Posting challenges, usually time bound or on a particular topic or theme.
A recent question on Facebook reminded me that I was going to review and revise how special materials work with graded items. In short, I expect to look primarily at the effect of the special material and build from there. Sample Materials A few of the common materials from the PRD, …
“Magic item sets” were an artifact (sorry) of the late D&D 3.x era. A small group of items related by their history and power, with a synergy between them that made them more powerful together than apart. The regalia of the phoenix consisted of the raptor’s mask, the crown of flames, the talon scepter, …
Umbral mail, ‘shadow armor’, should probably be a thing. I picture a suit of light mail (chain shirt perhaps?) worn by a rogue who practiced greater and greater acts of stealth. It is a bit like Gyre’s cunning gambeson, so I should look for some ways to differentiate it. Umbral Mail …
I don’t often post much Echelon-related material here any more (mostly it’s at EchelonRPG.com), but this particular post fits the skill model I had in mind before I moved over there. Also, it gives me a ‘U Day’ post for this year’s A-Z Blog Challenge. I am not proud. I’ve only …
I explored the market price of graded wands and staves a couple weeks ago, and I’m pretty satisfied with that result. Then I decided that granting graded items some limited spell casting ability — a few spells that can be used daily, sort of thing — could be pretty cool. The fire gauntlet …
So very close to done with the mapping tutorials for now. Now for the finishing touch: color. My focus on the previous images was on developing the height map for mountain ranges, in varying degrees of complexity, and then quickly rendering the result so we could take a look. That …
I’ve written a couple times recently about simple techniques for drawing mountain ranges. Yesterday I showed how I draw the basic landforms, and on Sunday I showed how I manipulate them to relieve monotonous elements and make them look better to me. Under normal circumstances I would have presented the material …
On Sunday I posted a tutorial on a technique I use when drawing mountains. This tutorial focused on a specific set of techniques used to cause a frighteningly boring mountain range — in this case, several parallel ‘ranges’ that were completely straight, uniformly straight, and parallel. They demonstrated how to …
Yesterday I wrote about using flaws and curses when an enchantment check fails, and quirks even when it (barely) succeeds… but what’s the difference? All flaws and curses can be expected to be undesirable and have negative effect on an item or its wielder, and even quirks can be unwanted, or …
When enchanting magic items in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, part of the process requires that you make a skill check (usually Spellcraft) with a DC equal to 5 + caster level. This is usually pretty trivial for most crafters — a caster who has maximum ranks in Spellcraft and Spellcraft as a …