Consider Using Unexpected Origins For Your Character's Skills

In the first World War, the design of grenades was altered to better fit the hand and skills of American troops. After all, they reasoned, what fit more naturally into the hand of an American than a grenade shaped like a baseball? It was the national pasttime, after all, so it would provide troops with something that felt familiar, and which they should already know how to throw with both speed and accuracy.

When designing your character, consider whether there have been instances like this in their life. Did they train for one skill or task, only to find that the muscle memory, power, etc., translated particularly well to a another skill set entirely?

After chopping trees, chopping men is easy.

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Sideways Training

It is often surprising how seemingly unrelated experiences, professions, and skills can synergize. For example, someone used to clearing trees with a woodcutting ax may find their skills and experience translates quite well to a battle ax; and because the woodsman's ax is heavier they can strike more quickly, and with greater force and accuracy. Someone who made their living hunting animals in the wild might find those same skills allow them to track the passage of men, making them an excellent bounty hunter, or even a detective with the city watch. Even someone who's primary training was as an actor or a performer might find that, while flashy, their skills definitely have a use in the field.

I'm just saying, I've ridden in over a hundred tourneys... facing orcs should be easy.

While there's nothing wrong with characters who are specifically trained for the roles they currently fill, whether it's career soldiers who have now become sellswords or wizards serving as ataches to their arcane institutions in the field, it can sometimes be interesting to see what other skill sets translate into useful skills and abilities that one could bring to the table.

Whether it's an illusionist who primarily used their magic to create immersive creatures and effects for stage plays before joining the Band of The Iron Hand, or a locksmith whose gone freelance to help the Green Vipers break into a secured vault, sometimes we pick up our skills unexpectedly, or even a circus knife thrower who puts their skills to deadly use against a goblin threat, these are the sorts of origin stories that can really grab people's attention around the table. So take a moment, and consider this option if you're looking for a unique twist on your next character.

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Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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"Well-Rounded" Rarely Works in Pathfinder

There is a desire among a lot of players (and particularly among newer players) to try to build a character that's "well-rounded" when they sit down at a Pathfinder table. They want to put a skill point into Handle Animal, for example, or they want to take 2-3 different classes just so they "have options" when it comes to what they can and can't do in game.

And I get that urge. I do. However, I would like to try to save my fellow players as much frustration as possible, since I had to learn this lesson the hard way over several campaigns between 3.5 and Pathfinder. That is, in short, that the game does not, generally speaking, reward spreading your resources wider and thinner. That's why you have a party.

No one is meant to be able to do everything on their own.

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Increased Challenge Requires Focus To Succeed

As anyone who has played Pathfinder can tell you, as the game proceeds, everything about it gets harder. The difficulty checks for skills get higher, the armor class for enemies goes up, enemy saving throws get better, and so on, and so forth. So while you can sometimes succeed at lower levels with nothing more than a good roll and a higher-than-average attribute, that isn't going to cut it past level 4-5. After that you need to start stacking bonuses from various sources if you expect to succeed.

I put one rank in Intimidate... I should still be able to do this, right?

As an example, say you want your barbarian to be able to move around silently. They're a hunter, after all, so you put a skill rank into Stealth. That's not an inherently bad idea... however, a Stealth check is always going to be opposed by an enemy's Perception roll. And at lower levels that's often going to be a toss up as to whether they hear/see you or not. But if you just leave that one rank in Stealth? Or if you didn't make it a class skill by taking an appropriate background trait? And if there are no magic items, spells, etc. giving it a boost? Well, at level one having a +4 to Stealth means you've got a decent shot of not being seen or heard if you roll well. At level 8 or 10, that +4 to Stealth is nowhere near as good when your opponent has a +12 or more to their Perception score.

You can apply this to a lot of different aspects of the game. For example, identifying monsters and their abilities is a Knowledge roll, but that difficulty goes up with the monster's CR. Intimidating a creature gets harder the more hit dice they have. Traps get more difficult to bypass, spells become harder to resist, enemies get more difficult to hit, and they gain more and more hit points.

So if you want this thing you're putting resources into to be something your character is actually going to succeed at, you need to make the necessary investment to pull it off.

In short, Pathfinder is a game that rewards focused builds. You should be good at more than one thing, but generally speaking any given character is going to have a small handful of things they can be really, truly good at that they should expect to succeed at more often than not. And if you're good at a particular thing, there's a trade off for it elsewhere. It's why full casters don't get a full base attack bonus, it's why skill monkey builds tend to have lower hit points, and so on, and so forth.

End of The Day, You're All Part of a Team

The logic behind this structure is that a party is assembled with the intention that you're all filling necessary roles, and covering certain tasks. For example, the barbarian is here to tank damage, dish out the harshness, Intimidate the enemy (or those who annoy them in social situations), and perhaps one other sub-specialty depending on resources and expenditures. The paladin is here to fight evil foes, but they can also act as a diplomat during social situations due to their class skills and necessary attributes. The wizard is here to provide arcane insight, and to use their spells to provide solutions for their comrades. The rogue is the one capable of disabling magical traps, spotting ambushes, and doing Stealth reconnaissance.

Swap the roles around as your build sees fit.

Now, while the examples given are the stereotypical roles for these character classes, one of the great advantages of Pathfinder is that it gives you a lot of flexibility in which classes can be made to fit which roles. For example, you could make a long-ranged, Stealth-based paladin who can sneak around and provide fire support, while also smiting demons. You could make a rogue who favors a greatclub over daggers, and who runs in bellowing a battle cry when initiative is rolled, dealing out damage on par with many fighters. You can make a bard who's just as adept at dealing with dungeon crawls as a rogue, or a wizard who focuses their skill set on diplomacy and social skills.

However, even when you step outside of class stereotypes, you still have to deal with the fact that every character regardless of the class or classes they take levels in, has a set amount of resources. They only have so many skill points to distribute, so many feats to take, and so much gold to buy magic items with. And if you spread them around to a bunch of disparate, unconnected skills or abilities, then you're going to find that you aren't keeping pace with the challenges you're facing.

Everyone Gets a Turn

A common issue a lot of players run into is they want to be able to participate (if not to shine) in every, single situation. However, Pathfinder is a game where a lot of the time players need to work together to assist one another, handing off the spotlight as one character's skill set comes into focus. Those with Knowledge skills are the ones who discover lore and shout out a monster's weaknesses, those with melee skill engage the enemy to keep them back from their allies, spellcasters utilize their magic to end threats, etc.

While you can build a character to be effective at nearly any task you set, as a lot of people have pointed out, unless you want to keep investing in that ability as you level (increasing your skill ranks, increasing your caster level, increasing your combat prowess, etc.) you are going to fall behind until something you were reliably good at in the start of the game is something that will require a natural 20 to succeed by the time your level hits double digits.

In Other News...

For those who've been following my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age RPG setting, a completely new installment dropped today! This month we take a break from exploring the physical locations we saw in the Cities of Sundara series, with Gods of Sundara, a book that delves into the metaphysical workings of this setting, and what makes it different from more traditional DND and Pathfinder settings.

It only gets stranger from here on out.

For those who haven't been tuned-in, though, Sundara has done away with alignment completely and utterly. There is no divinely mandated good and evil... but this also means there are no angels, no demons, no devils, and so on, and so forth. There is also no huge nexus of the planes as we're used to seeing... there is only the physical, material world and the strange, impossible realm of the Prim beyond it. The place where all magic is drawn from, which is also the realm of the gods. And in Sundara there is not one pantheon, but many, with faiths and religions often unknowingly venerating different Masks of the same god.

So if you'd like to see a more organic take on the development of faiths and deities, or you'd just like to see what tieflings and aasimar were replaced with in this setting, pick up your copy of Gods of Sundara for Pathfinder, or Gods of Sundara for DND 5th Edition today!

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That's all for this week's Crunch topic! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio! Or if you'd like to read some of my books, like my alley cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well! And if you'd like to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little bit of help can go a long way, trust me on that one.

DMs, Provide Options For Characters With "Useless" Skills (in Pathfinder)

Skill checks are some of the most common rolls we make in our games, and generally speaking if a player invests points into a skill it means they intend to use it as part of their character. However, too often DMs will just ignore the variety of options, and ask for the same basic checks over and over again. With a bit of creativity, though, you can bring some of the oddball abilities people don't typically think about into the game, and make the players who invested in them feel vindicated in their choices.

Well, the message seems clear, but the double meaning could be the key to this whole thing...

Appraise, Linguistics, Sense Motive, and More!

There are some skills that get all of the attention when it comes to a Pathfinder game. Perception checks are legion, for example, and Bluff, Diplomacy, Stealth, and Acrobatics checks tend to be made pretty often as well. Intimidate checks, too, if you're sassy or have class features that rely on demoralizing opponents in combat.

But when was the last time you heard a DM call for an Appraise check? Or a Linguistics check? Or when someone actually used Sense Motive for something other than giving the rogue the hairy eyeball?

I'm watching you, knife boy.

However, all of these skills have rather specific uses that can be incorporated into a game, if you read the fine print on what you can do with them. The difficulty is that many of us who sit in the big chair tend to skim this section, and it's a real missed opportunity for our players.

As an example, it's possible for someone who has a solid Appraise skill to tell you the approximate value of an item, sure, but you can also discern if the item is magical or not. It won't tell you a magic item's properties, but if the dwarven craftsman and the half-elf sorcerer put their heads together, suddenly you've turned what was a boring bit of bookkeeping into a team effort to yield some impressive results. You could treat the successful Appraise check as granting a small bonus to the caster who's trying to figure out what the item does through Spellcraft, as well, as it's something of a clue as to the potency of the magic when you know what it might go for on the open market.

Or if you'd prefer someone roll a Knowledge (History) check on an item, perhaps the person with Appraise could get some of the information. They may not know precisely why this style of weapon is so valuable, but that maker's mark, unique crossguard, and the pattern of waves in the steel always goes far above market price. Maybe they've heard it was the product of a dead master smith, or because the blade never needs to be sharpened, and it can cut through steel like butter.

Can't say for sure, but I know a guy would give us half his year's take for that thing.

Similarly overlooked skills could come into play in interesting ways just by reading their alternative uses, and asking how that might play into your plot. Because yes, Sense Motive helps you tell when someone is lying, and it's used to activate certain potent feats, but it can also be used to intercept secret messages being passed with the Bluff skill. So whether the players are having a meeting with the local thieves' guild rep who's trying to tell his second-in-command to poison the party's tea, or the party is trying to figure out who the assassins at the duke's party are, this could give them a clue as to what's happening.

As with most skill checks, it shouldn't be the only way for the party to get clued-in to the plot, but if the monk who took this skill solely because it's necessary for his fighting style feats gets a chance to shine with it out of combat, so much the better!

Linguistics is a skill most players only take to speak more languages, but it can also be used to create and spot forged documents, as well as to translate hidden meanings in old or cryptic writing. So if you've got a puzzle that needs to be deciphered, or the bard really needs the proper passes with notarized seals to pull off the lie that he's a knight errant in the city on official business with his retinue, then whoever invested in this skill can make sure the party has all the props and information it needs. Those with ranks in the Profession skill know all the basic things about their profession, and they can answer questions without even making a roll... which is why they would be the first to notice if the "soldiers" at the door, or the supposed "sailors" on the diplomat's boat are sending up red flags. Use Magic Device can be used to activate wands and scrolls, sure, but it can also be used to trick an item into believing you have a certain stat, a particular alignment, or even that you're a member of a particular race, which might allow the overly curious rogue to dope out what the enchanted robe responds to so the party can figure out what it's for.

Know What Your Party Can Do (And Include It)

While you have a lot to balance as a DM, it's important to know what your party is actually capable of when you're setting them their challenges. Otherwise you're liable to get blind-sided when your big bad bosses get creamed in two shots because you forgot how smite worked, or when the supposedly simple encounter ends up crippling the party because you overlooked the fact that they can't repair ability damage.

Crap... ugh... walk it off?

The same is true for their skills. While you don't need to have your players' sheets memorized, you should know roughly which skills are at your table, and which ones aren't.

The other thing I would recommend is that you show your players how these skills can be used; either by asking for checks in these lesser-used skills at lower levels when the DCs aren't as tough, or showing how they could be beneficial through NPC interactions. Because if a player knows that their slightly oddball choice of Profession: Chef or Linguistics might be an important addition to the party, they'll be a lot more likely to put it on their sheet.

And, even more importantly, they'll remember your table for being a game where they were asked to roll something other than Perception, Initiative, and saving throws.

Need More Resources?

It's not easy being a DM. If you've been looking for some resources that will do some of the heavy lifting for you, then the following might be useful for you.

- 100 Random Oracular Pronouncements: Coming up with mystical-sounding pseudo-prophecies on the fly is a feat that can sprain your creativity. Best to have a few picked out beforehand!

- 100 Encounters in a Fey Forest: Speaking of encounters that are more than just combat, this list of oddball, strange, and potentially dangerous encounters is full of strange creatures, weird riddles, and moving clearings. There's also a 100 Random Encounters For On The Road Or In The Wilderness, if you need something to shake up the status quo. Both of these are written for Pathfinder, but there are 5th Edition versions, too.

- 100 Merchants to Encounter: The folks most likely to demonstrate the uses of Appraise, or even Use Magic Device, merchants sometimes become samey background characters. This collection has 100 strange, unique, and unusual folks, from fey peddlers on the road, the black market poison dealers, to those odd wizards who deal in lightly cursed goods.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed, and if you've used run these kinds of games before, leave us a comment to let us know what worked for you!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

The Best Zombie Game I Ever Played (Where Nothing Happened)

Thanks to the holiday happenings, my gaming schedule has been all up in the air recently. Because of that, one of the fellows at my table volunteered to run us through a kind of introductory one-shot for a game I've often admired, but never actually gotten to play... All Flesh Must Be Eaten!

Because zombies never really go away, do they?

The experience I had with this system was fast, fun, engaging, and in this case enough to make me plan to add more of it to my future gaming schedule. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Small Town Evacuation

The game opens in a lowercase "c" Midwestern city; the sort of place that's not quite big enough to be a suburb of a place like New York or Chicago, but which still has a sizable population. The zombies have been steadily growing, but worse than the walking dead are all the other accidents and breakdowns that have been straining the local government at the seams. Keeping people safe is important, but so is providing medical care, finding food, putting out fires, and evacuating the living so the military can come handle the undead infestation.

Which is, of course, when things go awry.

The protagonists seated round the table have become part of the local safe zone established by a task force of national guard, police, and relief workers. A former furniture outlet, the fencing keeps the undead at bay... or has for the past week or so. One of the residents, a Samoan dancer and occasional biker named Leilani has been trying to figure out her next move in this situation. A recent friend she's made is a huge man named Otis, who fixed cars before this all went down, but who is a little lost without his medications and his strict schedule. Lastly, Richard Freeman, an African American firefighter who's been pulling doubles ever since this mess started to prevent his city from burning down.

It's just as one of the engines are dropping off supplies when the unthinkable happens... the fences come down, and the living dead start shambling into the compound!

While the hoses get turned on the horde to slow them down, and small arms fire cuts into the walking corpses, everyone else gets pushed out the rear exit. The area behind the outlet is still clear, and people are scattering. Some of them just run, terrified now that their safety net is gone. Others are trying to figure out where to go, but seem too afraid to stop moving. These three find themselves clustered around a table with maps, and where a radio is broadcasting a public service message.

Residents must get out of the city in the next 24 hours. At that point the armed forces will arrive, and they will begin exterminating the threat. For their own safety, residents need to follow the approved routes to an extraction point. The three of them look at each other, look at the maps, and that's when Richard says, "All right... we'd better hoof our asses over to the hospital."

The Easy Way, or The Hard Way?

Looking at the maps, Otis frowns, nodding to himself as he traces a route with his finger. "This goes right by where I work," he said. "There might be a car there we could borrow?"

With the ruckus going on in the building getting louder, Richard nods, and Otis leads the way down a side street just as the pounding on the doors starts to reverberate. By the time the zombies make it out into the rear of the former warehouse, though, their quarry is several blocks away, out of sight, and hustling along as quietly as they can.

Those weren't there when I left...

They found the auto garage where Otis works (or worked, it's hard to tell) in fairly short order. Tucked off the main roads, the place only has two bays, and a small lot of cars that need to be repaired, as well as a few repo tows. The front door's glass has been smashed in, but Otis unlocked the door with his key, and they stepped inside.

The first thing they smelled was blood. Stepping carefully around the desk, they found the manager on the floor, a gun in his hand, and a hole in his head. Trying to shield Otis from the sight, Richard checked the pistol, then handed it to Leilani when she said she knew how to use it. Otis stepped into the back office, a little shaken, but looking for keys. Sadly, it looked like all the readily drivable cars were gone, and only a few of the ones who needed repairs were still there.

They could get them working, but it would take time.

With the daylight fading, and everyone trying to get to the extraction zones, it wasn't worth the time to wait. The hospital was only a few miles from where they were, and if they cut through the smaller living area of town they could save some time. Even if it meant jumping a few fences.

Stop For Supplies?

While the cadre ducked down side streets that didn't have a lot of traffic, keeping their eyes on windows, and making sure their profiles were small, they opted to duck through a small strip mall. There was a pawn shop and sporting goods store on one end, and a drugstore at the other. With the daylight fading, they had some choices to make.

Well, at least looters aren't gonna eat you.

The drug store was open, the power out. After a quick listen, and a fast check to be sure there weren't any trigger-happy shoppers or shambling horrors, Leilani and Richard split up and snatched the things they were likely going to need; medicine, batteries, bandages, some hand tools, some dense packs of protein bars, water, and a few hefty backpacks to carry them all in. Otis offered to help carry, but he grabbed a couple of comic books for when he got somewhere safe again.

The shopping trip done, they were passing the sporting goods store when they heard the siren's song of weapons. Baseball bats, helmets, reinforced gloves, rifles, handguns... all of it was right there. Provided they could get inside, of course. Richard was looking for the place to kick, when the light inside caught his eye; the emergency power was on. A backup generator meant that the alarm would go as soon as the door got smashed in, or any damage occurred to the wired windows. Leilani took a turn all the same, trying to persuade the locks to open. She had no dice, though, and when something around the corner bumped into a trash can, they didn't stick around to see what was sneaking up their back trail. They were only three quarters of a mile from the hospital, and if they got a move on they might be able to get out of town sooner rather than later.

It's Quiet... A Little TOO Quiet...

Guys... you think that sign's for us?

 As they approached the hospital, the sun was just dipping below the horizon. Up on the roof they could see a helicopter coming in for a landing, the blades just starting to slow. Down on the ground there were half a dozen squad cars with their bubble lights going... but no cops in sight. Not a one. Leaning into a car, Richard checked the radio. Nothing. No one answered signals, and nothing appeared to be going out. Popping the trunk, he found a riot vest, a shotgun, and a brace of shells. Taking a moment to slip into the kevlar, Leilani did a quick circle of the perimeter... all was quiet outside, and nothing was moving inside. As far as she could see, anyway.

Opting to go in through the side entrance for the ER, they found the doors juttering, and the floors covered in blood. Puddles of it were dark and stagnant in the waiting room, but sodden streaks went down the hallways. Quietly checking the directory map with a penlight, Richard traced the route they needed to take to get to the stairwell. It should go straight up to the roof, right to the whirlybird, which was where they needed to be.

So they ran.

They were about halfway down the hallway when the zombies who'd been just out of sight in the nurses' station heard them, and started to give chase. As their pounding footfalls rounded the corner, other heads began to lean into the corridor. EMTs and police officers, teenagers and soccer moms, all turned by the hungry dead came after them with the snuffling, shuffling, hungry snarls of monsters from a nightmare.

They made the stairwell half a hall ahead of the horde, and Richard paused just long enough to chock the door with an ax blade before they started up the stairs. The zombies managed to break through, but it bought the cadre enough time to get a few floors head start. While there were other snarls and grunts coming from the other hallways through the open emergency doors, they were far away, and not a problem at the moment. Panting, Otis hit the rooftop door hard, the three of them bounding out into the night. The chopper pilot, halfway through a smoke, jumped when he saw them.

"Get us in the air!" Richard bellowed at him. Before the door had time to close, Richard and Otis both grabbed a heavy equipment rack, straining with their backs and shoulders. It rocked, then toppled, hundreds of pounds ramming against the door. The zombies were pushing and scrabbling, but before they could get the door open more than an inch the three survivors were into the chopper, and heading out into the night sky.

Not A Single Combat Roll (Which Suited Us Fine)

While I've heard a lot of stories about All Flesh games that were high-octane runs through blasted cityscapes, or last stands against armies of enemies as parties of diehard survivors fight for their lives, this particular game did something very special for me as a player... it rewarded the smart choices of the group.

Ah ha... I see what you did there. Very well.

The fellow running this game went through all of our choices, and pulled back the curtain on what would have happened had we done things differently. Firstly, by sticking around the starting area to grab maps and listen to the broadcast, we figured out where we needed to go, and how we needed to get there. And we booked it fast enough to avoid a combat. Then, when we went to the garage, we didn't waste time going into the back lot, or digging around in the bays, where we might have run into additional dangers. When we hit the strip mall we kept things fast and quiet, and we didn't smash open any windows, or trigger any alarms that would have quickly summoned a few squads of curious zombies wondering what all the racket was. We chose not to go right into the main lobby of the hospital (more of a lucky choice than anything else), and instead of crawling through the bloody hallways we just went for the goal before the enemy could shake themselves up to react.

At first he was apologetic that he hadn't just forced encounters, but we'd made all the smart moves, and he didn't want to punish us for sidestepping the threats in what was supposed to be a survival game. However, as I said at the time, I felt far more accomplished for outsmarting the challenges and getting to the destination in one piece than I ever would have felt for just fighting my way through a huge pack of zombies just because.

I might be unique in that, but it's something I wish more DMs would keep in mind; if your party is making the smart moves, don't punish them for it... just keep things tense with skill checks and atmosphere, and let them see just how far they can push their luck!

Next Time on Table Talk!

This week we had a bit of a break, but next time we should be back to the Sandpoint Companions, and their adventures in the Runeforge! So, make sure you come back for the next installment of Table Talk!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archives, as well as the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio where I help out from time to time. Or, to check out books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, as well as on Pinterest where I'm building all sorts of boards dedicated to my books, RPG supplements, and greatest hits. Lastly, to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little donation can have a big impact.

The Self-Taught Wizard

The man was a road map of the lost places of the world, and the esoteric traditions of a dozen different nations. The Guardian Eyes of Nafresh were tattooed across the backs of his hands, and Porshari enchanter's beads encircled his left wrist. The delicate, intricate lines of a demon warder of the Korgar wastes ran along his forearms. The sacred sun of Vishtopol stood out blue and bright in the center of his chest, revealed by his loose robe.

"All my teachers are long dead," he said, without looking up from the grimoire he was perusing. "But they await any with the courage to open their long-dead pages, and the wit to learn the lessons they laid down."

He closed the book, glancing at the burn scars along his fingertips. He rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, frowning at the lack of feeling in them. "Of course, sometimes it's more error than trial. Always start small... that's my advice."

And make absolutely sure you get your designs right.

Mastering The Magic of The Mind

When most of us think of wizards, we tend to think of them as projects of magical academies or universities. In some cases they may have been taught as an apprentice by a master. However, a wizard doesn't require an outside force in order to access the secrets of magic. They don't have to be born with the proper bloodline, or exposed to some bizarre event to unlock their true potential; they just have to be intelligent enough to understand the rituals and theory behind arcane magic.

That is, by no means, an easy task. However, anyone gifted with a naturally high Intelligence score who's willing to study, plan, and who can grasp the higher calling may find that magic's mystery unspools before them, waiting only for their mind to grasp it.

That's a major reason I included it in my 10 Backgrounds For Your Spellcasters list when it came out a little bit ago.

I highly recommend checking it out, if you haven't yet.

 

What makes self-taught wizards so unique, as a concept, is that they can bring together disparate traditions and styles, or even invent their own ways of performing existing magic. One of the easiest ways to think about these wizards is to compare them to self-taught musicians or artists. Some of them learn through imitation, grasping the basics of the art through trial and error, and then adding their own flares and signature styles in. Others may simply mimic a traditional art form, following in the same steps of discovery as the old masters along a similar path of enlightenment.

And some self-taught wizards will take the disparate elements of arcane traditions and styles, mixing them together into a blend that traditionalists decry as sacrilege, but which gets results. Since self-taught wizards often lack an indoctrination to unlearn, and tend not to be picky about what established schools they draw their power from.

A self-taught wizard might be something akin to a chaos magician, blending elements that seem contradictory. They might invoke the names of divine or infernal powers from one nation, combining them with the rhythmic chanting of a totally separate country, and then mix it with a dead language that pre-dates both of the other elements. Alternatively, a self-taught wizard might keep all of the different traditions in their own neat little boxes, switching from one to another as the situation requires. Just like how a concert pianist might also be a talented violinist who happens to enjoy freestyle rap battles, there's nothing that confines a self-taught wizard's skills or style except the limits of their minds, and the agility of their creativity.

For folks who are looking for more character concepts and advice, you might find 5 Tips For Playing Better Wizards a good place to start! It's in my 5 Tips archive, along with dozens of other pieces of advice for classes, races, and other character and story aspects to help get you thinking outside the box.

Also, if you want to find some magic books to peruse for interesting tidbits to add to your self-taught caster's repertoire, then A Baker's Dozen of Enchanted Volumes might be right up your alley!

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That's all for this installment of Unusual Character Concepts. Hopefully this one gave you something to chew over, whether you're a player, or a game master.

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my alley cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my most recent collection of short stories The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Players, Remember, Just Because You CAN Doesn't Mean You SHOULD

When you're playing an RPG, it can sometimes feel like you have nearly absolute freedom. You can be almost anyone, and do practically anything as long as its in accordance with the rules. If you want to play a grumpy, aging gnome barbarian who constantly thwacks people with his walker, that's totally an option! If you want to play a burgeoning elven sorcerer, a peppy halfling warlock, or a sour knight who's just here for the paycheck, there is nothing standing in your way.

Honor and glory? More like dental and retirement benefits.

The same thing applies to actions you take in the game world. Do you want to sneak into the goblin encampment and spirit away the treasure from right under the sentries' noses? Do you want to blast the oncoming horde of ogre warriors with fire and lightning? Do you want to broker a peace treaty between the orcs and the farmsteads, creating a mutually beneficial arrangement that will strengthen the community?

You can certainly try to do any of these things. And if you've got lucky dice, along with a good DM, you can probably pull them off.

However, a lot of the time players can take that freedom a step too far. So before you go haring off into the wilderness, I'd like to ask all the folks out there to keep something in mind when tinkering with the engine; just because something is a legal, mechanical option, that doesn't mean you should pursue it.

Ask How This Benefits You, And Your Concept?

While it's all fine and good to talk about favoring story and roleplaying over mechanics, the facts are that you're still playing a game, and a game has rules. There are going to be certain decisions that make your character better at some things, and worse at others. And while it's true that you don't need to have a completely optimized character to have fun with them, it is important to understand the consequences your choices can have when it comes to your character, and their abilities.

Example time!

 

All right, let's say you're playing Pathfinder Classic, and you want to put together a dwarven sorcerer. You know that a sorcerer's magic is derived from their Charisma, and that as a race dwarves take a -2 to that score. So even if you roll top stats, the best you can manage to start with is a 16. With point buy, you're going to wind up with a lot less, unless you're willing to tank all your other attributes.

Now, do you need an inhumanly high Charisma score to play an effective sorcerer? No, but as I mentioned in No One Wins When You Build A Stupid Wizard, the game's rules are written with the assumption that you're building your characters to be good at things. Having a middling casting stat might not remove your use entirely, but it is going to leave you feeling frustrated when you can't get your enemies to fail their saving throws, or when you don't have access to higher-level spells despite your level (assuming you haven't been able to boost your attributes high enough to cast spells of that level by the time you gain access to them).

These are the challenges you face, and it's your job as a player to figure out how to deal with these challenges. Now, the easy solution is to just play a different race, but that isn't exactly necessary. For example, the Empyreal bloodline allows your sorcerer to cast off of Wisdom rather than Charisma, which is a score dwarves actually get a bonus to. This gives you all the power and benefits of an ideal stat, and lets you keep the class/race combo you started out with. Alternatively, your character could also be an aasimar descended from dwarves, giving them a dwarven appearance but with the traits of these native outsiders (something that cropped up quite a lot in 100 Unusual Aasimar, for those who are interested), which includes a +2 to Charisma as well as a +2 to Wisdom. Or you could stick with a standard dwarven sorcerer, and focus on spells that don't rely on your Charisma modifier for their effectiveness. Spells that buff and protect your allies, for example, rather than a blaster focused on damaging foes.

Wait... what were we talking about?

 

The overall point is that your actions have consequences in an RPG. If your PC starts a fight with the bouncer in the tavern, a possible result is that they get the crap beaten out of them by the retired monk, and the party gets evicted from the bar. And if you choose to squander your resources, or to invest in abilities that just aren't going to be that helpful, the result is often that your character becomes more of a hindrance than a help to their fellow party members.

What Are You Going To Do With It, Once You Have It?

A perfect example of mixing two things because you can comes up when players try out multiclassing. Certain classes just work well together, and offer a lot of synergy. Rogue/barbarian is one of my favorites from 5 Barbarian Multiclass Concepts Your Table Won't See Coming, since your abilities neatly play into each other. A paladin with a dip into swashbuckler can be quite powerful, since both classes rely on a high Charisma score, and you can even get some mileage out of combining ranger and fighter to boost your combat prowess.

Other class combinations though... well, they don't really work out all that well.

The druid/bard just... wasn't thought through all that well.

 

As an example of this, consider the wizard/monk. Can you do this? Sure, but what does it get you? The monk already needs a high Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom score (barring focusing entirely on Dexterity for attacks, combat maneuvers, etc.), and now you're going to add in a need for a high Intelligence as well? Wizards get a very slow base attack bonus progression, and monks are on a less-than-full advancement path to begin with. You lose out on spell progression, and don't really gain any useful abilities to make up for what you're losing. And you're stuck with a lawful alignment to boot.

So what you end up with is sort of a mess that becomes less and less able to tackle the challenges appropriate to their level. Especially when you consider that a wizard who takes the feats Eschew Materials and Improved Unarmed Strike, and leads a life of contemplation and training could have the air of a monk (as well as the fashion sense of one), and still be a much more effective character. You could even flavor your somatic components as full-body kata, if you wanted, and make it into a big, esoteric tradition of warrior mages. There's even an unarmed magus archetype that would play into this style, if you did want to punch things with magic. Either option gives you all the aesthetic, with none of the mechanical drawbacks that the aforementioned multiclassing would stick you with.

Mastery of transmutation comes with many side benefits.

 

Whatever resource you're spending, whether it's feats, skill points, class levels, etc., you should always ask yourself what you're going to do with it. How is it going to benefit your character, and the party? Because the fighter taking the feat Exotic Weapon Proficiency to wield a bastard sword in one hand so they can use a shield in the other makes total sense. A magus doing the same thing, allowing them to use the huge blade to deliver spellstrikes also make total sense. But what does the wizard gain from doing that? Or the monk? What do you get from putting a handful of points into Sleight of Hand, or Handle Animal, when that task never once falls to you?

Can you do these things? Of course you can, they're legal under the game rules. But before you do, ask yourself what you're going to do with the resources you just spent. How do they impact your character, and what will they add to your repertoire? Because a barbarian who can identify spells is useful, and a druid with contacts in the city's underworld can be an asset... but a paladin who spent points so they could weave baskets really isn't going to help barring an extremely unlikely crafting challenge from the Prince of the Sixth Circle.

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That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed, and if you've used run these kinds of games before, leave us a comment to let us know what worked for you!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal and Gamers archives, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Any Class Can Be A Knight (More Thoughts on Outside-The-Box Character Presentation)

Something I've repeated time and time again on this blog is that your character class is just a word that describes a certain package of skills your character possesses. Those skills and abilities are neutral regarding your story, provided your story in no way goes against the description of your skills.

What does that mean in plain English? Well, just because your character is a monk, that doesn't mean you are required to play a fantasy Shaolin monk, or even have studied at a monastery. You could just as easily be a member of an elite group of soldiers rigorously trained in secret fighting techniques. You could be a defender of nature, tapping into the flow of the green's energy all around you to accomplish superhuman tasks by borrowing the powers of dangerous beasts (the self-healing of a lizard, the leap of a monkey, the stunning speed of a viper, etc., etc.). Hell, you could just be a back-alley bruiser who, through a lifetime of breaking bones and busting heads, has stumbled upon a kind of strange, violent zen that makes you more dangerous than any berserker.

None of this is new from me, and if you read my old piece What's In A Name? How Your Character's Class is Limiting Your Creativity, you've probably heard this song before. And if you've seen my article 5 Tips For Playing Better Monks, then you might not be surprised by my example paragraph. However, there is a question I see time and time again on the groups I hang out on that I want to talk about. Something that I think could yield some truly legendary characters if we stopped and gave it some thought.

"What's the best character class for a knight?"

Depends... what do you want to play?

My answer to this question, and one that's gotten both push back and enthusiasm in almost equal measure, is simple; any class.

Have You Read Any Arthurian Lore?

As has been pointed out by memes no-doubt created by literature majors, the Knights of The Round Table were more than just a group of men trained to the sword and the lance. They were, in short, the front line of one of the most batshit anime teams you've ever seen.

We all know Lancelot, and the fact that as long as he kept his vows that he had the strength of ten men. That isn't an exaggeration, either; we're talking some Samson level destructive capacity, here. But what about some of the others?

Seriously, we NEED a series (or at least a comic) about this nonsense.

Take Sir Kay, for instance. You might remember him as Arthur's foster brother, and all-around bully in The Sword in The Stone. While later legends stated he was a braggart and occasional fool, Kay also possessed a heart of ice that made him immune to fear. He could go nine days and nine nights without the need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe, and at will he could grow to the height of the tallest tree. Or what about his companion, Sir Bedivere? A man who was perfectly handsome but for his one missing hand, who killed men by the hundreds, and who was Arthur's butler and the steward of the royal court? Two lesser-known knights, Sir Marrok and Sir Gorlagon were both goddamn werewolves!

The list goes on and on.

But That's Not What I Meant!

One of the most common responses from the push back side of this conversation is that these players or DMs have a specific, unspoken set of skills their knight concept must possess. They're looking for a mounted warrior capable of using a wide variety of weapons, and moving about freely in heavy armor.

However, that isn't necessarily a knight. Ringo Starr is a knight, for god's sake.

Just in case you thought I was leaving the bards out of this.

You don't have to be a particular character class to be a knight, anymore than you need to be a specific class to be a priest, or a noble. Hell, the Blackbriar and Stonejaw families in my Baker's Dozen of Noble Families have just as many barbarians and druids in them as they do any other character class.

The reason why is simple; the words we're using to describe these concepts are not directly connected to the skill list of a character class. Anyone can be born into a noble family, or raised to noble status by a monarch. Anyone, once ordained, can be a priest regardless of any connection (or lack thereof) to the divine. Anyone can be a knight, as long as they're tapped on the shoulder and given their honor.

Because sure, a canny fighter who comported themselves with honor on the battlefield might be knighted. A squire might be raised to the position of knight after years of training and hard-fought battles... but why would a kingdom in a fantasy world not have evokers who were knights? Or warrior monks whose intense regimen and training made them ideal bodyguards in a room where no weapons were permitted? Or even warlocks or magi, who blend steel and sorcery into a single, deadly art form?

There's no doubt that, "Figure on horse in heavy armor with socketed lance," is definitely a (and I hate this term) realistic description of a historical knight. But our history is kind of irrelevant if we're playing in a fantasy realm that is not, and has never been, Earth.

So the next time you sit down to make a knight, you can make the stereotypical elite warrior who also acts as a lord and defender of the realm. But you're making a character in a fantasy world... why wouldn't that world embrace other options? Even if it's just a side step into playing a barbarian knight whose strength doubles when battle is joined, roaring so loudly they cow their opponents and growing thrice their normal size?

Because that kind of character also has their roots in the traditional myths that we're playing with. But if you want the best class options for a mounted warrior, or a melee specialist who wears heavy armor, then that is what you should ask for advice about. Because those things, at least, are directly connected to a class's skill set.

And if you're looking for some truly unusual knightly orders, from the mourning colors of the Grave Wardens to the mismatched finery of the Dishonorable Fellows of The Black Standard, then you might want to take a look at my recently-released 100 Knightly Orders from Azukail Games!

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That's all for this week's Fluff installment. Hopefully it got some creative wheels out there turning!

If you'd like to see more of my work, check out my Vocal and Gamers archive, as well as the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio! Or, if you're in a mood to pick up some new fiction, you could jump over to My Amazon Author Page to grab one of my books... like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife!

To stay on top of all my updates, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter! And if you'd like to support me, consider leaving me a tip by Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. Every little bit helps me keep making content just like this!

Tips On Using Bluff and Diplomacy in Combat (For Pathfinder)

When it comes to combat, the first thing that goes out the window are you social skills. Because now's not the time for talking, it's the time for fighting! Because unless you're trying to feint your enemy to catch them off-guard, or scare them with intimidation, this isn't the area to wield your silver tongue in.

Or is it?

Parley? Sorry, we don't speak coward!

As you've probably guessed by the title, there are a few ways you can turn a high Diplomacy or Bluff check into a viable battlefield weapon. I've gathered some of the ones I think are more useful, and presented them here. This list is likely not a complete one, though, so if I missed something you think deserves to be included here, please put it in the comments along with a source link or book and page reference.

Also, if you're more of an Intimidate specialist, I'd recommend check out How To Weaponize Your Intimidate Check in Pathfinder as well as the character build post The Bullyboy.

Bluffing Your Way To Victory

The most common way for someone to use Bluff in combat (other than feinting to deny an opponent their Dexterity modifier to their armor class) is by taking the Taunt feat. This feat requires you to be Small-sized, but it lets you swap Bluff for Intimidate when demoralizing your foes. It's particularly great because size doesn't matter in this case, allowing you to smack-talk giants without penalty. Ideal for bards who can maintain their music while demoralizing the enemy, helping allies and hurting foes in a single turn.

If you're not on the small side, though, there's also the feat Empty Threats. This one requires you have at least 5 ranks of Bluff, but it allows you to do pretty much the same thing as Taunt. It also has specific language that lets you use Bluff in place of Intimidate for the Dazzling Display feat, and any feat that requires Dazzling Display as a prerequisite. If you use Bluff in that way, though, then you can't use it to feint until the beginning of your next turn.

Fair trade off, I'd say.

If you're a spellcaster, it's also possible for you to take Conceal Spell. This feat is rather exhaustive, and requires you to have Bluff or Disguise, in addition to Sleight of Hand if you want to hide the fact that you're casting a spell, or using a spell-like ability. That last one is important, because it opens this feat to classes like kineticists, or to aasimar who take feats to expand their spell-like abilities. It does lengthen the casting time, and there is a chance the enemy will notice what you did with a Perception or Sense Motive check, but if they fail then they can't take an attack of opportunity on you, readied actions won't go off, and unless the effect emanates directly from you, there's no way to link you to the spell. Overall, a pretty intensive feat in terms of resources, but it's the answer to the constant question of, "How do I cast this spell without anyone knowing it was me?"

And it doesn't require you to jack up the spell level with Silent Spell and Still Spell.

You could also take Spell Bluff, if you're just looking for a way to get a leg up over casters who try to counter you (or to get a bonus against other casters who try the fake you out with what spell they're slinging). Not as useful if there are no wizards' duels going on, but worth keeping in mind.

Diplomacy In Battle

Diplomacy, as a rule, is a skill that takes time to work. If you're gathering information with it, it will take hours. If you're trying to convince someone to see things you're way, you have to give them a mini TED talk explaining what you're right. So, as a combat ability, it has truly limited efficacy.

Even with the right feats.

With that said, Call Truce is probably the biggest whammy you can pull off using Diplomacy in combat. The way this feat works is that you make a Diplomacy check, treating it as if you were casting a full-round action spell. You can't be wielding a weapon, or anything that might be considered threatening when you do this. You also have to be in plain sight. If no one on your side attacks an enemy or does anything threatening, you make a single check with a DC equal to 30 + the highest Charisma modifier of the enemy group. If you succeed, combat ceases for one minute, or until someone on the opposing side is attacked or threatened.

This can still go sideways if you attempt to use Call Truce as a ruse. Enemies receive a Sense Motive check to determine if you're calling a truce in order to gain an advantage. Additionally, if your enemies are fanatics, if they're clearly winning, or if they have a temporary advantage that will expire once the truce is called (short-term enchantments, for example), then the DM can declare that your attempt out-and-out fails.

However, if you've been looking for a way to just get those last few, scared bandits to put down their bows and talk with you, this is an ideal way to make that happen.

Another option, for the bastards out there, is the Betrayer feat. This feat allows you to butter someone up before combat, and if you manage to move their attitude along the path toward friendly, then you can make a single attack as an immediate action. If you got the target to friendly or better with your check, they're considered flat-footed against your attack, and take a -2 penalty to their Initiative if they survive. An ideal feat for assassins, cutthroats, and those who prefer seduction as an appetizer.

Lastly, there's the feat Urban Tracker. While not strictly combat-oriented, it struck me as useful in its own, specific way. Essentially it allows you to make Diplomacy checks to track people across an urban environment, rather than Survival checks. This pretty much requires you to be playing an urban game, but if you are, this is something that can help you find even the most elusive quarry.

Step Outside The Box

Remember, combat has a lot of different angles and strategies you can explore. And if you're a largely skill-focused character who's been looking to put some of those skills to use outside of RP-based challenges, I hope this guide helped. As always, remember, some enemies are too dumb, too inured, or just too inhuman for skills to work. Which is why you should have something heavy you can hit them with if you can't talk them down... like that barbarian you keep under glass for occasions just like this one.

That's all for this month's Crunch installment. Hopefully there are some skill monkeys out there who are coming up with new concepts as we speak. If you'd like to see more of my work (and particularly more gaming articles) check out my Vocal archive, or head over to the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio where I help out with DM advice, player tips, and occasional comedy. If you want to stay on top of all my latest releases, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you want to help support my work, then head to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to drop some change in my tip jar, or Buy Me a Ko-Fi. Either way, I'll be happy to give you my eternal gratitude, and some sweet gaming swag!

Don't NERF Skills in Pathfinder (Instead, Try Using The Rest of The Rules)

I don't know how many times I've been on a Facebook group, or a subreddit, and seen a DM asking for advice on how to deal with player characters with "overdeveloped" skills. Perception is probably the most common complaint, but Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidation sometimes get a bad rep for being easily "broken" in a game. These DMs are always asking how they can maintain their game's challenge when one player (or all of them) have taken it upon themselves to buff their skills until they shine, and they are unsurpassed in the execution of this one task.

The answer is pretty simple. Crack the book, and read how skills work in their entirety, instead of just the basics of how a check functions.

Seriously, guys, you make this a LOT harder on yourselves than you need to.

The Book Already Has The Balance You're Looking For

As I said way back in my post Operator Error is The Biggest Cause of Problems in RPGs, most of the problems DMs have behind the screen come from gaps in their knowledge about how aspects of the game actually work. For skills, most of us never move beyond the DC 10 for a simple task, DC 15 for a difficult one, and DC 25 or 30 for a nearly impossible one. However, that scale is only part of how skills work in Pathfinder.

Let's start with Perception, since it gets the most hate, and seems to cause the most problems. The most common use of Perception is to counter either a Stealth check, or to notice someone using Sleight of Hand. However, it is also used to locate traps, with the base DC of 20 for mechanical traps, and 25 + the highest spell level for magical traps.

Some traps have lower locate DCs than others.

Now, if you're a DM who is constantly frustrated that your party always finds your traps, locates your ambushes, or stumbles across your secret doors, you need to ask yourself two questions. One, why are you annoyed that your players are succeeding, using the resources they invested into their characters? Two, are you actually applying any of the appropriate negatives to the situation according to the chart on page 102?

You see, Perception is not just about the DC; it's also about the conditions you're using it in. Bad conditions? That's a +2 to the DC. +5 for terrible conditions. Distance? It's +1 for every 10 feet away the character is. If the creature making the check is distracted, that's a +5 to the check. Hearing something through a closed door is also a +5. It's +10 per foot of thickness to perceive something through a wall. It's a +20 if something is invisible, and then there is the question of whether the person making the check can see in the dark, can see in dim light, or if they understand what they're hearing.

All of that is a built-in feature of the game, and it's expected you're actually applying those negatives to situations where PCs are making Perception checks.

The other major problem I find is DMs who aren't actually running a skill the way it's listed in the book, and as such are making it more powerful than it should be. Intimidate and Diplomacy are the best examples. When you demoralize a creature in combat (one of the most common uses of Intimidate) the DC you have to beat is 10 + target's hit dice + the target's Wisdom modifier. So, while it's possible for you to Intimidate the dragon, you had better have Skill Focus, a racial bonus, a favored class modifier, a trait bonus, an equipment bonus, and roll above a 15 if you expect to demoralize that thing for even 1 round. It is not a roll-off of your Intimidate versus the target's Sense Motive (a skill most monsters don't even have most of the time, which would practically guarantee your success).

Then there's the creature's attitude. You see, it's entirely possible to use Diplomacy to change a creature's attitude toward you... but you can only move them 2 steps along the chart. So, if a creature has a hostile attitude toward you, the absolute best you can hope for with a Diplomacy check is to shift it to indifferent. And that means you need to make a check that beats the check of 25 + creature's Charisma modifier by 5 or more. So, at minimum, you need to hit a 30 just to make them not care one way or another.

But what about friendly creatures? Well, friendly is often misconstrued as, "I won the check, so now they do what I want." That isn't how that works. If you manage to change a creature's attitude toward you to friendly, either using Intimidate or Diplomacy, that creature doesn't immediately become a pawn under your control. It becomes "friendly," which means it will treat you as a friend. Depending on what you want, the DC will also go up (such as a +10 increase to the DC for giving dangerous aid, or a +15 or more for aid that could result in punishment). And if you use Intimidate rather than Diplomacy to make a creature friendly toward you? Well, that's a short-lived victory. It's also only really good for interrogations, since it only lasts for 1d6 X 10 minutes, after which the target treats you as unfriendly, and is likely to do things like report you to the town guard.

Don't Take Away Their Victories (But Don't Make Them Easy)

Pathfinder is a rules-dense game, and that means it's entirely possible to go through a whole campaign without touching on big sections of the rule book. But when you're a DM, and your players want to use those rules, it behooves you to learn them, and to run them with all the positive and negative aspects they're listed with. Because while it's entirely possible for the half-orc rogue to terrify a prisoner into submission in order to find out how many men are inside the bandit stronghold, or for the ranger to hear a twig snag as ambushers approach the camp while he's dead asleep, it's important to remember those aren't flat DCs. Sometimes it's easier for a character to succeed on those endeavors, and sometimes it's harder. Especially because natural 20s are not a guaranteed success on skill checks, by the rules.

However, while a DM might lament that someone in their party regularly hits checks in the 40s by level 10, take a moment to stop and ask what they had to do in order to get those numbers. How many feat slots, skill points, attribute bumps, traits, items, class features, and even spell slots are they dedicating to making sure they have the ability to spot ambushes with eagle-eyed clarity, or to fast-talk their way past all but the most astute guards. Just like barbarians with brutal attack numbers, or wizards who always seem to have just the right spell for a situation, don't punish the player for properly investing their resources to make effective characters.

Just make sure they're following the rules, and that they understand some situations are more difficult to overcome than others. Not because you're arbitrarily changing the rules, but because the rules were built with that difficulty curve in mind.

That's all for this week's Crunch post. Hopefully it helps both frustrated DMs, and players who have been wanting to go a little more in-depth with their skills. If you want to keep up-to-date on all my latest releases, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. And if you'd like to help fund me and my blog so I can keep bringing you posts just like this, then head over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. All it takes is $1 a month to make a big difference to me, and it gets you all kinds of sweet swag just for being a patron.