Haven't done him yet, but waiting for Legacy of Fire to trot out this guy (we're still working on the first three APs simultaneously; takes awhile with 3 GMs and only meeting once a month at most):
Half-elf from a rich "security consultant" family; mom's a half-elf Rogue, dad's a half-elf Fighter (or vice versa, still debating), both of whom went undercover a lot to protect their clients and their clients' interests. Grandpa, a LG ex-Monk of Sarenrae (got booted from his monastery for playing fast and loose with his vows of celibacy one too many times, just before the ruination of Kelmarane), stays at home with the lad when the parents are out and trains him in monkish stuff, while his folks train him in more Rogue stuff while they're at home.
At one point in the year he comes of age, the adults all troop off in a caravan that gets hit by gnolls out in the wilderness of an old deserted town ... all that comes back of them is Grandpa's gi (or symbol, or something; haven't decided yet, but 350 gp max value). The lad can't afford the rent/mortgage on the Stately Home Manor (but his inheritance would be his starting funds), and is on his own to avenge his family, with both Monk and Rogue skills under his belt ... with possibly some Alchemy skill for smoke bombs and such and a spell component belt to hold everything -- well.
I'll probably go with just Monk eventually, since we haven't tried out that class yet, and let someone else do the treasure lists for once, but it will be fun, since gnolls are a cowardly and superstitious lot (shadow dancer prestige class ... hm ...). ;->
And yeah, while it probably does sound very familiar, I've been itching to do this concept, or something similar, since 2E. Ah, those nifty gadgets in the Complete Thief's Handbook ... ;->
There are moments when i absolutely love playing this game...
** spoiler omitted **
And now it is off to Children of the Void!
Waahhh! It was funny as heck, too...oh well, they can read the spoiler in your original.
I'm just shocked some of my more waggish PCs didn't think of that; I think they were pouting that they couldn't actually do anything about it, and even the gods (Desna, for the cleric/druid) could only tell them:
Spoiler:
"Get to higher ground."
"We did that."
"Stay out of the harbor."
"We're going to."
"Hang on." >SLAM< >vibrate<
"Hanging. Anything else we can do?"
"That's about it; thank you for calling." >click<
They were frustrated that, as a fourth-level party, they couldn't prevent powerful magic from yoinking a meteorite out of the sky and slamming it into an island 18 miles away. That's the kind of players I have. Ambitious! ;->
For my first post to the Pathfinder boards, I thought I'd talk a bit about Clegg Zincher. My party has recently finished Adventure 2 and well into Adventure 3 at this point, so a lot has happened. The biggest plot point so far has been their idolization of Clegg. Every time my party hears of some terrible act performed by Mr. Zincher, they are genuinely impressed with how awesome the man must be. The high point for this was when they heard how Clegg had taken a boat to Devil's Elbow which he seized by brute force.
So at the end of Adventure 2, the party sadly had to fight Clegg in an unfortunate turn of events. A lucky hit from one of the players killed Clegg, though they were sure to bring the island back to Riddleport following their excursion to the island. This is where things got weird...
My players decided it was top priority to bring Clegg back to life, though they lacked the funds to secure a Raise Dead spell. Instead the party druid acquired a scroll of Reincarnate which they intended to use on Clegg in hopes of returning him to his former stature as solid crime boss of Riddleport.
They reincarnated him alright... as a Bugbear! I kid you not, Riddleport's premiere crime lord has returned as a creature that can apparently track by the scent of fear. Now as the party leaves to the Mierani forest, they know they leave Riddleport in safe hands/claws.
With all this in mind, does anyone else have good tales about the next RPG Idol 'Clegg Zincher'?
So far, we have the opposite problem; while the PCs were working for Saul, they knew a bit about the backstory (sufficient Knowledge [Local] rolls) between him and Zincher, and figured Clegg placed the snake in the kitchen (which was killed, skinned, and the fighter chick wore the skin as a headband and belt set when she went to visit Clegg's place and have a very obvious drink at the bar). After the Raid, the half-orc rogue figured Clegg was behind EVERYTHING that went wrong/bad, not just for the GG but in town, in the sky, you name it, and snuck around town, whispering in people's ears: "It's Zincher's fault."
Since none of the party looked up Lavendar Lil, I had a DM PC do so (they both have fiendish blood, so it was a match made in--somewhere...), and he's been seeing her for awhile now. She hasn't asked for his help against Zincher, but I spell-trapped the last page in Depora's journal (the important one, with the summary, prediction about the meteor's fall, etc.), and the party needed comprehend languages and true seeing to figure out the text, which meant seeing Madam Shorafa at the Silken Veil. Her price for casting such powerful spells (it was fun watching the gnome sorcerer squirm until she told him what she had in mind!) was that the party talk things over with Zincher and convince him to let Lil off the hook (yes, Calistria is about revenge, but she's also about personal freedom, and Lil's been trapped at the Veil [I'm using the CN version of Lil; I like that one better]); now that Saul was out of the picture, Clegg wouldn't need to lean on her so hard any more.
And Zincher should be glad to know that Saul had a beautiful, ring-side seat in Shoreleave to watch the meteor coming in...and not be able to do a thing about it, or leaving town like he planned. ;->
It will be interesting to see what happens in Children of the Void with these folks... ;->
After switching from Beta to Final our group looks like this:
Oswin (LN male human fighter 2)
Teshk (N male half-orc rogue 2)
Thassilo, Son of Varg the Great (N male human [Ulfen] bard 2)
Thorbar Donnerhammer (N male dwarf cleric 2 of Abadar)
As I type this, I think about the possibility to play a true neutral cleric of a lawful neutral deity...
Bakkalaureus Janus Hydarian / Master Mortalis (N male human [Chelaxian] sorcerer [aberrant bloodline] 2)
That's me. As he is the Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde type of character, I am really looking forward to the Alchemist in the Advanced Player's Guide.
It's easy to play a true neutral cleric of a lawful neutral deity; that's only one step away. You could have a lawful good, lawful neutral, lawful evil, or true neutral cleric.
I would say SD. My main concern is that it will be hard for players to forget that Drow exist. They have such a legacy in the game and it will be hard for players to do that. Beyond the drow, I think Second Darkness is a very cool AP. It needs a bit of a polish here and there, but it is a good read. People have talked about spell issues and statblocks being a little off, but I am converting to PFRPG so it doesnt bother me.
To each their own, but I would say SD.
A while back, there were a number of excellent conversions from 3.5 to PF Beta (can't remember who did 'em at the moment, though; it'll come to me) for the various critters and NPCs for SD. You spoke of doing some conversions yourself; have you done so by this point, have you converted them again to the "official" PF rules, and most importantly, might we all peek at them? ;)
Meh, forgot my own pumpkin story from awhile back; haven't done them much since, because we're up on a 3rd floor apartment and back from the street, behind trees. Delicately balancing lit jack-o-lanterns on your balcony railing isn't for the faint of heart...
Didn't take any pix (maybe I should have, oh well; can always do it again), but it was Jack Skellington's head in a white pumpkin, the ones most folks just do up as ghosts or what-not. Let me tell you, gang, the meat on these babies is like twice as thick as the orange carving pumpkins; these are meant for cooking rather than anything else, and the meat (once you get past the shell, before the googie bits) is like candy, even raw. You don't need much added sweetening at all to make it really yummy. ;->
Seeds were pretty tasty, too. Anyone make home-done roasted pumpkin seeds?
If I can get ahold of some black face paint, gloves, and a silver wig I'll be going as a drow necromancer (possible with some friends dressed up as different kinds of undead). Mostly because drow are cool and one of my DMs hates them for some strange reason.
Well, they are a big Mary Stu, you know. Or at least, a lot of people make them Mary Stues.
I think I'm going as one of those knights who seeks to attain two shrubberies and chop down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring. Now what was their name again?....
Head Knight: "We...are the Knights Who Say...NI!"
[underknights: "Ni!" "Ni!" "Ni!"]
Regarding the obtained shrubberies (ill-gotten by King Arthur and Sir Bedevere by threatening passers-by with saying "Ni!" to them {"Do your worst!" ::writhe::}):
Head Knight: "I like the laurel, particularly."
An especially effective costume if you can find some deer antlers to stick into a helmet. ;->
One year, I went as the Lady of the Lake: fairly nice, medieval-ish dress, complete with fake-y sword and rain slicker duds and boots with pond weed strewn across the lot and a rather harried expression...
"You! You want this bleedin' thing, you can 'ave it! More trouble than my job's worth, this is!" etc. ;->
Alas, I am not dressing up this year, since I have nowhere to go in costume, and our apartment complex isn't known for trick-or-treaters to freak out. :~-(
If I needed to in a hurry, though, I can always whip out some of my SCA garb and/or armor.
;->
The problem with using Level Adjustments is that some of the boons granted fade in effectiveness over time. Take the gnoll barbarian, for example. According to 3.5 rules (I'm waiting for my copy of the Bestiary), a Gnoll Bbn 17 is the same as a Human Bbn 20 due to its 2 racial Hit Dice and +1 level adjustment. All of that for a net +2 to its ability scores, +1 natural armor, and two racial Hit Dice at d8 (much lower than a d12). At high levels, that effective +2 to strength and +1 natural armor isn't going to make much of a difference (especially since humans automatically have a +2 to any ability score in PFRPG).
Our GM is using the Unearthed Arcana rules for buying back level adjustments, and I think it works pretty well. In a nutshell, you can buy back level adjustments one at a time by burning enough experience to lose a level when you've reached enough Class Levels. Your ECL drops by one, but you will gain the XP back quickly enough to offset the loss.
The total number of Class Levels (C) to buy back one level of your Level Adjustment (L) is
C = (L * 3) + C'
Where C' is the level your character was at when he bought the last highest Level Adjustment.
For instance, a creature with a +3 Level Adjustment could buy back Level Adjustments at 9th, 15th, and 18th. A +2 Level Adjustment would be bought back at 6th and 9th level. Meanwhile, a +4 Level Adjustment would be able to buy back one Level Adjustment at 12th level, but would have to wait until epic levels to buy back the next one.
All great ideas (teach me not to delve deeper into the Bestiary guts; I'll need to, soon, to convert my Second Darkness critters, probably)! Thanks, guys! As far as "ECL" characters go, I only have the one at the moment, but I do like them and may whip up another one someday. It's always nice to have an idea of how it could work. ;->
Speaking of converting, it's time for me to peer at other threads and see who's doing that for Second Darkness to Official PF RPG... ;->
This might be on topic, but no guarentees...when dealing with a template critter such as a half-outsider, especially a half-celestial or half-fiend, what happens when you put a Helm of Opposite Alignment on such a critter (I'm especially thinking about sentients, such as humanoids that could become PCs)? How does the item "roll against" any Spell Resistance to function, or does it just not go off at all? If it works, does it affect the template powers (an afflicted half-celestial now goes around Smiting Good and having evil Spell-Like Abilities, for example [on the other hand, a half-celestial's celestial parent might step in for an intervention, whereas a half-fiend's might not care]), or is blood thicker than cursed items? Granted, that particular cursed item requires 9th-level magic (miracle, wish, etc.) to "cure" the victim...
Does ECL work the same way in Pathfinder as it does in 3.5?
The players I DM for love the half-dragon, half-celestial, half-fiend etc. classes under the Savage Progressions articles. But all I could find in the Pathfinder RPG about ECL talks about not using them for a few of the base races. Do they work the same otherwise?
ECL is not a part of the Pathfinder RPG. Nor is LA (level adjustment). There's some discussion in both the PRPG and in the Bestiary about what to do if a player wants to play an unusual race, but the application of easilly-abused rules like ECL is no longer a part of it.
Of course, if those rules worked for your group, the game's compatible enough that they'll still work with PRPG. And eventually we might do a "Savage Species" style book that goes into deep detail on how to deal with PC races that deviate far from the norm. But honestly, with the increase in power to the base races, any of the previously-known-as-ECL +1 races should work fine hand in hand with the standard PC races.
EDIT: The Council of Thieves Player's Guide has a fair amount of advice for how to use a tiefling as a PC race. It's a free PDF, so you can download it and use some of the advice or solutions there for other races pretty easily.
One thing I'm doing for a half-outsider PC (once based on a mish-mash of 3.0 critters, PF Beta base, etc.; now I have to juggle Ye Olde Backe Story to make all fit [do ALL half-outsiders have to FLY now?!]) is bumping his XP path from Fast, such as the rest of the party uses, to Slow (the gods figure he already has enough advantages on him, they'll handicap him a little, like at horse races <G>).
But half-dragons (as an example) were always ECL+3; would you suggest something like my solution for one?
I'll make the crew 1st level experts (my logic the ship was intended for speed, not combat, so a skilled but not combat-ready crew would be ideal) Of course, the crew will mostly leave combat to the PC's.
my sentiments exactly, regarding the crew of the Flying Cloud
I'd love to have Creesy and Grudge mix it up, as per one of those Adventure Hooks (plus, ship-to-ship combat is soooo cinematic), but it doesn't have anything in Children of the Void about weapons, etc. for either of the ships. I know an old cagy bugger like Grudge wouldn't just rely on his spellcasters for offense, he'd have something like the fantasy equivalent of cannon, maybe arbelasts (sp?) and/or ballista, etc.
Are there good sources for combat ship stats in available Paizo products?
I cant remember where it said it but it think it said that the pool was calm and hence only a DC 10
Hm, "the water filling the lower portion of the enormous cavern sloshes and surges with the tide..." seems to be the only reference to the water's current state.
Doesn't exactly sound calm.
I dunno. The calmest the ocean ever was when I swam in it, I dove in off a wharm after hanging out listening to it slash against the pylons. (This was in the middle of the night.) I don't think that the ocean is ever so calm that there's no sloshing happening.
On the other hand, this is a good excuse to make the water rougher, if that's better for your game. :)
Speaking as a marine biologist, the dynamics of sea caves can either funnel the water coming in to be faster, rougher, etc. than it would be on a broad coast, or it can calm it down, especially when the face of the cave is so low over the surface that it's almost impossible to see in from the water side. I vote that it dampens the waves down, but there's still a gradual tidal surge over the course of hours, and that the surface of the pool moves gently up and down all the time.
Of course, with the addition of an orca in there (which should be visible to the PCs after a few minutes, since it needs to breathe; the pool should also be deep enough to accomodate it, which should make for even calmer water), it could get a little rougher...a big male can get to around 30' long here (don't know the stats for a Golarion one), and anyone who's seen Sea World ads can testify to how big a wave those buggers can kick up. ;->
For those concerned that orcas are made out to be bad guys, a) they may be different on Golarion, and b) even here on Earth, one of their ideas of "discipline" involves holding a miscreant underwater for a few minutes; annoying to painful for one of their own, but fatal to land-crawlers. Another one is launching someone naughty out of the water for a few dozen feet...if it's another orca, they'll generally try to "aim" so the disciplinee lands in water again. I have heard, though, that we apparently don't taste very good; most who've tried among the orcas don't make a habit of it. Again, that's the ones from Earth, though... ;->
Uh, that Mature Players label warning: can that fall under the category of "most redundant statements"? ;->
I'm not familiar with the setting, though; does it stand alone, is this something that could go with the recent World of Darkness stuff, or is this "generic" for any modern fantasy horror?
Bartalan, called "Bart"; CN Half-Orc Rogue (he of the back-stabbing Battleaxe)
Whoops, wrote this way too late last night/early this morning...it's a Great Axe he's got. One (d12+STR mod)*3, +2d6 if he crits and backstabs simultaneously. Sblpht! :D
And I wonder why I can't challenge these guys ... :-/
I introduced her as well to good results. The Calystrian priestess/sorceress and the half-elf rogue are both hooked on her (and the half-elf rogue is already hooked on Samaritha as well...)
That has them hating Zincher even more (adding on top of the wererat note signed "Z"... :)
Ha! That will be interesting; next week, we'll probably get to Part 3, and since they've only been allowed to read the SD Companion, the players don't know that the other Z, Ziphras, is considered one of the crimelords (though real small-time for now) and the major wererat leader. Heck, they've never even heard of the guy, though they are just about all of 'em natives (the "new guy" has been there about a year) and might be able to make a Local Knowledge check...maybe a DC 20+ or so. ;->
Update: after running this in our last session, the "new guy" (who makes splendid Knowledge Local checks!) had indeed heard of Ziphras, especially when they caught one of the 'rats and he squeaked real good. ;->
Here is a home-cooked creation, called a Skitterling (also known as a timeweird) -> CLICK HERE
I hope it gets close to the flavor you were looking for. I went with a strong CR4, not knowing your groups level (go for two or one plus a poorly timed (for the party) newborn). Obvious hooks are meeting up with a host creature (an old friend perhaps?).
Three players, five characters, all dinged 4th recently, and just became the proud new owners of the Gold Goblin without knowing (yet) just what's under their basement (but they will, very soon...):
Ander Bjornson, CG Human (Ulfen) Bard
Bartalan, called "Bart"; CN Half-Orc Rogue (he of the back-stabbing Battleaxe)
Madd der Tinkerin, called "Bob"; CHAOTIC!G Gnome Sorcerer, Fae bloodline
Mariam Pagala, NG "Human" (Unearthed Arcana Major Bloodline, homebuilt Rakshasa ancestry; personality, think Piffany from "Nodwick" with golden fur and tail) Cleric of Desna 1/Druid 2/Bloodline 1
Panya Calphiak, NG Human Fighter, also called "the Cuisineart" by all she meets due to her proficiency with Two-Weapon Fighting feat paired bastard swords (nothing in the Beta rules against it... <G>)
It'll be interesting to see what becomes of them all once the official PF book comes out in August! ;->
Any suggestions? Been going a rather xp-less route (partially due to trying it out, partially due to not having time to) and was curious on when people thought the PCs should level. I've been able to find suggestions on when they should level based off a 4-person party, but what about 5?
Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!
This is more a gut feeling decision than anything else. I am GMing a group of 5 characters. We are leveling almost exactly where the plot indicates we should, and i have found the EL balance almost perfect. Most major encounters that are meaningful have resulted in one or two of the party dropped to unconscious and i have yet to have a character death. Never run anything that has worked out so well, the players are in a perpetual state of fear... i love it!
** spoiler omitted **
Hope this helps
POSSIBLE SPOILERS (then again, if you guys are all DMs here, then don't worry...)!
My major problems with my five PCs (three actual players) seem to be:
a) I'm a noob GM (one or two sessions, way too many years ago with 1st Ed. AD&D, running a totally-created-on-the-fly dungeon with my ex- as one of the players doesn't count);
b) since we're all Old School (like, late-1970's Old), we dislike the "everyone has the same initiative roll they got at the beginning of the encounter" rule and play the old way, where everyone rolls it again at the start of each round (and some of my players have egregious initiatives!). We've been convinced in Rise of the Rune Lords and Curse of the Crimson Throne (which we haven't finished yet, either of them, so no spoilers there, please!) that following the book rule about this leads to TPKs, especially with a lot of MOBs (at least, from what I've seen) having Improved Initiative as a feat;
c) my players are all experienced GMs, and, while helping where they can, they obviously can't be privy to stuff in Shadow in the Sky I could really use help with. It's actually been very frustrating, not to have as complete a set of books for Riddleport (and no, I do not own any of the Freeport stuff, so there's no help there...sigh) as there were for Korvosa, areas for RotRL, etc., not to mention good clear motives for Old Stumpy (they didn't buy it a bit that it was primarily revenge and fear of the party's increasing power [they interfered in his sub-plans, a la Scooby and the gang]), or no information at all that there was a rogue elf in the city until an NPC told them (Kwava; I suppose I could've come up with something myself, but my players suggested even a noob could run this stuff, because so much was provided for the GM in the other two APs);
d) being experienced players and GMs in their own right, my players are cake-walking over everything I've thrown at them (including increasing the numbers of MOBs in any given encounter, except for the set-piece). We've encountered problems like this before in 3.0: everything was either way too easy, or way too deadly, with not much in between, but we just figured that was because the CR system was badly broken back then (really looking forward to the Pathfinder bestiaries! PLEASE, say you guys fixed the under-conning garbage!).
So, I guess what I need is: how do I challenge these guys, without killing the party? They haven't yet gotten into the basement under the Goblin yet (they've done everything else), but they know there's smuggler's tunnels down below, since they found the deed and the trap door.
As I say, they're all Old-School roleplayers, and very attached to their characters, complete with long backstories and histories for them. I don't like killing characters by the bucketful, but I at least want to shake them up a bit. On the other hand, they do seem to be levelling "properly," with the set-piece also used; they just dinged 4th, and are getting ready for the tunnels.
As for an Arcane caster taking up levels in a martial class, I have three words to offer:
Weak and squishy.
As in, "tired of being"... ;->
I had a half-satyr template (from Dragon magazine) on an orog base (from Races of Faerun; Underdark uber-orcs) Ranger, who started that way and "became" a Barbarian due to an overwhelming trauma. One could argue, perhaps, that the rage was in his blood, and proved he was a "throwback" to a more primitive sort (since the orogs were actually quite civilized and had Fighter as a favored class, not Barbarian).
I would have thought Multiclass would be Simultaneous class development rather than one then another (they used to call it something other than multiclass though)
Up until 3.0, multiclassing in AD&D was similar to the gestalt rules; it was only open to demi-human characters, limited to specific combinations for each race, XP had to be split between classes, hit points were averaged between classes, and racial level limits applied (some of which were quite low). 3.x multiclassing is similar to what AD&D called "dual classed characters," but much more flexible; dual classed characters had to be human, have 15+ in the "prime requisite" ability score(s) of the class they were currently advancing in and a 17+ in the ability score(s) for the class they wished to switch to, had to advance to a higher level in the new class to be able to use their old class without penalty (i.e., voiding all XP gains for the current adventure), and could never again advance in a class once left.
OP: Unless there are limitations in the campaign (training times, cultural background, etc.), the order in which a character takes levels in different classes doesn't really matter outside of the character concept. Was the character a tribal warrior who learned to tap into spirit powers (barbarian/sorcerer, possibly using the battle sorcerer variant, taking a nature-oriented bloodline)? Was the character the tribal witch-doctor/seer who wanted to take up fighting (sorcerer/barbarian)? Either could be a valid choice.
Yay pre-3.0! And when you threw out the silly racial restrictions, you could deal with the XP splits and HP averaging, no problem. Very few of us bothered with dual-classing, though; that was a bit ridiculous, restrictions-wise. Plus, if humans were that curious about checking out everything in their short lives, and elves (for instance) likely to switch to something else for several decades after getting bored, it seemed a bit backward...
I must admit, though, I do like the way Pathfinder deals with the issue; in our games, I've got a dwarven Cleric/Fighter, where she took one level of Fighter (okay, a favored class for dwarves, but still), giving her tower shield, martial weapons, etc. if she chooses, but I could've easily gone the other way, and chosen Cleric first and wound up with a Fighter who could channel positive energy. Sweet!
Being a wizard/fighter is a specialty. It's not the normal, its a special thing. Its not something every John Dick and Harry can accomplish very easily. It requires dedication and special training to pull off sucessfully.
Sure, any schmo can go 10/10 F/W but that's why we call him a schmo. He doesn't know what he's doing, and he sucks at it.
What it needs, is a specialist. A prestige class grants such a specialty.
I understand people don't like the Multiclass rules, but basically you are trying to get something for nothing. I understand you don't see it that way but it is essentially what you are trying to do. You want to be a 15wiz while only putting 10 into it. You want to increase bab without choosing a good bab class. Things do not come for free. And pardon but spending 1 feat to get half-level spell casting added on constitutes "free".
Some prestige classes are over the top. The principle ones that combine the classes though, generally aren't. They aren't particularly powerful but they do get the job done.
(eldritch disciple, for example. Mystic theurge for another tho arguably this one needs a boost and always has, but that's a discussion for another thread)
In short, I do not believe Multiclassing needs a boost. Either you multiclass synergistic classes, or you take a prestige class to shore up whatever odd combination you've tried to piece together. This makes sense, and doesn't need to be "fixed".
-S
I still long for the days (mentioned in another thread, actually) of 1e/2e, where a) there was no level cap (who thought _that_ one up?!), and b) any multiple classes you took (granted, you had to be non-human to multiclass, but let's not get into the restrictions on the races yet <G>) AVERAGED, they did not STACK (this could still be done today; the rate at which various player uber-powers are acquired would just be spread out a bit, that's all)!!! If one was a 6th level fighter/6th level mage, one could run with his/her 6th level party members and be just fine (as a matter of fact, this came in very handy when we found ourselves short of players; would just need a cleric type and rogue type. If one other player wanted to be a cleric/rogue of Hermes or someone similar, there you go). It was NOT considered weird, strange, lazy, twinking, etc., etc., etc., it was relatively normal.
In 3.x, if you tried that (which we did in 3.0; that had--unfortunate--results), you'd be considered 12th level, and the DM, if he/she did not cut teeth on the earlier editions, would have no problem gleefully throwing you against 12th level monsters...if he/she were a malicious bastich who really, really liked killing players for jollies ("TPK again! Woot!! I win, you suk!"), or penalizing them for a choice they made for their character's development. Hmm...would've liked to be a fly on the wall in that development committee room...
There are things I like about 3.x; chief among them is that anyone can play anything (not that our house rules didn't ignore the prejudiced racial stuff in 1e/2e anyway, but it made playing convention games difficult ["I can't be an elven monk? Half-orc paladin?"]), but I have never liked the way they "fixed" the class system (and don't even get me started on the CR disaster).
I do like Pathfinder, though; even with some things kept from 3.0 that I still wince at, it does try to solve a lot of issues, which I can appreciate. For one thing, you aren't penalized up the yin-yang for not keeping your various classes at exactly the same level, even if one of them isn't one of the two favored classes (sweet!) for your race (at least, I don't think so, but there haven't been any multi-classing rules _listed_ in the PF Beta book); you just don't get all the bennies you might be entitled to if you'd single-classed. Correct?
And if, for instance, being an elven fighter/wizard (ah, those were the days) is weird, unusual, freaky, etc., why would it even be possible to do?
I didn't see it mentioned in the ad copy for PF #19, but I'd heard rumors that the god write-up (like Cayden Cailean and Calistria in the Second Darkness AP) was going to focus on Sarenrae (since she's big in the desert, being a sun goddess <G>). Is this still true? ::hope, hope:: I've got a PC cleric of mine and an NPC cleric whose inquiring minds wanna know... ;->
Sarenrae is not detailed in PF #19.
She gets her article in PF #20.
Aigh! And they both ship out in March? There's not much left of it...and the ad copy says April... :-/
We should be getting the full preview for this AP in Pathfinder Volume 12 coming out for subscribers in the next week or so. I am really interested to hear what the "end goal" of this AP is. We've stopped the return of a mad Arch Wizard, we've saved a city from the chosen blue dragon warlord of Zon-Kuthon, and we will be stopping the drow from pulling a star down from the sky to destroy the world. What nefarious enemy will we face now. I can't wait to find out.
Um, dude, I can; our group is still playing the first three APs...
Spoiler:
Now, with titles like "Rise of the Rune Lords" and "Second Darkness," we might be able to figure out the end goals (preventing a Rune Lord [or all of them] from rising again, stopping a repeat of what caused the First Darkness), but I had no clue about the CotCT end goal until you mentioned it.
If we are set to "ship with Pathfinder", what will be shipping with #19 and what with #20?
Next week:
Pathfinder #19—Legacy of Fire Chapter 1: "Howl of the Carrion King"
Pathfinder Companion: Legacy of Fire Player's Guide
Pathfinder Chronicles: Dragons Revisited
Two weeks later:
Pathfinder #20—Legacy of Fire Chapter 2: "House of the Beast"
Pathfinder Module E2: Blood of Dragonscar
Right now, we're uncertain about Pathfinder Chronicles: Dark Markets—A Guide to Katapesh. We hope it's in this shipment, but we haven't got confirmation yet.
Planet Stories: The Sword of Rhiannon is coming from a different printer, but we expect to have it by the time the second lot arrives.
I didn't see it mentioned in the ad copy for PF #19, but I'd heard rumors that the god write-up (like Cayden Cailean and Calistria in the Second Darkness AP) was going to focus on Sarenrae (since she's big in the desert, being a sun goddess <G>). Is this still true? ::hope, hope:: I've got a PC cleric of mine and an NPC cleric whose inquiring minds wanna know... ;->
On the other hand, January 1, 2008 (Abadius 1, 4708) was on a Tuesday (my Toilday), and Viv's is on a Fireday (his fifth day of the week, my Oathday, Thursday in real life)?
I'm confused... :-/
As are we all. Paizo has not, to date, published an official calendar, so we're all working on our own preferred assumptions. The Guide to Korvosa states that there're 12 months of 30 days each, which makes 360 days in a non-leap year. The Campaign Setting says 52 weeks of 7 days, which makes 364 days.
My calendar assumes 360 days in a year.
Have fun with it, but don't expect it to match our Earth calendar with 365 days and a leap year once every 4 instead of 8 years.
Yeah, amen, an official calendar would be great! ::pouring over it again::
::nodding:: Okay...Golarion must be somewhat closer to the sun than we are here, to have a "leap year" be 365 rather than 366...and thanks for doing the hard work! It does look cool...now, if I can just get the moon phases to behave...
I made an Excel calendar generator for Golarion that works for any year from 1 A.R. with moon phases, leap days and the holidays in Campaign Setting all marked in. My version differs from Lilith's in 2 major ways:
1) It synchs with the date mentioned in Second Darkness, in that 14 Arodus 4708 IS Oathday.
Hmm...I found, in trying to do it first using Word calendar templates and changing the month name, day name, and year before looking for something here (duh!), that if you sort of ignore the order of days of the week as listed in the hardback Pathfinder Chronicles book (pg. 238):
Moonday = work, religion (night)
Toilday = work
Wealday = work
Oathday = work, pacts signed, oaths sworn
Fireday = work, market day
Starday = work
Sunday = rest, religion
and go with probably the analog they intended (i.e., Moonday = Monday, Toilday = Tuesday, etc.), Sunday would start the week in our Earthly calendar, which would make Oathday a "Thursday" rather than a "Wednesday", and then Arodus 14, 4708 (start of Second Darkness) works just fine. ;->
Also: in most months, a lot of the 6th day stuff, 20th day stuff, etc. falls on our "Sundays", which makes sense. ;->
Aw, crud; forgot that while 2008 IS a leap year here, 4708 is not...so it doesn't work after all... [cry][/cry]
On the other hand, January 1, 2008 (Abadius 1, 4708) was on a Tuesday (my Toilday), and Viv's is on a Fireday (his fifth day of the week, my Oathday, Thursday in real life)?
The moon font is included in the zip file. Just extract it and right click to "install" the font into the Windows font directory.
Since uploading that, I fixed the fonts in a few places for consistency and better readability, and added Korvosan holidays (except the King's Birthday, because you know why). The new version is here.
Hmm...well, I got the newer version (pays to come in late to the party sometimes <G>), and extracted both to the directory where I keep my Pathfinder stuff. Should I have extracted the moon phases file to the Windows font directory? It's still giving me a rain drop, closed file, downward pointing hand, and open file symbols instead of the moon phase symbols. :-(
I made an Excel calendar generator for Golarion that works for any year from 1 A.R. with moon phases, leap days and the holidays in Campaign Setting all marked in. My version differs from Lilith's in 2 major ways:
1) It synchs with the date mentioned in Second Darkness, in that 14 Arodus 4708 IS Oathday.
Hmm...I found, in trying to do it first using Word calendar templates and changing the month name, day name, and year before looking for something here (duh!), that if you sort of ignore the order of days of the week as listed in the hardback Pathfinder Chronicles book (pg. 238):
Moonday = work, religion (night)
Toilday = work
Wealday = work
Oathday = work, pacts signed, oaths sworn
Fireday = work, market day
Starday = work
Sunday = rest, religion
and go with probably the analog they intended (i.e., Moonday = Monday, Toilday = Tuesday, etc.), Sunday would start the week in our Earthly calendar, which would make Oathday a "Thursday" rather than a "Wednesday", and then Arodus 14, 4708 (start of Second Darkness) works just fine. ;->
Also: in most months, a lot of the 6th day stuff, 20th day stuff, etc. falls on our "Sundays", which makes sense. ;->
Aw, crud; forgot that while 2008 IS a leap year here, 4708 is not...so it doesn't work after all... [cry][/cry]
I made an Excel calendar generator for Golarion that works for any year from 1 A.R. with moon phases, leap days and the holidays in Campaign Setting all marked in. My version differs from Lilith's in 2 major ways:
1) It synchs with the date mentioned in Second Darkness, in that 14 Arodus 4708 IS Oathday.
Hmm...I found, in trying to do it first using Word calendar templates and changing the month name, day name, and year before looking for something here (duh!), that if you sort of ignore the order of days of the week as listed in the hardback Pathfinder Chronicles book (pg. 238):
Moonday = work, religion (night)
Toilday = work
Wealday = work
Oathday = work, pacts signed, oaths sworn
Fireday = work, market day
Starday = work
Sunday = rest, religion
and go with probably the analog they intended (i.e., Moonday = Monday, Toilday = Tuesday, etc.), Sunday would start the week in our Earthly calendar, which would make Oathday a "Thursday" rather than a "Wednesday", and then Arodus 14, 4708 (start of Second Darkness) works just fine. ;->
Also: in most months, a lot of the 6th day stuff, 20th day stuff, etc. falls on our "Sundays", which makes sense. ;->
Well, Andre Norton's Witchworld, Donaldson's Thomas Covenant novels, H. Beam Piper's Lord Calvan of Otherwhen, Harry Turtledove's novels... Need I go on?
Yes, you do, because you haven't hit the (right) Holger yet.
Ha! _Three Hearts and Three Lions_ by Poul Anderson? Holger, who became Ogier (Holger) the Dane? The title was from the device (coat of arms) on his shield. Do I win a no-prize? ;->
As for templates, they work great. A half-fiend template on a half-orc, for example, is going to be different than one based on a dwarf (i.e., half-fiend/dwarf; daddy was a fiend, mommy was the dwarf, or the other way around) because the template abilities stack with the base abilities: a 3.0 half-fiend (what I used for my NPC example; 3.5 half-outsiders are waaaay too overpowered) gets +4 STR, +4 DEX, +2 CON, +4 INT, +0 WIS, +2 CHA. I did my NPC guy as having a fiend dad and a Pathfinder half-orc mom (+2 STR, +2 WIS, -2 INT), so the total combination would be: +6 STR, +4 DEX, +2 CON, +2 INT, +2 WIS, +2 CHA.
He's not a bad character...literally; for my house rules, half-celestials are any non-evil alignment, and half-fiends are any non-good (he's Chaotic Neutral). I based this off the actual write up in the racial blurb: "All too rarely, though, one learns from and takes on the characteristics of its non-fiendish parent, turning from its evil heritage." This implies that it is possible. My guy was rescued from an orc tribe on the Belkzen border when he was a year old and raised by a Neutral Good human priest of Sarenrae among Varisians, so that's the society he grew up in. He can't be truly Good unless he gets hit by alignment-changing magic, but he does his best...and will voluntarily NOT use his "inborn" spell-like abilities other than Darkness.
More on-topic, I like the idea of having armor training interact with a shield, not least of all because it might make a Spartan somewhat viable. :P
Heh! Don't take Frank Miller's gorgeous Spartans as historically accurate...very fun to watch in action ('scuse me whilst I wipe the drool from my chin, just thinking about the movie...sigh <G>), but no, the real Spartans were among the more heavily armored guys in the Mediterranean at the time (one of the reasons they were putting themselves at Thermopylae to guard the pass. Basically the equivalent of the Dwarven Shieldwall Fighter). Helmet, breastplate (that went down to around the navel)/backplate, plated "skirt", greaves for the lower legs, arm armor, _then_ the big honking shield for a phalanx manuever, the spear, etc., etc., etc. One "wealth" the Spartans had was in iron, and they used it as much as possible (the armor was usually different metals for different pieces; bronze was still heavily in use); "The true source of our strength!" --Lykurgos
I can guarentee it: it's a rare day indeed when any fighter _won't_ be wearing some kind of armor, going into battle. A shield is much more optional. A fighter without armor = a monk (interesting idea...get all the combat feats that mirror a lot of the monk stuff...hmm).
That being said, I'm glad this thread came up, since I had questions too. I have a Fighter 3/Sorcerer 3 (who may stick with straight fighter), who I'm debating about getting a shield for (he's a guy made up at 6th level for testing purposes). The main issue for me has always been not so much the AC (1 point may or may not make too much of a difference, with rolls averaging out), but the armor check penalty. Without the Armor Training at all, he'd be -1 penalty due to his armor (studded leather for the sake of being able to do spell casting; he took Arcane Armor Training to help) and an additional -1 for a light shield. Since I want him to be able to actually do other stuff than just stand there and take it as a tank, I'd like to reduce that penalty, if possible. The Armor Mastery ability at 19th level says: "whenever he is wearing armor or using a shield." He'll be wearing armor, I'll bet anything (and my guy can even sleep in his, since it's Light armor!). ;->
My vote? Clarify whether or not shields are included in some fashion at lower levels for the final Pathfinder rules, or make something like Shield Training, starting at fourth or sixth level, the way Armor Training starts at third and Weapon Training starts at fifth. Play around with the numbers as to what Shield Training means, but make it clear.
"Iron, Cold: This iron, mined deep underground, known for its effectiveness against fey creatures, is forged at a lower temperature to preserve its delicate properties. Weapons made of cold iron cost twice as much to make as their normal counterparts. Also, any magical enhancements cost an additional 2,000 gp.
Items without metal parts cannot be made from cold iron. An arrow could be made of cold iron, but a quarterstaff could not.
A double weapon that has only half of it made of cold iron increases its cost by 50%.
Cold iron has 30 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 10."
Um, but, but, "cold iron" in real life is simply cast iron, as opposed to wrought iron! You know, smelt the iron out of the ore, get it into a mold of the finished piece, grind an edge on it or whatever you need to do to finish it, and never work it with a hot forge, thus not messing about too much with its molecular properties! It's "cold-worked" (and more brittle, by and large [if you work iron in a forge fueled by either charcoal or coal, you will get some carbon in there, making it an alloy, or steel, and more forgiving]; I'd recommend adding some penalties to it, frankly, like after 10 fumbles rolled while using it, it breaks or something) because that's how 95% of the work on it was done, cold, without a forge, not because it's a different "type" of iron!
Now, granted, making the original mold in the first place could be tricky, requiring high-level quality work, and keeping it "cold" when enchanting it could be an issue, so I guess I could live with the extra costs. But jeez...kinda wished the original 3.5 book writers did more homework. :-/
Lady Bluehawk
A bladesmith apprentice--in real life
I introduced her as well to good results. The Calystrian priestess/sorceress and the half-elf rogue are both hooked on her (and the half-elf rogue is already hooked on Samaritha as well...)
That has them hating Zincher even more (adding on top of the wererat note signed "Z"... :)
Ha! That will be interesting; next week, we'll probably get to Part 3, and since they've only been allowed to read the SD Companion, the players don't know that the other Z, Ziphras, is considered one of the crimelords (though real small-time for now) and the major wererat leader. Heck, they've never even heard of the guy, though they are just about all of 'em natives (the "new guy" has been there about a year) and might be able to make a Local Knowledge check...maybe a DC 20+ or so. ;->
Would you pay the same for a potion of grease?
Why the complicated sub-system just for this item?
My suggested simple replacement: gives a 10x10 area that becomes difficult terrain for 1 minute. Add appropriate flavour text. Can also be used as a cantrip "Slick" thus costs 25gp.
It is already a first level spell... Entangle.
In fact, tanglefoot bag is weaker since it only hits one target and not an area. Also the spell gives 1 point of damage for each failed save.
That the tanglefoot bag doesn't grant a reflex save is countered by the need to hit with a ranged touch attack.
The only other effect than the entangled condition, is the possibility of disabling movement altogether. I don't think this is either too powerful or overtly complex.
I believe that the alchemical items need to remain useful, since Small characters will often have to resort to these. I think the price might be lowered for tanglefoot bag though...
I completely agree, H; it's only effective if you can hit your target. After failing with one and FUMBLING with another (and we only had 2; party was not happy at my rogue "wasting" that much in the way of loot), my gal quickly swore off them and whipped out her rapier to finish the fight against a "Boss".
So, yeah, its limitations almost outweigh its usefulness, and I agree the price ought to be lowered.
I like the further ideas for adjusting Craft (Alchemy), too...not bad suggestions for just off the top of his head. ;->
While my assumption when developing the adventure was that the PCs are all locals and from Riddleport... that's not an assumption that's safe to make for all groups. Player characters are notorious for wanting to have control over their PC's backstories, after all! Which is why the campaign traits from the Player's Guide are relatively easy to apply to locals as well as visitors.
If a character's from Riddleport, they should be pretty knowledgeable about the place. They should probably read the Second Darkness player's guide, for one, which includes several pages about the city of Riddleport that are intended to simulate the fact that a character is from that region.
I would allow characters from Riddleport to make Knowledge checks before the game begins to establish how much they know about things. Remember that characters can make Knowledge checks untrained to secure results of DC 10 or less, so even characters without ranks can attempt to learn something from Knoweldge (local) and Knowledge (nature). Gather Information and Search, of course, can both be made untrained, and I'd let Riddleport natives roll these checks before the game begins as well.
I wouldn't let them take 20 on these rolls, though, until after the game begins, at the very least.
Thanks for the advice! :-)
Wish me luck, folks; we start next weekend... =8-0
Okay, I lied...at least about more questions on this thread; just figured this might be the most logical place for it. I'm a newbie GM, especially to Pathfinder (though I'm playing currently in RotRL and CotCT and enjoying them immensely <G>), but had one or two experiences waaaay back when running 1st ed. AD&D games that were disasters. In an effort to not repeat that, one of the multitudinous questions I have about such things (besides "How the heck did I let them talk me into this?!") is:
My party of 4-5 (my hubby might not always be able to join us) consists mostly of Riddleportian natives, folks that have spent anywhere from one year, in the case of our Ulfen bard, to five years (our half-orc rogue [whose frequent choice for a back-stab weapon is a greataxe, of all things]), to ten years (the human fighter and the Rakshasa-bloodline cleric), to all their lives here (our gnome sorcerer. Dunno if he's looking to join the Cyphermages or not yet). How savvy should they be about the doings/people/etc. of the place? How much should I reveal, hide, or presume they already know?
We all got the feeling, rightly or wrongly, through the Companion that the PCs were expected to be visitors, newly-arrived. The various Knowledge and Gather Information checks at the beginning of the adventure regarding the Blot, for example, could easily be justified for tourists, but if they've been here longer than the Blot itself, they could easily take 20 on everything and have learned everything the book has to offer on it (I wouldn't put it past my hubby's character to try to rig up a low-cost way to fly up to it; he's crazy <G>). Should I treat them like ordinary Las Vegas residents back in the "bad old days" (before it was so family-oriented; it was understood you went there to lose money, but at least the meals were cheap)?
Hopefully I'll have A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times sitting next to it at the end of the month. from the brief glance I had it it, it has great diagrams and pictures of the how any why of many great weapons preceding and including the inception of the gun into warfare. This is saftcaver and a little less thick than the above book, but taller and wider if I remember correctly.
Just be careful and take everything in that last one with a grain of salt: from what I've heard, it was published in the 1920's and there's a ton of inaccuracies (more recent books are more accurate, since they can cover more recent digs and scientific investigation), as well as very little, if anything, on Chinese stuff, which could hinder a Tian Xia campaign.
Thanks for the heads up.. is there another one you would recommend?
I've got The Complete Encyclopedia of Arms & Weapons (it includes armor and equipment, too) here; it's available at Amazon Marketplace, being a used book. It's edited by Leonid Tarassuk and Claude Blair and published in Italy in the late 70s-early 80s, so at least it's more recent. I've found it very inclusive, as far as the rest of the world goes, but it's alphabetically arranged, so it's a pain to use sometimes. If you look for it on Amazon, they'll have similar book suggestions; I got my crib notes for my previous entry on this thread from reviews there.
I also liked the Men-at-Arms series of paperbacks for specific times/ locales, but they could vary a lot, quality-wise. Does anyone know if they're still being published?
Since the map in question is a "tactical" map (shows where the combatants are) then 5-ft. squares is correct. Don't know why that didn't get printed on the map, though. Sorry about that.
Thanks for the thoughts and clarifications, everyone! Just one more question (at least in this thread <G>):
In the map of the first Sublevel of the Gold Goblin, the secret door seems to be in the middle of the hall at 34 (i.e., horizontally aligned), yet the guard alcove in 38 is the one that appears to end at a blank wall, where a vertically aligned secret door would be more logical, given the description? If the whole level is a "secret" (though not that well-kept <G>), there doesn't seem any need to block off the hall, especially not since the more expensive bar is beyond that point?
I'm looking forward to your thoughts. And sorry if my English is somewhat clunky, I'm not a native speaker :-).
Ah, no, Dance, compared to other posters (thankfully, none of them here), your English is wonderful, far better than most who claim it as their PRIMARY language...at least, this thread does not incite the Bloody-handed (yes, I LIKE red pens, dang it), Fanged, English Teacher of Doom instincts. ;->
Gah! I am ashamed to re-read my posts sometimes. Ive got dyslexia big time and I often mis-type words that I got right in my head. sorry for the trouble.
Meh, Cohlrox, you're not bad, honest. And I do apologize for the rant taking up space. :-)
That being said, talking about "padding" or replacing even in the first adventure:
Spoiler:
why not link the set piece and the Splithog Pauper within more directly with Saul, and provide some better reason to betray the party that way? For instance, Saul may be trying to "diversify" his interests throughout the town to regain his standing, and not just depend solely on the Goblin or even the Drow to make his fortune. Beltias may well be one of his agents in this regard, and Saul's understandably irked when the party sticks their noses where they're not wanted. For that, the best of the suggested hooks may very well be "Patricide", where the Gold Goblin barmaid Marzielle has no clue that her boss Saul is supporting the s.o.b. she wants to see dead.
If this was mentioned before in a former post, forgive me; it's waaaay too late at night/early in the morning here for coherent thought. ;->
3) The Boneyard Ambush - On the map there is "Recommended Approach" and Projected Approach. Who is/has recommended these approaches? Saul gives the recommended approach, but then what's the projected approach? The description also says that there is a marking on the map for the cockroach swarm, but I don't see that listed. Where are the ships and other debris piles marked on the map? From what I see, the "land mass" areas wouldn't be the debris areas, as it says the debris areas are 2x movement cost.
Real quick question on the Boneyard map: what's the scale? Is it the usual 1 square = 5', or does it "expand" outdoors, where 1 square = 10'?
And yes, I'm a newbie GM...if the answer lies in the DMG, just feel free to fling Nerf balls at my head. :-/
I'm looking forward to your thoughts. And sorry if my English is somewhat clunky, I'm not a native speaker :-).
Ah, no, Dance, compared to other posters (thankfully, none of them here), your English is wonderful, far better than most who claim it as their PRIMARY language...at least, this thread does not incite the Bloody-handed (yes, I LIKE red pens, dang it), Fanged, English Teacher of Doom instincts. ;->
That said, I think a lot of the suggestions have merit, plus, for those concerned about 6th level in SD, and/or whose parties may want to return to Riddleport and perhaps tidy up anything unfinished...I'm thinking it wouldn't be a bad thing to somehow combine the two. I haven't started yet (our group meets once a month, if we're lucky, and our other 2 GMs are still working on RotRL and CotCT), so I'm not sure if that's possible, but it could be investigated.
I like the ideas of using more "suburban" areas of the drow city, as well as a lesser House, but the trick is not to get too bogged down with establishing the party in the Darklands indefinitely; everyone's on a time limit (the Extinction Level Event, if nothing else). And the idea of getting the last big chunk o' info in the same encounter as the disguise drop is priceless ("Woo hoo! We got it! CRAP! Time to go!" ::shooom!::). ;->
As for allies in the Darklands: grey gnomes! According to at least one mention (the Gods supplement), the...gah...svirfneblin (whew!) do exist, but they may be much like 3.0 svir--grey gnomes, and not necessarily willing to help out topsiders against their dangerous neighbors...a possibility, nonetheless.
Yup, Golarion drow aren't just evil because of upbringing, society, environment, diet or whatever else that makes Orcs go aaargh and Goblins go squeee. They are evil because they made a choice that taints their blood so strongly, that they are beyond redemption. Or that's how I see it... it runs in the blood, basically.
To say that the demonic taint in your blood makes you beyond redemption would mean that there could never be a good tiefling character either, or that, if using Pathfinder, that all sorcerers with Abyssal or Infernal bloodlines have to be evil as well. The first drow did make the choice to consort with the demonic powers, but since then they have become a race that breeds true rather than being born a normal elf and undergoing the transformation later. I think that there is room for the occasional good drow, but they should be rare and an outcast among their own people and the surface dwellers. The player should also have a real good reason why they did not under go the "cure" for their condition that JB mentioned earlier.
Heh...slightly (well, okay, maybe more than slightly) off-topic, if you take a gander at the 3.0 half-outsider templates (and 3.5, I think, but I couldn't get past the massive increased uberness that made them unplayable as PCs), the text for half-fiends reads, and I quote:
"All too rarely, though, one learns from and takes on the characteristics of its nonfiendish parent, turning from its evil heritage." [page 215, 3rd ed. MMI]
which implies it might be possible to be non-evil, at least. Then, on the next page in the summary statistics for Alignment, it lists: Always evil (any), which to me contradicts what was said so well before. In my house rules, half-fiends are any non-good (thus giving them a chance at "redemption" [they didn't ask to be born that way, folks]), while half-celestials are any non-evil. I do have an NPC bouncer/temple guard at The Publican House in Riddleport who's a 3.0 half-demon template on a PF half-orc, Chaotic Neutral worshipper of Cayden Cailean (and bears a slight resemblance to a certain popular red half-demon from our world <G>), and I'd be a more than a bit impressed, if not scared, of a Lawful Neutral "Wrath-of-gods" half-celestial...
What Non-RPG books do you keep close when reading the boards or the pathfinder books?
I currently have been looking things up in The dictionary of mythology to see what has changed from Earth myth to Golorian Reality. It's about 10 and 1/2" buy 8" by 3" (1135 pages) with anywhere from a sentance to 15 pages on topics, creatures, and people from mythology all over the world
Hopefully I'll have A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times sitting next to it at the end of the month. from the brief glance I had it it, it has great diagrams and pictures of the how any why of many great weapons preceding and including the inception of the gun into warfare. This is saftcaver and a little less thick than the above book, but taller and wider if I remember correctly.
Just be careful and take everything in that last one with a grain of salt: from what I've heard, it was published in the 1920's and there's a ton of inaccuracies (more recent books are more accurate, since they can cover more recent digs and scientific investigation), as well as very little, if anything, on Chinese stuff, which could hinder a Tian Xia campaign.
I wouldn't put keyboard instruments in Ancient Greek or Roman cultures, and I would imagine that the Land of the Linnorm Kings would find such instruments terribly odd. But any fantasy culture that can handle 14th Century technology should be able to accomodate keyboards.
My suggestion for Varisians would be some variant on the Hurdy-gurdy, with a keyboard for one hand and a crank for the other. If you wanted to make it a little more impressive, there's the very strange wheel-harp.
Actually, even the Greeks and Romans had some (according to _Ancient Inventions_ by James and Thorpe), but they were rare, and usually the work of a few geniuses: in the 3rd c. BC, Ctesibius of Alexandria invented the first keyboard instrument, a "water-organ" complete with pipes and keys. Heron of Alexandria made a wind-powered version 200 years later, and near the end of the first century BC, good ol' Vitruvius described further refinements. So, perhaps in a city like Absalom, or in the old imperial capitals, Golarion "ancients" might have left mosaics or examples behind from the really old days.
As for modern Varisians (and sailors, too!), concertinas (smaller accordions, with the bellows in more of a tube-shape than a "radiator" and the buttons on the end cap) work very well. There's a sailor NPC-type playing one behind Kirk Douglas and his guitar early on in Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" movie (playing the song, "Whale of a Tale"). ;->
This one is the one I have. Requires a little work to make your own panels, but it's 3 panels wide (landscape orientation). Put two of them together and it might be exactly what you need.
Mike McArtor's address/sign-off was very bittersweet.
I hope I wasn't too bitter in it. I don't remember what I wrote. ;)
LOL! Probably "bittersweet" as in, it's sad to see you go from the day-to-day stuff, but we liked having you here, wish you luck, and hope to see your stuff again. Just a guess... ;->
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