Fiendish Dire Weasel's page

As I understand it Yrax has a number of armies and agents on the march and on patrol in the area. He would want to resume the siege as soon as possible afterall and the adventure makes it sound like he has a lot of resources to throw around. Taking the Crevasse is a backdoor in the sense that it avoids these patrols and the bulk of Yrax's army but does not necessarily mean they don't still have to go through the front entrance. Though it has been a while since I prepped to run this book so I may be misremembering.

Right, they do miss some of the patrols, but then still have to fight the creatures in the Crevasse... doesn't really seem like it helps them much.

But that's the way it looks to me too. I don't see alternative but walking right up to the front door, and either bluffing or fighting their way through.

I will read it again before everyone arrives this evening.

Hey all - I hope someone sees this soon, I know this is an old AP but my group and I are just now getting to it.

Anyway my party is in the crevasse and making their way to Ivoryglass. They are following Baknarla and all seems to be going well. But I'm having a disconnect and it's not making sense to me.

The whole point (apart from the dragon bane longspear) of taking the Crevasse is that it gives them a "back door" entrance to the Dragon's fortress. But when they arrive there it just says they make it to the southern edge of the moulin... which is a solid wall. So then what? they have to go over to the front entrance? Which solved what exactly?

What am I missing?

Great input as always, gentlemen. I will mull this over and come up with a plan this weekend. :)

Wow, that must have been an epic moment for everyone involved! You definitely made the right calls there.

IMC I decided to install the Emerald Keep dungeon into the Stag Lord's fort with Nugrah the Decrepit as the "boss" of the cellar level. I described several journal entries detailing his descent into madness and his growing obsession over the beauty and grace of arachnids after the events of his tragic backstory (instead of turning to the worship of Gozreh, Nugrah turned to the worship of a homebrew demon lord of spiders). While the Stag Lord still exerted his will over Nugrah, the latter proved to be a formidable foe and a memorable villain for our intrepid heroes (we all thought that a mad, spider-crazed druid that crawled around on the ceiling while summoning vermin was pretty cool). I could elaborate more if you are interested.

Sure, Cesare, I'm game. Let's hear it! :)

OR ...

Maybe I make "Nugrah the Decrepit" a bit less decrepit, and he makes his move to take over the fortress. In that case, he's essentially the new BBEG at the end of the adventure. My only issue with that option is that it kind of feels like I'm taking away my PC's victory by just replacing one BBEG with another one.

Just trying to brainstorm here.

OK, so one of my PCs has thrown a wrench in the gears of my campaign, but in a good way. But now I would appreciate some help on what to do next.

We have a guy who is playing a Fetchling Rogue, working his way towards the Assassin PrC, and he showed his potential in that field last night, by solo sneaking into the Stag Lord's fortress and murdering him in his sleep.

The original intent was just to scout around and get a feel for the defenses, but he got lucky with his stealth rolls, and I had rough luck with my Perception rolls. I use the weather table every day to add some realism to the game, and it was a dark, rainy night, so he was tough to spot, and has good stealth checks anyway.

Then, by luck, he wandered right into the Stag Lord's bedroom, and did a successful coup de grace. Then he stole the Stag Lord's helmet and bow, and walked out. At that point his luck finally ran out (sort of), and he was spotted. But since he was wearing the helm, he was able to bluff his way out of it by grunting and acting drunk, and waving the guards away. He then walked right out the front door and back to the rest of the group. Best. Scouting Mission. Ever.

I could have just used some kind of DM fiat to make somebody spot him or something, but I didn't feel that was reasonable. The guy made the rolls and did it right - he deserved to win the day really.

My problem now, is trying to figure out what happens next in the fortress. I assume there will be some combination of defection, power struggle, and infighting, but I'd love to hear input from the hive mind here as to how to make that all shake out. I also want to know how you all would try to give Akiros his chance to properly show his possible future loyalty to the PCs, because I really like his story, and would like him to become an important NPC down the road if possible. If the PCs don't bite, they don't bite, but I at least want a believable way to give them that chance.

Safe to assume Dovan and Auchs try to take charge, but then what?

One idea that did cross my mind - tell me if you think this is crazy - I thought about doing a one-off weird adventure next week, where my PC's take the role of 5 of the key bandits in the camp next week, and let THEM sort it out. Good idea? Bad idea? I can say without doubt they're grown up enough not to meta-game it, such that they just sabotage themselves to make their main PCs lives easier.

Any and all input is welcome, you guys have always helped with this sort of thing in the past. So thanks in advance!

None of the paizo events are live in the catalog yet...

OK, well that would explain it I guess.

I hope they get in gear soon, I can't plan around events that aren't listed.

Sorry - just realized I posted this in the wrong place. Was supposed to just be Paizo General Discussion, not Paizo CON...

If an admin can move this, I would be most appreciative. Please accept my apologies for my idiocy.

The events listings for Gen Con have gone live, and it seems that there are far fewer Pathfinder events than there have been in the past. My children, in particular, love to come with me on Sundays, and in the past there has typically been a "Pathfinder for Kids" series of events, which I am not finding at all. Are those coming and will be available for signup later, or are they not being done this year, or...?

I very much hope that you do them again, they always seem to have been pretty well attended. We've never had anything other than a full table in a full room, so hopefully it can be done again.

Thank you!

You might look at the Stormborn Sorceror Bloodline from APG.

Good thematics, will up the SaveDC of Shocking Grasp by 1 as well, and has a lot of other neat zappy-themed abilities.

Finally, if this is something you want to use frequently, I highly recommend Spectral Hand as another spell, so you can do it from safe distances.

You can also look at "Shock Shield" and "Shocking Images" as great spells that will help with a build with this theme as well. Shocking Images are a nice way to deal damage during your opponent's initiative if they do find a way to close to melee with you at higher levels. It will definitely make them think twice about continuing to swing, when they aren't hitting you, but still getting zapped every time they try.

I'm currently a 12th lvl PC running through Jade Regent, and I take turns in our group as DM.

I will say that Jade Regent, as you might expect, has a ninja or two once you get to Minkai, and they have a spell trick that allows them to Vanish as a supernatural ability, which many of them take. So somebody mentioned "See Invisibility" above, that's a more handy than average spell to be able to have access to.

I play as an Aasimar Sorceror with the Stormborn Archetype, and that spell has already saved our bacon a couple of times, and it promises to just be the beginning.

Beyond that, I will say that the guidance provided by most of the other posts on here has been solid.

If you don't write for somebody, you ought to. Those are excellent. I DM'd Runelords several years ago and this makes me want to go back and either play or run it again.

Great way to set the scene each night and get people ready to go.

This whole thread is chock full of awesome. I haven't started running this campaign yet, but this thread has lots of great ideas and fun roleplay. It makes me want our current campaign to finish faster, except I'm enjoying it a lot as well (Jade Regent)

Thanks for the laughs and inspiration! :)

While it *can* be used to make new races (similar to the Advanced Races Guide), it really shines in creating monster "classes" like the old Savage Species book. This is because we've already broken down all monster statistics and abilities by CR. Our $10,000 stretch goal will be a whole new section of the book with guidelines on how to do that with example monstrous classes.

That just cleared up a major mis-conception of mine. I read the product description as having the primary goal of creating new races from the ground up. And tbh that doesn't appeal to me, because I just don't think we NEED more, and because I don't think I'm creative enough to come up with more anyway.

Knowing what I know now about its intended purpose, I'm way more interested in this product than I thought I was.

Thanks!

I was wrong, it's not a word doc, but I do nonetheless have a pdf that would help you. It's copyright by WOTC though, and permission is not given for me to post it here.

I will however email it to you, if you give me your email address. I recommend doing so by way of private message.

I ran a group through it, our campaign ended around the end of February. Our group was killed by Jhavuul in the final room. So we did virtually the entire campaign, as well as a few of the side adventures. The one with the crazy were-leopard in the ruined Temple of Nethys was particularly memorable, even if I have forgotten the adventure's name.

To answer your core question - does it generate the "Arabian Nights" feel. My answer would be that it certainly has the ability to do so. One of the primary duties of a DM, imo, is building and embellishing a setting and a feel. If you have any skill at that, then this will certainly contain the tools for you to do so.

As others have said, buying the Dark Markets book is key. Read and re-read that before the campaign starts. Get to know it well and do your best to project that feel when you speak. And as others have said, you can use the material if you want, in order to expand on The Jackal's Price.

Use every opportunity to describe the heat. Depending on how much you want to play of the Pesh dens, that can also be a good source of building the setting.

Don't just gloss over the desert travels (especially early ones, like the first caravan trip from Katapesh to Kelmarane). Use those trips to establish the setting.

Those themes carry over very well to the City of Brass. But be sure to mentally switch gears when you get to Kakishon. It's paradise after all.

To me, in all honesty, Kakishon and the City of Brass were the highlights of the entire campaign. But YMMV as always. The pugwampis were also certainly memorable - my PC's will be happy if they never see another pugwampi again, which to me means I played them exactly as I had intended. :)

Anyway, to summarize, the Adventure Path works and achieves the purpose for which it was designed. It has plenty of potential for great storytelling and memorable encounters and fights.

I think I've rambled on enough, I hope at least some of it was useful.

Edit: Oh yeah, we ran it using Pathfinder rules too. I found the conversion stuff at

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/fan-conversions/paizo-adventure-paths/

to be very useful in that regard, with a few modifications of my own here and there.

I ran Savage Tide in the Realms several years ago, before PFRPG came out. I don't recall any serious conversion being required. I places Sasserine in the kingdom of Tashalar (we just changed the name of that city on the map to Sasserine.

We then sent the ship off the southern edge of the map to the Isle of Dread.

I don't remember much else being required to adjust things. I remember I had a word doc about some changes. I'm on break at work right now, when I get home I'll see if I can find that.

There was a little goblin wizkid mini at the $50.00 purchase level.

Well if there are any of that left, I'd be happy if you could send that. My kids love goblins :)

Looking at the time of your order, it was actually placed after we had run out of the $100 mini. I apologize for the confusion. The minimates for the orders over $100 ran out faster than we expected. There are no more coming back from Gen Con since we ran out there, but I believe the idea is that there will be a very limited number for sale on paizo.com at somepoint in the future.

Well, that would certainly explain why I didn't receive one. Bummer.

OK, well thanks for looking into it anyway.

Also, what about any of the other goodies? I spent $139.06 - wasn't there something else further down the list?

We are still waiting for our convention stock to make it back to our warehouse. It is en route, but we do not have an exact ETA yet. So, not sure about the promo items at this time. We'll try to update you as soon as we know more.

That said, things have been crazy, so if you don't hear anything by the end of next week, please bump this thread again.

Dutifully bumping, as instructed. :)

We are still waiting for our convention stock to make it back to our warehouse. It is en route, but we do not have an exact ETA yet. So, not sure about the promo items at this time. We'll try to update you as soon as we know more.

That said, things have been crazy, so if you don't hear anything by the end of next week, please bump this thread again.

I totally understand post-con chaos, so no rush. Thanks for your help. :)

OK it's Thursday, are we able to check on things and see what we can do?

The exact total I spent was $139.06. You can check the order # that I posted as the title of this posting. I'll type it again for your convenience: 3247147

Thanks for any help you can give.

Greetings!

At $100.00 you should have been eligible for both the Pathfinder Battles Goblin Miniature as well as the Minimate. I don't know if we have any left currently, as anything left from the convention is currently en route to our offices via truck, and will take a few days to arrive. If you want to check back in with us near the end of the week, we'll be glad to give you an update on the GenCon promotional items and what we can do for you!

I appreciate the reply, I will check back at the end of the week. Thanks :)

I bought some stuff at GenCon at above order #, and didn't really look in the bag until I had gotten home.

I'm pretty sure I was supposed to get some kind of extra promotional stuff for an order over $50, and maybe even more since I went over $100, but I didn't get it.

If there's any way to get that promotional stuff, that'd be awesome.

Thanks!

"If I can't swim after forty days..."

That song will be burned into my brain FOREVER.

No problem, and thanks for the reply.

Bottom line is that if I really wanted to immortalize my character, I should have been more creative when I named her. But I didn't know at the time that this would come up, of course.

Anyway, thanks again!

Agreed. You guys always do grade A work, and it is very much appreciated.

Not a lawyer, but I believe in this case you should be worrying about "trademark" rather than "copyright".

Apologies for the incorrect terminology, and thank you for the clarification.

Pathfinder is creating an MMO/video game, and both products sound like they're fantasy products. But the name of town being shared with some noble houses is not likely to cause confusion between the two products. However, it's better to be safe than sorry, so minor respelling might be a good idea, to avoid confusing Google searches.

OK, I can certainly do that, if necessary.

No offense meant against you, but I would prefer to hear some actual reply from Paizo as well on this if possible. Hopefully they can get with me in the next day or so. If not, I will follow your suggestion because that's the best I've got.

What game?

-Skeld

"Worlds of Magic". If you happen to recall an old game called "Master of Magic", it's being created as a spiritual successor to that. It was my absolute favorite computer game when it came out (an age ago in pc game terms, 1993 or 94), so I'm thrilled about this. So far everything I've seen about it is very promising.

I just purchased a kickstarter for a computer game, and in it, I won the ability to name a city in their game.

Well, I want to name it after a Pathfinder character I had recently, and her name is Lady Doloura Rasivrein. As you are no doubt aware, both of those names are derivative of the names of Drow Noble houses from Pathfinder.

So what I'm wondering is, would it be a problem with you guys if I used one or the other of those for the game's city name? Would it be better or worse if I changed the spelling on it? Like would you prefer that I change it to "Razivrane" or some such?

I don't know if those names are copywritten, and I don't want to break any rules. That's why I figured it best to be upfront about all of this. But if possible I'd love to pay homage to my character and have her immortalized in a computer game as a Dark Elven city. If that causes issues with you all, then obviously I won't do it. But I figured I'd ask! :)

Either way, no offense taken, love your game and products and will be a PF fan forever. :)

Thanks for listening.

Sorry to be just coming across this post, it is apparently a few months old. So you may not even need the info anymore.

A quick perusal of your friend's spellbook makes is very clear as to why he's not useful in combat. He didn't really pick any combat spells! That's not to say they aren't useful...

But let's go through the spells likely to be used after init is rolled:

Rainbow pattern - decent spell for neutralizing a big group of mooks, if they have poor will saves. If you only have access to 2 lvl 4 spells though, there are more useful options, particularly if your other is a spell that is 100% useless during combat.

Suggestion - as above. Good if you're going against something with a lousy will save.

Color Spray - at the level you guys are at, most of the time you will stun a guy or two for a round, if they fail their will save. and since it's a first level spell, the save isn't that hard.

Shocking Grasp - decent damage, no save. But to use it, our mage has to get in melee touch range with the foe. And this is a guy that is usually flying and/or invisible, so that's not exactly his thing.

Magic Missle - The wizard's bread and butter, obviously this is his best option in most cases for combat. But if that's still his best option at this level, that's not a good sign.

I would say the biggest single problem I see is that even with such a limited book, he chose to take both invisibility AND invisibility sphere. Invis. sphere is one of those spells (in my experience anyway) that sounds awesome in theory, but rarely gets used the way you imagine it when you are selecting it. The circumstances are a bit too narrow. It's a good utility spell if you have a big fat spellbook. If you only know 4 lvl3 spells, that should not be one of them.

If he added 2 spells it would make a major difference to his combat usefulness, and those 2 spells are dispel magic, and fireball. There's a reason fireball is cliched, and that almost every wizard ever has it. Most adventures written for characters of that level assume that somebody in the group can cast a fireball.

Dispel magic is equally awesome. Make sure he has a decent spellcraft skill. Let him roll to see what enemy casters are doing. If it's a spell he doesn't want to see, he can try to dispel it. Then in other situations, targeted dispels and area dispels can make a huge difference.

Hope this helps.

I probably do need to look at the Animal Archive book, that might help. It's way too late for archetypes though, he's already got one (Urban ranger, which has been outstanding)

Very good ideas, thanks. Never thought about the invisibility/silence combo, quite sneaky. :)

Incidentally, my ranger is currently Lvl9, close to 10. I am enjoying him and hope he survives all the way to the end of the campaign, but of course there are no guarantees of that! =P

Don't ask for advice and opinions, then turn around and then get all mad at everyone when they give it to you.

I'll be honest - when I saw this thread entitled "Dealing with a paladin killing prisoners in game", I assumed it was being written by a DM figuring out how to adjudicate it. When I saw it was by a CN Ninja, I lol'd.

Nobody has anything? In the past I've been able to get tons of useful input from the community.

I will simply echo what others have said, after reading the whole thread up until now.

Your CN ninja has no reason to care about this situation or get involved. How he plays his paladin is between him, his DM, or his church. The fact that he's a paladin of Torag complicates this further, but in ANY event, your alignment should make it so that you would not care AT ALL about any of that.

Your choice to not aid the paladin in combat is not what a CN character would do - they would make use of allies as long as they're useful, because they would continue to help you. If you are working towards the same long term campaign goals, your character should be willing to help him achieve those goals.

Now, clearly, as soon as your character feels that the two of you are NOT working towards the same long term goals, he would have no reason to hesitate in going his own way, whether peacefully/amiably or not.

These aren't the droids you're looking for. Move on with the game.

I have an urban ranger, and despite playing D&D and PFRPG for years, I don't have a ton of experience using animal companions. It's just not a class feature I've had many characters with in the past.

Anyway, I have an elven urban ranger with a hawk companion. I'm playing in the Crimson Throne Adventure Path.

He's got plenty of tricks, but I find I hardly ever use him. I imagined him being very useful as a flying scout, but the opportunities for that seem to be limited. Either that, or I'm just not being creative enough in my application. I keep thinking he should have a telepathic bond so I can "see what he sees" in real time, ala the Crow or something, but of course he doesn't work that way.

I don't really want to use him in combat, as his ability to do damage is minimal, and he doesn't have a lot of hit points anyway. That was never his intended role, which again was mostly mobile airborne scouting.

I kept thinking as I leveled up I'd find more uses for him, but now I'm at lvl9 and still not seeing it. It's not like I forget he's there, I am always TRYING to come up with ways to use him, but I'm apparently not getting it.

The rest of the character is going beautifully. I love his back story, plenty of opportunity for great roleplay, and Urban Ranger was MADE for Crimson Throne so far. Favored enemy - human has been HUGE since that's the vast majority of my opponents. He uses an elven curve blade and does tons of damage with it.

Anyway, any advice on things I can do to get more use out of the hawk? I just feel like it's a part of my character that isn't developed as well as it should be, both tactically and from a storyline perspective. Thanks in advance!

I'm a fan of corny jokes and puns, anybody that knows me at all will tell you that. But all the pop culture references in your room names really ruin this for me. Others may see it differently, but this is superstar, not night at the improv.

I think this is a really neat encounter, and as others have said, the map is sweet. But I just don't see any possible way for 4 adventurers to accomplish all of this given their time limits. They'd almost have to know exactly where to go and what to do the moment they arrived, which is asking a lot.

I think you're setting up a party for certain failure, and that's never fun.

Another note - great idea to conserve word count by using the GMG NPC's and making necessary adjustments. "Remove disguise, add trapmaking" - that's frickin' brilliant.

Tulsa specifically has two great local game stores (Top Deck Games and Wizards Asylum) who sell Pathfinder products, and I was pleased to find fun and clever gamers in the Tulsa area after moving from one of gaming's great Meccas, Central Indiana.

Thanks for giving props to us Hoosiers. I hope you don't forget us when you hit the big time! :)

Like I've commented on the other archetypes that involve drowning, it's bad - it's simply REALLY hard to drown someone in Pathfinder, since they get their constitution in rounds before they start to drown, unless you teleport water into their lungs or something so they can't hold their breath. Even with powers that reduce this - 5 rounds instead of 10 for an average Con is still an enternity in combat, assuming they don't escape.

Suffocation is a 5th level witch spell - a Floodwalker would obviously choose that as one of their spells and use it all the time. This would mitigate most of your concerns.

I do love this item. As others have said, the imagery is definitely compelling.

My one minor issue with it is this: It's a 30,000gp cloak, so most people won't be able to afford it until fairly advanced in levels. By then, a DC 15 Reflex save is hardly what I'd call scary.

But that is, again, a minor issue. So proud of you for advancing, look forward to where you go next. :)

Excuse me for resurrecting an old thread but it seems easier all round.

Is this still the case?

Yes, subscribing to a relevant PF line gives you a free pdf.

If you sign up for an adventure path subscription, for instance, that adventure path will be given to you as pdf the day each issue ships.

This is a tough one, and like you, I think I would alter the story a bit. Make Aldern one of the victims and have the Skinsaw Man be his brother. Have them find Aldern dead somewhere in the manor, still clutching the keepsake he was given.

Name of PC: Aamon Vosh
Class/Level: Cleric 14 (Great Old Ones, Void and Chaos Domains)
Adventure: Spires of Xin-Shalast
Catalyst: Rune Giant
Story: I Placed 2 Rune Giants at "The Teeth" to guard the entrance to the occlusion field and warn Karzoug when the party reached that level. It also kind of seemed to fit thematically as a nice welcome to that last major setting of the campaign.

Aamon was primarily staying out of reach and casting helpful spells, as clerics often do. However, he felt compelled to come to the aid of an unconscious comrade, and in so doing put himself into harm's way.

He was hit twice by a rune giant's longsword, including a critical hit, and also absorbed a shower of sparks. That put him at -13 hit points, and he has a 14 constitution. He therefore had ONE chance to stabilize before dying, needing a 20, which he failed. Svevenka had joined the party and arrived 1 action too late to revive him.

She was, however, able to reincarnate him after the battle, and in what I would call one of the greatest twists of irony so far in an adventure path full of them, Aamon's soul was returned to the Material Plane in the form of...

drum roll please...

a GOBLIN!

You know what's even better? Aamon still carried a +1 dogslicer the party had looted in the first chapter, in case he needed a slashing weapon! He's already started to see the Cavalier's horse in an all-new way.

Everyone raise a mug in memory of Aamon! (Even if he was a little creepy. Now he's just a little creep!)

There's a hellknight in the group I run, he started out as a cavalier. He's doing just fine in the campaign, we're currently lvl 14 and in Xin-Shalast.

He has reached the rank of Paralictor and has been given command of the outpost of Ft Rannick, and established it as an Order of the Nail bastion to bring law to the wilderness.

I make liberal use of this website to pathfinderize my RotRL game

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/fan-conversions/paizo-adventure-paths/pf-0 5-sins-of-the-saviors

It has a conversion of Kazaven's Necromantic Deathtrap in the Gluttony secion of Runeforge, however the only way to dispel it is keyed to the Turn Undead ability, which is now substantially less common than it used to be. You can see it here:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/traps-hazards-and-special-terrains/tr aps/necromantic-deathtrap-cr-13

Has anybody come up with a way to alter this so more groups would be able to suppress the ability? I'd be interested in any other ideas anyone else has had on that.

Soundtrack from master and commander might be useful. I used it to good effect in Savage Tide.

Would also love to have access to this.

direweaseltjw - at - gmail

Gracias!