Haladir's page

Is it "Sarenrean?"

I'm not going to change things in my current campaign, but I'm becomming unenamored of how iterative attacks seem to be dominating tactics. I would much prefer that the PCs and monsters use mobility and positioning to their advantages rather than standing still so that they can get in their four attacks per round. The multiple attacks are really bogging down the pace of my game-- especially since in every big fight, the wizard casts haste!

I'd like to set things so that on a full attack, anyone could hit a bit harder than normal, or do something else that's cool, but no longer make multiple strikes per round. (Unless you had feats like Whirlwind Attack, or Cleave, or something like that.)

At the same time, I don't want to take away too much from the martial classes.

I was thinking along the lines of the following...

When a character makes a Full Attack action, for every +5 of his or her BAB, he takes an additional +2 to hit and damage, and all hits do double the damage dice. (e.g. a greatsword would do 4d6 damage).

Of course, this mostly duplicates Vital Strike. However, it greatly increases the liklihood that PCs would take feats that do allow extra attacks, like TWF, Cleave, Whirlwind Attack, etc.

Thoughts? Has anyone else come up with something along the same lines that is working for you?

I'm working on a series of adventures set in Kaer Maga, and I am trying to find any canonic dates for when the Council of Truth was active. The group is mentioned in the Campaign Setting City of Strangers, the module Seven Swords of Sin (where they were introduced into Golarion), and in Pathfinder #63: The Asylum Stone.

We know that they were active in Kaer Maga starting in the fairly recent past, and then disappeared without a trace "some years ago."

Have the dates of when the Council of Truth was active in the City of Strangers ever been published? Were they active for a long time? (5 years? 50 years? 500 years?)

If there's nothing canonical, I'll just make something up, but I'd like to stick with canon if I can.

Thanks!

I have a question about the Pounce ability.

I imagine it as a way for a creature like a leopard to be able to leap on its prey and full attack with claw, bite, and rake attacks. Every creature with the ability in the Bestiary seems to have natural attacks.

If a creature with the Pounce ability can also use manufactured weapons, can it charge and full attack with those weapons? Or, can it only use its natural attacks?

RAW, it seems to be "can use maufactured weapons," but the flavor and visuals of allowing it don't feel right to me.

What's the general consensus?

Does anyone know of a way to connect to a MapTool server with an iPad?

One of my remote players is going on an overseas trip for a month, and does not want to bring his laptop. He is planning to only bring his iPad, and would like to try to keep playing by using the iPad to connect.

I know there was a free iPad app called Mapnotik, but the developer ceased work on it in 2010, and it's not compatible with the version of MapTool that I'm using (1.3b87).

Any ideas or pointers?

Thanks!

I hope it isn't bad form to make this kind of post...

I'm cleaning out my bookshelf to make room for more Pathfinder stuff, and I have a few D&D 3.5 hardcovers that I don't think I'm going to use any more.

Complete Warrior
Complete Divine
Planar Handbook
Book of Exalted Deeds
Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

They're all in very good condition. The only marring is that they all have a bookplate with my name on the inside front cover.

PM me if you're interested!

I'm looking for some advice from other GMs regarding an extensive side-mission I'm running in my Runelords campaign.

Long story short, the PCs have broken up a smuggling ring run by the Aspis Consortium, and have killed an Aspis gold agent. They also have also taken an item from that agent that the Consortium had been planning to sell to a powerful buyer (for a lot of money). The PCs are now hot on the trail of another Aspis agent (and former PC) who's traveling to Kaer Maga with a stolen Thassilonian artifact thay they need (it's Asheia: The Sword of Lust).

I decided that the Consortium now considers the PCs to be a major obstacle in their plans and wants them eliminated.

I'm having the PCs head to Kaer Maga aboard the halfling-crewed magical paddleboat The Lucky Jenny. (See Pathfinder #63: The Asylum Stone.) According to that write-up, the captain prefers to dock in port towns along the Yondabarki River and Lake Syrantula whenever possible. As the passenger cabins are sized for halflings, the PCs will have an incentive to stay at inns along the way rather than aboard the boat.

I'm thinking that the Consortium will be sending a four-man hit squad against the PCs, and taking a page from the film version of The Fellowship of the Ring, will attempt to sneak into the PCs' rooms at night and try to murder them while they sleep.

(Note: This is also a bit of poetic justice harkening back to a scene in Burnt Offerings where one of the PCs murdered a sleeping Orik Vancaskerin. They've also been pretty merciless with cutting the throats of still-living enemies that have fallen in combat.)

So far, I've always hand-waved the PCs spending the night in an inn. The players usually spring for "good" rooms-- which are individual private rooms. This means that each PC will be a) alone; and b) not wearing armor or have weapons at hand at night.

The PCs are currently 10th level.

I'm thinking of making the hit squad consist of three highwaymen and one slayer. The tactic would be that each of the assassins attempts to silently break into a PC's room, and then make a coup de grace attempt. I'd have the slayer go after the barbarian, and the highwaymen each go after one of the other PCs.

Obviously, this is treading dangerously on TPK territory. However, I want the PCs to feel genuinely threatened and vulnerable-- and to really really hate the Consortium!

Fully equipped and alert, any one PC would be more than a match for one of these assassins. However, assuming that the assassins are able to actually sneak into the PCs' rooms undetected, the four indvidual fights should be pretty harrowing.

Any advice on how to proceed?

I've been playing PF for three years, and I'm still unclear as to what the Vital Strike feat does. (My parties have been more about spell and ranged combat, so no one has used Vital Strike.)

Vital Strike (Combat)

You make a single attack that deals significantly more damage than normal.
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: When you use the attack action, you can make one attack at your highest base attack bonus that deals additional damage. Roll the weapon's damage dice for the attack twice and add the results together before adding bonuses from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision based damage, and other damage bonuses. These extra weapon damage dice are not multiplied on a critical hit, but are added to the total.

For years, I thought that you used it to give up your iterative attacks for one big attack. I thought that was a cool concept, but the bonus it gives doesn't seem to give back what it takes away, so I never paid it much attention.

Now, I'm seeing it in just about every NPC stat block, and I just noticed that it doesn't say "full attack" but rather "attack action." It looks like you shouldn't use it for a full attack-- but it allows you to move in and then hit hard, or use it in a surprise round.

Is that a correct reading?

Thanks!

I think I know that the answer is "no," but I wanted to check here first...

I use MapTool in my "Rise of the Runelords" campaign. I use a combination of maps that I've drawn myself (usually inspired by the official maps), copied-pasted-and-resized maps from the AP PDFs (which I then draw over with visual blocking layers, and sometimes add a few elements), and a few maps that are partly drawn and party copied.

My understanding is that I could post the maps I've drawn myself on the Web under community use, even if they're functionally identical to the Paizo maps.

I know that I cannot post maps that are copied-and-pasted from the Paizo PDFs.

What I'm not sure of is if I can post a map that I've mostly drawn myself, but included a snippet of an official Paizo map. For example, my map of Skull's Crossing was entirely drawn by me, except for the detail maps of Skull's Watch and the Western Caves, which I incorporated into my own drawing. Another example is an underground map of Sandpoint that incorporates both the Glassworks basement and the Catacombs of Wrath, with my own drawings of the smuggling tunnels and the secluded beach they connect to.

I believe that the answer is "No, I can't post them," but I wanted to be sure. The reason I'm asking is that I'd like to contribute my work to the community so that other GMs of Runelords wouldn't have to duplicate my work.

On a related note, is it OK for me to send copies of my maps directly to other folks if I don't post them publicly?

Hi, folks.

I'm about to send my party to Kaer Maga, and I have a very strong suspicion that my players will absolutely love the place. I'm looking for some sources to flesh out what I'm planning to run.

I have City of Strangers, Seven Swords of Sin and The Asylum Stone already.

I know that The Godsmouth Heresy is set in Kaer Maga.

Are there any other adventures (including PFS Scenarios) set there?

Thanks!

I saw Skyfall over the weekend, and really liked it. I also really liked the theme song to the movie by Adele... so much that I bought the single.

This got me to thinking about all of the Bond themes, and I ended up buying a collection of all of the Bond movie music.

Listening to the themes of all 23 movies, I'd have to say my favorites are:

1) "Live And Let Die" by Paul McCartney and Wings (from Live And Let Die, 1973)
2) "Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon (from The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977)
3) "You Only Live Twice" by Nancy Sinatra (from You Only Live Twice, 1967)
4) "Skyfall" by Adele (from Skyfall, 2012)
5) "A View To A Kill" by Duran Duran (from A View To A Kill, 1985)

And an honorable mention for really setting the template of what makes a Bond theme to:
"Goldfinger" by Shirley Bassey (from Goldfinger, 1964)

What are your favorite Bond tunes... including incidental music, end-titles songs, Bond-inspired songs, etc?

I saw Skyfall over the week-end, and really liked it. I've always been a bit of a Bond fan, and seeing it really rekindled my interest in the series.

I took my early-teenage kid to see it with me: It was her first Bond film. Since we both have the collector/completeist streak, I've added all 22 of the Bond DVDs to my Netflix queue, and we're going to watch them all over the next few months.

I've already seen all of the previous Bond films (with two exceptions: never seen The Living Daylights or Die Another Day). I haven't seen some of them since they were in theatres, and I saw most of the Connery-era films on commercial broadcast TV when I was a teenager.

My top five Bond movies would have to be...

1) Goldfinger
2) From Russia With Love
3) Skyfall
4) The Spy Who Loved Me
5) Casino Royale

I would imagine that I'll revise this list after I've watched them all again.

What are your favorite Bond flicks?

Hello, Paizo web gurus.

I just noticed some new behavior on my iPhone today. I'm using an iPhone 4S with iOS 6.

Starting today, I've noticed that if I'm typing a post, then switch to a different Safari window (say, to look something up in the PRD, or to grab a URL), when I return to messageboard window, the page refreshes, and what I've typed is deleted.

This only seems to be the case for new posts-- editing an existing post keeps the text in the edit window.

I'd be interested in seeing a map that showed Thassilon at its height before Earthfall (including the internal borders between the seven Runelords' realms) overlain onto modern-day Varisia. From piecing together what's been published in Rise of the Runelords and Shattered Star, I know, that Bakrakhan is now mostly beneath the Gulf of Varisia, and that it bordered Shalast near what's now the Lost Coast. I also know that Eurythnia encompassed much of what's now the southern coast of Varisia, from the Mushfens to Korvosa.

Is there a map of where the other five realms had been located? I have an idea for a homebrewed subplot that I'd like to inject into my Rise of the Runelords campaign, and I'd prefer to keep to canon as much as possible.

Thanks!

Spoilers ahead for both RotRL and Carnival of Tears!

My party is 2/3 of the way through Hook Mountain Massacre. I'm running them on the Medium advancement path, and have been running a fair amount of extra content. I'm contemplating running a modified version of Nick Logue's module Carnival of Tears after the events of Hook Mountain Massacre, obviously moving the location from Falcon's Hollow to Turtleback Ferry. It helps that both are set in the winter.

I'd like to tie the dark fey of Carnival with the corrupted ghost nymph of the Haunted Heart section of Hook Mountain. The problem I see is timing-- by the time Hook Mountain is over, the party should have rectified the corrupting influence of Myriana over Shimmerglens.

There's also the problem of the clue from Mokmourian that giants are on the prowl and will be attacking Sandpoint. They'll want to drop what they're doing and head right there to warn them!

Any thoughts on how to alter timing in Runelords to make this work more smoothly?

I've been having a recurring issue in my game, and I was wondering what other GMs think about it.

When the PCs cast buff spells, particularly the ones with a duration of "minutes per level", they get into the mind-set that they have to rush through the dungeon before the buffs wear off. It's gotten to the point that the whole dungeon crawl seems to be all about the buffs.

This makes them end up sticking their head in a room, glancing, and then moving on if there is nothing obvious there. They then often forget to go back, and have missed some important treasure or plot-related information that I end up having to feed them through other means just to advance the plot. It also makes it difficult to create the right atmosphere, when the cleric is tapping his foot saying, "Hurry up, Rogue-- the fighter only has three minutes left of bull's strength!

Honestly, I'm getting frustrated by this behavior. I've thought about having bad guys hiding and then sneaking up behind them; or having them blunder into traps in the rush to get to fights before the buffs run out. But it's the mindset that's really getting to me.

Without the PC's focus on getting as much done with the buffs up as humanly possible, they would be much more cautious and I'd be able to provide a better atmosphere.

...on my Diplomacy check when asking for a raise.

Now I'm getting paid less!

I have a question about line of sight parameters in MapTool and whether it represents how it's supposed to work in Pathfinder.

One of my players argues that PFRPG rules state that if you can see any part of a square, then you can see the entire square. However, I can't find that reference in the PFRPG rules.

I've been ruling that if the target token doesn't show up in your token's visible area, then you can't see it. I've been trying to give players the benefit of the doubt, but I'm finding the line-of-sight to be very useful in determining what can and can't be seen by a character who's, say, standing in a hallway, looking into a room from 10 feet away.

Anyone else having difficulty with this parameter for PF games?

Hello, Paizoians.

A question has come up in my game regarding the Crossbow Mastery feat.

There seems to be a disconnect between the descriptive flavor text of the feat and the actual rules.

Here's the text:

Crossbow Mastery (Combat)
You can load crossbows with blinding speed and even fire them in melee with little fear of reprisal.
Prerequisites: Dex 15, Point-Blank Shot, Rapid Reload, Rapid Shot.
Benefit: The time required for you to reload any type of crossbow is reduced to a free action, regardless of the type of crossbow used. You can fire a crossbow as many times in a full attack action as you could attack if you were using a bow. Reloading a crossbow for the type of crossbow you chose when you took Rapid Reload no longer provokes attacks of opportunity.
Special: Starting at 6th level, a ranger with the archery combat style may select Crossbow Mastery as a combat style feat.

The flavor text would imply that if you have the feat, you can fire in melee without provoking an AOO. However, in the crunch section under "Benefit" it states that reloading doesn't provoke an AOO, but it doesn't say anything about firing.

My table ruling for now is to go with RAW-- Firing in melee still provokes an AOO. If you didn't have the feat, firing multiple shots in melee would provoke AOOs for reloading and another for firing, so there is still a benefit in this perspective.

Was I in the right here?

This came up in my game this week, I made a tabletop ruling, and I'm following up...

Suppose a character with Improved Unarmed Strike is using a two-handed ranged weapon (in this case, a longbow). Does the character threaten adjacent squares with an unarmed strike?

If, instead of Improved Unarmed Strike, the character had a natural claw attack. Would this be a different situation?

My tabletop ruling was "no, does not threaten" which was to the party's advantage, but I can't figure out how the RAW handle this situation.

[Note: My players kind of metagamed it, and assumed that an enemy holding a two-handed ranged weapon would not threaten adjacent squares, and deliberately moved through them, confident that they wouldn't be subject to an AOO.]

Thanks!

I was wondering if anyone has written up a stat block for the gnome proprietor of the Aquaretum in Magnimar?

I'm writing a side-quest in Magnimar as an interlude between Skinsaw and Hook Mountain, and he's going to show up, and it's likely that there will be combat in his presence. The writing is getting a bit more involved that I'd planned, and I was hoping to steal someone else's stats to save me some design time.

Thanks in advance for any help!

As far as I can tell, there's no way to discern the number of charges left on a wand (aside from analyze dweomer, a 6th-level spell!). So, when PCs acquire wands that they did not themselves create, they have no idea how many charges remain. (e.g. they capture a wand from an enemy NPC.)

Given that "a wand that runs out of charges is just a stick," how do other GMs play this?

Currently, I just tell my players how many charges are left on a wand and trust them to keep track. However, I'm starting to re-think that. Knowing how many charges remain definitely changes the dynamic, especially given that the characters don't actually know.

What do you do in your game?

I'm GMing a group of six PCs, and I have one character that's a bit unbalancing, and am not sure what to do.

The character is a 4th-level barbarian, played by a very experienced player who has maximized his feat selections and class abilities to make an unstoppable killing machine. He's turning enemies that are 3-4 CRs above the party (that I spend a lot of time designing) into two-round wonders.

The character regularly dishes out 20+ points of damage per round (average damage is 18), and that's not on a critical hit! The other PCs are only putting out a third of that.

Str 16, raging, power attack with a two-handed weapon = +13 damage on attacks! (And, when he crits with his greataxe... yikes.) Oh, and combat reflexes, so he gets a ton of AOOs.

He does have a crappy AC, but a TON of hit points, and bad guys tend not to be alive near him long enough to take him down.

With the APL at 4, how should I design encounters that are credible threats that won't run the risk of a TPK? I don't want it to feel like I'm singling out this character, either.

Any suggestions?

---THIS WHOLE THREAD IS ONE BIG SPOILER----

...so I'm not going to bother using the "spoiler" tag.

IF YOU'RE ONE OF MY PLAYERS: STOP READING NOW!!!

Okay...

My party was victorious at the penultimate battle of Burnt Offerings, and has defeated Nualia, two Yeth hounds, and an NPC half-orc rogue I'd added to Nualia's band. They now have Nualia's Sihedron Medallion. Here's an interesting wrinkle that I hadn't anticipated, and I'm looking for other GM's thoughts...

The player of the party rogue recently told me that he intends to have his character take the next level as wizard (and will ultimately take the Arcane Trickster prestige class), and that he wanted to use a Thassilonian artifact as the character's bonded object: and that the Sihedron Medallion was an obvious choice!

Aside from the "MUAH-HA-HA!!" echoing in my own head, I told the player that his character knows that the 7-pointed star rune is an ancient Thassilonian symbol of great magical power, so she would probably consider it to be a perfect object to use.

So... now I'm thinking about what additional (if any) unintended consequence a character would face if a Sihedron Medallion was used as a wizard's bonded object.

I don't want to punish the player for doing something interesting in-game, but at the same time, it's totally appropriate in a horror game that some actions can have dire consequences, even when those consequences are not at all apparent...

--Hal