Matthew Morris's page

here

My question, I don't know if it'll be best asked here, or in a general discussion of the Pathfinder Soceity, but I couldn't find a like-worded version of this:

I'm new to the PFS, and I'm scheduled to play my first session on June 16 at a local game store, but the only two groups are running "Shipyard Rats," and since that scenario is not part of the intro, and thus requires a Faction Trait, am I able to create a new character whenever I do get a chance to run the Intro series so that I can gain the full benifits at least once for one character? Or is that once I pick a Faction Trait, all of my characters have to be associated with the corresponding Faction?

First, welcome to the boards, Nate.

Yes, you would have to have a faction for Shipyard Rats (Rey suggests Shadow Lodge, while Mayim says "Go Taldor!").

That being said, no you are not limited to all your PCs being 'stuck' with one faction. As the line above shows, Rey is Shadow Lodge, while Mayim is Taldor. Both are run by me.

Side question, where on Earth are you? Might be other games going on.

I'm surprised that there's no thread for this yet.

Backing away from their previous promise, DC is now deciding to make one of their 'reboot' heroes gay, apparently when he was previously straight.

Current odds on favourite is the Nu Alan Scott (Green Lantern). If true this bothers me for 3 reasons.

• They make a big press release, then use a golden age character that's being rebooted, the Pre-boot character was happlily married for years, and has children. (see below)
  
• In the Pre-boot universe, Jade (Jenny Lynn Hayden) is his daughter. She's also one of my favourite non-Titan heroes.
  
• Likewise in the Pre-boot, Obsidian is Alan's son, and is gay. So we're erasing (yet another) character who happens to be gay, to get a press release for a slightly less obscure character.
  

Also, why?

Now if I wanted to make a Nu-character 'switch sides' there's an obvious choice.

Superboy.

• He's clearly not Conner Kent, so it won't infuriate anyone (like me) who enjoyed the pre-boot version.
  
• Conner's love interest (Cassie Sandmark/Wondergirl) was also mauled by the reboot so there's no emotional bond there.
  
• Being an artifically aged clone, it would be an interesting story thread for him to 'explore' human sexuality, especially with post-boot Cassie on the team, as well as Bunker.
  
• It doesn't erase characters in the process.
  

As to Marvel's latest headline grab, I wrote this elsewhere.

Whether it will ‘get there’ or not is moot to the complaint that caught my eye, which is ‘why now?’

I read the Alpha mini-to-a-series-to-a-truncated-mini and that was the first I’d heard of Kyle. Does he have any backstory? Was he created because someone in editorial went “Crap, we have Jean-Paul gay and not dating, we can’t have that!” To use another couple, Rictor and Shatterstar are established characters, who have history and backgrounds. Neither was created so the other would be ‘dating someone.’

I don’t mind characters having relationships. Even with ‘background characters’ (Lee Forrester, I’m looking at you). That’s realistic, that not everyone in tights has a love who also wears spandex. Heck, Jean-Paul’s former teammate Snowbird had a perfectly normal mortal husband and son, and Heather wasn’t a superhero until *after* James died. (More on that below)

Even if you don’t agree with SSM (I prefer domestic partnerships) there are a lot of subplots that come from a dating a hero when you’re mortal.

Any chance of getting extra d6s available or (even better) a white Second Darkness d6 with black numbers?

I enjoy my 10 piece RotRL and SD dice but I'd love to be able to make a 10 die set of these.

The stark black and silver looks to address a lot of the "I can't read 'em" issues of Q-workshop.

Good afternoon,

I've a request. besides Among the Living and Silent Tide, anyone want to suggest some undead-heavy low level scenarios? While I don't want to OD the kids on the undead, they are funny in how they fear them (more on that in a minute).

They just hit second level, so we're looking at low tier adventures for a while. I'll even take fake undead.

Ok, like I said, I'm enjoying the fear of the undead. My question is, if a player is afraid of using an ability and it would be harmless, should I educate him? Case in point, my nephew's barbarian Badab, now has the bite rage power. He was raging but was afraid of biting the zombies for fear of catching ghoul fever. (They fought a ghoul in another adventure.) We were encouraging him to bite and spit, not swallow*. But he didn't want to take the chance. Should I, as GM have said "It's fine, you can do it"?

*

So we now have Beta Ray Bill and Stormbreaker.

I kind of hope to see Eric and Thunderstrike.

With Motion Capture, you could do a Beta Ray Bill in Thor 2 and then he could be the tie to Guardians of the Galaxy. :-)

That you cancel my pathfinder battles subscription.

Between trying to erase debt, commit to Rappan Athuk and go out to see my family this fall (and the other PF products in June and July and August) there's just no way I can swing the minis.

Well just watched tonight, and in an amusing note. the stasis cannon on the Decepticon Warship made the same noise as the Zat guns from Stargate.

Good afternoon all.

I just wanted to check for my bard if this is a crazy feat progression (half elf bard)

1st Weapon Finesse
3rd Eldrich Heritage to get a familiar
5th: Lingering Performance
7th (Improved famiiar)

Gearwise, I'm thinking she carries a scorpion whip (later MW, later +1 agile) and a cestus for close combat, so I have the whole P/B/S covered.

Also looking at the dance of 23 steps at 4th or 5th level for defense.

Ok, as I've joked frequently, map creation and I don't get along. At all.

Is there a list out there of what scenarios use map packs or flip maps?

I know, for example that First Steps 3 uses maps (I went and bought those from my FLGS for the weekend) and Crypt of the Everflame uses the Dungeon flipmap (have that for the next time I run it). What else?

Good evening,

Ok, here's the question. My niece and nephew haven't lost their characters (yet) and now have a decent amount of gold in their possession.

Now, they can't buy pdfs on the webstore obviously, (being 12 and 15) so my question is, being minors, can they use *my* copies of Ultimate Combat, APG, etc etc to equip or get feats for their characters?

Along similar lines, do you have to own a scenario to run it? I've a play and GM credit for Silent Tide, for example, but could my nephew run Silent Tide (say, for classmates) using my PDF?

Thank you.

Spoilers of course.

I do love that PAD put in a Doctor Who shout-out in the most recent episode.

It is funny that Roy's so much older than Wally or Dick though.

Cartoon came to me this morning.

Big panel of various barbarians protesting outside the Paizo office. Holding signs like "Wee can Reed two! "Barbarains for legitimacy" "Books, not just for starting fires!" etc etc. Bonus if some of the protester look like Krusk, Arnold-Conan, Momma-Conan etc etc.

Second panel is Sajan and Amri* looking out from inside the office. Sajan is asking "Friends of yours?" and Amri is doing a facepalm.

I can see it clearly in the mind's eye, but I can't draw to save my life.

Bonus panel would be Lem and Gimbal painting the signs and selling them to the barbarians.

*

Running “In Service to Lore” this weekend, I was reminded again how certain characters seem to match celebrities in my head and wondered if others ran into the same thing.

Part 1:

Disclaimer: I don't even play 40k, so don't ask me how this got stuck in my head:

[Scene: Two Space Marines are working through the wreckage of an Orc Gargant, looking for stragglers.]

Space Marine 1: You know, I’ve been thinking.

Space Marine 2: About what?

Space Marine 1: Just how much I love being a Space marine.

Space Marine 2: I know what you mean! [Sings] I love the Emperor

SM1: [singing] And humanity!

SM2: I love my flamer

SM1: And my Lasgun too

Both: Boom de ada boom de ada boom de ada boom de ada.

SM1: I love my chain fist

SM2: And my bolter’s clips

SM1: I love torching orcs

SM2: Into crispy chips!

SM1: I love the Imperium

SM2: And known space too.

[Squig sticks it’s head out of the wreck] Squig: Boom de ada boom de ada boom de ada boom de- BLAM! [as space marines shoot it]

SM2: I love Land Raiders

SM1: and Rhinos too

SM2: I love the Hellhound

SM2: And the Valkyrie

Both: Boom de ada boom de ada boom de ada boom de ada.

[Space Marine 3 walks on while they’re singing the chorus]

SM3: I love Chaos…

[SM1 and SM2 exchange looks then both turn their weapons on SM3, quickly killing him.]

[SM1 and SM 2 each put an arm around the other’s shoulder]

Both: Boom de ada boom de ada boom de ada boom de ada.

[Fade to black, repeating chorus]

Inspired by the other thread.

Not becasue "I hate character X" but because they had a 'good death' their storyline was told, etc etc.

Like I mentioned in the other thread, Eric Masterson. As much as I love the character* His story was done and he died in a heroic way.

I'll add Jean to the list. I remember reading somewhere that when Jim Shooter said Jean has to die (and not just be lobotomized) and Claremont went the "Madalyne Pryor" route, his idea was that Maddie was exactly what she seemed to be, a human redhead that looked a lot like Jean. (Asgard Wars supported this) The idea was that Scott would marry her and retire leaving the X-men behind except for occasional guest appearances. That way the team could seem to grow and age, even with the sliding timescale.

Instead we got the incredible returning Jean, and Scott Summers is a jerk. (Really, why Nate/Cable even likes his dad is beyond me) We also got the destruction of a strong female character, who could have easily become the "Marvel Oracle" during the X-Outback story arc.

It's not that I hate Jean per se. but the choice of her returns did a lot of damage to other characters.

*

Good morning gents, I've a question about auditing.

Rey has survived 5 scenarios so far, and I've been using herolab and my mini. Now after every scenario I just down in the "XP journal" section of Herolab what he used, what he bought, gold earned etc etc. So you can see he bought his darkwood club after Silent tide, used a potion of cure light wounds and mage armor after Hydra's fang, etc etc.

Now here's the rub. I've not written this stuff on his Chronicle sheets. How many judges/VCs would have coniption fits if I had just the sheets and the prints of the XP logs from Herolab?

Yeah, I can do it after the fact, but just gathering opinions.

The comments about tired judges after a con got me thinking (also playing saturday I don't want any bad feelings from a new group about Rey if he's 'technically legal but not kosher').

Aside, yes I know if I lose the file I'm screwed. I have Rey on both the laptop and the mini, and two flash drives. If I lose all of those, I've bigger problems than a Pathfinder Society Character's legality.

Just wanted to put in a quick 'Thank you' for releasing the 'limited edition' adventures to the general public. I'm all for things for our hard working GMs, but at the same time I'd like to see them eventually 'trickle down' to the masses. :-)

Found here.

Thank you to Kaisoku for getting me thinking about this.

Given the (implied) common nature of spell casters, why haven't magic innovations come to life? I can think of some locations/reasons.

Andoran - capital flows, so their might be such doo-dads.

Hold of Belkzen - Hulk no need puny air conditioners!

Brevoy - Some of those castle/fortresses would likely have air conditioners, vending machines, etc.

Cheliax - I can see the laws/rewards system keeping this to the nobles.
"You pesants complain it's hot? Imagine how it will be after you die! Bwahahahaha!"

Druma - it's a mercintile empire. People with money likely have magical knick knacks.

Five Kings Mountains - I'd assume at least some magical air circulation, so why not instal a magic thermostat too?

Galt - You're lucky to have clean water, let alone magic doo-dads.

Geb - The dead might not need such things, but I'll bet there's a good bit of items that use figments and the like to generate remembered feelings. Maybe something that allows a 'riding' of a mortal thrall?

Irrisen - Come on, does anyone think that the Baba Yaga's granddaughters don't have magical space heaters?

etc. etc. So do people have magical 'daily appliances' in their Golarion?

Good morning,

I thought I'd post this here and ask for clarification, since it didn't go anywhere in the PFS thread I asked it in.

Relavent text:

Try Again: Yes, but if you ever roll a natural 1 while attempting to activate an item and you fail, then you can’t try to activate that item again for 24 hours.

[Italics mine]

It came up in conversation about wands of CLW that a GM would just roll until he got a nat 1 and then the item had that many charges if the player had a +19 bonus. But 1 + 19 = 20, so that's not a failure.

I'm reading it as both conditions have to be met a) a nat 1 has to come up on the die and b) that the total roll of that 1 + modifiers has to be less than the DC. Am I the only one reading it that way?

Well I guessed right on [redacted] and [redacted] but not the vial or the [redacted]. Nice to see one of my favourite monsters used.

Or, Can Dr Strange beat Sauron?

I picked up the starter set of Lord of the Rings clix (I think Sabertooth had better variety). I was amused that it uses the same mechanics as Heroclix. So you really can have Wolverine take on a cave troll, or Felix Faust vs Sauraman. :-)

For those of you who have me on FB, I just uploaded a pic of the blue goblins standing beside the Blackest Night Scarecrow at work for a sense of scale. I'm hoping to put pics comparing PF minis to Reaper and DDM minis this weekend.

Something just hit me with Galt, and I thought I'd share it.

Would A Tale of Two Cities be good 'inspirational reading' for Galt? And what other classics would 'mesh' with Golarion?

Good morning!

Reading in the Dragon Empires product thread made me want to talk about how people design feats to be limited in levels.

With my last Donna's Dozen, I looked at feats and how I saw them working 'behind the scenes' to limit/control the level in their selection.

As a few examples.

The Kitsune Racial feats require Cha 13 (precident Fox Shape). A Thousand Shades (which allows an improved shape changing) I set with a Will save of +2, to better reflect being able to manipulate the innate energies. (It also restricts the feat to Rogue types to 7th level as a result. Other classes can get it earlier of course) Bishonen requires ranks in heal (since you're making changes to anatomy, I figure some basic knowlege of the body should be reflected)

The Samsaran racial feats require Intelligence and Wisdom 13*, to reflect their natural stat adjustments.

The Anti-ki feat chain also requires ranks in heal, again to represent knowing how and where to strike.

So what other restrictions, besides bab, do people use?

Well the muse struck me today and I banged out the remaining feats to make another Donna's Dozen. Please help yourselves and critique.

Donna's Dozens - Conditional Feats

And don't forget
Donna's Dozens - Magic Items
and the Damascarran

Just wanted to rant. I got hit by a burst of creativity and banged out 8 feats in about 6 hours, from the aether.

Hope to have them PDFed and up on Google Docs tonight, but I really need critiqued. <Gauntlet voice> Hermit needs Editor, badly </Gauntlet Voice>

Anyway. I hate it that my creativity comes in fits and starts. Anyone know how to tie the muse to the chair and get her to work full time?

I'll admit to having 'fallen out of' BBC Being human, but I think the American version is completely 'off the rails' plotwise, compared to the BBC version.

Sign me up for season 2 :-)

Saw this

Is there really nothing new under the sun? I mean The Munsters? Really?

Bleeding Cool is reporting Dynamite is to make a new book

Ok, I remember the 'a god's power is proportionate to her followers number and fevor' thing from pre-blown up* Realms, doesn't apply to Golarion.

Do we know why the gods bother to meddle in the affairs of mortals? I mean the ascended few, it makes sense, they were human, so they would have a vested interest in humanity, but why the others? What do they get for their efforts?

*

Well I had to do some editing and rebuilding, but I have just uploaded the revised the Damascarran base class and Donna's Dozens, Magic Items for Download on Google Docs. I'm working on Donna's Dozens, niche feats now. Hopefully it won't take me 6 months to finish.

As always, critiques, comments, donations and artwork are appreciated. :-)

Well I have to make some budget cuts, and Planet Stories is the small start. Hopefully it's the end as well.

Good afternoon,

Question. I've put a couple PDFs out on google docs, as people know, and since I'm wanting to be safe, I included the OGL. My question is, I put hyperlinks to the product pages for the Core Rule Book, Advanced Player's Guide and Ultimate Magic, in my section 15. That way if anyone wants to check those books, they're a click away from the chance to buy them :-) Is this kosher under the OGL, and does Paizo mind?

Spinning off a spun off thread* I was thinking of quirks that people have that make the social aspects more fun.

Some that come to mind.

Taldoran character calling Andoran, Cheliax and Galt "Our once and future colonies."

Cheliaxian character referring to Andoran as "Our wayward brothers" or "Our latest conquest."

Mwangi or Shoanti character "And they call me a savage?"

Absalom born character who doesn't like wide open spaces.

Ustalv characer (or forlorn elf) pulling a 'Chekov' "Yes, Aroden was from Ustalv." "I've seen this style of fighting, it was invented by elves."

*

...Just arrived in my mailbox today. I'm only in chapter three but I've already laughed and welled up with tears. Her daughter writes the dedication and David Tennant the forward. I can imagine well his feelings he relates in the forward. Like Tennant, she was 'My' Companion too.

Two things,

@Eric, that's an wonderful Illustration. Of course now I picture Salim sounding like Oded Feyr. :-)

@James, I'd not noticed the title before. It's ironic on so many levels now. Also I like that the eidlion has a personality. I think that gets lost in so many companion/class features.

Ok, the CLW discussion got me wondering who had a wayfinder?

Talyn doesn't, but Rey does. Hoping to get one of the cooler ones eventually.

Ok, when designing Rey, I wanted to 'specialize' in electricity. No reason besides personal love.

Herolab says that jolt isn't allowed for PFS, but I can't find it on the banned list. Am I missing it or is HL wrong?

Or Nerkahia for locals :-)

I've reached out to both Game Table Adventures and Comic Shop Plus to see about running a PFS game on Sunday afternoons. I figure it's closer than Columbus for any Pathfidners in SE Ohio (Zanesville, Cambridge, Coshocton, etc.) So let them know if you're interested.

(Full disclosure, I plan to teach the godkids and Niece and Nephew Pathfinder with the beginner's box. Hoping to get a PFS chapter close to them. :-) )

I realized in the shower this morning (yes, I do my best thinking under hot water) the true evil of infernal healing. It’s not the spell itself. It’s the ‘first hit is free’ nature of the spell.

Think about it this way. When you cast the spell, you’re temporarily flooding the target’s body with evil. Evil that heals him, makes him whole, but evil none the less. You’re either using ‘concentrated evil’ (devil blood) or ‘100% approved evil’ (unholy water) to cast the spell.* This should give any follower of Cayden, Sheyln or Saranae, pause.

That’s not the insidious nature of the spell. Think about kids today (well more kids before video games, but still). They play cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians. Wouldn’t Golarion kiddies play ‘Adventurers and Goblins?’ And if they go ‘pew pew’ with magic missiles then it would make sense to say “nuh uh! I’m not dead, I have been anointed with Devil Blood! I have infernal healing!

And in Hell, Asmodaeus smiles…

Also for the average adventurer, infernal healing is a gateway drug. “Here I’ll cast this spell and you’ll radiate evil, but you’ll heal!” Now picture higher level spells along these lines.

• ”Here’s a spell that will give you DR/Cold Iron. You just need to wear this specially prepared Unholy Symbol.”
  
• ”Here’s a spell that’s like resist energy (fire) but better! You just need to sign this blank piece of paper.”
  
• ”Here’s a spell that gives you great strength, you just need to break this holy symbol of Erastil…”
  
• ”Here’s this spell that will make you immune to fire, permanently! Just sign here…"
  

That's not even counting what other spells along those lines might do from other devils.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and campaign setting specific spells like this.
*

Ok, for PFS play, with Infernal Healing's material component...

It the 'drop of devil blood' assumed to be in the spell component pouch, or does it have a cost/paid for?

Likewise, since unholy water has a cost, can a sorcerer 'eschew components' the devil blood part and not worry about 25 gp a pop (still a bargain)

Ok, I've some Golarionesque fluff in mind, but I'm curious how people would modify the half-elf into the half drow.

The most obvious change would be to lose low light vision for dark vision, but using the points in the ARG, what else would go?

Three options I've thought of:

• Drop the linguist array to standard array. Half-drow aren't going to have the cultural exposure their cousins do.
  
• Lose Multitalented. Again, the lack of diversity being 'sub-human' (Well sub-drow) impacting the half-drow's development.
  
• Gain light sensitivity.
  

I've also thought losing Adaptability in exchange for weapon familiarity (hand crossbow/rapier) but I think that's something left for a varient (there being half drow raised in drow communities and half drow who for whatever reason weren't)

Thoughts? And anyone want me to post fluff text to see where I'm coming from?

(Note: Not sure this is the best place for it)

As most everyone knows I write for fun and share the fun on google docs.

I've been trying to get "The Druid's Daughter" off my brain and into text for some time now. Finally had a spark of creativity and the next problem popped up. Who do you write for?

On a player level, there are three general 'tiers' of player.

• The Optimizer. By this I mean the guy who always takes X feat because X feat is best at level Y for class Z. At the high end of the scale of course are monsters like AM BARBARIAN and AMY that, while I'd not allow, can theoritcally exist.

• The average guy. Somewhere around iconic level. The fighter who spent a feat on skill focus sense motive because he got sick of the rogue lying to him. (for example)

• THe suboptimal build. Either the guy who took a less than optimal feat combo. (Like the guy who took all the reach feats, but never gets to use them.) or the 'role player' ("You took Skill focus HOW MANY times?")
  

• Do you build your adventure around the 'big four' (Cleric/Fighter/Rogue/Wizard) or do you build it for other classes to shine?
  
• How big a party do you plan for? Four? Five?
  
• Do you assume 15 point build? 20? 25?
  

Just wondering what others do.

From the Rite giveaway thread:

I will respond only this last time as I do not want to derail this important thread, but to answer your question...

Biofeedback - DR 2/- for 1 min per level at first level.

For one combat, blowing your bonus PP reserve. Unless you spent a feat of course. Also for Psychic Warriors only.

Daze, Psionic - ability to daze an 8HD creature at first level.

Nope. Metacap: you can’t spend more power points on a power than your manifester level

Mind Thrust (18 stat psion) - 4d10 damage with a DC of 17 at first level.

Metacap.

Entangling Ectoplasm - ranged touch (easiest in game), -2 attack, -4 dex, any spell cast is 15+DC concentration check for 5 rounds in any environment at first level. Unable to break once the person is hit with it.

As a side note, Entangle from the druid's first level spell is an AoE - which can cause issues for friendlies, has a save or check to break free every round, and can only be used outside where there is a reasonable amount of vegetation.

Hmm, Range Long vs Range Close, one target vs a 40' radius spread... Reflex save vs ongoing effect vs ranged touch, Entangle renders the terrain difficult, slowing you even if you make the save.

Yes, EE is so much more powerful than Entangle.

So we have two powers that are OMG AWESOME when you ignore rules, one that is a first level power for psychic warriors, 2nd level for psions (We'll call this the hideous laughter of psionics) and one which may be situationally better than a spell, but can also be much worse.

Myth, busted.

Can a Sage Wildblood sorcerer with the Eldrich Heritage feat take the regular arcane bloodlike to get a familiar?

Just wanting people's opinions on it.

Not the Seven Deadlies, the 'violate your deity's tenants and lose your powers' kind.

I don't know how long the thread will remain serious... but here we go.

Erastil

Minor: Facilitate the end of a marriage for minor reasons. "She's not the woman I married." "I want to see other people." Not "He won't stop beating me." or "She sleeps with anything with the humanoid type."

Major: Through your actions, cause the destruction of a community.

Anyone else want to give it a go?

I didn't see a 'general advice for submissions' so I thought I'd start one. :P

My tips.

And a dying martial art.

Just seemed relevant with the current AP and people talking about Vudra.

Been reading up on Regenesis in the X-books, and might actually get a book or two besides X-factor and New Mutants.

Couple things occured to me.