Gark the Goblin's page

From splintersoul's splintered identity class feature:

For example, a splintersoul with barbarian levels, a lawful-good social identity, and a neutral vigilante identity can’t use his vigilante talents or his rage class feature while in his social identity, but he regains these abilities and can use them as normal as soon as he changes to his vigilante identity.

Should this be interpreted as a fix to unchained barbarian (released prior to Antihero's Handbook), which omits rules for ex-barbarians?

Has anyone made a homebrew system for hypothermia that doesn't require rolling at least 24 d20s every day the party hangs out in kinda chilly weather? I was envisioning some sort of resource pool that ticks down when the character is exposed to cold, with warm clothing being able to reduce the amount by which the pool decreases per hour.

I'm working up some libraries for my PCs to use for research while visiting Absalom. The two I'm currently working on are the private archives of the monks below the Irorium (one of the PCs has a connection), as well as the Forae Logos.

(Aside: If you're one of my players, this is the point at which I'd ask you to stop reading!)

I'm trying to build these libraries based on the guidelines set out in Ultimate Intrigue (SRD link), where you determine three or more key skills that can be used to research in the library.

The problem is, I can't really figure out which skills are appropriate for a library maintained by a bunch of monks of a god of knowledge, when there's another much huger library only a mile or so away in the Forae Logos. What's the defining feature of the Irorian library? What skills would be good for this library? Would it just be Knowledge (arcana, planes, and religion)?

I am not sure if unattended intelligent magic items asked to roll Will are intended to only roll [[1d20+Wis]] or if they should be rolling [[1d20+2+(CL/2)+Wis]].

A magic item doesn't need to make a saving throw unless it is unattended, it is specifically targeted by the effect, or its wielder rolls a natural 1 on his save. Magic items should always get a saving throw against spells that might deal damage to them—even against attacks from which a nonmagical item would normally get no chance to save. Magic items use the same saving throw bonus for all saves, no matter what the type (Fortitude, Reflex, or Will). A magic item's saving throw bonus equals 2 + 1/2 its caster level (rounded down). The only exceptions to this are intelligent magic items, which make Will saves based on their own Wisdom scores.

As a tool for getting new players into the game, it's hard to beat AON and the PFSRD. It's great that these services exist and that Paizo is willing to give them advance access! But there is still a lot of free labor going into enriching game accessibility that Paizo benefits from, especially now that AON is the Paizo-sponsored SRD. Are the people maintaining AON getting a minimum wage from their Patreon? If not, has Paizo offered to pay them a wage and provide health insurance?

(feel free to move if this is the wrong forum)

That is to say, does it actually cast the spell and roll the breath of life dice? If so, what is the presumed caster level?

Breath of life
Channeled Revival

Coming this October: Paizonian Race Production Month

PaRaProMo 2016 and 2017 ended successfully (and 2018 was almost a success), and now it's time to start preparing for 2019!

The guidelines of Parapromo are simple. For the majority of the year, we're gonna do what Paizo does best: Make lists of things that probably shouldn't exist. To be precise, we're going to compile a list of short race ideas. You can include basic descriptions of ideas, but avoid specifying anything too long-winded or rules-y. Just list ideas for PC races to play. (Also, some people like to get comedic with their suggestions. That's okay, but don't go too overboard. It makes it a lot harder to adapt, say, a sweater worn by a cat into a race. We can do it, but it's a lot harder.)

Then, in the month of October, it gets interesting—because we'll be combining our efforts to shove thirty-one of these races into statistical beauty for all to admire and envy.

Q: What's counted as a race?
A: This year, we're going to switch to a format that's a little more forgiving. Now, we will be counting subraces individually, and the description block (Physical Description, Society, Relations, etc.) that some folks write will also be counted as a separate race. Furthermore, Starfinder and Pathfinder 2nd Edition stats will also be counted as separate races. With these measures, we're SURE to meet our goal. Right? . . . Right?
Q: Can I get advice on making a race?
A: Check this post! The Pathfinder Race Builder is a good place to start for statistics!
Q: When do I start posting race ideas?
A: Right now!
Q: When should I start making a race based on a posted idea?
A: On the 1st of October!
Q: When do I have to be done?
A: Before the 1st of November!
Q: What do I win?
A: Absolutely nothing!
Q: Are there any race ideas left over from last year that I should be aware of?
A: Oh, yep:

A lot of APs after RiotR take place in Varisia. Assuming I want to later run more of these APs with the same group of players, what easter eggs, rumors and "news items" should I not miss? For example, I know that Ameiko plays a role in Jade Regent, so I am making sure to establish her character, even though we are skipping Burnt Offerings for Skinsaw.

I may instead be a player in future APs, so would prefer just the hints (if you want to explain the importance, please use a spoiler)!

What other things besides Ameiko being cool and having an adventuring past should I establish in Sandpoint, Magnimar, and beyond?

For comparison
Legend lore

We used this spell in our game last night and felt it was a little too powerful as written. What we noted:

• Can use Perception in place of Diplomacy - using the most-invested skill in place of any other skill really devalues the other skill and the characters who've invested in it. As long as you have access to this spell, the mage and the perceptive person will play a more important role in getting information than a character who goes out canvassing the town with Diplomacy.
• Faster than legend lore
• More diverse information than legend lore (1 topic per caster level). If focused all on one topic, can instead almost guarantee a natural 20+Perception bonus, which in some cases is better than legend lore, a 4th-6th level spell
• No costly material component

Does anyone have thoughts on how ears of the city should be rebalanced? Or disagree with our assessment?

Is there any reason this wouldn't work?

Coming this October: Pazonian Race Production Month

PaRaProMo 2016 and 2017 ended successfully, and now it's time to start preparing for 2018!
The guidelines here are simple. For the majority of the year, we're gonna do what Paizo does best: Make lists of things that probably shouldn't exist. To be precise, we're going to compile a list of short race ideas. You can include basic descriptions of ideas, but avoid specifying anything too firm or rules-y. Just list ideas for PC races to play. (Also, some people like to get comedic with their suggestions. That's okay, but don't go too overboard. It makes it a lot harder to adapt, say, a sweater worn by a cat into a race. We can do it, but it's a lot harder.)

Then, in the month of October, it gets interesting—because we'll be combining our efforts to shove thirty-one of these races against the membranes of reality until it gives way and they are described and statted for all to see. We'll be using Paizo's Race Builder where possible.

Guidelines for race creation (consult in October):

• Follow Paizo format. You don’t have to go in depth on alternate racial traits and racial weapons and so forth, but it’s much easier to refer to the races if you follow Paizo’s template.
  
• Think about how your race fits into a world. It could be Golarion, it could be a Pact World, it could be a homebrew. What is their ecology? How do they eat, breathe, drink, sleep, reproduce (without getting graphic)? Do they have good relations with other species?
  
• Don’t be afraid of getting weird! While the “2d anime waifu” is by far PaRaProMo’s most popular output, favorites among those who create races include the “hedgehog people that ride giant roosters,” the “slime people, but they all look like Slimer from Ghostbusters,” and the “sentient semi-mortal undead that disintegrate from zombies into clouds of sentient ash.” This is THE place to depart from the humanoid assumption.
  
• Make sure the race can be played by multiple character types - it’s fine if the statistics include some particular benefit for characters of a certain class, but it shouldn’t be one-sided. Try to have a mix of both skill and combat-related abilities.
  
• Have a power level in mind and compare your in-progress race to one or two Paizo-published races before you settle on its statistics. The Race Point system is a good way to get a feel of how powerful your race should be - most races for this project should fall between 6 and 15 RP. I suggest estimating the race points of each ability in parentheses after the ability name.
  
• Give races unique abilities. Making a race isn’t just assembling a bunch of abilities from the Race Builder - you’re ultimately at liberty to build each species from scratch, and previous years’ most popular races have all had at least one new ability.
  
• Give races flavor! What makes them special beyond their appearance?

Some people like to roll randomly to choose their race prompts, which is why these are numbered. Others prefer to choose, or have their races chosen for them by others. Either is fine. All that matters is that we combine our totals to reach the magic number: Thirty-one.

Anyways, spoilered below is a collection of race ideas from the last two years. Just to kick us off.

A dry desert wind coursed through the sheltered port city of Sarkeslion, making the ten hundred wind baffles on its eastern edge clatter in syncopation to the ten million rustling leaves of its garden forest. Above the gentle roar of steel-drying ovens, the rattling of cart wheels, and the sandy hiss of a spinehair trader's tail, it brought with it snatches of conversation in a dozen tongues – ”Taste this!” ”-infested with glutton globs” ”Give thanks-” ”-tunnels are collapsed!” The desert's sulfurous breath was mollified slightly by the smells of the city – the raspberry tang of a fumelung's smoke and the warm scent of fresh fish burritos - but it was still nose-prickingly dry and acrid.

The Mnarast Plaza, just inside Sarkeslion’s eastern gate and just down from the crest of Souann Hill, has been the meeting place for as long as anyone can remember. It’s where the Latislanders are said to have first made an accord of peace with the Setter peoples, guaranteeing them the right to bring their herds through the city and the fenced farms of its outlying areas. It’s where hotchi children unhitch their herd animals and set up stalls with fruit, corn, and live animals for sale - and then spend most of their time chatting and goofing off with other youths. It’s also where travelers come together to form caravans and seek companions - most of them taking the overland route to Northcity, but a few heading south along the coast to Hammer Village, and a rare number heading to isolated settlements on the eastern slope of the Barrier Wall. A wooden post in the center of the plaza is also the place to post notices requesting travelling companions.

The wind had stilled by the time they reached the first wind baffle, and the whole field of slender silver poles with their pinwheel-like tops hung silent in contrast to the laughter, shouting, and clangor of the city. The yellow sun, directly overhead, made their shadows starkly black against the bare grey road. The road stretches straight on eastwards, slowly gaining elevation as it cuts through cattail paddies and cornfields. Far ahead, the three of them can see the Barrier Wall, the mountain range that holds Sarkeslion like an egg in an upturned palm.

And then Relys, Frog, and Lyra hear, behind, the revving engine of one of those rare ancient devices that moves on its own power. Turning around, they see a brilliant blue car racing towards them, kicking up a thin cloud of dust behind it. The car screeches to a halt about a hundred feet away, and its driver and passengers disembark.

For your first post, remind everyone what your character looks like? Otherwise, feel free to play this out as you want. I figured in media res (aka having already just started the journey) would help us avoid a 2-week-long introduction/backstory-describing phase, while having two sets of characters still necessitates in-character introductions.

The "What did we do this morning?" on the doc is still canon, but feel free to embellish on it as you improvise your backstories in relation to each other during roleplay. Why you responded to the posting for traveling companions is definitely worth working into RP!

Welcome to the discussion thread! Off-topic chatter, and particularly notice about absences and delays, goes here.

I'm aware of the fact that at least 3 of the players share a Discord channel, but I ask that you include your co-players on any discussions relevant to this game here on the thread. If it becomes clear that's not workable, we can make a Discord channel for the whole group to use.

While I get the starting post prepared and we have the final player confirm their position, I encourage you all to introduce yourselves and work on characters together. Your characters as posted on the thread don't need to be set in stone - for example, this is an excellent opportunity to shore up any skill shortages. I also encourage you to work together to intertwine your backstories, at least to the extent of determining why you decided to make this journey together. I'm available to provide guidance on background weaving, and will definitely be reading anything you post in here.

To start off the introductions, you can call me Gark, GM, Coelocanth, Fish, or anything else that suits your fancy and is obviously referring to me. I use male pronouns (he/him), and it's my birthday today! I'll be playing most of the NPCs.

A dry desert wind courses through the sheltered port city of Sarkeslion, making the ten hundred wind baffles on its eastern edge clatter in syncopation to the ten million rustling leaves of its garden forest. Above the gentle roar of steel-drying ovens, the rattling of cart wheels, and the sandy hiss of a spinehair trader's tail, it brings with it snatches of conversation in a dozen tongues – ”Taste this!” ”-infested with glutton globs” ”Give thanks-” ”-tunnels are collapsed!” The desert's sulfurous breath is mollified slightly by the smells of the city – the raspberry tang of a fumelung's smoke and the warm scent of fresh fish burritos.

From temple-studded Souaan Hill on the outskirts of town, one can see the Island Sea stretching away into the western horizon. If one turns around, one can see the Barrier Wall swallowing up the eastern. Orcish steam-powered paddleships laden with priceless iron from distant Borage, and cirrip ice-draggers bearing whole frozen sea beasts, dock at the crescent-shaped harbor, while wagons full of hotchi adolescents and fresh produce trundle freely in on the dusty planed road through the eastern gate. The city has already woken and begun its morning business, but four Sarkeslians have yet to embark on theirs.

I'm opening recruitment for a travelogue game based in a homebrew setting, using the Pathfinder system. This game will prioritize roleplay over combat, with the ratio being respectively about 60:40. The theme is something like ”Wild West, but without the racism and exploitation,” and the setting takes a lot of aesthetic inspiration from the American Great Basin.

What's a travelogue? For me, it's a story that showcases a number of unique locations and cultures, with more focus on that experience than on villains or catastrophes. It's early Star Trek, or Kill Six Billion Demons, or Louise Erdrich, or even Their Eyes Were Watching God. Kobold Cleaver's "We're Gonna Take a Walk Outside Today" is also a good example of a travelogue story in PBP format, though I'm hoping to spend less time on each specific area.

What's the system? We'll be running Pathfinder with my houserules. I am open to suggestions for new houserules, or criticism about those I currently have in place.

What's the setting? To a large extent, that depends on you! We'll be expanding my base setting information by creating characters and playing – players will be encouraged to improvisationally flesh out towns, cultural artifacts, and even play NPCs as the situation allows. That said, I do have some ground-level facts about the setting and the starting area that I've posted in the spoiler labeled ”What does my character know about the world?”

How long will this last? We'll run one episode – taking a few months in real life, but lasting about one level and encompassing several hundred miles in-game – and then pause, potentially continuing the game into a longer campaign or ending at that point. See ”Things to know for the future” for a little bit more info about, well, the future.

How much do I need to post? You're welcome to post more often than me, but I want at least 3 posts per week from all players (including myself!).

What content are we going to avoid? I want to avoid slavery, rape, and child abuse. I don't want to whitewash the world, but I also don't want to try and tell people what experiencing these really awful things is like as a white man with a fair bit of privilege (and I've seen far too many backstories that begin with ”after his sister was sold into slavery . . .”). There are plenty of very good serious games out there where you can delve into those topics, but I want to keep this game's tone relatively light.

With regards to player behavior: If you've got a problem with anti-imperialist stories, non-binary gender identities, or sensitively representing things like mental illness, you're probably not going to have fun in this game. Just don't punch down!

Okay. How do I apply? Post the following two things:

• A summary of your PBP and writing-based roleplay experience. If you don't have any PBP experience whatsoever, I'm keeping a few slots open for newbies. If you do have PBP experience, I'd really appreciate at least a link to your favorite game (or the one where you did the best roleplay) so I can figure out if our styles will mesh. Information about your experience with PBP will be a primary factor in player selection.
• A character concept, and your ability score rolls (if you want to try rolling, that is - there are no penalties for doing so and then changing to Point Buy). Note that you have to roll ability scores in your first post if you want to use rolls. You don't have to include any statistics to submit a concept, but if you do want to generate a whole character, take a look at the ”How do I make a character?” spoiler below!

Consult the following spoilers for information about me as a GM, the setting, the character creation process, and a few notes for future reference.

I'm thinking about running a travelogue game on PBP here on the forums, probably using Pathfinder. I'm not married to the system or the setting, but would likely use one or the other to have more familiarity as I GM. It would likely be episodic, possibly with a rotating cast. It would involve the party exploring the world, through any number of transit methods, without the threat of some prophecy or villain always looming: that old chestnut of focusing on the journey, not on the destination.

The reason I'm still only thinking about starting this game is that I'm continuing my Swedish education online next month, and don't want to overload myself before I know that the coursework is doable. However, to date my most popular games have been travelogues, and I enjoy imagining fantastic locales enough that I would still want to run this game if I was doing 8 hours of schoolwork a day.

I have a bit of experience GMing online. I am currently running one travelogue-ish game on Roll20, and maintain a journal for it here; I also ran a one-shot PBP with a name I regret, which you can read here, and currently run a PBP of unknown duration for a game that was originally on roll20 here (not my best GMing work, I think, but a bit more up to date than the AMF game). I have also played in several PBPs on Paizo, with my role in Kobold Cleaver's Age of Worms being the longest-lasting. These links should give you a rough idea of the amount of roleplaying and description I want to provide as a GM.

If I do decide to run this, I'd like players who:

• Can usually post at least 5 times a week
  
• Would be happy in a game where 50-70% of the action is roleplay
  
• Take decisive action - no waiting for 2 weeks to agree to open a door, yeah?
  
• Like reading purple prose about nature and cities :V
  
• Like playing in a diverse world
  
• Communicate what they want from the game and don't hesitate to improvise
  
• Respect their fellow messageboard users (no punching down)

If you're interested in playing, post here with what you'd like to get out of a travelogue game. System, setting, tone, technology level, any plot elements - everything's fair game. I'd also appreciate links to any of your prior PBPs or campaigns, if you have them. Please refrain from character building for now - like, you're welcome to create as many OCs as you want, but you'll have no idea if they'll fit the setting or system or party we end up having.

I'll be back by the 12th of January to say whether or not I'll be able to run this game, and will probably choose players soon after. Until then, I'll be here to answer questions and read your input.

I'm trying to brew up some ways to tie together City of Seven Spears, and one of the ways I'm going to do that is by having each district have a specific major secret that will help piece together the greater story of Savith (based on this post). In the below, bracketed text is notes about things behind the GM screen that won't be revealed when the secret is. Any feedback would be very appreciated.

Savith's History
The heroine Savith was born on an island southeast of Azlant, an island that had for unknown eons been ruled by serpentfolk. The serpentfolk of this unnamed island kept a large stock of human slaves – too many, in fact. When Ydersius' attention was focused on the Azlanti war in the northern continent, it diverted resources from its more secure holdings, and it was in just this time that Savith came of age. Independent of any cleric, any book, she began extolling rights and virtues that awakened her fellow slaves into a revolutionary fury. As one, they broke free of the mental bonds, rose up against their masters, and fled to Azlant's shores. [the island Savith grew up on sank during Earthfall, OR could be Smuggler's Shiv with some pre-planning]
What Savith did to then become the leading general of Azlant's armies is unknown, but she did so quickly. Within five years, her favored weapon had not just been enchanted with mythical power, but five copies had been made for each of her five lesser generals: a cyclops with the power to see the future, an elven saint who was also Savith's lover, a Mwangi halfling paladin who had liberated her own people, an Azlanti battle mage with a storm of ioun stones, and a “noble” ghoul who would kill only serpentfolk. [3 of these weapons were lost when Azlant fell, one is Eroeme, and one was left in Savith's Tomb by her greatest friend; any of these weapons grants immunity to domination in a 70-foot radius; the halfling founded Mzali?]
As the serpentfolk were chased from their redoubt in Sverenagati, Savith led her army to Garund. Her mages used artifacts gifted by the elves to teleport her entire army from the surface to Ilmurea thousands of feet below. [these artifacts were later repurposed to create the portal in the Vaults of Madness]
As her generals battled the serpentfolk empire's last great army, Savith tracked down Ydersius alone. Though poisoned, she invested all of her mythic power into one final strike, slicing his head from his body, and cast his skull into a lake of fire. His body she kicked down a hole into the deepest pits of the earth.
Savith's sword rotted away from the venom, and she died with her saint at her side as the battle continued to rage. The serpentfolk were routed, but the ghoul was slain by the Emperor of Scales. [the ghoul's weapon was returned to Azlant and lost there]
Savith's remaining generals, Azlant's bureaucrats, and thousands of followers built a memorial to their heroine: an entire city. Savith's Tomb, the Seven Spears – everything in every district adds in some way to Savith's glory. [this information would be best granted in the district with the Tomb entrance]
Unfortunately, this glory was but shortly appreciated. Just a hundred years after Savith's death, the first split occurred: The sizeable cult of Zura was banished from Saventh-Yhi for seeking to transform the entire population into undead. Later, as Earthfall neared, denizens of the city began experiencing troubling visions. Hundreds of years after Savith's death, a priest of Pharasma named Urschlar Vohkavi rose to prominence by expounding on the inevitable death that waited for everyone in the city. The people of Saventh-Yhi became paranoid, fearful, and constructed underground vaults to hide their valuables. They cut off trade with the surrounding Mwangi nations, and Urschlar and a whole coterie of mages layered powerful protections to prevent both entry and exit from the slowly declining city. [then when the Starstone hit, of course, everyone died fast]

Do the broad strokes look good? I'm particularly unsure about who the other four generals (Aveshai, of course, needs to stay the way he is) should be. I'm also unsure if I should make the teleportation method be part of the Vaults, because I'm not going to have my players use the Vaults - they're going to have to find their own way through the Darklands - and foreshadowing artifacts that the PCs don't get to use could be a bummer. Most importantly, I want canon corrections based on what we actually know about Savith. It's hard to make sure timelines track when you have to cross-reference four different books, haha.

This situation just came up in a game (caster is the halfling with the ponytail). I can't tell if the Large enemy halfway behind a door is affected by burning hands that starts out pointing directly at that closed half of the door.

A burst spell affects whatever it catches in its area, including creatures that you can't see. It can't affect creatures with total cover from its point of origin (in other words, its effects don't extend around corners). The default shape for a burst effect is a sphere, but some burst spells are specifically described as cone-shaped. A burst's area defines how far from the point of origin the spell's effect extends.

The enemy doesn't have total cover (italicized), but the spell does have to go around a corner (bolded) the way I see it.

It's a given that the enemy gets normal cover (+2 Reflex) from the closed part of the door, but does the spell affect it at all?

How many do they get? I don't have my Bestiary with me and the PRD only says they get a single claw plus their bite. But then they wouldn't qualify for Multiattack?

Lizard zombie

So uh, I'm looking at something with 22 hp, +7 to hit, and 1d8+4/1d6+4 damage (bite and slam respectively). According to the HD rules, that's a CR 1 monster right there. Is that really CR 1?

Are there any fey with the air subtype besides the Jabberwock? One of my players has a sylph but wants the sylph to be related to some sort of fey. I may just tell her that her witch patron is some kind of fey, though.

There are a few threads collating information about meals in Golarion. But any culture worth its salt has entire books devoted to cooking. Until we get the "Food of Golarion" player companion, this thread is a place to list fan-made things people might eat in the Inner Sea and beyond.

I'll start:

1. Peach slices on honey-soaked sunflower seed focaccia - a popular dessert in western Arcadia, where peach trees originating in Minkai are the current rage

I have a player who wants to make their character's parents cultists of Apep (she's from Osirion), and I realized that Apep and Ydersius seem to share a similar niche. Is there enough space for both in a Serpent's Skull campaign? Or would it be better to make Apep a "front" for Ydersius in Osirion & ancient Egypt? Would there be anything problematic about that?

The leg stabilizers in People of the Stars help with gravity greater than x1/3 and less than x1, but I can't find any planets in Distant Worlds where this actually helps. (Akiton and Aballon have gravity of x1/3 which is just barely too low!) Do folks think this was intentional - leg stabilizers only grant that +10 speed bonus on homebrewed planets/moons?

NPCs or PCs! Whether you plan to play them or just thought of something cool and want to share it, post here.

1. An alien from a planet without a spider analogue, who has inexplicable but debilitating arachnophobia
2. An alien with an overwhelming fear of some monster native to their planet, who actually moved offworld because of that fear
3. The Last Lizardfolk

A character uses detect undead on an area with a haunt in it. What aura strength do they detect?

I'm going to assume HD equal to the caster level for now.

So apparently Torag disappeared, along with Rovagug? Guess we gotta find a new name for their shared month. I vote "Aspis Month" in honor of that grand old organization.

Has anyone tried capping the level in any particular class at 6, but still allowing advancement in other classes and using the regular XP tracks? (So e.g. a brawler could get to level 6 and hit the cap, start taking levels in kineticist until reaching character level 12, and then start taking levels in another class.) It seems like one way to make E6 work with published APs where certain numerical values are expected of the PCs - stuff like hp, AC, and attacks won't scale too differently from a regular game without level caps. It also gives players permission to explore new classes without feeling they sacrificed ultimate power, while keeping that ultimate power from changing the GM's story every single session. And for those who are worried about 15-minute adventuring days, it would certainly mean more self-healing fighters and fewer nova-ing alchemists.

Disadvantages I see are that those published APs do expect certain spells at high levels, and that players would still have to choose their additional classes wisely over the long run (ideally everyone would pick up some sort of caster levels at some point, as a purely martial character would be more disadvantaged in this system than in regular E6). It's possible that non-buff spellcasting would really suck when you get to later books - you're facing mind-melting horrors of the distant past and your paltry 3rd-level spells just can't break through SR/saves at all. Something would have to be changed on the player or GM end: either remove those monsters or give characters the option to synergize spells of two different disciplines to emulate higher-level magic. Maybe this would finally be the time to build a system for adding multiclass caster levels.

Thoughts on problems with this idea? I don't have an AP, or even a player group, in mind for this system, but it'd be interesting to know if anyone's done something similar. Also, maybe it'd be better to do with an 8-level cap, so that all classes come into their own?

The Explorer's Guild's footing has always been tenuous. Since their inception, they've faced an unending campaign of sabotage waged by the kingpin of Eleder, the Lady Madrona Daugustana. In this war, friends have been arrested, statues have been defaced, and doppelganger droppings have been discovered. For about a year, while the Guild's numbers were reduced by an expedition to the ancient tiered city of Kembe, it has limped along with a short staff. Finally, however, the expedition returned - along with a new "expedition" from Smuggler's Shiv. The Shiv Survivors quickly became friends with the Explorer's Guild, which partnered with the Pathfinder Society to outfit an expedition to the lost Azlanti city of Saventh-Yhi. But this upheaval in the city politics also meant Daugustana's agents could act without scrutiny, and they made their most overt attack yet upon the SS Skeleton. The Explorer's Guild repelled the invaders, but the leadership knows that Daugustana sent those goons.

Half a dozen trolls were facing off against ten hobgoblins, several of which carried war-trained eagles on their gloved forearms. When the trolls suddenly noticed the explorers and turned around to attack, Nesica, Adi, and Juno let loose with their various explosive spells and weapons. The expedition felled trolls swiftly, but the other trolls also swiftly killed the hobgoblins and eagles. One hobgoblin was left standing, crossbow in hand, against two trolls, when suddenly a small green figure jumped out from behind a bush and shanked the hobgoblin in its calf - it was the long-lost Explorer's Guild goblin member, Gree. The hobgoblin collapsed, groaning, while the trolls attacked the new goblinoid. Fortunately, the other Guild members were able to scare off the last two trolls, but Gree was severely injured.

A wounded goblin ally is lying in a valley on the dusty trail from the Sargavan coast to Citadel Krane, surrounded by a pile of hobgoblin, eagle, and troll bodies. The sound of labored breathing comes from that pile. A blind eagle is making ever more erratic circles in the sky above. The rapidly receding footbeats of large humanoids is receding up the gulch to the northeast. And Juno, Adi, and Nesica are relatively unhurt.

Sunt and Ruch can have come on a separate expedition with Gree, if KC and Noah want to join in on this scene.

. . . And figured I'd ask for feedback here.

Priests of the following gods can use summon monster and summon nature's ally spells to summon the following creatures in addition to the normal creatures listed in the spells.

Thoth (LN god of magic, the moon, wisdom, and writing)
Summon monster i – baboon*
Summon monster ii – giant ibis (see below)*
Summon monster vi – axiomite, stymphalidies*
Summon monster vii – zelekhut
*This creature is summoned with the celestial template if you are good, or the fiendish template if you are evil; you may choose either if you are neutral.
Planar allies of Thoth include Benet, a LG young phoenix with the appearance of an enormous spoonbill.

Keltheald (CG deity of natural formations, sunsets, and vistas)
Summon monster i – hawk*
Summon monster iv – korred*, werebear*
Summon monster vii – cliff giant*
Summon monster viii – monadic deva
*This creature is summoned with the celestial template if you are good, or the fiendish template if you are evil; you may choose either if you are neutral.
Planar allies of Keltheald include Kvell, a CN jyoti that has abandoned its home plane.

Droskar (NE god of cheating, slavery, and toil)
Summon monster i – duergar*
Summon monster ii – giant scarab beetle (see Dungeon #134)*
Summon monster iv – forge spurned
Summon monster vi - goliath stag beetle*
*This creature is summoned with the celestial template if you are good, or the fiendish template if you are evil; you may choose either if you are neutral.
Planar allies of Droskar include Ember, an ash-colored plasma ooze, and Servant 087365, a sceaduinar which has devoted itself to Droskar's mission of grim creation.

Giant Ibis CR 1/2
XP 200
N Tiny animal
Init +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +12
Defense
AC 19, touch 16, flat-footed 12 (+5 Dex, +2 natural, +1 size)
hp 6 (1d8+2)
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +4
Offense
Speed 10 ft., fly 60 ft. (poor)
Melee bite +7 (1d6)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Statistics
Str 10, Dex 21, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 19, Cha 10
Base Atk +0; CMB +3; CMD 8
Feats Weapon Finesse
Skills Fly +5, Perception +12, Stealth +17; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception, +4 Stealth
Ecology
Environment any swamps
Organization solitary or rookery (2-100)
Treasure none

Are there any obvious balance concerns? Any monsters that would just never be summoned because I missed a better summons of the same or lower level?

Translated from the Aklo.

Hey there. Name's Romo Slender. 'Cause I'm thin, right? I'm writing down some of the shit I've been through since it's possible I die horribly and someone needs to know what I've seen. And they might like to know that the world didn't use to be snowy.

You could say it all started when I was first thrown out into the forest, but I think a better starting place is when I met Sterris and Elder Natharen Sifander. They were heading south, I was heading south – we figured banding together would make us safer. It was very odd to have snow in Barovia, but there was nothing too odd about our trip until we came to a frozen stream and heard whizzing arrows and the clash of weapons. Some folks were fighting a strange water spirit, so Sterris and I joined in killing the creature and talked to 'em.

I made introductions. There was a strange short man with a high-pitched voice whose name I didn't catch but who I later found was named Tengezil Frimbocket, as well as one ”Mynama Kyneburg” who was the one making all the noise with a big sword I later found was named Aeglac. She didn't speak Balok, unfortunately. The last in the group was a woman named Armillia Fex, who'd been shooting the bow. There was also a gigantic clawed bird with them that seemed half-trained at best. Apparently they were looking for some lady who'd gotten grabbed by some bandits as the storm was coming on. I figured, a noble'd have good money, so why not go along with these folks and help?

We headed west, but were ambushed by a group of bandits with bows. We killed them without compunctions. The big strong fighter Kyneburg had gotten wounded so we went back to a hunter's shack owned by Armillia's mentor. Apparently, the man had wandered off into the woods looking for some sort of oversized ferret. The people looking for the noble (who was named Argentea Malassene of Dimentliu) had previously found some warm magicked tea waiting for them in the shack, but no such boon was waiting for us that day. We slept in the cold single room and the small man healed Cyneburg. The priest Sifander heard creepy noises in the night, and we suspected the shack to be haunted. I did succumb to the urge to see if I could take one of Armillia's arrows that night, but she shifted in her sleep and I managed to scare myself back to bed. That morning, I was all out of spells, so I had to go out into the forest to find it.

Sifander is an old man so we told him to stay at the hunter's shack to try to cleanse the place of spirits; there was also the side benefit of him not needing to hike in the snow for 6 hours and maybe die of cold. We returned to the ford where we first met, but something very strange was there. It was a figure built out of woven stems and grass, from which a terrible stench emanated. Kyneburg chopped off its head, discovering that a corpse had been trapped inside it. It was someone Armillia and Tengezil knew, called Old Man Dansby – a native of their village, who always worried about the fey of the forest. His fear was well-founded, it seemed. We burned his body in its wicker casing and hopefully cleansed his spirit for the Morninglord or whoever it is that'll take him.

After a hard day of hiking through the snow, we reached the High Sentinels' Lodge. Sterris stumbled over a tripwire, though, and suddenly we were mobbed by more bandits with weapons. Some of them seemed very sick. We quickly killed them, too, and entered the lodge to look for Argentea Melassene, the noble that had gone missing. We didn't find her immediately, but Kyneburg found a caliban woman in the kitchen who called herself Ten-Penny Tacey and spoke the same tongue. Tacey said she'd been kept there against her will, and she didn't like being around people so Kyneburg helped her escape – into the woods, I guess. It was when we were heading up the stairs to the second floor when we heard a thudding outside – and saw two zombies reel out of the room at the top of the stairs. Each zombie was wearing little onyx charms around their neck, which we worked out were used for reanimating them. We tried to cut down the ones inside and shut the door, but they kept coming, and we bolted out the back. Where it turned out there were plenty more undead. I tried to use some frost magic on some clanking horror, but it was just my luck that it was immune to cold. Tengezil's feathery companion was getting beat up by a group of zombies while I shouted encouragement to him and Kyneburg, but then they both either went inside or went around the side of the lodge. When I didn't hear anyone else fighting outside except Sterris, I attempted to run back indoors as well. But my good friend Armillia shut the door in my face.

Now, it turns out Armillia felt really bad about it later, but that didn't matter in the moment. What mattered was that she, a skilled fighter, shut the door on me, a very unskilled one, as well as a little less than half a dozen freezybone skeletons and zombies. And Sterris, who from the commentary of the others I gather had been running around in what looked like a prison smock the whole time since I met him and Sifander – he was certainly faring poorly. Sterris ran off north while I ran off east.

Unfortunately, I ran into the zombies. They encircled me, and I felt a brush of air as one swipe missed and then this impossible pain when they stuck me in the stomach.

–

I woke up with it standing on my chest. I saw myself through its eyes for a moment before I shoved it off. I was lying on the ground, my robes soaked with blood, my glasses askew. Outwardly, I was mostly the same. What changed was inward – I felt a new hunger, kinda like regular hunger where you think ”Morninglord, I really wish I had a pie just about now” but it was now like ”I want to inflict pain and horror on my enemies.” Fortunately that was directed at whoever made all those undead attack in concert, not Armillia.

Carving it into stone feels super wrong in terms of acknowledging what I saw but hey, if you're reading this that probably means you're caught up in my curse, right? In third person, I saw ribbons of blackness wrapping around me, felt them sapping all the heat from my bones, heard the sound they made like knives cutting through grass. The pain in my gut spread to my heart and my neck. I couldn't move a muscle.

The zombies had moved on to other targets – I later learned that they'd seriously injured Kyneburg, and that there was a well-dressed a&!#$!!-looking man in proper cold weather furs who was the one animating folks. I limped back to the front of the lodge and gave encouragement to the warriors, though the way my luck works I don't get to do it on the same people more than one time in a day. We killed the last zombies and that scared off the animator, and then we dumped all the bodies into the well so he couldn't come back and use them. The rest of the folks started going on about oh, how cute was ”Romo's cat” - did it have a name? I tried to warn them but they would not listen.

I went to ask Armillia why she uh, tried to kill me (and maybe succeeded?), but she locked herself in the kitchen and wouldn't come out. Started piling stuff up to barricade herself in. I think I heard her crying. I decided to leave her be.

We finally found Argentea tied up in the cellar, and also checked out the rest of the rooms in the lodge. There was a sick room and a bunch of other bedrooms downstairs, while the upper story just had two rooms. Argentea was whiny, like a typical noble I guess, but she got along alright with Kyneburg and me. I think Tengezil was weird-looking to her. We moved as many beds as we needed upstairs, and eventually Armillia came out. She might've apologised; I don't remember.

The first upstairs room, the one we decided to camp out in, had one advantage in addition to the elevation. It had good glass windows oriented in a way that the others could watch the whole yard to the south of the lodge. It also had more of those onyx charms hanging in those windows. Armillia and I debated selling them, but we decided it would be best to give them to Sifander and see if he could destroy them.

The second upstairs room was like a little closet and had a cache of goods inside. No food, but a blanket or two, as well as a cage holding some sort of little sprite. We released it, but I don't think any of us felt particularly good about doing so – what if it reported to the animator?

Then we ate some porridge made from leftover flour in the kitchen, and some food we'd all brought along, and settled in for the night. The number of groans and complaints I heard from Argentea over the cramped conditions was higher than I could track.

The next morning we went back to the hunter's shack, spent another night there. Argentea was even more displeased with those conditions. A strange flying creature with both feathers and fur slithered in through some crack during the night – it was a witch's spy, undoubtedly, and we killed it.

I tested my stealth again, rifling through Kyneburg's pack (she was a much heavier sleeper), but the small man caught me and sounded the alarm. Then Kyneburg threatened to chop off my hand if I did it again . . . lord. I tried to explain I wasn't taking anything important, nothing she'd miss, that I couldn't control it, but none of them were willing to listen. Gotta control myself. I'm not proud of this.

We made it to the hamlet of Heldren without meeting any more bandits or monsters. (I think we mighta killed the last of the bandits when we raided the lodge. It's too bad we didn't keep any to ask about why they killed the rangers and raided Argentea's caravan. But it's also fine because we found a map in the lodge showing that they were planning to attack Heldren.) We got Sifander home and Armillia went to her mom's house and got Argentea a room to stay there. Apparently the noble actually didn't have much money. We did get some money by selling the bandits' equipment to the general store owner, Vivialla Steranus, and I went and bought us bottled flame from the uber-nervous apothecary Tessarenea Willowbark. Armillia and I took the onyx charms to the spiritual leader of the place, Old Mother Theodora, who said she'd get them destroyed. Tengezil had a house in the village, while Kyneburg, Sterris, and I got spaces on the floor of the Silver Stoat Tavern.

By the next morning, we had left the smoky village and were journeying back towards the High Sentinels' Lodge. Armillia still wanted to look for the old hunter who'd gone missing in the woods, and I and the others wanted to track down the man who'd sent the zombies after us. We made it back to the hunter's cabin and then all the way up to the lodge, though we encountered the frost-burned bodies of several wolves and deer along the way. Kinda worrying, those.

We slept in the high room at the Lodge's top that night. The next morning, we checked out the stable adjoining the Lodge and discovered that it had four hungry horses. The fourth one I identified as a nixie, a kind of fey spirit known for inviting riders onto its back and then flipping them off into rivers. As we were quite close to a river at the time, we decided not to mount it, and took the other horses out. We didn't want someone else to get fooled by the fey horse, so we tried burning down the stable with it inside – but it broke free of its shackles and charged us. The real horses bolted, but Tengezil (who claimed that the horse was actually a ”blood mare,” some sort of demon cannibal – probably false) got his bird in and Kyneburg and Sterris surrounded the fey and slowly chipped away at it, with myself providing support. It was much stronger than I'd expected, but we managed to kill it without losing anyone. Then we gathered up the horses, got them some fresh food and water, and put them back in the stable. We went to the river's edge. The bridge there was apparently slippery-looking (though I could walk on it just fine), so we sent Kyneburg across first to check it out, with a rope around her waist.

It turned out the greatest danger of the bridge wasn't the ice, but a flying fey creature that haunted the crossing and tried to attack us. I tried to reason with it, learning that it was called Isoze and was some sort of mephit, but it seemed to serve someone else. Kyneburg fell off the bridge after a powerful gust of wind, and since I was holding the rope, I started getting dragged down after her. Thinking fast, I jumped off the cliff – but so that our rope wrapped around one of the bridge's posts, helping me use my full weight to counterbalance Kyneburg's. It still wasn't enough, but Sterris helped pull the two of us up and then made his sling sing with the Morninglord's power, throwing magical rocks at the fey. That was kind of the only thing that hurt it – we needed something either magical or blessed. It got Armillia with a burst of some sort of visual illusion. I kept everyone mostly conscious and we eventually seemed to either bore or tire out the fey, which fled upriver away from us. Armillia got back up and we picked our way across the bridge. We'd pick the horses up on our way back.

At the crest of another hill, we found a patch of cleared earth with three tree-like monsters growing in the center. They were frostfirs from the Breathing Forest of north Irrisen, which would be knocked unconscious by the blood of a divine caster. Irrisen is a country I am not very familiar with. I recommended that Tengezil throw some of his blood at them, but he told me to use mine, instead, and so no one threw any blood in the end. Kyneburg chopped the monsters up and we uprooted them to find the body of a human man who was even more poorly dressed than Sterris – it seemed he'd been stripped.

Later on, we found a large metal trap partially ripped out of the ground. Armillia identified it as a weasel trap, but sadly it appeared the thing had gotten free. We followed the trail of its blood westward.

Towards evening (it was colder, which is how I can tell), we reached a strange little hut perching on top of some trees on top of a knoll. The trail of blood ran past the hut, but we decided to investigate when a young girl ran past us into some boulders below the knoll. She looked frozen, according to the others. When we tried to follow her, she called, ”I'm sorry, don't hurt me – I never meant to call you names!” And then she said, ”I don't want your stupid doll!” I noticed that she didn't seem to be making the snow crunch with her movements, and right at that moment the others said she disappeared. When Kyneburg climbed up to the hut and found a strange doll sitting at the top looking down at us, I realized that this was a soulbound doll, a horrible invention that used the spirit of some person to power a magical construct. But it had fragmented in some way, so that the construct in the doll was separate from the spirit of the little girl that kept trying to escape and hide. We destroyed the doll, Tengezil making Kyneburg large with a spell and Armillia and Sterris and I using bottled flame to set the hut on fire. Then the rest of the party went down to where the girl had been moving, and saw no sign of her except for some shadowy faces beneath a patch of ice; the faces melted as they watched. The girl's name was Thora, and that was her and her family they glimpsed under the ice, we somehow knew. We followed the blood trail past the burning hut.

We hiked all the rest of the day. That evening, shortly before camping, more frost skeletons attacked, and I apparently set a tree on fire with my last bottled flame in my haste to destroy them. We cut down boughs of fir and pine and built a little shelter next to the burning tree, but my companions all complained terribly about the cold. Made me feel a little lucky to have my curse of cold resistance.

The next day we kept hiking. It was probably around noon when we happened upon a shredded frozen corpse. Armillia identified it as that of her mentor, the hunter and alcoholic Dryden Kepps. When she touched his quiver, some of the arrows whispered something to her – a remnant of the hunter's ghost, I think. Kepps was infatuated with the idea of fighting a gigantic weasel he claimed haunted these woods, but no one apart from Armillia had believed him while he was alive. Judging by the wounds on his body, he had been at least half-right: there was something huge and clawed roaming the forest. And judging by what those arrows did later, he'd either prepared well or his spirit had enhanced their power, because they tore into that weasel like a hot poker into a block of lard.

We took Dryden's most useful possessions – Sterris took his winter furs, so he was finally dressed appropriately for the weather. Kyneburg took the dead man's snowshoes and bow, and then we built a cairn over Kepp's body and let Armillia have a moment. Kepps had been carrying a flask of something that smelled like whiskey, and Armillia poured that out over his body. Kyneburg made an odd symbol by tying two pieces of stick together in a cross shape and sticking that into the ground at the head of the cairn. I'd been working on learning her language, and I think she said that the cross represented sanctifying the body.

When we continued westward, we discovered the frozen Soulmere Lake. And far out on the ice, Armillia spotted something horse-sized, furry, and snakelike: the dire weasel Kepps had spoken of. Kyneburg charged across the ice towards it, but before she ever reached it, it fell, the two spiritual arrows sprouting from its eyes. Armillia lowered her bow.

In its death throes, the weasel broke the ice, but Kyneburg pulled it out of the water and back to shore. Armillia severed the weasel's head to later have mounted in the Silver Stoat.

We constructed more shelters near the lake that night. I slept soundly until Armillia heard something rustling in the underbrush and yelled out to us. She started talking with something whose voice was guttural and groaning. I was dragged out of bed and went to help her talk.

As it turned out, the creature was some sort of abominable snowman, like that which the legendary Bardo the Greatfoot Hunter had searched for. It was speaking in the language in which I now write. With Armillia translating, we understood that it did not like us resting in its territory, so we offered it the corpse of a deer as payment. The creature was somewhat mollified and agreed to let us spend that one night there – but that would be our last such opportunity. The next time, it wanted our own blood.

I had to sleep a bit longer before I could muster up the strength to go and commune with the monster. Armillia went down to the lake to check on the weasel corpse (perhaps the snowman had taken it as food?), only to find the bloody place where she'd severed the head empty. A trail of weasel tracks led away over the snow. We still don't know if that a!&#~%! in the furs reanimated the weasel, but that's my theory. Gotta kill that guy.

Despite our late start, we made good progress along the path deeper into the cold. Along the way, I got Armillia to teach me some of what she knew about the Aklo language. We were drilling on grammar when, suddenly, the wind picked up, and a horrific combination of wolf and deer was revealed from a flurry of snow in our path. I heard the angry malefic winds condensing behind us, and realized it was some sort of elemental mist being. The wolf-deer named itself Hommelstalb, and we discovered that it was a tiny monster ”riding” the corpse of its victims, something we called a puppeteer. Or puppedeer, you might say. I think Kyneburg was the one to notice the monster and kill it, and then the rest of us defeated the wind creature, which was named Squalb.

That same day, we arrived at the base of a tall cliff and what seemed to be the nexus of the winter that was blanketing this area of rural Barovia. I could feel the wind streaming out, the icy mist collecting on my stubble, the intermittent sting of hardened snow hitting my nose. The others described it as a ring of inverted icicles (some 30 feet high), at the center of which was a globe of whirling whiteness. As we came out of the forest, they saw a group of igloos gathered around the nexus, as well as a cave up to the north. We met another small man (like Tengezil) named Foefane, who was somewhat creepier than Tengezil if I'm being honest. He talked about bringing Tengezil over to his side and about ice in his heart, and seemed to already have ice for hair. When Tengezil refused he threw a thunderstone at us and summoned a bunch of sprites, and we had bitter combat. I think Kyneburg had killed Foefane by the time we heard something else, larger than him, moving in one of the trees. It was singing in a high-pitched voice, in a language none of us recognized. We went around the igloo there and tried to find the new threat, but could not accurately track it. It attacked at the worst moment, surprising me and Sterris all alone (kind of a trend) with Armillia still fighting one of the sprites further off.

Sterris and I attacked the new threat, which he described as sort of a big ugly man, a troll with a long boar spear. Trolls dwell under bridges, and cold iron hurts them. Kyneburg trudged through the snow and caught up with us, but even she and Armillia (who both had snowshoes, after finding Kepps) could not move as fast as Sterris when Sterris was calling on the Morninglord's power. I helped the injured Kyneburg hack the troll up, but the monster retreated, saying that he, Teb Nautumn, would not die the same way as Foefane. He climbed over one of the smaller igloos and then leaped off with its spear, horrifically stabbing Tengezil and pinning him to the ground, unconscious. Sterris and I hurried to heal our companion while Kyneburg slowly wore Teb down. Finally, she sliced off his arm, and he died.

Or so we thought.

We patched up Kyneburg and Tengezil as best we could while Sterris searched the troll's body for useful items. He noticed at the last second that Teb's arm had reformed, and dodged out of the way when the monster grabbed his spear back up and started fighting us again, somehow almost fully healed. It was a long, arduous battle, but now that the troll couldn't bound off into the snow or climb away onto an igloo, Tengezil's slow-moving pet bird was able to stay in the fight, and it helped a lot. We finally killed the troll, and then Sterris chopped it up and started feeding the pieces into a fire Armillia built. We learned: Never turn your backs on the bodies.

Teb had been carrying some flasks of different fluids, a scroll, more thunderstones, a sickle, and a sling, in addition to his magical spear which resized to his height when Tengezil picked it up. We all agreed that Tengezil should take the spear. We investigated the igloos, finding a winter blanket and some piles of furs, which we took. Tengezil also found a pit trap! After joshing him a little for not looking more carefully, we helped him up.

We were still very wounded and tired, but we decided to check out the wintry orb. Maybe there was a way it could be shut down, to return Heldren and the rest of the region to normal? As we approached, though, a heavily armored man riding a horse suddenly rode out of the sphere – what we now realized was a portal. I backed away quickly from the threat, and the others neglected to tell me when the man collapsed onto the ground in front of them. Apparently, he was bleeding, was named Black Midnight, and was ”Baba Yaga's Black Rider, Harbinger of the Witch Queen's Return.” I reapproached partway through his little spiel, once I heard the unstrained voices of my companions and realized the warrior had not simply murdered them all.

Midnight had (apparently) taken the form of a white-haired balding man after removing his helmet, and explained that someone called Queen Elvanna in Irrisen had taken over the country and refused to cede power to her coming mother, the (something like an empress) Baba Yaga. Only Baba Yaga could defeat this Queen, but she was missing. If Yaga could not be found, then this ”demiplane” - ”the World of Mist and Darkness” that we all lived in, could be doomed. He gave us two ”keys,” which we were to put in a cauldron inside something called a Dancing Hut. The keys would be reactivated by the lifesblood Midnight spilled upon them, once he had died. He gave me one of the keys, something I recognized as a plague doctor's mask. The other was a lock of hair, which he gave to Kyneburg.

With his dying few breaths, Midnight set some kind of geas upon us – he called it the Mantle of the Black Rider. Each of us got a dark sigil on our necks (I can feel a raised welt, days later), and we were compelled to find Baba Yaga to stop Queen Elvanna. Personally, I would have been willing to save the world even if he hadn't given the Mantle, but I actually derived some benefit from it. When he cast his spell, I felt my mind expanding, and suddenly I fully understood both Kyneburg's language (Aengles) and the one in which I now write – Aklo, the language of monsters. I also knew where Irrisen was, roughly, and also that Midnight was right about the world being segmented into ”domains.” I even knew a little about the geography of the domains I had visited, something you don't typically pick up if you can't read maps (the fact that I had been in different domains, and not simply different nations, was also revealed to me). Midnight died just after giving us the Mantle. Good timing with that one.

We cleared out the cave to the north of the portal and settled in for a frigid, snowy night. The next morning we debated – should we go straight into the portal, or try to make it back to town and get some more supplies? In the end, the more cautious and more amenities-loving heads prevailed, and we began the long hike back to Heldren. During this journey, I began to carve these tablets.

It seemed that whatever predators there were along our path, we'd met and killed or bargained with, because the way back was free from fights. We did not encounter the snowman, and we made it back to the High Sentinels' Lodge in just a day and a half. We got the horses fresh food (though there's scarce little of it in the snow zone) and then rode on to Kepps' old cabin. The hunter's spirit had clearly passed on, and we heard no more tapping or rattling in the night. Then we finally rode back into the village.

The first thing Armillia did was go to the tavern and show everyone the head of the dire weasel. Folks were shocked, and Armillia was vindicated; she took the head to the tanner's to get it taxidermied. But when Armillia went home to talk to Ma Fex about how Kepps had been right all along, and maybe Armillia'd been right about the disappearance of her brother some 20 years ago, her ma wouldn't listen to a snatch of what she had to say (I was there; I can vouch for the woman's lack of reason). She started telling Armillia that she ought to settle down, marry this nice noble she'd met (Argentea was there too – I suspect at least her ears were blushing), and stop talking about fey and monsters and all that. Armillia cussed out her ma and then we all left, with Armillia offering Argentea the opportunity to come with her to whichever land we were going to enter. Argentea had lost her bodyguard Yuln Oerstag and all the rest of her retinue to the bandits, and she didn't really have anything tying her to Barovia, so she agreed.

Tengezil immediately set to work building a sleigh for the horses to tow. It would take him three days and most of his free time, plus some help from Armillia and Sterris. Several of us stayed at his cramped, messy house.

Kyneburg, who'd befriended Argentea's bodyguard and first learned the trail symbol Tralaks from him, arranged a funeral sans corpse for the man. She and Argentea attended, though I'm told Sifander's eulogy was lacking in details. Kyneburg spent the remainder of her time working at the tanner's, and apparently earned a small wage for her assistance.

Meanwhile, I cased the village – always important to do before you leave a town for a good while. If any of y'all are reading this, sorry, but I needed some cash, and none of y'all were chipping in any money for my sleight of hand acts. I figured out that the town hall only had one guard at night, so that became my target. The night before we'd leave, I snuck up to the front window, stuck my glue paper to the glass, and carefully cut a hole for my hand. When I tapped the glass out, it made a little tinkling sound, but I don't think anyone noticed. I opened the window and slipped inside. This is where having a frame like mine helps a lot. Then I carefully, stealthily crept up the stairs to the central counting desk. There was no money inside! I stealthed into a side room, where I knew the guard slept – and there, sitting out on a table, was a box of metal pieces that felt a hell of a lot like jewelry. I stuffed them into my pockets, listening to the guard snoring, and then stole back outside.

The next day, I visited the town hall again. They say not to return to the scene of the crime, but I've never been one to obey aphorisms. The guy manning the desk was the same as the guard. I asked how it was going, and he explained that he'd been robbed the previous night, but it was otherwise swell. I told him I hadn't heard of the robbery, did they find any clues? He seemed a little suspicious of my question until he realized I was blind, and then he was quite forthcoming. No, no clues except that someone had used a glass cutter, but he didn't even like the stuff he'd been robbed of, and he was glad someone had taken it off his hands, honestly. He asked me why I was in there, and I replied that I was trying to find a bathroom. I was sorry he'd lost that stuff. He said he felt like we had a real connection, and I agreed; we hugged. Then I went out back to use the toilet.

We left on one of the coldest days yet, and drove our new sleigh with our three horses through the woods. Tengezil's bird ran alongside, but the rest of us – Armillia, Kyneburg, Tengezil, Argentea, Sterris, and I – rode in the sleigh.

Unfortunately, along the way we were waylaid by more deer and wolf zombies! A bump in the road and an overly high speed made me fall off the back of the sleigh, and I was nearly lost until Kyneburg jumped down and pulled me back up. Sterris led the horses to the stable behind the shack, but suddenly the zombies had caught up. We hurried into the shack and to our surprise found the caliban Ten-Penny Tacey huddled inside. Sterris was trapped in the stable while the rest of us put furniture against the front door. We were settling in for a long siege when something called a ”mote” tumbled down the woodstove's chimney. It burst out and assaulted us with magic and cold. We shoved it back in and lit the fire, which killed it pretty good but also made the place stink.

We could communicate with Sterris through a knot in the wall between the stable and the shack's single room. Tengezil gave him a few prods with our recently purchased healing wand, and Sterris lit himself a fire in the stable-shed to keep warm. The rest of the group (apart from myself, who had no need) bundled up in blankets and furs and tried to put the scent of burning flesh out of their minds long enough to sleep.

We woke up when a wolf tried to crash through the window. Another zombie deer was doing the same to the door. We killed the wolf and then replaced the boards, but we now had another stinking body in the shack with us.

Tengezil woke us up again when Sterris heard something tearing at the door to the stable. The horses were whinnying nervously. It sounded like something was going to get in and get Sterris while the rest of us were helpless to do anything, and after a few hacks with her axe Kyneburg was uncertain if she could break through the wall between the two ”rooms” without bringing the whole structure down on our heads. And then we would have nowhere at all to hide.

Sterris said he was going to open the doors and try to make a break for it. I told Kyneburg and Armillia to run out and meet him as soon as the door opened, and Kyneburg did – but Armillia hung back. Sterris used the Morninglord's power to smite a zombie panther and a zombie wolf, destroying them, and then ran to meet Kyneburg, who was surrounded by more undead. But Kyneburg was already trying to retreat, and he couldn't make it to her without risking attack. He ran back to the stable and shut the doors. Kyneburg slowly cleared a path back towards the front door, taking scratches and bites and swinging around ferociously.

Just as she reached the entrance, Ten-Penny Tacey turned on us. She jumped off of the floor, apologized to Kyneburg, and started tearing into Tengezil and Argentea with long fingernails. Tengezil fell unconscious just as Kyneburg slammed the door shut on more zombies outside. I tried to get Argentea to help, but she had already been paralyzed by Tacey's first attack. Tacey said if only we hadn't tried to go outside, she could have waited out her commands from the man in furs, which were to attack if we went outside, obviously. She had been bitten seven hours ago, and as an undead was in thrall to the a+%$~++ in furs. Kyneburg apologized in turn, and together with Armillia (I and Tengezil's bird were by that point paralyzed by Tacey's claws) cut the woman down.

Now we had three dead bodies stinking up the room.

Fortunately, we were not attacked again that night. I slept well after the morning dawned cold and clear and silent, and went out to take spells from the monster. I've found that it carries more of them, now – perhaps influenced by the Mantle, or perhaps by the being that grants our shared powers. At least now the rest of my group, save Kyneburg, recognizes that the creature is dangerous.

We piled all the bodies inside and burned the shack to the ground. Hopefully the Morninglord, or Kyneburg's god, will take Tacey to the afterlife.

Then we hitched up the horses and drove them onwards. In the windows at the top of the Sentinel's Lodge we spotted another spying creature with feathers and fur, and quickly drove past before it could see us. We drove over the bridge, making it to Soulmere Lake very quickly.

That night, the snowman returned. This time, it approached closer to the camp – and got caught in a bear trap Armillia had laid out and lashed to a tree. It started trying to rip up the tree, bellowing obscenities in Aklo. I got up and made Kyneburg and Armillia lucky. Sterris invoked the Morninglord's power and tried to slay the beast, but he could not approach without getting harmed. Tengezil made Kyneburg big, and she joined the fight with her massive greatsword – but then the snowman's gaze caught her, made her stand stock still. Its eyes apparently bewitched those of weak will, which might have affected me but for my lack of sight. I made it unlucky, which made Kyneburg last a lot longer against its repeated slashes. Though the snowman was unnatural, resistant to our more mundane weaponry, we eventually killed it. Kyneburg slumped to the ground, and Tengezil healed her.

The next morning we slept in yet again (how do monsters always seem so bent on disrupting a regular sleep cycle?). The horses carried us past the place where we killed Hommelstalb and Squalb, and we arrived at the portal late in the day. I am currently begging Armillia and Tengezil to get the horses galloping and have us go through the portal flying, rather than just leisurely trotting through. We will see if they allow it. But for now, I will leave these tablets in the cave north of the portal. If you find them, it may be that we failed to fend off the winter, and the land is now coated in ice. In this case, it may behoove you to follow us into the portal – I will try to leave more caches of tablets in other caves, should caves be present in this new land. Or it may be that we succeeded, and this rural part of Barovia is enjoying its misty rainy winters and warm summers once again. Either way, I hope you have enjoyed the read, and that you remember our names, because we will likely not be returning.

With ”warm” regards,
Romo Slender
Adopted son of Pharila of the Vistani
Winter Witch

So, magic fang can make one natural weapon magic, and an inquisitor can make their attacks magic for the purposes of overcoming DR, but what other ways are there of getting natural attacks magic?

Hitting a financial rough patch lately and trying to get some cash for the books I use least. I've put a Bestiary 2 up for sale on ebay. If anyone on the boards is in the market for that book, let me know and I'll get in touch if no one buys on ebay.

I am also going to put Bestiary 3 up in a bit.

Players please don't read!

I'm wondering about incorporeal creatures like the shadow demon that are described as having wings. Do they fly supernaturally or extraordinarily?

And as a follow-up question, does magic jar deny the caster access to their own supernatural abilities while in effect?

Say a 6th-level fighter has 5 Con, rolls 1, 10, 6, 8, 1. They take Toughness at 3rd level and use all their favored class bonuses on hp.

Which is the correct calculation?

1. Add all the rolls together with starting hp (37) and subtract Con (-18), add Toughness (+6), add favored class (+6). Total=31

2. Add all bonuses to each HD, dividing retroactive Toughness for 1st-2nd level, then make sure each is 1 or higher: 1st=10-3+1+1=9, 2nd=1-3+1+1=1, 3rd=10-3+1+1=9, 4th=6-3+1+1=5, 5th=8-3+1+1=7, 6th=1-3+1+1=1. Total=32

3. Subtract Con modifier from each roll, then make sure minimum is 1. Only then add favored class and Toughness: 1st=10-3=7, 2nd=1-3=1, 3rd=10-3=7, 4th=6-3=3, 5th=8-3=5, 6th=1-3=1 (total of 24); +12 for favored class & Toughness. Total=36

4. Subtract Con modifier from each roll, add favored class bonus to each roll, then make sure minimum is 1. Only then add Toughness. 1st=10-3+1=8, 2nd=1-3+1=1, 3rd=10-3+1=8, 4th=6-3+1=4, 5th=8-3+1=6, 6th=1-3+1=1. +6 for Toughness. Total=34

5. Subtract Con modifier from and add FCB to each roll. Since Toughness gives a flat +3 bonus at 3rd level, add +3 to the 3rd-level hp, then add 1 to 4th-6th level hp. After total for each roll is determined, make sure all minimums are 1. 1st=10-3+1=8, 2nd=1-3+1=1, 3rd=10-3+1+3=11, 4th=6-3+1+1=5, 5th=8-3+1+1=7, 6th=1-3+1+1=1. Total=33

Followup: If the fighter had rolled a 1 for 4th level and took Toughness at 5th instead of 3rd, would they gain the additional hit point "for every Hit Die [they] possess beyond 3," or would that be sucked up by the Con penalty?

My party reached their greatest moral quandary so far last night: the Mzali rangers. I'd intended for them to stalk the party for a while, do some sniping, but when the party made their Perception checks I ruled that the rangers were in fact open to parley. They just wanted these folks to turn around and go back to Sargava. They eventually were convinced to let the party pass, but things went wrong when the party failed a Bluff check to convince the rangers that they were the only people who'd come through on that route (since the Pathfinders were two days behind them, that was a lie). And, well, the Mzali rangers knew that if there was a bigger force coming, they needed to get back to the city and warn the Mzali forces, so they split up and started running. Now the party is faced with the shitty decision of "Do we, as interlopers into the land of this people, shoot them in the back to further our goals, or do we suffer the potential tragedy associated with a Mzali force attacking the Pathfinder Society expedition?"

There are ways around this situation after the fact, and we'll be exploring those next session. But the initial, as-written situation of mindlessly killing these (potentially indigenous, and certainly not colonial) people who are defending their sovereignty is bullshit from the get-go. It's true that they're murderers, evil, but that's because they were written that way, and just killing them because they're evil doesn't make the imperialist implications any less apparent. Mwangi land was taken by Sargava, is ruled by Chelish Sargavans, and Mwangi people were taken by Sargava, made into slaves, etc. Decent characters - good characters - shouldn't have to accept the idea of necessary imperialism for an entirely voluntary and (to this date) apparently amoral adventure. Even going around the Mzali-claimed land will still eventually require intruding on other Mwangi lands!

As I discuss this conundrum with my players, I realize it's a much less "good" AP than I'd previously thought on the basis of TTFB and SotSG. SfSS seems ambiguous - you get stuck on an island and are forced to work together with your fellow castaways to survive - and I'd say that it's kind of the choice of the players whether they want to play evil or good characters in that book. Maybe a little tilted away from good, since you're encouraged to be explorers coming to plunder the Mwangi Expanse for its wealth.

RtR, however, immediately amps up with characters putting down a native rebellion and harassing a creature that's religiously important to a tribe of Ijo. And the motivations for going on the expedition don't give many options. Evil and neutral characters have plenty of reason to go - they'll get loot, knowledge and prestige. Good characters are interested in the expedition because of . . . the same kind of goals? Where other APs have looming threats and the like that drive PCs to make long-distance treks, this AP has only the slightest of hints that something bad will happen in Saventh-Yhi. If they actually had some pressing threat they were going to stop, the characters could use that to justify the violent intrusion - they'd feel crappy, maybe, and get a taste of moral greyness, but they could feel they made a decent choice. But here, the Good characters say, "We need to get through your land and bring another 100+ people through as well, so we can make more money/get more power/find more knowledge. If you don't want to let us through, our options are killing you or giving our GM a lot more work."

CoSS is a little better - you finally get to the city, and technically it's ancestral Azlanti land, so it's not like you're looting the artifacts of a Mwangi civilization. But for Good characters? Your motivations are still the same. You're here for wealth, power, and knowledge, and any sidequests where you actually help people are incidental. Sidequests where you actually hurt people (vegepygmies come to mind) are certainly also present.

VoM is better, from my understanding (haven't read it yet). At least here you're a) fighting more objectively evil creatures (undead) and b) now know from Juliver that there are people down there who need saving. But the evil and neutral characters still thrive, because their basic motivators are still there.

TTFB and SotSG are basically the same as VoM. There are good motivations for Good characters - and still a plethora of motivations (money/prestige/knowledge, but now also the motivations of "the city I co-rule upstairs is in danger from this Ydersius guy" and "the Coils of Ydersius tried to kill me - time for revenge") for evil and neutral characters. These and SfSS were the first adventures I read, and they gave me an inaccurate impression of the AP as a whole.

More than most APs I know of, this one has a core theme that's going to eventually force Good PCs to make significant choices in opposition to their alignment. Not greater good choices, not even lesser of two evils choices, but choices that only make sense for those characters in a meta context. I'd honestly recommend this as a legitimately evil campaign, if you could somehow do it without exacerbating the racist elements.

I recently had the realization that the AP I'm currently running, Serpent's Skull, seems to only have old (3.5-era) references to 3rd-party products. I'm interested to know, do more recent adventure paths have the same sort of time gap (4-8 years) between the product being published and that monster or other mechanic being used? Are there any pre-existing lists of such references in adventure paths?

Otherwise, to start one:

Everyone loves more archetypes, and in our current era they're becoming ever more versatile. You might want an archetype for building vehicles, or for taking care of an elderly relative. Some even use archetypes to disable bombs! The fact is, archetypes are as diverse as our collective imaginations. Let's put together some really excellent archetypes and make that 1,001 mark!

The format:
[number]. [Class] ([archetype name])
[List of class features lost and gained]

I'll start us off.

1. Rogue (master striker)
Loses all rogue talents, but now has 1d6 sneak attack damage per level.

2. Fighter (feat master)
Loses bravery and all class skills. Instead of one bonus feat every other level, gains 1 bonus feat per level.

3. Wizard (conjuration master)
Loses arcane bond. Must take the Conjuration school. Gains standard action summoning.

4. Commoner (sneaky peasant)
Replaces 1/2 BAB with 3/4 BAB progression. Gains Good Reflex save progression. Gains d8 HD.
Acquires "sneaky attack" class feature. The sneaky peasant's attack deals extra damage anytime her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the sneaky peasant flanks her target. This extra damage is 1d6 at 1st level, and increases by 1d6 every two rogue levels thereafter. Should the sneaky peasant score a critical hit with a sneaky attack, this extra damage is not multiplied. Ranged attacks can count as sneaky attacks only if the target is within 30 feet.
With a weapon that deals nonlethal damage (like a sap, whip, or an unarmed strike), a sneaky peasant can make a sneaky attack that deals nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. She cannot use a weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage in a sneaky attack, not even with the usual –4 penalty.
The sneaky peasant must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. A sneaky peasant cannot sneaky attack while striking a creature with concealment.
Gains "see traps good" class feature. A sneaky peasant adds 1/2 her level to Perception skill checks made to locate traps and to Disable Device skill checks (minimum +1). A sneaky peasant can use Disable Device to disarm magic traps.
Gains "avoid" class feature. At 2nd level and higher, a sneaky peasant can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Avoid can be used only if the sneaky peasant is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless sneaky peasant does not gain the benefit of avoid.
sneaky peasant Talents: As a sneaky peasant gains experience, she learns a number of talents that aid her and confound her foes. Starting at 2nd level, a sneaky peasant gains one sneaky peasant talent. She gains an additional sneaky peasant talent for every 2 levels of sneaky peasant attained after 2nd level. A sneaky peasant cannot select an individual talent more than once.
Talents marked with an asterisk add effects to a sneaky peasant's sneaky attack. Only one of these talents can be applied to an individual attack and the decision must be made before the attack roll is made.
Bleeding Attack* (Ex): A sneaky peasant with this ability can cause living opponents to bleed by hitting them with a sneaky attack. This attack causes the target to take 1 additional point of damage each round for each die of the sneaky peasant's sneaky attack (e.g., 4d6 equals 4 points of bleed). Bleeding creatures take that amount of damage every round at the start of each of their turns. The bleeding can be stopped by a DC 15 Heal check or the application of any effect that heals hit point damage. Bleeding damage from this ability does not stack with itself. Bleeding damage bypasses any damage reduction the creature might possess.
Combat Trick: A sneaky peasant that selects this talent gains a bonus combat feat (see Feats).
Fast Stealth (Ex): This ability allows a sneaky peasant to move at full speed using the Stealth skill without penalty.
Finesse sneaky peasant: A sneaky peasant that selects this talent gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.
Ledge Walker (Ex): This ability allows a sneaky peasant to move along narrow surfaces at full speed using the Acrobatics skill without penalty. In addition, a sneaky peasant with this talent is not flat-footed when using Acrobatics to move along narrow surfaces.
Major Magic (Sp): A sneaky peasant with this talent gains the ability to cast a 1st-level spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell list two times a day as a spell-like ability. The caster level for this ability is equal to the sneaky peasant's level. The save DC for this spell is 11 + the sneaky peasant's Intelligence modifier. The sneaky peasant must have an Intelligence of at least 11 to select this talent. A sneaky peasant must have the minor magic sneaky peasant talent before choosing this talent.
Minor Magic (Sp): A sneaky peasant with this talent gains the ability to cast a 0-level spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. This spell can be cast three times a day as a spell-like ability. The caster level for this ability is equal to the sneaky peasant's level. The save DC for this spell is 10 + the sneaky peasant's Intelligence modifier. The sneaky peasant must have an Intelligence of at least 10 to select this talent.
Quick Disable (Ex): It takes a sneaky peasant with this ability half the normal amount of time to disable a trap using the Disable Device skill (minimum 1 round).
Resiliency (Ex): Once per day, a sneaky peasant with this ability can gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the sneaky peasant's level. Activating this ability is an immediate action that can only be performed when she is brought to below 0 hit points. This ability can be used to prevent her from dying. These temporary hit points last for 1 minute. If the sneaky peasant's hit points drop below 0 due to the loss of these temporary hit points, she falls unconscious and is dying as normal.
sneaky peasant Crawl (Ex): While prone, a sneaky peasant with this ability can move at half speed. This movement provokes attacks of opportunity as normal. A sneaky peasant with this talent can take a 5-foot step while crawling.
Slow Reactions* (Ex): Opponents damaged by the sneaky peasant's sneaky attack can't make attacks of opportunity for 1 round.
Stand Up (Ex): A sneaky peasant with this ability can stand up from a prone position as a free action. This still provokes attacks of opportunity for standing up while threatened by a foe.
Surprise Attack (Ex): During the surprise round, opponents are always considered flat-footed to a sneaky peasant with this ability, even if they have already acted.
Trap Spotter (Ex): Whenever a sneaky peasant with this talent comes within 10 feet of a trap, she receives an immediate Perception skill check to notice the trap. This check should be made in secret by the GM.
Weapon Training: A sneaky peasant that selects this talent gains Weapon Focus as a bonus feat.
Gains "see traps better" class feature. At 3rd level, a sneaky peasant gains an intuitive sense that alerts her to danger from traps, giving her a +1 bonus on Reflex saves made to avoid traps and a +1 dodge bonus to AC against attacks made by traps. These bonuses rise to +2 when the sneaky peasant reaches 6th level, to +3 when she reaches 9th level, to +4 when she reaches 12th level, to +5 at 15th, and to +6 at 18th level.
See traps better bonuses gained from multiple classes stack.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a sneaky peasant can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She cannot be caught flat-footed, nor does she lose her Dex bonus to AC if the attacker is invisible. She still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A sneaky peasant with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action (see Combat) against her.
If a sneaky peasant already has uncanny dodge from a different class, she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): A sneaky peasant of 8th level or higher can no longer be flanked.
This defense denies another sneaky peasant the ability to sneaky attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more sneaky peasant levels than the target does.
If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from another class, the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum sneaky peasant level required to flank the character.
Advanced Talents: At 10th level, and every two levels thereafter, a sneaky peasant can choose one of the following advanced talents in place of a sneaky peasant talent.
Crippling Strike* (Ex): A sneaky peasant with this ability can sneaky attack opponents with such precision that her blows weaken and hamper them. An opponent damaged by one of her sneaky attacks also takes 2 points of Strength damage.
Defensive Roll (Ex): With this advanced talent, the sneaky peasant can roll with a potentially lethal blow to take less damage from it than she otherwise would. Once per day, when she would be reduced to 0 or fewer hit points by damage in combat (from a weapon or other blow, not a spell or special ability), the sneaky peasant can attempt to roll with the damage. To use this ability, the sneaky peasant must attempt a Reflex saving throw (DC = damage dealt). If the save succeeds, she takes only half damage from the blow; if it fails, she takes full damage. She must be aware of the attack and able to react to it in order to execute her defensive roll—if she is denied her Dexterity bonus to AC, she can't use this ability. Since this effect would not normally allow a character to make a Reflex save for half damage, the sneaky peasant's evasion ability does not apply to the defensive roll.
Dispelling Attack* (Su): Opponents that are dealt sneaky attack damage by a sneaky peasant with this ability are affected by a targeted dispel magic, targeting the lowest-level spell effect active on the target. The caster level for this ability is equal to the sneaky peasant's level. A sneaky peasant must have the major magic sneaky peasant talent before choosing dispelling attack.
Improved Avoid (Ex): This works like avoid, except that while the sneaky peasant still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, she henceforth takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless sneaky peasant does not gain the benefit of improved avoid.
Opportunist (Ex): Once per round, the sneaky peasant can make an attack of opportunity against an opponent who has just been struck for damage in melee by another character. This attack counts as an attack of opportunity for that round. Even a sneaky peasant with the Combat Reflexes feat can't use the opportunist ability more than once per round.
Skill Mastery: The sneaky peasant becomes so confident in the use of certain skills that she can use them reliably even under adverse conditions.
Upon gaining this ability, she selects a number of skills equal to 3 + her Intelligence modifier. When making a skill check with one of these skills, she may take 10 even if stress and distractions would normally prevent her from doing so. A sneaky peasant may gain this special ability multiple times, selecting additional skills for skill mastery to apply to each time.
Slippery Mind (Ex): This ability represents the sneaky peasant's ability to wriggle free from magical effects that would otherwise control or compel her. If a sneaky peasant with slippery mind is affected by an enchantment spell or effect and fails her saving throw, she can attempt it again 1 round later at the same DC. She gets only this one extra chance to succeed on her saving throw.
Feat: A sneaky peasant may gain any feat that she qualifies for in place of a sneaky peasant talent.
Gains "super sneaky attack" class feature. Upon reaching 20th level, a sneaky peasant becomes incredibly deadly when dealing sneaky attack damage. Each time the sneaky peasant deals sneaky attack damage, she can choose one of the following three effects: the target can be put to sleep for 1d4 hours, paralyzed for 2d6 rounds, or slain. Regardless of the effect chosen, the target receives a Fortitude save to negate the additional effect. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 the sneaky peasant's level + the sneaky peasant's Intelligence modifier. Once a creature has been the target of a master strike, regardless of whether or not the save is made, that creature is immune to that sneaky peasant's master strike for 24 hours. Creatures that are immune to sneaky attack damage are also immune to this ability.
Commoner class skills replaced with the following: Acrobatics (Dex), Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Dex), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Stealth (Dex), Swim (Str), and Use Magic Device (Cha). Gains 8+Int skill points per level.

I couldn't easily sum up this character in the title, so here's a long form breakdown:
Halfling cleric with the evangelist archetype, who just advanced from 8th to 9th level. His domain is Animal with the Feather subdomain, and his animal companion is a Large roc with Throw Anything who drops rocks and halflings on enemies. (Also, he calls himself a "kender," but those probably don't actually exist in this world. And we used rolled stats, and I got PRETTY lucky.) His sheet is here.

Some background about the situation: Currently we are about 2 sessions away from the end of the campaign, and right now we are pursuing a vampire back to its coffin. We're in a mansion with fairly low ceilings (probably mostly 20 feet high) that's made of wood. We have no reason to think there will be anything but undead for the rest of the campaign, so a few of my character's abilities will be mostly useless. (Most obviously, his spontaneous casting.) I think we will be able to take a 15-minute power prayer session before we go downstairs and have our last battles, so my character's new spell slots (plus some slots I left unprepared) can be filled. This will almost certainly be the last spell preparation we get before the end of the campaign.

Now finally to my question! Since we're ending so dang soon, I want to have this character go out with a bang. One of the choices that's hardest for me to make is, what feat should he get?

Some options I'm considering:
Evolved Companion to give the roc an evolution like Improved Damage or Tentacle (it actually qualifies for very few). Of the two I'd lean towards Improved Damage because vampire DR is a pain, but Tentacle would let her actually take advantage of her new Multiattack bonus feat. Also, it would be VERY unexpected.
Power Attack - if my character prepares beast shape iii as his 5th-level domain spell, he could turn into a dire bat, wolf, or ape (animals encountered thus far) and deal some respectable damage with this feat.
Maybe Quicken Spell? Quickened spiritual weapon could be handy.
Turn Undead: Actually potentially a good trick - the DC isn't lowered despite fewer damage dice, so I could get a couple uses off of this.
Alertness: I'm literally only considering this one because my character has a +22 Perception already and maxing out that skill has become a hobby. A +2 on top of it will probably not make a difference in these two sessions.

Situation with an animal companion (with nonmagical talons) that damaged a vampire and tried to grapple with the same attack. It dealt exactly 10 damage, which is reduced to 0 by DR - does the animal companion still get to grab?

I'm curious how different groups run divine spell preparation. Do you track the specific time of day each divine spellcaster prepares their spells, or do you just assume they have their new spells after resting like arcane casters?

What about the recent casting limit?

As with arcane spells, at the time of preparation any spells cast within the previous 8 hours count against the number of spells that can be prepared.

Do you enforce it for divine spellcasters who adventure during the day and prepare spells during the evening?

Just checking - if something is "immune to fear" from a spell, it can still be demoralized with Intimidate and given the shaken condition, yes?

I was cleaning a bookshelf and found a few map folios still in their plastic, completely unused! And then I felt kind of bad about buying them in the first place, but perhaps I can recoup some of the costs? If anyone's interested, they are:
Rise of the Runelords (no longer in print on Paizo store)
Curse of the Crimson Throne (no longer in print on Paizo store)
Legacy of Fire

I also have a Second Darkness folio, though out of the plastic - would anyone be interested in that?

Scrying and clairaudience/clairvoyance cost nothing except for a focus that you will use again. But false vision costs 250 gp per casting, and nondetection costs 50 gp. I get that it is useful to be able to stop people from spying on you - potentially even giving them false information - but why is it more expensive than the spell used to spy on you in the first place?

Is this a holdover from old editions, or is it actually balanced?

Does anyone know of a 5E condensed character sheet format similar to monster stat blocks, that can work as a Google doc or in a forum with BBCode? My computer can't handle Google spreadsheets and I don't want the hassle of constantly updating a PDF.

Basically I want something like this or this, or like the pregen sheets of PFS, but for 5E.

Not putting this in the rules forum as I doubt there's an actual rule about this very corner case . . .

My players want to know if they can use create water rain to cool down in an environment with very high humidity (so minimal evaporative cooling) and very high temperature. The adventure they're on involves surviving the heat of a dry season savanna for an overland journey lasting nearly a month.

If water can be reliably summoned at a temperature of the caster's choosing, say 0 C, then their plan would work perfectly. If it is summoned at a random temperature between 0 and 100 C, then the party would get the benefits of a cooldown about half the time . . . but the cleric could just keep casting it until they rolled well. I'm currently leaning towards making it summoned at the ambient temperature, but this could lead to some unfortunate corner cases in very hot situations like forest fires (where ambient temperatures could be above boiling, and hence you'd just be summoning steam).

While I'm all for clever applications of spells, the first two interpretations seem to just completely circumvent this significant terrain hazard with a single cantrip - is that balanced?

P.S. I don't think I can hit them with the Hustle rules (taking more than a single move action per round during overland movement eventually adds up to nonlethal damage), because it's not like they'd need to cast create water every round as they move.

The Proxima Centauri exoplanet looks to be tidally locked. Its orbit is a lot smaller, though.

Say you are an alchemist with fast bombs and a +8 BAB. You want to conserve them, so you don't want to waste them on iterative attacks that might miss. If you're hasted, can you choose to take the full attack action and make your normal attack and your haste attack, but not your iterative?

What about if you've only got two shots left in a pistol but have a +11 BAB? It's fine to only take your +11 and +6 shots, right?

Might be something I'm missing, but I checked the Magic chapter in my Rulebook and the Spell-Like Abilities text in Universal Monster Rules, and I can't work out if constant SLAs can be cast on other creatures.

Context: I'm building a winter witch who gets endure elements (cold only) as a constant SLA from his Cold Flesh ability*. I know I can renew this SLA as a swift action (presumably on myself), and that it should last 24 hours - but can I cast it on other people in my party? Would it still be a swift action to cast it on them?

*Now that I look at it, cold flesh is extraordinary yet somehow grants a spell-like ability???