Andrew Phillips's page

I agree. It seems like a lot of the changes being made or being suggested by other posters make the game more like either 2nd edition or 4th edition. I don't WANT second edition or fourth edition. I want third edition! I want my skill points, iterative attacks, and unrestricted multiclassing. I want prestige classes, feats, and vancian spellcasting.

Now some of the changes I love. Feats at every other level? Great! The new way of handling cleric domains? Awesome. The new wizard abilies? Fantastic. d8 hit dice for rogues and d6 for arcane spellcasters? About frikkin' time. The new rules for turning undead and grappling? Vast improvement. Clerics automatically being proficient with their deity's favored weapon? I'd houseruled that in years ago. Leveling the paying field with races? All for it. All of those are fine by me. Losing skill points? NO! Losing iterative attacks? [CENSORED] NO!

Yeah, thats what I meant to say!!

I never liked Bard as a fovored class for Gnomes, but with the changes for Golarian Gnomes I believe it fits now, passionate Gnome singers, musicians, storytellers, using thier minor magical talents to augment their performances. Works for me.

Keep the rule changes small, change the fluff.

I agree that starting ages need to be lowered for non humans and Quijenoth's table is a good start, of course everyone will want small changes I'm sure. As a friend of mine said "NO race would exist that had children who were teenagers for 50ish years."

I just wanted to chime in with the "Keep the changes small" crowd, although I do realize that PathfinderRPG has to work around the OGL.
I was quite surprised at the number and degree of changes to the system and I do feel that it will lack "backward compatability" in the current form.

I wouldn't want to be Jason Bulman right now, I know I get upset when my house rules are questioned by players, after all I spent hours considering all the impact each change would have at the table and they dare imply my work was wasted.

I am considering using the Critical Hit Deck, primarily as a tool to bring some verisimilitude, for example to explain why there are NPCs with missing eyes and limbs. For those of you with experience using the deck, will I get these type of results, and what about scars?
Also after reading this thread the only rules based concern I have is for the x3 and x4 crit weapons(I know my players will have issues if their favorite weapons seem to be unduly affected). Does using the standards rule for adding multipliers to change the damage listed on the cards wotk well or does it create unbalanced results?

Any insight to either of these points would be appreciated, mostly I just want to know how the deck works at the table.

Thanks in advance.

Interesting information. I was wondering if we would begin to see more Necromancer products available from the Pazio store. I am thinking about purchasing the PDF of the 3.5 revised Tome of Horrors and looking at a couple other products and I would rather give Paizo my money than any other store. Oh yes and I would be interested in a print version of the above as mentioned in a previous thread.

Well for one thing all those prestige classes and feats, at least the ones from WOTC, are not availible under the OGL, so by creating thier own version of 3.5 they regain the game balance that was destroyed by WOTC in the later splat books of 3.5.

Oh and I now support Paizo even more, just subscribed to the Modules making my subscriptions cover everything Golarion.

Dark_Mistress, good point.

Yes another highly constructive post.

Elijah, Having just finished reading through the Guide for the first time a few things jump out.
First, the history of the city should be easily inserted into most any world. A military colony, no longer attached to the mother land(my word) too closely, but with plenty of politics working around the current relationship with the mother land.
Second, three very different military groups who share the resposibilites of defense, security and law enforcement.
Third a temple for devil worship, that is lawful evil and tied to the motherland and minor conflict with the temple of "the God of cities and finnance". Next, quite a number of detailed city sections called wards each capable of setting very different urban scenes.
Some really "bad" bad guys plenty of underground complexes based on the history of the site where the city is built and the novel idea of the "shingles" where the city has built up creating highways that run across the roof tops in various sections of the city.

These are only first impressions. There is plenty more in the guide.

Not that this is helpful but You guys are Great after all the "recent unpleasentness" here we have a 4E fan recieving advice and encouragment from these boards that have been descibed as "hostile to 4E fans". I love you guys!

Skills selected by Monster Type should work well, select the 2 or 4 or whatever class skills and as said before HD+ability mod, don't worry too much about synergys or item bonuses since you are just working on a quick monster.

Super cool, thanks for the work!!

Yes, more Zogonia!

Take a day off Vic.

Thanks for the update.

I was looking at all the products I might like to get, but not at once. Just wanted to ask about a Wishlist and found this thread. Considered it bumped.

Savage Worlds plus Serenity = Happiness
Our group tried the Serenity RPG and the rules were a disaster. After some pelading we switched mid campaign to Savage Worlds and as has been said before "Never Looked Back". The system is cinematic and easy to play but has depth that is not appartent until you have been playing a few sessions. And Cover is very important in a gun fight as is ducking and consequently trying to avoid the gunfight in the first place(great social skills system).

thanks for the info.

How can I change my Avatar name without using an alias or losing my tag line?

Thanks.

Thanks for all the great information. I've never looked at the OGL before, serves me right for ignoring the fine print.

I'm actually interested in some of the books since I like what I see in the stat blocks. I'll start following this advice to track down the books that appeal to me the most.

Thanks again to everyone.

Can someone sum up the Non WotC books referenced throughtout the RotRL adventure path. I am aware of the Advanced Bestiary, but aren't there others?
Thanks.

Pads are IN! Orders are SHIPPING! Extra Magnet Packs are ALSO IN! ORDER ORDER ORDER! :-)

Extra Magnet Packs Ordered! Along with a few other items I've been putting off ordering.

Three deaths in Life's Bazaar.
One in Drakthar's Way.
No loses in Flood Season.
One in Zenith Trajectory,one false alarm, rogue went negative but miscalculted total hit points and was actually able to stablize, and lost one character to "group tension" too chaotic exposed the group to too much danger the player is making a Lawful PC to control his own urges.

Human Rogue 8th Scarred Soul. has no idea what he is in for.
Dwarf Fighter 6th DEAD ate by dragon.
Dwarf Barbarian 7th
Human Sorcerer/Mindbender 6th/2nd, using a Monte Cook style Sorcerer class. Touched in the Head, lots of fun we'll see how he handles the influence of Adimarchus
Gnome Illusionist 6th Nobility, playing it to the hilt RETIRED
Human Scout6/Fighter2 Wyrm Blooded
Assimar Paladin4/Favoured Soul2/Shadowstriker Relative of Nidrama, should involve her more with the group.

Three deaths in Life's Bazaar
One in Drakthar's Way
No loses in Flood Season. I think the group has found a balance that works, and I can start developing the characters.

Human Rogue 6th Scarred Soul. has no idea what he is in for.
Dwarf Fighter 6th
Human Sorcerer 6th, using a Monte Cook style Sorcerer class. Touched in the Head, lots of fun we'll see how he handles the influence of Adimarchus
Gnome Illusionist 6th Nobility, playing it to the hilt
Human Scout4/Fighter2 Wyrm Blooded, planing on having Dhorlot recognize him.
Assimar Paladin4/Favoured Soul2 Relative of Nidrama, should involve her more with the group.

Almost finished with Zenith Trajectory and of course:
Dwarf Fighter got separated in the main battle and stumbled into Dhorlot, dead dwarf.
Human Rogue got shredded by Mangh Micho's pincer staff as he tried to hold the front line in the dwarf's stead.

Cool, thanks for the update.

So late June, early July is gone, still no combat pads for those of us who have been waiting. Will the next shipmnent go to us or to another convention? Just curious.

Schmoe wrote:

Haha. That's the catalyst for the only death in our campaign to date. :)

2 deaths due to that so far here.

2 deaths in our group also, a couple of characters with great backgrounds and personalities. The lesson has been learned, send the dwarf in first.

SCAP=Shackled City Adventure Path

I would think a halfling Rogue would be fun with plenty of oppurtunites to put all those skill points to work, just remember that traps can be deadly. I have had players who whine when they die from traps, go figure.

Three death in Life's Bazaar
One in Drakthar's Way

Just finished Flood season with no loses. I think the group has found a balance that works, and I can start developing the characters.

Human Rogue 6th Scarred Soul. has no idea what he is in for.
Dwarf Fighter 6th
Human Sorcerer 6th, using a Monte Cook style Sorcerer class. Touched in the Head, lots of fun we'll see how he handles the influence of Adimarchus
Gnome Illusionist 6th Nobility, playing it to the hilt
Human Scout4/Fighter2 Wyrm Blooded, planing on having Dhorlot recognize him.
Assimar Paladin4/Favoured Soul2 Relative of Nidrama, should involve her more with the group.

Well, before we just said "No more!" (somewhere around level 16 or so), we probably had around...80 to 90. Yeah, that's about right. I'm not kidding. They might as well have called it "Death on a Stick Adventure Path".

This is my second time running the Shackled City and I explained to the group that if they play this as a "Kick in the Door" dugeon hack they would be able to run though the entire campaign by contiually replacing characters.

Seems to have worked after Jzadirune and the confrontation with Kozmojen they have started working together, actually being cautious, ya know acting like people who are putting their lifes on the line.

Anybody heard anything new about the back ordered combat pads?

Is late June still a reasonable expection?

Started a new campaign. Last campaign fell apart after the group successfully finished the Test of the Smoking Eye, scheduling conflicts. Anyway.
Life's Bazaar
Rogue killed by two Shulks, he went in the room first.
Cleric killed by the mimic, the Lawful Neutral fighter attacked it on a whim.
same Lawful Neutral fighter killed by Kozmojen when different cleric was forced to choose between two dying PC's.
Drakthar's Way
DuskBlade killed by a rain of crossbow bolts from goblins high above.
This group is doing much better than the first group I ran through Shackled City campaign.

"The Seekers" for the same reasons Stromwalker's group chose the name. They are always seeking something. Although the chaotic elements of the group tend to refer the group as "The Croleks" whenever the can. They made many different assaults on the Malachite Fortress, always to be greeted by the shout of Croleks from the hobgoblins.

That is great, good call about letting the player use his abilites during the dramatic moment. And it great that you have a player who is not a whinner

I would agree with Lenarior, you spend the feat and now your reach weapon can attack adjacent foes, albeit with a penalty.

I'm surprised to see that the prices are going to be so low, especially for the Compleat Encounters. Sounds like they are going to contain reusable minis and maps. That's great.

3 in Life's Bazaar.
1 to a Tilt-a-Pit Trap
1 in the theater, just bad luck on the player's part
1 to a gear door trap, the player couldn't take a hint
2 in Flood Season.
1 to Tongue-Eater
1 to the Morkoth, wild shaped druid decided to go exploring
1 in Zenith Trajectory.
1 to the Erinyes, the devil hit with 4 attacks from the flaming bow
None in The Demonskar Legacy.

3 in Life's Bazaar.
1 to a Tilt-a-Pit Trap
1 in the theater, just bad luck on the player's part
1 to a gear door trap, the player couldn't take a hint
2 in Flood Season.
1 to Tongue-Eater
1 to the Morkoth, wild shaped druid decided to go exploring
1 in Zenith Trajectory.
1 to the Erinyes, the devil hit with 4 attacks from the flaming bow
None so far in The Demonskar Legacy, about to enter the Starry Mirror.

My players are the same way, I had planned to make sure the Glabrezu didn't escape. And I am hoping that after being dragged through the Test of the Smoking Eye they will forget about the DemonSkar for a while.

3 in Life's Bazaar
1 to a Tilt-a-Pit Trap
1 in the theater, just bad luck on the player's part
1 to a gear door trap, the player couldn't take a hint
2 in Flood Season
1 to Tongue-Eater
1 to the Morkoth, wild shaped druid decided to go exploring
In Zenith Trajectory, so far, not quite finished with the shrine
1 to the Erinyes, the devil hit with 4 attacks from the flaming bow

I would have to buy it also. I would like to add that I would not feel I was buying the same thing twice, in fact seeing the adventure in Dungeon first would be the only reason I would buy it. Most published adventures simply aren't worth the money, the adventures in Dungeon being the exception.

For its worth I have 5 PCs and their wealth is very close to the wealth by level in the DMG. We are only about half through Zenith Trajectory.

Here is my timeline put together with advice from this thread:

-1300 Cataclysm destroys Spellweavers.
-940 Kopru abandon Cauldron area.
-800 Surabar Spellmason founds Redgorge.
-710 Nabatharon defeated, blast creates Demonscar.
-700 Foundation of Cauldron based on Surabar's legacy and built upon stronghold used by the areas inhabitants.
-100 Hookface last seen in Cauldron area.
-75 Magic plague ravages through Jzadirune. The enclave is abandoned.
-40 Lord Orbius Vhalantru settles in cauldron.
-30 Cagewrights discover Soul Pillars
-10 Malachite Hold abandoned.
-7 Current lord mayor appointed.
1 Current year; start of adventure path

I would appreciate comments and suggestions.

We finally finished Flood Season, our new total:
3 in Life's Bazaar
1 to a Tilt-a-Pit Trap
1 in the theater, just bad luck on the player's part
1 to a gear door trap, the player couldn't take a hint
2 in Flood Season
1 to Tongue-Eater
1 to the Morkoth, wild shaped druid decided to go exploring

I had to read through the adventure several times to find them all myself.
I just wanted to let you know your effort is appreciated.

"The Quick Reference Format was valuable to me as a DM. I'd gladly pay more for a copy of Dungeon that has that information over one that doesn't. I'll bet other DMs feel the same. Ask us on your survey."

I have to agree with Boredflak on this one, I've gotten to the point that I think long and hard about buying RPG books due to poor editing and inconsistant content, but I didn't even hesitate when it was time to renew my subscription to Dungeon.

We are just starting Flood Season and as the characters get more interested in the region I would love to have more of these dates for them.
Does anyone else who is further along the adventure path have any more events and dates to add??

Three in Life's Bazaar.
One in Flood Season, but they just made it back from the Lucky Monkey.
The group doesn't seem to be able to handle the perceived time crunch very well, they keep rushing around without much of a plan.