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Hey all. I've been playing tabletop games my entire adult life (as well as much of my pre-adult life), and love these games. I play multiple times a week as both a player and GM. Many of my friends are also tabletop gamers, and we have a great little community that I am very fortunate to be a part of. Of late though, I've developed an interest in getting brand new people into the hobby. The folks who are curious about TTRGPs, but for whatever reason, haven't tried the game themselves.

I'd absolutely love to GM a group of people brand new to the TTRPG experience. I think it would be a blast. I've taught Pathfinder to many people over the years and it's always been a rewarding experience, but those people were always familiar with at least one other system (usually 5e). This is an incredible hobby with so many upsides, but I also know that, from the outside looking it, it can be very daunting and mysterious.

Problem is, I'm not sure how to find these TTRPG-curious. There are dozens of ways to find new players who are already experienced in the game, but I couldn't find any resources for recruiting those who are brand new.

These days I almost exclusively play online, but I think for brand new players, a face-to-face game would be better and more rewarding. Plus, if I can find a player who is a bit lonely or socially isolated, I think in-person would be a great option.

Does anyone have any advice/suggestions/thoughts/experience in this regard? I'm thinking of contacting some community outreach programs in my area, but that's my only idea right now.

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.

Hi all. This isn't a rules question, but I'm still in need of advice. I'm writing an adventure where the PCs will meet a sphinx. The sphinx will, naturally, ask the PCs a series of 5 riddles. The first 4 are fairly classic ones, but I wanted the final riddle to be tough. And I'm not clever enough to write a good riddle so I turned to AI. This is what I put together after a few tries.

Is this riddle too difficult? If so, are there any good ways to simple it up a bit? Important note: the answers to all five riddles are plot relevant, so I can't just pick another challenging riddle that has a different answer.

So:

In mirrored whispers, a duo aligned;
A twin truth in digits defined.
Prime in its essence, a mystery to explore;
Symmetry’s secret in numerical lore.

Hey all. I don't know how many people still play 1e, but I sure do, and I have found something enraging. Mostly because it's so cool, but so difficult to understand. That would be the Psychometabolic corruption.

I have issues with two of its manifestations. The first, called psychometabolic blast, reads:

"You gain the kineticist’s kinetic blast class feature, as well as the telekinetic blast wild talent. Use your manifestation level as your effective kineticist level to determine the effects of these abilities. If you have the elemental focus (aether) or expanded element (aether) class ability, you instead gain a bonus on damage rolls with your telekinetic blast equal to half your manifestation level (minimum +1)."

I can understand most of that. However, my issue is: what is the cost for using this ability? All the other gifts from the psychometabolic corruption use psychometabolic points, but as written, it looks like this ability can be used at will. I assume it is meant to cost 1 point, or be used a limited number of times per day, but who knows.

Second and bigger issue comes from mind blast, which reads:

"When you use the telekinetic blast gained from the psychometabolic blast manifestation, you can spend 2 points of psychometabolic power to use the telekinetic force to wreck the mind of each creature targeted. Instead of you rolling to hit targets with your blast, each target can attempt a Will save (DC = 10 + half your manifestation level + your Constitution modifier) to try to negate the damage and any infusions or metakinesis abilities applied to it. When using this ability, your telekinetic blast is a mind-affecting effect."

I have several issues with this. First, it notes that the user "wrecks the mind of each creature targeted," but a kineticist's blast only has a single target. Second, you're paying 2 points to allow your (singular) target to make a relatively low Will save to avoid the damage? Instead of just making an attack roll that would come from the psychometabolic blast? That seems to very underwhelming, especially with the flavor text of "wrecking the mind" of your targets.

I know this is a long shot and probably won't get many bites, but I'm using this corruption (or more likely, a heavily modified version) for a game I've got coming up. Anyone have any thoughts, suggestions, ideas?

Thanks.

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.

I'm not sure I'm posting in the right place, but it says advice, which I need, so here it goes.

I run an online campaign where the Night Heralds are the villains. For those who don't know, Night Heralds are a cult of fanatics intent on summoning alien horrors to Golarion. Your basic Lovecraftian lunatics. We're reaching the climax of the campaign, wherein the primary villain - a high-level sorcerer - has teleported to the planet Aucturn to perform a ritual that will cause Super Not Good Things to happen. The PCs have just found a one-way portal to Aucturn and are about to dive in and hunt him down. Simple enough.

I wrote out my penultimate adventure and was fine with it at first, but looking over it, I realize it's mostly just 2 combat encounters. My adventures tend to only last about 2 hours and I have to limit combat as a result, so this is normal. The problem is I am having serious trouble thinking of non-combat stuff for the PCs to do on Aucturn. Aucturn is a bizarre, alien nightmare world, and I really want to drive home just how insane the place is. This is where I'm stumped. I've read up on all the Aucturn-related material I could find such as the Distant Worlds Auctun section, but am still drawing a blank. Some combination of writer's block and a lack of creativity on my part.

So does anyone have any ideas? Specifically, ones that will inspire roleplaying. My campaign is very much a sci-fi/cosmic horror, and to emphasize I'm trying to drive home just how utterly alien the place is. I want the PCs to feel completely isolated in this hellish but very cool set piece, while also highlighting some of its many idiosyncrasies. I already have all the combat encounters in place so I can't add more of those.

The PCs are 14th-level right now, if that matters.

Thanks for any suggestions.

*Edit: To be more specific, I'm trying to think of anything cool. Roleplaying encounters with the natives, spooky/mindbending occurrences, hazards - basically anything that will make my players treat this place as more than just a hack-and-slash gauntlet.

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.

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've always loved the Night Heralds and Dominion of the Black - it's probably my single favorite thing about the Pathfinder campaign setting. That said, information on the former has always been sparse. The most we have is a small write up in Occult Mysteries and the 2nd-edition playtest Doomsday Dawn. Doomsday Dawn effectively saw the end of the Dominion of the Black's threat on Golarion.

So I was surprised to see that the Night Heralds are still very much active - they even have their own symbol and write up in the new Core Rulebook, and are apparently still active in Osirion. I'm curious about a lot of Night Herald/Dominion things, and I'm actually getting kind of excited by the gosreg creature in the 2nd edition bestiary. Not only does this suggest that the Dominion is still being fleshed out, but the sidebar suggests that the Doomsday Dawn was only phase one of the Dominion of the Black's plans to invade Golarion.

Now that Night Heralds are an official faction with a nifty symbol and everything, and we continue to get Dominion monsters and references, does anyone have ideas/plans on using either in their future campaign? I've been designing a Night Herald campaign on and off for over a year, and I know people on these boards are nothing if not a great source of inspiration.

For my own campaign, I'm ignoring a large chunk of the Doomsday Dawn adventure. In my opinion it retconned too much of the original story. Without too much complaining, it relegated the Four Pharaohs of Ascension to puppets of Ramlock, didn't mention any of the 11 gifts given by the Dominion (other than the Last Theorem), and changed the Night Heralds' motives from a nihilistic urge to be absorbed brain-first by neh-thalggu, to seeking out Countdown Clocks as a means of protection against the coming apocalypse.

So yeah, if anyone has any thoughts, ideas, suggestions or the like, I'd appreciate it.

This part isn't necessary, but in case anyone wanted to know...

Also now that I think about it, are there any sources I'm missing about the Night Heralds/Dominion? The following are big ones:

Occult mysteries (Midnight Herald description)
Valley of the Brain Collectors (Dominion of the Black description)
Doomsday Dawn (meh...)
Pact Worlds (Starfinder book with loads of info on Aucturn)

Unfortunately I need to cancel my Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription. Thank you.

Hey all. I'm going to be GMing for a group in the near future and want to do so online. I've seen a number of sites or programs over the years that allow for this, but don't have experience with any of them. Does anyone have advice or suggestions? If it matters, I want a system that will let me draw basic maps, use creature tokens, a dice rolling mechanic, and some kind of voice chat. The voice chat is definitely preferable but if it's only text chat that'd be okay too, we could just Skype or something.

Thanks for any advice.

I need advice on how to call forth the spirits of the dead to haunt me, summon the legions of Hell, damn myself to spiritual assault, possession, and torment by things from the Beyond, and the like. If anyone has advice or opinions on how I can do this, please let me know.

I am doing this because I am agnostic. This is not an effort to mock those who have faith, nor insult anyone's religion. It is a challenge to the belief that some people harbor that the moment they touch a Ouija board, that long-haired girl from The Ring will murder them. Occultism is nothing new, but I find it particularly tiresome in its modern incarnation.

I'm willing to spend up to maybe $10-15 on this "ritual." No animal sacrifices, anything icky or illegal, and I don't have any place to draw a pentagram. I have no problem drawing my own blood to form a demonic pact. I own a candle.

When I have the time (hopefully in the next week or so), I'll be filming this and putting it on YouTube. Sure hope no demons tear my heart out when I do it!

Since my old credit card expired and I received a new one, I encounter the same error each month: an email that is pasted below. Each time I then have to manually choose the same payment method and it works just fine. I also have no issues when ordering PDFs directly - it's only my AP subscription.

I would really like to get back to not having to manually fiddle with every Adventure Path order. Is there a way to make that possible? Because I've tried to fix this on my end multiple times, to no avail. I'm not even sure if I'm still going to get the latest Adventure path.

Much obliged.

P.S. I did try to email customer service directly a few days ago but didn't receive a response. So I'm trying this way.

---------

Dear [Generic_Villain],
We are eager to ship your products, but we need your help. We do not have a payment method on file for this order. Please take a moment to add a payment method to this order at your My Payment Methods page.

If we don't hear from you, or are unable to successfully process your card, by Sat, Jul 21, 2018 order # ***, placed [date], may be canceled.

Hey all. So me and my buddy like to watch high-quality (in our opinions) television, and I'm in charge of finding shows. Live action only, and aimed at adults. High drama, deep plotlines, and fleshed out characters are what we're looking for. Does anyone have recommendations?

So far here are some of the best shows we've watched:

Stranger Things
Mr. Robot
Happy!
Preacher
Channel Zero

Thanks for any tips.

Hey all. A buddy of mine is trying to remember the title of a horror movie he saw as a kid. Here's the description he gave me:

"So there's a movie I remember I watched when I was little can't remember the full movie or it's name. It's a horror movie (somewhere between 70's-90's) I remember it in a factory kind of setting but I can't be too sure of that since I only saw it when I was younger. A group of people are trying to survive a closed setting with either a mutated human or some kind of demonic-like creature or just something along those lines. I remember the last scene they're escaping towards an active helicopter and they think they'e seen the last of it but it caught up to them. They end up kicking it off and it falls to the ground and dies, and you see it's hand with a little stream of blood coming out as the credits start rolling"

I'm a horror fan but his description didn't ring any bells. Does anyone have any ideas? Much obliged.

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.

Helping a buddy make a character in a few hours and he wants something ice-related. He's new to the game and we need a healer. Thus, is there any oracle mystery that's ice/winter/cold related? Thanks for any help!

*EDIT: If not I'll just suggest the waves mystery to him. I just could have sworn I saw a winter mystery at some point.

I'm trying to find some options for creatures with the light sensitivity or light blindness. Feats, class features, magic items, mundane items... anything. I know hyper-advanced races like the drow and duergar have certainly come up with ways to offset this significant weakness, but have only found two options: the second-level protective penumbra spell from Ultimate Magic, and the mundane smoked goggles from Ultimate Equipment.

I could pretty easily make a magic item but prefer to use official rules if I can before resorting to house rules. Thanks to anyone who can point out something I've missed.

The Darklands' lowest level, Orv, is located 8,000+ feet beneath the surface. That's fine for Orvian vaults beneath dry land, but what about the massive Sightless Sea? It is described as stretching beneath the Arcadian Ocean and the lost continent of Azlant. Although it's not implicitly stated, it's a safe bet that the Sightless Sea connects all the way to Orvian vaults beneath the western continent of Arcadia. In other words, I think it's supposed to sprawl underneath the entire Arcadian Ocean.

So what's the problem? The Arcadian is roughly equivalent to the real-world Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic is about 11,000 feet deep most of the time, with a max depth of 28,000 feet. Even if the Sightless Sea's roof started at 10,000 feet below the surface (I'm adding 2,000 to the top Orvian vault depth of 8,000 feet to err on the side of caution), that still means it would be kind of absurd that the Sightless Sea extends beyond the continental shelf.

One possible solution is that the entire Sightless Sea angles downward - or in other words, the whole vault could be a geologic subduction zone. But this doesn't work. It's specifically stated that a variety of creatures sail on top of the Sightless, so its ceiling has to be pretty flat. Compounding this is The Braid which is described as a massive column of water at the center of the Sightless, beneath Azlant, that rises miles from the Sightless's surface to the cavern ceiling above.

Even if the Arcadian was 2 miles at the deepest in most places, that would necessitate the Sightless Sea's roof to be, at the very least, about 3 miles (or 15,000 feet) beneath the ground. That would allow for 2 miles above the Sightless Sea's surface and the cavern roof, and 1 mile between that roof and the Arcadian Ocean's seafloor. And because the Sightless has a coastline with three other Orvian vaults (Ilvarandin, Denebrum, and Doga-Delloth), that means those too must be 15,000 feet deep. Because remember: the ceiling of the Sightless Sea is by necessity pretty flat, or else no one would be able to sail past the coast because large swathes of the central Sightless Sea would be entirely underwater. And it can't be. Because of the Braid.

So... thoughts?

So I'm making an adventure with mining as a focal point, and I'm trying to design a realistic, functional mine. It's going to focus on marble, quartz, similar valuable but not precious minerals. I've been researching old mining methods but still have some questions.

-What happens to stone once it's brought to the surface? Is it just dumped into a warehouse raw, or is something done to the stone on-site? For example, is it shaped or cut? Would there be a mill (likely mule-powered) for this work?

-Once the stone is removed from the mine, how is it transported? I'll have a nearby town and no rivers, so I'm guessing they'd use horse-drawn wagons.

I'm also trying to figure out how many employees would operate at a mid-sized mine. Other than a few important/leadership positions (overseer, foreman, assayer, quartermaster, medic, stablemaster, guard captain), how many people are actually needed? Right now I'm ballparking like 30-40. This would include the miners as well as support roles such as cook, medic, carpenter, blacksmith (for on-site tool repair), guards, and the like.

Lastly, what kind of buildings would one find at a stone mine/quarry? Here's my list so far:

-Office, including housing for the important employees.
-Barracks for the rest of the crew.
-Stable for mules (and horses if the stone will be transported via cart)
-Tool shed
-Kitchen
-Blacksmith
-Warehouse
-Miscellaneous storage (food, feed, a small armory, etc.)
-Mill (if stone needs to be processed somehow on-site)

Any ideas, thoughts, or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Hey all. So my Dad has a pretty impressive blade collection, and several examples of Damascus steel (or pattern-welded if we're being all specific). They are definitely not san-mai or Wootz.

Anyway! Is there a way to estimate how many layers of steel are in a Damascus blade? I've looked online and can't find anything. It could be 60 or 600.

So who has chronic pain? How do you manage it - whether medically, psychologically, holistically, via kittens, etc.? Has anyone ever found a solution that actually works, at all, even just a little? Or failing that, how do you keep your sadistic nerves from driving you into abject despair?

This is my story. Telling it not in an effort to get any specific medical advice or anything (though if you know what you're talking about, I'm all ears). Honestly not even sure why I'm sharing at all. Chalk it up to catharsis I suppose. Also: this is a gaming site as opposed to one related to medicine, pain, therapy, etc. I am aware/don't care. Will try to limit medical jargon.

First off, I'm a fairly experienced GM. With that said, of all the many base classes that Pathfinder has published, only one baffles me: the medium from Occult Adventures. In terms of statistics he is comparable to the cleric except for a poor Fortitude saving throw, 2 extra skill points per level, and no shield proficiency. Most importantly though, the medium is clearly not meant to be a spellcasting class - very few spells per day.

So what does the medium excel at? When will a party say "Wow, we are so thankful to have a medium in the group?" Is he a solid 2nd-tier combatant, a jack-of-all-trades like the bard, what? Does the medium's iconic spirit ability make him especially versatile or powerful?

Thanks for any insights.

Hey, it's been a while since I took my stat classes. Short summary: I'm trying to calculate the odds that a given adult will be chosen to participate in a national poll. Mostly to counter the whole "How can polls be successful? I was never asked my opinion!" nonsense.

There are aprx. 255,000,000 adults in America. Most national polls have a sample size of 1,000. Thus, for any given poll, someone has a 1 in 2,550,000 chance of getting the call.

My problem is how to determine the chance for multiple polls. Is it as simple as putting 2,550,000 over X, where X equals the number of polls in a given year? So for example there were roughly 600 national scientific polls (that I know of) in 2012. Would the odds that a single person be chosen for any of them equal 1 in 4,250 (2,550,000/600)? That is, a given adult has a 1 in 4,250 (or 0.00023%) chance of being chosen for any national poll in a hypothetical election year?

Thanks for any refreshers.

A dozen times? Like twenty-five? Over a hundred?

How is the contact entity spell supposed to work? If I just read the spell itself, it's fine, but upon looking over the "Contact Spells" sidebar on pg. 111, things become less clear.

Okay, so say a PC wizard found a scroll of contact entity I that contacts deep ones, then proceeds to copy it into his spellbook. Is the intent that this spell will, once cast, only function on deep ones? If so, the spell dialogue itself really should have spelled that out. A line such as:

"Each contact spell is attuned to only one kind of creature, and each is a unique spell. For example, a contact entity I spell that functions on deep ones would be called contact entity I (deep ones). A contact entity I (ratlings) is an entirely different spell and must be prepared or learned separately."

I know this is based on a Call of Cthulhu spell, but even the CoC version is spelled out more clearly than this.

I'm a diehard Lovecraft fan. That said, I haven't ventured too far outside the man's own stories and into the wild west of the mythos. So... are there any good sources of information on Hastur/The King in Yellow? I've read pretty much everything Paizo has published on him thus far, but know there's a ton more information out there to be gleaned.

If you happen to be knowledgeable on Him Who is Not to be Named, and have resources about this mysterious entity, I would be much obliged if you would share.

Again I know the basics: Hastur may or may not be a location or Elder God on the planet of Carcosa, he manifests via his avatar, the King in Yellow, and his infamous Yellow Sign is key to summoning that avatar. I'm mostly looking for fiction/fluff that could help me wrap me head around Hastur.

Thanks for any leads or advice.

As a rule I try not to be too personal on anonymous message boards because quite frankly, I'm not too interesting. I mean yes, it's true I'm incredibly smart and sexy, have excellent taste, and my opinions are pretty much facts, but other than that I'm just a regular dude who's super cool.

Seriously though, as a psych major (who is presently in a field that has zilch to do with psychology, but oh well) I am interested in the mental state of my peers. With that said!

Is anyone else as screwed up as me? I've dealt with severe depression my whole life and have obsessive-compulsive disorder that, at times, verges on crippling. Those are crummy and exhausting, but the condition that has perhaps most defined my life is an obscure little dealy termed schizoid personality disorder (SPD). The name is deceptive, in that it has nothing to do with schizophrenia. Rather, people with SPD tend to be weird in some very specific ways.

The most relevant of those for this discussion is my habit for existing inside my own head, having a rich inner life, indulging in fantasies, and so forth. Or to put it another way: Pathfinder is pretty much my personal little paradise. And just so I don't weird anyone out too much, I'll note that an important distinction for people with SPD is that we don't actually believe our inner worlds are real. In real life I'm an agnostic with heavy atheist leanings, find most conspiracy theories just dumb, don't believe in astrology, mysticism, cryptozoology, or the like, and am about as pragmatic a person as you'll find. I like facts, proof, and logic.

But man, crack open my brain pan and it's all wizards, dragons, alternate universes, monsters, etc. I have this vast and elaborate inner world that I've been building since I was a preteen, and it might just be the most important thing to me other than a few loved ones. I've officially been a grownup for a while now, and I see no signs of this letting up. Nor do I want it to. I am who I am.

On one level there's a sadness to my condition. People with SPD lose a great deal, and almost always describe a feeling of being on the outside looking in. We know from when we are little that we're just off somehow, and always yearn to belong without ever knowing how to belong. The desire to be "one of the guys" is intense and, ultimately, doomed to failure.

At the same time we are never, ever bored. All I need is a notepad and a pen and I can go to work creating my own little world. Does that sound pathetic? Perhaps it is, but for me it's a true joy.

So how bout you all? How do your various eccentricities, foibles, and crippling mental issues manifest through games like Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons, video games, and the like?

Seriously, what is happening to them? They seems to be all-but replaced by ring-shaped charts, which Google tells me are called "doughnut charts." I started noticing them on news shows when the talking heads would bring up charts, and those charts... were not pie. I don't remember the first time, but it couldn't have been more than a year.

Then I get a new computer with Windows 10, and when I right-click my c-drive to check its capacity, the chart I was shown? It was a doughnut! NO PIE!

It's like someone decided a year or so ago, that pie charts would be replaced by doughnut charts. And the rest of the world said "Yes! Although pie charts are perfectly functional and aesthetically pleasing, we will cease using them for no reason whatsoever. Now is the age of the doughnut chart!"

Am I the only one who has noticed this? I feel like Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Rowdy Roddy Piper in They Live... except with charts instead of aliens. And probably not an imminent threat to mankind. But seriously sheeple, I'm giving you a choice: either put on these glasses or start eating that trash can.

Unfortunately I need to cancel my subscription to the Pathfinder Campaign Setting line. I will continue my Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription, however.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, due to the extra stuff coming out next month and the increased price, something's gotta go. Please cancel my Roleplaying Game subscription.

Thanks.

(For the purposes of this thread, a BBEG is the primary villain of an entire campaign.)

As I look through Paizo's past 16 Adventure Paths, up to and including Giant Slayer, I've noticed a dearth of pint-sized bad guys. A quick tally reveals the following sizes of BBEGS:

Size Medium: 12
Size Large: 2
Size Huge or larger: 3

And of course...

Size Small BBEGs: 0

This makes sense to a degree. Most villains are human, so Medium is clearly going to be over-represented. But there are also a few elf, tiefling, and fey bad guys. Why not a halfling or gnome? Is it because no one would take a Small evil mastermind seriously?

Imagine: The PCs have battled their way through hordes of demons, dragons, and undead abominations, survived brutal traps, acquired legendary artifacts, overcome incredible odds, all to reach this point. They now stand in the throne room of their greatest adversary... who happens to be about 3 feet tall. I mean sure, the dude's stats are sky-high, he can cut your paladin to pieces in a round, and commands ungodly magical powers. But can anyone get over the fact that he's physically the same size as a prepubescent child?

My knee-jerk reaction would be to say no. No, please don't ever make the primary villain size Small. But then I thought about it; Paizo has managed to make some incredible adventures and memorable villains, the likes of which I would have previously thought ridiculous. If Pathfinder's authors can pull off:

Than they can definitely make an awesome Small villain. Off the top of my head, I can already think of some past candidates:

-Wotywina Turncoin, the adorably deranged halfling rogue from Rival Guide.
-Tris Darkjester, the gnome arcane archer from the NPC Codex.

So what say you all?

So I've finished statting a brain ooze with 12 levels of investigator and the spiritualist archetype. Why? Because...

Anyway, any advice on making a spiritualist that can actually do damage? Mostly looking for feat combinations, because equipment-wise floating brains are limited in what they can hold (other than ioun stones I guess). I've already finished its stats, but for a CR 14 creature I'm underwhelmed. Willing to change up any of the following:

Here is the text of the scarred rager's scarification ability:

Scarification (Ex): At 3rd level, a scarred rager can ignore 1 point of bleed damage per round. This amount increases by 1 every three levels beyond 3rd. At 15th level, a scarred rager can ignore 1 bleed effect each round. This ability replaces trap sense.

My question concerns the italicized portion. How does everyone else read this? What is a bleed effect exactly? For example, at 15th level the rager can shrug off 5 points of bleed damage a round. Say he gets sneak attacked by an 11th-level rogue with the bleeding attack talent, which deals 6 points of bleed damage. Does he take 1 point of bleed damage, or shrug it off entirely because it's the first bleed effect he's targeted with that round?

Or does bleed effect refer to an effect that deals non-hit point bleed damage? For example, a few creatures like the scarlet walker (Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition) deal ability damage which is explicitly called out as "a bleed effect."

I have some major confusion about oozes and their (lack of) vision. The problem all starts with one of the ooze traits:

Blind (but have the blindsight special quality), with immunity to gaze attacks, illusions, visual effects, and other attack forms that rely on sight.

This would be fine if every ooze followed this blanket rule. But many don't. For example:

I see 3 problems here. First, we have two oozes (shoggoth and slithering tracker) whose ability to see is ambiguous. Are both blind? I'd say the shoggoth clearly is not, while the slitering tracker probably is, but... who knows?

Second, a creature lacking vision but with blindsense is still at a massive disadvantage. There's a reason the (often-ignored) ooze traits claimed that all oozes have blindsight instead. To compare the two abilities:

In short: a blind creature with blindsense alone treats all other creatures as if they had total concealment. That means every time a colour out of space, freezing flow, immortal ichor, or slithering tracker attempts to attack, it has a flat 50% chance of automatically missing.

Third, a slime ooze is screwed. It is utterly helpless unless a character stands next to it and pokes it with a stick, and even then it still has a 50% chance to miss an attack against its tormentor.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS?
As of now, I can see see only one that could easily untangle this mess. Remove the "Blind (but have the blindsight special quality)" line from ooze traits, then individually note in each ooze creature's statistics whether or not it is blind. This makes the most sense to me. Even plants don't have a "blind" blanket rule, and how many plants do you know that can see? Even fantastical ones?

Another possibility would be to actually follow the "blind but with blindsight" rule, meaning that the stat blocks of past oozes who have blindsense (or nothing at all - poor, poor slime mold) would need to be amended. Still though, that leaves the shoggoth as an outlier.

Hey everyone. I'm a huge fan of the Dark Tapestry and Dominion of the Black, and have been working on a campaign with those elements for a while now. I know all about "traditional" Dark Tapestry/Dominion monsters; your neh-thalggus, flying polyps, shantaks, crazed cultists, etc. What I need some help with is coming up with some non-traditional baddies. Not silly mind you - just completely unexpected.

I'm mostly looking for monsters with either templates, class levels, or variants, but anything works really.

So far here are some of my ideas:

-A slithering tracker (Bestiary 2) with levels of rogue and assassin. The big bad's sticky little problem-solver.

-A baku (Bestiary 3) with the broken soul template (Bestiary 4). Bakus are normally shy creatures that feed on dreams, but this one was exposed to countless alien minds. The broken soul template was entirely the result of mental trauma, so it doesn't have the mutilated look.

-A brain ooze (Bestiary 3) with levels of kineticist (Occult Adventures playtest). Focuses on air. I've been wanting to add levels to a brain ooze for ages, and this is the first time a class actually makes sense.

-An awakened/intelligent alchemical golem (Bestiary 2) called a "brain golem." Not too creative, but still...

-An alraune (Bestiary 3) from the planet Aucturn. Not entirely sure how to do her. Perhaps the fungal template (Bestiary 4) or alien template (from Legendary Games' Beyond the Void).

-The "Dark Matter Ooze," a variant plasma ooze (Bestiary 3) with an Intelligence score and dark matter attacks instead of plasma. Basically, cold and electricity rather than fire and electricity. Also, I stole this wholesale from the adventure

So here's the item:

.

Robe of Black Vistas
Aura: Moderate conjuration; CL: 9th
Slot: Body; Price: ****** gp; Weight: 1 pound

This silken robe is colored at the bottom with the vibrant hues of sunset, yet as the eye travels upward, these colors darken to deep purple, finally culminating in a midnight black hood. If the wearer can cast summon monster spells, the wearer adds cerebric fungus to the 4th-level list of monsters he can summon with those spells, adds lunarma to the 5th-level list, adds ugothokra to the 6th-level list, adds yangethe to the 7th-level list, and adds neshmaal to the 9th-level list.

Requirements: Craft Wondrous Item, summon monster IV; Cost: ****** gp

.

Any idea what it's price should be? I modeled it off of the various rings of natural attunement/summoning affinity from Advanced Class Guide. Some factors:

-It's a robe, not a ring. This should probably make it cost about 20% more than an equivalent ring.
-Unlike the assorted rings, the robe does NOT allow the wearer to cast summon monster III once per day. This should reduce its cost by... what, maybe 20%?
-Unlike the rings of summoning affinity, the robe allows its wearer to summon aberrations and plants in addition to outsiders. I'm not sure how much this should increase its price.

Anyone have any thoughts? I know I'm being real nitpicky trying to add up all these factors, and should probably just make it cost about 10,000 gp - comparable to the ring of natural summoning affinity (daemon), which adds far more options than my robe.

So here's the item:

Any idea what it's price should be? I modeled it off of the various rings of natural attunement/summoning affinity from Advanced Class Guide. Some factors:

-It's a robe, not a ring. This should probably make it cost about 20% more than an equivalent ring.
-Unlike the assorted rings, the robe does NOT allow the wearer to cast summon monster III once per day. This should reduce its cost by... what, maybe 20%?
-Unlike the rings of summoning affinity, the robe allows its wearer to summon aberrations and plants in addition to outsiders. I'm not sure how much this should increase its price.

Anyone have any thoughts? I know I'm being real nitpicky trying to add up all these factors, and should probably just make it cost about 10,000 gp - comparable to the ring of natural summoning affinity (daemon), which adds far more options than my robe.

Hi. I just now ordered a PDF of Champions of Corruption, but it doesn't look like I got my Pathfinder Advantage discount on it. Is this an error? Thank you.

I really want to like the strangler archetype for the brawler, but I'm a little confused. He gains the strangle ability which allows him to deal sneak attack damage while grappling, but gives up the brawler's unarmed strike ability. That means, at first level, he can't grapple better than anyone else unless he takes Improved Unarmed Strike and Improved Grapple. He also gains the Stealth skill, so maybe he's supposed to sneak up on people?

Am I getting that right? If so, how would you play him? I guess the strangler is supposed to use melee weapons unless he gets the chance to sneak up on someone and choke them?

Thanks if anyone can help me wrap my head around this otherwise-awesome concept.

I really want to like the strangler archetype for the brawler, but I'm a little confused. He gains the strangle ability which allows him to deal sneak attack damage while grappling, but gives up the brawler's unarmed strike ability. That means, at first level, he can't grapple better than anyone else unless he takes Improved Unarmed Strike and Improved Grapple. He also gains the Stealth skill, so maybe he's supposed to sneak up on people?

Am I getting that right? If so, how would you play him? I guess the strangler is supposed to use melee weapons unless he gets the chance to sneak up on someone and choke them?

Thanks if anyone can help me wrap my head around this otherwise-awesome concept.

Unfortunately, I need to cancel my subscription to the Campaign Setting line.

Financial gods willing, I'll hopefully be able to re-subscribe soon.

This thread is brought to you by anger in its purest, most spiteful form.

Those of you who wash your own dishes and have a dishwasher: do you rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher? Or do you put them in, caked and encrusted with whatever food happens to be on them, and hope for the best?

Someone in my life, whom I'll call Dick, feels that rinsing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher is a "waste," and that if he were to do this, he may as well just go whole-hog and hand-clean them. I feel differently. This is a matter of contention.

Any thoughts?

This is my effort to fill in some of the blanks of Golarion's timeline. Everything here is a combination of conjecture, connecting the dots, and wild speculation. There may be some spoilers. There will definitely be huge holes, including but not limited to the origin, role, and history of gods, dragons, and giants. Feel free to expand on these or other topics, or do a better job than I did of the material I decided to cover.