All DMs are evil's page

I recently had a pang of nostalgia for some old style AD&D adventures and so we created some new characters to run through such classics as the Village of Hommlet and the Keep on the Borderlands.

So I got the players to roll characters, after playing around with different methods for a while, I came up with this system which seems to work well and so far all the players are happy with it. I call it High-Low Pairs.

The basics are you roll 4d6 dropping the lowest 12 times. Then you take the highest number and add pair it with the lowest, then second highest with second lowest and so on until you have 6 pairs. The player can then choose any 3 pairs to use for their six attributes, arranged as they see fit.

So far it seems to work pretty well, allowing all the players to create the character they want and seems about on par with the standard 4d6 method.

Here is an example:
Bob wants to play a big brutish Barbarian, so he rolls his 12 sets of dice:
4d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 5, 1) = 14 4d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 5, 6) = 17 4d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 1, 5) = 13 4d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 4, 2) = 12 4d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 6, 5) = 13 4d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 4, 2) = 12 4d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 4, 4) = 14 4d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 3, 6) = 14 4d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 6, 1) = 16 4d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 2, 1) = 8 4d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 4, 4) = 17 4d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 2, 6) = 20
16, 10, 16, 6, 14, 7, 10, 13, 15, 16, 12, 15

Arrange as pairs:
1) 16 & 6
2) 16 & 7
3) 16 & 10
4) 15 & 10
5) 14 & 12
6) 14 & 13

So as you can see, apart from the two low rolls, Bob got lucky. Now he wanted to play a huge Barbarian, so he takes the top 3 pairs.

For 16,16,16,10,7,6.

Now if he was wanting to play a more rounded character, he might instead of gone for pairs 3, 5 and 6:

For 16,14,14,13,12,10.

Have a play and see what you think, I like the system and so far so do the players.

When using dice rolls I have always allowed the characters to roll three sets and choose which they want to play. This ensured that no one player ended up with a duff character, but did guarantee that some one would end up with a pretty awesome character.

Sarn - The Dark Times.

The Story of Maliuss

Homecomings can be painful, but when you are an elf who has betrayed the teachings of your god and returned with a half breed child, the homecoming can be heart-wrenching. Since leaving the One Wood Maliuss had lived a whole life time in human terms in what would only be classed as a heart beat to an elf. He had sailed the seas as a buccaneer thriving on the excitement and thrill of danger. He had seen his ship sunk from beneath him and his fortune lost to the waves. He had rebuilt the fortune and retired to the coast with his somewhat ill gotten gains. Here he met a women, a human, and the two of them married and begot a child. He experienced raw unconditional love, not the carefree love of his home land, but intense gut wrenching love, the kind that leaves you with a broken heart when your lover dies. It was this broken heart that sent Maliuss home, to seek solace amongst his people and to forget the pain and sorrow that she was not there any-more, even the infant which has her eyes is only a constant reminder that she is gone.

And so Maliuss returned to the One Wood's embrace and shelter in the bathing light of Caeril the maker, father of the Wood Elves. Caeril listened with rapture as Maliuss related his tale and cried with sorrow as he releated his lovers death and then he gave Maliuss a gift, the gift of rebirth, Maliuss could drink deeply from the Chalice, the most holy of relics, and he would be reborn his body renewed with Caeril's power. Maliuss would be able to tap the life blood of the land and perform miracles, even perhaps one day able to return to that lonely, untended grave and bend the powers of life and death to his will. Maliuss accepted either in grief or hope, he was not sure which, and as the power of the Chalice washed through him he knew that his creator had done him a great honour. The pain in his heart was still there and the infant child was happy with the elven wet nurses so Maliuss found himself once more draw to the edges of the one wood, once more feeling the call of the world and knowing that his god willed him to leave soon and learn more of the mastications of the world beyond, of the darkness he warned the elves was rising in the hearts of mortals.

Sometimes fate gives you a hand and occasionally Fate gives you an almighty shove in the back, today fate was feeling bossy.

Maliuss you are wandering the edges of the One Wood, the boundary between where mankind had once harvested the trees and the One Wood had said "No More!" It is a place full of younger trees, less mature and lacking the sparks of Fey life that the ancient forest holds. It is here you find yourself drawn often, especially in times of sorrow when you can see her face clearly, her hair sparkling in the sun light and you can almost smell her perfume in the air. Today the dawn sun was losing a battle to burn off the early morning mist and you could feel a rain storm gathering in the air, but the chill didn't bother you, it made you feel alive. It was then that you saw it, the stump of a walnut tree, maybe 50 years old, sap still fresh from the were the rings bled the trees life. The hewn branches, leaves and a small birds nest lay scattered around amongst the booted footprints of perhaps three men and the drag marks of a hand sledge that had taken the lumber away. It would be an all too easy task to follow the tracks and see where these thieves were heading and so with grim determination and bow in hand you set off at a slow jog.

The trees stopped, like a wall at the forests edge, the sun gave up its pretence of fighting and disappeared behind the growing clouds. To the south ominous rain clouds massed and a distant echo of thunder rolled across the land. The tracks, were clearer now, these men had traversed this route many times, cutting a path through the plants of the moorlands that stretched before you. You briefly decided against going back and reporting what you had found and took a steady step forward when BANG, fate shoved you from behind. The pain of the well hidden bear trap was the first thing you could feel, you don't even remember the sound of its cold metallic jaws closing on your leg, only the pain burning like fire. You must have passed out for a while, for when you awoke the rain was in full force, drenching and chilling you to the bone. The dull grey bear trap was closed completely around your leg severing muscle and crushing bones. You struggled against it trying to prise it jaws open, but found you lacked the power to do so and the healing of your god could only staunch the flow of the blood while the trap was still attached to you.

Maliuss, no one from the One Wood will pass this way and it is only a matter of time before the men who laid the trap come back to inspect it. It occurs to you that the only reason they would lay a trap on the trail would be to catch any one following them, as most animals, bears included would avoid their scent.

What do you wish to do?

There are several old threads on the spell awaken, but none seem to answer some basic questions (unless they are buried in the archives).

So here are the things I am interested in getting other peoples opinions on:

Q1)The creatures type changes from Animal to magical beast (augmented animal). Does this mean its Hit Dice increase from D8s to D10?
I have always assumed no, but templates that change a creatures type tend to change its HD so I may be wrong.

Q2) If the creature had been 'trained for war' before the awakening, it knew how to wear barding. Does it retain this ability once it is awakened?
I have always assumed yes, even though this breaks the magical beast rules which state they are not proficient with any armour.

Q3) Assuming that the answer to Q2 is yes, how does an awakened animal learn to use armour if it was not trained for war before the spell was cast? Does it have to expend feats, or would you be generous and just allow it to train with armour?

The druid in my group has just got to the level where Awaken is an option and I am interested on other peoples opinions.

As the title of the thread, I am about to replace my phone, most likely a HTC Desire.

What I would like to know is does anyone have any applications that work on the Android platform apart from the obvious dice one.

Also can this phone read my PDF's? If so does anyone have any experience of putting their Adventure Paths on their phone?

OK, before we start, I like the Fly skill. As a long term DM I feel there is a definite need for a skill that lets us know what we can and can not do when flying. I also feel it could be a game breaker.

Now here is my query.

Grog, the warrior has the Fly spell cast on him by the 10th level sorcerer.

Grog has 12 dexterity and is wearing a suit of magic full plate.

So I have calculated that Gorg has a fly skill of 5 (0 Ranks, +5 bonus from caster level, +4 bonus from good manoeuvrability, +1 Dex bonus, -5 Armour Check).

Now my points and questions:

1) Fly skill is a "trained" skill, so you can only use the skill if you have one rank in it. Grog has no ranks, so he can not use anything off the fly skill. q. Is this correct?

2) Assuming I am correct, He has a fly speed of 40ft, this means that he can ascend at half speed and descend at double speed (source fly spell).

3) Now the Fly skill says with out making a check he can remain flying as long as moves at least 20 feet (half his movement), He can only ascend at a 45 degree angle, so no flying vertically up, he can descend at any angle at normal speed and he can only turn in 45 degree increments by sacrificing 5 foot of movement per 45 degrees. q. does the fly spell of double descent rate over ride the fly skill rate of desent?

Now assuming I am correct, this means that if grog was fighting a flying a creature, he can not hover because he must move each round, so only a single attack each round and most likely an attack of opportunity every other round as he flys away from his opponent to remain in the air..

Have I missed any thing or miss interpreted anything?

Any other opinions would be appreciated.

Quick question that I hope can be answered simply.

Is there a problem with this issue? It is still showing as pending, yet I have received Pathfinder #13—Second Darkness Chapter 1: "Shadow in the Sky".

There is no rush, we have not even finished the Rise of the Runelords AP yet, so you have several months before I need it.

One of the bonus feats in the rise of the runelords players guide is:

Totem Spirit
You are closely and mystically tied to your tribe’s sacred totem.
Prerequisite: Member of a Shoanti tribe.
Benefit: The benefit granted by this feat depends on which
Shoanti tribe you belong to:

Shadde-Quah (Axe Clan): If you have the rage ability, it lasts for one
additional round. You also gain a +2 bonus on Intimidate checks.

With the new Pathfinder RPG Alpha 2 release finally out, how would you handle this ability? Would you allow it to:

1) Allow every rage to last one extra round after ending it free of charge?

or

2) Allow it to give the Barbarian 1 extra rage point per level?

I am aiming for the second option, but can any one see any glaring errors here that I have missed?

Can I ask for a quick show of hands, who is converting classes across as they appear and who is waiting for them ALL to appear and then convert them?

My group consists of 7 characters, they are currently 1 Fighter, 1 Cleric, 1 Rogue, 1 Sorcerer, 1 Ranger, 1 Barbarian and 1 Druid (now dead, replacement to be decided on).

I am in 2 minds as if I should either convert the classes across as they appear, or if I should wait until the last of them is done. The first lets me give feed back immediately, the second lets lets me keep all the characters to a similar power level (as useful all day as opposed to the 15 minute adventuring day). My quandary is the sorcerer, I don't want the sorcerer to fall behind the Cleric in power terms, it is fairly obvious that the sorcerer is going to get the same Orision/Cantrip powers that the wizard and Cleric get. Do I just repeat that power for them? What about familiar?

Same goes for the fighter verses the Ranger and Barbarian.

Can I ask for a quick show of hands, who is converting classes across as they appear and who is waiting for them all to appear and then convert them?

My group consists of 7 characters, they are currently 1 Fighter, 1 Cleric, 1 Rogue, 1 Sorcerer, 1 Ranger, 1 Barbarian and 1 Druid (now dead, replacement to be decided on).

I am in 2 minds as if I should either convert the classes across as they appear, or if I should wait until the last of them is done. The first lets me give feed back immediately, the second lets lets me keep all the characters to a similar power level (as useful all day as opposed to the 15 minute adventuring day). My quandary is the sorcerer, I don't want the sorcerer to fall behind the Cleric in power terms, it is fairly obvious that the sorcerer is going to get the same Orision/Cantrip powers that the wizard and Cleric get. Do I just repeat that power for them? What about familiar?

Same goes for the fighter verses the Ranger and Barbarian.

Very simple question, the evocation power (version 1.1)

The energy ray deals 1d4 points of damage +1 for every two caster levels you possess.

1) Is this 1d4+2 at 2nd level, 1d4+3 at 4th up to 1d4+11 at 20th.
OR
2) Is it 2d4+2 at 2nd level, 3d4+3 at 4th up to a very respectable 11d4+11 at 20th (ouch).

I am 99.9% sure it is the first option, but I wanted to clarify that every one else has the same interpretation as me, my limited grasp of written English makes me think there is some punctuation missing, or it requires an example for those on the lower end of the IQ scale such as my self.

I have seen some joy on the forums that power attack has been reduced.

I personally don't like this at all, power attack is a useful tool in dealing with DR, by reducing its limit to the characters strength bonus you are putting emphasise on the "golf bag" of weapons to deal with different types of DR. while I agree it needs improving at low levels, I think you have made it a pointless choice in low ability score campaigns. My current party of 7 characters built on the 25 point system has a highest strength of 14. this is the barbarian, at 4th level he is not entitled to his 2nd rage, so power attack is useful to him in real terms 2 per day.

Combat expertise is now almost completely useless, a bonus of +1 to your AC is the best most fighters will get out of this.

What do I suggest?

I suggest allowing characters to transfer attack bonus, Armour Class or Damage about as they wish as long as they have the correct feat (or ability). I would suggest giving the correct ability to a class as part of its level advancement.

Attack bonus converted to Damage = power attack
Attack bonus converted to AC = comabt expertise
AC converted to damage = ??? does this make sense to any one?
AC converted to hit = reckless strike
Damage bonus converted to Attack bonus = precise attack
Damage Bonus to AC = ??? Some sort of parry?

What are your thoughts on this?

First off, if you are a player who has not yet played the second adventure path module, get the hell out of here.

Now down to business, I am running a party of 7 characters in the rise of the rune lords AP. This has all the usual problems associated with it, under powered encounters, less exp, not enough magic items, ect. I am dealing with those issues no problem (in my opinion).

What I am struggling with, is adding a new category of haunts to the list, I am drawing a literal blank on it, not like me, I hope my creative juices have not dried up.

Have any of you wonderful people got ideas for at least two new haunts so I can ensure all my characters get 2 each (+ the universal ones). If you can think of a class for them, that would also work.

Feel free to tie them to a room number if you want.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I must give credit to the guys who wrote and edited the first path finder "rise of the rune lords".

we just finished one of the funniest encounters we have had in a while. Although it is probably one of those, had to be there to find it funny moments and loses a lot in translation.

Players who have not played this adventure path to the end should not click the spoiler button.

Anyone else had any funny moments?