Memento Mortis's page

How easy would this be to incorporate this scenario into the Iron Gods adventure path?

It should be pretty easy to incorporate. The Technic League plays more or less the same antagonistic roll in PFS Season 6 as it does in Iron Gods.

How central is the Pathfinder Society to the plot? I.e., can they be excised without making the adventure pointless?

Honestly, not very. If you change the quest giver to someone related to the PCs it would work pretty well. While the adventure is written with PFS in mind, the Society is only a framework for the narrative. The mcguffin the PCs are being sent to retrieve, however, is integral to Season 6's metaplot and doesn't really have a place in the Iron Gods. So replacing that with something more suitable for the AP would make sense.

Hi James,

A few questions about Golarion's afterlife/the Great Beyond.

1) How much does the average Commoner know about what happens to his soul after death?

2) How much does the average diabolist/demoniac know? Would they be privy to any or all of the information in the Books of the Damned?

It seems like like it'd be a poor choice to ally with the greater planar evils if you knew your ultimate fate in the lower planes. What good is all that power as a mortal if you know that your soul would wind up used for mortar in the walls of Dis or in the lunch pail of a daemon lord?

I have GM'd Rise of the Runelords where the the party didn't have full casters until level 7. After which they nearly TPK'd and rerolled with with a Cleric and a Wizard (Diviner).

Similarly, I'm currently playing in Shattered Star and we haven't had a full caster until level 9. When our Summoner (me) had an identity crisis and came back as a Wizard (Enchanter).

In both situations the games were rough before full casters. The party didn't have any good ways to deal with situations beyond what the martials had specialized in. The party had major versatility problems and had difficulty adapting to new challenges. Swarms were the BANE of the parties' existences.

After adding full casters to the party (especially those of the Arcane persuasion) it was like we were playing a whole different game. Suddenly the PCs had the option of bypassing whole encounters. They gained the ability to control the battlefield so well that incredibly challenging encounters turned into cakewalks.

Full casters give the party more OPTIONS. Which, in my opinion, makes the game more fun.

Your GM preemptively asks everyone's Flat-Footed Touch AC.

I'd like to see a story about an enigmatic Hermean Exile who makes a dangerous journey back to the island of his birth in order to expose a deadly secret.

Also, Mengkare's stat block replaces the product placement normally found in the back of the book. His alignment is included.

:p

Hey all,

I'm a veteran GM but have recently decided to take the plunge and start GMing for PFS. I've run a number of prewritten modules before (as well as a few AP's) and I always make sure I'm thoroughly familiar with the background story before I take my players through it. I'm afraid can't do that with PFS. There are so many scenarios across 5 seasons that I'm not quite sure what's going on.

Could you help?

I realize I'm jumping on the bandwagon a bit late so that's why I'm turning to all of you. I'm not looking for anything too in-depth. But a few sentences summarizing the overarching plot of each season would be delightful.

Thanks!

Having the plot of an adventure spoiled for you (as a player) doesn't adversely affect the amount of fun you have at the table.

Step 1) Do you agree or disagree with the above statement?

Step 2) Read this post and the response comment. Did you change your mind?

*While I am honestly interested to know how gamers feel about spoilers (whether it's in their game materials, movies, books, or whatever), I would be remiss if I didn't admit that I'm one of the co-authors of the linked blog and that this is part of an effort of shameless self-promotion.

A few quick updates for you guys.

Puzzles!
Jeremy's thoughts on creatively constructing in-world and in-character puzzles.

One-Shotting the Boss
Ricky talks about what to do when your PCs manage to win Pathfinder.

OYR #3
Anthony continues his advice column with a discussion on accents at the gaming table.

Enjoy!

Mark Hoover wrote:

If a blight druid took the time and energy to awaken an ooze, can it have class levels?

Yes...

...but since it has no hands and can't manipulate things and can't speak since it has no mouth, there's not a lot of class levels that'd really work well for it. Fighter and barbarian and rogue... that's about it.

YES! Ooze Monk! Give it Feral Combat Training! Beware the Flurry of Acidic Noodley Appendages!!!

I'm currently running a duelist with the Aldori flavor but without actually any levels in Fighter (Aldori Swordlord) or the Aldori Swordlord PrC. I'm flavoring it as he learned the basic techniques but was exiled before he was officially recognized.

Build is basically Magus (Kensai) with an early Monk (Master of Many Styles) two level dip. You want to talk crazy high AC when you fight defensively? How about Dex, Int, and Wis modifiers to AC AND Touch AC? Also the option to Crane Wing (parry) any melee attack that gets through?

If I cast Shield on myself and have allies capable of hitting me with buffs like Mage Armor and Shield of Faith, my AC can hit 33 or so at level 5 and that's before any stat increasing items. Currently wondering about taking an additional 2 levels in Monk for Ki Pool bonus to AC as well.

Granted this build is a bit MAD. On a 20-point buy MY scores are 10, 18, 12, 16, 14, 8. (Racial Bonuses in Dex and Int - Giving up the Human Racial Feat for Dual Talent).

Low DPR initially until Spell Combat + Spell Strike + Shocking Grasp in later levels. Pearls of Power fix this.

Finally saw my item...

..had to vote for the other guy's because it was designed better.

:'(

Can't. Stop. Voting...

Been at it straight for almost 3 hours.

I want a write in box to explain exactly why I chose one item over another.

I want a direct line to the item designers so I can tell them what they did wrong and how to fix it.

I want to remind people that 300 words is a maximum threshold, not a goal they need to try to meet exactly.

I want people to remember their [expletive] punctuation!

I want people to realize that their item doesn't qualify for Advice Rule #27 and therefore falls into Advice Rules 1-26.

I also want to see more stuff from a number of the designers of items I've reviewed. For every 10 or so not-so-good items, there's one really great one.

Just noticed that Valeros bears a striking resemblance to Mad Mardigan from Willow (specifically thinking of the fight at Tir Asleen). Any intentional design behind this?

Memento Mortis wrote:

Finally doing a thorough read through of Artifacts & Legends. I direct your attention to page 6. Is that Seoni dressed up in Valeros' arms and armor? If so, that's wonderful.

Are we likely to get any more art for cross dressed/geared iconics?

There's a painting of Ezren in mid-transformation of the curse of donning a girdle of opposite gender. I belive it's in the GameMastery Guide.

You don't happen to have a page number do you?

During Crypt of the Everflame:

In a homebrew I had the PCs explore the mysterious ruin of Algorath hidden away deep in the mountains. The ruins were large enough to be a small city and had numerous classic RPG elements. There was a shadowy caretaker/guardian, traps galore, ancient technologies, rival resident factions complete with turf wars. There was even an ancient library that the part came upon and discovered the origins and downfall of this great city. But when I revealed that the city's first and last ruler, Algore had been the cause of his city's destruction, the players burst out laughing. I didn't get it until one of them managed to draw enough breathe between guffaws to ask whether it was because of the Republicans or Global Warming.

--------------------------

Another story has to do with a particular descriptive phrase that I sometimes use and occasionally see in prewritten modules. The phrase "wailing cries" always gets at least one person at my table to shout, "Thar she bloooows!!!"

There's a copy of it available for stream or download courtesy of the Know Direction podcast on 3.5 Private Sanctuary.

Link!

We roll a d4 and add the difference based on class. Then add Con scores.

For example:

Barbarian (d12) = 1d4 + 8 + Con
Cleric (d8) = 1d4 + 4 + Con
Fighter (d10) = 1d4 + 6 + Con
Wizard (d6) = 1d4 + 2 + Con

We figure this way a fighter, who constantly exerts himself physically will never gain fewer hp for a level than his bookish wizard counterpart.

This ends up giving most characters hp on the higher side of average (and much more likely to roll max). I think this is pretty okay given that we like heroic games with terrifying BBEGs.

Getting hit with Disintegrate and dying round one = lame
Getting hit with Disintegrate and surviving to beat the BBEG in the end = epic.

Burning Jazz Hands you wiggle your spirit fingers, setting yourself, and all adjacent creatures on fire.

Color Spray 'n Pray as a full round action, you can move your speed while blasting all enemies in your vicinity with blindingly colorful lights. Enemies targeted this way have concealment against you.

Finger of Deathklock this is the darkest, most brutal, way to die ever. Ever!

Flesh to Rolling Stones target must make a Will save or be permanently turned into a random member of the popular British rock band.