Generic Villain's page

I wouldn't say that rules are there to be broken, rather they are something DM and players agree on or agree on ignoring them sometimes.

What I mean by that, is if you want to add mechanics to fights that are not defined by the rules to spice things up a bit, tell and ask your players beforehand. Not exactly what you are going to do, but that you want to try some things to make encounter more interesting for your players. Nothing is more frustrating than a dispute mid combat because things don't work as the players thought they would and are accustomed by the rules.

For example I suggested to my players to switch some things up with initiative for encounters where it would make sense to add a bit variety. They were a bit skeptical first, but agreed to try it and the encounter was a blast.
In that encounter they were fighting a chimera and I gave each head (dragon, goat, lion) it's own initiative and split its actions among those, to mimic things kind of legendary actions from D&D 5e.

One thing to keep in mind is, if you are giving them new abilities and mechanics compare them to existing things to get an idea of how it will impact the difficulty and adjust it accordingly. In the case of my Purification Ritual encounter, I took into consideration that the action economy would differ drastically, as almost half of the players actions were needed for the ritual. The actual enemy had to be adjusted for it, because otherwise it would have destroyed them.

Yeah, I suppose breaking wasn't quite the word I was looking for. For example, in the case of a boss with multiple life bars/phases, there's nothing in Pathfinder rules that allows for that per se. But it's a classic boss fight mechanic and I plan on using it for my final boss fight.

I've been watching videos from Matthew Colville, and he has some excellent advice. As he put it once: the rules are there for the players, not the bad guys. That's heavily paraphrasing, but his advice was not to allow rules to limit the GM from cool, awesome storytelling. For example in PF 1e, only a very high-level necromancer can create and control interesting undead. But should that stop the GM from giving his low-level necromancer villain a mummy or wraith servant? No. There doesn't need to be a mechanical reason why the 7th-level necro has such a (relatively) potent undead under control. It will be a cool encounter - enough said.

In the case of legendary/lair actions, I've picked 4 very important climactic fights in my campaign wherein the bad guy will have these. I haven't settled on exact mechanics yet, but I like your Planetarium idea of effectively giving an inanimate object an initiative. Splitting initiative with multiple attacks is also a clever way to do it, especially with something like a dragon. I'm sick of throwing one single powerful foe at the PCs, and having one of two results: either it shreds the PCs, or far more often, the PCs kill it before it can get off more than a round of actions. That's not how I want my dragon fight to go. It should be tense and epic.

My goal in all this is to make things interesting, fun, cool, and novel, both for me and my players. I'm definitely not trying to "beat" them. Just challenge them in a way that they'll hopefully find memorable.

Hi all. So I've GM'd a while now, and I'm getting bored of the standard combat format: walk into a room with bad guys, everyone roll initiative, hack away at each other until bad guys are invariably dead, move on to next room, repeat. So in a campaign I'm currently writing, I want at least 25% of the combats to be unusual or dynamic in some way. I know "unusual and dynamic" isn't super descriptive, but my examples below will hopefully illustrate what I mean by this.

I'd love to hear how other GMs have pulled off memorable combats. Ones that made the players think, kept them on their toes. Any advice or anecdotes would be much appreciated. I'm also mining memorable video game battles for ideas. Additionally, I'm seriously considering adopting legendary actions and lair action from D&D 5e.

I'm about 1/5th of the way through writing the campaign, and I've set up some (hopefully) interesting combats. Will they work? No idea. But here's my "interesting" combats so far.

Example 1
The PCs have to raid a ghost town occupied by bad guys. The baddies are dynamic - if they hear combat, several of them will react, going to the site of the disturbance if they succeed at Perception checks. There is also a fairly dangerous beast that patrols the town who will serve the same purpose. My hope is that the PCs will need to utilize Stealth and stay on the move, launching skirmishes but not staying in one place for too long.

Example 2
The PCs have to do some sanitation work, as the sewers have been backing up. The culprit is an ooze mephit archer who knows the terrain and has some goblin allies and mindless oozes to utilize. She will snipe for a round or two when the PCs engage an enemy, then flee deeper into the sewer. This happens three times until she is cornered and attempts to surrender. Nothing too special here, but I like it.

Example 3
This is the first combat I'm really proud of. The PCs are spending the night at what they assume is a safe mansion (though I do drop clues that things are amiss). There are several friendly, low-level NPCs there as well. Late at night, a swarm of monsters launch an attack on the manor. They will attack in waves, arriving at set intervals (rounds), breaking through windows or busting down doors. The PCs can stick together and play it safe, but their allies will almost certainly perish in this case. So they will need to chose between the tactically sound approach, or the altruistic but dumb route of splitting up and trying to save some of their friends. PCs will have the opportunity to make preparations for the impending siege, such as trying to convince the friendlies to sleep in a safer area such as a basement strongroom.

Example 4
The PCs are traveling across the desert on camel-back. They find themselves in a veritable minefield of quicksand pits and burrowing antlion-like ambush predators (dust diggers). They will need to carefully make their way across the treacherous terrain, guiding their camels. Lots of Perception and Handle Animal checks. The dust diggers won't beeline for prey, and it's technically possible to avoid combat entirely if PCs are very careful. Every camel that perishes will add time to their desert trek, and time is of the essence.

Example 5
A group of air and lightning elementals have created a sandstorm, heavily limiting the PCs' range of sight. The elementals are not hindered in this way. The air elementals will use hit-and-run tactics, swooping in for an attack then disappearing into the sandstorm, while the lightning elementals will use combat maneuvers to hassle PCs. The elementals attack in waves. In the middle of their group are a pair of special air elementals who are conjuring the sandstorm. The PCs can either hunker down and deal with the elementals' guerrilla tactics, or they can charge forward and try to kill the two sandstorm generators but potentially be surrounded.

Example 6
A single sentient flesh golem has gone berserk in an area featuring vertical columns of frozen lightning. Golem will utilize bull rush and overrun combat maneuvers to try forcing the PCs into the lightning columns, which will simultaneously harm the PCs and heal the flesh golem. Additionally, the columns are hazards by themselves: get within 5 feet, and they have a chance of delivering a shock. The PCs can either focus on the golem or utilize a variety of techniques to "disable" the lightning columns that are driving the golem mad. Attacking a column with a metal weapon to disrupt it but also harming the wielder; casting dispel magic; using skills such as Disable Device or Sleight of Hand to deactivate a column, and so forth. Basically every character class will have some means of disabling a lightning column, if they choose that route.

If the PCs can disable 3 columns, the sentient flesh golem comes to its senses and ceases its assault. It can even be befriended as a long-term ally.

As for the OP: I thought it would be a prime number with two digits, and I had to look up a list of primes because I'm dum and arrived at 11. It felt forgettable and fillery, though.

Yeah, without the Aucturn Enigma context mentioned above, it definitely would be fillery. But I'm seeding the number 11 (and also 56) throughout the campaign, so it wasn't just some arbitrary choice on my part.

GM: "The trees are whispering."
Player: "What are they saying?"
GM: "Who's listening?" (pause) "All of you make Will saves."

Oh that's a good one. Especially since I remember reading about a forest there where the trees ain't all trees. Thanks! As for statuses, I already gave the PCs random magic items to protect them from Aucturn's poisonous atmosphere, but that place does screw with people in multiple other ways. They're already going insane (part of my campaign involved all PCs to be affected by mind quakes early on), but iirc, Aucturn also physically mutates people. Would be fun to have a character spontaneously turn into a gibbering mouther for a few hours, with no indication I'd turn them back.

Have them meet Carsai the King (possible avatary of Nyarlathotep) who wants something from them in return for help, or has to be convinced to let them proceed. For whatever reason he's not (necessarily) on the side of these particular bad guys.

The funny thing is, Carsai would absolutely be opposed to my villains. The Dominion of the Black (the Night Herald's fascination/fetish) is basically at war with Nyarlathotep. My PCs would 100% try to recruit Carsai, heh.

Hmm, actually that would be a great "deal with the devil" scenario. Have Carsai offer some boon, but at a terrible price.

I have mild-to-moderate anxiety, am on meds and see a therapist regularly. It's a lifelong thing, nothing crippling fortunately - more of a constant background hum that sometimes becomes severe, but for the most part is under control. I've been tabletop gaming for decades, usually as a GM, and while I'll stress out about it, it's usually "normal" stress. For example worrying about a problem player, whether my work is up to par, if everyone is having fun, stuff like that. And never overwhelming.

For the past year or so, I've been GMing largely online. There are a ton of upsides. I love Roll20 and find it very adaptable, it saves me a lot of legwork, is more convenient, and of course allows everyone to socially distance. The downside is the lack of face-to-face interactions, but honestly that's a minor drawback for me at best. I'm an introvert and like being able to have fun with friends while also not leaving my house. Best of both worlds.

So here's the weird part. We play weekly, and I began to notice that my mood would drop a day or so before the game was scheduled. Nothing major at first, but enough that I definitely took note. A small voice began telling me to cancel the upcoming game, which I did once or twice while claiming illness or whatever.

Lately though, within the past few months, things have gotten drastically worse. The hour or so before I go live with a game, I've been overcome with anxiety. Racing heartbeat, rapid breathing, and worst of all that terrible stabbing pain in my stomach that so often accompanies an anxiety attack. It's never reached a full-blown panic attack, but I'm starting to worry it might. And it makes no damn sense. I've been doing this for decades, I've known my players for many years and they are awesome, and anxious though I am, I've never had more than mild stage fright. It's getting to the point where I'm ready to take a break from GMing for my own sake.

I practice breathing exercises, grounding techniques, the works, but no results. The only thing that helps is smoking (not cigarettes), but the trade-off is, when I'm intoxicated even somewhat, my quality as a GM suffers. At least it takes the edge off the anxiety though. And yet another weird thing - within maybe 10 minutes of actually starting the game, the anxiety just washes away and GM-Me takes over. All is suddenly well and I'm fully immersed in the game. But those hours leading up to the game itself? Getting to be downright hellish.

It's incredibly frustrating. I love this game more than most of my extended family (a low bar considering the people I'm related to, but still) and want to keep doing this for as long as I can, but damn.

So who else has found their mental health (whether or not it's anxiety) negatively impacting this awesome hobby? How do you handle it? Or if anyone else wants to just vent like I did for the past several paragraphs.

Sigh. Take care of yourselves everyone.

Also I know that the PCs will likely never stop to question why they're able to breathe in an enclosed subterranean dungeon. Ever. But I have OCD and an obsessive attention to detail. I always include stuff like methods to produce running water, laundry rooms, and other boring but necessary features.

So I've been playing a Pathfinder game focused on the Night Heralds, whom I've heavily developed. I threw together some fiction. If anyone's interested, here's a short story. Basic synopsis: big evil wizard Orlassk Belshain kidnapped the good guys, who managed to escape. Orlassk is the master of the Night Heralds. Three of Orlassk's top agents (Adelita, Harshom, and Maukui) departed in hot pursuit of the players without Orlassk's command. As for the story itself, another of Orlassk's lieutenant, a half-elf guy named Ghartone, rushes into Orlassk's private dining room to inform the boss of this escape.
One last thing: I reference something called the Dominion of the Black. They're a billion-year-old empire/hive of alien monstrosities that Orlassk really wants to summon to his world.

I think I'll add me Night-Herald fiction from the villains' perspective in the future. Hope ya'll enjoy.With no further ado:

The Escape
The door to the small dining room burst open and in the shadowed hall beyond stood a winded half-elf man, his face, long given to stoicism, now etched with panic.
“Master please forgive the intrusion, I bring grave news!”
Orlassk sat his fork down with a sigh, but said nothing. Ghartone waited a beat before continuing. “The four Prime Candidates have found a way to escape. Maukui was keeping an eye on them when they made their move.” More silence.
Ghartone was growing desperate. “Master, what are your orders?” he all-but demanded.
Orlassk turned at last, regarding his subordinate with a disaffected coolness. “At what point were my orders to have changed, Ghartone? Was it before or after you ruined my meal?” The half-elf was about to respond but, as if suddenly noting the sharpness of the response, managed to stop himself.
“Nevermind. Tell me, who has gone in chase?”
“I believe Harshom, Adelita, and Maukui teleported ahead of them. The Droon Guard has assembled a team of scouts to follow.”
“Then I have just lost three trusted lieutenants and a guard regiment,” Orlassk replied flatly. The lesser Night Herald was quick to appreciate the implications. He could offer his superior only more silence in reply.
“I was arrogant, Ghartone. I believed I could harness the mind quakes, but instead I called forth something that was beyond my control.”
The sorcerer rose, his robes shimmering in the wan moonlight that peaked through a nearby window. “No worries, old friend. These things happen.”
Orlassk strode over to a waiting hookah and took a long draw from it, his breath causing the coals to glow dangerously in the shadowed lounge. He paused to feel the hallucinogens take hold before continuing.
“We are scholars and scientists, are we not? The possibility of failure mustn’t deter us from our path. Instead we must strive to find a way to reverse the situation so that things are in our favor once more.”
The two men were quiet for a time. Ghartone furrowed his brow in consideration, a number of possibilities rushing through his head. Then he realized.
“The Prime Candidates will try to follow you to Aucturn. Either that sniveling wretch Oscilar puts them down, or they make it past him and offer themselves up to you.”
Orlassk grinned a bit. “That’s the sum of it. I want you to go to them soon, after they’ve made it past your disgruntled fellows. Tell them that the game is up. They’ve occupied too much of my attention as is, and I do not have anything left to spare them. If they are genuine in their perseverance, they will find me in due time.”
Ghartone bowed a bit, new marching orders in hand, and spun to depart. Orlassk’s icy voice halted him.
“Before you go, tell me. As for my other gambit, do you think me foolish for pursuing it?”
This was unusual. A legitimate question with no hint as to what was expected in response.
“That… is a complicated matter, my lord. Perhaps we should discuss it another time.”
Orlassk nodded but said nothing. A few whispered syllables of magic later, and Ghartone was gone. Alone once more, the man who was audacious enough to call himself Master turned his attention to the coals that smoldered upon his hookah. His vision swam from the toxins that now coursed through his lungs, his blood, his brain.
You’re wrong, he thought. It’s not a complicated matter at all . The Dominion of the Black had been his mentors and comrades for decades, but they now demanded that he play the obedient sycophant, and that was unwise. He was Orlassk Belshain, and not even the Dominion was above his reproach.

I'm a stickler for details. Obsessively so, in fact. My fortresses and strongholds always have ample storage space, pantries, a well, occasionally running water, a laundry room, workrooms, etc. But there's one stick in my craw: how can a fully subterranean, largely self-contained dungeon maintain fresh air for the occupants?

I have limited knowledge of airflow in closed subterranean places from reading about oldschool coal mines, and have two solutions: Solution one: the occasional brick in the dungeon wall is enchanted with transmutation magic to purify the air in the vicinity. Option two: discrete vents reach to the surface, and minor magic pulls in air from the outside and circulates it in the dungeon.

Yes, this is incredibly (perhaps overly so) obsessive on very minor details, but that's the stuff I love. Has anyone given thought to how the air in their deep, sealed off dungeons stays fresh and breathable? My third idea was to have a plant/algae/fungus farm to function as air purifiers, but the two dungeons I'm working on lack space for such a thing.

So yeah, there's my obsessive details-oriented quandary. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. Thanls.

"The oldest and most prestigious magic academy in the world is the Magaambya, an ancient institution founded by the greatest wizard the world has ever known."

Xanderghul, Sorshen, Tar-Baphon, Nex, Geb, Arazni, and Aroden's eyes all collectively twitched a bit when they heard this. Jatembe is certainly high-ranking, but methinks there's some pro-Magaambya bias partisanship behind this statement.

Most observatories' domes can rotate.

In most cases, the entire upper portion of the telescope dome can be rotated to allow the instrument to observe different sections of the night sky.

Ah, that would make a lot more sense. Thanks.

So I've Googled around, but can't seem to get the mechanics of it. I'm referring specifically to the dome aspect of modern observatories. Looking at them, they only open a side slit in a fixed location. Hard to explain in words, so here's a good picture.

Looking at those observatories, it looks like the telescope is in a fixed position and can only observe part of the sky. Can the entire dome spin to allow the telescope access to different quadrants of the sky? Or are observatories all fixed in place? Any explanation and/or links would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I never considered "Oinodaemon" to be his name - to me it always sounded like more of a title. For one thing, he's always referred to as the Oinodaemon. And unless he was the namesake of the daemon race (a possibility of course), including -daemon in his name would be an odd choice. It's Asmodeus, not The Asmodevil; Rovagug and not The Rovaqlippoth. Whatever the case, seems like Oino was benched in the beginning because there were no mortal deaths for him to embody, and a second time when the Four Horsemen turned on him. Poor schmuck can't catch a break.

There are hints of something that sounds very much like the Beyond Beyond in Concordance of Rivals. It makes me fear Z-K far more than the other more blatantly Evil deities.

And why is he even Lawful?

I've been meaning to get Concordance of Rivals for a while. As for why Z-K is lawful, I recall the issue being discussed at length in a thread years ago. I think one of the conclusions was that Z-K has an ideal, perfect world in mind, and is striving towards its creation. He's not a "burn it all down just for fun" type. He's also not a purely sadistic psychopath like the demon lord Shax, but a sadomasochistic psychopath. That matters for... reasons.

Going back to the Cenobites from Hellraiser/Hellbound Hearts, they were always very particular about whom they targeted (ignoring the slew of awful sequels). As long as you didn't mess with the Lament Configuration, you were safe from them. They (and the kytons/velstracs) are scientists, artists, and scholars of a very perverse nature. That sounds reasonably lawful evil to me. Kind of a stretch? Perhaps, but meh.

Any chance ZK could become connected to the kytons? Between the look and the Plain of Shadows, it seems like a good fit. Of course that doesn't quite fit with my desire that kytons become occult instead of divine (they haven't shown up yet, so no reason they couldn't be occult), but it isn't that big a difference, since the Outer Rifts could be connected to occult power.

Become connected? Eh, Zon-Kuthon is pretty much the kytons' strongest deity (though not their oldest). The kytons have several exemplars on par with demon princes and archdevils known as demagogues, but Z-K is their only god-level god. Also what do you mean by kytons being occult vs. divine? Occult and divine are sources of magic. Kytons do have members capable of using occult magic (cantor kytons, in Occult Bestiary), but there's no such thing as an "occult" or "divine" creature type.

The Outer Rifts/Abyss are a font of all sorts of power (occult, divine, arcane, primal, other). Where Z-K traveled to is someplace outside of even those supposedly limitless reaches. This place-outside-of-places is hinted at in articles concerning the creatures known as devourers.

More info on kytons can be found in the Book of the Damned. It's a solid resource. Other references to the Beyond Beyond can be found in Undead Revisited (devourer chapter) and Planar Adventures (page 5 under the Beyond Beyond heading, and page 114 under the Eternity's Doorstep heading).

"...the heroes strike against a massive Swarm creature that is draining the world's resources dry."

Ah, this world must be rich in Vespene gas and More Minerals.

Considering that the entire Pathfinder campaign setting is predicated on Aroden's death, and it's been stated by developers numerous times that they'll probably never reveal how he died - no, Aroden isn't coming back. It would be also be a deus ex machina-sized cop out.

I'm just bummed that some of Golarion's biggest baddies have been killed off lately. Hopefully we get some new ones in 2nd edition.

Has any subscriber not gotten this? Or am I the only one?

Gotta echo some other posts - this adventure is incredible. I can't put my finger on why it's so good, but the unique villains, justifiable and fun weirdness, and just the sheer creativity certainly helps. The Immaculate Circle might be my new favorite evil-bad-guy brigade. I mean, who would have thought that...

would come together to basically run a nation as a shadow government. So cool.

I loved this book. It was a fun read and really well done. That said, I noticed one glaring oddity: the city of Dis, located upon Hell's second layer, only has a population of 9.5 million. Normally I don't like arguing about whether or not a fantasy city's population is realistic, but compared to the real world that makes Dis roughly as populated as London (population: 9.7 million, size: 671 square miles) or Lima, Peru (population: 9.7 million, size: 1,000 square miles). Even if Dis is twice or thrice the size of Lima to account for the many Large or larger devils, that still puts it at about 2-3,000 square miles. That's about 45-55 miles on a side, assuming a square city.

I was always under the impression that Hell's second layer was at least partially covered by the sprawling megalopolis of Dis, and that the wastelands beyond its walls only accounted for maybe 75% of the rest. Even just 90% of the rest. Obviously I'm mistaken, but I definitely didn't expect Dis to be a tiny speck on the layer's map. Hell is "immeasurable" in size - why couldn't its population have simply been "innumerable" as well?

This might seem like a really dumb thing to get hung up on, but it really did completely change my idea of this iconic city. Oh well. Still a great book.

That's no Avatar, that the Great Old One Tawil at’Umr!

Tawil at’Umr is Yog-Sothoth's avatar. And I'd say Gods help the PCs if he's involved with this AP, but I'm pretty sure even the Gods wouldn't tangle with that dude. It's way too early to be guessing, but maybe ole' Tawil will show up in Continuing the Campaign chapter.

It's odd that Alaznist is on the cover of the first volume. As far as I can tell she is the BBEG, and those characters usually premiere on the final volume when they are actually faced. There are exceptions - Jade Regent, Hell's Vengeance, Strange Aeons - but still. Curious.

3 Runelords down, 4 to go. I was hoping the BBEG would be Sorshen or Xanderghul, but I have a feeling they're both too powerful for a non-mythic party to take done. Ah well.

I know it's a placeholder, but there's a definite pattern when it comes to what Paizo puts on their placeholder art. It's usually at least tangentially related to the adventure itself. For example the adventure prior to this has a kyton on it and involves the PCs going to the Plane of Shadows. The adventure before that has an asura, so I'm guessing asuras are involved. Etc.

If somebody didn't care to spell my name right, I wouldn't feel that much inclined to honour their requests to abandon my long-standing policies and grant their wishes. But that's just me.

I'm confident that the Paizo employees are above such innocuous pedantry when it comes to designing flagship products like Adventure Paths. Or anything else really. To error is human.

Pointless bickering aside, there are a number of nations that haven't been touched on: Molthune, Isger, Druma, Lastwall, Realm of the Mammoth Lords, Nidal, Brevoy, aforementioned Razmir, Hermea, Mediogalit Island, and Thuvia. Any and all of these nations are begging to be fleshed out. And that's not even counting the Darklands, other planets, and other planes. Quite looking forward to the final 1.0 AP going out with a bang.

Razmir is Jason Bulmahn’s pet nation, as I understand things. That probably doesn’t mean he has to be involved, but I’d be surprised if it were the last PF1 AP (it’s presumably being written now and something tells me he’s been kind of busy, of late).

This always bugs me. I know developers have their own pet nations they helped design (Eric Mona with Nex/Geb, Wesley Schneider with Ustalav, Jason Bulmahn with Razmir), but what's the point of having these nations if they're never developed? Luckily Mr. Schneider did an amazing job fleshing out his vision of Ustalav, but as of now, Nex, Geb, and Razmir are blank canvases. They might as well appear on maps with a big old censor bar over them that says "coming soon!" Paizo has plenty of highly capable writers who can easily bring these nations to life. It's been a decade. Time to hand the torch off.

I hope it's something in Garund. Nex/Geb are begging for an AP and yet, since their conception, have received very little attention. Another cool option would be to reveal the rest of Garund's landmass, as was done with Tian-Xia.

A Razmiran AP would be quite welcome as well. Ole' man Razmir has 3 options at this point: die of old age, die because adventurers stabbed him, or discover immortality like a decent wizard.

I do hope it's not Galt, but Galt is another possibility. Only reason I'd say it's unlikely is because we have a very politics-heavy AP with War For the Crown, and unless the Galt AP (ugh) takes a much different approach, I just don't see it happening.

According to Occult Mysteries, the Countdown Clocks might reach a special conjunction on 4718 AR - which corresponds to 2018 in real life. The last time such a conjunction happened was 4606 AR, when Aroden died. I know the developers have said no massive cataclysm will usher in 2nd edition (as has been the case with every iteration of, say, Forgotten Realms), but I'm definitely hoping for something special.

Maybe kill off one of the less popular deities? I'm looking at you Alseta the Welcomer.

Sounds very familiar. I thought it might be The Relic, but on second thought that didn't end with a helicopter escape (and was set in a museum not a factory).

Heh, I was thinking The Relic too actually. But there were a lot of horror movies made between the 70s-90s, so who knows.

Just for fun, I've decided to try and categorize the nations of Golarion as being either low, medium, or high in magic concentration. This list is completely arbitrary and subject to dispute.

Hopefully he stays buried.

Heh. If it were anyone else I'd call that disrespectful, but... yeah man, spot on. I just know the first time I saw Night, I fell in love. And then I played the Resident Evil games. Zombies became a feature of my young psyche in a big way. I would have dreams/nightmares about them on a weekly basis, and still do pretty frequently. I usually have a shotgun though, so that helps.

George Romero, creator of Night of the Living Dead and father of the modern zombie movie, died today at 77. The man was a legend and a genius. If there's one thing I respect about him more than any other though, it was that, in 1968, he chose to cast Duane Jones as the male lead of his first and most iconic film. Jones was a black man, and in 1968 black men simply were not allowed to be lead actors. Romero had incredible courage to do what he did, and Jones paved the way for black actors of future generations to finally get their chance to shine.

Plus, Night of the Living Dead was a damn good movie. Thanks for all the memories Mr. Romero. I can honestly say I'm pretty emotional about this. Sigh.

I'm a little bummed we didn't get some more info on the gutaki/devilfish city of Achom (detailed in From Hells Heart). Seems like an absolutely killer place for an adventure of seven. I would have also liked to see one or two of the noted underwater communities get a formal stat writeup, but I understand that space was at a premium what with all the info, underwater rules, character options, and so forth.

Still though. Achom for the win baby.

CrystalSeas wrote:

Generic Villain wrote:

CrystalSeas wrote:

Have you ever tried to use a dead vertebrate as a bridge? They're soft and floppy and bend any which way.

Are you speaking from experience? I mean far be it for me to judge...

Check your PMs.

What an intriguing exchange. :)

He was being respectful due to his profession. Nothing untoward or salacious, I assure you.

Apologies for the link. In lieu of that, I did some research on the German Hessian mercenaries. Based on what I've found, the Hessians were disciplined military organization with structures and hierarchies comparable to proper state-organization militarizes. They were by no means a horde of all-for-one warriors out for personal glory. Were I to guess, the lawfully-inclined Blackjackets share a lot in common with them.

Hessians: The Best Armies Money Could Buy.

My favorite Empyreal Lord is whichever one ends up gasping out his/her final breaths while impaled on Pazuzu's sword, or even better, hobbled and turned into Dispater's personal footstool for all eternity. Go evil!

Have you ever tried to use a dead vertebrate as a bridge? They're soft and floppy and bend any which way.

Are you speaking from experience? I mean far be it for me to judge...

(I'm not sure I'd go as far as calling it 'dumb' -- that's IMO needlessly offensive and doesn't make anyone want to look for a solution for you)

Upon reflection, you are correct. Too late to edit the post though. Apologies.

They can hold their breath while fighting for 14+ rounds, I don't see a problem. kill a number of humans and run off to come back later, where are the air breathers going to hide in the middle of the ocean...

Kinda works for coastal settlements too. Otherwise yeah, seems like an odd thing to do.

For a brief ship raid, sure. But for a coastal town of like 200+ people? They'd have to trudge from the beach up to the town itself. They would have ~1 minute and 40 seconds to bust in doors, battle resistance, pillage goods, slaughter innocents, then head back to the ocean. If the town had even a basic wooden wall, they'd be even more screwed. I'm fine that Paizo decided to make them an entirely aquatic threat (except for small groups with spellcaster backup) by removing their pseudo-amphibiousness, but they don't seem to stick to that. Anyway, as said it's an error. Errors happen and this one has a simple solution. Nothing more to say.

Sure, removing the amphibious ability might be questionable (I'm not sure I'd go as far as calling it 'dumb' -- that's IMO needlessly offensive and doesn't make anyone want to look for a solution for you), but using them as land raiders most certainly isn't -- it's in keeping with how they've always been.

I'm not looking for help or solutions. I'm pointing out an error.

I don't think there's anything dumb about the idea of them being land-raiders. If we were talking merfolk I'd agree with them flopping around on their fish tails, but with the legs and all, I don't see anything comical about sahuagin attacking land-dwellers. We've seen them emerging from the water as far back as the 1978 original Monster Manual illustration. It's always been an ingrained aspect of them that they keep coming out of the water.

So glad you brought that up! In 2nd-edition D&D, sahuagins were amphibious. In 3rd-edition, they had a specific ability called water dependent that allowed them to survive outside water for 1 hour per 2 Constitution before they started drowning. In Pathfinder, this crucial and iconic ability was removed - seemingly arbitrarily - and yet sahuagins are continued to be treated as if they possessed it. Still called land raiders, still encountered on the surface in past adventures. This? This is dumb.

How do you tell a satisfying story about an evil character (not just an antihero) who neither redeems nor pays for their misdeeds?

That's up to you. I'm not being glib - telling a compelling story is a personal and artistic matter. Some canvases are harder to paint on than others.

I would imagine however, that over the course of say a 1st through 12th level career an evil character would be extremely likely to discover:

- Evil is a thing that exists in a tangible sense.
- I am Evil.
- Evil doesn't reliably work out for its practitioners.
- There are other options I can pursue.

Evil doesn't reliably work out? Man, tell that to Baba Yaga, the Runelords of Thassilon, Arazni, Szass Tam (Forgotten Realms), Fzoul Chembryl (FR), and countless other villains who made evil work like a boss. Did some of them meet their end eventually? Sure, but until then they lived like gods. Better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.

Really though, I think maybe instead of looking at evil as the opposite of good, you should consider seeing each as a separate philosophy. And devoting yourself to any philosophy is never going to be easy. It takes work, perseverance, and dedication. It's just that most normal people are unable to consider the appeal of evil as a philosophy; humans are (I think) much more wired towards innate goodness, or at least social cohesion.

So no, being evil isn't necessarily fun or enjoyable. Neither is being good at times. The easiest alignment to play would probably be neutral, but only if it's sans the dedication to balance. True neutral as exemplified in one word: meh.

Nobody sees themselves as evil, so how does the characters justify themselves to think they are the good guys?

I see this so often. I really wonder where this particular myth started. Yes, there are absolutely people who know that what they do is evil - they make no justification. They also aren't insane. In fact, they are much more terrifying than the unhinged psychopath of pop culture. These are people who fully understand the weight of their actions, appreciate the value of life and love, and yet willingly chose to ignore every moral impulse they have to satisfy whatever drives them. A true psychopath cannot experience empathy for another creature. But what's more chilling than someone who can feel empathy, but chooses not to?

Evil is not banal. Evil is the callous impulse to put the self before all others, consequences be damned. Some evil people might delude themselves; others might be nuts. But then there are the subtle ones. The ones who might not take pleasure from hurting or killing, but will absolutely resort to it should the situation call for it. Cross them and you will die. But it's nothing personal.

I remember one creepy DotB article describing how when creatures were sacrificed to black holes (willingly or not) by DotB, some worshippers would hear laughter in their heads.

In the Occult Bestiary, the chyzaedu are worm-like members of the Dominion. They used to be independent until the Dominion came along and threw their planet into a black hole, driving them all a bit bonkers. When that planet was eaten, the (off-world) chyzaedu heard a sound like laughter.

Interestingly, chyzaedu are the most religious member race of the Dominion, and their belief "emphasizes... the rapturous moment of devouring and of being devoured." I don't know you guys. That might just be a clue.

I wonder now if the Devourer is Azathoth in a new (ultimate?) form? And if all the tentative early interactions with Golarion during the Age of Lost Omens has unfortunately put the post-Gap Pact Worlds directly in the spotlight of the Dominion of the Black and all the dwellers in the Dark Tapestry.

It doesn't sound like Azatoth. It's been consistently CN, and unlike the Devourer, absolutely has a physical presence. It's just that Azatoth is really bloody stupid and serves no real purpose other than singing to itself. If I had to guess, I'd say the Devourer pretty well exemplifies the Dominion of the Black's theology. It was strongly hinted in the Dominion article back in Iron Gods that they worship black holes, so that fits perfectly.

Generic Villain wrote:

I have a black male, not sure how old he is. Not sure because he showed up nearly starving to death on my back porch one day. I fed him and he ended up ridiculously friendly, so he was obviously someone's pet at some point. After a trip to the vet he became an indoor cat. Hasn't been outside in years - doesn't seem to care. He does this stupid thing where... eh, easier to show than tell. He lays like that all the time. It's embarrassing.

Our cats do it all the time, we call it cat-sizing, after which they'll float around on the carpet like that. (I swear every time I look at them they'll have moved slightly.)

There's a theory floating around that cats are actually liquid. Pretty compelling stuff.

He is remembering his early years as a famed dancer, and is secretly working on new choreography to stage a revival.

Awesome, thank you so much for putting that song in my head again.

The Description wrote:

An expansion of rules for underwater combat that clarifies those presented in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and introduces new challenges to consider.

I'm going to be honest, did we really need new challenges to consider when dealing with underwater combat, possibly the most reviled and feared scenario in all of DnD history?

It's almost like Paizo knew how messed up the underwater rules were, and are releasing this book in an effort to revamp them and make them more fun/accessible. Because there's going to be a whole underwater adventure path, and they want people to actually enjoy it.