ArgentumLupus's page

I have Das Korvut making a Masterwork earthbreaker for one of my players. In an effort to determine how long the weapon will take (and shorten its construction time) I've been trying to find all the possible stackable bonuses.

How many assistants would be working at the Red Dog Smithy? In a town of 1200 people I'm sure there would be some kids capable and desperate enough to apprentice under Old Bouncy Chops.

At what point do you feel an enchanted piece of equipment would be important enough to earn a name in Golarion? Would it be dependant on enchantment level? Age? Major event?
How would this differ, in your opinion, from other settings both official and homebrew?

I'm trying to inject a little more flavor into my game, and remain consistent with said flavor, so I want to see what others have to say on the subject.

Could someone clarify, or point to a book and page that does so, the offense section of a monster's stat block?
The three types of entries that appear are:
A) attack X, attack Y,
B) attack X and attack Y
C) attack X or attack Y

Also, with natural attacks only listing one attack bonus, how would things work if a creature with high enough BAB wants to, say, bite twice? or use the "2 Claws" entry more then once?

I feel kinda ashamed for asking this given how long I've been playing, but a player wanting to play a monstrous race is making me consider things I never worried about before.
Thanks,
-Argentum

In the 3rd Bestiary is the Garuda native outsider. I am about to start another campaign of RotRL with a new group, and one of my players (has experience) has made a request of this as his race. I have already informed him that, possibly using the ARG, we will have to tone down the race to LA+0, but can try to keep the flavor.

Base racial abilities, as far as I've come up with, include wings (fly 30' poor) bite, and low light vision. Stat adjustment hasn't been finalized.

It sounds like he is interested in Ranger as his class, but making the race and LA+0 leaves a lot of what makes the Garuda a Garuda. I started thinking about making a Racial Class to give him the option of gaining more racial abilities, but I have no idea how I should distribute the abilities across the 10 or so levels that would make up a RAW Garuda.

I would appreciate any input on this matter you may have.

I've bet knocking around the idea of prosthetics in Golarion, and the idea of having a partial or full conversion "cyborg" (inspired by RIFTS rpg) available to my players appeals to me. The first thing I looked at was, of course, the Eberron Warforged. The Ironborn of Questhaven looks like it could inspire ideas, but I'm hesitant to buy it. So here's working with what I already posses.

For a "Full Conversion", The Warforged "race" seems to be a good starting point. I'm trying to keep a brain in a jar feel to this. Here's what I have so far (and no, I haven't consulted the ARG on this yet).

Full Conversion Artificial (Name ideas please!)

Medium artificial/augmented Humanoid

Base Speed: 30ft

Attribute modifiers: Str+2, Dex-2, Con+4, Cha-2
The Body of a Full Conversion has good physical strength and exceptional resilience, but suffers due to a heavy body and a expressionless face. Attempts at adding detailed features has generally made things worse (hello uncanny valley!).

Immune to poisons, disease, paralysis, nausea and sickness (except when effect comes from mind effecting sources).
The body lacks a circulatory system required by these effects

Does not need to eat, drink, or breath. Food and drink can be enjoyed, to ease the burden of being non-fleshy.

Cannot heal naturally. Must use cure/repair spells and (some kind of) repair skill

Weak against effects that target Constructs

Tireless Body: Fatigue and Exhaustion only affect only Wis, Int, and Cha.
The Body of a conversion never tires, but the mind within still needs to rest.

Iron Skin:+2 Natural Armor (Stacks with armor)

Dense Body: -2 swim Armor check penalty to skills (stacks with armor)

Now, all this is well and good and will develop with time, but where I really have problems is the idea of a Partial Conversion. What do you guys think? Templates for various levels of conversion?

So soon after having discovered Alternity and Star*Drive, I have had the mixed blessing of running my first game of it. I say mixed because I have had a very limited time to study either the system or the setting.
So I wanted to get opinions/ideas/recommendations for my first game.

Tomorrow is my second session, and I think I've have figured out how to introduce my players to the system and the setting without overloading any of us with information. My adventure began like this.

All the heroes save one were civilian passengers on a civilian drive liner, the GCCV-040 Polaris Space Lines Flight 1388. The last hero was co-pilot of the ship, and one of 10 crew. After leaving dock bound for Concord Taurus Capital Planet Hale on 2 January 2501, they traveled for 28 days (subject to change, I don't like the d4+1 days recharge time) 3rd of 5 jumps before encountering a situation.

The ship Star Raised in an unpopulated system, three planets with one being able to support life, but lacking in mineral wealth, when they encountered another ship. This ship, the USSF-100 "Iron Cross" was immediately spotted by the pilot hero and the Liner crew, and could be seen venting flames from its far side. The Liner Captain opened comm and asked if the vessel needed assistance, and received immediate orders to distance themselves as far and as fast as possible. The Iron Cross was an old prisoner vessel, and the prisoners had broken free and were in the process of overwhelming the crew. Only the bridge was left.

As you can expect, the civilian vessel complied very quickly by heading star-ward. At this point one of the passenger players noticed they were traveling in system as they passed a gas giant, and another player, a Star Force reservist, realized immediately something was wrong. Not long after that point the fusion torch equipped Iron Cross, now in the control of the prisoners, caught up with the Ion Drive equipped Polaris Flight 1388, and opened fire with it's plasma cannon turret.

At first the shots were wide, wild. But as the Iron Cross drew closer so did the plasma bolts. Flight 1388 was near the only habitable planet in the system at this point. Too far to use it's moon for cover against the military vessel, but close enough to evacuate the passengers. The Captain ordered the crew to assist the passengers (should note now that there are 108) into the escape pods. After ordering the pilot player to turn the ship towards the Iron Cross, with the bottom of the ship facing planet the planet. The passengers are jettisoned, and he gives the fateful order to set a ramming course. As Flight 1388 takes a plasma bolt to the front cargo hold of the ship, the captain orders the crew to evacuate.

On the planet, the civilian escape launches land, and in the pod occupied by the passenger heroes and a few NPCs, the sound of hissing ensues. A panic quickly forms (The passengers are unaware the planet is habitable) as the hero's search for the breach in the hull. It soon stops, with the slight scent of fresh air seeping in from the breach. The heroes, including the pilot hero who has now landed, all exit from their pods, seeing clouds of steam and powder snow above where other launches had landed. They all hear two massive booms from above, and observe as two fireballs descend from the sky. Only one of those fireballs clears up, allowing the heroes to see the heavily damaged, but still intact, Iron Cross approaching the ground.

That's where I ended my first session. What the players suspect, and will soon confirm, is that many of the prisoners are still alive and are now armed with the charge rifles and stutter weapons of their guards.

What they don't know is that the Iron Cross, a Union of Sol vessel in Galactic Concord Space, was transporting Thuldan criminals (violent/war/political) for the more neutral GC to hand over to the Thuldans.

What's more pressing however, is the fight for survival 117 survivors are about to begin as they look for a way off the planet or wait for rescue. The pods all have 10 weeks worth of supplies in them, but that amount is meant for sedentary pod passengers, not for active people trying to survive on a planet in the middle of it's winter season. There are mountains and forested areas nearby that could act as defensive positions, but that doesn't do the heroes much good when the only weapons they have are a single Fraal Mindwalker, and single zero-g 9mm pistol belonging to the Star Force reservist, and a very big, very angry female Waren NPC.

So, what do you guys think of that, and what ideas can you spare?

As one game dissolves and another assembles, I have been digging through game supplements new and old to collect ideas. Then I noticed something interesting in the "Elves of Golarion" supplement. Kyonin lists only one hard metal as a major import: Mithril.
I started wondering about how they arm their people. Alloyed into a Ferro-Mithril substance, Mithril would work to lighten elven equipment, and help weapons resist oxidation. The issue is that, unless elves mine their own iron (unlikely), the Kyonin import entry suggest little iron is brought into the Kingdom.

So do Kyonin elves make all their metal equipment primary from Mithril? This would make sense for a number of reasons. First, Elves are long lived and artisans by nature, they would put their heart into every piece crafted just like a Dwarf. Second, The long lives and low birth rates mean that mass production of arms is largely unnecessary. And Mithril, being able to survive the test of time, could see multiple elven generations of use. Third, The Elves would want to equip their people with the very best. Their numbers are too few to justify "standard" equipment. Forth, Kyonin Elves do not export their arms and armor, not to the degree that Dwarves do, anyway.

I can see the logic of giving standard "steel-maybe-with-a-touch-of-something" versions in the books, after all a Elven smith in Magnamar might have limited choices in material for his trade.
What do you guys think? Do Kyonin Elves use almost exclusively Mithril for their arms and armors, or do they have source of iron to alloy it with? And what about those Elven settlements that lay outside the Elven Kingdom?

Anyone on the boards live in Albuquerque, New Mexico? I have a couple pathfinder groups, but I think I'm going through gaming cabin fever and don't have anyone to talk to that actually knows, or has interest, in the setting. For the game I run, It's just a place for my players and no one has interest in the setting, so there's no flavor in that game. The other game I just started, so I'm still learning their personalities.

I've tried (and didn't like) play by forum, and I'm getting irritated at how little progress my face to face games make (one group is easily distracted and the other is constantly late), so I was wondering if anyone knew folks whom use VOIP combined with other programs for weekly or biweekly games.

I'm trying to decide a more descriptive element to the detect alignment spell, and since I'm using a 0-100 scale system for my game I decided to use colors as the representation.

Now here's my issue. I've decided gray and green are ideal for the neutral colors, but I'm having problems deciding on what White/Black and Blue/Red should represent.

Should it be:
1) White/Black = Good/Evil, and Blue/Red = Law/Chaos?
or
2) White/Black = Law/Chaos, and Blue/Red = Good/Evil?

Feed back is much appreciated in this case, because I don't know what those colors may represent to most people. Coming from a Magic: The Gathering background, I personally see it as option 1.

Please discuss.
-Argentum

Lately I've just not been satisfied with my gaming groups. They are all great people, don't get me wrong, but only playing for a couple or three hours every other week just isn't doing it for. I had considered a PbF, but I haven't been satisfied with how it flows when players don't have the same level of participation. Nothing like an introduction post when things are already happening to make things feel disjointed.
So I have been wondering if anyone plays by VoIP or IRC, at set times and days, out there in the Paizo community. I've been wanting to be a player in a game instead of GM, since that's almost exclusively the role I take. I hope someone out there can hook me up with the chance to play.

I'm trying to figure out what constitutes an "encounter" in terms of treasure rewards. Using Burnt Offerings as my example, I'm under the impression that the entire goblin assault in the beginning would count, and that the glass works scene would count giving the party 400 gold per. Also the catacombs of wrath would give them either 400 or 800 (depending if they leveled from last session). But then I see the "encounters" in between like Monster in the Closet, and a single goblin cannot possibly be worth 400 gold, PC class or not.
I would appreciate input on this, because to me tossing an "average" amount of coin is too vague, especially when there's no clear definition of what the Core Book considers an encounter for treasure purposes.

Thanks a lot guys. All examples and reasoning, official or your own, will be a big help.
Cheers.
-Argentum

How often do PBEM games start up? I ask because A: I've been itching to play for awhile and B: PBP are a little to much of a commitment for a 17 credit hour student. I have email on my phone, but it's web browser can't handle forums.

The other night i finally began the Burnt Offerings adventure, where during the first fight the fighter fumbled and lost his weapon. Now at the time he was standing on a banquet table with a goblin down below him. Being without a weapon in hand he decides to use his shield, his weight, and gravity, to crush the goblin below him. Unsure how to proceed, I gave him a flat D12 of damage to the goblin, and a D6 subdual to himself.
How would any of you have run an action like this? And is there a system in place for using one's weight as a weapon in this manner?

In regions like Varisia where the power is in primarily in the hands of independent city states, adventuring is easy (figuratively speaking) to get into. But what about Kingdoms such as Taldor or Cheliax? In the forgotten realms we see kingdoms like Cormyr requiring adventuring charters, otherwise those good old rabble rousers are just plain bandits.
Obviously if this information is already presented in a book then please point the the way. Otherwise lets have fun exploring this aspect of our favorite little get rich quick scheme.

Some point to possibly discuss on the topic:

Legality of Adventurers in a given kingdom or city state.

Requirements for a Charter (price, royal favor, ect).

Acknowledgment of Charters by other kingdoms (Taldor would probibly not acknowledge a Cheliax charter).

And whatever else you can think of.

Have fun, keep it clean, and away we go!

First post, Woot!
Now to the topic at hand.

I was wanting to put out the idea (and see what players and folks from Paizo think) of Tactic Cards for Path Finder and 3.5 in general.
When I say tactic cards I'm not talking about 4th edition "Fireball" and "Whirlwind" stuff. I'm talking about various actions like defensive and total defense fighting, sunder, bull rush, etc. You know, the stuff that my group always seems to forget it can do instead of move, attack, move, attack, full attack, bleed to death (not sure how many you have this issue, but I'm sick of being looked at like my skin turned purple every time I take advantage of the tactical possibilities of a fight).

After getting the Game Mastery Condition cards the idea really sprung to life. I would love to see the actions presented in a similar format, with those oh so adorable little goblin terrors doing the deadly deeds (the image of a goblin trying to bull rush the massive leg of a dragon is amusing).

So what you do guys think? or should I get back to handwriting all the action sets on note cards for my 8 group members?