John Lynch 106's page

Here's the last of them.

I decided to keep the class levels the same for the Demon Wolf Marauder. Here it is.

After last session and several rather disappointing combats. I've redesigned the NPCs. I'm using the exact same class levels as before (with the exception of the demon wolf maurauders). Instead I'm simply changing stats, archetypes and feats.

Below are two of the stat blocks (still working on them)

Are these guys amazing? Not really. It's a CR -1 for the monk and a CR -3 for the cultist. However they at least have a fighting chance at challenging the party now.

Not only do I consider most '+X' items boring, I believe them mostly unnecessary. Most PCs' attack bonuses and saves scale far faster than opponents AC and save DCs. Beyond the first few levels, it is common to see PCs who rarely miss opponents of equal CR, and can only fail saves vs their abilities on a natural 1. Yet the players still insist on boosting these areas, then crashing into a dead-end of their own making, for lack of basic utility items (like being unable to climb/fly/swim/etc).

I'm not so sure that this is accurate. Here's a build of a character I have on file. Now I admit it's not an optimised build but it's the only one I had handy. It's an Elven Oracle.

Attack Rolls
+16/+16/+11 = +8 (BAB) + 3 (strength) + 3 (enhancement) + 1 (morale) + 2 (strength enhancement) + 1 (size) + 1 (weapon focus) – 3 (power attack)

Armour Class
29 = 10 (base) + 9 (armour) + 5 (enhancement) + 1 (dexterity) + 2 (deflection) + 2 (natural armour) – 1 (size) + 1 (insight)

Saving Throws
Reflex: +8 = + 3 (base) + 1 (dex mod) + 1 (belt) – 1 (size) + 4 (cloak)
Fort: +9 = + 3 (base) + 2 (con mod) + 4 (cloak)
Will: +9 = + 7 (base) – 2 (wis mod) + 4 (cloak)

Now at level 11 vs a CR 11 creature:
I hit on a 9/9/14 (target AC: 25)
I save on an 11/12 (target DC is 20)
I get hit on a 10 (target attack bonus is +19)

For an at CR creature these numbers seem fairly reasonable. I hit and save about 50% of the time, but I also get hit 50% of the time. Higher CR opponents are going to prove more difficult, as they should.

Here's a rebuild of that using the inherent system above

Overall I don't think this character is overpowered.

Or are you playing a high magic game, where the PCs are even more powerful than they ever were, because what they used to spend gold on have been made slotless items, that have melded with their flesh, and can never be disarmed/stolen/sundered/etc?

I've never seen an item sundered. I've seen a weapon stolen once when that person fell unconscious and the DM started softballing the fight. The only times I've seen PCs without equipment is when they're sleeping for the night. And in those cases the second PCs get access to extradimensional spaces, they start sleeping in those.

For me the PCs "always having their equipment" isn't too much of a power issue because 99% of the time, they'll have their equipment anyway.

Overall there's clearly some flaws in the system. I dislike how dramatically his AC decreased. Largely because he was in full plate. The above system has the flaw where stat bumps into dex are actually useless because they don't achieve anything. I'm better off keeping full plate and putting those stat bumps into charisma and constitution, meaning I can keep more of the stat bumps for strength meaning my to hit gets even higher. Introducing: The glass canon.

I'd like to see this system used for a few more traditional character builds and see how it compares to see where tweaks might be required.

Or is it that you want to run a setting where players budget their gold toward kingdom-building, where traditional elements like castles are still relevant?.

This. Also I don't want to have to worry about putting enough gold ahead of the PCs. I don't want them to have to greyhawk every single combat/dungeon because they're chasing that elusive WBL because I haven't put enough gold ahead of them.

I want them to be able to take that flavourful cloak without going "well if I keep this highly situational but very flavourful cloak, my saves are going to decrease by 3. Also I'm really struggling to hit anyone because my sword is only +1. Selling this cloak increases my to hit by a fair chunk and increases my saves due to the fact that I'll be keeping my cloak of resistance."

I'd rather they just say "I'm going to keep this cloak because I've never seen it used and it sounds like fun."

It also helps you sell the idea to your players, set the tone of the genre and setting, so they make PCs that are relevant and appropriate.

Well yes, I definitely would. But having a working system would help considerably in swaying them to try something a bit different.

So the Wealth by Level was first introduced to D&D by Wizards of the Coast with 3rd edition. It was pretty much baked into the math and they only exacerbated the issue with 4th ed where it was much more stringently baked into the math. That said, WotC finally addressed the issue in 2009 with their "inherent bonuses" system in the 4th ed DMG2. It's where some of the wealth was removed in favour of just giving PCs a flat bonus.

Pathfinder, in seeking to remain compatible with 3.5e as much as possible, inherited this problem. I'm looking at mechanics in order to get rid of it, much like 4th ed did with just handing out bonuses at the appropriate level. The reason for this is I quite like the idea of running a low magic campaign. Which RAW isn't possible for Pathfinder without a lot of changes on the GM side of the screen.

As such, here is my effort at addressing the math.

How many bonuses do PCs normally get?
I'm looking at this for the first 15 levels of play because most games only go up that high as the higher you get the more the game starts to fall apart (or so I've heard). Unlike 4th ed where you continually get bigger pluses to hit and defences, Pathfinder is much more diverse. You can have someone with appalling AC, that instead relies on blur or other effects to keep them alive. Or instead of getting another +X to your weapon, you might buy boots of speed which for 10 rounds increases your attacks, AC and also gives you 1 extra attack.

Trying to map all of these effects is impossible. As such I made a generic fighter's worth of equipment to determine how big those pluses get. No fancy boots of speed or horseshoes of the zephyr, just flat out mundane equipment that has no thought put into it whatsoever. If you think the assumptions I've made in that thread are wrong, head on over there and let me know why.

Here's a summary of those bonuses:

Weapon attack bonus: +5
Other Attack Bonuses: +4
Armour bonus to AC: +5
Other AC Bonuses: +8
Saves: +5

Implementation
This would replace the "ability score boost" you get every 4 levels.

Level 2: +2 to two different stats;
Level 3: +1 enhancement bonus to attack, weapon damage and all AC defences;
Level 4: +1 to all saves;
Level 5: +2 to two different stats;
Level 6: +1 enhancement bonus to attack, weapon damage and all AC defences;
Level 7: +1 to all saves;
Level 8: +2 to two different stats;
Level 9: +1 enhancement bonus to attack, weapon damage and all AC defences;
Level 10: +1 to all saves;
Level 11: +2 to two different stats;
Level 12: +1 enhancement bonus to attack, weapon damage and all AC defences;
Level 13: +1 to all saves;
Level 14: +2 to two different stats;
Level 15: +1 enhancement bonus to attack, weapon damage and all AC defences;

In comparison to the generic equipment I listed above here's how this implementation pans out.

Weapon attack bonus: Matches
Other attack bonus: implementation gives you +1 extra.
AC Armour bonus: Matches
Other AC bonus: implementation loses you -3 to AC.
Saves: implementation loses you -1 to your saves.

ClarificatioN: The math above assumes that the "other bonus"es are supplied by putting the two stat boosts into your offense and defense stats. You could of course not do this.

Pros:

• Players can play around with their stats in order to get more HP, better wisdom, etc. Gives them some freedom.
  
• Can’t completely dump AC to have a ridiculous attack bonus
  
• They get something at every level and there is a pattern as to what they’ll get at particular levels.
  
• Can overcome certain types of DR (if you consider “enhancement bonus to attack” to beat “DR X/magic” as that is the intent).
  
• Works for clerics. Fighters, rogues and sorcerers.
  

Cons:

• Spellcasters are unable to get some fairly standard items (pearls of power, metamagic rods)
  
• Casters who focus solely on spells with saving throws (so no ranged or melee touch attacks), they get no benefit from the “+1 enhancement bonus to attack” bonus.
  
• Wizards and Witches simply do not work in this system.
  

• Bull Strength and other similar spells remain valuable across all levels.
  

IMO this system would allow Fighters to be built well. Clerics to be built well. Even MAD monks would probably cope alright using this system. Sorcerers would be able to be built fairly well. The attack bonus would benefit their touch attacks while the bonus to AC appears to stack with mage armour (RAW at least. I believe I've worded it in such a way as to ensure that it does). This gives them some perks they normally can't attain as some compensation for not getting extend rods, energy type changing rods or circlets of persuasion). The only classes that appear unplayable are wizards and witches.

By 12th level you can overcome adamantine DR without an adamntine weapon and by 15th level you can overcome alignment based DR.

Of course, there's also some flex room for throwing consumables at the PCs (see this thread to see how much they should get in consumables per level per player by the WBL table).

You can also throw more flavourful and hilarious items at your players. They can now finally wear a Cloak of the Manta Ray (an item I've yet to see used in a game because everyone instead gets their damn cloak of resistances). You can give your players a Lyre of the Building. You'll want to keep an eye out for giving them too powerful items. But using the system above, you'll at least know they're AC, saves and to hit are at the correct amount for their level.

Oooh! You could use the above chart in a normal home game for the player who builds a "Vow of Poverty" monk while allowing the rest of the party to use the standard WBL chart.

--
As you can see I think the above system math balances out with what players would have using the standard WBL chart. I also think it allows people to make characters that aren't overpowered nor underpowered (wizards/witches not included). Am I hopelessly naive? Are there terrible loopholes basked into the above math that you could exploit to your heart's content?

What do you think? I started playing WotC D&D in 2008 with 4th ed. So for me it's taken quite a while to adjust to the WBL way of thinking (where the game assumes you have X amount of gold and thus increases the defense and offense abilities of monsters to compensate). I'm still not entirely happy with that style of game. So I've decided to try my hand at modifying the system so that I could game with a different style. I'd like to hear feedback so I can improve the math utilized in the above chart.

So with 3.5e and 4th ed it is assumed by the game's math that each level you gain X amount of gold which increases your to hit, spell DC, AC, saves, etc by Y amount. 4th ed later came out with "inherent bonuses" that allowed DMs to remove some of the assumed wealth. I'm looking to recreate that for Pathfinder.

However to do that I need to work out what the assumed math is for each level. I've done this using a generic "fighter type" that only buys items that add to their saves, to hit and AC. Realistically a fighter type would probably purchase things like boots of speed, etc. But for simplicity's sake, I'm just using generic items to work out the math.

Could people take a look at the items I buy at each level and let me know if they think these items look reasonable for the level they're obtained at.

Level 2 (1,000 gp):
• 150 Disposables
• 300 Mwk Weapon
• 550 Leftover

Level 3 (2,000):
• 300 Disposables
• 2,000 Weapon +1
• 250 Leftover

Level 4 (3,000):
• 450 Disposables
• 1,000 Armour +1
• 1,000 Cloak of Resistance +1
• 800 Leftover

Level 5 (4,500):
• 675 Disposables
• 4,000 Belt of Giant Strength +2
• 625 Leftover

Level 6 (5,500):
• 825 Disposables
• 3,000 Cloak of Resistance +2
• 2,000 Ring of Protection +1
• 300 Leftover

Level 7 (7,500):
• 1,125 Disposables
• 6,000 Weapon +2
• 675 Leftover

Level 8 (9,500):
• 1,425 Disposables
• 5,000 Cloak of Resistance +3
• 2,000 Amulet of Natural Armour +1
• 75 Leftover

Level 9 (13,000):
• 1,950 Disposables
• 8,000 Belt of Giant Strength +4
• 3,000 Armour +2
• 125 Leftover

Level 10 (16,000):
• 2,400 Disposables
• 5,000 Armour +3
• 6,000 Ring of Protection +2
• 2,725 Leftover

Level 11 (20,000):
• 3,000 Disposables
• 10,000 Weapon +3
• 7,000 Cloak of Resistance +4
• 2,725 Leftover

Level 12 (26,000):
• 3,900 Disposables
• 6,000 Amulet of Natural Armour +2
• 7,000 Armour +4
• 9,000 Cloak of Resistance +5
• 2,825 Leftover

Level 13 (32,000):
• 4,800 Disposables
• 14,000 Weapon +4
• 9,000 Armour +5
• 7,025 Leftover

Level 14 (45,000):
• 6,750 Disposables
• 20,000 Belt of Giant Strength +6
• 10,000 Ring of Protection +3
• 10,000 Amulet of Natural Armour +3
• 5,275 Leftover

Level 15 (55,000):
• 8250 Disposables
• 18,000 Weapon +5
• 14,000 Ring of Protection +4
• 14,000 Amulet of Natural Armour +4
• 6,025 Other Stuff

--
NOTE: I assume 15% of the wealth obtained at each level goes to consumables such as wands of CLW, potions, etc.

I have a character who is nominally factionless. He played a whole heap of adaptables (then had GM certs applied). Being factionless was an unintended consequence of playing adaptables, but I'm running sith it.

He's rather confused by this faction business, but the person who keeps writing him letters these days did help bring him back to life that one time, so he is willing to help them (although when playing an early scenario he got a letter from someone he'd never heard of before so he refused to do the mission).

Unless it's one of those couple of mods I ask my players what they do after the briefing. Some of them go to their faction leader and inform them what's going on. Most of the time a random person passes them the note. A regular standby is a pickpocket to slip them the note (often helping himself to a couple of coppers) and opposed stealth/perception checks.it's always fun when they fail their perception check (never had someone fail their mission as a result of this).

At cons players are surprised when I don't just hand them over. But I've never had someone complain about my style

Hey Jim. I just finished a con and somehow I ended up running this adventure three different times with 5 hour sessions in the space of 16 hours. Unfortunately due to the short amount of time before it's release and running I wasn't able to spend as much time prepping it as I would have liked. But the areas I didn't know about the rules I quickly made an adjudication and eventually found out most of my rulings were correct.

To begin with, this was an absolute blast to run. I'll admit by the start of the third session my enthusiasm had taken a significant hit (I was also running on 3.5 hours sleep yesterday), but I was fortunate enough to have a table of roleplayers who were simply a blast to play with. After the first 15 minutes my enthusiasm was renewed and I was back into the swing of running this adventure for them.

To start with the opening box text. I didn't like the "you harken back to a briefing you received from Venture Captain Amara-Li." I don't know if this was done as a tongue in cheek reference to many of the early modules, but I personally have grown a bit tired of that trope (personal pet peeve). I would instead have recommended you do something like "You are gathered into the Heidmarch Lodge for a briefing from Amara-Li who is on her way back to Absalom and can only stay for a quick thirty minutes before she needs to return to her ship." It gives the sense that this mission is actually somewhat important and also that the briefing can't go on for too long (helpful in a convention scenario). That said, there may be meta-plot reasons why that wouldn't be appropriate.

Next onto the faction missions, these were finally a breath of fresh air. With 12 factions I am simply unable to do any prep work for faction missions because I have no way of remembering them. As such, I was discovering each new faction mission as I ran the session and encountered new factions on my table.

The faction missions show a lot of depth and thought put into them. For 3 years I've heard about how wonderful the Cheliax faction missions were in season 0 (a season I missed out on), because I just have not seen that in recent times. Instead I see collect the macguffin faction missions and often that macguffin is an infernal sex toy. The faction mission for this one however actually has motivation behind it relating to the political landscape. THIS is what Cheliax faction missions should be. Here's how it went

The Szcarni faction mission I got to roleplay handing this out in two different sessions. Because the players were leaving from Magnimar I didn't hand out this faction mission. I gave them one full day before they needed to leave to make any preparations they wanted (had they wanted more I'd of course have found ways for that, but they were surprised to have the one day prep time and were unsure how to use it). During their activities in this day the faction leader met them in person and we roleplayed them getting the faction mission over a meal/drinks. They needed to write down the pertinent information and rely on their notes. This surprised people, but they seemed to enjoy it (I know I did).

Finally I truly enjoyed the Silver Crusade faction mission. In one session the PCs didn't make the DC in their first attempt. I personally don't like "you get one attempt at this and then it is impossible to do" faction missions. So I allowed them a second chance at the end of the module.

In another session again the PC didn't make the DC at first. So another party member tried it and they did beat the DC. Now because of this faction mission I was able to react in an extremely interesting manner.

Furthermore the plot itself was extremely freeform. I loved the amount of freedom it offered the PCs in completing this mission. In theory it could have gone on for in game days, if not weeks. That was an extremely nice change to have.

Roleplaying the main NPC was a blast and I loved how she played off the different players at my table. She was a DMPC, but not a single player complained about her and everyone loved her. It really allowed me to get involved in the roleplaying for this module. As someone whose style of play is typically roleplay heavy, combat light this module was exactly what I want.

That said, these fights were brutal. I've been growing and complacent with PFS scenarios. Overall season 4 has amped up the brutality. The first time I ran this there was a PC in the final combat who spent the entire fight 1 round from dead. She was going from 1 round from dead to "breathing and on 3 HP" back down to 1 round from dead, etc, etc. They loved it. Everyone was fighting for their lives. And the listed tactics were very, very effective. In one session...

That said, I really enjoyed roleplaying the monsters in the second fight as well

That said I did skip the optional fight all 3 times I ran this mod. As I said, I emphasise roleplaying over combat and I felt the sessions were better for that extra time being spent on conveying the flavour and allowing the PCs to roleplay with each other than having that extra combat.

Finally as to the mistake with the map, I turned up to the CON and hand drew my map before the first session (something that a couple of GMs commented on favourably as most of the people were simply printing off maps). I drew the top half of the map as that's where most of the action was and it did not impact the fights at all. Width wise I had a bit of trouble with the office on the rightmost portion of the map, but that was the only noticeable quirk in the map. I liked how, given it was such a big map and such a complex map, I got a lot of mileage from it as every single fight occurs on this one map. Of course, there was one exception. It was the tavern fight that the Cheliax members had.

I wouldn't stress the size too much. Live and learn after all ;)

If my enthusiasm isn't obvious, I really enjoyed running this mod. Running this mod 3 times in 1 day was the highlight of my Con. I've already had one player ask me to run this for them at some point in the future (and I've said yes).

So well done. A++++ module. Would run more modules from this author again ;)

Seriously though I do find it funny that it seems you subconsciously blame WotC for this.

Sorry, I first started playing organised play with LFR. Much of my growing issues with Pathfinder Society were issues I had with LFR and so it was just a slip of the tongue. I've had these discussions all before.

And goblins aren't much more odd than people walking around with pet lions or dinosaurs in a city.

And here lies my problem with animal companions 9 out of 10 times.

If everything was SO sterotypical than why play??

You don't need to be a special snowflake in order to be interesting. There are a wide swathe of intriguing and fun characters you can make while still remaining true to the racial roleplay and campaign setting.

Why cant a Goblin be better than the norm??

I'm not saying you can't have non-evil goblins. But if you remove their superstitious fear of writing, their hatred for dogs and horses are you really playing a goblin? What part of the character says "this is a goblin"?

Why cant a half-giant be cunning and manipulative??? How do you get warriors and leaders then??

I could go on specifically about this example and explain how they're a magically created race from the dawn of time that had a magickal fusion between true giants and humans and how they're entirely dependent on human society.

But that's not what you're asking. You're asking (and correct me if I'm wrong): Why should we adhere to the racial roleplay?
May answer: Because that's what makes that race interesting and makes it unique.

If you play a Dark Sun elf who doesn't like stealing, trusts everyone and also rides around on mounts everywhere, are you actually playing a Dark Sun elf? Or are you playing a human that doesn't get the usual racial traits humans get?

I am of the opinion that by not adhering to the racial roleplay, you're not playing that race. Now there's a lot of variation you can explore while adhering to that racial roleplay.

A poorly played character is doomed any how. Be it human, half-orc or Goblin.

True. And I have seen cases where people aren't roleplaying the core races according to the documentation available for the campaign setting. It can be hard to work out how to play an elf, dwarf, half-orc, halfling, gnome or half-elf. Heck, it can even be difficult to work out how to a play an ordinary human sometimes. By Paizo allowing this flood of races to be playable, we're increasing the burden on the player and the GM to ensure they adhere to the campaign setting.

I've seen characters that are basically humans with different racial traits. When I've seen half-orcs my characters treat them like the dirty half-breeds they are. And everyone is shocked at me when I do this. That tells me (1) the player themself isn't familiar with the place their own character is meant to occupy in the game setting (2) no-one else has treated them as the game setting says they should be treated. When someone saw me doing this with more than one character they said "oh, made another racist character there John?" As if my character is the one that's out of the ordinary. Now I can continue adhering to the campaign setting and encourage those players to read up on their race and roleplay their characters appropriately. However with Paizo allowing more and more non-core races in PFS, it becomes harder and harder. I personally don't even know what the appropriate roleplay is for a vishkanya (what the heck is that even suppose to be? Oh wait. It's in yet another splat book. That explains why I have no idea what this race is) or an udine. So they're making my job harder as now I need to buy more books for races I have no plan on playing just so I can roleplay with players that do play them.

And this is a great model for selling books. WotC did it with LFR and their "everything's core" model. It certainly sold a lot of books, but it killed any interest I had in the Forgotten Realms setting for 3 years. Only now am I starting to explore the setting once more (of course, avoiding anything resembles 4th ed Forgotten Realms). And while Paizo thankfully haven't taken the "everything's core" route, they are allowing more and more material to become legal which effectively ends up with there not being much difference.

Anywho, some characters are likely to balk at seeing goblins in their team, just as some characters will at seeing fetchlings, tieflings, or half-orcs.

THis is exactly the problem. We are seeing the return of team monster. There'll be parties composed entirely of Tieflings, Dhampyrs, Udines, Nagaji, Tengu and Fetchlings. The setting will play less and less of a role in the game as DMs have to ignore the flavour more and more just to let people play their exotic races. Meanwhile people are forced to ignore how their character should react and eventually it all devolves into no-one actually playing characters and simply building stat blocks that have the two correct ability boosts and we get 3 combats and a skill challenge and that's all people remember from the mods because we've seen the flavour sucked out simply to allow tables to play the game.

Now are we there yet? God no. But that is the direction we seem to be headed. The more splat books Paizo produces and the more races we see become legal (through boons or just open access) the closer we get to this situation. It happened with LFR and can easily happen with PFS if Paizo continues in the direction they seem to be headed.

As such I want to voice my concerns in the hope that those who feel the same also do and if enough of us feel this way, perhaps Paizo will reconsider.

Who says the hatred and fear of Horses and reading needs to be removed in order to make them playable??

I can't kill animal companions.

With the details changing every time because I'd be playing lying goblin rogue.

Sense motive. The second a city watch captain succeeds on his sense motive you're placed in jail for being a goblin. Which of course isn't legal.

But again the purpose of my posts isn't to personally critique every single goblin character people have. People have them, I hope they enjoy them, but I'm concerned about the trend they are a part of. I came to these forums to see what people thought of tieflings aasimars becoming open access (the two races that are now optimal for every class ever except alchemist. For alchemists we have humans with +2 STR, +2 INT thanks to Advanced Race Guide). I found this thread on goblins purely by accident.

Scribbleface from "We Be Goblins" could write; so could Vorka the cannibal (who also kept dogs, *and a horse*!). There, canon supports it! ('Course, it didn't end too well for either of them...)

I don't understand the appeal to playing a goblin if you're not going to adhere to all of the wonderful flavour Paizo has produced about goblins.

There's still the possibility it may be opened up later down the road anyway (higher than a Paladin of Asmodeus at least!).

I'm fully aware of this and am quite concerned by this possibility.

I will quote what an organiser of PFS once said on this very issue:

I can appreciate that some folks really like playing monstrous humanoids in their PRPG games, but the Society doesn't allow them for two reasons:

1) As you noted, the world of Golarion is humano-centric and was always intended to be so. Though there are books written for our world that support non humano-centric thinking, the population of the Inner Sea is by far more human then all the other non human races combined. Because the Society is designed to show off our world and capture the flavor of our world, we stick to the core races only.

I really want to draw people's attention to one part: "to show off our world and capture the flavor of our world, we stick to the core races only"

I feel this new approach is not showcasing the world nor capturing it's flavour.

Yeah, your average goblin hates writing, but this is 30 some goblins in all of Golarion.

Unfairly stereotyping would be saying all goblins are evil.

Fearing the written word is part of the racial roleplay and is an intrinsic part of being a goblin. But let's say you overlook that aspect. For playability reasons you're also going to need to remove the hatred for dogs and horses (otherwise animal companions are going to get slaughtered which is against the rules). Furthermore DMs are now going to have to work extra hard to explain why this goblin is permitted in the area that the adventure module takes place in. Sometimes this just won't make sense and so we'll have DMs saying "you're not allowed to play that character in this game" or "the town guard imprisons you until the Pathfinder Society pulls enough strings at the end of the mod to allow you to go free, escorting you to the border to ensure no further confusion occurs."

AFAIK DMs aren't allowed to categorically say "you fail the mod because you're playing a freak" (trust me, I would have loved to do so on a number of occassions). So instead what will actually happen is DMs will gloss over the flavour of goblins in order to adhere to the rules of PFS and players will gloss over the flavour in order to be able to partake in the Pathfinder Society.

The end result is we either receive flavourless characters that have lost (due to the rules) all of the wonderful flavour that makes up goblins. Or we see players playing special snowflakes.

In my view this is no different to having an elf that rides a kank in Dark Sun or a Half-Giant that's cunning and manipulative. If you want to be cunning and manipulative, you don't play a half-giant, you play a race that can be manipulative and cunning.

How often do you really see stereotypical PC's?

There's a difference between playing "a stereotypical member of a race" and "adhering to the racial roleplay." I always adhere to the racial roleplay.

My Taldanes? Manipulative and cunning. Their motives are different (one of them has the motive of trying to stay alive. Another's motive was to serve his noble family to the upmost of his ability).

My Andoran? A Chelish halfling that was freed from slavery who became a squire of a knight in the Pathfinder Society and now carries on the virtues that knight lived by as a fully fledged agent of the Pathfinder Society.

That isn't a stereotypical halfling. But it does adhere to the flavour of Cheliax, Andoran and halflings.

If everyone was able to play Goblins, then I could see that as a problem, but these are maybe 37 people at max out of 50,000+ players with who knows how many characters each. It is not the end of the world.

And thankfully I live in Australia so I won't have to jump through these hoops to permit goblins at my table. And I want to make it clear, I have no issue with those who gained these boons to use these boons. If I had survived insurmountable odds I would also want to benefit from the reward I had received.

My issue is entirely with WotC for handing out this reward in the first place. I am disappointed they did this and I think it cheapens the world setting they have worked so hard to establish.

You don't. You had to complete the Part 2 of the "Race for the Runecarved Key" Special at GenCon this year. This was a run-once event that will not be repeated, and the Goblin boon is unlikely to be awarded again. If it is, it will probably be for another one-shot event at GenCon (Maybe Paizocon.)

I am disheartened to hear this. Verisimilitude-wise, it makes 0 sense for PFS characters to be goblins. Goblins hate words and think they steal the thoughts from your brain. Therefore logically they can't receive faction missions unless someone reads it to them. That's not very practical.

So either those 37 people will have characters quickly falling behind the prestige award curve. They'll not get to play the goblins. Or they'll have to sacrifice part of the flavour that makes goblins unique and fun in order to simply play these characters.

I am disappointed that Paizo chose to go down that road.

I will note, even though this gets covered to no end in countless other threads, Infernal Healing is a spell with the [Evil] descriptor. In Gods And Magic, it also has the requirement that you be a worshipper of Asmodeus. Your GM may not like your use of spells with the [Evil] descriptor if they feel the spell is not necessary or for good reason. That is a whole different pot all together though.

It is available in Inner Sea World Guide which has no such qualification. And that qualification is from a 3.5e book. There are Pathfinder specific spells that are only accessible to worshipers of a particular deity. Infernal Healing as presented in the Inner Sea World Guide is not marked specifically for that deity.

Also it's a wizard spell so it's simple to get a wizard to make the wand of Infernal healing (given that wands aren't specific to particular types of magic, AFAIK).

So unfortunately rules as written there is no way a PFS DM can say 'that's not allowed.'

All that said....

Alright, got in a minor truffle with the GM at the local game store today, so my question's (more sources I need) are:

1) Is Infernal Healing Legal?
2) Can you buy a wand of it?
3) Is Devils blood considered an expensive component?
4) Any source saying any of this?

He almost TPK'd us, because he said it wasn't legal. Everyone else I talk to says it is legal. Trying to get source for next time. Thanks.

Some players are willing to restrict themselves from taking things that are clearly too good. In this case, wands of infernal healing are 200% better then a cure light wounds wand and is ideal for out of combat healing. You effectively save 75gp per wand when you use a wand of infernal healing.

To me that is an example of splat book creep and is something I would advocate other players to willingly refrain from using such items.

Also don't confuse this with me having an issue with the spell. I think it's an awesome spell and I have a non-Society Wizard who happily casts it whenever he can. But I'm using spell splots to use it in those cases, rather than simply saving 75gp per wand of CLW.

The cast

• Human Wizard (Enchanter)
  
• Human Wizard (Evoker)
  
• Human Cleric (Erastil)
  
• Elven Oracle (Battle)
  
• Elven Druid

We went around the back during the night and triggered the shrieking zombies. The Enchanter cast sleep on the lone guard who was watching our direction, but not before the guard called out to his friend. The Druid than ran up and hid flush against the wall while her tiger killed the zombies. The Battle Oracle and Cleric beat at the zombies while the Wizard used Fire Breath twice before falling unconscious. The Druid cast warp wood on the palisade.

A guard came to see what was going on and saw his comrade asleep. He woke his comrade up, watched the fight for a bit (they briefly saw a mountain lion but the night sky was keeping the rest of us hidden). I cast sleep on the same guard and then we all ran up to the wall.

We broke in and the Cleric and Oracle went to go fight the two guards on watch. The Enchanter Wizard peered through an open gate and saw a big bad guy and a few other people. Not wanting to get attacked from the rear he cast web into the complex, isolating the Staglord (by accident) and entangling a big guy. The Staglord got up, got his bow and then tried to hit the Enchanter's flat-footed AC. He missed.

We fought off the mooks while the Staglord slowly made his way out of the webbing. The other guy near the Staglord came out and suddenly Akiros turned on the bandits and started fighting the big guy. We quickly dispatched the rest (enchanter throwing putting hideous laughter on the mentally handicapped fighter, glitterdusting Dovan).

Before Dovan was glitterdusted he released the Owlbear just in time for the Staglord to get out of the webbing. The Owlbear fought the Staglord until the Staglord retreated (having burnt away a substantial portion of the webbing), so we killed the owlbear rather quickly. We then killed the Staglord with the NPC barbarian helping us quite a bit. We wanted to keep the Staglord alive so it was quite difficult for us to achieve this. Thankfully we managed, but only by the person dealing the final blow getting an assist from the Enchanter who had a longspear (-6 to the attack roll due to cover) and a guidance from the Druid.

At this point the Evoker Wizard's player turned up. We got to Nestle's Crossing and hand over the Staglord, alive. The zombie eviscerates the staglord's body. The Enchanter felt himself move a step away from NG and felt a bit bad over the whole ordeal.

----
Unlike other groups we were unable to use the "Hatchet Woman" (as she'll be known in our campaign) because we beat her in initiative, critted her and then killed her with 1 more hit. We did hear though, that she did unspeakable things with those hatchets.

Well unless your GM made some modifications to make it tougher, your party was one level too high for the fight...

Unfortunately so was ours. That said, we initiated every single combat at once (with the exception of the zombies). Thus far team caster has done rather well (everyone wanted to play a caster once we learned the AP goes to level 17).

The Stag Lord's first move should be to use his insightful shot, against the party's healer if he can see him.

Pfft. That insightful shot ability is completely overrated. He missed a Wizard with Dex 12 (but Charisma 14 :D) who only had mage armour running (no shield due to banning abjuration). If he can't get a Wizard with that shot, he's got no hope on anyone else!

(FYI: He missed by 1 point! And only because the webbing provided me with cover! And the GM rolled a 3! I was on 10 HP, I would have just died if he hit)

You could go Transmuter, grab the Disguise skill and use that Diplomacy/Bluff/Intimidate as a master of disguises.

Already got a transmutation specialist.

Also, I notice you don't have Sense Motive, which is a real handicap for a socially based character.

That was quite deliberate. I have the best chance of making any knowledge roll (I tried to not do it, but I just have so many skill points), I want to need to rely on the other characters. Fortunately 9 times out of 10 I'll have the other PCs with me so I can rely on their ability to sense motive and somehow signal that to me. Once we get high enough level it will be telepathic bond in such scenarios.

I wanted to give myself a weakness, so not having sense motive seemed a pretty big one.

So I made a Charisma 5 dwarf. My very next character was suddenly an Enchanter Wizard. This has got to be my favourite character I've built thus far. I am optimised not for combat. Everyone does that, it's boring. I'm optimised for Roleplaying! Here it is.

Human Wizard 17

Human Racial Traits
Core Rulebook Except I've taken Focused Study which swaps out the bonus feat for 3 skill focus feats across 16 levels.

Background Traits
Fast Talker: +2 to Bluff and it's a class skill.
Noble Born: +1 CMD, +1 Diplomacy and Diplomacy is a class skill (this is a Kingmaker campaign and our GM houseruled the campaign traits because boy were they terrible).

Ability Scores
Point Buy: 25 no buy downs below 10. Personally I don't like this system as it gives me all the advantages of buying down without any of the penalties (I never buy down more than 1 ability score).

STR 10 0
DEX 12 2
CON 14 5
INT 17+2 13
WIS 10 0
CHA 14 5
Level 4, 8, 12 and 16 = +4 Int

Under a standard 20 point buy my starting stats would differ as Strength 7, Int 20, Con would be 14, Charisma 12 and Dex 10.

So he forced me to decrease by Int but increase every other ability score except wisdom.

Class Skills
Bonded Object: Amulet
School Specialisation: Enchantment
Banned Schools: Conjuration and Necromancy
Favoured Class Bonus: +1 HP.

Feats
Human 1) Skill Focus (Diplomacy) (+3 to diplomacy, +6 at level 10)
Wizard 1) Scribe Scroll
Level 1) Spell Focus (Enchantment)
Level 3) Greater Spell Focus
Level 5) Persuasive (+2 to diplomacy at level 5, +4 to diplomacy at level 10)
Wizard 5) Still Spell (with the understanding it works in grapples)
Level 7) Rhetorical Flourish
Human 8) Skill Focus (Bluff) (+3 to bluff, +6 at level 10)
Level 9) Combat Casting
Wizard 10) Opposition Research (Conjuration)
Level 11) Spell Penetration
Level 13) Greater Spell Penetration
Level 15) Varisian Tattoo
Wizard 15) Selective Spell
Human 16) Skill Focus (Intimidate) (+6 to intimidate)
Level 17) Spell Specialisation

Skills
7 skills with max ranks = 2 (base) + 4 (int mod) + 1 (human)
1. Bluff
2. Diplomacy
3. Knowledge (Arcana)
4. Knowledge (Planes)
5. Knowledge (History)
6. Linguistics
7. Spellcraft

Headband Skills are:
1. Knowledge (Nature)
2. Knowledge (Dungeoneering)
3. Knowledge (Religion)

Bonus Int Skills (51 points total):
Appraise – 7 ranks
Intimidate – 17 ranks (not a class skill)
Knowledge (Nobility) – 6 rank
Knowledge (Engineering) – 6 rank
Knowledge (Geography) – 6 rank
Knowledge (Local) – 4 rank
Knowledge (Nature) – 1 rank
Knowledge (Religion) – 1 rank
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) – 1 rank
Perform (String Instrument) – 3 ranks (not a class skill)

Languages
Starting Languages (5):
1. Taldane (free)
2. Thassilonian
3. Hallit
4. Giant
5. Draconic

My skill ranks give me 17 languages:
1. Sylvan
2. Elven
3. Gnome
4. Undercommon
5. Jistka
6. Infernal
7. Kelish
8. Dwarven
9. Shadowtongue
10. Skald
11. Aklo
12. Necril
13. Abyssal
14. Ignan
15. Orvian
16. Azlanti
17. Gnoll

Equipment
130 Assorted Level 1 gear
205,000 Cost of Various Spells (estimate)
6,000 6xPearl of Power I
4,000 Pearl of Power II
2,000 Handy Haversack
2,500 Circlet of Persuasion
2,500 My Share of a Bag of Holding
12,000 4xLesser Rod of Extend
3,000 Lesser Rod of Elemental (acid)
35,000 Rod of Quicken
25,000 Cloak of Resistance +5
36,000 Headband of Vast Intelligence +6
27,000 Tome of Clear Thought +1
16,000 Belt of Mighty Constitution +4 (Constitution)
5,000 Dusty Rose Ioun Stone
25,000 Rod of Splendor
2,600 1/5th of a Lyre of Building
1,270 Leftover
Total GP: 410,000gp

------
So that's the most powerful Wizard I've made to date (I've made 1 Wizard previously and a sorcerer). A Wizard that has Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Skill Focus (Bluff), Skill Focus (Intimidate), Persuasive and Rhetorical Flourish. And a Charisma score. I took 14 Charisma over Dexterity because I want to be good looking!

I don't have any archetypes or focused schools. I'm simply a straight Wizard. I had to take the extra HP per level because I ran out of skills to put ranks in!

Some fun facts about this Wizard at level 17:

• His walking around Diplomacy score will be +43 = 2 (charisma) + 2 (rod of splendor) + 17 (skill ranks) + 3 (class skill) + 5 (enchanting smile) + 3 (circlet of persuasion) + 1 (trait bonus) + 6 (skill focus) + 4 (persuasive)
  
• Fully buffed I'll have a +49 bonus to diplomacy = +4 (rhetorical flourish) + 2 (cultural adaptation).
  
• 1 of the Lesser Rods of Extend and 3 of the Pearl of Powers will be dedicated to extending Cultural Adaptation. With these items I'll have Cultural Adaptation running for 17 hours a day. Or I can have it running 3 simultaneous times for 3 different cultures for 5 hours and 40 minutes a day.
  
• I'll have a +40 to Intimidate and it's not even a class skill.
  

I would like to think this is the first time someone has built a character like this in quite this manner.

So in a nutshell you play a strong/tough dwarf with a personality akin to a piece of sandpaper and the appearance of a walrus cadaver.

Wow. I've never had someone actually attack my ability to roleplay correctly before. I'd like to think you would have taken more then just 2 stats to condemn the character though.

Does your GM have the NPCs who meet your "dwarf" recoil in utter horror or do they get a chance to run away in terror beforehand?

He has a very patchy beard (it's just abysmal really, but he does do his best to grow it because damnit dwarves are suppose to have beards). He also smells a bit, and so he does his best to cover it up with cologne. He either puts too much on or not enough so that after an hour's work he's not the most pleasant person to smell (he does do his best to fix that before dinner).

I'm going to be honest, he can be a real so and so at times. But he makes a concerted effort to be nice to people, and while it doesn't always work, once people get to know him they eventually warm up to him (playing in Jade Regent where I have a -3 to my starting relationship score with every single NPC).

I view that by his nature he can a really horrible person. But over the years he's done his best to be nicer to people (+4 to diplomacy) and so when he does make an effort he's not outright rude to them.

The idea that stats and stats only determine your character's nature is a false one IMO. My dwarf will succeed on more diplomacy rolls then you're average fighter (CHA 10 and has no ranks in it because he only gets 2+Int mod and it's not even a class skill). He's easily overlooked at first (or otherwise stands out for the wrong reasons) but given half a chance and you'll discover he's not a complete jerk.

John Lynch 106 wrote:

Does anyone know what you can get for replacing the "sword training" trait from Tengu?

Here you go.

Advanced Race Guide wrote:

Claw Attack: Tengus with this racial trait have learned to use their claws as natural weapons. They gain two claw attacks as primary natural attacks that deal 1d3 points of damage, and are treated as having the Improved Unarmed Strike feat for the purpose of qualifying for other feats. This racial trait replaces swordtrained.

Exotic Weapon Training: Instead of swords, some tengus are trained in exotic weaponry. Such tengus choose a number of eastern weapons (Ultimate Combat 131) equal to 3 + their Intelligence bonus, and gain proficiency with these weapons. This racial trait replaces swordtrained.

Thankyou.

That's what I was thinking as well, just a bummer to limit it that much when giving up Chanel Energy is already a huge drawback IMO.

Pfft. I've got a strength based Charisma 5 dwarf (with max ranks in bluff and diplomacy). Does this ONLY replace Channel Energy? Because if so I might need to hassle my GM into letting me get it (it's flavourful!). At the moment that's just a dead class feature for me.

Those who will have problems are groups that try to play with less then 6 players or/and groups that decide not to do their own investigation.

Our group did do a fair bit of investigation and got the

I think my biggest problem with the scenario was there was way too many stat block errors in it

Out of interest can you detail what the errors were? We TPK'd which is alright. I've yet to die in PFS before so I'm more than happy. But I'm curious as to how much contributed to the TPK.

The Tengu, not the claws, are considered to have Improved Unarmed Strike regarding prerequisites, I see. That makes more sense and makes the claw option even more interesting. I rescind my "boring".

This seems a bit too good. I'm dealing 150 DPR at level 11 (assuming all 3 attacks hit and I have a flank. I have a +18/+18/+17 to hit). I don't like too good options because I feel guilty using them :(

I'm willing to rescind this once because I just absolutely love the flavour of tengu.

Do my claws count as unarmed strike (because otherwise most unarmed strike feats are useless)? Also does my beak count as unarmed strike?

[EDIT]: I'm hoping it's not my claws counting for unarmed strike (I don't think it is). There is a feat called Feral Combat Training which allows me to use stylistic feats for it.

I would take 3 attacks at full bab at first level over some extra weapon profs. Maybe that's just me.

Is it actually all primary? Because I had just built a Ranger 2/Rogue 9 to get that working.

Out of interest are there any interesting things you can replace sword training and gifted linguist with for tengu?

Does anyone know what you can get for replacing the "sword training" trait from Tengu?

Very nice. Opening a page at random on the old files took 2 to 9 seconds. Now they load under a second (instantly for sequential pages).

You got me to purchase all the hardcovers except for Bestiary 2 and the GMG.

i need suggestions for a character to play.

A pirate.

I'm serious. This is the pirate campaign. Definitely play a pirate.

That said, my understanding of party roles are thus:
* Frontline fighter: Dale primarily covers this as does Kevin in a secondary manner.
* Rogue: Matt (assuming he isn't swapping out disabling magical traps) covers this.
* Healer: Aaron, Ashley and Lyle cover this
* Arcanist: Kevin and potentially Javier cover this.
* Face: Lyle covers this along with potentially Seth covering it.

Wow, 8 players. That's a lot of players. You'll have 3-4 frontline fighters, 1 arcanist 3 healers and 1-2 faces (a 3rd one if Rogue takes diplomacy and bluff).

You're pretty much welcome to play whatever you feel like. Pirate themed characters:
* Fighter/Rogue: Easy pirate characters. You can also take Ranger (Trapfinder) 2 / Fighter XX and be a trap disabler if the rogue has swapped out disable magical traps.
* Cleric/Oracle: Easy to have a Besmaran cleric/oracle.
* Alchemist: Could have been the last ship's chirugeon (recommend you swap out bombs)
* Sorcerer: Being a sorcerer isn't a life choice. It's something you're born with. You could easily be a pirate sorcerer.
* Barbarian: Angry drunken pirate who constantly gets into bar-fights. Definitely flavourful.

These are my recommendations.

Oh wait, you could totally be a tengu. They're used by Shackles pirates to soak up bad luck so it doesn't afflict the ship. You could totally have deliberately not soaked up the bad luck on your last ship because they mistreated you causing them to sink and for you to manage to escape.

You can then spend the entire campaign saying "you'd better be nice to me. The last ship just totally sunk." As a tengu I'd recommend a TWF ranger/fighter build or a rogue.

I recommend the tengu option. But any of the ones above are definitely fun classes as well if you don't feel like being a non-human or don't feel like being a fighter/rogue type.

Does anyone know what Angradd's Holy Symbol is? I've searched Dwarves of Golarion and Faiths of Purity and been unable to find it.

I am a player of this campaign. I have read nothing in this thread, nor will be visiting this thread again. I have an in character journal here should anyone wish to read it.

If you would like to make any comments that I can view feel free to reply in the campaign journal thread.

This is the in character journal for Rogar, son of Odol of the Ghalkin Clan. More details on this character are available here. At the bottom there is an OoC area where I talk about notable events.

7th of Calistril, 4712
I have arrived in Sandpoint. I have taken lodging in the Rusty Dragon as I have always done. It’s good to be back, I haven’t been here for 20 years. Young Ameiko now runs the place, although she wasn’t able to give me the usual room we stay in. It seems a young Tian man has been staying there for some time.

8th of Calistril, 4712
I went and saw Niska first thing in the morning. She isn’t doing well. I’ve never seen her look so old. We caught up and I of course told her all about my training to become an ordained priest. She marvelled at my holy symbol and for a brief moment I was able to forget just how bad she looks. I of course insisted on cooking a meal, it wasn’t the best I’ve ever prepared as Niska and Koya barely touched their plates.

Afterwards Niska pulled me aside and asked me to look after little Koya after she passes away. I hope this does not come to pass anytime soon, but I fear it will become a reality all too soon. It seems Koya hasn’t matured very much as Niska insisted that I accompany young Koya should she ever go on a long journey. While I would not begrudge someone for travelling abroad, Koya’s health doesn’t seem to be anywhere near strong enough to cope on such an expedition.

10th of Calistril, 4712
Niska passed away last night. It is a sad day for all.

10th of Pharast, 4712
It’s been a while since I wrote in this journal. To be honest I simply have not had the motivation. I organised Niska’s funeral. I was of two minds as to whether or not we should wait for my family to arrive before holding the funeral. I also wanted to have a grand crypt built to house Niska’s remains, but my parents rightfully pointed out it would take far too long to see one constructed and it would not be fair on Koya.

As such we had the funeral on the 5th of Calistril. Since then I’ve been helping Koya out. Doing my best to ensure she eats properly and takes care of herself.

9th of Gozran, 4712
I have been keeping my distance for the past few weeks. I need to give Koya room and time to grieve. She seems to be coping much better now, although she still isn’t eating properly. I have tried to offer coin in case it is for financial reasons, but she became quite angry at the suggestion.

I’ve been butting heads with the man whose stolen my usual room at the Rusty Dragon. He’s actually been throwing me out of the tavern on a regular basis for being “too noisy.” Who ever heard of a tavern that was being too noisy! It’s outrageous and I’m starting to consider having serious words with Ameiko over this young man.

10th of Gozran, 4712
I met a rather nice fellow today. I don’t know his name, but he’s a graduate from the Acadamae. I don’t normally take kindly to the wizardly types. They’re normally too bookish for me, but this one doesn’t seem too bad. He’s here to investigate the old Lighthouse. He’s convinced it’s a Thassilonian ruin.

I tried to tell him that it could not possibly be Thassilonian as the construction is clearly 600 years old at the absolute latest. But he would not listen.

More importantly the Sheriff came around and told us that the bounty on goblins has been re-enacted. The wizard was surprisingly keen on aiding me in collecting this bounty (proving he isn’t too bad of a wizard). Surprisingly Mr. Hirato requested he join our expedition. Afterwards he immediately insulted my honour and so I had to show him just how strong my honour is.

He’s actually got a mean right hook. He kept trying to kick me which was rather underhanded of him. But he does land a solid punch and can take something of a beating himself. Perhaps I have been maligning his character for the past two months. Perhaps he really isn’t that bad of a person.

Koya told me that there is a Halfling they call the Warden of the Marsh. She believes his shack is along the old fishing trail and that he might be able to tell us where the goblin camp is.

11th of Gozran, 4712
That damn Hirato woke me up at 6am! I cannot believe this man! And he made breakfast… well he called it breakfast. I don’t know what he tried to poison me with except it contained seaweed. Give me a good old fashioned baked mushroom cup any day of the week over that crap.

Hirato and Teotos were rather insistent that we go along the new fishing trail. I think it is a mistake, but they are insisting upon it. It was an arduous affair with poorly constructed bridges allowing us to cross the rivers. Give me a good old fashioned dwarven bridge any day of the week. I do not trust these haphazard constructs.

12th of Gozran, 4712
We reached the Warden of the Marsh’s home today. He greeted us at the door, or so I thought. It was in fact some sort of terrible monstrosity. I went down from the creature’s blows, however thankfully both Teotos and Hirato were able to take it down and revive me.

The true Warden of the Marsh was upstairs. I am currently tending to his wounds and will continue to do so for another two days. I did not bring enough rations or waterskins, thankfully he is well stocked on his supplies.

For saving his life he gifted us a lucky cloak. Mr. Hirato insisted on taking it and I have begrudged him this with Teotos’s blessing. He did fell the beast and help save my life.

13th of Gozran, 4712
Walthus’s condition continues to improve.

14th of Gozran, 4712
Walthus has agreed to take us directly to the goblin camp on the morrow.

16th of Gozran, 4712
I dishonoured myself yesterday. I allowed myself to be taken down by the goblins with me unable to even strike a blow against any of them. Mr. Hirato is a very honourable man and an extremely proficient fighter. I owe him a great debt as he saved my life once more. I am afraid I will not be able to repay this debt.

We did collect 12 goblin ears for which the Sheriff was very grateful. As was Ameiko strangely enough. We were able to negotiate 300gp for the camps leader, however we are unable to procure crucial supplies that we need. Although I was able to buy myself a new shield.

On the morrow we journey to Old Megas the Marsh Witch’s house to see if we can either pay her for some potions or find some potions in the ruins of her home. I get the impression from Koya that she was old a long time ago.

It seems she was run out of town for creating alchemical potions. I argued with Koya about this as it is wrong for this town to run her out simply for being interested in alchemy. Koya still has a lot of growing up to do, perhaps her travelling abroad wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.

18th of Gozran, 4712
I have done my best to stop arguing with Mishu Hirato. However he is a belligerent man and seems to contradict everything I say simply to be contrary. However I continue to make the effort in the hope he will stop.

We got to Old Megas’s home today, and as I feared she is dead. We were attacked by some strange manner of creature. I believe it may have been a direrat. Mr. Hirato conducted himself in a fairly peculiar manner. He was afraid of this direrat. We did find a map with two shipwrecks clearly marked on it.

We argued about if we should go to the goblins first or if we should check out the shipwrecks. Hirato is interested in naught but looting these relics. He is ignoring the fact that we need to wipe out this vermin before it launches a retaliatory strike against the people of Sandpoint. We will discuss it in the morning.

19th of Gozran, 4712
We were attacked last night by goblins on Teotos’s watch. Both he and Mr. Hirato went down like a tonne of bricks. I was able to recover some of my lost honour in destroying two of the goblins and saving both their lives. Alas Hirato’s weaponry were both stolen by the goblins. Thankfully he is now hell bent on killing them and retrieving his ancestral weapon.

I can sympathise with him and I feel bad for being happy that his weapon was stolen by the goblins. However it has forced him to rearrange his priorities. First we return to Sandpoint where I can revive the wizard. Then we slay that vermin.

20th of Gozran, 4712
Hirato agreed to hand over the map to the Sherriff to be copied by a local cartographer. I felt this was a mistake but I was able to quickly chime in and register our legal claim to the historical sites on the map. The Sheriff concerned about our motivations, but I assured him that the state would have first rights of refusal for any items that could have their legal owner identified.

We leave tomorrow for the goblins.

22nd of Gozran, 4712
My honour is reclaimed. We slayed the goblin chief and the last remaining lackeys he had. It was a team effort with Teotos pulling his fair share of the weight. I have never seen a wizard adapt so quickly to the rigours of combat.

We were also able to reclaim Mitsuhirato’s ancestral weapon. I feel the debt I owed him is now repaid. I will need to send word back home to ensure these deeds are recorded in the Book of Grudges.

24th of Gozran, 4712
Mitsuhirato did not comport himself in the manner that is befitting an honourable person. He sliced off the ear of the chief in an attempt to get an extra 10 gold pieces. I feel we had a verbal contract with the sherriff and that to do as Hirato did is a mistake.

I am going to relax for the next few days and also purchase a new greataxe.

26th of Gozran, 4712
We have sent word to get a wand of cure light wounds shipped to us. But more importantly I have received my Greataxe. It have named it Wut Zon. I have also given Koya a map of the Brinestump Marsh. When I mentioned we had it I just had to hand it over. For the first time since Niska’s death I saw Koya smile. I plan to give her the fan with the map as well. I shall have the local cartographer duplicate the Sherriff’s copy of the Brinestump Marsh on it and also fill in the new details from the fan map.

30th of Gozran, 4712
We have left Sandpoint once more to brave the Brinestump marsh. We are going to the first shipwreck where I hope to start recovering any valuable goods within.

1st of Desnus, 4712
We arrived at the first shipwreck. It was called the Kaijitsu Blossom. Unfortunately there was nothing to be recovered. But as we feared, there were animate skeletons contained within. We have taken their rusty weapons which Mishuhirato informs me are called Wakizashis. Teotos has agreed to repair them.

Tomorrow we start heading out to the other ship.

2nd of Desnus, 4712
The second ship was called the Kaijitsu Star. There was no treasure here either. I know some of these skeletons have treasure about, a couple of weeks ago I spotted tracks and it was littered with golden coins. They must be hiding in the cave. That is the only possible explanation.

I have been seeing The Bog Marsh Monster chasing us since our first day in the marsh. However he has not attacked and we have certainly had times when were extremely vulnerable. I suspect he is a friendly hermit. I think he might be looking for company, but I cannot take that risk at this stage.

3rd of Desnus, 4712
We felled the remaining skeletal warriors. I was able to save Hirato’s life and destroy it with my morningstar. The skeleton and Hirato kept yelling at each other about something. I was unaware that skeletons could even talk.

We are now on our way back to Sandpoint.

6th of Desnus, 4712
I spoke with Koya and have given her the fan map. She didn’t seem to be particularly grateful. I was rather intrigued by this item myself. I cannot help but wonder who drew this map. Why did they draw it? Who did they draw it for? Alas, such questions are unlikely to be answered.

We will be leaving for Brinewall soon. I fear that Koya will want to come along. Normally I wouldn't begrudge her this, but I am fearful of us needing to flee as we're chased out of town. I will try to convince her to stay, but I may need to enlist Hirato's and Teotos' help in guarding her during the trip.

I started building my character 3 days ago and started playing it yesterday. It was very impromptu decision to run this campaign right now.

I am playing Rogar, son of Odol of the Ghalkin Clan (dwarf cleric 15. No archetypes or prestige classes planned at this stage).

In Pathfinder I have 10 characters, 8 of which are human. The reasons are three fold:
1) Most areas are human centric so I keep making human characters so I can hail from that region and embody it's unique culture.
2) +2 to any stat of your choice is really good (I see no reason to play a half-orc given they are socially ostracized and I like to play characters that can participate in social encounters).
3) An extra bonus feat is so amazing as this edition is quite feat intensive for most classes. I sometimes take hilarious feats such as "cosmopolitan."

So playing a dwarf is out of my comfort zone. Playing a Charisma 5 character is well and truly out of my comfort zone. This is the first time a Charisma 5 character has actually been legal. I cannot bluff, I have 0 ranks in it and a -3 modifier. I do have max ranks in Diplomacy, netting me a +2 in it at level 2.

I've started to become concerned that I'm relying too much on humans +2 to any stat and bonus feat. So I'm trying to force myself to play different races more (it doesn't help there's only 7 races legal for PFS play and 3 of them have the +2 to any stat of your choice boost).

I am enjoying being 107 years old. I am enjoying having bonuses in very specific circumstances.

Rogar's Background
Rogar is the the third son of a dwarven merchant Clan who are weapons traders. His family waited until the eldest child had a couple of children and then shipped me off to become a priest of Angradd. This nets them some prestige for giving up such a valuable commodity to a church. However it also stops me from being a drain on the family's resources.

I am 107 years of age and my family has been trading through Sandpoint for quite some time. I have the "friend of the family" trait with Koya. Initially I was going to be a best friend to Ameiko but one of my players who has the potential to romance her requested I pick a different NPC as that was the NPC he chose. Not wanting us to all have the same NPC as our "significant other" I chose Koya for three reasons:
1) I wanted perception as a class skill.
2) She's 60 years old, there was no chance of our player wanting to romance her. Given I'm a dwarf I have no potential to romance any of the NPCs so it seemed like a good choice.
3) I'm 107, she's 60. I love the fact I get to call her "young lady" and be somewhat protective but patronizing towards her (Charisma 5 for the win!).

Given I had a starting relationship score with Koya of 1 I decided that I was very good friends with her mother. I first met Niska when I was 13 years old. I was friendly with Koya but I always considered myself an unofficial "Uncle Rogar" to young Koya. After all, I was 47 for her very first birthday. An adult by that point. For the past 20 years I've been studying to become an ordained priest of Angradd and so the last time I saw Koya was when she was 40 years old. I have corresponded quite a bit during the last 20 years with Niska.

Upon becoming ordained I immediately travelled to Sandpoint as I was concerned for Niska's health based on how she had been talking in our letters back and forth. I arrived a few days before she died and have been keeping an eye on Koya to make sure she is handling her grief well and is taking care of herself.

Rogar's Catch Phrases
I don't normally have catch phrases with my characters. But I had 2 days prep time to make this character so I am relying on this crutch for the time being.

1) "Have a sandwich! You look like you're about to faint." "Have a sandwich! I could snap you in two without even trying." - This is one of the ways in which I am playing out my Charisma 5. I am genuinely concerned for all of these frail humans. Especially Koya. They look like they're about to pass out and waste away to nothing."

2) "I bloody hate goblins!" - It's true because I have a hatred for goblins. Especially the goblins that blinded me, forced me to fall off my horse and then have it bolt away with them chasing it. (I didn't have enough starting coin to buy one).

3) "Now look here, young lady..." - Whenever Koya and I disagree on something.

Rogar's Memorable Moments
Koya: You don't even know how old I am.
Rogar: Excuse me, young lady! I was there for your very first birthday. I know exactly how old you are!

The Rest of the Party
We have a Varisian wizard called Teotos (Wizard X/Loremaster Y) who graduated from the Acadamae at Korvosa. He took a campaign trait related to Shalelu.

We have a Tian Fighter 1/Sorcerer 4/Dragon Disciple X/Something else Y called Mitsuhirato Yaramoto. He has either a "childhood crush" or "hero worship" of Ameiko.

Party Roles
In the mindset of one of my players (and consequently my mindset as he taught me how to play 3.5e D&D) there are 4 party roles:
1) Front-line Fighter
2) Healer
3) Trap Disabler
4) Arcanist

Given we only have 3 characters we have filled these party roles thusly:
1) Rogar: Primary healer, secondary fighter (I was always going to be a secondary fighter as I have not seen a well made caster cleric that contributes as much to fights as a strength based cleric).
2) Mitsuhirato: Primary trap disabler, secondary fighter
3) Teotos: Primary arcanist, secondary nothing (as it should be).

Here is my take on the Eberron races. I found it interesting how my thinking differed from John Templeton's and would appreciate any feedback (I was less willing to tweak the rules as John did).

Changeling Racial Traits
+2 Charisma and +2 Dexterity: Changelings are natural chameleons, able to blend in wherever they go.
Medium: Changelings are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties to their size.
Normal Speed: Changelings have a base speed of 30 feet.
Change Shape (Sp): Changelings can transform into small or medium creatures as the Alter Self spell.
Integrated: Changelings receive a +1 bonus on Bluff, Disguise and Knowledge (local) checks.
Languages: Changelings begin play speaking Common. Changelings with a High Intelligence score can also select Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Gnome, Halfling, Orc and Rierdran.

Kalashtar Racial Traits
+2 Wisdom and +2 Charisma: Kalashtar minds are strengthened by the merging of quori and human psyches.
Medium: Kalashtar are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties to their size.
Normal Speed: Kalashtar have a base speed of 30 feet.
Adaptability: Kalashtar receive Skill Focus as a bonus feat.
Dreamspeaker: Members of this race gain a +1 bonus to the saving throw DCs of divine spells and spells that produce sleep effects that they cast. In addition, if a member of this race has a Charisma of 15 or higher, it may use dream once per day as a spell-like ability (with a caster level equal to the individual’s character level).
Dual Minded: +2 on all Will saving throws.
Integrated: Kalashtar gain a +1 bonus on Bluff, Disguise and Knowledge (local) checks.
Sociable: When Kalashtar attempt to change a creature’s attitude with a Diplomacy check and fail by 5 or more, they can try to influence the creature a second time even if 24 hours have not passed.
Languages: Kalashtar begin play speaking Common and Quor. Kalashtar with a High Intelligence score can also choose any languages they want (except secret languages, Such such as Druidic).

Shifter Racial Traits
+4 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence and -2 Charisma: Shifters can be rather bestial, a holdover of their lycanthropic heritage.
Medium: Shifters are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties to their size.
Low-Light Vision: Shifters can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
Animalistic Heritage: +2 racial bonus to Acrobatics and Climb skill checks.
Language: Shifters begin play speaking Common. Shifters with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Orc and Sylvan
Bloodline Trait: Shifters begin play with one of the following traits, owing to her bloodline:

• Beasthide: Shifters of the Beasthide bloodline receive a +2 natural armour bonus.
  
• Longtooth: Shifters of the Longtooth bloodline receive a natural bite attack that deals 1d4 points of piercing damage. This is a primary attack or a secondary attack if the shifter uses manufactured weapons.
  
• Cliffwalk: Shifters of the Cliffwalk bloodline receive a climb sped of 20 feet, gaining the usual +8 racial bonus on climb skill checks. In addition the shifter also receives a +2 racial bonus to their CMD against bull rush or trip attempts while standing on the ground.
  
• Razorclaw: Shifters of the Razorclaw bloodline receive 2 claw attacks that deal 1d4 points of damage. These are primary natural attacks.
  
• Longstrider: Shifters of the Longstrider bloodline receive +20 feet bonus to their base speed, gaining the usual +8 racial bonus to acrobatics on jump skill checks.
  

Warforged Racial Traits
+2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma: Warforged were created as machines for war and as such have trouble relating to people.
Medium: Warforged are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties to their size.
Normal Speed: Warforged have a base speed of 30 feet.
Living Construct: Warforged do not eat, breath or sleep. They can benefit from potions and need only refrain from mental or physical exertions in order to benefit from the benefits of sleep such as prepared spells.
Hardy: Warforged get receive a +2 bonus on saving throws against disease, mind-affect effects, poison and effects that cause either fatigue or exhaustion.
Destruction: Warforged cannot be raised or resurrected.
Living Weapon: Warforged have a slam attack that deals 1d4 points of bludgeoning damage.
Languages: Warforged begin play speaking Common. Warforged with High Intelligence scores can choose any language they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic).

I realise there's quite a few threads about artificer archetypes, but they all seem dedicated to one specific way of doing it. This approach is rather different than all the others and I'd be interested in hearing what people think.

Artificer (Alchemist Archetype)
Artificers are the ultimate tinkerers. They specialise in using magic to enhance the abilities of constructs.

Alchemy (Su): This behaves like the alchemy class feature except for extracts. Extracts are like spells but in potion form which allows their effects to be dispelled by effects like dispel magic using the artificer’s level as the caster level. Unlike potions, an artificer’s extracts can only affect constructs, although they can have powerful effects and duplicate spells that a potion normally could not.

An artificer can create only a certain number of extracts of each level per day. His base daily allotment of extracts is given on Table 2–1 from the Advanced Player’s Guide. In addition, he receives bonus extracts per day if he has a high Intelligence score, in the same way a wizard receives bonus spells per day.

When an artificer mixes an extract, he infuses the chemicals and reagents in the extract with magic siphoned from his own magical aura. An artificer’s extracts can normally only affect constructs. An extract, once created, remains potent for 1 day before becoming inert, so an artificer must re-prepare his extracts every day. Mixing an extract takes 1 minute of work—most artificers prepare many extracts at the start of the day or just before going on an adventure, but it’s not uncommon for an artificer to keep some (or even all) of his daily extract slots open so that he can prepare extracts in the field as needed.

Although the artificer doesn’t actually cast spells, he does have a formulae list that determines what extracts he can create. An alchemist can utilize spell-trigger items if the spell appears on his formulae list, but not spell-completion items (unless he uses Use Magic Device to do so). An extract is “cast” by applying it, as if applying an oil — the effects of an extract exactly duplicate the spell upon which its formula is based, save that the spell always affects only the construct that has had the oil applied to. The artificer uses his level as the caster level to determine any effect based on caster level.

Creating extracts consumes raw materials, but the cost of these materials is insignificant—comparable to the valueless material components of most spells. If a spell normally has a costly material component, that component is expended during the application of that particular extract. Extracts cannot be made from spells that have focus requirements (artificer extracts that duplicate divine spells never have a divine focus requirement).

An artificer can prepare an extract of any formula he knows. To learn or use an extract, an alchemist must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the extract’s level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an artificer’s extract is 10 + the extract level + the artificer’s Intelligence modifier.

An artificer may know any number of formulae. He stores his formulae in a special tome called a formula book. He must refer to this book whenever he prepares an extract but not when he consumes it. An alchemist begins play with two 1stlevel formulae of his choice, plus a number of additional formulae equal to his Intelligence modifier. At each new artificer level, he gains one new formula of any level that he can create. An artificer can also add formulae to his book just like a wizard adds spells to his spellbook, using the same costs and time requirements. An artificer can study a wizard’s spellbook to learn any formula that is equivalent to a spell the spellbook contains. A wizard, however, cannot learn spells from a formula book. An artificer does not need to decipher arcane writings before copying them.

Trapfinding (Ex): An artificer adds 1/2 his level to Perception checks to locate traps and Disable Device checks (minimum +1). An artificer can use Disable Device to disarm magical traps. When determining the ability of an artificer to deal with locks or traps, treat his alchemist levels as rogue levels. This ability replaces the Brew Potion bonus feat.

Mutagen (Su): This functions exactly as the mutagen ability except it only works on constructs.

Discoveries: An artificer may take the following rogue talents as discoveries: quick disable, trap sense and trap spotter. Treat the artificer’s alchemist level as his rogue level for these talents.

New Discoveries
Versatile extracts: Extracts that can normally only be applied to constructs can also be applied to living creatures.

Self-Forged (Ex): The artificer starts experimenting on himself, replacing parts of his body with artificial analogues. The artificer counts as a construct for the purposes of his class features. Furthermore when a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the alchemist, there is a 25% chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally. This does not stack with similar abilities that negate critical hits and sneak attacks (such as fortification armor). An alchemist can take this discovery up to three times; the effects stack, increasing this chance to 50% and then 75%.

Warforged (Ex): The artificer has mastered his self experimentation and can finally replace his final organs with artificial counterparts, turning himself into a living construct. After learning this discovery, the artificer must spend 30-days constructing the final organs to place into his own body. At the end of this time he falls undergoes a painful surgery to put into place these final components at which time he falls unconscious for 24 hours. Upon awakening he is a living construct. The artificer’s type does not change, but he becomes immune to fatigue, exhaustion, nausea, paralysis, and sleep effects. An alchemist must be at least 10th level and must have the self-forged discovery before selecting this discovery.

Discussion of Archetype
Cons:

• Cannot apply extracts or mutagens to themselves. If there isn't a Warforged in the party then this means they simply cannot benefit from this class feature for an entire level and are then forced to take one of two discoveries so they can benefit from these abilities.

Pros:

• Can heal Warforged without any issue (depending on how you convert them this may not be possible normally).
  
• Can apply mutagens to other PCs (assuming they're Warforged or count as constructs). This is an ability unique to the Artificer archetype, and I think it helps offset the fact they can't apply extracts or mutagens to themselves for 1 level.

What do people think? This is a rather minimalist approach and you might not see much of what the Artificer had in 3.5e (my archetype does get trapfinding!) I tried to keep to the spirit of the class.

I wanted my players' journey from Ravengro to Lepidstadt to actually be exciting. As such I've reworked the encounters in both Trial of the Beast and Broken Moon to allow my PCs to encounter an issue. And thus that brings us to, Clover's Crossing.

Here's some notes/backstory I've created on the town.

What happened at Clover's Crossing
This town has gone to hell. A fissure erupted beneath the Church of Pharasma 2 weeks ago and the townsfolk have been terrified ever since. They first thought there were bandits in the countryside when farmers’ livestock was going missing as were the farmers themselves. As such many of the farmers fled into Clover’s Crossing itself for safety in numbers. However a week later a fissure erupted beneath the temple of Pharasma. Now the townsfolk are s#%!-scared and don’t know where to go.

What actually happened was:

• A professor heard about some ancient Kellid ruins in a cave west of Clover’s Crossing. With some students he went to excavate this site where he discovered an underground complex. There was a shrine to one of their post-Thassilonic deities as well as a mining operation. They haven’t told the local village as they know that people out in these parts are extremely superstitious and aren’t going to appreciate their vital research.
  
• The professsor and his students began excavating further into the caves, discovering a large deposit of marvos.
  
• They started clearing a collapsed tunnel when something from within burst out. It bit one of the students before running off.
  
• The student is infected with ghoul fever.
  
• For the first 3 days the student manages to potter on with the work. He doesn’t eat or drink very much and by the third day is quite weak and faint.
  
• The student sleeps for a further 6 days, not feeling well and eating very little.
  
• On the 9th day of his infection a witch is brought in to look at the student. She immediately realises that he has ghoul fever. She says that she knows not how to cure their friend and warns them that they should chop off his head and burn his body before scattering it across the river. Dismissing the old woman as a superstitious nutter, they send her away and continue to care for the student as best they can.
  
• After 3 more days the student is dead. That day the rain is pouring down quite bad and there are actually flash floods. They wait a day before burying him.
  
• The next morning they find the student among them. He’s quite animated, eating a lot and is back to his old self. Later that day they realise one of the female students is missing. They send out a search party for her and the ghoul student helps.
  
• That night all of the students have been killed and it’s just the professor and the ghoul student. He easily overpowers the professor and kills him as well. That night 2 of the students and the professor rise as ghouls. They all feast on the remaining corpse for dinner.
  
• They continue with their excavation, going out into the countryside to seek out food and water. Once the food source runs out they cause the ground directly below the church to collapse into a vast cavern below.
  
• They’ve been raiding the village ever since. Those who are taken down into the complex below never return.
  

The cavern is filled with Lazurite. Here is the information on Lazurite in my campaign:
Dungeoneering:
DC 15: Lazurite. It’s a rather rare gemstone that is mostly found in northern Garund. Its name comes from the Osirion term for the sky, alluding to its blue colour.
DC 20: It’s illegal to have this gemstone in quantities larger than a thumbnail. As such jewellery involving this gemstone isn’t carried by jewellers in Ustalav.

History (possibly only after determining its name)
DC 15: The Kellids considered Lazurite to be a holy stone, although they
DC 20: The Hallit term for Lazurite is Marvos which means dead. It was used as warpaint as it was said to contain properties that made warrior’s stronger and heartier.
DC 25: Knowledge on how to process the lazurite was secret to all except the tribe’s shaman. The chief would go to the Shaman and have to convince him to transform the lazurite into the special warpaint to ensure their victory in an upcoming battle. If the shaman agreed, he would demand to lead the warriors into battle instead of the chief who was left behind with the tribe’s elderly and young.

Religion (possible only after determining its name)
DC 10: Lazurite is illegal in Ustalav. It is highly valuable as a component in necromantic spells.
DC 15: Large deposits of lazurite causes the dead to rise as zombies.
DC 20: The dead actually rise as either ghasts or ghouls. These are a ravenous undead who are driven by a terrible hunger that never leaves them.
DC 25: Unbeknownst to most people Lazurite is extremely common in Ustalav. The Church of Pharasma has worked hard since the original founding of the Kingdom to ensure that large deposits of it were shunned and definitely not mined for economical advantages.

Encounters
Here are the encounters I've constructed. Keep in mind my PCs are level 4.

CR 4: Dogs and children (1,200 XP)
1xGhoul Dog – statistically same as a normal ghoul (400 XP)
4xGhoul Children – small ghoul (800 XP)

This should be an easy combat for them. It's largely atmospheric and to compel the PCs further on into the chasm.

CR 6: Patrol of Ghouls (2,400 XP)
1xGhoul Expert 5 (800 XP)
3 Ghouls Warrior 3 (1,800 XP)

This should make the PCs take notice and realise this isn't going to just be all dogs and children. That some of the ghouls down here represent a very real threat.

CR 6: The Cleric's laboratory (1,600 XP)
1 Ghoul Expert 3 (600 XP)
2 Ghouls Commoner 3 (1,200 XP)

Human slaves are kept in cages. The expert was once an academic at Lepidstadt university. He turned to religion and became a cleric of pharasma before coming to Clover's Crossing. Now that he's a ghoul Pharasma has forsaken him and he's lost his levels in cleric.

He is seeking a cure to being a ghoul and believes it lies in the properties of Lazurite. He feasts on the brains of his fellow villagers to help him in his research. He's gone completely insane, but still wears his cleric's vestments and holy symbol.

CR 7: Kellid Ruins Research (3,200 XP)
1xGhast Wizard 6 (1,600 XP)
3 Ghouls Commoner 3 (1,800 XP)

-------
What do people think? Do these encounters seem balanced? The PCs will have an opportunity to sleep before fighting the CR 7 as the wizard is engrossed in his research. Do the fights seem not hard enough?

Any suggestions on possible changes?

I asked my players to not be jerks and they agreed not to create a necromancer wizard whose sole tactic is to throw the baddies at each other.

I did 1 round of by the book tactics which caused my PCs to disregard him as a threat. I then took down the healer with an AoO with my corrupting touch. I then almost took down the sorcerer with all my magic missiles aimed squarely at him (darn sorcerer was quite hardy). That's when they took the fight seriously.

I gave my PCs a chance to work out Splatterman's fears and tactics by using sense motive. I felt this was fair, and it tipped them off on how to defeat him (rip the pages from the book). Also the PC who had the spellbook also had shield running. I wanted to give them a chance to work out what was going on, rather than assume the GM was being a jerk and refusing to aim magic missiles at the one PC that was shielded.

After they passed their sense motive and started taking him seriously, they proceeded to rip ALL the pages from the book dealing quite a bit of damage. They were surprised after the game when I mentioned how many hit points he had.

Frankly, given the way Pathfinder works, a Rogue is never vital like 2e Thieves, or even 3e Rogues were. Anyone can find any trap, and disable any mechanical one. Rogues just get a small (and not unique) bonus to it.

The traps are going to pose a problem, but anyone can find them and your party should be able to move around most of them (with some resources expended and clever thinking).

If you feel uncomfortable with that (and with possibly toning down or removing some of the traps) have your fighter go Ranger (Trapfinder) 1 / Fighter 13. He'll have full BAB progression, get trapfinding as well as a couple of weird Ranger class features.

Thanks in advance (this is as close to my submission as possible. I think I made a couple of minor changes just before I hit submit).

Dead Man's Mirror
Aura faint necromancy; CL 5th
Slot -; Price 14,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
A handheld mirror with a small bowl affixed to its base, this mirror is a favorite among agents of the Sleepless Agency who utilize it during murder investigations. When an eyeball from a corpse is placed into the bowl, the mirror displays the last thing the creature saw before it died. This image remains until the eye is removed from the bowl. Placing the eye back into the bowl causes the image to reappear.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, speak with dead; Cost 7,000 gp

And the flesh golem that's being lend around the house, all the doors are one tile large! I suppose the gate house could be larger but the house proper, the golem might have to be shrunk to a really big medium creature or the house might have a love of double doors....

that's a great point and all the justification I need to increase the size as I see fit.

NOTE: This contains spoilers for my campaign. If you're one of my players please don't continue reading.

So I'm running my very first Pathfinder Adventure Path and my players are 4th level and traveling from one location to another. While I could just roll on a random encounter table a few times, I hate doing that. While once or twice it helps serve a purpose for the story, ultimately it comes off as very unsatisfying for me.

So I wanted to throw some orcs at them, specifically a Belkzen raiding party. Thing is, I've never made NPCs under a 3.5e system before, so I've got some questions about ability scores.

If I was making a human NPC would I just create it as I would a PC (with the option to use NPC class levels) when it comes to ability scores? Would I employ a 15 point buy and create the NPC like that? Or should I use a stat array?

Second question is: If I'm making orc NPCs, should I just advance the Orc Warrior 1 from the Bestiary? Or would it not be unusual to instead make my own Orc Warriors using my own ability scores?

I'm just looking at the stats and I can't work out how these stats were generated.

Do people think it would unrealistic to double most rooms in size? I prefer a realism over convenience, but if the combats can't be played through due to size of the monsters (not including size of enlarged PCs) that's an issue.

The adventure is designed so that the trial can take up as much space and time as your group would like. It is mandatory in that it is the background for the entire adventure, but it can be reduced to just a few skill rolls each day in between investigating and fighting. OTOH, if your group wants to roleplay out the trial, it can be expanded to allow that too.

I will be expanding it as this is similar to a scene in another campaign which half my players were there for and enjoyed.

As such I will be having the PCs acting as barristers and investigators. Although first

A clue/evidence based adventure where the real "fun" of the adventure is figuring out how the clues all fit to reveal the truth is seriously undermined by DCs for finding the clues which are much too high to be practically accessible to a 4th level party at anything approaching a reliably good chance.

That's another reason for me to change the adventure to emphasise the trial. It gives the PCs alternate avenues. If they don't meet the DCs, they still stand a good chance at winning the trial.

This is a letter my group found in the Living Museum near the mummy. Just another way to tie the campaign together:

My Dear Count,
I have enjoyed our most recent discourse on the nature of the spontaneous creation of certain types of undead. In my many years of study on the subject, I have also attempted to discern the secrets from my own study of Osirian remains, those hulking mummies so prevalent in that desert environ. Perhaps when I travel back to the north country I will regale you with stories of my exploits in that dusty land. It has been a long time since I have enjoyed your company in person. Although I have grown greatly from the student I once was, the time I shared with you and Petros in study and event disagreement is one I shall always cherish.
However, I digress from the purpose of this current missive. Some retainers of mine have business in Lepidstadt in the coming weeks, and I was hoping to impose upon your intellect and unique point of view. They will be carrying a rather curious Tome, and I would love to have your learned opinion of it. If it is not too much of an imposition, please expect visitors toward the end of the month.
Regards,
Adivion Adrissant

Since his endgame is so close, he is not worried about offending the Count by having his agents take control of the Beast and lock up the count.

Ooooh! This gives me an idea

Alright, here are all 3 of my maps. I had to alter the design considerably, due to the size of the basement. My players got a real kick out of them so I hope someone here might find them useful in their own campaigns. They are formatted for an A4 piece of paper.

First Floor (ground level)
Second Floor
Basement Level

Remember: These are the original floor plans (with a couple of slight alterations from what's in the book)

That doesn't have to do much with Haunting of Harrowstone, really, since neither the setting nor rules support it.

Hence why I didn't make the thread here but instead in the Advice sub forum. The feedback has helped change my thinking as to the consequences for partaking in the ritual.

I'm surprised at some of the animosity I'm getting for handing out a +1 sword in return for non-monetary bargaining.

]I hear what everyone's saying. Selling your soul should have negative consequences.

I fear that detecting as evil simply isn't going to pop up and will become an excuse for the character to just act like a jerk.

I was thinking perhaps remove the +4 he receives to handle animal checks for his animal companion as it senses there isn't something quite right with him? It will hurt at low levels but he'll eventually be able to overcome it. What do people think?

I've never seen a published adventure since clear back to 1st Ed that the victims you are trying to save were such a collection of misogynistic, prejudiced, hateful, neo-natzis wannabes

Your DM has to be careful in RPing the locals. I've got NPCs that clearly hate certain players (my Father Grimburrow absolutely despises our PC Dr. Volokhov who performs autopsies on the dead) while he absolutely loves the PC Priest of Pharasma. Other townsfolk are all smiles and hugs to to the PCs one day. Then a week or so later the NPC is looking at the PCs as if they kicked her dog.

There are reasons why the NPCs hate the PCs so much. My PCs have gotten off lucky in that they've ensured the population is fairly neutral towards them. They've had brief moments where they were Liked. They've also had brief moments where they were disliked. Overall they've stayed within Neutral.

Most of my PCs took my warnings to heart and have made a purely human party :D Things would have been worse had they played some of the more exotic races like "elves" ;)

I think the problem is the Trust mechanic that's listed in the adventure. If things go the way they would be expected to go in the adventure (using average rolls, anticipating playere's reactions, etc.), the group quickly falls behind the curve in trust points, the town becomes an unpleasant group of ingrates, and the party starts to wonder why they are making any effort to save them.

I added in extra ways for the PCs to gain trust points. I also added in extra ways for the PCs to lose trust points. My PCs have made an effort to act well towards the PCs and have for the most part benefited from this.

So one of my PCs has sold their soul. Details can be found here

If you're one of my players, do not read any further.

Alright, so last session one of my players agreed to take part in a dark ritual in return for getting a +1 weapon for free. Here's some background information

Normally undergoing this ritual would cause the player to gain a level of Witch and a familiar. Now I don't want to force the PC to take a level of Witch, so I'm looking for a smaller boon to give them in return for swearing to serve this entity.

I was thinking of giving them a supernatural ability that is based on a hex. The player is not an optimised character and the player normally makes highly optimal characters. So I want to give reward him by giving him an ability that will be useful throughout the entire game. But I don't want to give him an ability that can be abused.

He's an int-based human cross-blooded sorcerer that has an animal companion and that's about it so far.

The boon I was thinking of giving him was "Misfortune (Su): Once a day you cause a creature within 30 feet to suffer grave misfortune for 1 round. Anytime that creature makes an ability check, attack roll, saving throw or skill check, it must roll twice and take the worse roll. A will save negates this ability, with the DC based on 10 + 1/2 character level + Int mod."

Does anyone see anything absolutely overpowering of this ability? The DC scales, so it's actually useful for this character despite having no levels in witch. However unlike the normal hex, he can only do it once a day and there is still a will save involved.

I would be interested in hearing people's thoughts.

Well here is the ground level. This was the one that required the most work, as I had to create not only the floor plans, but the template for the Plans itself (the footer).

It's important to note that this is the floor plans that was used to construct the prison, so it doesn't match the map in the book exactly. I've also removed the waiting rooms in the front foyer, because it felt like it had two foyers and that seemed silly. It was also difficult to draw those curved walls, so I just gor rid of it.

The features of the map are:
* The lift
* Windows along the outer walls
* Stairs leading up and down
* The doors and the way in which they open

I'll post the basement and top level sometime later today. I'd be interested in feedback and thoughts about the plan.

You don't need a player handout for this, I don't think. Just say, "OK, you find a copy of the floor plans."

Pfft. They spent an entire session doing little but combing through those town hall records. I want to reward that by giving them a handout.

As it is, it isn't as time consuming as I thought it would be (I'm doing a bare-bones layout that shows walls, windows, which way the doors open along with labels for each room). I've almost got the ground level done. All I need to do is add windows and labels for each room.

If anyone's interested I'll upload the final copy.