Skeleton

Aotrscommander's page

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32. 439 posts. No reviews. 1 list. 1 wishlist. 1 alias.


RSS

1 to 50 of 439 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | next > last >>
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

For the sake of arguement, and because I don't ahve anything better to to tonight in the available time, I might as well share a couple of related bits.

To start with, here's the stats I concocted for Amenopheus a little back.

Having first queried to see if there were any stats (they did not appear to be), I had to build my own.

Sidebar: 3.Aotrs

Bear in mind, anything mechanical I share will be configured for 3.Aotrrs. 3.Aotrs is these days a straight hybrd of 3.5 and PF1, with a strict, urated list of available content taken from both; i.e. it's not all of one and all of the other. It's most of both, but not all. In a lot of cases, if there was a difference between how the one and the 'tother did something (e.g. Power Attack), 3.Aotrs largely said "screw it do both." Trawling through the lists of PF1 feats and spells to add the the earlier version of 3.Aotrs' such (compiled from 3.5) meant leaving out a fair amount of instances that were "not a bad idea, but so niche and against so much competition, it'll realistically never get used."

(Osirionologist and Osirinology feats only made it in SPECIFICALLY because I knew I was doing this eventually, and they'll ever be relevant again after it. When... If, maybe,I write my own stuff, it's not set on Golarion, and I will hace basically used every Osirion adcventure in this mega AP.)

3.Aotrs runs to over 2100 pages (I dodn't think I'd even quite finished the overhaul/expansion when I did the last count), so for obvious reasos I am not going to attempt to un-Aotrs-ise stuff (I'd have to be tracking it all down), but by and large, there shouldn't be anything too obviously alien anyway.

I bring this up here aprtly because 3.Aotrs has its own stat block (which was defined, essentially, by early 3.5 and I stubbornly refused to alter everything when WotC introduced the later standard and for PF1's changes (mine is more compact and I also wasn't changing my carefully compiled stat blocks - I refuse to run monsters out of a bestiary for reason that would mean I'd have to take one along[1]. The only concession made since is the division of Class Features out from SA and SQ.

[1]Lst revision, I had to compile a bestiary of creature statblock pertaining to all monsters that could be summoned, but that's a tiny fraction of the totality!

So then, here's Amenopheus as of the start of the campaign, based in his canon stats of "Wizard 13."

(Of note: 3.Aotrs uses a standard PC abiltiy score set of "base 8, plus 34 points, point-for-point, plsu racials, no base stat higher than 18 before racials." I have never understood the abject fear 3.0, 3.5 and PF1 all shared of linear mathmatical bonuses as anything other than a silly hold-out of AD&D's muted terror of PCs having high stats not being based on pure RNG. And pretty much the day I watched out resident dice god roll up tw 17s and four 15s - with my dice - was the day I decided that RNG would be forever forbidden from taking part in character generation. ("HD" is wrong terminoloy, since it assumes you roll the dice, whereas in 3.Aotrs, the onl thing that doesn't have maximum hit points is some of the monsters (as low-level) and summons.) In any case, Amenophues was build on standard PC stats and ajusted for old age. You could consider by PF1 standards, his higher stats incorporate stuff from his Sgae Jewel. (Especially appropriate, since I will be strongly theming the PCs' Mythic stuff through their initiation to it from Mythic.)

Amenopheus the Sapphire Sage
Male Human Wizard 13
N Medium Humanoid (Human)
HD 13D4-13 (39hp) Init -1 SPD 30’ SPACE 5/5
AC 14/10/14 (+4 Mage Armour)
BAB +6 CMB +4 CMD 14/14
ATTACK +6/+1 Staff of Amenopheus (D6)
CA Arcane Bond (Staff), Arcane School (Universalist), Cantrip Mastery (8/Day), Metamagic Mastery (3/Day)
SV Fort +3 Ref +3 Will +11
Str 6 Dex 8 Con 8 Int 23(27) Wis 18 Cha 18 (22)
Appraise +10, Bluff +12, Concentration +15, Diplomacy +19, Knowledge (Arcana) +25, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +17, Knowledge (Engineering) +13, Knowledge (Geography) +13, Knowledge (History) +27, Knowledge (Local) +21, Knowledge (Martial) +13, Knowledge (Nature) +19, Knowledge (Nobility) +22, Knowledge (Planes) +25, Knowledge (Relgion) +25, Perception, +11, Search +14, Sense Motive +17, Spellcraft +24
Appraise Magic Value, Scribe ScrollB, Jack of All Trades, Master of Knowledge, Master Manipulator, Open Minded, Scholar (History, Local), Extend Spell, Sudden Extend, Silent Spell, Still Spell
CR 9 (−4 CR for lack of spells)
Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): Caster lvl 13 (12 (U))
At Will: Arcane Mark, Detect Magic (U), Prestidigitation and Read Magic (U)
Spells: Wizard Spells -/6/6/6/6/4/3/2 Caster Level 13 DC 18+lvl
0th: Electric Jolt, Light, Message, Ray of Frost
1st: Alarm, Appraising Touch, Benign Transposition, Flash, Mud-Slap, Protection from Evil
2nd: Alter Self, Knock, Levitate, Master’s Touch, Share Talents, Swift Fly
3rd: Dispel Magic × 2, Lightning Bolt, Extended, Silent Still Mage Hand, Extended, Silent Still Scrivener’s Chant, Tongues
4th: Extended, Silent, Still Comprehend Languages, Extended, Silent, Still Hold Portal, Extended, Silent, Still Mage Armour, Remove Curse × 2, Extended, Silent, Still Shield
5th: Break Enchantment, Sending × 3
6th: Greater Dispel Magic, Silent Sending × 2
7th: Greater Teleport, Vision
Equipment: Staff of Amenopheus (+2 Quarterstaff), Incense (250gp, Vision), Hat of Amenopheus (functions as a Headband of Intellect and Charisma +4, cannot be removed by any outside force or creature except Amenopheus himself unless first subjected to a Dispel Magic verses 13th caster level, contains the Sapphire Sage Jewel, which has likewise protection against removal from the hat.)
Languages: Ancient Osiriani, Common, Dwarven, Elven, Kelish, Osiriani

Amenopheus’ New Spellbook
0th: Acid Splash, Dancing Lights, Dowsing, Electric Jolt, Mage Hand, Light, Mending, Message, Ray of Frost, Scrivener’s Chant
1st: Alarm, Appraising Touch, Benign Transposition, Comprehend Languages, Hold Portal, Mage Armour, Shield
2nd: Share Talents, Master’s Touch
3rd: Tongues
4th: -
5th: Sending
6th: -
7th: -

Not The Usual Suspects

One other thing that distinugishes this campaign is the restriction on PC character classes (for the eight, yes EIGHT PCs). 3.Aotrs has 62 base classes (before archetyp0es, though again, curation means that any one character class only has a handful of archetypes). And I was fed-up of the players only choosing the basic ones, especially after my tens if not hundreds of hours of work, especially on up-rating the weaker 3.5 classes and massive, maqssive amount of work on the Fangshi (nee Kinetecist) - one of the major time-sinks of that rules-overhaul.

(I straight up-told the PCs if no-one plays a Fangshi, they can bloody well expect one to show up every NPC encounter, fragdammit. I'm not even kidding; Monday's job (Monday is quest-writing day) is first to stat out a Fangshi to supplement Third Riddle's first encounter. (It's actually that Fangshi who cases the PCs' barge to get sunk...!)

So this campaign (co-incidentally, it just happens to be the first with a new party) the Not the Usual Suspects rule has been implimented. This restricts the available character classes based on, essentially, everything everyone has played before (which a softer restriction on some characters classes that haven't seen a lot of use and not recently, which are barred to the player that played them).

So for a laugh, here's the list as presented to the players in the Player's Guide, which I have given them as of a few weeks ago. (I am leery of posting the guide up as a drive link, simply because I straight copy-pasted a fair chunk of the source material from Osirion, Legacy of Pharoahs and People of the Sands as well as the Mummy's Mask players' Guide and unless some of the official people at Paizo githe all-clear, sees a bit unsporting to them to do so, especially on their own forums.)

I have substitued strikethrough for what I just greyed out in the document for the unavailable classes.

Bold indicates and available class. Classes not in bold are available (provided the player has not played that class previously.)


  • ALCHEMIST
  • Aerochemist (Archetype)
  • Beastmorph (Archetype)
  • Gloom Chymist (Archetype)
  • Grenadier (Archetype)
  • Vaultbreaker (Archetype)
  • Vivisectionist (Archetype)
  • ANTIPALADIN[2]
    Unholy Terror (Archetype)
    Intulo Templar (Archetype)

  • ARCANIST
    Blood Arcanist (Archetype)
    Brown-Fur Transmuter (Archetype)
    Occultist (Archetype)
    Unlettered Arcanist (Archetype)

    ARCHIVIST
    ARDENT
    BARBARIAN
    Armoured Hulk (Archetype)
    Beastkin Berserker (Archetype)
    Invulnerable Rager (Archetype)
    Mad Dog (Archetype)

    BARD
    Dervish Dancer (Archetype)
    Dirgesinger (Archetype)
    Sound Striker (Archetype)
    Thundercaller (Archetype)

    BEGUILER
    BLOODRAGER
    Crossblooded Rager (Archetype)
    Rageshaper (Archetype)
    Steelblood (Archetype)

    BRAWLER
    Martial Prodigy (Archetype)
    Shield Champion1 (Archetype)

    CLERIC
    Ecclesitheurge (Archetype)
    Undead Lord (Archetype)

    CRUSADER

    DIVINE MIND
    DRAGON SHAMAN
    DREAD NECROMANCER
    DRUID
    Menhir Savant (Archetype)
    Restorer (Archetype)
    Shapeshifter (Archetype)

    DUSKBLADE
    Dusk Magus (Archetype)
    ERUDITE
    FANGSHI
    Elemental Avatar (Archetype)
    Zǔzhòu Fangshi (Archetype)

    FIGHTER
    Archer (Archetype)
    Drill Sergeant (Archetype)
    Martial Master1 (Archetype)
    Mobile Fighter (Archetype)
    Mutation Warrior (Archetype)
    Polearm Master (Archetype)
    Two-Handed Fighter (Archetype)

    GUNSLINGER
    Bolt Ace (Archetype)
    HEXBLADE
    Aspect Blade (Archetype)
    Bonded Servitor (Archetype)

    HUNTER
    Feral Hunter (Archetype)
    Primal Companion Hunter (Archetype)

    INQUISITOR
    Monster Tactician (Archetype)
    Sacred Huntsmaster (Archetype)
    Tactical Leader (Archetype)

    INVESTIGATOR
    Empiricist (Archetype)
    Cipher (Archetype)
    Lamplighter (Archetype)
    Questioner (Archetype)

    KNIGHT
    [3]
    Cavalier[3] (Archetype)
    Constable (Archetype)
    Samurai
    [3] (Archetype)
    LURK
    MAGUS
    Card Caster (Archetype)
    Eldritch Archer (Archetype)
    Hexcrafter (Archetype)
    Staff Magus (Archetype)

    MARKSMAN
    Spearman (Archetype)

    MARSHAL
    MONK
    Drunken Master (Archetype)

    Formcrafter (Archetype)
    Monk of the Mantis (Archetype)
    Scaled Fist (Archetype)
    Sensei (Archetype)
    Sublime Monk (Archetype)
    Windstep Master (Archetype)

    Zen Archer (Archetype)

    NINJA

    Invisible Blade (Archetype)[4]
    ORACLE
    Ancient Lorekeeper (Archetype)

    Favoured Soul (Archetype)
    Spirit Guide (Archetype)
    Warsighted (Archetype)

    PALADIN
    Holy Commander (Archetype)
    PSION
    Devoted Psion (Archetype)

    PSYCHIC ROGUE
    PSYCHIC WARRIOR
    RANGER
    Guide (Archetype)
    Skirmisher (Archetype)
    Wild Hunter (Archetype)

    ROGUE
    Acrobat (Archetype)

    Eldritch Scoundrel (Archetype)
    Knife Master (Archetype)
    Master of Disguise (Archetype)
    Pirate (Archetype)
    Rake (Archetype)
    Sly Saboteur (Archetype)
    Thug (Archetype)

    SCOUT
    SEKKOU
    SHAMAN
    Possessed Shaman (Archetype)
    Speaker for the Past (Archetype)
    Unsworn Shaman (Archetype)

    SHUGENJA
    SKALD
    Court Poet (Archetype)
    Totem Channeller (Archetype)

    SLAYER
    Bounty Hunter (Archetype)
    Assassin (Archetype)
    Sniper (Archetype)

    SORCERER
    Crossblooded (Archetype)
    SOULKNIFE
    Armoured Blade (Archetype)
    Cutthroat (Archetype)
    Deadly Fist (Archetype)
    Nimble Blade (Archetype)
    Psychic Armoury (Archetype)
    Soulbolt (Archetype)
    Soulgunner (Archetype)
    Shielded Blade (Archetype)

    SPELLTHIEF
    Exploiter Spellthief (Archetype)
    SPIRIT SHAMAN
    SUMMONER
    Master Summoner (Archetype)
    Synthesist (Archetype)

    SWASHBUCKLER
    Flying Blade (Archetype)
    SWORDSAGE
    TACTICIAN
    Swarmer (Archetype)[b]
    TRACKER
    WARBLADE
    [b]WARLOCK
    Curse Warlock (Archetype)
    Damned Soul (Archetype)
    Enlightened Spirit (Archetype)

    WARMAGE
    WARPRIEST
    Cult Leader (Archetype)
    Lay Priest (Archetype)
    Sacred Fist (Archetype)
    Shieldbearer (Archetype)

    WILDER
    WITCH
    Aspect Invoker (Archetype)
    Gravewalker (Archetype)
    Havocker (Archetype)
    Hedge Witch (Archetype)
    Herb Witch (Archetype)
    Ley Line Guardian (Archetype)
    Seducer (Archetype)
    Winter Witch (Archetype)

    WIZARD
    Elemental Specialist (Archetype)
    Exploiter Wizard (Archetype)
    Necromancer Lord (Archetype)

    WU JEN

[2] Restricted because Paladin is, and because of my standing rule "either everyone s Evil or no-one is" (and the fact we have a lot of standing parties that are Evil means it's not all that uncommon, those they tend to be more of the quarterly day quest groups.

[3]3.5's Knight stabbed Cavalier, stole a lot of it's stuff and made it and Samurai and made them into its own archtypes. It also is noted to the PCs that while these are available options, classes dependant on mounts not being the best ideas for tomb-exploration...!

[4] 3.5's prestidge class turned into an archetype. It's on the banned list (this time) because of frankly, Prince Khalim from our (pre-PF1 integration) 3.Aotrs-conversion of Night Below, who was a Rogue/Ninga/Swordsage/Onivisible Blade. Not helped by the flipping module handing ut Wings of Flying in basically the first encounter, so I had 17 levels of dealing with a flying invisible Sneak Attack with a ludicrous luff skil so EVEN WHEN dealing with the numerous Kuo-Toa, them being able to see him didn't matter...!

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

For the sake of argument, I might as well post the work so far. I spent much of the yeat paused while I did another major rules overhaul that ballooned out of control, but I have started back. I'd totally forgotten about the this thread until recently.

One thing I initially missed was the Ravenous Sphinx (location of the Third Riddle) is only a few miles south of Wati. Whcih is a bit odd, since having missed that map note, its text said "in shadows of the Brazen Peaks" which, in no uncertain terms, a few miles south of Wati it is not.

My placement on the map...

Link

...was based on the description (since Third Riddle predated having a little map), and because it fitted better with the module. So now I have just had to explain that the Ravenous Sphinx on the map... Isn't the real one, but a misidenified sphinx. Which explais why no bugger got into it until Colm Safan did because t'weren't the real one.

This placement where it is is important, as getting to it brings the PCs past where I set up Pazar, which will be part of the prologue.

The plot and progression has been ironed out. Destiny of the Sands proved to be an superlative dovetail into the whole thing. The [scholar] I had previously mentioned? Now Amenopheus, down on his luck. He provides an ideal in, and making Martek having used and repurposed Sage Jewels into the various star gems ties in narratively and thematically (with Martek-as-Keleshite despoiling useless old Osirion stuff). It means that, if Amenopheus accompanies the PCs to start with - just to get him to Pazar - I can be sure that the star gem there IS taken and the efreeti released, kicking off the DoD plot.

(In order to make sure he doesn't dominate the 2st level PCs, after being kicked out by the Ruby Prince, he's recently had his spellbook nicked. So he only has a load of low-level, mostly combat-rubbish spells. But conveniantly, he also serves as a go-to selling-on point for any scrolls the PCs fid, while he painstakingly rebuilds his spellbook.)

Amenopheus can thus be helping the PCs between quests, pointing them in various directions (e.g. Entombed with the Pharoahs etc) that are not on the critical path.

The fact that Destiny of the Sands brings in mythic provides a perfect excuse for the PC's mythic - they just keep a bit after that path.

Really all dovetails in nicely!

Timeline/ Sequence

DoD: The Sunken City of Pazar
Third Riddle
MM: The Half-Dead City
Destiny of the Sands: A Bitter Bargain
Destiny of the Sands: Race to Seeker’s Folly
Destiny of the Sands: Sanctum of the Sages
MM: Empty Graves
AE: Entombed with the Phaorahs
Beacon Below
MM: Shifting Sands (Part One)
AE: Pact Stone Pyramid
MM: Shifting Sands (Part Two)
DoD: The Tomb of Amun-Re
DoD: Oasis of the White Palm
MM: Secrets of the Sphinx
DoD: The Tomb of Martek
MM: Slaves Trenches of Hakotep
MM: Pyramid of the Sky Pharoah
MM: Ulunat Stirs
MM: Vengeance From the First Age
AE: Doomsday Dawn When Stars Go Dark

Prologue
Start in Wati
• PCs want to form band to explore tombs, require liscense (too expensive) Amenopheus offers to pay if they help looking for missing friend
Journey to Ravenous Sphinx
• Boat sabotaged by Cult of Last Theorum agents disguised as Aspis Consortium agents (also heading to the Sphinx to search for the Last Theorum)
• PCs have to trek downriver on north bank , have to make a detour around an area of cliffs
• Sandstorm caused by Aucturn Engima’s final 11th phase gets them extreme lost

DoD: The Sunken City of Pazar
• PCs release Khalithanus (rumours of his action heard through next step) and recover the Star of Aga-Pelar

Third Riddle
• PCs secure 3rd riddle, again encounter Cult of Last Theorum agents disguised as Apsis Consortium agents seeking Last Theorum
• Uneventful trip back to Wati
Part 1: Secret of the Tombs
MM: The Half-Dead City

Destiny of the Sands
• Amenopheus and the PCs find the Diamond Sage
• Mythic Tier 1

MM: Empty Graves
• Amenopheus gets PCs to race to tomb looking for Last Theorum

AE: Entombed with the Phaorahs

Part 2: Desert of Desolation
Beacon Below
• The Diamond Sage asks the PC to help clear out the lower levels of the sanctum.

MM: Shifting Sands (Part One)
• Research on Khalithanus (suggest Martek’s stones are in Parched Dunes)
• Research on Aucturn Engima (limited)
AE: Pact Stone Pyramid
• Amenopheus gets to go to Pact Stone Pyramid before Cult of Last Theorum can enter it
• PCs recover Last Theorum
• Mythic Tier 2

MM: Shifting Sands (Part Two)

DoD: The Tomb of Amun-Re
• PCs recover Star of Mo-Pelar
• Mythic Tier 3?

DoD: Oasis of the White Palm
• PCs recover Star of Khan-Pelar from the Temple of Set
• PCs recover Star of Shah-Pelar from the Crypt of Bader Al-Mosak

MM: Secrets of the Sphinx

Part 3: Convergeance
[b]DoD: The Tomb of Martek

• PCs recover Star of Melos-Pelar from the Cursed City of Stone
• PCs release Martek and defeat Khalithanus
• Mythic Tier 4?

MM: Slaves Trenches of Hakotep
• PCs examine Amber Centograph

MM: Pyramid of the Sky Pharoah

MM: Ulunat Stirs
MM: Vengeance From the First Age
AE: Doomsday Dawn Heroes of Undarin

?? Tumen and the Cult of the Last Theorem?
AE: Doomsday Dawn When Stars Go Dark

(I may yet squeeze in some fo the other outstanding Osirion modules, but those are further removed; Rebel's Ransom and Risen from the Sand might make for location-sites in the desert crawl, though.)

Extended Plot summary

A thousand years ago, the Khelish wizard Martek sealed away the evil Efreet Khalithalus using five re-purposed Sage Jewels, recovered from the Khelish rule of Osirion.

The PCs start out in Wati, ready to form a band to explorer the tombs. However, since the incident in which the Ruby Prince was struck with a wasting disease, the sign-up for the permit has mandated a price, one which the PCs cannot pay.

They are approached by Amenopheus, the Sapphire sage, with a proposition. He will agree to pay the permit fee, if they will escort him to search for a missing collegue, Colm Safan. (Starting the the Third Riddle.)

A Pathfinder, Safan had spent years researching the location of a lost sphinx, that had been worked on and buried: the Ravenous Sphinx. He hired a team or workmen and uncovered it, and dispatched and an excited letter to Amenopheus, but neither the the Sapphire Sage nor the Pathfinders have heard anything from him. Amenopheus was about to contact the Pathfinders to arrange a party to search, but the PCs dovetail nicely and more swiftly with his plans, since he can cut out the trip to Sothis and the time for the Pathfinders to act and dispatch a team south.

However, news of this has reached the Aspis Consortium – and through them, to the even more secretive Cult of the Last Theorem. A group of ambushers are dispatched to intercept the PCs. The cover is, of course, that they are Apsis agents seeking to prevent the PCs from reaching the tomb (and thus the third riddle) – but in reality, they are there try to kidnap the Sapphire Sage. The Cult believe that through Amenopheus, they can finally recover the Last Theorum and unlock the Pharoah of Number’s final designs.

The first action of the cult is to one night sabtage the PCs river barge, to buy them sufficient time to lay the ambush to be sprung later.

This forces the party and their surviving crew and Amenopheus to trek downriver on the north bank of the Crook. And as they are forced to detour around a region of impassable rocks, a huge khamsin strikes, stirred up by the onset of the 11th and final phase of the final 56-year period before Ramlock’s countdown clockes zero. (A period of five years, 33 days.)

Digging out from the storm and hopelessly lost, the PCs stumble into the ruins of the Sunken City of Pazar. In the ruins, and the centre, they find the Star of Aga-Pelar. Amenopheus is stunned and overjoyed – this is a Sage Jewel! A remarkable find.

However, in taking the jewel, Khalithalus is released, howling with triumph. But even as he is released, the tiniest trickle of Mythic power leeches into the PCs. Not enough to manifest yet, but to lay the ground work.

Devastated, Amenopheus finds that the sage jewel is useless now, having been repurposed. All he can find within it now is a faint impression of who will later be revealed as Martek.

The party manages to reach back to the river and continue their journey to the Ravaged Sphinx. The sandstorm disrupted the Cult’s plans too, and their ambush is not as tightly planned as they would have liked.

After the battle, Amenopheus will notice that the raiders are just a bit too obvious in their display of Apsis tokens, and on closer inspection, the bodies all have the tattoo of the Pharoah of Numbers (though the significance escapes Amenopheus at the time).

The PCs continue on to the Ravaged Sphinx and retrieve the Third Riddle. On arrival back at Wati, Amenopheus pays the PCs permit fee, taking the Third Riddle to the Pathfinders for safe-keeping, and saying he will try to find our what happened in Pazar.

In the meantime, the PCs start the lottery and explore the tombs in the first part of Mummy’s Mask.

Before the auction of the treasure looted from the temple starts, Amenopheus contacts the PCs. He has located information that might lead them to the Diamond Sage and more Sage Jewels and that might uncover the mystery of what happened at Pazar.

This leads the PCs into Destiny of the Sands. However, replacing Yjalk’s band of adventurers as another group of Cultists of the Last Theorem arrives, also seeking the Sage Jewels.

The PCs are given a temporary boost of Mythic power while they deal with the last third of the adventure and determine the fate of the Jeweled Sages. But when the power disipates, not all of it leaves, and the PCs gain their first, proper Mythic tier.

The Diamond Sage is able to inform the PCs of Martek’s Prophecy, as some of the memories within were witness to the events that unfolded. Either she or Amenopheus also identify the symbol of the Last Theorem cultists.

The PCs return to Wati just in time for the auction and Empty Graves.

When the mess is settled, Amenopehus contacts the PCs upon hearing the Tomb of the Four Pharoahs has been unearthed and may shed some light on the second mysterious cult, leading into Entombed with the Pharoahs, and a race against the Expeditonary, and their secret Last Theorem cultist plant. While the Last Theorem is not itself present, the PCs find the first countdown clock. However, among the Expeditionary, the secret cultist carries a copy of the Note of the Last Theorem.

The Diamond Sage believes thast some information on the Last Theorem and the Four Pharoahs may be hidden in the depths of the Sanctum, and asks the PCs to see if they can retrive it (leading into Beacon Below).

The PCs head into Tephu do some major research; Meanwhile, the sages research the Notes via their new sources and attempt to investigate if they can use the beason to help locate the other sage jewels re-purposed into Star Gems.

There, the PCs determine that the clues to both the Sky Pharoah and the more recent Khalithalus problem – to recent for the sage’s repositories – lie in the Parched Dunes. But before they can set out, the Sapphire Sage again contacts them about the discovery of the Pact-Stone Pyramid of the Four Pharoahs and sends them in to retreive the Last Theorem itself (undercover of looking for the seeds the Pathfinders want). (And gain their second mythic tier from the Pact Stone itself.)

The PCs can then set out across the long crawl of the Parched Dunes, retriveing more of Martek’s repurposed sage jewels and tracking down the Tomb of Chisisek and the Sightless Sphinx across Shifting Sands and Secrets of the Sphinx.

Before they can go to the Slave Trenches of Hakotep, however, the issue of Khalithalus is pressing, and the PCs must travel to the Glazen Sheets, find the last Star and awaken Martek. However, Martek’s plan does not quite work like he intended, as Khalithalus also gained Mythic Power from the osmosis of the sage jewels, and with his last breath, he destroys the remaining gems to give the PCs a third mythic tier to stop the efreeti once and for all. But this is not without cost, as time has slipped by in both the Tomb of Amun-Re and the timeless places in Martek’s tomb.

The PCs now can deal with the Sky Pharoah. In the slave trenches, they can examine the Amber Centograph in more detail and begin to piece to together the ominous end of the countdown clock’s ticking.

With the Sky Pharoah’s defeat, the immediate threats are both dealt with, but the looming terror of Ramlock’s convergeance remains. Over the next few months, the PCs must recover the White Axiom and deal with the Cult and deal with the problems the shadow of the convergeance is awakening, which only they can deal with, like the awakening of Ululat.

Finally, the PCs can use the White Axiom and travel to Ramlock’s Hollow on the eve of the convergance and stop Ramlock from ending the world.

___________________________

I have gotten up as far as actually writing to the point of the first encounter in the Third Riddle.

I've also been re-reading all the Osirion source material[1]. Aside from me making several changes to my fluff dialogue, for the end game, I feel like the post-Mummy's Mask bit (while time is killed before the conjuction) could be further buffed out by bringing in our mate An-Hepsu XI somehow, since him getting loose or something (perhaps with a legiong of undead-ified former celestials) would be kind of the thing a top-end level/Epic Mythic party could deal with.

Likewise, a trip to Pyramid of Kamaria to stop her an' all might also be a side diversion. (Since the PCs wouldn't exactly need to worry too much about the nonwritten MegaDungeon at that level...!)

If there is still any vague interest beyond this point, I can try and keep a bit more updated.

[1]What prompted me to post up here again was finding the version of the Golarion used on the Pathfinder wiki and Wati being in utterly yhe wrong place. It is explcitly in the source material at teh confluence of the Asp and Crook where the Spinix starts, and tha map version has it well south of the Ravenous Sphinx nowhere near the placement on the official maps. So far off, I was like "did a magical event move it or something...?" If I knew how to contact the map person, I'd let them know, but...)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

So as I was reminded today, Create Water is something of a problem.

It is an example of why I call a story-breaking spell. A spell which, while it might not have any particularly mechanic-breaking power, completely circumvents some challenges - and also undermine the actual world-building, unless playing a tippy-verse style campaign. (Which I wouldn't, personally.)

In this specific case, I am running a mega-campaign in Osirion, framed around the Mummy's Mask adventure path, but mixing in AD&D's Deserts of Desolation (into the middle two books in that relavnt section0, and as many PF1 Osirion modules and society bits as I could cram in.

The PCs will reach the relevant part of Shifting Sands at a first-order magnitude pass estimated level of 8. (It might be higher.)

(I'm playing a hybrid of 3.5/PF1, though it is more PF1 than 3.5 at this point.)

According to the rules a Medium creature ina hot environment requires 1 gallon of water per day, two if the temperature spikes.

Create Water, a 0th level spell, can create 2 gallons/level.

In 3.5, this would mean a single spellcaster would only be able to cast it four times. (8 gallaons/level.) Pathfinder 1 has this unlimited, but I have already capped some captrips - Create Water among them, along with 3.5's Cure/Inflict Minor Wounds - to only be able to be cast four times (same number as you would in 3.5) before being expended.

However, that's still 64 gallons of water per day at level 8 (from a single 0th level spell slot) - eight cubic feet, so maybe a bathfull? That means a single 0th level spell slot can obiviate the need for the party to carry water, as that would be enough for eight party members AND THEIR CAMELS (at 4 gallons/day so a total of 40 gallons), but horror of horrors, they'd require a second 0th level spell slot for hot days (where they'd need 80 gallons).

This kind of defeats the point of, like, ever having any challenge in survival.

"But Aotrs, adventurers shouldn't ever have to worry about being attacked resting or food or water, that's something that they should be able to hand-wave away as never being important!" I disagree and I don't want them to do that. Especially in a campaign in which that's... Kind of a point.

So, I need to fix one of two things.

One, nerf Create Water; either by reducing the amount it creates, or perhaps more reasonably, limiting the amount of water it can create per cast (ala spell damage dice cap) - or even, perhaps, raising the level of the spell. To the point it should mitigate - but not obiviate - the amount of water the PCs will have to deal with.

Two, adjudicate whether the quoted 1-2 gallons of water per day is actually (close enough to being) right and to adjust if not.

I am entirely open to other suggestions on how to make this work; perhaps by making sure the PCs carry sufficient containers for that water, but that seems (by the time you add a camel) almost trivial to fix.

How did everyone else handle this in Mummy's Mask specifically?

One other factor in play in this specific case is a limitation of the character classes the PCs can choose - specifially, they are not allowed to have any of the classes that have seen regular use (which basically wipes out the entire core classes of both 3.5/PF1), which should mitigate stuff like Rope Trick/Magnificant Mansion et al shanigans.

(This time. I was EXTREMELY generous to the current campaign's party in allowing the wizard to have a special, upgraded version of Rope Trick that was 3rd level but did not asplode when the party took theie Handy Haversacks in it when I realised that was what would happen with the regular version that they had been using.)

Create Food and Water is another potential problem, but at least that's coming off a 3rd level spell slot and would require either and oracle burnig a spell learned or a shaman in the party, neither of which is guarenteed; and scrolls, of course, would cost more.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

messy wrote:
the abundance of noncore material,

Personally, this is one thing I think is a very strong point in Paizo's favour and I wish everyone else did it too. Having been running pre-published modules and quasi-APs before there were APs - especially in coverted AD&D modules - for decades, one thing that was always VERY noticable was the that almost everything (in almost every RPG, not just D&D) was all basically mostly constrained to core rules, with the occasional extra. This automatically made the PCs special, because they had access to everything that wasn't in the core rules (including a lot of the better stuff - core 3.5 is especially unbalanced and unfavourable to noncasters).

The quantum leap of Paizo putting up EVERYHING on Nethys was, in my opinion, as much a masterstroke as 3.0 was over AD&D itself and I can't understand why it hasn't become the industry default. Because that meant they DIDN'T have to do that in their adventures, like they did if you had to expect everyone to physically have the books to use something in a pre-written adventure. That means more varity for the DM (because there's a point at which "another NPC wizard/cleric" gets really old, nevermind you end up having to revise their sub-par core spell list on top) and it provides a bit more immersion - and, of course, ensures that noncore PCs at least stand some chance of getting some magic items by default.

messy wrote:
Least favorite was Hell’s Vengeance. Evil characters? No, thanks.

I haven't looked at Hell's Vengeance myself, but mostly because we're not exactly short of evil parties in rotation. Yes, in the plural. We have 1/3 3.x fantasy parties (the oone being the Dark Lord's uncover dirty black ops team), plus the replacements for the twenty-year real-time-long Rolemaster/Spacemaster party (which is incidentally Evil, since the premise is sort of explore-y, Stargate-like and the power which had the most detail and thus required the least amount of effort to prepare just happened to be the high-tech magical space liches (ironically a DOWNGRADE from the previous random adventurers)) and, techincally, the one D20 Star Wars party in rotation - though we havn't played it in many years - is an Empire commando fighter squadron like Evil Rogue Squadron. (We have actually played more Empire parties than non-Empire parties over the years in Star Wars...)

3rd party Way of the Wicked is on my list of APs I have bought and intend to run one day, but first the group needs to survive long enough to run the ones I really, really want to run, which includes Irpon Gods and what I'm currently working on, incorporating basically ALL of Paizo's released Osirion material alongside AD&D Deserts of Desolation into one mega-campaign.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Ckorik wrote:
Aotrscommander wrote:
(First, I need to finish re-writing mythic a bit, to make it fall somewhere beteen tabletop and Owlcat's version, which I like as a little bit more as a side grade....!)

IIRC - get rid of mythic power attack - mythic vital strike - and limit mythic power to 1 point per turn (or min points to activate ability - there are a few that take more).

That cleaned up about 90% of the crazy for us - it only started to run away at the very end - and it is possible to still kick the players around - but takes a ton of prep to do so... so caveat emptor.

That was really the biggest issue with high level PF1 - the number of feats and abilities and rules you had to handle as a GM and prep work if you wanted to have a tough fight .... it was a ton of work, the 'easy' way to do it is of course just keep upping the CR of the bad guy - but that leads to rocket tag - it is possible to challenge a level 18 tier 3 mythic party with lower level stuff - but it is rough.

Actually, those are in (at least, in the form they are in Owlcat!WotR), it was more things like "PCs all get effectively Evasion/Mettle verses non-mythic" that I saw as instantly off-putting. PCs doing 700 damage per round at 18th-level non-mythic is something I'm already dealing with, and while the extra damage is more, it's dimishingly returns more by that point anyway. (And it's MUCH easier for me to counter high damage by just having, like enemies with more hit point tanks.)

As Owlcat's mythic doesn't HAVE mythic power usages, I'm sharply limiting uses anyway; and there basically won't be mythic spells at all[1]; instead, Owlcat's +4 spells of each level per day and 24-hour buffs are the replacements; that won't make the PCs WORSE, it'll just mean maybe an hour-adventuring day instead of fifteen minutes. But I will take note of your points regardless on said daily uses.

[1]Didn't like the concept to start with, and I was not going through all the 3.5 and homebrew spells to add mythic versions so that it wasn't just a subsystem bolted-on (which was the entire poit of writing a proper hybrid to properly intergrate 3.5 and PF1 content).

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Certainly for 3.5/PF1, top-level play is extremely intensive and requries a lot of work.

I HAVE run all the way into Epic in 3.5 (low epic, no more than maybe 21-23-ish, I forget), but that was crazy work. With six PCs.

My (six-strong) party completed Rise of the Runelords at 18th (in my 3.5/PF1 hybrid) and they were probably stronger and it was horrendous! (Fun, but wow, crazy. Even with my boss monsters with multiple maximum hit-blocks and being able to burn away bad status effects.)

Karzoug himself lasted about one session and maybe two or three rounds? (Admittedly, becauase I did hand them a benefit so that they didn't all instantly die when his first prepared spell, (10th Mass Flesh to Stone...) didn't bork the whole group immediately, but...)

It was never a surprise that Paizo didn't go all the way up there most of the time, it's just so intensive and requires so much space. (Karzoug's adjusted stat block ran to one-and-half-pages of calibri-size-ten font, and my stat blocks are more compact that late 3.5/Pathfinder standard. As for the Vampire Skulk Lurks, dear frag, that was a lot of paper...)

I mean, some of us are stupid enough to consider doing things like coverting massive modules to high level (the Epic party? Finished on Dragon Mountain (the AD&D module full of kobolds) punted to 16th to Epic) and I have seriously considered doing a direct sequel to Rise of the Runelords using Return of the Runelords at 18th to Epic... But first I want to do some other stuff I really want to do (Osirion mega-campaign, Iron Gods).

(As you can gather, I am not a fan of a fixed level cap. 3.5 Epic is... Not great in a lot of ways, but some of the core ideas work, like, fixing saves and attack bonuses to a slower progression and a big jump in XP to basically a soft cap where Epic is more or less extra time. Epic spells... Not so much.)

James Jacobs wrote:
Maybe check out Owlcat's version? I had a lot of fun playing that one!

I'm stil playing through it, 315 hours in (making it I think the longest single RPG play through I can log...)

Since I'm DM forever, I also took the opportunity to mod-out the level cap so I can play Epic Pathfinder, which is going to be as close to me playing that as I'm ever going to get, since PF1 has only had those two glorious games...

Bjørn Røyrvik wrote:
Having run a Pf1 group at 20th for several years now, more high level adventures is appealing. I'm fine with making my own stuff or converting and adapting from other editions, but I like to have something to work with as a starting point. I turned my game into Epic 20, i.e. every so often you get a new feat or special ability without increasing things like BAB, HP, CL or saves. This was not strictly speaking necessary for the enjoyment of the game, but it helped mitigate the odd feeling that there was nothing left to learn, especially when the campaign is about specifically about learning new stuff to become more powerful.

Huh. You know, I'd never considered Epic 20... That's not a terrible idea at all. Hrm... I might be more inclined to go Epic 30 myself, BUT that's still an approach I'd not considered, so as/when my group ACTUALLY get to Epic again, that's something to remember...

(First, I need to finish re-writing mythic a bit, to make it fall somewhere beteen tabletop and Owlcat's version, which I like as a little bit more as a side grade....!)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Okay.

I have started to piece things together in anger, and today I made a proper attempt to site the Desert of Desolation stuff.

This is predicated on the initial assumptions that 1) before Mummy's Mask starts, there will be a Proloogue, in which the PCs travel down to do The Third Riddle (to pay for their tomb-hunting liscene in Wati) and in the process, encounter the Sunken City of Pazar as the first advanture location, to set thing in motion.

This is the oddessey it has taken today, present for an insanity check (since no-one sane would do this.)

Okay, so we know from a few posts ago, the Deserts of Desolation map is insanrly too big.
Link

So it wants to try and be placed conveniantly into the Shifting Sands/Secrets oif the Sphnix portions of the game at least in part.

First then, as TurboCAd won't let me transparent images, I needed to make a quick line scribble of the player handout maps.

Link

The Merchant's Oasis is such an obvious place to combine with the Oasis oif the White Palm that I made it my starting spot and thus scaled from there. After a bit of fiddlin,g I decided to move it. In the original, it's the upper of the two locations wuith a palm tree, but it fitted better with the lower one.

Link

This left the Tomb of Amunre on the left of the map, and Pazar off the map down south where it was going to be near enough to the line of travel for the PCs to run into in on the way to the Third Riddle.

This shows roughtly where the Secrets of the Sphinx map sits into the larger Osirion map, and thus where this fits in.

Link
Link

That was an approximation from the player handout map, so the next job wa to fit the DoD map key better.

Link

8 is a signpost

9 is the region of Bakar, where the PCs start to encounter the pharoah's ghost.

10 is Pazar.

11 is the Tomb of Amunre.

12 is Not On The Map.

13 and 14 are stuff found on the route

15 is an unimportant oasis

16 is the air lancer patrol region around Oasis of the White Pal (17)

18 is Not On The Map

19 is the lost city of Pheonix and surrounds

20 is the Crypt of Badr Al-Mosak

So, i then, with a bit of effort, since the player map and the DM grid don't QUITE match exactly, got the numbers to about the right place.

Link

Quick bit of substitution to swap areas 15 and 16/17 and a little bit of moving around...

Link

And a tweak of Pazar on the larger map...
Link

Ad yay, that all fits nicely.

The upper half of the map was going to prove troublesome, though. Fortuantely, there's a gap in the middle (and the maps line up terribly.
But it was clear from the initial pass that I was going to have a lot of trouble fitting the upper DoD map onto the Parched Dunes map.

But as I wrestled, I spotted the Glzaen Sheets on the main Osirion map. A quick check - area of sandless desert, some of which was glass, fused by some unknoen reason.

Well, if that WASN'T a direct homage to Desrts of Desolation, it was certainly a gift! After all, no need to immediately set the third part of DoD in the Secrets of the Sphinx exploration.

So, stick it THERE. But I was then going to have to do some fiddling - maybe change the direction and size, perhaps not to the same scale as the first map?

For starters, put the player map over the DM one.

And... Hmm.

Link

Stuff on't map don't match up.

22 are sandskiffs, for the PCs tro travel across the Skysea.
23 is just a description
24/25 is the island/city at the centre (the latter being 10 miles across).

26 are the three pillars of Martek to triangulate the tomb itsle f(not on the map).

But on the player map, theres three pillars and a set of four pillars and they don't match the DM map.

One of the three pillars on the player handout doesn't have a location at all (south-east) and The north-west one is just a pillar, not the actual tomb of Martek anyway.

Okay, I could maybe use PaintShopPro 8 to sand out those bits?

Well, I figured, put the numbers on, And for the sake of arguement, to use the DoD location maps right, the 24/25 hex needed to be ten miles, So I scaled. As it happens, if I kept the scribble-map the same scale as the bottom half, it fitted okay, except for that damn river.

Link

And then it struck me.

Where'd placed it the lower west/east portion of the river closesly followed the line of the Crook.

So, with a bit of map editing in Paint Shop Pro, I inexpertly moved things around a bit.

This:

Link

Became this:

Link

Which fitted in fine.

Link

Then just a line to add a rough path of the old river bed to link the two.
Link

And I think, ladies and/or/through gentleman, I have something approximating a reasonable set of map locations.

The next job is figuring out how to fit Entombed with the Pharoahs/Pact Stone Pyramid in. But in looking up the Glazen Wastes, I happened on a reference to Tumen, and following that through... Led my to learning about the Cult of the Lost Thereom in the ruins of Tumen.

That is too much of a giveaway not to use. It might also help frame things.

1) Perhaps the raiders in Third Riddle are not Apsis, but each bears the mark of the Pharoah of Numbers (and are in reality, Cultists if the Lost Theroem chasing down a potential (but wrong) hint.

2) [Scholar] could perhaps learn of them during the early Mummy's Mask bits and when they here about the encovering of the Tomb of the Four Pharoahs, ask the PCs to go look for it there. Abnd the oppositon adventuring party could be not Cheliax, but instead cult members. (Or perhaps be inflitrated, even by a cult member who has been replaced by a water clone...) No-one finds the Lost Theroem, but they do see a countdown clock.

3) A bit later, [Scholar] learns of the uncovering of the Pact Stone Pyramid. Here, the Exemplar becomes another cultist, and it is a race to retrive the Lost Theruem again, this time succesfully.

4) Possibly side-quests later to deal with the Cultists in Tumen (whose leader has perhaps been MindQuaked into helping forwar Ramlock's goals).

That's as far as I've gotten. Placing the Aucturn stuff by level will be te next challenge, which I don't have time for today. But I have, at least, started to get a sort of coherent-ish meshing of the plots.

Again, if anyone had any suggestions, please voice them!

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Not to be a downer, but BattleTech (i.e. Catalyst Game Labs, which is doing staggeringly well at the moment) and I tentatively think might be a bigger company overall (maybe?) hasn't even really managed that. It's a sore point with EU/RoW customers. Shipping from the US is absolutely insane (especially when shipping TO the US is not as remotely bad). CGL also seems likely to be stuck with FedEx on some sort of contract, because I can't otherwise understand why they have been silent on issues when customers are reporting how much FedEx are extracting the michel. ($120 to ship a less-than-$20 PLASTIC figure[1]. It cost me in the UK only about £20 or so to send a model of what would be about the same weight TO the US. (Notably? About the same as it cost to send to Austraila, LITERALLY the otherside of the world.) And we're talking here "weight of packing exceeds weight of item" levels here.)

It's not a new issue, either, sadly; a few or few back, Paizo had one of their clear-out hardcopy sales, *and even at 50% off* is was cheaper to buy the PDFs than get the books, because the shipping was ridiculous.

(It didn't use to be this bad, I do have some hardcopy stuff, though we're going back maybe ten-fifteen years.)

[1]If I believed what a list of their prices are/were when someone dug it up, they wanted to charge something like $50-70 dollars to send a *letter* to CANADA, which doesn't even have the excuse of even being overseas.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

And because 2023 is fighting me every day, the satisfaction and excitement is now tempered by the news that the wargames club venue is really struggling to keep afloat (especially due to power running costs). Which would be something of a disaster, since it is so hard to find venues that aren't stupidly expensive these days. So now we have that hanging over our heads. (And it's not something we can do anything about, since they basically get the bulk of the money from hiring out to events, and stuff keeps getting cancelled.)

I could host the roleplaying group at my house every week, but that means that the table has to be cleared for every Monday, which equates to quite a bit of extra work and load on my part. But, y'know, kind of a complete excrementer for the rest of the wargames club on top.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

7 people marked this as a favorite.

As of today, we finally finished Rise of the Runelords.

Only took us ten years!

(I can tell youe xactly, because when I started, I wrote up the first two book's worth on there very forums.)

The characters have remained the same (if two regulated to recurring gues stars). We've lost players (one permenantly) and gained players and we were interrupted for the first time in thirty years fore eighteen months by a global pandemic, but it's done!

Karzoug the Claimer, with a sad inevitability that I could see a mile off ended the same way almost all the boss monsters in the AP ended - the dwarf barbarian's right axe and then the dwarf barbarian's left axe meeting in the middle.

We obviously weren't playing it all that time, but in chunks. In practise, it took us about six months to get through each book. We did that last couple since we re-started since lockdown, so it's taken us a fair bit longer, but high level play in a high power environment (we finished at 18th level) will do that; especially with six PCs and the player shortage we've had where somtimes, we couldn't get enough of us to meet one week in four.

Next week, we start on the second part of Shackled City (with two new players, one of whom came along today and got handed the spare cleric semi-NPC, so what a way to be introduced to the group...!)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

So, I have an hour or before the session tonight where I couldn't do anything useful, so I went back and looked at the maps and scales.

1) The Sunkern City of Pazar isn't even IN the deser of desolation. It is mostly a puzzle dungeon with Some Spiders, so there's not reason it couldn't be moved anywhere in Osirion, and put right at the start of the AP (perhaps even on the way to a prelude society module before starting the HaldDead City.

2) I went and compared the map scales of Pharoah and DoD. The difference is staggering. Pharoah's map is 2 miles to a hex, for a start.This places the first point of interest only ten miles from the starting point. DoD has the party travel *90* miles from the starting city to reach the same place (sixty miles before you even get started). At the compliation's estimated travel speeds, following the roads, the PCs are seemingly expected to travel three hexes per day (close enough) and 3 and a bit to 4 hours to cross a hex. At a random encounter rate of 33% every hour (1-2 on D6 - so an expected rate of 8 per day), I worked out the module expects something like 36 encounters before you even get into the desert of desolation. A cursory estimate of fastest critical path, assuming the PCs go exactly in the right order to minimise backtracking, I got to something like 56 day's travel (so over 200 random encounters...?)

Bonkers.

This is completely unnecessary. Random encounters generally add very little to the gameplay. I've become less and less fond of them as the years pass unless there is some careful scripting. Hell, I long ago took to preparing random encounters in advance anyway as far back as AD&D itself) so that they could have some semblence more than "suddenly, monsters appear, fight" like it was Pokémon or something. RNG is not the DM, I am...

What I've found that's worth salvaging so far would be better run a scriped encounter anyway.

So what the DoD maps have is a lot of wasted space that does nothing. It's needless large. I am much more inclined to put the spacing of stuff back to much closer to Pharoah was, which means I could much more easily fit into the relevant section of the Mummy's Mask map-crawl, I suspect. Hang the actual handout maps, tain't worth it. I'll just do it by description if necessary, it's not worth preserving for that amount of extra headache.

I still need to read on, but I think I'm fairly convinced at this point I will be far better putting stuff where I darn like and maybe trimming out a lot of the less than great parts and just pasting some pieces into other module's bits - maybe not even in the same order. (There's no seemingly good reason why the Oasis of the White Palm sections, if kept, couldn't be placed in a different earlier even before the Pharoah stuff, and good reason to not plonk a habitation in the middle of a more trackless desert... Looking at MM map, that could neatly be rolled into the existant Merchant's Oasis, even.)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

I read to up Oasis of the White Palm and the temple of Set last night.

Again, the quality control on the module is shocking - the maps were not fixed. The map of the Oasis of the White Palrm is labelled with letters - the text with numbers and they don't *even* seem to match terribly well.

It's not even especially clear how easily the PCs get embroiled in the intregue, either. There are some vague "ifs"- and some of those seemed to rely on having come acroos random encounters - but it seemed to me that a party could accidently totally miss half of it or just blunder into something by walking into the wrong building...

The temple within the compound was also not terribly interesting, and since it basically only contributes to the main plot by having one of Plot Items just lying around on the side, one feels that might be able to be cut entirely. I might re-write some of this much more heavily than I intended, because wow, it's so badly out together. It feels like it lacks a lot of connective tissue, which is really the One Job it had, threading the three seperae moduless together.

(It seems more disjointed in some ways than Shackled City and I've had to do some mederate re-writing and expansion to that!)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

I read up to the end of the Pharoah portion of DoD.

I am definitely suspecting the modules itself was written in the late TSR period, because there is a shocking lack of quality control. In fact, between this and the lack of fracks given in the conversion to PDF this may actually be one of the worst-presented D&D modules I've ever come across, which is very disappointing.

I found on very obvious and repeated typo (in text added from the original module), clearly copy-pasted.

For no apparent reason, the map numbering system had been changed. Instead of being prefixzed with a letter and the whole pyramid of Amun-Re beign in one continuous scheme, the new author decided to break each level into its own number scheme (with no letters, which meant they had to specific "[section of tomb], number" instead of just "number".). But they actually failed to replace several of the labelling on the map, delting the onl ones but not adding the new ones. So I had to get out a pen, and my old hard-copy of Pharoah, and puzzle out where the numbers were missing from. On top of that, there is a vertical diagram of one of the rooms, which is still labelled with the old Pharoah numbering, which bears no relation to the new one. Pen again. Shocking lack of basic checking.

While some stuff has been added, other stuff was apparently just omitted for no reason. The spellcaster boss of the tomb's entire spell list was just... [i]missing/i] in the updated version.

Also missing the the option ending fluu text; but that was something that actually added some flavour text for breaking the curse and making the exercise meaningful. Here, it's just "bottom of the page, finishing describing the tomb, next page, start on next section."

(Given that, as this indicates there is no real conncective tissue between these various sections other than "traipse through desert," so maybe I CAN just add the locations to the Mummy's Mask map and have done with it...)

One other facet, more of the era than of the production values, since it was something in the original module as well. For a hiterto unlootedable tomb, there sure are a lot of random people in it. Three random NPCs - not even apparebntly from the same advanturing party (names, module? No? Are these just supposed to be replacement PCs or what?) A group of lost bandits. A group of lost dervishes. Some dopplegangers. Some minotaurs. A random gnome )who has, from implication, spend years mining the tomb with a spoon but managing to not disturb the clay golem in the same area...?)

The previous section did not particularly have the denizens of th temple through which access is granted concerned that they'd recently had loads of people filing into the tomb - you'd have though that would have made more note than "some of their dudes went inside and haven't come out."

So I may need to fill this out a bit and make some attempt at explaination, because there are fairly glaring logical inconsistencies nowadays. Maybe the dervishes in the temple arrived only lately, perhaps persuing the bandits. As for maybe three sets of advanturers, I dunno.

One tempting thing, though, is to perhaps have some sort of rarely triggered temporal effect around the tomb - because just maybe, I can tie this back to the coutndown clock. Maybe anyone unfortnate enough to be in the mists of the maze in tomb at the point the pendulum swings (every 56 years) doesn't come out until the next one. It would add a bit more foreshadoing, at any rate.

(I mean, ypou could go with something more frequent and sublt, like on every 56th day it happens, or every day sepnt inside the temple 56 days pass outside, but I think the trouble with that is it might TOO subtle.)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

4 people marked this as a favorite.

I believe this video basically sums it up, really.

A Message From WotC About OGL*

*Curtesy of Going Rogue.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Bjørn Røyrvik wrote:
Off the top of my head that seems like the best solution. I'm not too familiar with DoD and I'm AFB, but is there any reason you can't just drop the original map and place the important bits where you will in Osirion?

That's a bit of a potentially messy issue.

One of the problems that's just occuring to me (having read the link above) is that there are player map handouts which fit to the map as given. Now, I can certainly chop bits off of it; the entire prelude to the bit that basically starts Pharoach could be safely dropped, for one.

After I made the OP, I spent a while painstakingly mapping out where all the modules and adventure locations take place - and the spot I was looking at is EXACTLY where the similar (and of course no doubt inspired) hex-crawling portion of Mummy's Mask is located.

So there is something to be said for adding at least some of Deserts of Desolation right into that portion of Mummy's Mask when the PCs are already doing a hex-crawl exploration - it's pretty much too much of a gift NOT to ignore.

The problem is, of course, still space. I made a thread on the PF reddit, and some of the suggestions there included making it a demi-plane - which has the potential to be tied into Ramlock's Hallow and the Aucturn Engima plot or a TARDIS area (magcially bigger on the inside - maybe worn through to the First World a bit). I have even this mronign being considering the Darklands, maybe all the way down to a hiterto unknown Orvian Vault.

The slight problem with some of that is that is makes it a little bit too self-contained. But I might have to roll with that to some extent, we'll see, but I'd prefer to interlace the three plots a bit more if I can.

To Figure out exactly what I need and what can be cut, I need to completely reading DoD entirely and see what I can actually get away with, but I suspect the problem might be the maps the PCs are supposed to find to lead to the final locations etc.

(I can scale images in my CADs package, but not superimpose them or cut them up, which would make making an accurate change to the handouts themselves considerably more difficult (trial-and-error through two packages), or me trying and failing to make a map handout entirely myself.)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I am starting to look at more details.

The next job was to laboriously copy/paste the timeline from Osirion: Land of Pharoahs into my word document, so I could add and amend the timelines.

Deserts of Desolation is set 1000 years ago. So, if we take that as read, it'll be around 3714, in the middle of the Keleshite Interregnum.

Okay. Martek, the guy whom Deserts of Desolation surrounds on, was the Grand Vizier of Raurin (which is a desert region in the realms, apparently), so easy enough to make one of the Sultan's people.

Actually, there is a cultural division between the Raurindi and Dupari peoples, with the former being natives and the later being trader-types who came later. That would map reasonably well to the native Osirioni and the Kelshites, wouldn't it? Close enough anyway. DoD's dervishes are just a sect of the Osirioni who particularly worship the old gods... Neat.

However, next is the big problem... Osirion isn't big enough!

When trying to work out where to place things, I have been immediately styimied.

Here is the map from Osirion, Land of Pharoahs and the map from Desert of Desolation in the same scale.

...

It ain't gonna fit, are it?

So, any suggestions?

Obviously, I want to try and avoid actually having to draw a completely new map is I can.

One obvious idea would be to drastically shrink the size of the DoD map (so some extent, it's fine, if I'm doing this, there's going to be SO MUCH dungeon crawling I want to largely eliminate random encounters (which I increasingly find not useful anyway).

At half size, you could just about squeeze it into the gap between the Scarab river and the Pillars of the Sun (just dodging Lamashtu's Flower and the Crook north and south) and fitting in the Parched Lands (sort of appropriate?) (Red rectangle) But there is the slight issue there doesn't appear to be any mountains or hills north of the Crook.

Test map

One solution might be to angle the region 30º, putting the bottom of the DoD map on the hills, which does dodge most of the other features... It's not ideal, but it's at least still slightly more north than north-east...

However, if anyone can offer any better solutions...

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.
necromental wrote:
Do you have it available? I'm interested

Sort of? It's not, like up on a website or anything, but it would be emailable (though a check and quick run up suggests a zip file is about 16.5 meg with the word files. A mate converts it to PDF and kindle (I mean, I could do the former if I could be arsed), but that's not quite up to date (as there have been a few more little passes as I've been finalising the next pass for the next campaign starting next week.) Drive link might be better than email direct (though I think under the circumstances you'll forgive me if I don't do a completely open one, so PM or email... (as much as anything I try and keep my Drive clear for work stuff!)

Should be noted that it still relies on having some 3.5 books (notably PHB, DMG, PHBII, SpC, ToB, XPH, CompPsi) as I haven't like, re-written/copied up the *entire* of 3.5 et al, just very large chunks.

There are also still some low-impact areas not done exhaustively, that I tackle on a case-by-case basis as need arises. Only a few races, still some domains to be updated (in the final tab of the SpellCrossReferencePrime spreadsheet), only a handful of PrCs, stuff like that. There is a generic bestiary, but that's bascally just a compilation of statblocks that gets updated as I find a monster I haven't used yet. (The Summon Bestiary, on the other hand, has a complete list of everything that is summonable by spell or power in 3.A.) I also need to do a proper index of the witch patrons (I just couldn't be arsed at the time) and we haven't had anyone play one yet, so that's not been a big priority.

(I may eventually add Path of War stuff too, but that would require a complete overhaul of the Tome of Battle disciplines AND, more pertiently, doing loads of new cards and re-printing the old ones and so it'd be a big effort I haven't felt the need to undertake yet.)

But all the classes, feats, spells, powers, equipment and combat stuff is all "done", short of further expansion and errata and such.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

2 people marked this as a favorite.

My solution was to steadily re-write large chunks of PF1/3.5, deal with the niche cases and generally attempt to do to PF1 what PF1 did to 3.5. Or (like with the grappling rules) decide that neither sysrtem got it very right re-write entirely. (Closer to 3.5 than PF1, but also akign sure ALL the relevant universal monster abilities were explictly IN that sectiob as well.)

PF1 still had the problems that the rules were not all in one place for some things - often legacy bits from 3.5, so I did a lot of compiling.

Mind you, what I run is very emphatically NOT a rules-lite, freeform sort fo game. Though at this point, it's bloody well cross-checked and thorough, and well indexed (in terms of spells, feats etc), at least.

But I suspect most people have a panic attack when I say "at last count, 1600 pages" and that was before the v2.1 revisions...! (In fairness, that's because I went through VERY throughly and there is increasingly little left in the core rule books - and only a few of the 3.5 splats - that's not been copied up. But I was rigorous when I did t; anything that was even a minor change, copied into the new set. In particular, any spell that was "as this spell but" had the copied spell moved as well, so that spell chain is all in once place. Net result, the spells document runs to 300 pages, but there is only CR1, Spell Compendium and (3.5) PHBII aside from it to look spells up in. That was where is starte way back, though - to pare down 3.5's burgeoning splatbooks into the bits we'd actually use, and leave the chaff we didn't behind so I'd have less material to take down the club.

That I have a very full 90 litre backpack still might argue on one hand, I didn't succes terribly well - but on the other, two foot of hardbacked 3.5 splats sitting on my shelves says that, yeah, I kinda did on the other.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

9 people marked this as a favorite.

As nobody else has posted it yet, allow me: D&D Short's video on what he has been told by the WotC staff he was in contact with.

Of particular note is this (corroborated) statement (time linked) about the head of D&D's digital stuff, Chris Cao: "he doesn't play D&D, because according to him, he doesn't need to play it to understand what the community wants - he believe his experiences in MMO video games and mobile games is enough and it's all the same anyway."

There we have it, ladies and/or/through gentleman. The TSR-level of contempt for the customer.

Pretty much exactly what I expected (and said as much). Assumption of all markets as the same and therefore what works at one place works identically in the other and thus he can force the market to be what he thinks it should be.

I am not remotely surprised, since this whole thing smacked exactly of that kind of management, sorry, MIS management.

If Hasbro is really expecting to increase D&D's revenue six-fold in the next four years, I can only foresee D&D being sold off when it inevitably fails to reach that mark, EVEN if this debarcle doesn't sink it faster.

(Here's a charming little thought to imagine for a moment of levity in this insantiy - imagine what would happen if it came to that and Paizo (et al) were to sidle up and say "well, tell yer what, we'll that that off yer hands on the cheap, mate...!")

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

He does indeed.

I am definitely waiting for his video tomorrow.

I am not, unfortunately, surprised at all that the news that WotC has been giving everyone placebo surveys and intends to continue to do so. The computer games industry has seemed to rely on people venting angrily on steam forums or social media or something and then still buying the next release; this is just a more advanced form of that, focussing it to somewhere out of sight where it can be deleted quietly.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.
KrispyXIV wrote:
Aotrscommander wrote:

WotC really don't understand what roleplay is, do they?

They really ARE trying to make a computer game without making a computer game.

And it's clear they don't EVEN understand computer games, because making AI that is any good is EXTREMELY difficult and expensive (as anyone who has looked at basically any game of any complexity will find, there are always compalints of "AI is dumb."

They really cracked the code here, so to speak.

Except they also forgot the part where most recent CRPGs live and die based on whether they have a dedicated mod community to keep them going...

AND THEY WANT TO CHARGE FOR MODS.

Which is, ultimately, what homebrew is, is it not? At the end of the day, what is my 3.Aotrs but, functionally, a total conversion mod for 3.5/PF1? Same thing, different label.

And the computer games industry couldn't get THAT to fly. It blew up in their faces sommat rotten.

This AI DMs again, likewise shows a complete misunderstanding.

According to Discourse Miniatures, who apparently has seen one in action these chatbots are functional enough when in a narrowly definied area. I mean, that's not a massive stretch, after all, CRPGs exist and work under the same criterion.

Except that to create those narrowly-defined dungeon crawls... You're going to need to make them. Which is a lot of effort. I mean, you ARE making what is basically a computer game at the end of the day at that point.

Even if WotC is assuming it can steal homebrew modules (which people are potentially paying to put on) to run an AI with, I don't imagine that a module made by Fred Bloggs to run with hs mates once is going to be exhaustively enough prepared or coded etc for an A DM to be able to do that with[1].

Leaving aside that RPGs =/= computer games in the first place and don't serve the same intentions.

What WotC are doing is metaphorically equivalent not to just doing an EA creating the FIFA games (the repetative, grindy microtransaction filled manipulative lootbox hell) but taking over actual FIFA and trying to replace actually going down to the stadium to watch football with playing the games.

(Okay, from my understanding actually going to watch football in the flesh is apparently extremely expensive already - I wouldn't know - but I think my point stands.)

[1]I mean, you might be able to do it with my homebrew quests, since I have always tended to write them as if someone else would play them, but I am rather... Unusually preparation heavy. On the flip side, I ain't never going to be putting it into a format that's not a word document and maybe some CAD maps.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

3 people marked this as a favorite.

WotC really don't understand what roleplay is, do they?

They really ARE trying to make a computer game without making a computer game.

And it's clear they don't EVEN understand computer games, because making AI that is any good is EXTREMELY difficult and expensive (as anyone who has looked at basically any game of any complexity will find, there are always compalints of "AI is dumb."

Anyone belive WotC are going to spend that kind of money and time, and not slap together something in a half-hearted attempt?

After all, why should they bother to make any kind of effort, since they will be charging through the nose for anyone to do anything other than play in the walled garden. (And this is just what they seem to think they can get away with TO START WITH).

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Well, the first phase proved more difficult than I thought; I started printed out Deserts of Desolation.

(I had to pause printing anything else out of length, because the downstairs printer died...)

Starting to read through module, I realised, I really did need the colour maps (which I hadn't printed), so I went back to the PDF and printed the colour land maps. (We have had to move the upstairs printer downstairs...)

And, apparently as with Night Below, when WotC made the PDFs of old modules, they did an APPALLING job with scanning the maps; absolutely RISIBLE. Missing chunks, repeated sections, generally completely usable. They literally don't match up from one sheet to the next. Whoever did the job on those modules CLEARLY made no effort to even remotely check. Shocking. (I bloody hope it was revised since and the copy now for $10 on DrivethruRPG isn't the same as I paid £2.50 for all those years ago..)

For Night Below, I had to rely on the kindess of a gentleman who owned the physical module scanning the maps in for me. (I at one point returned the favour in kind by scanning in some maps of Dragon Mountain, whose physical module I inherted from the Wargames Club.)

I was afraid I would have to do the same here, but I did find one image of the poster maps sheet as a good quality image. With a bit of magic in Paint and some copy/pasting, I managed to get it printed out. Extra points to the lady and/or/through gentleman wot scanned that image, because on my initial print of the hex map (I hadn't bothered scaling the three PCs maps), though I suppose I probably should...) came out at 4 hex to an inch bang on; at 200% scale, it is perfectly scaled for the intended 1" to 2 hexes (a hex being 5 miles). (I'd be less bothered about the precision, but the actual maps don't have a scale ON them other than '1" to a 10 miles'...)

New printer is ordered now, so when that comes, I can carry on...

(Delay because trying to find a printer was a nightmare. I asked for recommendations in a couple of places: everyone said "buy a laser printer" despite me saying "that's too expensive for Dad's budget." "Buy a laser printer." "But. That's Too Expensive." "Buy a laser printer, it's cheaper in the long run." "BUT. IT. IS. TOO. EXPENSIVE." *sigh*

The only thing those asks achieved was (along with my own several hours of research) was to make us drop the idea of an ink tank printer as too much of an unknown risk - especially the Epson one we'd initially loked at. As research revealed that Epson and WotC are really of the same stripe; with Epson making a concerted effort to not let people use OEM cartridges (and building in obsolescence), the former to the point they've had a class-action lawsuit filed against them...)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Tangenital Response to Tangential Rant: I mean, me, I looked at 3.5, I looked at Pathfinder 1 (with Rolemaster leaning over from the one-in-forp'nnies) and said "that's not complicated enough! I'mma make my own edition, with Brimoraks and Hook Horrors! Let's add it all together and steal some bits from 4E and 5E (since I saw the latter on Unexpectables!) Huzzah!"

...

I do not think I am anyone's target market anymore.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

2 people marked this as a favorite.

I am just concluding the last couple of combats for Rise of the Runelords (the first AP we've run) before going to the second portion of Shackled City. We use a 3.5/PF1 hybrid extensively compiled by me, in large part thanks to the Archives of Nethys. (It's pretty wild at 18th level with six mid-high optimised PCs, to say the least...!)

(Also playing through Wrath of the Righetous on PC.)

But, though PF2 isn't really something I'm too bothered about, for NO APPARENT REASON, today I felt like I needed to COMPLETELY INEXPLICABLY give Paizo some money, so I bought the Impossible Lands to read.

(As I have already bought like every campaign settings country/location source book for 1E, also being the only game world I've bought stuff just to read for fun.

I also GENUINELY have more APs stored away than I think my group will use (at a rate of one AP book/six months) if I ran continuously, since I reckon in another 30 years (which is, like, 10 AP, tops), I think we'll all rather be past it because the group will be in their 70/80s... And we lost another player ovelock down already and he was obly 36...)

(We'd have played more Starfinder (a little disappointed in wasn't 1E In Space, but I wasn't running it; but lockdown meant the DM moved away, so I'm back to being DM Forever.)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Figured as much; ta.

I did wonder what was up with that, likely just a typo then...

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

So, Person Who Plays 3.5/PF1 hybrid here. I, *for completely inexplicable reasons* feel something like getting product from Paizo today.

I am going to be looking mostly from a fluff perspective (since I don't 2E), so a question about whether much will ne nonuseful to me. (Not a lot, I suspect, if 2E's sourcebooks are like 1Es... Which I bought pretty much all of, just to read for fun in the first place.)

I gather this is, Geb/Nex/Mana Wastes/Jalmeray (it's not terribly clear from the description)?

Side question, since shipping and storage alone wiuld make it impractical, but why is the hardcopy three times the page count of the PDF?

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Leon Aquilla wrote:
Orcs are not copyrightable by Wizards of the Coast. Never have been. Never will be. The word "Orc" is so heavily rooted in feudal English that you might as well say you can copyright fae, troll, or werewolf.

Reputedly, that didn't stop GW trying to do it to "goblin" in the UK, and they verifibaly did try it with "Space Marines" (and lost the case).

Never under-estimate what the people only out to Make All Of the Money will try, especially since with the alarming increase in corporate conglomeration putting more and more stuff under the purview of fewer individuals.

(One only has to look at the visible exmaple of the computer games industry (which saw this sort of thing happen) wherein companies repeatedly monetise and hike prices, while none of the money goes to the actual staff, but to the (big) shareholders and CEOs/board. And that's the business we can most readily SEE, because it's a relatively new market and on whose nature means the consumer base is almost by necessity online; what the long-established business do and get away with won't be any different, we just won't see it as readily.)

So, they can't, but some idiot business-business-person could very well TRY.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Well, off to a good start - printed out Deserts of Desolation, went to start printing the copy of my master rules for the next ongoing campaign starting in a couple of combat's time[1] and then it appears my freaking printer has just died...

[1]Tonight, Khalib of Rise of the Runelords (16 Wiz) managed an impressive feat of being a combat ended in less than half a round, with no PC buffs. Even with five times his intended maximum hit points (house-rules...) he got off one Sudden Maximised, Sudden Empowered Delayed Blast Fireball, failed a Fort save against somethign that did 200-odd damage and the the dwarf barbarian shock trooper splortched him Now, this is not unexpected, but that he didn't even mane to get halfway into round one was something of an achivement...

(Karzoug('s image) also failed to roll even average damage with a Disintegrate on a failed Fort save, too...)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

5 people marked this as a favorite.

Summary: I am brainstorming ideas in piecing together an Osirion mega-campaign from AD&D and PF1 modules and APs; particularly in melding plots and lcoations (rather than levels/mechanics).

Longer explanation:

When I was ten, and first starting out with roleplaying (gravitating from HeroQuest to Rolemaster - AD&D was a distant forth), my Dad borrowed a load of modules from somebody at work, so that I could read through them to see what pre-written adventures were like. I read them in the absense of any mechanical knowledge, of course. Whoever that generous soul was, among the contributions was the module I3 Pharoah.

That module has stuck with me ever since. (To the point I even at great expense bought a hard-copy one day.) I have always thus wanted to run and "egyptian" campaign ever since that day.

Lockdown costs us two of my weekly groups' players; one forced to move away, the other died. One more is intending to mvoe away at some point. My group has been struggling to get enough players weeks to week; but when we cap off Rise of the Runelords in three combat's time, we will have one, if not two new people joining us, so I can look beyond the next portion of Shackled City (which is ready to go) and what we do after. It's all brought it home to me that those campaigns I've always intended to do (the "egyptian" one and the Completely Aliehn World)... I really ought to do now or never. After all, at out approximation of 6 months per AP book, I reckon at best we're only got maybe ten adventures paths left in us before everyone is too old (and assuming I do continue to be DM Forever as it seems likely to be).

So, fresh yeat, and on my carefully prepared task list is, finally, to start looking at doing my Osirion Mega-Campaign. I have at LEAST an esitimated year once we get through the next four chapters of the Shackled Citty adventure path, so this is a mid-long term project... But it is time I finally STARTED.

So.

Looking at the dates, twenty years ago this year, I bought a quartet of AD&D PDFs, which have been rigourously stored ever since. Chief among them was Deserts of Desolation, the combined form of Pharoah and it's sequels.

The one time shipping was favourable to me, I was able to buy hard copies of Entombed with the Pharoahs and Pact Stone Pyramid. I snapped up Mummy's Mask as soon as it came out. And at odd intervals, through purchase (and being given a boat load of PDFs by a mate of one of the players), I have a load of Society modules set in Osirion. I have (with some effort) also got Doomsday Dawn.

I intended the core of the campaign to be Mummy's Mask, as that will be the most coherent part. But I intend to add at least Deserts of Desolation and Pact Stone Pyramid and Entombed with the Pharoahs in and weave in basically three plots, the latter two of which will start to come in later.

One, the plot of Mummy's Mask (whoich I have, admittedly, not reads in its entirity, though I did read the first couple of books a while ago.) As this starts at 1st level, it's a logical starting point.

Two, the Deserts of Desolation plot, in which an ancient prophecy is enacted (by the hapless PCs) to defeat a powerful efreet. This is graded at 5th level, but in any case whill require complte stat conversion.

Three, the seemingly random appearances of the Countdown Clock, leading finally, to, as the capstone, the end of Doomsday Dawn. The two primary modules here are in the 6-8 and 8-10 range respectively, so they can potentially go in there.

I would like to try and squeeze in as many bits of the others as I reasonable can.

This is going to be essentially an editionless thread, since I will be using my own 3.5/PF1 houserules, and with the combination of paths, on top of everything else AND the More Than Four Characters party size, a boat-load of stat conversion work will be required anyway. (I have a hsitory of previously converted AD&D to 3.5 campaigns already: Night Below and Homebrew=? Vecna Lives!/Vecna Reborn/Die Vecna Die! => Dragon Mountain as 16-Epic) So I am well aware of the monumetal stupidity of this task. (Hell, I am still half-threatening to rune Return of the Runelords as a direct sequel to Rise of the Runelords, meaning upgrading it to an 18-Epic AP - culimating in, of course, an ad-hoc fight against all seven Runelords...!)

The first job will be for me to print and read through at least Deserts of Desolation and Mummy's Mask.

As bits of Doomsday Dawn are set outside Osirion, I plan to either omit them altother, or instead seed the Plot Devices into the other parts of the campaign, and hopefully find a way to tie-in other two plots into the biggy.

My full current list of potential inclusions (as currently in my Campaign Ideas document, wherein I catalogue all my adventures, run and unrun) is thus. This is in very approximate order of level (or at least starting level), with the various modules of Mummy's Mask and later Deserts of Desolation seeded between them.

List of Acquired Modules

Destiny of the Sands: A Bitter Bargain (1st-2nd, 4th-5th, PF, Golarion) (Osirion) (PF Soc)
Destiny of the Sands: Race to Seeker’s Folly (1st-2nd, 4th-5th, PF, Golarion) (Osirion) (PF Soc)
Destiny of the Sands: Sanctum of the Sages (3rd-4th , 6th-7th, PF, Golarion) (Osirion) (PF Soc)
(Given levels, possibility I might consider this as prequel to Mummy's Mask, but I will have to read them first.)

Mummy’s Mask (1st-15th?, PF, Golarion) (Osirion)

Risen from the Sands (3rd, PF, Golarion) (Osirion)
Test of Tar Kuata (3-4th, 6-7th, PF, Golarion) (Osirion) (PF Soc)
Third Riddle (1st-2nd, 3rd-5th, PF, Golarion) (Osirion) (PF Soc)
The Rebel’s Ransom (5th-6th, 8th-9th, Golarion) (Osirion) (PF Soc)

Desert of Desolation (5th-7th, AD&D) (Osirion ?)

The Trouble with Secrets (5-6th, 8-9th, 3.5, Golarion) (Osirion) (PF Soc)
Entombed with the Phaorahs (6th-8th, 3.5, Golarion) (Osirion)
Beacon Below (7-8th, 10-11th, PF, Golarion) (Osirion) (PF Soc)
Drow of the Darklands Pyramid (7-8th, 10-11th, PF, Golarion) (Osirion) (PF Soc)
Pact Stone Pyramid (8th-10th, 3.5, Golarion) (Osirion)
Wrath of the Accursed (7th-8th, 10-11th, Golarion) (Osirion) (PF Soc)

Doomday Dawn (?? PF2)

One major pertinent point of consideration is where to locate Deserts of Desolation in Osirion approximately.

If anyone can offer any suggestions or other useful advice on any of the modules (from AD&D onwards) or story ideas, please do. (Or just to sit gobsmacked at my sheer insanity, whichever).

(I may crosspost this to giant in the Playground as well at some point, but I figured here was as likely as anywhere to have folk who have actully played the relevant modules.)

I'm aware that this is very high-concept and pending me doing a lot of reading over the next few months, but I wanted to at least make a start, because then the job is begun. (I've started printing Deserts already.) If nothing else, reading through all this will take over from re-reading all my hard-copy Paizo modules (and the entire AD&D encyclopedia magicka) in my bedroom at supper-time.

I am currently playthrough through Owlcat's Wrath of the Righteous, and while I have traditionaly preferred Epic to Mythic, actually using it is bringing me back to the idea that 3.Aotrs said when difference between 3.5 and PF1 were "why not both?" So potentially on a mechanical level, I might consider doing a mythic "sidegrade" along with the rest. I do fully expect this to end in Epic, though, but it'll be a hell of a ride. More expecially because THIS will be th party in which I will be only letting the players pick classes that we haven't really used before, and not from The Usual Suspects. (So, no clerics, wizards, paladins, rogues, rangers, archivists, druids, fighters, warblades, crusaders, swordsages, bards - I've got 50 base classes plus archtypes, time to use them!)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Hi, is anyone still here...?

I am finally getting to work on the preparation for our second part of Shackled City (chapters 5 to about 8 I something).

I have just gotten to the second part of the Test of the Smoking Eye; i.e., the Pcs have to follow the path of the lantern of Guidence. It is an 80-mile journey, (so that would be about 4-5 day's typical travel), but the lantern-holding PC has to move at least 15 per round or they get teleported back.

How the *heck* are they supposed to do that?

Occipitus does not have any effect, as far as I can see, on nutritional or sleeping requirements.

The implication is they can't stop to rest (or go to the loo or eat etc) and there are several encounters.

Is the intention to make the PC have to Forced March?

They aren't going to have mounts, since they got to the plain via an NPC using Plane Shift, and even with the assumed default 6 PCs the adventure path was written for, bringing mounts with them is a LOT of extra scrolls (since y'know, you can't get horses to hold hands...)

Assuming a party speed of 20' round (dwarves and people in heavy armour); 16 miles/ day - eight hours - which is 2/ hour. So that's a 40-hour march. Given the DC per hour after 8 hours goes up by +2, so after about ten hours of forced marching (so 18/40 hours), the PCs are onto DC 30 Fort save, so the lower Fort characters are pretty much on nat 20 success. Which means they are going to be taking 22D6 nonlethal damage. Another five hours after that, at DC 40, and that's going to be pretty much true of any character at this level. The final hour's Fort save is DC 74 (!)

30' speed is little better, since that's 27 hours (and for most parties is going to require Splitting The Party), (19 hour's forced march).

It's unreasonable to be able to assume there will be sufficient spellcasting capability to be able to mitigate this.

Teleportation is not possible because of the nature of the test. You can't stop to replenish any spells.

E.g. Longstrider, which at 9-10th level - IF you have enough druids and rangers to cast it on everyone, including Kaurophon - isn't going to last long enough to do much.

Overland Flight might JUST be possible (if they are 10th level, not 9, it would last just long enough to get the wizard - on his own) with only two checks. IF you have a wizard and IF they happen to have learned that particular spell.

It's been an 18-month gap over lock-down when I'd didn't play, so maybe I'm missing something; but this part seems very poorly though out, like the wrote the 80 miles and then forgot about the logistics.

How did other people handle this?

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Michelle A.J. wrote:
If you're in it for the setting lore, I would recommend checking out Lost Omens: Legends. It is primarily a character book, but when many of those characters are heads of state or have the power to move literal mountains, there tends to be a lot of intersection there.

Thanks, but that's the sort of thing I'm least interested in of all, both from a standard of setting reading entertainment or even from a gameplay perspective, I'm afraid. It's just not something that grabs or inspires my interest - unlike, say, an entire source-book dedicated to pick-any-one of the other planets in the system or the previously unlooked at continents would.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Okay, next stupid question, then - where are they in the store? Wait, no, found 'em under settings, just non-obvious because they're not in "campaign settings" where I'd have expected (mayeb put 'em in a Lost Omens folder of something, folks...?)

Right, I see, I probably did spot the others, then, but they weren't like, geographical region/nation ones, so I'm not quite as bothered about 'em, which is probably why I didn't look very hard.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Another one who is interested in the lore, but not the 2E mechanics.

(I mean, after about nine months of SOLID work (like, I was doing 30-40 hours per week on it 6/7 days after my actual work ended), I was JUST finishing the closing stages of writing approximately half of PF1 into approximately 75% of 3.5 and creating my own functional "full-conversion mod"/homebrew edition of 1000+ pages, right before lockdown hit and completely obliterated any chance of me doing any roleplaying for the foreseeable future - for the first time in THIRTY YEARS (and crippling my wargaming, which is even worse, since CAD modelling for that is my actual day job) and NO, I'M CLEARLY NOT ANGRY ABOUT THAT AT ALL!!!)

Ahem.

But anyway, as I have only been paying, like, half attention - is this the first lore expansion product since the end of PF1, or just the first one I actually made my Perception check on? I got, like, all of the Campaign setting books over time (and honest-to-goodness Golarion is the first campaign world EVER that I bought the books explictly to read for fun (and the fact I ended up running APs there was sort of just a nice bonus) and I've been wondering when we'd get another load.

This sounds very promising, given the size.

What sort of proportion of fluff to mechanics are we likely to be expecting? The same sort of mix as the campaign settings books were previously, something like the Inner Sea World Guide (which was mostly fluff) or with a higher proportion of crunch?

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Worth noting that stuff like spell and spell-like abilities were under Special Attacks in 3.5, and the special abilities line is copy-pasted from there. As skeletons and zombies are mindless, I think the RAI at least is that they should not (they also had Cha 1 in 3.5, and only upgraded to 10 because PF had tied Undead hp to D8+Cha instead of straight D12.

Noably, 3.5's skeleton stats included a young adult Red Dragon, which had no SLAs.

I think the intention is that they do not; I don't believe that the lack of explict statement with regard to animated undead and SLAs was a deliberate change of philosphy by Paizo (nor a power-up), just an omission and a classic case of "implied but not stated," inherent in the change to how abilities were classified (i.e spells and SLAs no longer listed on the SA line in stat blocks.)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

What happens is you cast Soulseeker and target a creature that is Undead (or you know is Undead, for example, an Undead BBEG)?

The spell says it fails if the target soul (unambiguously identified) is alive or soul-destroyed creatures and the rest of the text seems to assume it's a petitioner.

Would it, then, given the strict wording (as Undead creatures haven't had judegment yet, yes?) locate said Undead creature on whatever plane it was approximately or would it simple fail as if it was a living creature?

(This is a theorhetical question I'm not actually planning to use it on a BBEG myself; I'm considering adding this to my house-rule approved list and therefore want to understand exactly how it works, and if necessary annotate it.)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

There was in the RotRL player's guide, mentioned in a sidebar along with Boggard, Shoanti, Thassilonian and Varisian.

To quote:

RotRL Player's Guide wrote:
Chelaxian: Only the wealthy of Korvosa and travelers from the far south speak the national tongue of Cheliax. Humans of Chelish descent gain this tongue as a bonus language.

Clearly it didn't make it into 1E (maybe not even past this one point), but I'm half-curious as to how far it got.

(Also, I am far too good at pre-empting myself. Turns out I actually HAD made/gotten a list of Golarion languages (though I can do some updating now!) and had just forgotten. Chelaxian wasn#t there, either, bu I probably just missed it then!)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

I was today looking at compiling a list for my players of languages that are available. As I looked through a couple of sites to do so, I was struck by one particlar absense:

Chelaxian.

Which, according to the Rise of the Runelords player's guide (which my party of said groip used when they generated their characters) was a language.

Apparently, later sources don't have it as one.

So my question is thus two-fold:

1) Does anyone know why Chelaxian got obviated

and b) what ought to I have my PCs replace that language with, since it seems unlike that it will ever come up?

(Asking here since this is more of an edition-agnostic lore question than a mechanical one.)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Forums are back up as of today.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Temperans wrote:

That has too much to be a regular hex and be borderline grand hex.

I would maybe split it into 2 hexes. Such that the first gives the ability to smell non-adults creatures and half the bonus stats; and the second upgraded your scent to full while giving you the remaining bonuses. Scalling bonuses is debatable as it is a niche, but it's hard to tell without testing.
My point is that splitting the benefits between 2 hexes prevents it from being too powerful.

I don't think it is worth two hexes though; it certainly isn't better than Flight or Misfortune (and definitely not as good as both), which it is competing against. I'm looking at a mid-high optimisation enviroment (not least for me myself), so two hexes for that is just not good enough to be stand.

Scent alone might be worth a hex on its own, but the point was the retain the flavour bit; if that flavour cannot stand on its own as a viable mechanical option, then it's not worth retaining as a mechanical option, it might as well just be the player/NPC fluffing Scent or something.

Now, I can see an arguement for increasing the level you get scent to a higher one, rather than off the bat (say, I dunno, level 5 or something).

Temperans wrote:
Also, you shouldn't treat human aging as the standard for maturity given how different every race is and even within humans it's kind of variable. Instead I would say, "humanoids who have not reach adult age (as determined by the GM)". This allows GMs to set different standards for each race, while still being able to be flexible within a single one.

But if I wrote it that way, as the DM, I'm pretty much just going to say I determine than the age is going to less than 20 anyway when it comes up (because it's conveniant and covers enough but not too many PCs) unless something either DOES have that information provided or it notably has a much shorter lifespan than humans, though. By far the overwhelming majority of races in use will fundemntally humanlike (I mean, it's even in the "humanoid" type name). (Starfinder might be different, but it doesn't matter there.)

So, in the absense of concrete provided information, and given this is not likely to be a regular point to come up simple rule-of-thumb like that should do. (If it becomes something that crops up often enough, then I'll go about making a llst for it, same as I do for everything else.)

I mean, for Goblins, for example, I know it's five, but that level of information is not common to most races.

(Really, this sort of thing ought to have been spelled out in the race information years and years ago (rather than essentially just regurgitating the age numbers from 3.0=>3.5) if for no other reason than heading off the endless rounds of debate; I know I always try to do so when I do an alien race.

Sidenote: I empathically don't subscribe to the idea that longer-lived races mature physically slower than humans, that idea was a really awful one (probablty started by dwarves so they could mock the elves) that fortunately I don't think has been maintained much since AD&D.

(Sidenote sidenote: I also consider that a really old creature is going to be inherently higher level just because life is a thing that happens, no matter how lazy or indolent you are; a centuries-old elf should NOT be level one unless something level-drained it.))

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Temperans wrote:

Technically, it can have a use in a vampire/undead campaign vs "child looking vampires/undead", specially given that there are ways to hide the "undead" status.

It has some use for poachers, allowing them to find easy pray, which are both easier to capture, transport, and train.

Also useful for an anti-child abuse campaign (or the inverse for those wanting to play evil). Specially since it's a natural counter to a Halfling's "Childlike" trait: Helps avoid spies and false positives.

The "favored enemy (child)" is weird and admittedly not that useful in most cases. However, its important to note it does not count as favored enemy so those ability stacks; That means a person who is hunting/searching for "not adults" of a species can become very well specialized.

******************
In any case that ability never seemed like something to base a build around, but an interesting quirk an evil NPC and the occasional evil PC might have. Much like you can get torture tools, torture spells, cannibalism, and other questionable things that everyone should agree to before you even try to include it. Which does makes those abilities and this one specifically incredibly niche at best.

Indeed. Though I think having it give Scent and then the other stuff on top (to be used or totally ignored as the player sees fit - flavour is mutable, after all) is a better idea the more I think about it. Scent is generally nice to have, and there's not THAT many ways to get it, I don't believe (if there are, it suggests that in preference to taking unmodified child-scent you'd take that option and re-flavour...)

_____________________________________________

(It terms of questionale and/or potentially offensive content, I have always taken a great deal more personal offence at 3.5's Lich-loved feat, which is called such only because of the dubious the alliteration and totally ignoring the fact that anyone that is banging undead is likely to be a) doing a vampire because "Pretty" or b) something that is not almost unilaterally a skeleton but has some flesh, especially not a type noted for wanting to get away from all that crap in the first place.)

_____________________________________________

Edit: V2.0

Child-Scent (Ex): The witchgains the Scent ability.

She also gains additional bonus pertaining to nonadult creatures. This includes any creature with the Young template, young humanoids (below the age of twenty, unless their phyiscal maturity is specified otherwise), dragons of below Young Adult stage, eggs, juvenile, immature or larval forms of any creature and any Undead versions of such creatures. (DM’s discretion as to what creatures otherwise may or may not fit this criterion.)

She gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks against such creatures. Likewise, he gets a +2 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against them. A witchmay make Knowledge skill checks untrained when attempting to identify these creatures. At 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter. This bonus increases by +2.

This ability also extends to the detection of gestation (including the formation pre-laid eggs) beyond the earliest stages. (Assume that the developing foetus/egg is detectable only when it is over 1/3 of the way through the gestation/pre-laying period.) This requires a Knowledge (Nature) check of the same DC as would be for monster identification when the creature is within the hexblade’s Scent range.

So now your theorhetical witch has the ability to be a midwife (just becuase you techically get a bonus to attack and damage potential sunny-side--up breakfest doens't mean that it is an application you will ever want or need to use...), a hunter (sustainable hunting - leave the pregant feamales!) sellable-egg-hunter, spider-nest-detector etc, on top of being able to generallt Wolverine stuff. Better, one feels...?

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Quixote wrote:
...why not just remove the child part, and give them scent?

That is one option, yes.

But my thinking was, if you will forgive me the indulgance of Explaining My Reasoning, considering the gentleman I'd read about who used it to find a lost child, "okay, let's give it a bonus to track."

So I gave it the ranger's favoured enemy bonuses; I nearly removed the knowledge bonus, until I realised child-scent only affected humanoids and animals and went, "oh hells no, that's no good, that's way too narrow a scope."

(I have already written years ago, the "party rescues a child" plot once, and it's not something I'm likely to revisit. So unless child-rescuing comes up as part of the adventure paths I'm going to run in the future, or the "emergancy back-up, day-quest gets cancelled at the last minute because the DM can't make it so I have to take over" party quest draw from the collected old Society modules I got donated to squirrel away. So the chances of a party that contains a Hexblade (or even less likely Witch, which has not been ported over to my house-rules) that picks Child-Scent and happens to be involved in a quest which involves searching for a lost human child is sufficiently low that it might never come up in the next thirty years or (beyond which, I suspect my gaming group might be getting past it away.))

Tracking anything gives it a little bit more traction, especailly as I considered stuff like ACTUAL nonadult enemy monsters (which are more likely to actually appear). Or, hell, eggs. Because sniffing out eggs is something that seems more likely to come up (finding a nest of deadly insect critters than needs clearing out, finding a clutch of owlbear/roc/griffon eggs etc etc.)

And then I looked at it and said to myself "the first thing people are going to say is 'you've given it the favoured enemy bonus, but without the attack and damage bonus! Lame!'" so I, considering the now-wider options beyond Comedically Evil Literally A Bonus To Attack Puppies, Kittens and Juvenile Catgirls (which is, as VooistMonk noted, lareghly a pointless one), gave it that as well for the sake of arguement, given the potential of targets that it might be of use on. (And then VoodistMonk - perhaps unintentionally, given his second post, I took his first post in all seriousness - convinced me that I might as well have it scale as well.)

Further, extending it from "child" to "teenager/subadult" even puts in the range of "an NPC might even get the bonus on a PC." I myself have a 14-year old character (and considering he's level 16 monk/clericzilla (3.5 style, now with back-added eccelistheurge), one feels that he's quite capable of handing something doing a bit of extra damage to him) - nor is he the first teenager character I've had - and there's a Marksman in my curret Shackled City party that I'm running for who qualifies, there's a dragon PC in one of my Evil parties who qualifies, and that's three out of the, what, seven D&D parties we have (counting the emergancy-back-up party we've not even generated yet) just off the top of my head.

__________________________________________________________

Actually, all that said, there might be a legitimate arguement to giving it Scent AND said quote-unquote favoured enemy bonuses; you get something all-round useful, plus a niche bonus which is nice if it actually ever comes up.

So thanks for the opporunity to ramble and bounce the idea around, as genuinely, sometimes just replying to people gives me ideas as I'm working on it, even if I've been rolling stuff around in my head for a while.

(I really miss having my local forums up so I have people to talk at, and sometimes even to, about this stuff. My in-meatspace mates are, on the one hand, entirely happy to let me basically sort all the rules stuff and then use my rules to play even when they DM, but part of the reason for that is they're not quite as fussed about rules-smithing as me, who does it inveterately.)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

VoodistMonk wrote:

I think it's just there as old school witch lore/dogma, I think it's purely, umm, FLAVOR.

"I SMELL CHILDREN!!!"

It's just to be creepy, like witches are generally thought to be...

Exploiting or building around it, requiring that it be more powerful, just makes you a creeper... stop preying on children, stop designing characters that prey on children, it has no place in the realm of playable characters even in a fantasy game.

Why do you need the Favored Enemy against children? How many kids are wearing armor? How much HP can a kid have?

Don't be a bully. It's not a good look for any character, Witch or otherwise.

I'm the primary DM, actually. I have no specific character in mind, I just don't like seeing a potentially interesting idea be completely and functionally useless on either side of the screen. An option that is so bad that no-one will ever take it might as well not exist.

I am of the opinion that if something exists as game mechancis, it should not be empty flavour, it should DO something.

As it stands, Child-Scent is not an ability anyone will take as a PC, nor any DM as for an NPC, as it is functionally "waste an ability," for the sake of not spending five minute's thought for how to narratively work construct something to do what it needs to do. (As a mechanical ability, as it stands, child-scent had absolutely no use whatsoever.)

(Aside from that one gentleman or lady on the internet who said he'd used that ability on a character to find a small child (they are probably the only person in Pathfinder's existance to ever find a use for it, but a stopped clock and all).)

_________________________________________________________

Come to that, I did even specify that that the revised abiltiy would work against dragons (which have defined age categories), as an example of a non-adult creature that is an actual, defined enemy creature. One would also, perhaps, say that that the revised ability ought to count against such things as, oh, I don't know, the Attic Whisperer, which is the ghost, let us not forget, of a neglected child. So that's two types of legitimate enemies off the top of my head that you could get an actual bonus on. (Also, any creature wit the "young" template.) By removing the restriction from "fundementally ussless, even to literally puppy-kicking evil characters," it becomes "marginally of some use in niche cases." I'd prefer "moderately useful sometimes," but it's not likely to get there.

_________________________________________________________

As to your moral complaints, I will have to, I'm afraid, as someone who is actually basically LE and whose group has a significant proportion of Evil parties in rotation (and who has spent thirty years Doing Panto, most of them as the villain), just laugh manically and make a point of twiddling my non-existant moustache.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Okay, done.

Actually, I can think of one other time this becomes the go-to choice for is if the game is some sort of magical girl anime adaption, then you'd be quids in, I guess...!

That said, there are the odd players who have teenaged characters, come to that, as this explictly works on non-adults...! (I have... more than one myself, and at least one or two other players do, so...)

Hmm...

Perhaps in all seriousness, I ought to add some sort of concrete age limit for humanoids as a compartive. Maybe less than 20 years (or equivilent...?)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

So, the Child-Scent hex seems to be more or less unilaterally regarded as completely terrible. (Unless maybe there are a lot of kidnapped children the PCs need to rescue.)

I, thinking that the idea is not without merit, have attempted to make it... Slightly less so. Maybe? What does the forum think?

Child-Scent (Ex): The witch gains the Scent ability, but only with respect to children, pre-adult, juvenile or immature creatures. Thus, she could sniff out a child’s hiding place, a den of wolf pups or a juvenile age-category dragon, but not the child’s parents or the den mother. She also gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks against such creatures. Likewise, she gets a +2 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against them. A witch may make Knowledge skill checks untrained when attempting to identify these creatures.

So, yeah. Favoured Enemy: Child?

Yes, it's still probably bad, but at least it's less bad, maybe? And might, possibly, have some more applications? I could add full ranger favoured enemy scaling, but I'm not sure it's worth it? (Though one feels even with that, it could hardly break anything...) Thoughts?

(Now, I grant you, this is likely maybe marginally more use to the Hexblade in my house-rules/own rules edition (to Make Hexblades Not Suck, one of the things I did was steal (many of) the Witch's hexes) as being more likely to be whacking things wit' sword or something, but yah.)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Rysky wrote:
The more books you use in your character the more likely they are to be stronger. Whether the books are 3pp or Paizo are irrelevant in this instance.

I mean, I side-step the issue by simply providing (at some extensive work on my part) a complete list of available options, so everyone is picking, say, feats from the same master list and not out of one or more books.

The list is compiled from whatever sources I opt to allow, but is never "everything that is published," - nor is core exempt from exclusion if I decide something isn't right. My background was Rolemaster before D&D (AD&D was a distant forth RPG) and RM contains lots of mutally exclusive stuff that trained me to not to treat a rulebook as a single, discrete option to allow or disallow, and to basically evaluate the content independently. (Regardless of whose party wrote it.)

Though I suppose it helps I have an enviroment where we as players (and double-especially me as DM) make it a point so that the players that are not as mechanically inclined (either in ability or enthusiasm) are encouraged to ask for and recieve suggestions from Them As Are.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Even better news today - Owlcat are officially adding an (entirely optionak) turn-based mode! Taking inspiration from the extremely popular TBS mod for Kingmaker.

KM was such a good adaption of PF1 (by far the best adaption of a D&D game thus far) that the turn-based mod basically needed to do compatively little work[1] to unpack what was basically simulaneously-running turns back to TBS. Which means that in terms of the concern of time taken away for encounter balance... There isn't any, since it doesn't need balancing for TBS specifically. So, basically everyone can be satisfied!

(Sadly, I did see at least one gentleman in the announcement comments that cancelled their pledge out of outrage, which one feels was a bit on an overreaction, considering.)

[1]"Compartively" not "objectively" little, I by no means denigrate the substantial effort of Hysinu's exceptional work. Compartive to say, Pillars of Eternity 2, which, being design as inherently RTwP (i.e., everything in seconds, not rounds) which required more fundemental work.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Psychic Magic is basically the equivilent Rolemaster's Mentalism realm or magic (which is distinct from (other version of) Rolemaster's psionics rules). (As opposed to RM's Essense (D&D arcane) and Chanelling (D&D Divine).)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Plus Truestrike is, itself, kind of a pants spell to start with. I, though I suppose I can only speak for my own experience, have never encountered a situation in actual gameplay where using it would have been better than making two attacks or casting two spells. Are there situations where it could concievably be useful? Yes, but that's equally true of Erase and Magic Aura, but no-one has ever used those, either. So I would not say Treustrike is a good example of a spell to look at as a balance point.

Inevitable strike's ability to be used as a Swift action does mean, at least, it would work well a PsyWar, where it fits in with the action economy of a self-buffer without burning another round to activate.

...

Maybe I ought to re-write Truestrike to have a secondary mode as well, then it might be worth using...

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Data has been moved, and they are currently performing software updates and general sorting out, so progress is being made.

1 to 50 of 439 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | next > last >>