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I can't find any references to machetes in the entire body of rules and adventures, except for the Machete of Clearing magic item and the adamantine machete found in Serpent's Skull. Do they use the stats of some other weapon? Do they have any kind of bonuses for moving through overgrown terrain? I DON'T KNOW.
So our group has been making more noise than we really should have (who thought towing a longboat into town was a good idea again?) and going into Asvig's place as stealthily as possible seemed a good way to reverse our fortunes. Ideally, we figured, the sword might still be in there and we could just snag it and scarper. So my trixie-blooded* gnome scout rogue-4 shrinks to 11" tall, stealths all through the steading, notes the location of the treasure room, and heads back out. That evening, with a feast in progress, I head back in with a bag, make my way past Asvig's bedroom (where Asvig and his wife have retired to do the Ulfen Shuffle), carefully unshrink, pack all the nifty-looking stuff up, reshrink, and exit. Easy as taking candy from a baby. No sword, but those boots almost make up for it. A few hours later, after nightfall and most of the thanes falling asleep, Asvig finally notices he's been burgled and raises the alarm. The few conscious thanes head out to search the area. They completely miss our little encampment, and we go in past them. Just As Planned. We came in through the sheep-shearing room, and... an offhand comment from the GM inspired us to try disguising ourselves as sheep. No, really. And we all rolled really well, and the tiny number of people left on guard -- and Asvig and his witch-wife -- all flubbed their rolls. So they were under the impression that a band of savage sheep creatures were raiding the hall. Would Beowulf turn out for weresheep? With my sap-adept feats and our blue rose cavalier's abilities, the chief, the witch, and her familiar were subdued in moments and our flock headed for the hills to interrogate them in safety. Baa. When the skalds try to capture this portion of our saga, they're just going to throw their hands up and skip the whole thing out of shear bewilderment. ^.^ *(see 101 Alternate Racial Traits from Rite Publishing)
There's shadows, vampires, wraiths, specters... apocalypse zombies are an official thing now and there's even a quarantined infestation somewhere in Avistan... After playing through Carrion Crown #2, the prospect of a vargouille apocalypse is pretty terrifying. The burn is long and obvious in its late stages, but they can fly. What's your favorite contagious apocalypse monster?
I'm gearing up to run Age of Worms in Pathfinder, and of course converting its iconic monster was the first step. (Since even 4th Edition has gone back to "Sons" from "Spawn," I went with the classic version.) I think that all the straightforward conversion has been done right. The only part that needed choice was a new feat and skill distribution, and I'm not entirely happy with either; perhaps some racial skill bonuses are in order. (The 3.5 Spawn had a heck of a Jump check, but that was back when Jump was its own skill that ran off Strength.) So, fellow Paizonians: is this a suitable CR 5 critter? SON OF KYUSS
XP 1,600
DEFENSE
OFFENSE
STATISTICS
ECOLOGY
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Kyuss's Gift
Curative Transformation (Ex): Any remove curse or remove disease effect, or a more powerful version of either of these effects, transforms a son of Kyuss into a normal zombie. Sons of Kyuss are disgusting undead creatures created by Kyuss, a powerful evil cleric turned demigod. Completely mad, the sons of Kyuss wander caverns, crypts, and sometimes the open countryside searching for victims.
Wormspawn Subtype: Wormspawn are undead or aberrant creatures created by and in service to Kyuss. Mindless wormspawn instinctively obey the orders of intelligent wormspawn.
So I'm considering running AoW in Pathfinder, for an audience of gamers who are young enough that they have never heard of Sons of Kyuss. Poor bastards. :) What I'd like to do first is make a set of campaign traits, similar to the modern APs', that would focus around the idea that these chars are all near penniless and in debt to a mining company or some other local agency. They'd start with basic equipment and their remaining cash would be in miners' scrip at best, and any trait that gives money or expensive goods would be banned. In return, the traits should give somewhat better benefits than even ordinary campaign traits. Something like this: Sixteen Tons: You or your family are indebted employees of one of Diamond Lake's mining concerns. After purchasing equipment, convert any remaining starting gold to miners' scrip worthless outside of town. You gain one free rank in Profession (miner), and it is always a class skill for you. Select one of the options below. (Different options for each of the six mine managers, owe whichever one something like 50 gold.) Other options: Allustan's apprentice, novice monk, alchemist working for Benazel at the smelting plant, freak at the Emporium... ...brain seizing up, not enough sleep last night. I'd be very grateful for any ideas/help/criticism/whatever.
I'm going to play a gnome with a third-party alternate racial trait (which is probably my first mistake :) ) that allows him, as a full-round action, to become Diminutive. This is proving to be more difficult to stat out than I assumed, as it seems there is nowhere in the Pathfinder books to find all the rules about size categories in one location. My initial question is, are there any hard rules about speed changes as a character goes up or down the size chart? Base speed isn't altered by Enlarge or Reduce Person, but I have a hard time believing that an eleven-inch-high gnome would be able to cover the same ground as his four-foot-eight Small normal form. (Which is not to say that I'll object if the rules say he can.) (Looking into the bestiaries, I see that Small or littler humanoids and fey tend to be able to move at least 30' per round, leading me to the suspicion that halflings and gnomes have been unfairly slowed. Especially gnomes, who in Pathfinder are depicted as lithe and quick rather than the big-nosed stumpiness found in prior D&D editions.) Then we come to what looks like a hole in the rules. Tiny and smaller creatures have to enter their opponents' space to attack. No creature may end its turn in an opponent's square. Should we conclude that Tiny creatures literally cannot make melee attacks unless they have Mobility, Flyby Attack, or use combat maneuvers? I must be overlooking something. Do they automatically bounce out of the space at the end of their attack, and if so, does this provoke additional AoOs?
I can't help but notice that this feat has no limitations on type of spell whatsoever. Ectoplasmic summon monster x: summoned creatures gain ghost touch on all attacks for the duration? Ectoplasmic alarm: ethereal creatures trigger the spell? I'm inclined to think that Ectoplasmic align weapon wouldn't slap ghost touch on the sword -- it'd be usable on incorporeal swords if you could find such a thing though. Ectoplasmic animate dead: turn the corpse of a creature on the ethereal plane (that you can see from the material for whatever reason) into an ethereal zombie that you can command from the material plane?
Over the development of Golarion, there's been a lot of contradictory statements about the sizes of the continents. It used to be that Casmaron was consistently referred to as a "supercontinent," the largest around by a long shot -- and this was explicitly not counting Avistan, Tian Xia, or the Crown of the World as being part of a single landmass, it was just Casmaron. More recently, Tian Xia and Arcadia have both gotten mentions as "possibly" the biggest. Is this still up in the air? (And does Golarion have more land area than Earth?)
Because it's almost certainly too late for Bestiary 3. :) To start: Recent discussion of ghost ships indicates that there's a niche for skeletons and zombies that, while not necessarily any tougher than standard issue, retain skill ranks and can be commanded to perform profession- and maybe even craft-related tasks. Sailor dead, that sort of thing. (Could easily be a variant, just a couple of paragraphs in the back of the book.) I'm assuming we'll see demodands sometime soon, but... there have only ever been three kinds, and the other fiends keep getting additions to their ranks, so... New demodands please! RPG Superstar monsters. The Hunger that Moves deserves an official writeup!
I had to buy this after seeing the indicia in the preview. As the guy who created the "Our Gnomes are Weirder" page on TVTropes, I had no choice. So it's a good thing that it's an awesome little book, and I heartily endorse it. :D
I know witches get a lot of respect in Ustalav, but how far does that respect -- and knowledge of a witch's capabilities -- go? To get to the point, if a small house on chicken legs is seen walking down a main road, will passersby panic or realize it's a powerful witch (and then will they panic again or just nod and give it a respectfully wide berth)? Would it help if the house was cheerfully decorated, and set up with a front porch with some ordinary-looking person sitting on a bench and acting like a carriage-driver? :)
One: I see no reason why fey subtype should be a prerequisite for Tiny size. (There's plenty of room in the concept of fey for Medium and even larger size, and room in the concept of non-fey for very small. On the other hand, having giant as a prereq for Large makes sense.) Two: A cursory reading fails to turn up a four-armed option. ^.^
I know the general rule of Golarion is "humans are everywhere, other races are localized," but halflings are supposed to have followed humans everywhere. Does this extend beyond the Inner Sea region? Are there Tian halflings, Native Arcadian halflings, Sarusan dreamtime halflings? How unusual will halflings seem to Tians?
Used to be, a lot of the classic spells were named for their creators (who, as often as not, were the Lake Geneva PCs). Of course, Pathfinder being an OGL game and Golarion not even being in the same cosmology as Greyhawk et cetera, we can't have the old names back. But... there are now a bunch of established historical casters of note. What spells did the great wizards of the Elder Days create and stamp so firmly with their legends that even now they're still remembered? The Runelords may be too far in the past even for their names to be remembered properly... but what of Geb's horrid wilting? Jatembe's phantom steed? (Obviously the core books are setting neutral, but it would be nice to have a few such notes in the Companions or Chronicles.)
So I tossed around a couple of Castlevania ideas (Dhampyr magus = Alucard), but then inspiration struck from a different source: Jack Kirby. Take a halfling. Give him Childlike and Pass for Human, along with the Perfect Servant trait reskinned so aristocrats mistake him for a very well brought up noble child. Dress him to the nines in the sort of twee clothes that only the very very rich can afford to inflict on their offspring. Now make him a witch with a cat familiar. And you have... Klarion the Witch Boy! ("Ba dum bum" strongly discouraged.) Still working on him -- I'm looking at a debuffing role with the Halfling Jinx/Evil Eye/Malicious Eye combo, and the cat will get upgraded to a silvanshee at 7th level (add anthropomorphic animal and enlarge person and you've got Teekl's werecatgirl mode). I'd appreciate suggestions for patron and general spell list in the "trickster" mode (the actual trickery patron is obviously an option, but not the only one), as well as critiques of the following build (we'll be rolling stats randomly tomorrow, so I can't give you a point breakdown there): RACIAL TRAITS Halfling Jinx - replaces Halfling Luck (HoG) TRAITS Perfect Servant (HoG) On the Payroll or Making Good on Promises(CCPG) (Because there seems to be no tab feature, everything after a / is a hex.)
01 - Childlike (APG)/ Evil Eye
...It's one thing to present tengu oni as the creatures of the older tales, who are more likely to be violent than protective. And it's true that tengu are associated with yamabushi. But are you aware that yamabushi are an actual, still-extant religious order? Seriously, this is like calling a new monster "Franciscan Demons." It's inappropriate and insulting. "Karasu Tengu" or "Konoha Tengu" would have been much easier to take.
There's a niche, I think, for a mirror image of the Master Chymist: some guy who's so hopped up on cognitogens that he's developed a new personality to handle the extra brainpower. Think Alan Moore's Marvelman (or Miracleman), whose vastly enhanced intellect just completely outshines his mundane form. Other than the obvious cognitogen versions of the MC's mutagen powers, I'm not sure what to give such a prestige class -- surely bomb-throwing is far too vulgar a pursuit for such a rarefied mind... Slower BAB progression, good Will save, obvious... new list of discoveries, some mirroring the MC's... (I've been considering creating a goblin mindchemist with this class, should it come to fruition. Think normal goblins have big heads? Tremble before the PULSING WATERMELON-SIZED SKULL of the ULTRA-GOBLINITE!)
The vivisectionist archetype would go fairly well with the Master Chymist except that vivisectors get sneak attack instead of bombs, and MCs stack bomb-throwing with their alchemist levels. Is it reasonable for a V/MC to get stacking sneak attack instead of bombs, or would that wind up as significantly more damage output?
Have any PCs tried to get two or more of the five factions to mount a joint expedition to Saventh-Yhi instead of stabbing each other in the back all the way there? (Of course, the preceding two options are not mutually exclusive, but still.)
Been wondering about the New World, Golarion-style, and what the Paizo crew have in store for us there. It's an interesting situation, y'know? Like and yet extremely unlike the relationship between Eurasia and the Americas. On the one hand, Avistani civilizations have known about Arcadia and been in intermittent contact with it for five thousand years. Let's let that sink in: five thousand years. That's ten times as long as it's been since that lucky idiot Columbus stumbled across the West Indies and kickstarted a new era of colonization and exploitation. On the other hand, there are a LOT of factors preventing the Avistan cultures from overwhelming the Skraelings: * Difficulty of the voyage. I get the impression that the actual distance is longer, plus it's not a simple sea crossing like the Atlantic -- you have to navigate the storm-wracked shattered remnants of Azlant, dodging sea monsters every step of the way. * Lower population density than Europe (probably) means much less pressure to immigrate -- this isn't a world where humans can spread everywhere they want, there're too many monsters and savage races keeping the wilderness wild. * Local Arcadian monsters and savage races, which the Skraelings will be used to and the colonists won't have been familiar with at first. * The ubiquity of divine magic, and possibly even some of the same gods being worshipped over there already (as with Garund). * Disease, working by Pathfinder rules, bears very little resemblance to real-world factors. (As far as I can tell, no one who isn't inherently immune to disease CAN develop immunity or even resistance to particular pathogens, so everyone on all continents and all situations is at identical risk to pretty much everything. That could maybe use some extra rules?) ...So even though there are apparently some current long-established colonies that are still in touch with and consider themselves to be part of their mother nations, the Skraelings probably haven't had near as bad a time as the Native American tribes did. What I'm really wondering now is, with five thousand years of observation of, trade with, and adaptation to the Old World colonies, are modern Skraelings pretty much technologically on par with Avistan? Surely they should have gained not just horses but herd animals, crops, and the lifestyle that goes with it... not identical to the colonists' culture, but thoroughly adapting these tools to their own needs? Iroquois Confederation with actual cities and farmland? I really hope so...
I'm looking at my Archivist Bard, 6+Int mod (3) skill points per level, and realizing that there just aren't enough points to get all the monster-identification Knowledge skills plus everything else he needs. Is there, anywhere in 3.5/Pathfinder, a feat that would just grant more skill points to be spent as desired? If not, should there be or are there game balance reasons against it? In building such a feat, how many points would be appropriate from a feat slot? Would a feat that increases your points per level be too much?
All a cavalier has to do to qualify for the Hellknight prestige class is be 5th level, lawful, and kill a devil of equal or greater Hit Dice. Since cavaliers are already classic knight-types, it's an obvious entry into the Hellknights that gives you a slightly different (and arguably more appropriate) base skill set than fighter or paladin. This raises the question: if you're a cavalier-type training as an armiger within a Hellknight Order, with or without the intention of formally qualifying for full knighthood, would it not be appropriate to have a cavalier order package to reflect that training? Those who flunk out completely could still function as support troops for the Knights, and full knights of the Measure who don't advance all the way into Chain or Hellion could fall back on their base class advancement while retaining some hellish flavor. At least some of the Hellknight Orders can probably be represented by the existing cavalier order writeups -- a Godclaw cavalier by the Star, for example. I'm gonna try a writeup for one or two, see if it works without either making the resulting Knights too uber or unnecessarily duplicating their abilities. Order of the Chain Edicts: The cavalier must obey the Measure and the Chain at all times, and must never stand aside and allow a slave or convict to escape justice if it is within his power to prevent it. Challenge: Whenever a cavalier of the Order of the Chain issues a challenge, he receives a +1 morale bonus on all nonlethal melee damage rolls made against the target of his challenge as long as he is threatening the target. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels the cavalier possesses. Skills: An Order of the Chain cavalier adds Perception (Wis) and Survival (Wis) to his list of class skills. In addition, whenever an Order of the Chain cavalier uses Survival to track an escaped slave or prisoner, he receives a bonus on the check equal to 1/2 his cavalier level (minimum +1). Order Abilities: ...and right now I have too much of a headache to figure those out. >.<; Tracking, capturing, nonlethal damage, that sort of thing. I'll get back to this later, just wanted to throw it on the mercy of the forum...
I see that in addition to the ability to respec evolutions when the summoner gains a level, the 4th-level spell Transmogrify lets you do it at will (where "at will" means a one-hour casting time and expensive materials). What do you think would be an appropriate level of spell to change the eidolon's basic form, going from (say) biped to quadruped? Alternately, would a mid-to-high-level feat letting the eidolon switch between two preset evolution and/or base-form sets be too abusive? If the summoner has used Aspect to divert evolutions to himself, does he keep these evolutions when the eidolon is not summoned? Can an eidolon benefit from both the Improved Damage evolution and the Improved Natural Attack feat, increasing its damage die by two steps?
I have to say... this made me sad. ;.; The thing about the classic D&D troll, with its gangling hunchbacked build, carrot-nose, shock of hair... was that it was a classic. I always hated the 3.0/3.5 husky trolls with those dangly noses that looked as though they were in constant danger of being self-cannibalized. The appearance of traditional trolls in early Pathfinder art was a breath of fresh air... And now... these... things. Even more solid and husky than 3.X, with underbites so severe that I can't imagine them actually being able to eat except by maybe picking something up and manually jamming it down on their lower jaw teeth. Sorry, but those are just not trolls to me.
Demons, devils, daemons, and (we've been promised) demodands... The four D's are all very well, but it occured to me recently that there's one more iconic fiendish race that frequently goes unmentioned. Unfortunately, a quick perusal of the Book of Fiends and Tomes of Horrors suggests that this bunch may not be available for an official Pathfinder writeup. I speak, of course, of those innumerable randomized mooks of the Lower Planes: the hordlings, last appearing in Dungeon #124. Are they banned due to not being SRD critters? If so, I'll take this over to the Conversions section and we can grow our own...
Here on Earth, the European-descended cultures think of China, Japan, and that general geographic area as "the East" or "the Orient," even if, for example, folks on the West Coast of North America might happen to be closer by heading west. It's a cultural quirk inherited from centuries of the land trade heading east across Eurasia. But on Golarion? If you head east from Avistan, you cross into Casmaron... which is a central- and south-Asia analog, but not east. As far as I can tell from the various sources -- and this may be wrong -- you'll hit an ocean before you get to Tian Xia. The main land route from Avistan heads north over the Crown of the World. Tian Xia has been referred to as "the east," but is that really how the average Avistanian (Avistanner?) would think of the continent? "The north" isn't very accurate at all, but I can't think of a better term...
It's been a common complaint on the boards since Shackled City: Paizo builds us an amazing town to start in, people get attached to the setting, then the adventure leaves on a giant road trip. What about an AP that starts on the road, and stays there? I don't know if a total lack of community would work or not... but maybe a mobile community? Perhaps centered around a caravan, or some more fantastic traveling base (say a rebuilt chunk of a Shory flying city, or just a big ship)...
Just wondering: we're told that hundreds of people try the Test every year. But what fraction of that are those who fail or give up at the first hurdle, crossing the pit without using the bridges? How many people actually get into the Cathedral, and of those, how many come out mortal but alive and how many die or are never heard of again?
Come correct our errors and help us overdose the page! I apologize in advance to all those whose day will be ruined by hours of link-clicking. :)
While rereading my Dragon collection, I came across James Jacobs' Urban Druid article (#317, page 30) and was wowed by it all over again. Always wanted to play one, but our DM nixed the idea, darn him. (Would have been a Warforged. Seemed natural.) Wondering if anyone (especially Mr. Jacobs) has any hints on upgrading/adapting the class to Pathfinder power levels, and on the UD's place in Golarion (I'm thinking Abadar's church would have suborders of 'em). Also, Mr. Jacobs, what legal maneuvers would have to be done for you to publish an official Pathfinder Urban Druid? Rename and major redesign?
The more you guys write about the denizens of Abaddon, the more something puzzles me. I mean... they're out to kill, in no uncertain terms, every living, undead, and even DEAD entity in the entire available multiverse. They subject outsiders from all the other planes to horrific torments and experimentation. They raid the River of Souls. They destroy souls. Heck, forget everything else in that last paragraph and concentrate on the last sentence. THEY. DESTROY. SOULS. It is my considered, carefully reasoned opinion that the destruction of a single eternal soul is a more evil act than the simple murder of every living thing in a given universe, provided that they were all to get to the appropriate sections of the afterlife. And daemons do this, all the time, every chance they get. And yet, the only folks who have mounted any degree of organized resistance to their depredations are the angels of Nirvana. Mention is made of "temporary" alliances between Heaven and Hell, but that word makes no sense to me in these circumstances. The entirety of the Outer Sphere, the Elemental Planes, and large parts of the mortal realms should already be united in a single-minded crusade to destroy daemonkind utterly, free their surviving captives, and return Abaddon itself to the raw stuff of the Maelstrom. Only then should they return to their by comparison utterly insignificant squabbles over the ultimate destinations of the souls whose existence will finally be safe. Every moment that passes without said crusade being set in motion constitutes a betrayal of life itself by Good and Evil alike. ...I'm ranting again, aren't I? Sorry. n.n; I should write up some kind of knightly order that's focused on wiping out daemons. And other soul-killers. Seriously, as long as daemons exist, any religion that promises its followers peace and safety in the afterlife is lying. That's not the kind of thing that LG gods should be doing, now is it?
...that will, with any luck, be less ranty than my usual discourse on the subject. :) I was thinking about Azlant and Thassilon, y'see, and the general lack of progress that one sees from then till now. Medieval Stasis is not a trope of which I am fond, as some of you may remember from previous posts. Now of course, the whole point of D&D is to present a role-playing environment that's a basic slice of medievalish fantasy, not necessarily one with six-guns or steam engines or their magical equivalent, but... It comes down to something odd I've noticed: When people start talking about using magic to improve medieval society, others will jump in and say "but D&D magic is too rare and too expensive to make that much of a difference." And THEN, when people start talking about technological advancement, OTHER others will jump in and say "But D&D has magic, therefore all this technology isn't needed and won't get developed!" And the eternal cycle continues. ...Can you understand why I sometimes explode in a frothing rage when these subjects come up? :) ANYWAY. Leaving the technology issue aside for now, it'd be interesting to see actual magical progress in a setting. It seems too late to do much with the ancient empires of Golarion, as they've already been established as using more or less the same magic in more or less hte same ways as you find in the modern era, but consider this for other worlds: What if, over time, wizards -- who are masters of metamagic, and supposedly spend a lot of time researching the nature of magic -- could come up with "fat-trimmed" versions of existing spells that simply fit into a lower spell slot, with no other modification? (I'd expect this to happen very rarely, maybe one spell moving down one slot every twenty or thirty years, unless someone stumbled across a universally applicable principle and ushered in a Magical Revolution. Which might make for an interesting campaign.) It would be hilarious for a party to run into some recently-awakened Evil Overlord Superwizard of Ages Past who was horrified to discover that Fireball was now a third level spell, when he had to slot his version in NINTH. Similarly, and this you could actually do in Golarion, consider a time travel scenario in which our characters visit The Future (awesomely cool or horrifyingly dystopian, or both depending on your point of view), and find that Fireball is now a FIRST level spell. Or even a cantrip. :) ...I have no idea how you'd go about applying this to divine spells. Composition of more pleasing prayers? You wouldn't want to let PCs go wild with this in a campaign, unless that was the entire point. But it's an interesting thought, no?
First, let me say that I haven't had a chance to see #25 or 26 yet, so for all I know this question may have a perfectly good answer; but reading the supplemental entry in the Blog makes me wonder how this can possibly work: How exactly can a play written 200 years ago, one hundred years BEFORE Aroden's death and the rise of Thrune to power, have been about what appears to be the modern version of Cheliax? Is this a result of its frequent rewritings, with the original plot not merely altered but warped beyond recognition?
The Mother of All can teleport anywhere in the hundred-square-mile sargasso, once a minute. Why should it ever fight the PCs? Why not just wear them down with horror attack after horror attack over days, weeks, months, or years until they either fall in battle or die of thirst? For that matter, why isn't leaving the Sea Wyvern to hunt down the (uncatchable) Mother an automatic death sentence for the crew of the ship, without PC defenses against the nearly infinite horde of vine horrors?
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