A Quick Thought on Domain Spells in 3.x/Pathfinder 1e

 I have a handful of posts I'm currently writing in draft, but I thought of this at work the other night and it's been in my head a fair amount.

The original thought came as this question: Was it the original intention of the designers of D&D 3rd Edition that DMs would assign domain spells, instead of players choosing them?

To which some might say, "No, idiot. You get domain abilities in addition to the spells." Which is fine, but I don't feel like they need be mutually exclusive concepts. Access to domains is granted by every deity to every Cleric that worships them. A Cleric character can choose two domains to represent the aspects of the deity they vibe with that grant slight abilities such as activated bonuses on saving throws against certain effects or weapon proficiencies, minor elemental attacks, or a feat, for example. Each domain has a list of thematic spells implied to be especially granted to the Cleric due to their special bond with their deity.

My proposal: Each Cleric chooses two domains to represent the parts of their deity's portfolio they most associate with, gaining the domain abilities for those, as normal. The DM assigns a domain spell of each spell level available to the Cleric from any domains the deity has access to when the character prays for their spells. Domain spell slots cannot be manipulated as currency for class features or other abilities and can never be left open for later memorization.

This means that a 5th level Cleric of Corellon Larethian prays for their spells and the DM assigns their 1st-3rd level domain spells, which could be from any of Chaos, Elf, Good, Magic, Pride, Protection, or War domains of the appropriate level. I know, it's more work on the DM, but not much, and could be a great tool for foreshadowing; "Why was my character granted Nystul's Undetectable Aura?" You could mix them up and assign them randomly, or in a rigid pattern of repeat, depending on the alignment of the character's god. That could make planning fun. "I'll be able to Dispel an additional time in three days, if we can wait to strike the wizard's tower then."

Anyway, a quick thought. I might implement it. Anyone out there have thoughts?

To Siege, Or Not To Siege? That Is The Question!

As I spoke of in yesterday's post, one of the ideas put forth by the group to settle the matters happening in Bugbear Falls was to put an elite strike team (them) in the city, and have a force besiege to create a distraction, letting them have easier access to the inner bailey, and thus, the keep.

Now, I'm not one to hinder my player's options, so if that's what they want to do, and they come up with the means to do it, then more power to them! However, one thing that I am, is inexperienced with running anything like a siege.

I have, in the past, ran sessions that included mass numbers of combatants/troops, but those were ran with large-ish skirmishes instead of actually running military-like confrontations, with squads, battalions, etc.

I've tentatively looked into the rules presented for mass combat in the Miniatures Handbook and in Heroes of Battle, but need to read further to fully grasp what they entail. I also have a copy of 2nd Edition's Combat & Tactics, but something in the back of my mind is telling me that that way lies only complexity. Having said that, and though I am running a d20 based game, I am certainly willing to look at other system's rules or suggestions for mass combat/sieges.

Maybe there's something out there, perhaps even something I own, that I'm overlooking.

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends...

As mentioned in the previous post, tonight we played my Pathfinder Wilderlands game, and the group was debating more about entering the temple/how to approach it.

During this exchange, at a point when everyone was analyzing their reasonings for going in, Taylor announced that Borash was going to pray to Gorum to see if an attack on the temple and it's outer guardians (Lizardfolk and Khumat) would be fruitful.

As Borash is played as a combat cleric, I knew that Taylor didn't have any divination spells other than orisons memorized, and also that he didn't have any open spell slots which he could fill on the fly, so I "Said Yes," which in this instance meant that I let him drop a 2nd level spell slot to cast Augury, which gives the caster an insight into the outcome of one event, giving the possible answers of Weal, Woe, Weal and Woe, or no answer at all.

I liked the decision, Taylor was in, and dropped one of Borash's memorized spells, and ended up with the outcome Weal and Woe, and was happy with the result, as it was pretty much as he figured.

I know from experience that Divination spells can seriously start to put a cramp on a campaign, but in this instance, I saw no harm in letting him seek guidance from his deity, and I would definitely be open to more situations that might crop up on the fly like this, where I hand the players a freebie just because.

Now, I don't want it being abused, and the potential is there. Let's say I want to include this in my games as something that can be accomplished with semi-regularity, at the least. How do I approach it mechanically? I made Taylor drop one of Borash's 2nd level spells...should I also knock out a Channel Energy? A number of Channel Energys egual to spell level? It's definitely stuff to think about.

Also, I want something similar to be within reach of all classes, not just clerics. Let's say Steve wants Jadazh to seek the advice of Asmodeus (or, more likely, one of his servants,) how would he go about this? Draw up a contract written in blood stating the terms of use of the information? What if David wants to have Chas seek the secrets to a particular door out in the forest, or insight into the manufacture of the definitive pattern of a plate harness...what then?

The mechanic doesn't need to punish or tax the PCs too much, because I want to keep the effects minor, and who knows, I might never allow it again, or keep it as an on-the-fly thing with no mechanics. I'm just brainstorming at this point.

If anyone has any ideas, feel free to comment.

Combat Sans Battlemat and Intricacies of Simplification

Yeah! That sounds like the title of someone's thesis or something, but this post won't be as dry as the title suggests...

As stated in the title, I've been running combat without a battlemat in my Wilderlands campaign. I chose to do this for multiple reasons, the least of which being that it eases play for me. Without the map present, I'm able to make quick judgment calls on flanking, difficult terrain, distances, etc..

This makes combat quite a bit faster than it normally would be, since nobody really has to count squares, move their mini, recount for distance to get modifiers to range, and so forth. Any questions can be asked on the fly, and everyone at the table is intelligent enough to make adjustments and ask for more detail, if needed. There is also the fact that I don't have to draw a map, which I think is one of the biggest problems that miniature/tactical combat has when it comes to time.

In our experience so far, there have been only minor hiccups as the players (who are used to battlemats) adjust to having to imagine their combat areas and remember conditions of the field, and not have a quick reference to look at. It's running fairly smoothly and we're able to fit more into our game sessions because of it.

In any case where I can make simplifications, I certainly try, and I've taken to heart the mantra of "Say Yes or roll the dice," that has been prevalent in what used to be the OSR.

Do I think that Pathfinder, as a whole, is a simpler system-fix than 3.5 was to 3rd? No, but there is quite a bit of streamlining that I can work with to make the actual mechanical elements of gameplay cause as little friction to the flow of the game as possible.

I, admittedly, don't have anything solid to add to that, because right now, I'm learning, too. I'm considering the changes Paizo has made, taking in all the fascinating rules that are out there in the blogosphere, talking with anyone I can about my game, and even looking at non-Pathfinder/3.x games and systems to see what I can use to make my game easier.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want a simpler rules system. If I wanted something simpler, I think I'd be running Labyrinth Lord or Moldvay Basic (since it's what I own...I'm told Mentzer's edit is better, but *shrugs*.) It's nothing like that. I love 3.x, and what Pathfinder has done with it. I like the complexity of rules that it offers, and the customization I can achieve with it. Nobody can convince me of system dominance at this point.

No, what I want is to perhaps tweak what rules I do use to create just a little more transparency. More on this to come, but I have some prep to do right now, as tonight I run my Wilderlands!

Giving Steve A Fair Shake

Sounds dirty!

I wanted to touch on something else that happened last Wilderlands session, where I think there was a bit more miscommunication, and it was all on my end, and I wanted to clear it up and apologize to Steve openly.

During the exchange with the Bog Giants, Steve declared that one of his hirelings was going to try to get the monster's attention so his comrades could get away, and sacrifice himself in the process. I didn't have a problem with that...the noble self-sacrifice of a person so that the many may live is just good storytelling.

The thing I did have issue with is that Steve picked the poor schmuck that was unlucky enough to have 2 starting hp. True, this guy's down for the count in one hit from most things, but Steve chose the guy simply for his hp total, and could give me no other reason...then in frustration rolled randomly and got the dude with the highest, who subsequently did die.

I didn't want to force Steve to choose another hireling, I wanted to force a roleplay reason for the puny guy to be chosen, not a gamist reason. This was selfish of me, I admit, but I'm trying to also teach better roleplay through actions.

The way I was looking at it, Steve could have said "this guy does it because he feels he's the weakest," or "the other hirelings plead with him, knowing that he'll eventually slow them down at times, anyway," or even "I order him to stand his ground to make good the escape of the others." Jadazh is a staunch follower of Asmodeus, after all, and part of the wording of his hireling's agreement is "until the end of our lives," with no clause explaining HOW they have to die.

That's all I wanted in the game. Didn't mean for it to become a "deal," though...in hindsight, I was saying the wrong things to make my point. So, sorry Steve! Now you know what I meant.

Have a great night, everyone.

A Few More Things on My Current Game...

A few things popped into my mind as I was reading back over my two previous posts, and I thought I might as well hit them real quick in a post, as well.

First is something that happened last session. A slight misunderstanding that could have ended much worse than it did.

When the Bog Giants began their attack by hurling stones, it was communicated to me that everyone began paddling their rafts "towards shore." Those are the words that were told to me repeatedly, not "towards the opposite shore," simply towards shore.

Since this was first communicated to me by Taylor, I assumed "towards the fight," because that's normally how he plays Borash. When David and Steve both gave me similar calls on their rafts, I also assumed that the party was going to try to rout this small group of giants. Things didn't quite work out that way...

There wasn't a tpk or anything, but I still wonder why, after the fact, everyone seemed somewhat harsh about the judgement call. They still had opportunity to run away, obviously, and they didn't stand and fight longer than they knew they could, so I really don't know what to say.

I made the joking comment that if things are left vague, I will rule in my favor. That isn't true, but I will rule in what way I feel best encompasses what the party would do. I don't feel I unnecessarily placed the characters at risk in context of that judgement. That's why being concise pays off in D&D.

Anyway, it seemed to make some people grumpy. I felt I made the right call given the information I was given.

Also, I wanted to mention that the "Keep" has a name, but almost no one who lives in or travels to the area uses it, instead calling the place "The Falls" or "Bugbear Falls" after a nearby landmark, a waterfall - surprise, surprise!

Soon, I'll be talking about house rules I use/plan to adopt in the Wilderlands campaign, some of the reasons I've decided to put options on the chopping block, the restrictions of magic item bloat, as well as talking some about Taylor's ongoing homebrew in which I play, and possibly some non-D&D stuff. Who knows!

High Heresy!

Even though that extra guy didn't show, we still were able to get some playing in, albeit late because I'm an idiot and couldn't come up with a good plot after Kristy broke the game with her psyker...and I kid, anyway. Psykers aren't broken. The fault lay with the Rules As Written by FFG for opposed rolls.

In the aftermath, I decided that I would homerule that opposed rolls cancelled out each other's degrees of success, if any. If anyone can point me to the rules for opposed rolls that cover them, then I would concede to the rulings, if they are better in practice than the homeruling.

The situation started much as it had ended last week, with our intrepid heroes, save for Amethyst, all imprisoned still in the bowels of the Ordos Calixian compound. Amethyst, in the aftermath of her single-handed ability to put the heretic Dorian Hesdus and one of his lackeys down, and subsequently arrest the progress of what appeared to be a breakout, was awarded with the right to personally sit-in on the torturing of Hesdus.

During one such event, all the lights in the compound went down and the locks of the cells and torture rooms the others were in went ablaze with runes that said "Magenta Clearance Override" then "Go" as soon as their personal shackles were loosed. None of the troupe dare give a second thought to the help and rushed out of their cells, and started to take stock of the situation.

Hesdus, who was being tortured, then began to fight against his interrogator and Amethyst, who quickly threw up "Forget Me," and he did...trying then to help her escape from the room he was being held in because he had no clue who she was and why she was there.

Meanwhile, opposition had come in the form of Inquisitorial storm troopers (10) and combat servitors (2), half of each blocking both exits out of the detention hall, in a fierce gunfight that so far has seen no casualties.

When we left off, the fight was still raging at both ends of the hall and Hesdus has just emerged from the chamber he was in. When the others see Amethyst, how will they then react to this person who, Jericho at least, has seen and knows as "the enemy?"

Dark Days of Imprisonment

Not me, but the characters in my Dark Heresy game.

The massive leviathan of a ship that carried Mkoll, Sadis, Akareon, Jorn, Barl-Tok, and Gallus finally arrived at Scintilla to await their trial at the hands of the Inquisition. Our "heroes" were tossed into cells and summarily tortured daily in hopes of coaxing a confession from them to the tune of them being heretics, which none in the group (as known to the two who are currently active from the old group) confessed to.

As they were led in, however, Sadis and Mkoll spotted someone familiar to them in the form of Reth, Justin's old PC, and the psyker who had become Hesdus' adjutant. This seemed strange to the acolytes, but also brought hope that their trials here either would be...postponed, or they wouldn't make it til the trials. One or the other. Either way, probably fairer than some of the Big I's best "interrogation experts" could dish out.

Here is also where I introduced Kristy's new character...a sanctioned psyker by the name of Amethyst, who was, while the Inquisitor who she is seconded to was busy and their ship underwent repairs, had been assigned to assist in the interrogation and torture of prisoners.

This is where things got interesting, as almost every time I made a roll for a psyker, 9s came up. Anyone not familiar with Dark Heresy out there will want to know that rolling a 9 causes a brief lapse in order, or a peek of Chaos, however you want to look at it. Either way, it can, and did on more than one occasion, have truly dire consequences. Like when Reth was in, about to administer help and begin the breakout sequences of the game, he rolled a 9, then a 95. Perils of the Warp...ok, maybe this won't be so bad...then BAM! 100 on the Perils chart. Reth was eaten by the realm of Chaos right before Sadis' and his torturer's eyes, causing a deal of corruption and insanity amongst them. Similar instances plagued the time they were being held, and that's when the big dogs came in.

Hesdus had gotten into the rows where his acolytes were being held/tortured and started to shake things up himself. He burst through a door, where Amethyst happened to be assisting the torture of Gallus, and blew the head off the interrogator and then threatened the psyker, demanding the release of Gallus. When she, instead of doing as told, attempted to manifest a power, Hesdus took a shot at her, aiming for to maim, but missed her leg entirely, then tried to regain composure and made another threat, trying to pass off the miss as a purposeful error. This only made Kristy roll better, apparently, and she got the power off (Boil Blood), and due to the horrible nature of opposed rolls in Dark Heresy, took down a fairly high rank Cleric without getting winded, having surpassed him by 1 over what she needed.

Sadis and Mkoll could hear the gunshots from the bolt pistol rounds Hesdus was unleashing, but were strapped fast to their chairs and could do nothing but heckle their captors. Sadis was able to successfully piss his psyker off and he tried to Bio-Lightning the purple hued scum, but was unable to manifest the power, being utterly flustered by the irritation caused by the hiver and his blather. Mkoll, however, ended up being affected in the long term by his psychic predations with an overbearing hatred for psykers. Go figure...right when one enters the game as a PC...

Right after Amethyst drops Hesdus and starts to break for it to warn others, the doors at the end of the hall blow open, digging shrapnel in deep into the panicked psyker's armor and throwing her to the ground in time to see a grizzled man step through with gun raised. This one was Jericho, George's character, and an assassin who had "come up missing" and in question by the party right before the bulk of them were arrested and sentenced to tribunal before the Ordos Calixis.

Kristy kept to the trick that worked and immediately took the Assassin down with Blood Boil, showing him what for just as easily as she had Hesdus.

The game was called then. I admit, I was at a loss at what to do, having seen how easily a psyker took down 2 fairly powerful characters in the span of just a few turns and turning the jail break-ish plot to mush before all our eyes.

It's back to the drawing board before next week. We're supposed to be getting a new player, so hopefully I can tie him in to everything happening easily enough and then we'll see.

Also, I need to research opposed rolls more in the game. The way they stand, RAW, is way too lopsided to me. You would think there would be some adjustment, like subtracting degrees of success from those the winner of the contest gets to lessen the effect. It makes lots of things really, really deadly or otherwise difficult to achieve as is.