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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber. Organized Play Member. 871 posts (893 including aliases). No reviews. 1 list. No wishlists. 2 aliases.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
Cintra Bristol wrote:

In Archives of Nethys, go to Creatures:

* put "Arcane Prepared" in the text search box
* click Traits and select Humanoid (under Creature Type)

You might still be better crafting the wizard yourself, but maybe this will help you find a chassis to build it onto with a bit less effort.

Wow, that helps a bunch; much appreciated!

I can dig the idea of hand crafting NPC foes, but I'm running two games (alternating weeks,) and still learning 2E from a GM perspective; on top of ... like, life, so having a pre-made roster of options helps.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I was looking to find NPC opponents to fill a role in various encounters; so I hit up Archives of Nethys and I ran into a problem.
For the context of my target, I was looking for a wizardly NPC opponent around 5th level or so... and I ran into a problem because the NPCs listed by character name usually didn't tell me much of anything in most cases. There was no Creature Family for "Wizards." The Mystics family was a mix of priests and arcanists, mostly diviners and holy-folk types, so a chunk didn't fit. Necromancer worked in a pinch, but needed re-flavoring.

I understand that in Pathfinder 2e, NPCs and Monsters aren't built the same as PCs and don't have to have classes and that's cool! But is there a better way to search if you have specific combat needs for your NPC opponents?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I'm trying to create a custom werecreature for my PCs to battle, a wererat; but I'm running into a discrepancy. By the rules of building werecreatures, under Curse of the Werecreature: "Saving Throw Fortitude DC is the standard DC for the werecreature's new level – 1."

The DCs for Curse of the Werecreature in existing werecreatures are all over the place.

The Werebat, Wereboar, & Werecrocodile all use a Level 2 moderate DC 15. The Wererat curse uses a Level 2 high DC of 18

The Werewolf uses a DC of 19, which would fit a Level 3 high DC 20-1

The Weretiger uses a level 4 moderate DC 18. The Werebear uses a DC of 22, which doesn't fit any of these formula as far as I can see.

Does Standard DC mean Moderate DC or does it mean whichever I prefer? Is there a reason the wererat and werewolf are high DC? And only Werewolf uses the DC -1.
What's with Werebears? High DC would be 21, and moderate would be 18. It seems to be high +1.

If I'm making a wererat midboss, should I base the DC on a wererat of the creature level (like DC 21 for a Creature 4 wererat,) or creature level -1 (DC 19) Or moderate DC -1 (DC 17.)

Is this one of those things where I should still just eyeball the DC?


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

We could just call the pathfinder golems something other than golem, since they're not like the actual golem myth. D&D just nicked the name. Maybe call them automatons, or constructs, or animates, or something else that doesn't imply a context that isn't there.


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Greetings,

I need to cancel my subscription to the Adventure and Adventure Path subscriptions, please. I'd like to keep my Rulebook subscription.

Thank you for your assistance.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
PossibleCabbage wrote:
Probably "it doesn't deserve to live because what it is" shouldn't extend much beyond fiends, undead, and aberrations.

Even aberrations are an edge case since there are non-inherently hostile aberrations. Flumph and naga are good examples, though I don't have my 2E bestiary on hand so I don't know if they're still aberrations. Aberration is a weird creature type, since the qualifier for it is mostly "being weird."


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
tqomins wrote:
To help with monster creation until we get the GMG, I put together a spreadsheet:

Wow, that's pretty cool! That helps us get the benchmarks pretty nicely! It's a good start.

Looks kind of like you are the Help Hound!


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:

Familiars are based on real-world animals, so the game expects us all to use that knowledge as to whether or not a familiar can fly. You COULD build an owl familiar that couldn't fly simply by choosing two other abilities (say, damage avoidance and darkvision), but thematically, that would suggest you don't really want an owl.

... Now I kind of want a wizard with a familiar that's an owl who (hoo?) can't fly. Maybe they're an owl with a crippled wing that the wizard rescued and raised and fell in love with and adopted as a familiar.

Or maybe it's a cute little baby owlbear!


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Is it just me, or is that black-scaled Kobold on the cover totally a Nightfury?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Well, what's done is done.

But I'll argue that the Core Rulebook, the engine of what makes the game go, is the perfect place for rules on crafting and modifying monsters as well as combat neccessary NPCs (ones that aren't made long form like PCs.)

Certainly the Rulebook is a better place for a chapter on that than one on Golarion lore, nations, and geography.

It's possible that I'm a bit biased, mind you. My favorite part of D20 games has always been monsters and tinkering with them.

Also, I'm sorry if I implied the Bestiary was useless. It's not. But it's limited in the DIY area. If I want a hobgoblin platoon to be lead by a priest of war, I know I can fudge it or substitute, but that's not the point. Anything can be fudged.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I have a concern. I've looked through the Core Rulebook and the Bestiary for 2E, and I can't find any rules for building monsters or NPC for that matter(adide from building NPCs long form, which I don't think we're doing anymore.) I looked at the Pathfinder rulebook schedule, and it looks like the next release is the Gamemastery Guide in mid January. Do we have to wait 5-6 months before we learn how to craft npcs and custom monsters?

The game doesn't seem ready to play without that, since not all of us run the APs.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I'm a player in a Doomsday Dawn playtest, so I wanted to post this here instead of in one of the forums for Doomsday Dawn to avoid spoilers.
I think there should be a Player's Guide for the module-set. There are a set of Backgrounds in the module that don't appear in the playtest Rulebook (the GM noticed this after we'd already created our characters and chosen our backgrounds.) If we'd known about it ahead of time, we may have chosen BGs tied to the story.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
Lavieh wrote:


The Anathema on the superstition totem is really hurts you though.

The problem I have with the Superstition Totem is not just that it hurts you, but that it hurts your party.

I'll admit that I'm not a big fan of Anathema/Code-of-Coduct type rule mechanics for my own personal reasons, (I feel like it takes away player agency, and Individual GMs and Players ofttimes disagree on what things like alignment and violations of conduct mean, and, well, other reasons.)

That aside, this anathema leans on what the other party members can do and play; It's very difficult to play a cleric or a druid in a party where you know one player's character can't accept your healing spells. Grant you, there are channels for clerics and potions/elixirs in general, but it's still weighing down your party and their options.


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The Narration wrote:


Is Lord of the Rings too obscure for you? Gandalf was running around meleeing orcs wearing just his robes and did just fine.

Well, to be fair, Gandalf wasn't really a wizard by Pathfinder/D&D standards. I think Wizards in Middle Earth were, like, some kind of outsider rather than humans with class levels.

It might seem pedantic, but it matters about what wizards are supposed to be in the world of the narrative.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
Elfteiroh wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:

Yeah, monster size could effect HP.

I wonder if Constructs and Undead still have no Con score.

The Grim Reaper shown during the banquet had a Constitution bonus, but it was the same as his Charisma. Could it be that they just copied the bonus in the off chance you would need it in some way? Or is the rule changed for that and Undead now have CON? Or they decided this one in particular would be different (even if it's not in PF1)?

I really, Really hope this means Constructs and Undead have Con scores, insomuch as monsters have Con scores in PF2 ed.

The lack of Con score "because they're not alive," has always made golems and other constructs... not... work right, and the bonus hit points based on size don't make it better. It's especially visible when you compare low CR Constructs with high CR constructs. The Caryatid Column (CR 3,) whose 3 HD & 20 bonus hit points for being medium put it at 36 hp, right between the average hit points for a CR 3 & CR 4. Meanwhile the stone golem (CR 11), with 14 HD and 30 bonus hit points for being large has 107 hp, right between the average hp for a CR 8 & CR 9. The higher the hit dice a construct has, the more of a glass jaw it has. And that's before we talk about Fort saves.

And creating beastly, meat-wall, brute undead is tough unless you to give them a high Charisma just for the sake of their HP & Saves.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Personally, I nominate the three Azi from the final volume of Legacy of Fire; dragon-fiends inspired from Persian mythology.

Azi, Gandareva
Azi, Sruvara
Azi, Zahhak

I particularly like the lore and feel of the multi-venomous Sruvara, and the serpent-shoulder'd Zahhak has a great Final Fantasy super-tough secret-boss look to it that I appreciate.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I just finished listening to the Glass Cannon Playtest and... was falling damage really something that needed to be fixed?

For reference, falling now does one point of damage per foot, as if the PF2 Playtest.

The GM said they did research and falling usually kills people. Well, getting attacked by a fire-breathing dragon usually kills people. How many people in recent history have survived being bitten by a fire-breathing dragon? Zero.

... realism is overrated anywhere you need to survive fire-breathing dragons.

But more seriously... I'd really rather not have twenty foot pits become save-or-die effects for first level characters. Frankly, pits are the pits as it is. When you're at the bottom of a pit, you can't affect the battle above you, and you're a sitting duck for things like alchemist's bombs. The DCs for climbing out of pits makes you waste time and possibly take more damage falling back in again. Perhaps climbing is more forgiving in PF2. If not, that can really take you out of the fight unless you have a flight effect, and that's if it doesn't kill you outright.

Um... re-reading that paragraph, I'm starting to realize how much my perceptions (as a GM) have been colored by 'Create Pit' being my players' go-to-tactic. Hum.


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As I recall, Kaer Maga, so called the "City of Strangers," is open to all races or species willing to behave themselves and engage in trade. I don't have the campaign book in front of me, but I think I remember goblins acting as sort of gangs of perpetual street urchins.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I created a Mite druid (level 4 or 5,) as a gremlin villain for a homebrew setting I was running for a while. He had a giant ant companion and used summon swarm (guided with vermin empathy.)

The players did not want to fight him. I might still have the stats kicking around somewhere.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I'm stuck in a sort of if/then loop when it comes to this feat.

Dampen Presence says "You may use the Stealth skill to hide from any creature attempting to perceive you using blindsight or blindsense, even if you are clearly in that creature’s perceptual field."

But then it says "This feat does not confer any advantages against other forms of perception, such as scent, vision, or tremorsense."

And then we have creatures like the Banshee, with the "hear heartbeat" ability, which says "banshee can sense the beating hearts of living creatures within 60 feet, as if it had the blindsight ability."

Does this mean we should view the banshee as having blindsight for the feat, or should we think of "Hear Heartbeat" as an "other form of perception?" I'm inclined to think the entries for monsters with such abilities reference blindsight to avoid taking up space more than anything else.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I have a draconic bloodrager for a game I'm in and I'm little unclear on certain elements.

Do I only get the claws when I bloodrage? How about the energy resistance? A sorcerer gets the energy resistance all the time. How about the natural armor bonus? Can I only use the breath weapon when I'm bloodraging?

The shorter version of the question, I guess, is, "Do only the abilities that say 'when you bloodrage,' you get x, apply when bloodraging?" Some of the abilities with some of the bloodlines have that, some do not.

My character is a white dragon bloodline bloodrager in the Reign of Winter adventure path and I wonder if I'm going to have to bundle up against the chill through the whole of my level progression or if I'll get my cold resistance for good at some point.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I'm a little fuzzy on certain elements of how the Lycanthrope Template works.

It says that while in hybrid and animal forms, lycanthropes get a +2 Str & Con, and that lycanthropes use the base creature or the base animal's physical ability scores, whichever are higher. I would assume that the +2 applies whether or not the were uses the base creature or the base animal's physical ability score (whichever's higher.) However, the stats for existing were-creatures don't always bear up, so I guess it doesn't?

The weretiger has a 23 Strength and a 17 Constitution from the tiger, which don't integrate the +2. Same for the werebear, with the 21 str & 19 con. The werecrocodile has a 19 str, which suggests they don't get the +2, as crocs have a 19 strength, but the werecrocodile has a 16 con, which is less than the 17 con of a croc.
Maybe that last part is an error?

I'm not sure why the wereboar gets a 23 Strength & Constitution in hybrid form, since the starting human barbarian had a 19 & 18 respectively while raging. Boars have 17 str & con. I thought it might have been based on a dire boar... except the hybrid is medium, so that's clearly not the case, and dire boars have a 17 con anyway.

For that matter, weresharks in hybrid form don't gain a swim speed. I assume it is because the template says lycanthropes in hybrid form use the base creature's movement... except that hybrid werebats and wereraptors have a fly speed and hybrid werecrocodiles get a swim speed. Honestly, I'd rather assume the hybrid werebat, raptor, and croc entries are correct because they get to be more thematic of the animal. I think hybrid weresharks deserve the same treatment. Whatever the case, it isn't consistent.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Trail of the Hunted contains several references to hobgoblin soldiers being paid in gold for services or bounties. There's even an army payroll that comes up at one point.

Where do they spend it?

I thought that in Golarion, hobgoblins raid and pillage and use slave labor (and the downtrodden non-soldier hobgoblin underclass) to get the goods and services they need. Maybe I'm wrong, but I wasn't under the impression that there was a well established enough goblinoid civilization for them to have their own economy and commerce (except Kaoling in Tian Xia and maybe in the Darklands) and most cities don't really welcome hobgoblins (at least not in army platoon form.)

What's the point of coin, if you don't have anywhere to spend it?

I can think of a couple few places where they could, like Kaer Maga and Urgir, but it seems like a long way to go to spend your foot-soldier wages.

Honestly, I could copy/paste this query for most situations involving "monster-folk" carrying coin pouches when they don't seem to have an opportunity to participate in trade and commerce.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
Rerednaw wrote:

Artwork question.

Page 4. Who's the unfortunate brunette in need of a cardiac replacement? Artwork without context is a nit of mine, sorry :)

I think that's supposed to be Cassandalee seeing as the gearsman matches the artwork of the advanced gearsman in A11. I'm going to assume that's not a literal image of how the final confrontation went down, but then, it's implied she was mythic, so maybe she did manage to crawl to A14 and barricade before succumbing to the hole all the way through her chest. That would actually be kind of cool.

====

I'm a bit more concerned about how a CR 9 Warden Robot managed to kill 4 hill giants (each CR 7) and drive off 2 others without so much as a scratch in area C.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I'm running a game of Iron Gods.

This might sound a bit odd, but I stumbled across a set of Five Nights at Freddy's vinyl figurines. Well, two sets: One with Foxy, Chica, Golden Freddy, and an unnamed exoskeleton. The other had Freddy, Bonny, Spring Trap, and Balloon Boy.

I'd link to pictures of them from google search, but I'm not sure if it violates any paizo message board policy.

They were all about the size of large D&D miniatures... roughly. They were just small enough that you could fit them into one space as medium minis, but big enough to tower over medium D&D figures and fit as smallish Large minis. And since all of them are jointed and obviously artificial, and many of them are visibly damaged and show mechanical parts underneath, I figured it would be opportune to use them as defective robots with which the PCs have an eerie/amusing/memorable encounter. So I bought them.

What I'm still trying to figure out, though, is where in the adventure path the party should encounter them. Right now, the party is about 3/4s of the way through Lords of Rust, exploring the haunted wreck, so anything from that time onward would be viable.

Any ideas or suggestions?


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On the Haunted Wreck:

It holds Two Major plot elements of import for the Iron Gods adventure path

1) The Inhibitor Facet: Can be used to hinder Hellion and goes toward shaping an Iron God far further into the campaign.

2) A recording offering additional clues regarding the final conflict upon the ark-ship Divinity... and the name 'Unity.'

That said, beyond it being a possible side-quest perhaps suggested by Redtooth, there aren't a lot of hooks pulling them to the Haunted Wreck if they aren't inclined by the fact that it's there.

Anyone have any ideas of ways to nudge them into that spooky valley? I already have Redtooth promising them high explosives to blow up the Receiver Array if they can rescue her brother, so I'm slightly hesitant on leaning too hard on her as a quest giver; especially since I don't know what her motivation would be in having them bust ghosts.


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Both Ghelarn ambushes pretty much wrecked my players, as they failed to notice either of them until they were right on top of the monsters. If I had it focus on attacking specific PCs and dropping them instead of having the Ghelarn overconfidently attack every one within reach with a single tentacle, I would have easily killed a PC in the first encounter, and possibly had a total party wipe in the second... or at least had only maybe one or two heroes limp out to try and get a whole new group. (my PCs were 2nd level and there were five of them, for perspective.) As is, they survived, but were pretty demoralized.

I recommend caution in using the Ghelarn. I think it's a bit nastier than its CR (2 for normal, 3 for advanced,) suggests. Grant you, the same could be said for Hetuath, the Juju Zombie Kasatha Fighter, who did kill a PC and needed to be fled from on the first encounter, but Juju Zombies are nasty and 4 attacks a round are nasty at that level.

Of course, your mileage may vary when it comes to monster difficulty and PC death at early levels. It's possible I'm a tad squeamish.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

The big problem I have with the autograpnel is that according to the entry, when it hits a target, the wielder gets a free Pull Combat Maneuver Check with a bonus of +16. Pull is a monster special ability that is supposed to have distance pulled upon a successful CMB check listed in its entry on the creature stat-block. There is no distance listed for the autograpnel. I assume it isn't "as far as the PCs want," because it takes a full round action to reel in an object weighing no more than 100 lbs for 20 feet of distance. I also assume this because it would be gross and overpowered to pull someone right to you from across the battlefield in addition to dealing 1d6+6 damage and bypassing DR & Hardness as an adamantine weapon.

Also, what kind of an action is it for the wielder to detach the grapnel from a creature, and is there any way for a victim to extract it other than snapping or destroying the cord?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

You know, if we're going for the feel of the movie Rocket Raccoon (and I admit, I don't know much about the comic book version,) he seems like he could use GM approved access to the Goblin Gunslinger feat.

That allows access to medium sized firearms despite being a character of small size... which seems to match up to Rocket's arsenal in the movie.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

If we're going to be milking American Tall Tales and Bogeyman stories...

The Hide Behind

And no, it's not just from the cartoon. See Wikipedia! I just want to plug the show as well. It's great!

Also, what about those weird dragon species from the Legacy of Fire? Has Paizo forsaken them?

Also, giant Pistol Shrimp and Mantis Shrimp! Always Pistol Shrimp and Mantis Shrimp!


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

For me, it conjures images of a Tooth Fairy Mafia.

The Tooth Gang Brutes knock the teeth outta you as payment.

You doesn't wanna see what they do if ya don't pay.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
Kobold Cleaver wrote:
MMCJawa wrote:
we already have dracoliches...Raveners
I can tell that they're the substitute, but they're hardly the same thing. :P

That's why you apply the Lich template to a dragon capable of casting spells as an 11th level caster. Presto, dragon lich.

Check out the template. Anything that meets the caster requirements can do it. Frankly, it's the only way that works when the Dracolich is closed content, and I'm pretty sure that's a large part of why they modified the template the way they did.

Also a reminder, vote Mantis Shrimps and Pistol Shrimps for Bestiary 5!

Oh Yeah! Year of the Shrimp!

Or... Book of the Shrimp! Yeah!


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
Ashiel wrote:

That's pretty much the point. Supposedly their only goal or motivation is to sap life and vitality from living creatures then they should probably be actively hunting lifeforms instead of explicitly choosing to hang around places lifeforms have long since vacated. An amusing choice of location given that Golarion (or most campaign settings at that) are filled with fresh humanoids rife for the picking.

Actually, Undead Revisited did go a certain way to explain why shadows don't spread far beyond their ruined haunts. Apparently, they possess an almost instinctive Agoraphobia, and dread the idea of being caught out in open spaces, especially where the sun might fall upon them. Quoting the excerpt put on the PFSRD:

"Fortunately for the living, shadows rarely spread far from where they first appear. Creatures of twilight, they can withstand the sun’s rays far better than some of their incorporeal cousins (such as wraiths and spectres), though they are much less comfortable out in direct sunlight or wide open places where it’s harder for them to sneak up on their prey. As such, a place consumed by shadows might lie only a few miles from a living settlement, with the shadows not bothering to cross the miles of open country, instead preferring to subsist off lone travelers and those unaware of their presence or the threat they pose."

Also, fortunately, at 6 Int, they aren't super bright.

Grant you, that doesn't diminish the frankly ridiculous amount of damage a single shadow could do if dropped in a back alley of a large unruly city like Riddleport.

Kind of makes me wonder why a particularly nihilistic necromancer hasn't done just that at least a couple of times now considering how relatively easy they are to create. Seems like a rather effective diversion, actually, especially if you and your allies are immune to strength damage when the sheet volume of shadows inevitably gets out of control.


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Say, have you ever seen the anime, Ninja Scroll? It features as the antagonists, a band of outlandish assassins, each with their own bizarrely unique and often-times gruesome specialities and powers.

One of them was a gnarled hunchback covered in tunnels bored into the hulking mound of his lumpy back. A massive hive of wasps lived within the nest they burrowed into his porous back-flesh, and through vermin empathy he called them forth and controlled them to murder his foes.

I remember the D20 Rokugan (Legend of the Five Rings) monster compendium had a monster based on this concept. I still have it around... somewhere.

Another possibility, you could make her into a Korir-Kokembe, a creeping, crawling vermin-like dragon with powers to vomit swarms and summon creeping hordes of insects. It's CR 10, but you could apply the young template to bring her down to CR 9.

You could also create her by applying the Demonic Vermin template to a vermin of your choice & give her Vermin Empathy as a power instead of or in addition to one of the ones in the book.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
Detect Magic wrote:
If Grendel is a CR 19, what level must Beowulf have been to single-handedly defeat him? Haha.

Also unarmed. And naked.

Seriously, what level are we supposing Beowulf is? Why's he not off fighting demon lords and protecting the cosmos?

And if Grendel's CR 19, what's his mum? And the dragon?

Also... wouldn't running off to bleed to death in the swamp from the stump of his arm be kind of implausible if Grendel has regeneration? Sure, it's against natural attacks and unarmed strikes, but if he doesn't die after the first round of non regeneration, the bleeding stops on the next and he starts regenerating again.


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This... is kind of a bit much.

I'm already spending between $70 and $100 per month on all of my subscriptions.

I can afford to collect one or two sets of Pathfinder Minis a year. Trying to chase after a set every two months with twelve piece builder sets inbetween?

I'm not sure I can sustain it.

And yes, I know nothing is forcing me to try. But I sure would try if it was spaced apart to be manageable.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Also, Dire Pistol Shrimp!

I want to see my players' characters get blasted by the bubbles of force created by a crustacean's claw snapping together. Fear the Gunslinger Shrimp!


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I just want to start out by saying I'm not trying to be critical. I like the fact that D&D (& by extension, Pathfinder,) has always taken inspiration from a wide variety of sources.

Anyway, anyone remember the old episode of Ducktales where Scrooge & his nephews went back in time to ancient mythological Greece? "Home Sweet Homer?"

The seaweed siren looks a lot like the Ducktales concept of the sirens. It's kind of cool seeing a monster from your childhood pop back up again.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Three Words:

Dire Mantis Shrimp

Especially the punching ones. Aberration creature type, eat your heart out, RL has your match.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I have to admit I'm looking forward to seeing more material on demons, especially tackling such a massively Abyssal semi-realm as the World Wound and what lies on the other side.

However, most of the games I'm in or run aren't mythic... and one of my major two groups isn't very interested in mythic, I'm a bit apprehensive about needing to convert the bestiary and the cool NPC stat blocks and especially the bestiary (because monsters are awesome;) to regular PF rules.

I'll admit I had some trouble absorbing the Mythic ruleset. I'd start reading the playtest and for some reason the implications of what half the rules meant just kind of slid off my brain like water off a duck. But then, I'm not a rules-y person. It took me a long time to really absorb the 3.5 ruleset to the point where it's instinctive instead of rules I need to remember.


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I hope this counts as being tied in enough to Wrath of the Righteous. I've been reading Worldwound Gambit recently (which is pretty good, except that the present tense narrative is somewhat jarring,) and mulling over Worldwound stuff and this upcoming path, and I think I really understand the demonic groove better now... at least, where it differentiates from the devilish groove and the daemonaic grooves.

I used to think that Daemons and Demons weren't different enough in what they want from the world. The Demons want to Destroy everything and the Daemons want to kill everything... it all seems to shake out the same.

But that's really shortsighted of me. It's really underestimating the demonic goal. Destroying is not the goal. It's the means. The Demons and the Abyss are like an ever spreading virus, or a fiendish zombie apocalypse, or gray goo assimilation scenario.

The Devils crave rulership of the cosmos, the Daemons want to end it, the Demons destroy and ruin all they find because the Abyss wants to infect, consume, and convert the cosmos into more of itself. The destruction of the standing order assists in the spread of demonic entropy.

Superficially, they have more in common with Devils because a cosmos ruled by Devils will be more like Hell, but the drive of the Demons is more instinctive, hardwired, almost mindless (in motivation, if not in strategy;) ...the spread of a contagion that expands because that is in its nature. It feeds. It grows.

I'm really looking forward to the Worldwound Path with this new groove for Demons in my head.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I often find my brain chasing around the question of Golarion Ecology.

IE, how did the dinosaurs survive to modern Golarion in Garund, and why don't they out-compete or become out-competed by megafauna like the dire lions and dire tigers I've found on the same encounter tables in the Serpent's Skull adventure path... or more ordinary elephants, hippos, lions, and hyenas, for that matter?

Triceratops are a lot like reptilian mega-rhinos, shouldn't there be friction between them and regular rhinos for the same resources if they both exist in abundance on the same continent? Brachiosaurs vs. giraffes and elephants?

I keep wondering how lion packs, hyena, and deinonychus flocks hash it out across the savannah. I imagine hyena do okay because they can scavenge rather well if they need to with their bone crushing jaws, which is a niche the 'raptors' aren't suited for, and if the 'raptors' push out the lions, that's one of the hyena's competitors down. And then I realize I'm thinking too much about these things.

Anytime I find myself wishing Paizo would publish a Golarion Ecology book and give species distributions I know I've been thinking too much about things.


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Please, please, PLEASE tell me there will be at least one Shark and one Octopus and/or Squid in this set. I know characters don't go in the waters as often as they do on land, but it'd be really nice to have some kind of big fish miniature to show them when they fall into the big blue wet thing.

Naga pass for Eels, and are okay-ish for sharks, and I can use an Otyugh for an giant octopus, but man, it'd be great to be actually able to plop down a mini of a mako, or a bull, or a tiger, or a jigsaw shark... or even a great white shark, and have my players go, 'Oh crap." without me having to say a darn thing about what it's really supposed to be. Same goes for killer cephalopods, which, arguably are even more useful because there are plenty of tentacled land monsters for which they could pull double duty.

Please, please, PLEASE, PLEASE!


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"Die, my dear? Why, that's the last thing I'll do!" ~ Groucho Marx (Attributed)


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Dude?

January?

Right after Christmas?

Really? That's cold.

That's wallet cruelty, that is. How can I afford to shell out for a new set less than a month after Christmas? Why do you guys like to hurt me with your release schedule? ;.;


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Big Lemon wrote:


We could just all be humans. It would be easier to roleplay.

I don't know. I've lived and worked around them for years and I'm still not sure I understand them.

====

That aside, one thing about Hobgoblins, at least from modules and AP installments; of the "savage races," they seem to be the ones you'll most likely see integrated into civilized society. Their lawful bent seems to make them reliable enough not to automatically be run out of human cities on a rail... on an individual basis, anyway.

I have two modules and one AP volume with hobgoblin NPCs who show up in civilized places. One's a mob boss in (I think it's) Absalom the watch can't touch because he's too good at covering his crimes to get arrested, another's a skilled monk participating in a respected martial arts tourney, and a third is a pirate captain in the Shackles (which isn't all that civilized one might say, but still seems to be human predominated.)

They make useful monstery NPCs in civilized locations when half-orcs don't cut it or have been overused, and their organized nature makes it easy to built sub-plots, conspiracies, and dangerous factions around them.


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Weresharks, for example. They can't breathe under water and don't even have a swim speed... which kind of spoils the shark part of being killer-shark hybrids. I assume this is because lycanthropes use the base creature's speed (and not the animal's movement rates) and don't gain the subtypes of the base animal (like aquatic.)

Compare this to werebats who can fly which is a pretty iconic element of being a bat in the same way as breathing water and swimming are to a shark. They also have claw attacks, which aren't evocative of bats inherently but are of giant bat humanoids in media (like the Man-Bat.) Arguably, they shouldn't get that because dire bats in PF don't have claw attacks. And werecrocodiles, which have a swim speed and the sprint movement ability, (and can hold their breath for a long time, though that's a special quality, so I suppose that bypasses the rules.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that werecreatures can't always capture the essence of the animal they're lycanthropes of unless you're willing to bypass the rules and the wereshark could stand to gain from the example of the werebat and werecrocodile.


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Ridge wrote:
One thing that is related that I've always wondered about is Reincarnation. IIRC, it says you come back in a young adult body. Sure, it might be a goblin or something you don't want to be, but I wonder if any NPCs out there aren't taking a gamble and arranging for their own early death when they get elderly followed by the spell just to get a new lifespan.

There actually is a villain referenced in one of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting books who's been running this con for a while now (like 4 lifetimes, I think, maybe more.) I can't remember which book he's in (I want to say Heart of the Jungle, but I might be wrong,) but if I find him, I'll post him here, because I've got to give props for running that kind of a game for so long (and to the writer who came up with him.) Eventually, you've got to assume the Marut Inevitables are going to come looking for him.


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I, too, am interested in this thing, this thing you are making.


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The Thin Men actually seem to occupy the same... emotional/game-role/ecological sort of a niche as chokers, except with more joints instead of none.

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