DM Tools: GLOG Initiative Tents!

Tis' the season to laugh at folly, 

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Ah, it's that time of the year, and since the most wonderful time of the year quickly approaches, I figured I'd present my gift to all of you. Initiative Tents! We all like those, right? Anyways, I made a neat little document that you can download HERE.

So Sexy.

Don't Know What an Initiative Tent is?

Basically, you fold it down the center so that it can hang over your screen, alternatively, if you don't use a screen, you can just place it in front of your dice. The side that faces the players displays a picture either drawn by them, or printed off and stuck on there. The side facing you displays the following information to help you keep track of player info:

1. Ability Scores: located on the left side.

2. Hit Points: located in the upper right corner.

3. Character and Player Names: the two lines in the lower right corner, so you know who it is from   

    your side.

4. Attack: to the right of strength.

5. Defense: to the right of dexterity.

6. Stealth: to the right of constitution.

7. Move: to the right of intelligence.

8. Initiative: to the right of wisdom.

9. Save: to the right of charisma.

It's sort of like a mini character sheet, except for you.

If you have any problems, let me know in the comments so I can fix them.

Realism: Better Weapons

Do any of us like realism in our RPGs? I know I do, that's why I'm writing this, a post that fixes weapons in RPGs, because I think they suck.

Within each of these categories are specific weapons, they deal different types of damage, and sometimes have abilities.

Daggers

First things first, daggers are not main weapons, actually, neither are swords, but we'll get to that later. I'd put them at 1d6 damage like they are in any other system, except they provoke an attack if the target is not prone. That way you can still use them, but it at least holds the obvious danger that close-quarters fighting would hold. Also, any light bludgeoning weapons would never have enough force to deal lethal damage, so there's also that.

Types

Rondel Dagger: Damage: piercing, +1 to hit vs. plate armor.

Stiletto: Damage: piercing, slashing.
Baton: Damage: bludgeoning, nonlethal.

Swords (Also Axes and Hammers)

Swords were only really used by themselves in duels or as civilian self-defense. A peasant probably won't have a sword, but anyone else will. Something to clear up, because maybe a lot of you know this, but maybe not. Long swords were strictly two-handed weapons. If you want a weapon that could be one or two-handed, that would be a hand-and-a-half, or bastard sword, a one-handed sword would be known as an arming sword. But keep in mind, they were all just called "swords".

As far as axes and hammers go, they were weapons used in the past, but they weren't the massive two-sided things we picture them as, they generally had small heads, that would carry a similar weight to a sword. They would even hit harder, since all the momentum is concentrated in the head.

Weapons in this category deal 1d8 damage.

Types

Arming Sword: Damage: piercing, slashing; one-handed; can be used with a shield.

Bastard Sword: Damage: piercing, slashing, bludgeoning; can be treated as an arming or long sword.

Long Sword: Damage: piercing, slashing, bludgeoning; grant a +1 AC bonus.

Battle Axe: Damage: slashing; can sunder wooden hafts, -1 to AC because they leave you open without a shield.

War-Hammer: Damage: bludgeoning, piercing; +1 to hit vs. plate-mail.
Maces: Damage: bludgeoning; +1 to hit vs. mail.

Polearms

not drawn to scale

Polearms were the main type of weapon from the medieval period. Why would you fight somebody within inches of feet of you when you could put a 6-12" pole between you and your enemy? There are so many different types of polearms, I'm honestly just gonna put a general writeup and give you a picture of some.

Polearms deal 1d10 damage.

Types

Piercing Polearms: +1 to hit vs. chain armor.

Bludgeoning Polearms: on a critical hit, concuss an opponent in plate-mail.

Slashing Polearms: +1 to hit vs. lightly or unarmored opponents.

If a polearm has multiple damage types, apply multiple effects, and just make it cost more or something if your worried about balance.

Source

Pathfinder Cheat Sheets

I wrote up a few cheat sheets for pathfinder, made them for the new players I'm GMing. Figured I might as well share it with you guys, so here's the links. (a few of the things are a little houseruley, so you can choose to ignore it, or use it if you want (e.g. the flanking rule for being in a corner.))

Pathfinder Actions Table

Pathfinder Combat Cheat Sheet

The actions table tells you what actions can be made during each phase in a turn, and wheher or not they provoke an AoO, the other one just has the basic rules for combat. Let me know in the comments if you want me to make more.

Races: Crystalline

I've suddenly had the idea of designing races for pathfinder, and not all the silly anthros, I want to do some very strange races, the kind of thing that would be playable, but would be more likely used to format an NPC in that weird lost civilazation your PCs just discovered, so if this post has been a long time coming, there's why.

Crystalline:

Crystalline's are 2 ft. tall pieces of gem that move about. though their color and appearance may fool some, they are really not made of crystal at all, but rather a highly flexible substance that closely resembles crystal. They take on the coloration of whatever gem they fed on most recently, allowing them to easily hide in their natural environment. Crystalline's live deep underground, thousands of miles past the limits that the underdark even lead to. due to this, travel there is impossible unless some special means of travel is procured, perhaps a seemingly bottomless pit that none have ever dared travel, or some fissure that opens up as a part of the world ending calamity to give you a few ideas. But I digress.  

The caverns that Crystalline live in are covered in a rich supply of gems, every surface in the entire system is made up of some type of gem. Among them, there is a certain elite that protect what is called the motherstone (translated), which is actually the core of the planet. The guardians of this stone use small fragments of it to fuel a special source of magical energy (this will be a class I make in the future). The motherstone has a strange effect on the gems that are around it, and there is a field of rainbow gems that constantly grow towards the motherstone, which the Crystalline harvest in order to sustain themselves. The Crystalline's believe that the motherstone is the birthplace of all life. Keep in mind that they have never left their single existing city. The stats for a Crystalline are as follows:

Type: Aberration

Size: Tiny

Base Speed: 20 ft.

Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Cha, +2 Con, -4 Int. Members of this race are rather hardy, and therr gem-like appearance makes them very well-liked, but they have slightly less developed brains than other creatures.

Languages: This species communicates with vibrations, and speak a unique language, it is considered very difficult for them to speak other languages, and will not likely ever be able to speak other languages (unless you put some different flavor to them.)

Racial Traits:

Bond to the Land: Members of this race gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC when in the (newly added)
Crystal terrain type. (we can't do underdark, because they aren't stone)

Crystalline Form: Members of this race have reflective, crystalline skin that grants them a +2 racial bonus to AC against rays. Once per day, they can deflect a single ray attack targeted at them as if they were using the Deflect Arrows feat.

Camouflage: Members of this race gain a +4 racial bonus to stealth checks made in the crystalline terrain type.

Cave Dweller: Members of this race gain a +1 bonus on Knowledge (dungeoneering) and Survival checks made underground.

Skill Training: Knowledge (dungeoneering), and stealth are always treated as a class skill for members of this race.

Magic Items: 20 Custom Rare/Magic Items for Your Players to Steal

     Been a while, but my page was down. Which I was thankfully able to fix. After all, what would you do without me? Anyways, this is the start of a series of five (at least for now) posts that I will be making, so at the end, We should be at 100 magic items. Let's begin, shall we?

1. Pen of Messaging: This pen, when used to write on a paper, will send a mental thought of the      message to another person. It reads exactly what is on the paper. (fun roleplaying if bad grammar is involved)

2. Shifter's Armor: Made with a series of buckles and straps, this armor, which can come in many varieties, comes undone, and falls off when the user shifts out of human form. (this item does not give off a magical aura)

3. Shifter's Claws: (this one is meant specifically for the Shifter class) a set of gauntlets that morph along with the user's hands, allowing a shifter to deal an additional 1d4 damage.

4. Poisoner's Vial: Once per day, you can fill this ceramic vial with water, by the end of the day, the water will have turned into a single vial of potion.

5. Ring of Bad Judgement: when worn, this ring causes a -2 penalty to all wisdom based rolls. This is a cursed item. The player does not know about this effect.

6. Goggles of Violence: when worn, these goggles grant a +1 bonus to all rolls made while in a rage, the DC to get the user out of a rage, however, increase by 4.

7. Seductress' Corset: An extremely tight corset that allows you to, once per day, use a spell-like ability as charm. When used, you must make a DC 13 fortitude save or faint.

8. Black Book: a book containing a list of names, it also has an inked arrow that points in the direction of the person, a person's name is crossed off if they are dead.

9. Folding Table: A square metal cube weighing nearly nothing with a button on the side, when pressed, it expands into a small table that can seat two people comfortably.

10. Quick-Flick Rapier: This is a gold embossed rapier that allows a second attack per round, this does not incur the normal two-weapon fighting penalties, and takes up the time of a single attack.

11. Mask of Identity: When touched to a dead body, this mask takes on their characteristics, when it is worn, You gain the voice and features of that person, the features can be replaced once a week.

12. Talisman of Blinding: On command, this necklace can either blast out a single blast of light, causing all creatures in the room to make a save vs. blinding, or it can be used to give four hours of dim lighting, It must be placed under the sun for two hours in order to charge this ability.

13. Shell of the Golden Kappa: A golden shield decorated like a tortoise shell, this shield has the ability reflect evocation magic attacks, however, due to the uneven surface, It will reflect in a random direction, chosen by whatever method suits you.

14. Dark Destiny: This powerful sword takes the shape and properties of your preferred weapon, but always deals 1d12 damage, every time you kill a creature with this weapon, you need to succeed at a DC 20 will save or the weapon will devour your soul. Only a wish or miracle can restore the soul.

15. Scouter's Lens: when held over the eye, you can see an arial view of your surroundings, things that would block a bird's vision, such as trees, blocks yours too.

16. Box of Secrets: on command, this locked box bursts into flames, leaving nothing behind. (This includes metals.

17. Spacious Wagon: A covered wagon that works like a bag of holding, except people can sit in it as well. (This is OP, but would be cool for a smuggling operation, especially if the objects being smuggled are humans...)

18. Devourer Gem: A diamond you put part of your mind into, allows you to cast multiple spells at once, but you take a -2 penalty on all spells based rolls, and also for intelligence based skill checks, the penalty for skill checks can be reduced to neutral by having someone hold the gem up to your ear, this only works for spells if you are not attempting to cast both spells. treat this item as an intelligent item with the PCs personality, the PC does not share consciousness with the gem.

19. Ever Changing Map: A map of a certain area (most likely a continent), it displays a compass that moves with you on the paper, It also shows various weather patterns, and changes political borders immediately after disputes over them are settled.

20. Hat of Secrets: A hat that can have small objects stored inside it, up to 4 items that weigh 1 lb. or less, when you reach into the hat, you can pull the object out, the objects sit in another dimensional space, as bag of holding, and thus cannot be seen, and do not fall out of the hat when held upside down.