How You Can (Usually) Go First During The Surprise Round

The surprise round is one of those things you don't want to be on the receiving end of. Your party might be at full power, weapons out, and ready to rumble, but after a single surprise round you can be put at a severe disadvantage by a flight of arrows from snipers, or a series of spells that change the terrain all around you. If you've been wondering how you can go first more often without playing an entire party of Sohei, diviners, and Kensai, the answer is on page 23 of Blood of the Moon.

Well son of a bitch...

Don't feel bad, most people never got their hands on the soft-cover copy of the book that introduced the skinwalker race, and provided a bunch of features to go with it (I did, because I was one of the contributors to that particular book). Page 23 introduces three feats that compliment the Fanglord, which is a skinwalker that's related to weretigers and rakshasa. The feat you're looking for is Surprising Combatant, and it provides you with a strategic advantage; as a free action made with your initiative check, you can bluff your way out of being attacked.

Suddenly Here's Why Charisma is Important

Here's how it works. If you have this feat (you don't have to be a weretiger or a Fanglord to possess it, but you should be able to explain how you did learn it if you aren't one of these creatures) you make a bluff check as part of every initiative check. Every enemy makes a sense motive check. Every enemy who fails a sense motive check doesn't regard you as part of this fight, and typically that means they'll ignore you. If all of the enemies discount you, then you may act as part of the surprise round.

They never saw it coming.

That sounds great, particularly given that sense motive isn't something most of your villains are going to have a lot of points invested in. So if you take a little time to buff your bluff by taking feats like Skill Focus or Deceitful, you're going to wind up participating in the surprise round a lot more often. With that said, a single move or standard action is only going to let you do so much in combat. This is particularly true if you are a melee combatant instead of a spellcaster.

Unless, that is, you have the 4th level ability of the rogue's Bandit archetype; Ambush.

Ambush says that whenever you act in the surprise round you may take a standard, a move, and a swift action as if it were a regular turn. Not only that, but if you're mixing and matching your rogue archetypes you can combine Thug with Bandit, making a combination that dovetails nicely.

It's Amazing What You Can Do With One Turn

How many times have you been looking at your enemies as they spring up for a surprise round and known you could end this as soon as it began if you could only act? Casting entangle on a bunch of bandits hiding in the brush, throwing an alchemist fire into the midst of a swarm before it can engulf the wizard, or putting an arrow into a spellcaster to disrupt the fireball that's about to be dropped on your head is something that will really change the course a fight could take.

Or, if you're just getting a full round all to yourself, why not get in as much sneak attack as you can with it?

Also, if you're going to be going in the surprise round then you may as well go before all the bad guys, too. Here's How To Top The Initiative Order (Almost) Every Time to help you be the fastest off the mark.

Editor's Note

It's been brought to my attention that the feat has been altered since the publication of Blood of the Moon. The errata, buried in a forum post but linked here at the D20PFSRD renders the above guide moot. However, DMs who prefer to use the original version of the feat in their games may still find this interpretation to be of use.

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The First Giant Robot Battle in History is Set For 2016!

Would you be surprised if I told you that Japan had built a giant robot with twin BB miniguns, a fully-functional heads up display, and dozens of other goodies that can be piloted by a single person? Probably not. Would you be shocked if I mentioned that America also has a giant robot, made up of a two-person crew that can fire huge paint-filled cannon rounds? Eh, unlikely.

What if I told you the Kuratas and the Mark II were going to go head-to-head next year?

This is the appropriate response.

The Mark II, manufactured by Megabots, Inc. is everything you'd expect from America. A hulking goliath at over 6 tons, it stands roughly fifteen feet tall, and boasts a huge armory that can put a lot of paintball rounds in the air at over 100 miles an hour; a fitting chassis for any mechwarrior. The Kuratas, on the other hand, is the brainchild of Suidobashi Heavy Industry, and it is technically the world's first piloted giant robot. So in a classic bout of East meets West, a throw-down was inevitable.

Megabots tossed the gauntler, and Suidobashi has picked it up. The challenge and acceptance videos are right here, and I found them thanks to The Daily What.

There's a lot of patriotic smack being talked here. Japan's response upped the ante by demanding more than machine guns at ten paces though; the Kuratas's creator wants punches to be thrown.

Ain't living in the future fantastic?


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The Risen Antipaladin (How You Can Play A Paladin In An Evil Campaign)

Like a lot of other gamers I've been hearing chuckles of wicked glee surrounding the adventure path Way of the Wicked from Fire Mountain Games (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, check it out right here). Not only is it a well-written level 1-20 campaign, but it is a game specifically geared toward evil PCs. It's a game where you get to open up that restricted door and let out the serial killers, the cultists, the brutes, the monsters, and all the other villains that lurk in your shadow's subconscious.

So naturally, that got me thinking about what I'd like to play in an evil campaign. So, when presented a chance to bring any terrifying monster I have locked up in the depths of my mind, I decided I should bring this.

The guy on the left is the one I'm talking about.

In the spirit of my entry about The Android Barbarian, I'd like to discuss my idea of the Risen Antipaladin.

The Redeemed Villain

In the long ago and far away there was a book that sensible DMs kept out of their players' hands; The Book of Exalted Deeds. That book was full of feats and spells of such holy power that they would melt the flesh from the bones of devils, and bring light to the deepest darkness of hell. In the flavor section, the book laid out the basic archetype of the redeemed villain. It is what you think it is; a character who has lived a life of bloodshed, violence, and corruption, but who has turned their back on that life to do good deeds.

The Advanced Player's Guide gave us the antipaladin as the exemplar of evil; a warrior who holds no regard for life, liberty, or the well-being of others. Terrible to behold, and powerful beyond belief, antipaladins are often made from fallen paladins... but sometimes they're not. Sometimes, as you see on page 121 of the APG, antipaladins are rigorously trained for that specific life. In some cases they may even be bred for the role that they'll be forged to fill. While an antipaladin may turn his back on the pain and horror that made him who he is, those things still live inside him. He may try to keep them at bay with prayers, and to smother them beneath the weight of good deeds, but he'll always know what he was... and what he might be again.

The Thin Line Between A Good Man, And A Bad

For Way of The Wicked you begin the game with a prison break. You're all bad guys, and so it makes sense for you to throw in together to get out of this place. Then in walks the new fish. A few weeks ago he was the empire's golden boy; a blade of light, and a shield against evil. Then it came out who he really was, and despite all the good deeds he'd done, he was locked up for the terrible crimes he could never wash out. Maybe some of the villains were arrested by him  when he was called the Hammer of Justice, and was a force for good in the empire. Maybe some of them know him better by his old names; the Bloody Knight, the Bone Burner, or the Shadowman. The right hand of the devil himself, there were some who said that as long as he did the infernal lords' bidding that he couldn't be killed by mortal weapons. That he'd fallen a hundred times, always to rise and wreck bloody vengeance on those who had caused him pain.

A man born and raised in darkness.

Could your villains truly turn down the help of such a powerful ally? Especially if, as some suspect, that his black heart beats closer to the surface than you'd think?

Blood and Bone

There are a lot of ways you can set this situation up. Long-lived characters like elves and dhampir are ideal for those who were once terrible villains, and who have tried to bury that past behind them for many years. Tieflings and aasimar have infernal and divine blood, which can add into the story of struggle to define oneself. Humans are perhaps the simplest, and as paladins (or antipaladins) they'd greatly benefit from the Eldritch Heritage feat tree (more on that feat tree in How To Power Up Your Pathfinder Characters With The Eldritch Heritage Feats).

My particular favorite for this setup is a human paladin with the Infernal eldritch heritage. You have someone who, before he was even born, was being pushed onto the left hand path, and it's only been through sheer will and refusal to let go that he's managed to hang onto the grace he's found at the end of his repentance.

You Won't Last Long Here, Friend

While it might seem like a noble struggle, in an evil campaign it's only a matter of time until your hand is forced. Sooner or later you'll wade through enough filth that your grip on grace will slip, and you'll fall. And when you fall you're going to fall very, very hard.

We're talking ALL the way down.

That sort of thing is to be expected, and it's part of the challenge of the concept. The goal is not to make it through an evil campaign while playing a paragon of virtue; the goal is to see how far you can get before you take that plunge. And if you see your fellow players sniggering and elbowing each other, planning to drag your down off that plinth before you or your story is ready, just deliver a little in-character speech that goes something like this.

"They say the Bloody Knight's blade was never dry. That he would quench that steel in whomever was near to hand at the slightest provocation. Even his own allies. He was a man who would cut the tongues from those who disagreed with him, and who would cripple those he thought less than worthy. He was a creature of suffering, torment, and agony, whom even demons groveled and sniveled before. Tell me truly, do you really want that man to be sitting here by the fire when you sleep tonight?"

You Put Down The Darkness Once... And You Can Do It Again

A fun little hat trick for this concept requires you to get your DM's assistance in one, major manner. You need to give yourself a liege lord, and take the Absolute Loyalty trait at creation. That way you get a get-out-of-falling-free card you can use once and only once to cast atonement on yourself, assuming that what you're doing is at the behest of your lord commander. The trait implies you need to do it immediately, but with storyteller permission you might be able to hold onto it until an appropriately climactic moment so that you can slam the door shut on the fiend, and return to grace.

Even if you don't go that route, though (or do something equally cheap like recruiting a cleric to cast atonement on you once you reach a high enough level), there's nothing that says you have to remain wicked. You redeemed yourself once, and you can do it again... but some situations really do call for a monster.

For more tips applicable to paladins, check out my 5 Tips For Playing Better Paladins!

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 dungeon master.

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Norse Foundry Provides The Finest in Heavy Metal Dice

It's game time. You have a cold, highly-caffeinated beverage on your left, a character sheet on your right, and the field of battle is laid out before you. You draw your weapons, but for some reason the barely-there weight of your old, familiar friends feels like it isn't making an impact. Your critical hits are mere whispers, when you wish you could hear thunder! For that, however, you will need the fate hammers forged by Gromur Dagarkin, who does his work deep in the Koltodir Mountains.

Fortunately, for those who don't have time for an epic quest, Norse Foundry has an online store!

Heavy is good. Heavy is reliable.

Facetious tones aside, everyone wants to own at least one set of table breakers. You know, for those special characters for whom nothing else will do. Norse Foundry offers you a variety of different metals, as well as gemstone dice if you'd prefer something a little more organic. No two sets are completely alike (this goes double for the dice made of Tiger Eye), and you can rest assured that you have something truly unique in your arsenal.

But My Table!

Yes, yes, one of the primary advantages to lighter weight, plastic dice is that they don't hurt the table. However, if you want to have your cake and eat it, too (or in this case use your heavy hammers without upsetting your DM), Norse Foundry also provides rolling mats and guards you can use to stop your Dice of Mass Destruction from getting out of hand.

The Nightmare pattern is ideal for DM use.

If you prefer your lightweight dice because you enjoy the artsy flick of the wrist, then more power to you. If you'd prefer to stop rolling your dice like an elf, though, go to Norse Foundry's website, and follow them on Twitter while you're at it.

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What Does Your Character Do When Not Adventuring?

We all know what our characters do when they're working. Korak the Thunderer smashes any foe that stands against him with his great, iron-studded club, roaring a challenge to any who would meet him on the battlefield. Thendril, servant of Iomede, protects her companions, raises arms against the wicked, and cares for those who are wounded in the struggle. Lemen Light-Fingers always goes unnoticed as he relieves you of your valuables, and if you're threatening his companions, of your life as well. Rend, the Father of Wolves, can channel the very furies of nature against his enemies.

So what does this party do at the end of the day? When the traps are tripped, the dragon is dead, the horde has been divvied up, and all the threats are passed... what do they do with themselves?

I cast magic missile... or something...

People are more than just their jobs, but all too often we let that be all that defines our characters. If you want to add a little depth to them, though, it's a good idea to ask what they do aside from raiding tombs, hunting bandits, or starting megalomaniacal plots to take over the world.

You Are Not Your Job

When you were a kid did you ever run into your teacher at the grocery store or at McDonald's, and your mind just tweaked because this person was in an environment you didn't associate them with? That's sort of like what happens with our characters. Our mental images are so jam-packed with brutal sword slashes, exploding words of power, and skulking thievery that we forget these characters have a lot of other moments in their lives.

Like douchebaggery.

I'll give you an example. Many years ago I was asked to join a 3.5 Shackled City campaign. The game took place in a city built inside a caldera, and every character began the game with a single trait. The one I took for my character, a half-orc who due to an accident of birth passed for human, was nightmares. He suffered from terrible night terrors, and the result was that he was immune to the fatigued condition.

So of course I was going to make a fighter/barbarian, and then slide him into frenzied berserker.

Because of Arius's terrible nightmares, and the fits of screaming that accompanied them when he was a child, he was given up to the Temple of Kord. They taught him to fight, but more than that the temple taught him how to push his body past normal limits. Despite his youth, Arius's size, strength, and ability to train when other people were sleeping made him more than a great fighter. They made him an unparalleled athlete.

I didn't plan that to be part of the character, but it showed up in an early, mostly roleplay arc where the party attends a huge festival in the city. There are swimming competitions, wrestling, performances, drinking, etc. Arius, it was soon established, had won the long jump for several years. He was unafraid to dive into any physical challenge, and he reveled in the competition. But when the drinking event came up he took water and watched. Because, as he painstakingly explained, his body was a well-oiled machine; pour that poison into it and it would take months to work all the effects out.

This was the look on the party's faces when the guy with the +7 fort save at level 1 bowed out.

The more I played the character, the more I realized Arius had a life outside of dungeon delving and adventure-seeking. He liked to exchange riddles and solve puzzles (he wasn't good at it, but he liked doing it), he paid some attention to local fashion (not much, but some), and he was a great believer in spectacle. It's why when the party was told they were going to be participating in a big ceremony, which would require dance lessons, Arius was there with bells on.

What Do You Do, And What Does It Say About You?

By examining your characters' lives beyond the scope of their heroic exploits you'll end up with rounder, more interesting PCs. For example, when he isn't off valiantly fighting the forces of evil, does your paladin volunteer at an orphanage? Why? Is it to remind him of the family he lost long ago? Is it because his devotion to duty means he'll never have children of his own? Is it because he wants to help shape the next generation by showing them someone cares about them? Does he just need something to lift his spirits after gazing so long into the abyss?

Who knows? All of them are valid interpretations depending on the character.

There are all sorts of things you can do. For example, does your orc write poetry? If so, what kind? Does he read publicly, or does he keep it shut up in a journal where no one will see? Does your sorceress like the theater? If so, does she go for the acting or for the effects? Was she ever a theatrical person herself, or is it just something she likes? Is your cleric a fan of chariot races? Does the bard love gladiatorial bouts, even though he's well aware they're at least partly fake? Does your wizard like to garden?

I could keep asking you these questions all day long, but here's an easy way to think about it. If you were going to create a dating profile for your character, what would you fill in for all those miscellaneous sections? Would you talk about your experiences as a bounty hunter, and about how strong or fast you are, or would you instead focus on the more personal aspects? Do you want kids (or have them), do you have a religion, do you smoke, do you drink, and what are those six things you simply could not do without?

All right... what are the other three?

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"I Hit It With My Axe" Is How Porn Stars Play DND

When you hear the words "Dungeons and Dragons," what's the first thing that comes to your mind? It probably isn't "porn stars," unless you either read the title of this blog entry, or you're already a fan of I Hit It With My Axe. The reality show, currently featured on The Escapist, recorded a campaign played by Mandy Morbid, Kimberly Kane, Satine Phoenix, and several of their friends whose professions include exotic dancing, pin-up modeling, and (in one case) hairdressing. There's over 30 episodes of the show, and it features a variety of special guests, including noted adult film star Sasha Grey in the debut episode.

Don't pretend you need this picture to know who I'm talking about.

So what is I Hit It With My Axe like? Well, it's an engaging show about a group of gamers playing a campaign. Some of the players are fresh, some have been playing for years, and generally speaking the game has about the mix of goof-off, bad jokes, demands for snacks, and spurting blood you'd expect from your average DND campaign.

What, you were expecting giggles, sanitized couches, and lingerie parties? If that's the case, move along. If, on the other hand, you're curious to know more then check out this brief interview Geekscape did with Satine Phoenix about the show at Comic Con several years back.

I don't know about you, but I'm a fan.

Editor's Note

It appears that the show has broken from The Escapist. A fuller explanation of the reasons for the split can be found at the blog DND With Pornstars. Efforts to continue the show in another location which fits with the ethics of all participants is ongoing, and if you want to keep up with the crew's progress go and Like their Facebook page.

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How To Power Up Your Pathfinder Characters With The Eldritch Heritage Feats

One of the biggest differences between Pathfinder's sorcerers and those found in previous editions of Dungeons and Dragons was the idea of bloodline. In Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 and 3.5 sorcerers were assumed to be descended from an obscure magical lineage, which was most often draconic in nature, that allowed them to use magic spontaneously. Pathfinder decided to take that core concept and supercharge it, which is why we have dozens of different sources for where sorcerers' magic comes from. In addition to a specific heredity, though, sorcerers also gained bonus feats, bonus spells, bonus skills, and thematically appropriate bloodline powers around levels 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, and 20.

Mileage may vary.

What didn't change with sorcerers, though, is that they still have low hit points, and they still can't wear armor. This makes some bloodline powers, like the draconic bloodline's claws or the boreal bloodline's ability to give weapons the frost property for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your sorcerer level, thematically appropriate but practically useless.

Unless, that is, you decide to give them to a more martially-inclined class.

Eldritch Heritage

The eldritch heritage feats (eldritch heritage, improved eldritch heritage, and greater eldritch heritage, on pages 149 and 152 of Ultimate Magic respectively) allow any character, regardless of class to gain bloodline powers. If you take all three feats (which will require playing till at least 17th level), then you can gain up to the 15th level powers from any single bloodline.

So what good does that do me?

So you get a minor feature of the sorcerer class, big deal, right? Well, as with any other mechanical trick you need to look at all your options in order to come up with a long-term goal that will make your character more effective.

For example, let's say you wanted to utilize the most basic power of the serpentine bloodline (Advanced Player's Guide 139). This power gives you fangs that you can use as a natural weapon to deal 1d4 points of damage, and to deliver a poison which does constitution damage, and whose save is equal to 10 + 1/2 your sorcerer level + your constitution modifier. The fangs are eventually considered magical for overcoming DR, and your poison grows more potent the more levels you gain. This kind of ability isn't that big of a deal for a sorcerer, but what if you gave that ability to a barbarian with the brutal pugilist archetype, who also had abilities like Raging Grapple? Perhaps a wrestler from Sargava whose ropy muscles are ideal for wrapping around enemies before sinking his fangs into their necks, quickly draining their constitutions and leaving them unable to continue the fight?

There are dozens of combinations of class and powers you can create to boost your mechanical performance, as well as adding intriguing elements to your character's backstory. For example, a Kellid fighter with an eldritch heritage from the nanite bloodline (Pathfinder Player Companion: People of The River) gains powerful bonuses from the nanotechnology living inside of him, but did that same heritage get him cast out from his tribe for bearing the mark of the machines? A druid with the verdant bloodline gains a useful ability to disarm or trip enemies using a 15-foot vine, bonuses against sleep and poison, along with being treated as if they're wearing a ring of sustenance, which would give the character an otherworldliness as she snacks on fresh air and sunlight. A philosophical assassin who comes from the starsoul bloodline would be able to use gas weapons without risking harm to himself, or he could exist in a void such as the space inside a bag of holding without problem (which would allow companions, or even bestial familiars, to carry the assassin past human guards to infiltrate a target's home base).

Cautions and Costs

Nothing comes for free, and the eldritch heritage feats are no exception. They require you to take skill focus in the skill associated with a bloodline, and they have a steadily increasing charisma requirement that can be problematic for some class combinations. So you need to keep in mind that the bigger the power you want from the bloodline, the higher your charisma will have to be, and the more feat slots you'll need to take up.

All right, let's break this down...

Put another way, if you want to get the most bang for your buck out of these feats you should look for low-power ones that will naturally grow with your character level (the serpentine bloodline's poison is a perfect example of a power you get with one feat, but which keeps growing as your character level advances), or to combine them with classes that get other benefits from having a high charisma.

For example, a paladin with infernal heritage is both intriguing as hell (so to speak), and it provides a nice dovetail. Paladins gain a huge number of benefits from having a high charisma, and the infernal heritage provides the paladin with a debuff touch attack, poison and fire resistance, and if you make it all the way to 17th level, you can gain the ability to call down hellfire or to grow devil wings and fly. So if you're going to be using your charisma (swashbucklers, Mysterious Stranger gunslingers, oracles, bards, and any other dashing character classes... including sorcerers who want more bloodline powers), then you're already on the right path.

Half-elves are also a swanky choice, as you get that free skill focus feat out of the deal.

These feats won't be ideal for all classes/builds, and they won't be ideal for every campaign. For example, you might take rakshasa heritage to increase your bluff, but if most of your game is spent slogging through zombie fights then you aren't going to find that silver tongue very useful. If you take a fire heritage, but find yourself fighting demons at the Worldwound, then you're going to have an impossible time making those powers punch through your opponent's resistances.

Now that you've had your warnings, go forth, and create terrible combinations where your character's parents are more than just a convenient reason to adventure in the name of revenge!

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