Cintra Bristol's page

In my campaign, Tsuto died, but Lyrie was captured. I had the PCs escort her to Magnimar for trial by Judge Ironbriar prior to Chapter 2, then escort her and three other convicts all the way to Fort Rannick to be inducted/geased into the Black Arrows - and then they returned to go through Chapter 2. Great foreshadowing opportunities...

Looks like it got lost in editing. Here ya go:

If the dead-end doorway is entered out of the correct order, then the user will simply boucne off the solid wall.

If the dead-end doorway is entered in the correct numerical order it will either take the user to any doorway of that number the user wishes(if the room's animal is pictured), or the user appears randomly at another doorway of that number within the hazneh.

Maybe I missed it when reading the various answers above, but I don't see an answer to part of Critic of the Dawn's question about area A1; specifically, if you step into a "dead end" doorway, do you:
(a) bounce off a solid wall back into the room you were trying to leave, and know there was a wall in your way,
(b) exit through the portal you entered through, as if just reflected back,
(c) come out in a completely different room by "wrapping" the map (e.g. from A1g, step into doorway 2, and come out through doorway 2 of A1f), or
(d) come out in a completely different room by finding another "dead end" with the same numbered doorway (so A1h door 3 might connect to A1b door 3, but A1f door 3 would connect to A1d door 3 and A1d door 1 could connect to A1c door 1).

Please advise, thanks!

Rather than "panning away" when the outcome of the fight seems obvious, I just have the remaining enemies gain Vulnerable 5 (or 10) All (representing the fact they're demoralized because they know they're losing). Most of the players don't seem to realize I'm doing it, and it keeps fights from dragging.

We still have long, drawn-out fights, but I think our main problem is people not paying attention, and not knowing what they want to do when their turn comes. Sigh.

An anonymous benefactor on this site bought the final 3 installments of the Legacy of Fire adventure path for me when I had to suspend my subscriptions because GM downsized me two months ago.

One of my two best friends in high school committed suicide while we were in college - in different states, and so I wasn't there for her when her life spiraled out of control. For years afterward, just thinking about it for a couple of minutes could spiral me into a deep depression. It's been twenty years now, and it still can.

I worked with a man at a retail store after college. One of his family members, that he had been estranged from for a couple of years at the time, committed suicide. This man was so badly affected by it that he started drinking. He was an alcoholic for ten years after that before starting to pull himself together, getting off the streets, and getting that retail job where I met him. We talked often about how the loss of these people in our lives had affected us.

Your life has touched people more than you know - often, you've touched people you don't even realize. People care about you. All I know about you so far is that you're hurting very badly, and I care about you. I want for you to be okay. Not for me, but for you, because I know what it's like to hurt so badly that you just can't stand to be stuck inside yourself for one more moment.

Look at the responses so far in this thread. All of us here would be deeply affected if we were to think that after calling out for help here, you'd gone off and ended things. Please don't think that you have to be alone in this.

Call the hotline number that Gary listed in his post. Call someone you know. Don't be alone with your thoughts. And if it helps you, please keep talking to us here. But please, no matter what, don't give up on yourself.

Actually, the very next slot in the list of item slots is the Eyes slot, and masks typically are for that slot (lenses, masks, goggles) rather than the head slot.

So it isn't a failing of his that he asked for this, I believe. On the other hand, certain powers are meant for certain slots, and I don't really see the logic of using the eyes slot (typically used for perception-enhancing items) for either of the items you mentioned. A Cloak of Disguise might make more sense to me.

Another option is to let him put both items into a single hat. The Magic Item Compendium for 3.5 encouraged combining stat-boosting items with other items, without charging the +50% cost for multiple enchantments, because this makes it more likely that PCs will actually take something other than just the main stat-boosting items. Although I don't know if Pathfinder RPG is going to allow/encourage that specifically, or disallow it, or make no reference to it...

I had not insured the box, so they would do nothing else. In fact, they told my wife that it was only a few years ago that they would have charged us for the new box and containment bag.

I insure everything now :-(

I insure everyhing now, too.

Scott - I ran my group through the barn and ground floor of the Graul Homestead using your conversion notes this past weekend. It was absolutely amazing!

The brothers' abilities worked really well to communicate their nature. And Mammy Graul herself was perfect - the players were completely appalled. Oddly, at first about half the party ignored her to deal with her "boys" in the room (later one player mentioned that she seemed slow, so they thought that one or two melee types would be able to lock her down, and the rest wouldn't have to worry about her). But then she started Dominating PCs, and things got a lot more serious.

I made one addition of my own - I played music during the session. Details spoilered so those who are interested can check it out:

I'm stunned. It took me a while just to be able to post a reply.

I let myself check the site briefly, and had just realized what Cosmo's message meant when the doorbell rang. What would have been bittersweet - my last Paizo package for an indeterminate amount of time - arrived just as I learned that there would in fact be more, because someone had performed this incredible act of generosity on my behalf. Thank you! Thank you so very much!

I also want to thank everyone who has wished me well. It's a pretty emotional thing, losing a job - kind of hard to avoid some sense of rejection, you know? So your encouraging words mean a lot to me. (And of course, my thanks to Paizo staff and the community in general, for being the sort of community where someone would think to be so incredibly kind to someone they've never met.)

I lost my job yesterday, so I'm having to eliminate most/all discretionary spending for a while.

If I understand correctly, as a Subscriber, I can have my subscriptions suspended but not cancelled, and at a later date (presumably when I get a new job) I'll have the option to reactivate them to ship the items in the meantime as subscription (including the free PDF)? If so, that's what I'd like to do. If not, shoot me an email and I'll have to figure out what my options are...I don't want to miss out on the second half of the current adventure path, but I'd fell pretty guilty committing the money to it right now. Thanks.

The fastest way to get to Turtleback Ferry is by river barge (about a week travel, versus more than twice that by overland travel). So most likely, your PCs will be finding a barge headed in the right direction.

Shalelu may have decided to travel there on her own, and just happen to be booked on the same riverboat the PCs end up using. If you go with this method, it will probably be better to have her talk to at least one PC about why she's making the trip, rather than having her refuse to talk about it. Also, I recommend having some encounter on the way (a boggard attack on the barge, perhaps) to let the PCs see Shalelu can be useful to them.

How long before 4e eberron is to be released?

No! It can't be! Paizo isn't alowed to do this because then they would make WotC look bad! And we can't alow that to happen, now can we?

Going from 2nd to 3rd edition wasn't actually all that easy. My 2e character around the time of the transition was a half-elf cleric/wizard; you simply couldn't do multiclassed spellcasters in 3e at first, and even when they started providing options (Mystic Theurge), those options often fell fall short. I wasn't able to capture the same feel without using Gestalt rules (which was okay if youonly had 2 PCs, but those PCs quickly because way over-complicated) or else using the Magister class from Monte Cook's book (but then the cleric-equivalent from that book was not remotely the same, and that meant I had to use the Monte Cook rules with core 3E classes, which got wonky).

I think I'll actually have better luck recapturing the feel of that old 2E character now that there are some added resources for 4E. I can look for a combo of Arcane and Divine classes that both key off the same one or two attributes, and go from there. And eventually, when I get bored with tinkering with all the cool new characters that suggest themselves as I read the new rulebooks, maybe I'll give it a try...

My group captured Lyrie - and Orik helped them sufficiently that they let him go instead of capturing him.

They took Lyrie to Magnimar for trial, at the Sheriff's request. They had the opportunity to testify, and then Lyrie was found guilty, and offered the opportunity to join the Black Arrows at Fort Rannick rather than facing life in the Hells. She accepted.

The PCs then escorted Lyrie and several other prisoners to Fort Rannick. They got to meet a number of people at the fort, as well as see the town of Turtleback Ferry. (I borrowed heavily from Moonbeam's story hour for the people at the fort - HERE. I strongly recommend this journal, it's been a gold mine of ideas to help me as I run this campaign.) I ran a few encounters on the way there and back. I got to scare them with stories about the Ogres of the area, but things have been quiet (if rather rainier than usual, with some flooding) and they didn't encounter any ogres or other giant-kin, much to their relief.

Since then, they've completed the second adventure, and learned that Ironbriar sent Lyrie to the Black Arrows because he thought she would be "useful to my Beloved's sister." They don't know who that "sister" is, so now they intend to escort Shalelu there (she want to talk to her stepfather) and use that as an excuse to investigate...

My husband is building a Deva Invoker and also a Shifter Warden. (He's trying to decide between the Warden and a Human Swordmage, but we have to wait for Arcane Power for him to be sure which he prefers.)

I'm building a Deva Shaman. I expected the bard to be the class I'd most want to play, but the Shaman has really wowed me.

Of course, since the Character Builder doesn't update until tomorrow, the FIRST character the new book has inspired me to build is a drow rogue. ;)

It's not necessarily the DM that's lazy. Many of the difficulties of 3.x at higher levels (around 9th-12th and up, depending on the people involved) are caused by poor preparation by either the DM or the players.

And how is this a difficulty of just 3.x? This is a problem in EVERY rpg out there. The higher the level, the more options, abilities, spells, equipment, etc. *edited for civility*

Of course, as the DM, I don't mind at all that the players have a lot more work to do - I just enjoy my vastly-reduced workload! (Which I then promptly increase again by delving ever-deeper into plotline, redesigning sawmills, building clock-towers out of foam-core, and other tasks I, personally, never managed to find the time for when running 3e.)

I understand DigitalElf completely here. Individually, a few changes here and there don't seem to add up to much. But they help define what D&D is or was compared to other class-based fantasy RPGs.

3e's design group deliberately stuck to that body of D&D lore while 4e deliberately tacked away from it, when it was unnecessary to do so. And I find that unfortunate. It interferes with my sense of D&D as an ongoing project. It puts a break in the continuity.

The other place they're getting a lot of inspiration from is mythology. Which is exactly the approach that Paizo is taking with a lot of their own re-invisioning of monsters. Which has made converting Paizo stuff to 4E even easier, in some places, than it already would have been.

The MOOK rule -

Some monsters are Mooks (in between Standard creatures and Minions). They are identical to the Standard creature, but have one-third the hit points and are worth half the XPs. (This works out well because you usually "overflow" the amount of damage needed to kill them, so it needs to be offset that way.)

I didn't like the metagamey aspects of Minions, so while I still put them in occasionally, I'm far more likely to use Mooks, which typically end up being bloodied on the first hit and killed on the second. And while controllers can't auto-kill them as quite easily, they can still shine by bloodying (and on the next round, killing) a whole bunch at once.

The hardest part for me is that so far, I've only DM'd it (twice so far, but I've liked what I've seen, at least from a single-session point of view - I'm not sure if I'd want to run a campaign with it). And DMs don't really need it unless they plan to introduce a critter that uses the abilities.

The preceding is a public service announcement, and is intended to provide a useful excuse for those who know they want the book anyway. Those who prefer a reason not to purchase the book should use a countervailing public service announcement, such as "You can see a lot of it on the Digital Initiative in a week or two," or "You should definitely flip through it in a bookstore before deciding." The management takes no responsibility for those who choose to utilize the incorrect public service announcement for their situation.

If I may, conversely, which blog did you find most helpful, entertaining, or compelling? Just curious. :)

And you've asked a hard question, actually. I don't know that I can pick out any favorites.

The for-GMs article was quite interesting, and I appreciated his comments about power creep (i.e. that there isn't any) and the useful, not-cringeworthy Rules Appendix.

(Wolfgang Baur's "review" was not so useful, actually. Frankly, a lot of his reactions seemed much more heavily flavored by his emotional reaction to word choice rather than by anything that might be called an objective standard. He gave me the strong impression that he hasn't actually played 4E much - this is based on his mistaken impression that half-orcs should make better barbarians just because they have an "offensive racial power" and also on his gnome/invisibility comments, and I emphasize it's just the impression I was left with.)

I was looking for, and excited to find, crunchy bits in several of the posts (e.g. Druid, Invoker, Warden), but I also really enjoyed the fact that all seven of them did a good job of presenting the feel of the class (still excluding the Barbarian post, here). Even those that didn't provide specific crunch (Avenger, Bard, Shaman, Sorcerer) did an excellent job of providing a good cross-section of information - concept and flavor of the class, hints of some specific powers, a quick run-down of the paragon paths, and how the flavor text adds to the experience (Shaman article, I'm looking at you).

The Invoker write-up did the best job of creating enthusiasm - that is, our gaming group had shown no real interest in the Invoker prior to reading these articles, and now several of them are particularly interested in it. (No comment regarding whether that's more because of the class itself, the described Tomb of Magrym power, or just the repeated use of the term "Bad-Ass.")

And based on the number of times I heard people repeat it as our gaming group read the printouts of these, the Avenger had the best tag-line: "Batman is a Divine Striker!"

The knight in my current game has never actually used his challenges. Eventually I did convince him to go for a prestige class, so it isn't a big deal. He still has fun and wants to play the character. He'd be great if only his dice liked him better.

There's even a technical term at our game table. The knight's name was "Methos," so now when the dice rolls go really badly against someone at a critical moment, we say, "You really Methos'd that up!"

You know what really bothers me here? The fact that the interview actually used some of the most reasonable language I've seen concerning the difference between 3.5 and 4E. I get the sense that the vast majority of people debating in this thread haven't even bothered to read it - are just attacking based on the same issues that have come up time and time again before. And I'll admit - WotC have had some posts where they did seem a bit over-the-top in attacking 3rd Edition. Guess what? That ain't the case here.

Rob Heinsoo goes out of his way to talk about how exceptional 3rd Edition was, and the fact that the problems might not even be an issue for many campaigns and many gamers. Yes, he calls them problems - because he genuinely views them as such, and even designed an entire new edition of the game to solve them. It would literally be impossible to try and honestly discuss the changes made to the game without addressing the reasons for those changes. Some folks disagree with those reasons, and thats fine, but there is not a single reason to consider them an insult.

Getting offended that he considers 4E an improvement over 3rd Edition is just petty. Bringing that sort of attitude into this forum is just trolling. You can feel free to prefer 3.5 - stopping by to say that it is 'insulting' for the designers of 4E to prefer their game, however, is nonsense.

Especially given he even makes a point in talking about how some people won't prefer these changes. He specifically states that they made a deliberate move away from a really gritty, high-risk game, and that might be an issue for gamers that prefer that genre!

When I read the interview, my initial reaction was that it was good to see one of the WotC folks showing some respect for prior versions of the game - and relief that because of the respect Rob evidenced, this article was unlikely to cause the sort of vicious, angry anti-4E-developer reaction that much of their earlier marketing triggered. Ah, well...

My husband and I will be running a couple of tables at our FLGS (Blackthorn Game Center, in Dickson, TN). We haven't seen the materials yet; hopefully, he'll have them when we get there today for our weekly game.

Last time, for the Forgotten Realms-themed adventure, WotC somehow managed to forget to ship to his store even though he was signed up, and even though they sent the pre-package with posters etc.; so we're also prepping a quick adventure of our own in case the materials never show. And we've got some spare Common minis from older sets we can donate as the "free swag" for our guests, if we have to. But hopefully we won't have a recurrence of that particular problem...

I'm really enjoying reading through these - although it looks to me like the guy who was assigned the Barbarian didn't even bother to read his assignment.

Seriously.

I think the idea is very interesting. A single bottleneck entrance causes problems, though - what about making the entire refuge a demiplane/extraplanar locale (to explain the different rules that apply there re. magic, teleportation, etc.), and then a security feature on the entrance that moves it around in a complex pattern, so that at any given moment, the entrance might be linked to any one of dozens of different spots deep beneath Kaer Maga.

This would allow the slaves who have taken refuge there to figure out the pattern, but those trying to stop them are less likely to be able to predict it.

Those wanting to escape might be told of a specific place where the entrance can sometimes be found, or might be told of a specific place and time where an entrance will be available if they can get there on time.

I am currently trying to get the exact sales rumours from someone in the know.
But to get to this person I need to utilize a complex mathematical model based on a mix of chaos theory and shroedinger's cat.
At the moment I am sitting here, staring at this box and can not decide if she is dead or alive. A dead cat is on no use to me. I need a living speciemen. But only if I open the box I will know for sure. I also have cat allergy.
Give me a few days and I might be able to use a d20 instead of math and cat.

Bah.

After running several 3e campaigns that petered out around 7th to 10th level, I successfully ran the entirety of Age of Worms and the first half of Savage Tide in 3e. Now I'm running RotRL in 4E. My decision to switch editions has everything to do with my preferences in the game system design itself, and nothing at all to do with Paizo adventures.

(Although I'll admit, it was only through the APs that I was able to experience high level play and high level DMing, and so indirectly, the APs did allow me the opportunity to realize things about 3e that made it not the ideal system for me, personally, and for my group.)

In fact, my determination to stick with Paizo adventures despite my switch to 4E is much more valid as a measure of the incredible value of Paizo's adventures - and the OP's source post extrapolating from the first Paizo AP to all Paizo APs is pretty silly, to boot.

If you aren't planning to run it in the future for that group of players, the storyline of Paizo's adventure "Hangman's Noose" would make a really cool play. It would allow for an interesting twist to your idea, too - the PCs might know an actor is supposed to really die when their character is killed, but not know which actor is the intended victim.

Oh, did I not mention that the rock sits on a pressure plate that [without magic or advanced technology] triggers a lockdown mechanism and a dozen poison gas jets? And then if you survive that, opening the rock to get the key triggers hundreds of razor blades to sprout from the ceiling, which collapses on the intruder. All without disturbing the half dozen potted plants and love seat set that my mother keeps in the porch. And the whole rig automatically resets itself. And all of this is somehow done without magic or advanced technology.

DISCLAIMER: The above question is in no way to be misinterpreted as a suggestion that the OP's mother is Mammy Graul-like in any way. 'Cause that would be beyond rude. (Inferences about the OP himself, however, are fair game.)

A fellow cancer survivor here, and I'm glad to hear you're doing okay.

Mine was non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, but it was in the area around my throat, so they cut out half my thyroid and etc. about thirteen-and-a-half years ago. The surgery left a scar that followed the bottom-most crease of my neck, and if I remember correctly, the scar had faded almost completely by the one-year mark (to the point that people don't notice it unless I point it out to them).

And while I remember feeling not-quite-me at the one-year mark (chiefly, I had severe sensitivity to sunlight as a leftover from my radiation therapy, plus some complications getting my Synthroid dosage right), I think most of it got a lot better over the course of that next year. So hang in there, it does keep getting better!

How thorough a look did the initial diver get? Just that there were no bodies up on deck, or did he go "inside" the barge?

Because it seems most likely to me that the dead bodies would be inside/belowdecks, in the casino and various private rooms. Further, there should be chains and locks on the doors, trapping everyone inside when the fire started...

Wow, a surprising near-consensus among the dweomer-pronouncers! but for Geas, every single poster offered a different pronunciation(!).

Thanks! I'll look for that at Hobby Lobby after work today.

I'm getting ready to build the Shadow Clock for my group - I'll construct it this weekend, and I've taken some design tips from what you did.

What do you use to attach the foam core sheets together? (e.g. Is there a particular type of glue you prefer - or are you using something other than glue?) This will be my first time working with foam core, so any tips would be appreciated.

Actually, the current rule gives you 6 seconds, not 3.

Everyone is acting simultaneously, with the initiative order simply determining the order in which actions are resolved.

Phrased another way - You don't take 3 seconds of activity and then stand watching events for 3 seconds. If you're moving as fast as you can as someone chases you, you take double moves each round; if someone watches the chase, they don't see you run for 3 seconds, then stand still for 3 seconds while your pursuer runs for 3 seconds and stops, etc; they see both you and your pursuer running along the trail.

(But I admit that I haven't done the math to see if the double-move-in-6-seconds is that much more feasible than the 3 second version.)

If you have access to the Oriental Adventures book, the Tako on p.193 is a CR 2 octopus-like critter with both Improved Grab/Constrict and Multiweapon Fighting (typically uses 4 weapons plus 3 arms and a bite as its full attack routine).

There's also the Grell in MM2 - it's CR 3.

Actually, this one isn't the Large green dragon - this one is Medium-sized. The Large Green Dragon is the one from the War of the Dragon Queen set:

http://paizo.com/store/games/miniatures/tradableMiniaturesGames/dnd/singles /warOfTheDragonQueen/v5748btpy7sbe

At the moment, that one seems unavailable via Paizo. There is also the less-cool-looking, but significantly-more-available, large green dragon from the 2.0 starter set:

http://paizo.com/store/games/miniatures/tradableMiniaturesGames/dnd/booster PacksAndStarterSets/v5748btpy7zbk

In one of the past Paizo Blog posts, they shared the map of the Inner Sea region of the world of Golarion (this is the map for the portion of the world that is detailed in the campaign setting):

http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/2008/january

Scroll down to the January 24th post.

I hope you're feeling better soon!

I remember the time when I had four doctors in a row fail to come up with an accurate diagnosis for me. The fifth doctor scheduled me for emergency surgery - and they diagnosed me two days later.

Medicine is far more art than science, sometimes.

Wizards has stated recently that they are still working on additional tools, but that they are re-thinking in what order they should introduce the new tools (and they're not going to make a time commitment at this point regarding when specific tools will become available).

Both my husband and I received a survey in the past week or so when visiting their site, asking about our usage of the different tools they've already got, and also asking some questions about our interest in various possible future tools. So it looks like the reason they've dropped mention of those specific tools is because they may put other, more useful/interesting, tools ahead of them in the queue.

If you haven't checked out the Character Builder, and you play 4E, I strongly recommend that you check it out. It's really well done, and the fact that all the material from new books gets added to it automatically via monthly update makes it (IMO) far superior to third party tools (which can't duplicate all that copywrited material). It's a very good example of the quality they're shooting for.

They're also implementing an improvement to the online Compendium later this month, I believe, which will make it very user-friendly. There's a little blurb about it on their site.

In conclusion - as they say, when working on a big project, you can get Low Price, Good Quality, and Quick, pick any two. Their choice is to make the price point reasonable and the quality excellent; so we're going to have to wait a while for all the extra bells and whistles. And (as you can guess from the above) I personally don't have any argument with that choice.

I'd be curios to know, of course, what percentage of the people who buy Pathfinder would be interested in buying battlemats as well...

I've yet to see anything explaining how they're going to shift Eberron 3.5 to 4e and whilst I'm not looking to compare with FR I would like to know your opinion on these changes in relation as to how they'll effect the game world I'm planning to run this game in and hope to turn it into a campaign.

When adapting 3.5 or Paizo adventures to 4E, keep in mind that 4E assumes larger numbers of foes than 3rd edition. You'll want to take a close look at the information on building encounters in the 4E DMG. In particular, try to figure out ways to include two or three different types of creatures in (almost) every encounter - don't fall into the trap of presenting your PCs with individual bad guys (except for the rare Solo bad guys, whose stat blocks make them as capable as a number of lesser foes); and likewise, don't fall into the trap of just adding Minions to every scene that would normally include just one bad guy.

(If we knew what Paizo adventures you're considering adapting, we might be able to give some more specific advice regarding converting those adventures.)

As for the concerns the others have raised about having no Defender and no Leader - I say that you should let the players play the characters they want. However, with the lack of a Leader, you may want to consider one (or more, but not too many) of the following:
1) Provide more frequent Potions of Healing than the rules suggest, and don't deduct the value for all of them from the monetary portion of the treasure you hand out. (Keep in mind that potions of healing make the user spend a healing surge but get back exactly 10hp instead of the usual amount; this seems great at 1st level but becomes a problem as the PCs level up and their healing surges should have values > 10.)
2) Give each PC a single bonus Encounter power that is like the cleric's Healing Word (but just one per encounter). (This will scale with level).
3) Give each PC a "free" multiclass feat and encourage them to take one of the classes that grants a daily use of a healing ability. (This would be only a daily power; but it would also let them spend additional feats to get powers with the Healing keyword from the other class.)
4) Combine options 2&3, sort of - grant those who multiclass as Clerics the full Healing Word power (2/encounter) rather than just 1/day.
5) If you do nothing else, consider adjusting the hit points of most monsters down about 25% (to make fights shorter so PCs take less damage overall), and/or reducing the damage some foes deal.

I don't see the problem with only awarding experience for three rat swarms, particularly if you go with David's idea that the swarms only attack near the entrance to the lair.

One question, are the rats going to attack them anywhere they go in the garbage dump, or only if they get close to the wererat's lair entrance? Each method has it's advantages and disadvantages. I personally would go with the latter since it gives your players a chance to retreat and regroup, and hopefully rethink their tactics. With any luck, they would realize that they should be using their heads rather than their swords. It would also clue them in that the rats aren't behaving normal, setting them up for that Nature check.

What happens if the PCs reach the entrance before obtaining enough successes OR failures? (Assuming the entrance has a specific position on your battle map, and that you don't just wait to place it somewhere only after they win the skill challenge.)

I seem to recall a couple of people saying that Aldern was kind of a pushover after Iesha. If that's true, you may want to say that Iesha reached Aldern, he defeated her after a tough fight, but he's had time to recover while the PCs slept, so (since they waited to be at full power) he's currently at full power.

Iesha's corpse could be left where it fell, or perhaps (if your Aldern is obsessed with a female PC) Aldern artistically posed her by the table of stolen stuff, and has been trying to modify her corpse to look more like the object of his obsession.

My responses are just my opinions on the matter, but for what they're worth:

#1: Players start in C4D and their pit is C4F. That puts their area and the pit next to each other. If the pig comes up on that side, they get it and immediately toss it in the pit. I assume they are supposed to get the pig in the pit OPPOSITE where they start?

#2: Assuming the participants stay unarmed, not a lot of PCs have unarmed strike so they get no attacks of opportunity. The Shinglesnipes can get a pig and likely run right past all of the PCs to the pit since they have no AoO. PCs would have to Ready to try and stop someone. On top of that, all of the Shinglesnipes have Improved Unarmed so they DO get AoO. Sounds like that would really play out unbalanced. Should everyone be allowed to make AoOs during Blood Pig?

#3: The Shinglesnipes all have 2d6 Sneak Attack. You can Sneak Attack, with flank, with an unarmed strike can't you? Sounds like the PCs are going to get beat up quickly?

#4: Do the players go back to their starting position after scoring or is a new pig just immediately sent up?

#5: If my players refuse to play this cool game, am I justified in killing them all?

Wow, lots of great stuff here!

I'm going to have to think about a lot of what's been said. I still like the idea of Nualia being redeemable, if they're really willing to put that much effort in - but I want to make sure that if they do go to the effort and actually succeed, that it feels like it wasn't a "gimme." And some of the complications/alternate views are going to be very useful in making it feel difficult - or even in making them question for themselves whether she really deserves this level of effort on their part.

Maybe they have to save the soul of her lost baby?

Okay, I'm going away to think about this some more. Thanks again for all the cool insights, and I'll keep checking back!

Thanks for the additional replies! (messageboard ate my first attempt at responding, hopefully it won't now double-post)

Maybe Nualia saved some other poor unpopular kid from some beatings out of kindred spirit, back in the day, and that kid is now an adult that remembers Nualia fondly? Maybe the goblins that attacked Sandpoint also had instructions not to hurt that person (so showing that Nualia still has that single shred of goodness left in her)...

Maybe Nualia won't atone and can't be saved. Maybe there is nothing left but bitterness and hate.
Hey, you can't save everyone.

But "bitterness and hate" describes pretty well the recent behavior of the player (NOT the PC, but the real person) who most wants to try this out. He's been going through a rough time recently, and his PC's inability to save Nualia ended up being an immense frustration to him - which I didn't have a clue about til it was all over. (His communication skills are not the best.) I'm trying to reward this player for attempting to do something constructive for once...and I certainly don't want to discourage something that has the potential to lead to so much cool roleplay opportunities.

My players were incredibly curious about Chopper's Isle. If you take a look at Denek's story hour, he did some pretty cool stuff with investigating Chopper's old house. Search for the words, "The Mystery of Chopper’s Island" and check it out.

I borrowed it for my group, with some skill checks to get up and down the cliffs, and it worked really well.