Dwarf Stomper where they just leap ten feet into the air to avoid a Dwarf's axe and then come down on his face with their feet.

I dunno, this is kind of nitpicking, but I feel like it is goofy. For a game where you can come up with some zany Dwarf raised by Thri-Kreen concept race to explain why your Dwarven Ranger is so hunter/prey relationship focused and likes bugs, it feels too restrictive and counter-intuitive. Wouldn't that make Survival or Nature (depending on the edition) more appropriate than Craft or Appraise checks or detecting secret doors? This example of Dwarves certainly isn't unique, all Elves are good with Bows and magic, all Gnomes like badgers, all Halfings are good with slings, all Half-Elves are tormented half breeds never fully a part of either races and constantly seek acceptance, etc, etc. 

To a certain extent, you get different cultural attributes through subraces like Whisper Gnomes and Gold Elves, and Strongheart Halfings, but now you have an entirely different race write up when all you need to says is that Dwarves raised here are probably good at fighting Goblins and Dwarves raised here are more resistant to magic because the Drow try to murder and enslave them every other day of the week. Blah blah blah. 

I dunno, just some thoughts. 

Super Heroes: Avenger Series: The Incredible, Edible (?) Hulk

My plan was to do an Iron Man post for today and life got in the way. I really wanted to put some thought and creativity in it... So, I decided to go with the Hulk. Which version? Does he "Hulk out?" The 90's version where he is always the Hulk.

The Hulk: aka: Hulk

I would make him a Green Skin Abraxen and of course focus on strength and constitution as his primary attributes. Done with all that mess...

Then comes the hard part (actually, really easy). He would be a Barbarian with two archtypes, Invulnerable Rager and Wild Rager, one which adds damage reduction and the other which can make you go into rage at random. It just seems appropriate. Focus on hand to hand combat using the Superior Unarmed Combat feat and the Unarmored Combatant feats to make him not wear armor and help with AC and the assist with damage done.

Rage powers: I would focus yet again on unarmed combat and the Brawler powers, maybe the Ground Breaker and it's improved version. The Hurler powers also seem appropriate as well as anything that helps with any type of damage reduction. We want this guy to take a beating and walk away laughing. There is one that helps and gives you fast healing after you use Renewed Vigor, which allows you to heal some damage after a rage.

But, as this is, he needs no equipment and actually, this seems to be almost it. Fairly simple.

There is also of course the Alchemist version of him, which we may explore a different day.

Mercenaries Continued: Part 4

There is still plenty to work out with this campaign concept. Jason and I had some pretty interesting discussions about how to manage the improvement of the company. My initial thought was that it be based on the average level of everyone in the company. The problem with that is that as more new members are recruited, the average level will decrease, not a big deal, as you can just say that when your company hits a level it stays that level. Jason's initial thought was that your company gains a chunk of experience from missions as well as characters and levels up using its own advancement chart. My second thought was that your company gains levels based on how much loot you have. I thought it would make sense, as mercenaries are primarily oriented towards cash and I was looking at the wealth by character level in the core book when the idea struck me. Jason actually came up with something that I liked a lot more. 

His idea revolved around a series of licenses. Like each company starts out with a basic license governing how many members they can have, what classes they can use, and so on. Then, as they make money and stuff they can buy other licenses to increase size, recruit other classes, grant them the right to possess firearms and alchemical supplies, and so on. I really like this system. It kind of offers a company a certain level of customization. You could spend all your money on gun rights and alchemical rights and have yourself a small, elite company loaded to the gills with guns and bombs. Or you could have a massive company with only a few class options and just the basic weapons. 

So, to figure out what licenses to make, I first need to have an idea as to what a basic company is allowed to be made up of. I want to start with a small amount, something like 20 characters, maybe 25. Something along those lines. There will be a restriction on classes among your mercenaries as well. No psionic classes or the Monk, obviously as they are a strongly kept secret by the Shale. I'm thinking Barbarian, Bard, Cavalier, Fighter, Magus, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Witch. I am pretty sure I'm yanking out the Druid and Ranger from my class options as the only reason I really included the Druid in the first place was so that there was a class that had access to a lot of Cleric healing spells, but the Witch has access to more and is already an arcane class. As I've said on here before, the Ranger kind of bugs me and seems like a class with multiple personality disorder. At some point here I am planning on setting my sights on a good hard review of the Scout class and I would add it to this roster of basic mercenary company classes. 

Now the classes we don't see here are the Alchemist, Gunslinger, Summoner, and Wizard. I see those as the highly restricted classes of the nobility. I don't feel like the Gunslinger should really be restricted though, but what is the point of having Gunslingers in your company if nobles will confiscate any firearms your company possesses if you don't have the proper license? So I guess Gunslinger isn't a restricted class, but firearms are. So you run the risk of having your battered firearm confiscated if the company or the character gets searched by nobles, which is going to be pretty much mandatory if you wander anywhere near the walls of a city-state, and since we're using the Emerging Guns rule in this campaign, it'll costs a few thousand gold/marks/whatever to buy a new one. Probably more, as you'd have to buy it on some sort of black market if you don't have the license for your company to possess firearms. 

Now, I am not entirely sure how I want to figure out the costs of the licenses. I don't think I want to assign specific costs to each license, instead I think I want to assign costs that scale up based on what number of licenses you have. For instance, your first license, whatever it may be, costs 250 gold, the second one costs 500, third 750, and so on. Like I said, I don't have specific costs in mind yet, but I would like the costs to scale up as you accrue more licenses. I'd also have certain licenses available only when certain prerequisites, like the license to allow Wizards into the company only be available if you do a specific job or jobs for the Wizard guilds/schools of the city-states. 

In addition to the thoughts above regarding classes, I think I have a few thoughts on restricting certain class archetypes. For instance, the Reanimator and Vivisectionist Alchemist archetypes seem like they might leave people in charge of cities and stuff with  a big frowny face, as their experiments and nature are kind of icky. I dunno, it is something I'm toying with, but I'm not entirely set on. I'm also considering making racial archetypes mandatory, but I feel like that might be too restrictive for players. It would make sense that all Shale Monks use the same archetype, as they all learned to be Monk through similar training regimes, but one of the points of Pathfinder is to build your character to your specifications, so I probably won't go that route. 

I think that's all for now. I'll probably post another one of these next Monday, maybe not though, as I feel like if I come up with any more concrete information I need to start penning a new campaign book. We'll see. 

Twenty Questions

Some guy named Jeff Rients has a blog and posted some questions on it (upwards of a year ago) to ask yourself to help build a campaign. Because I spend way too much time on r/rpg, r/Pathfinder, and r/Pathfinder_RPG (in addition to the extensiiiivvvveee amount of time I spend on r/atheism doing scholarly readings and never once venturing to r/gonewild or r/nsfw) I found the questions and decided to answer them for shits and giggles about The Known World.

1. What is the deal with my cleric's religion? 

-Ha!

2. Where can we go to buy standard equipment? 

-Pretty much any city.

3. Where can we go to get plate mail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended? 

-Pretty much any city with an armorsmith in The New Empire. Don't bring the monster though.

4. Who is the mightiest wizard in the land? 

-Nakmander's brother, though he is pretty near death at this point and has done about all he can do to extend his life.

5. Who is the greatest warrior in the land? 

-Volung.

6. Who is the richest person in the land? 

-The head of the Dwenoren banking guild of Whurent, Int Ard Ger.

7. Where can we go to get some magical healing? 

-Any Alchemist's shop and some Wizard and Sorcerer run establishments, lots of back woods Witches can help you out as well. Any similar psionic themed place of business. So every city bigger than Ye Olde Farming Community With No Soldiers But Plenty Of Gold I Mean Marks To Pay Strangers To Fight Equally Ye Olde Bandits, pretty much.

8. Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath? 

-See number seven.

9. Is there a magic guild my magic user belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells? 

-There are schools and guilds yes, but whether or not you belong to one is up to you.

10. Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC? 

-See number seven.

11. Where can I hire mercenaries? 

-Pretty much any big city.

12. Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law? 

-Sorcery is outlawed in The New Empire and The Plains of Dust. No real weapon restrictions beyond giving up your sidearms when meeting with officials though. Kusseth has a dizzying array of laws as well, but not much you'd need to know, and if you did know a law you  were about to break, I'd let you know. 

13. Which way to the nearest tavern? 

-The same direction as the closest city, on Main Street.

14. What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous? 

-None. The Known World is a 10000 year old continent, all the Here Be Dragons spots on the map got farmed for loot and rep gains ages ago.

15. Are there any wars brewing I could go fight? 

-Pretty much every nation regularly skirmishes with its neighbors. The Great Trench of the Kusseth/Whurent is pretty much a sea of shed blood though.

16. How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes? 

-Only in Vyanthnem, and to get in the games you have to be a slave, and your owner gets the prize money. There are fighting competitions in Volungshemle as well.

17. Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?

-Plenty. The Organization, The Cult of Screaming Stars, and the Rebellion of Meroteth are just a few.

18. What is there to eat around here? 

-In Kusseth, boar meat.

19. Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for? 

-Walthuler probably found it already.

20. Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure?

-See number fourteen.

On a side note, r/incest is a real thing. What the fuck Internet(s)/reddit? Seriously, you are as terrifying as you are beautiful.