Callum Finlayson's page

One other thing to consider is server location - though I didn't have many problems with lag during beta when I played on a US server.

If there are a disproportionate number of people on the East coast/West coast/Europe then it should be straight forward; otherwise, if there's no strong preference then might I suggest a server on the East coast so that our European electrons don't have to treck all the way over to California?

As for Empire/Republic, I was thinking Empire, but it seems like everyone is going empire. Unlike most people, I'd prefer to be on the less populated side, but I'm not sure what that is atm.

I think Empire's more popular among the beta/early-access/chatting-on-forums crowd, but after release, once people are buying boxes off shelves over the next few weeks, there'll be a bump for the republic as the more casual players will tend towards JK & smuggler -- and one way or another we can probably safely assume that at some point, irrespective of their main character, everyone will play a JK.

Plus all the Andoran's will be playing Jedi boy scouts :)

I'm certainly interested.

Not familiar enough with the Extended Universe lore to suggest a name that is both appropriate and non-tragically nerdy, so I'd be inclined to back a name with some sort of connection to Paizo/Pathfinder.

Serverwise...

strong preference for a PVE server rather than a PVP one (you can always PVP if you want to, but IMO you shouldn't have to)

moderate preference for a non-RP server for much the same reason (it's easy to RP on a non-RP server (excluding immersion matters) but depending on the game/community/server some RP servers can get a bit critical of people inclined to more casual RP)

I'm expecting my first few characters to all be Empire (SI main, then an IA, a SW, another SI, and a BH - because I tend to do my MMO characters in the same stupid/annoying/convoluted manner I do my tabletop characters).

Since I preordered the collectors edition I believe we are allowed to play the game as early as Wednesday next week.

Early access (headstart) for pre-orders starts this week not next - I believe it should start tomorrow, although exactly when you get into early access depends on when you registered your pre-order.

They aren't saying who will get early access when (other than it's in order of when you registered your pre-order, and that everyone who's pre-ordered will get some degree of early access), and people won't be notified until the day they get access. However, based on what they have said I suspect most will be in by Wednesday of this week, and everyone who pre-ordered by the end of Friday. While the last EA could theoretically slip to Monday I think that would be viewed as a very bad sign of how they're coping with the game's launch, and it may be that one of their reasons for starting EA 2 days earlier than originally planned is to ensure that all the EA begins before the weekend.

Unrelatedly, I'm a little suprised that so few people (and none of the Paizo staff) have been commenting on SWTOR launching - among most of the gamers I know it's being fairly keenly anticipated; maybe I know a disproportionate amount of SW fans, but I seem to recall a couple of Paizo staffers being vaguely interested in SW as well.

Some were named in the Campaign Setting, but not statted up. If you've got them then check out the 3.5 "Elder Evils" and "Champions of Ruin" for some inspiration.

It is pretty much explained in the title, when will the time come to submit applications? Just curious and looking froward to trying rpg superstar for the first time.

This year's starte dat the start of December 2010, so I would expect it to probably be around then again -- probably announced around mid-November

It's like a baby alarm -- flagging a post sounds an alarm in Lisa & Vic's bedroom, Vic then gets out of bed at 3am to clean up the mess.

Bonnie the witch

Always nice to see a new "meet the iconic".

But when can we expect to meet Feiya/Balazar/Imrijka?

Its official. River Song is ...

** spoiler omitted **

Tentacle? Pseudopod?

If they notice them at all the great old ones themselves are unlikely to particularly care what the microscopic gnats that venerate them do, so it's probably going to come down to whatever suits the needs of their cultists the best; so convenient, portable, unlikely to raise suspicion, and good for slitting sacrificial throats -- I'd go with a dagger.

"Storm Season", Dungeon #61, AD&D level 7-12:

Bizarre thunderstorms in the city of Arabel are only the beginning. Who is killing all the city's mages?

Thanks for the suggestion Are, "Storm Season"'s a sequel (of sorts) to the Dark Parade.

Sounds like the adventure anthology Tales of the Outer Planes from 1E to me. I don't own that anymore, so I can't say for sure.

Tales of the Outer Planes... the one with the silver sword wielding Githyanki marching out of the cover... the one with the World Serpent Inn... the one where the second adventure's "The Castle on the Edge of Time" in which the Sapphire Mage attempts to purchase Arabel... that's be the one!

Thanks Lathiira

I've been trying to locate a Dungeon adventure, but I'm having trouble finding it, not in any of the magazines I've checked so far, and my google-fu is failing me. What I recollect of it is:

An extraplanar wizard wants to buy the city of Arabel in the FR, the PCs are dispatched to break the bad news that it's not up for sale and perhaps he should look elsewhere.

Does anyone know the title and/or issue?

The story has to end some how....the problem is 'The story never ends.' So any ending always seems artificial.

As Michael Ende put it in the Neverending Story -- "that is another story and shall be told another time". The imposition of arbitrary endings, be they happy or sad ones, is in many regards a bad thing, imposing arbitrary limits and restrictions on the storytelling in the case of fiction, or a naieve perception of consequences in the case of reality.

Also check out the Faction Guide, which goes into a lot more detail.

Other than Kaer Maga there's the Spire of Nex (plus the other siege castles dotted around the Cairnlands.

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:

Callum Finlayson wrote:

Now, you've had 5 hours to relax, that's enough time off -- you should be over in "If I was in the Top 32 I would submit... " providing us all with archetype-feedback by now, otherwise you'll not have all of them done by the time you're due to start responding to our "If I was in the Top 16 I would submit..." posts when they start appearing.

I think he said he wasn't going to respond to them.

*I* think that this was supposed to be a joke.

Clearly it's not being taken as such.

I'm sorry, absolutely nothing critical whatsoever was intended.

I'll remove the post.

Callum Finlayson wrote:

Now, you've had 5 hours to relax, that's enough time off -- you should be over in "If I was in the Top 32 I would submit... " providing us all with archetype-feedback by now, otherwise you'll not have all of them done by the time you're due to start responding to our "If I was in the Top 16 I would submit..." posts when they start appearing.

I think he said he wasn't going to respond to them.

Ah... sorry... I forgot to use a sarcastic font.

Just to clarify -- I'm not expecting Neil, or anyone else, to do this. I was simply seeking to juxtapose & contrast the amount of work Neil (and the other judges) have done with the expectations of a small number of people on here.

:)

Callum Finlayson wrote:

The Low Templar’s Squire

Thanks Neil.

It's reassuring to know that (i) it was an okay idea, just poorly executed, (ii) I didn't do anything so stupid as to be auto-reject worthy, and (iii) that when I looked back on it afterwards the concerns I had about it matched the comments the judges made.

Thanks for putting in the time to get feedback to everyone so quickly -- next year divvy it up between all the judges so you don't have to do all the work!

Buy backwards dice, where the numbers go from 20 down to 1, rather than from 1 up to 20!

I guess my frustration is with this overall attitude in roleplayers that if their character isn't the one who gets to the do the coolest ability regardless of the conditions of the battle or helping others succeed than they don't want to play. I've played this game for a long time and I've seen it over and over. No one wants to be the cleric.

I've very rarely seen this, and certainly not among experienced players. While clerics may not be everyones taste, neither do fighters or wizards suit everyone -- I don't see clerics less well represented than other core classes. Several of my most successful charecters have been clerics.

The only times I've seen significant dislike of clerics is with relatively new players who think of them as nothing more than healers/buffers and regard the need for strict alignment adherence as a significant problem.

You may just be unlucky with the groups you've played with (and given your comment about players who don't want to play if they don't have the coolest abilities then that may well be it) -- I certainly haven't seen this as much of a problem, certinly not since 3ed.

yarb wrote:

Neil, You are the man!

please give the PIXIE BEAD from Teth Evik a look over and review, don't know how it got lost, but is an awesome item IMO.

I can't serve up the feedback on what I can't see...or didn't review. Any search I've done for Pixie Bread comes up empty. Either Teth Evik must have called it something else, never submitted it, or it got lost or eaten by the Post Monster. Maybe one of the Paizo web-tech guys can research it.

bead not bread

Non-PFS : 5 (or 6, or 10, or however much they want)
PFS : 1 (as close to 0 as possible, but some adaptation may be needed in any game)

There have already been a few discussions on how pricing works, and the difficulty in getting the right balance between the formulaic price and where it stands compared to other similar items.

Probably the most relevant recent discussion is SKR's thread on pricing errors

Thanks for the response, some of my comments would be as per my response above to Thomas's post.

Ovate

Overall: I actually kind of like this, but I don't think a lot of people would. I like Sense the Abhorrent, but why doesn't it replace anything? Also, Genius Loci/Prophetic Insight is a way less fun (and less powerful) ability than Wild Shape. And it should probably last longer. What are you going to do with your skill bonuses in 10 minutes? I guess somebody who just plain didn't want their Druid to change forms would appreciate receiving at least some kind of compensation for not using Wild Shape. If anything, this archetype seems a little underpowered, which is better than the reverse.

Less powerfull than wild shape... yep. If you're getting into a fight don't rely on cloistered clerics & diviners mixing it up on the front line. The point of ovate was to get rid of wild shape & pare back the combat abilities of a nature priest.

IMO the druid, as a class, is dominated by wild shape; and to me that's a problem -- there ought to be a non-grizzly-bear-punching-you-in-the-head type of druid. Is ovate weaker than a vanilla druid? Certainly. Is it too weak? I don't think so, others may well disagree.

As for the 10 minute skill bonuses -- for those 10 minutes the ovate is likely as stealthy as the party rogue or ranger and significantly more perceptive, as well as being almost certain to succeed at any survival or knowledge checks concerning the local area.

Thanks for the feedback Thomas

Aid Another (Ex): Too many skills get a bonus.

I felt that this would be limited enough & situational enough that 4 skills wouldn't be a problem -- in most cases the ovate would likely be the best character to be making those checks, so being able to provide an additional +2 to 4 fairly niche skills on a few rare occassions felt okay to me.

Natural Lore (Ex): Again too many skills getting a bonus for what was dropped.

I absolutely get where you're coming from, I considered paring it back, but my take was that for the first 2 levels they're getting a lower (+1 rather than +2) benefit to more (6 rather than 2) skills, and that by the time the bonus is up to +3 we're in Wild Shape/Genius Loci territory, with Genius Loci being significantly weaker (broadly speaking) than Wild Shape.

I recognise that I'm front-loading a little bit though.

Sense the Abhorrent (Su): Why outsiders? Aberrations would be better. Why get blindndsight so quickly, too strong at the level. What ability was traded for this?

SRD>An aberration has a bizarre anatomy, strange abilities, an alien mindset, or any combination of the three.

Outsiders, by their very nature, aren't part of the natural world. Aberrations are weird, but they may be part of the natural order of things -- they're not neccesarily alien abominations (though obviously some are); this is the big problem with aberrations -- they're composed of everything that dosn't fit into another box; they're the weird left-overs.

I considered including aberrations, and magical beasts, dragons, or fey as well, but wanted to avoid taking in too many types, and felt that outsiders & undead were the two most unnatural.

Are they getting blindsight too early? Maybe, not sure, but it's very situational -- you need two things (i) a target that you can't see, and (ii) that target to be undead or an outsider.

There's no specific ability traded for it, my understanding is there dosn't need to be a 1-2-1 correspondance to which base ability is traded for which archetype ability. As with natural lore, the ability is becoming more powerful (switching to blindsight) at the point (6th level) where a vanilla druid is able to wild shape into a large creature twice a day; in most situations the vanilla druid ability will be stronger than the ovate one.

Genius Loci (Sp): Why not a bonus to the terrain type the druid is in during the meditation? Why reduced for being underground? Stacking with Nature Lore is way overpowered.

Not sure what you're advocating by a "bonus to the terrain type the druid is in"; something like gaining a horizon walker type ability according to the terrain? The reduction in range when underground is down to wanting to keep it in line with how `commune with nature` works. Lastly, it explicitly dosn't stack with Nature Lore, the description states that it overlaps.

Thanks again for the comments.

Ovate (Druid)
Among the druidic orders those who devote themselves to study and teaching, and to the arts of herbalism, healing, & prophesy, are known as ovates.

Aid Another (Ex): An ovate’s talent for teaching allows him to better instruct others on dealing with the natural world. A successful aid another check for heal, knowledge (geography), knowledge (nature), or survival grants a +4 bonus. This replaces the Wild Empathy ability.

Natural Lore (Ex): An ovate adds half his class level (minimum 1) to all craft (alchemy), heal, knowledge (geography), knowledge (nature), profession (herbalist) and survival skill checks. This replaces the Nature Sense ability.

Sense the Abhorrent (Su): As an ovate becomes more attuned to the natural world those creatures that have no place in it stand out more harshly. At 3rd level the ovate gains blindsense with regards to outsiders and undead. At 6th level this increases to blindsight.

Genius Loci (Sp): Once per day at 4th level an ovate may spend 10 minutes meditating and communing with the natural world around him and gain a bonus equal to his class level on all knowledge (geography), knowledge (nature), perception, stealth, and survival skill checks made in or applying to any area within one mile per class level of the spot at which the ovate meditated. These bonuses last for 10 minutes after the meditation ends, and overlap with those provided by Natural Lore. In natural underground settings the radius is reduced to 100 feet per class level, and this ability does not function where nature has been replaced by construction or settlement, such as in dungeons or towns. From 10th level the ovate also receives the effects of a commune with nature spell when he uses this ability. This ability may be used one additional time per day for every two levels above 4th, and replaces the Wild Shape ability.

Prophetic Insight (Su): Once per day, as a full-round action immediately following a use of Genius Loci, an ovate may make a prophecy pertaining to the area he communed with. At 4th level this prophecy manifests as an augury spell; at 8th level it takes the form of a divination spell; and at 12th level it functions as a commune spell.

Frostflame wrote:

James who do you prefer as a singer from these lovelies Lady Gaga, Keasha, Brittney Speares, Kate Perry, Rhianna,

I haven't listened to many of their songs. I know I don't really like any of Brittney's songs. And I heard one at one point on a radio that was cool and it turned out to be Lady Gaga.

So... yeah. Lady Gaga, I guess.

Just noting that Lady Gaga (as Stefani Germanotta) wrote "Quicksand" on Britney's last album, and is believed to have contributed to at least one other song on it; also "Telephone" was originally intended for Britney but it was rejected by the label.

Below is a chart of all wondrous magical items submitted to the judges/developers for their comments. Before each name is the list of the judges/developers (by first name) and in that column "X" indicates they have posted comments. The "ALL" column means that all comments from the judges have been posted.

Blimey.

*applause*

... inform us as to whether or not we've hit the saturation point for full classes (be they called base, core, or alternate... it's all the same).

That, IMO, is exactly part of the problem -- too many different classes & types of class that are too similar but semi-arbitrarily separated.

There's no real difference between a core class and a base class -- it's solely a matter of which book they're published in.

The difference between a base/core class and it's alternates is that you can't multi-class between them -- in the same way that you can't multiclass as an evoker/transmuter, or as a cleric of Sarenrae/Iomedae, or similarly for witches, or oracles, or cavaliers. So clerics and wizards essentially have a different type of "core alternate" built into them that's the-same-but-different to the alternate classes they may get elsewhere. This continues in the APG with the cavalier, oracle and witch who have their own built-in alternates.

Then there are archetypes, and it's perfectly possible to have mutliple archetypes of the same core class. NPC classes are weak base classes. Prestige classes are powerful classes that you don't select until high level and which depending on the PrC mix aspects of base class, archetype, and alternate.

It's all getting clumsy and unwieldly.

And essentially all of these -- whether archetypes, or alternates, or specialisations within a class, or prestige classes -- are primarily ways of bundling up a mixture of feats and class abilities, some of which are similar to other classes abilities, some of which should be feats.

A Chelish noble who dabbles with a variety of ways of summoning & controling his fiendish allies could be an: aristocrat/infernal binder(wizard(conjurer))/summoner/diabolist
an NPC class, an archetype of a specialisation of a core class, a base class and a prestige class. Or add in levels in other similar classes (sorceror, or possibly cleric) or in completely different classes (barbarian, or cavalier). But he couldn't be a conjurer/diviner. And the knight battling him can be a paladin/cavalier(star) or paladin(divine defender/hospitalar) but couldn't be a cavalier(star)/cavalier(sword).

There are too many different, incompatible ways of doing similar things -- we need one or two standardised, elegant ways of creating specialised characters.

And for half of writing this I got archetype & alternate mixed up.

Where is Citadel Dinyar, HQ of the Hellknight Order of the Claw, located?

The two published descriptions (that I'm aware of) give locations that aren't consistent with one another.

... at the headwaters of the River Iseld

.. in the Aspodell Mountains

According to the maps the headwaters of the Iseld are in the Menador mountains, while the the Keld rises in the Aspodells before joining the Iseld north-east of the Whisperwood.

Given this, and that PF27 came after the PFCS, I'm inclined to assume that Dinyar is at the head of the River Keld in the Aspodell Mountains, close to the three-way border between Cheliax, Isger, and Andoran.

Does anyone know of anything that's been said (other than the PFCS and PF27 lines above) regarding this?

Golarion-oriented fluff rather than PFRPG-oriented crunch.

In particular a 256-page version of the Faction Guide, covering more factions (say about half as many again) in more detail (4-6 pages each ratehr than 2).

Callum Finlayson wrote:

Are there pictures on the internet of James Sutter riding a bicycle naked?

Wait. What? Why?

Well I was googling around for pictures of naked games designers on bicycles, found one that looked like him, and was curious as to whether or not it was, simples :)

One general suggestion I'd make about paladin's codes is to consider how the codes in other religions differ -- although both would be LG, and their codes would reflect that, paladins of Sarenrae and Abadar will differ significantly while still having much in common.

By considering what would be common between paladins of a range of deities (Iomedae and Torag of course, but also Abadar, Irori, Sarenrae, and Shelyn) you'll be able to work out what the core paladin tenets are in your campaign, and from their it becomes easy to create religin-specific codes.

Why?

More specifically, why shouldn't they just be either conventional exotic or martial weapons, or simply alternate names for bastard sword & short sword?

EDIT: Wow I type slow; still at least it's an appropriate thread to get ninjad multiple times in.

Don't Cubicle 7 do a pdf of this? Or is that only available as part of the "buy the hardcopy & get the pdf free" thing?

James,

Are there pictures on the internet of James Sutter riding a bicycle naked?

Hey Thomas, nice idea for an item, couple of questions/clarifications...

Due to the tankard’s inebriation and tendency to drift off topic, the bearer must succeed on a DC 10 diplomacy check to focus the tankard on discussing the topic they wish.

What happens if they fail? Can they retry? How often can they attempt it? 1/round ... 1/day?

If successful, the bearer gets a +5 competence bonus on a Knowledge skill check pertaining to the topic and can make the skill check untrained. The bearer must take 20 on this check to represent the time spent questioning the tankard.

Just to check I'm clear -- this is essentially giving you +25 on your Take 20 rather than +20. How does this sit with not being able to take 10/20 on knoweldge checks usually? Also most knowledge checks take no time/require no action.

Changing topic or asking additional questions of the tankard increases in difficulty as the tankard becomes more inebriated the longer it is full. The DC of the diplomacy check increases by +5 for each topic discussed.

Does the DC also increase for additional questions if the topic dosn't change?

This ability may only be used once per day.

How long a gap can there be between consecutive questions/diplomacy checks?

Maybe waiting a few days for things to quieten down wasn't the best idea... :)

In retrospect I can see enough problems that this was obviously not up to scratch -- unclear wording, the pricing, and a general lack of "wow" -- but I'd like to hear what others think.

In particular, was it a bad idea or an okay idea poorly executed?

The Low Templar’s Squire
Aura faint conjuration; CL 1st
Slot chest; Price 5,000 gp; Weight –
Description
This doublet, such as might typically be worn under armor, provides the wearer with a measure of the assistance a knight may receive in combat from his squire. An invisible, mindless, shapeless force responds to the wearer’s mental commands and assists in drawing and sheathing weapons, storing and retrieving carried equipment, etc. The wearer may, for example, simply hand her sword to the squire and command it to sheathe the weapon.

The wearer may perform the following as swift actions rather than move actions, and without provoking an attack of opportunity:
• Draw a weapon
• Load a hand crossbow or light crossbow
• Sheathe a weapon
• Ready or drop a shield
• Retrieve a stored item

The wearer may perform the following as a move action rather than a standard action:
• Draw a hidden weapon

The wearer also always counts as having help when donning or removing armor.

The squire can only ever interact with items carried or worn by the wearer, and can only handle a single object of up to 20lbs at a time. Should the wearer command the squire to perform a task that it cannot complete that round for whatever reason, or where the item exceeds 20lbs in weight, any item held by the squire is dropped at the end of the round.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, unseen servant; Cost 2,500 gp

Pricing note: Spell level 1 x caster level 1 x use-activated/continuous = 2,000gp. Closest analogues are – glove of storing (10,000gp) and handy haversack (2,000gp). Provides potentially substantial benefit in combat, price raised to 5k.

IMO problems tend to occur more with players who are, essentially, unable (to some extent) to play sub-optimally -- you read the rules, it's usually pretty obvious how to create a particularly effective character, which spells/feats/weapons/whatever naturally complement one-another; why would you consciously choose to play sub-par?

They'll recognise the RP and fluff side of things, and may well have well-rounded characters, but everything is shaped by the basic avoidance of anything that isn't the strongest option available. If the rules say your football team fields 11 men at a time, why would you choose to field only 10?

On the other hand I don't see the traditional "power gamer" problem very often. While it may be a bigger issue -- players going out of their way to bend/break the rules, mine the internet for obscure powers & rule interpretations, and in general try to "beat" the GM, the game, and the other players -- I think it's also a lot rarer.

Maybe when you first start playing, particularly if you're part of a group that's all (or mostly) new to the game without anyone particularly experienced, you approach it competitively. But I think most people who have that attitude either stop playing or change as they come to appreciate that pure win/lose actually detracts from your own enjoyment of the game in the long run.

In my experience the worst (or perhaps most accomplished) power gamers tend to be about 16-20, been playing for 2 or 3 years, and have probably only played with 1 or 2 groups. The groups they've been playing with have led to their play styles being directed in certain ways, and exposure to new gaming groups provides the opportunity to change -- some broaden their play styles & recognise there's more to gaming than maximising DPS, others may retrench and stick with the groups that better suit there playstyle.

Joining a new gamng group is potentially a massive change for a relatively inexperienced player, and for many leaving school/starting university is the first real opportunity they have to game with a couple of new groups, or even just to try out other systems. At this point they often discover how concentrated their previous group's play stle was, and how directed it may have been to re-inforcing particular play styles -- the new group's GM tells them that they don't use a particular splat book or 3pp, that a particular rule is interpreted differently, or that particular group dynamics are the norm or unheard of.

By way of example... a few years back I played in a 3.5 campaign where most of the group were university students, mostly 2nd & 3rd years, some post-grads. A 1st year joined the group, he'd played for 3 or 4 years at school, knew the rules well, but he started out with his PC all planned out (through multiple PrCs) to 20th level, he said the character didn't really kick-in until about 9th or 10th level. The GM explained that not only would the campaign probably finish at about 15th level, but also that it would take around a year-and-a-half to get there.

The new player had come from a group where power-gaming was the norm (more than that it was almost a requirment within the group), they never played at "low" levels (below double digts), and had had all of their play directed to support that play style. In many regards we simply weren't playing the style of game he wanted to play, and because all of his gaming experienced had previously been confined to one group of half a dozen people he didn't sufficient external perspective to see how to play the game in a different style.

Going back to those who can't play sub-optimally, they're not trying to win, they're not in a race to hit level 30 CoDzilla, they're not trying to beat the rules -- they just play be the rules as efficiently and effectively as they can. Which is fine so long as you're in a balanced group where everyone has a similar level of knowledge of the rules,but presents significant problems when you've got less experienced or more casual players involved. And while you're trying to teach the new players, you're also having to get some of the more experienced players to pull their punches so that they don't dominate things.

A couple of other sources for large amounts of "named" spells come to mind...

The runelords were not only exceptional arcane spellcasters, but also (as best we know) exceedingly competititve, and highly egotistical megalomaniacs. This will have not only resulted in a lot of research by the runelords to "one-up" each other, but they'll likely have routinely plagiarised their predecessors & written them out of the history books. Any new explodey evocation spell found in a Thassilonian ruin would almost certainly be Alaznist's Explodey Evocation irrespective of who originally created it. There would have been little opportunity for ealrier versions of these spells to have spread out into the world without either being rebranded by the last Runelords or lost during the collapse of Thassilon.

Irrisen's led by powerful arcane casters, who not only have extended lifespans & the resources of a nation to support their research, but who also get refreshed every century by new blood from another world. The new queen will bring obscure new spells with her from wherever she's been until then, as will any children & aides who come with her; and while pride (and practicality) may prevent the current Queen & White Witches from engaging in the revisionism the Runelords may have with regards to their predecessors, any new spells they brought with them 98 years ago will likely not have their sources cited and be branded along the lines of Elvanna's Frigid Froust.

The elves probably have a quite high concentration of unusual spells, due variously to their strong interest in the arcane, their isolationism, and their long period away from Golarion. In addition to having fostered development of new spells, the isolationism will have also meant that such spells won't have sprad far beyond elven communities. Consequently there's probably a fairly high proportion of "named" spells unique to elves, which although very rare in most of the world may be relatively common within their communities.

In addition to their dalliance with devilry (and possibly test-driving other religions) in the wake of Aroden's death, the "good" folk of Cheliax have probably undertaken a lot of arcane research in the last century-or-so, as the collapse of the state religion probably meant it was a pretty good time to be an arcane caster there (at least for those things both wizards & clerics can do). In particular Houses Ornelos and Leroung undoubtedly have their names on a lot of spells.

There's at least one super-powerful, non-dead, non-ascended, non-lost spellcaster in Golarion: Baba Yaga. As I understand it, she's a planeswalker but she comes back to replace the current ruler of her country with a new one every few years.

I'd peg Granny at ascended/demi-god level. AFAIK we've only seen one of her relatives statted up for PF so far

i never really got into greyhawk myself. my players only wanted to play in the realms. I had one player always play a sorcerer with the goal to be more powerful than elminster and totally destroy him. he would usually make it to 17th level and then teleport to minster and challenge him to a dual. guy never understood that el was an archmage...

One of the key differences between GH & FR -- in GH at 17th level you're a king or nation-manipulating-archwizard; in FR you're probably one of the 3 or 4 most powerful people in your village :)

how come pathfinder doesnt have a famous mage's name attached to some special spells?

Presumably there's at least Tashanna's Hideous Laughter :)

That's ok, though as I am more and more pleased to see Greayhawk ( Greyhawk = Lame) go by the wayside.

I shall respond in a restrained and measured manner.

If there is a major difference it is one of tone. Greyhawk is more didactic, the good countries are truly good and the bad ones truly horrible.

Although there may be more black-and-white in GH than in PF, there's still plenty of grey around, and examples of "good does not mean nice".

The PF setting may have more grey, but it's still got some one-sided extremes -- the differences between (say) Cheliax and E.of.Iuz stem more from the latter being directly ruled by the psychopathically chaotic evil demigod of evil chaotic evilness (it's not really his fault, he came from a broken home), where as the former is governed by proxies of the patron god of lawyers; Nidal's probably a *lot* less pleasant place to live than Cheliax.

PF tends to avoid being too black-and-white by playing more to some prominent stereotypes (Galt, Andoran (f#$* yeah), Taldor, etc), whereas many GH nations started as pretty generic fantasy settings that were then tweaked in various ways.

You can't do new wizard schools or sorcerer bloodlines or cleric domains. But, what about the Oracle? Would you be allowed to do a new Mystery?

Round 2 Rules & FAQ

Examples of these invalid rules are barbarian rage powers, cleric subdomains, alternate classes like the anti-paladin, ranger combat styles, rogue talents, sorcerer bloodlines, wizard schools, alchemist discoveries, cavalier orders, oracle mysteries or revelations, summoner evolutions, or witch hexes or patrons.

EDIT: curse my leisurely typing (and rule quote up-looking)... ninja'd not once but twice!

I'm sure redesigning the site is on Vic's to-do list.

I'm also sure Vic has a very long to-do list.

I have them all. :)

And I even have reconstructions of the missing episodes. :)

In fact, I have a copy of every single Dr. Who Episode available, including reconstructions of missing episodes using sound bites and stills. I also have most of the Charity Specials as well, I think I'm only missing two.

Who Fan. Me? No, what gave you that idea...

Perhaps a little worryingly, I know someone who almost certainly has more Who than you. They will probably be able to indulge in month-upon-month of debates on "reconstrucions of the missing episodes".

Possibly even more worryingly, in writing the above I've realised that I actually know 2 (more-or-less unconnected) scary-obscure-reconstruction of lost episodes people.

Presumably River Song counts as a companion since (*dusts*off* HHGttG to check how to use time-travel related verb tenses... *gives*up*) even if she hasn't travelled with the Doctor in his timeline yet, she has already done so in her timeline. I'd have liked Michelle Ryan's Lara-Croft-alike to have lasted more than a single special. Presumably Jenny will re-appear at some point.

Although an ingenue is always going to be needed, the best companions tend to be the strongest/smartest ones so the Doctor has someone to bounce off. And its getting this balance right that sometimes presents problems -- providing strong/smart companions that can still serve as viewer surrogates.

There's no need for the Doctor to explain to (say) River why they need to reverse the polarity of the flux capacitor, that's why Donna or Amy are there. This was a problem with Tom Baker's later stories -- he was travelling with Romana & K9, either there's no viewer surrogate or a Time Lady's having to have basic quantum mechanics explained to her.

So even when there's a good individual companion it sometimes dosn't work because of their role/interaction with other companions, or conversely 2 otherwise mediocre companions can work well together so that you don't notice their faults.

IMO the problems with `simulacrum` stem from the spell description not being detailed enough, rather than it necessarily being broken per se; even without detailed mechanics it's not really clear what the spell should qualitatively be capable of -- it suprised me back in 3.5 when `polymorph` got overhauled but `simulacrum` was ignored; at the very least it feels like it needs a page-worth of examples.

Consider if one year RPG Superstar had a "design a new spell" round and `simulacrum` were submitted. What would Clark/SKR/James/whoever make of it? It would likely be torn to shreds. And this is a spell that's made it more-or-less intact through several versions of the game.

Guidelines for usage in a Paizo setting can probably reasonably be gleaned from (as others have mentioned) EttRoG and Headless.

Personally (as others have said) I'd add back in a pound-of-flesh requirement (not just a piece of the target, but more than just a strand of hair or a toenail clipping) and limit max HD to CL.

It's also important to note that the description talks about the simulacrum being under its creator's "absolute command" -- there's not necessarily any loyalty, it just has to follow your orders. The spell dosn't talk about personality, initiative, free-will or anything else, so if we assume that the simulacrum retains it's personality, free-will (except with regards to following the commands of its creator) and a desire for self preservation then except for following its creators commands it's going to behave more-or-less as the original would under given circumstances.

The simulacrum will look at it's circumstances, resources & abilities and determine how best it can survive and achieve its own goals (as tempered by the creator's commands).

So, even stripped of half their levels, just how well would the original Iggwilv or Mordenkainen react to being under somebody else's "absolute command"? Even at half power notIggwilv or notMordenkainen is going to a serious potential threat to their creator -- who's going to have to being laying on `charms` and `dominates` thick and fast (notMordenkainen: "a DC30 will save, how quaint..."), and who'll have to watch their every utterance with the care of the strictest wish-lawyer to avoid saying something that notIggwilv can interpret as letting her feed them to a passing qipploth lord.

So if you want pet simulacrum of an epic level wizard then it'll be a little like keeping bound demons or managing computer security -- you have to get it right *every* time, you only need to mess up once for things to start going very wrong very quickly.

Simulacra work best when they're of beings naturally loyal to you, ideally of yourself. But so long as they retain their personality & desire for self preservation you still need to look beyond just obedience to actual loyalty.

Slumber, as has been mentioned, is very strong -- I (perhaps to other party members chagrin) deliberately didn't take it as it can be too powerful.

Repeated evil eyes stack, so long as they inflict different penalties. And although they overlap the same effect an be applied repeatedly against a single target.

Healing can only be used 1/person/day but is not only a valuable extra bit of healing (how many parties ever regret having an extra 4-6 CMW/day), it means you can freely give away healing to any passing NPC (town just fought off a tribe of wild goblins leaving dozens of dogs & townsfolk gravely injured? Don't bother interupting the cleric of Sarenrae while she's sunbathing, just form an orderly queue in front of my 1st level witch...).

Cackle's great advantage comes from it only requiring a move action.

Cauldron is just a free feat (+skill bonuses) nothing more.