Contributor. Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Modules Subscriber. Pathfinder Society Member. 96 posts (390 including aliases). 1 review. No lists. No wishlists. 2 Pathfinder Society characters. 7 aliases.
There is a company that donates a dollar to a charity each time someone hits the “like” button on its charitable facebook page . < ---- that’s the link!
Currently, the featured charity is one that is very near and dear to me: Bond Child and Family Development.
Could you please take a half second and hit that “like” button?
Bond Child and Family Development (AKA Bond Street by us old timers) is a charity that targets two very poor neighbourhoods in Toronto, Canada by focussing on the youngest of children. The crown jewels of the charity is an award winning day care program which is teamed by specialists trained to work with kids with special needs, particularly autism. They also have a park with actual grass in the middle of the concrete jungle and something called a Snoezelin room. The kids are adorably cute and totally worth an electronic click.
Like everywhere these days, money is tight. In fact Bond almost had to close shop recently and so every fundraising drive matters. Over the years I’ve learned that gamers are unusually charitable and typically above the curve on tech savvy. Please prove me right and hit that button. But I’d love it if you could do more – if everyone just alerts one other person to this, we could really set that like button on fire. (DC 22 Will save against chain letter - no need to go crazy!)
Lastly, for the sake of disclosure, I should mention I am well familiar with both Bond as well as the company doing the donating, but those are both good things.
Now in order to satisfy the traditions of a truly off topic posting and to add some Paizo-inspired content, here’s a collection some of my favourite old Paizo threads that I got to play around in over the years (sniff, sniff). This one pertains to one of my favourite gaming sessions during the 3.5 Paizo Dungeon era arising from an old Paizo contest, from a time long before rpg Superstar. This one is about what happens if the Were Cabbages foolishly attempt to conquer True Dungeon. This one is the chronicle of the first Green Blood on a Black Rock tournament, an event which thanks to Adam Daigle and Brandon Hodge has since become a really awesome event. I hope it will continue to rock houses at PaizoCon to come. And of course, as long as I am reminiscing, here is the thread where Ask a Shoanti finally got his start as an advice columnist (thanks Liz!). Where has the time gone?
I post to herald the winning beastie of this year’s competition!
This year at PaizoCon one of the events was a monster pit-fighting tournament. The players drafted monsters from a pool and pit them against one another in single combat, battling towards an elimination final. In the meantime, their Free Captain (pirate) owners placed wagers, either doubling up the gold in their holds or loosing it all in a mad fit of gambling.
For me the favourite part of the contest was the draft itself. The players struggled hard to predict a permutation that might lead to victory. At one point I could swear I could see the steam rising from their heads. Interestingly enough, the beast that actually took the title was actually drafted not first, second or even third, but in eleventh place – 11th! That tells me the match-ups made for some pretty tough calls.
Anyways, here we go! Stay with me gentle reader, but only if you can stand the sight of green blood.
The baron’s arrival is preceded by a 47-piece string concerto blasting Taldor’s anthem – all 14 verses.
And then all 14 again.
As he arrives, a throng of cheers erupts from the crowd below.
DC 10 Spot Check
Spoiler:
The baron’s eyes have slightly misted over. His patriotism has gotten to him once again.
DC 25 Sense Motive
Spoiler:
More likely the baron has been dabbing his eyes with flask water again. . .
OOC: This thread sets out some information below to clarify the new Taldor nobility titles which were given out at the interactive at Paizocon. However, while I played the Baron at PaizoCon and bequeathed titles to a select few, I lack any kind of actual canon-making ability whatsoever, so take this for what it is worth. It may well be modified later or discarded entirely.
Raise your hand in this thread if you too share the elite honour of having died in the Slumbering Tsar play test at Paizo Con.
Spoiler:
Pre-Gen: Ezren (wizard 7)
Death by: Confused, power-attacking Seelah followed by ice storm from an areana ambush.
Best Moment: Showing my true gamer savvy by casting scorching ray at an azer.
My fellow players were a pretty high-end bunch, but the dice turned against us in the final encounter. A memorable squashing.
Hey Torontonians and those close enough to drop by!
More details to follow soon, I hope, but there’s a D&D mini-con taking place on January 16-18, tentatively set at one of the downtown colleges or university campuses (tentatively U of T or possibly Ryerson, I suspect).
It’s really a 4E org play event, but I was invited to run a table or two of PFS. Those 4E guys are quite cool. But I’d still like to demonstrate that we can still kick it 3.X with an awesome of setting.
If you can make the date and are interested, please post up here and I’ll see if there’s a table to be formed. I am happy to prep and run any module, so feel free to let me know your PC level and what mod you’d like to play in and I’ll see how I can accommodate the group. If you’d like to GM a table instead, just let me know; I bet we could arrange that too. Players new to PFS are welcome – as are players new to the game entirely.
All I ask is that the game exude an intensity level worthy of the PFS island it will be surrounded by those 4E tables! ! !
If I am right, the feat Deflect Arrows hasn’t gotten a significant treatment yet. Has this been discussed anywhere already? If so, link love appreciated. (If so, apologies for duplication guys.)
Deflect Arrows in its current incarnation remains a good feat, but for me, it’s not yet entirely satisfying.
1. I still have trouble that it’s an auto success. For example, a 1st level monk automatically blocks the first shot of a 20th level ranger as long, as the monk is not flat-footed.
2. The one arrow per round limit is well balanced, but it excludes the flavorful opportunity for the classic scene of the monk who blocks a whole bunch of arrows. I’d prefer it if it were hard to do, but not impossible.
It isn’t lost on me that this suggests the rejected Reflex save mechanic from 3.0. . .
Anybody got an idea for a better way? Here’s my thoughts:
What if you could deflect a number of missiles up to your dexterity bonus? Similar to the number of attacks of opportunity granted by Combat Reflexes.
But to actually succeed, you have to make an opposed attack roll. (Yeah, I know we’re not supposed to like those anymore. I’m just brainstorming here.)
Alternatively, we could go with another CMB roll and leverage that mechanic some more. The blocker rolls a d20 and adds their CMB to see if they can beat a 15 + the shooter’s CMB. This has the added bonus that the monk’s maneuver training ability which is gained at 3rd level can factor into the blocker’s roll. If we went this route, perhaps add that the Deflect Arrows feat provides a +2 bonus to the blocking roll so that it mirrors the bonuses found in the other feats that deal with CMB rolls such as Improved Trip.
(A potential weakness here is that CMB is based off of Strength whereas Dexterity might be more appropriate, particularly in the case of the shooter.)
Optional consideration: although using the feat is properly characterized as an immediate action, in my view, we might consider whether it ought to cost the PC their next available move action. Shooting a hail of arrows at our hero should at least slow her down. In the movies, the monks have to at least make a dramatic production out of it. If the PC doesn’t want to waste the move, don’t block – take your chances with your AC.
Allow monks who have selected Deflect Arrows as a bonus feat to spend a Ki point as the usual swift action to add a significant bonus such as +10 to a single attack (or CMB) roll to Deflect Arrows. That way monks of 4th level or higher who are serious about their deflection should be able to do it at least once very reliably. But this way it costs them something.
I’d be interested to see alternate suggestions. And of course, I can live with the feat staying as is. It never sat right with me, but it certainly hasn’t been a game breaker either.
OK, this is just a minor tweak to simplify a favorite feat of mine. Augment Summoning has two issues that, while I can’t go so far as call them problems, never sat quite right with me:
1. +4 to Str and Con is pretty potent;
2. While the pre-requisite of Spell Focus (conjuration) does a nice job of balancing out the first problem, it’s just really annoying. Especially if the PC you have designed will never find a use for it as anything but a pre-requisite.
It’s almost like gaining a powerful ability you need to pay two feats for. Which is satisfactory but my suggestion is this:
Just dump the prerequisite and reduce the bonus to +2 Str and +2 Con.
It becomes a simpler more accessible feat and it might even make room for a Greater Augmented Summoning feat at some point.
OK! Sometime back I had the pleasure of being involved in a module called “Entombed with the Pharaohs”. In the module there is a numerology shtick in which the numbers 11 and 56 appear an inordinate number of times, too many times to be a coincidence. Hopefully the ever present numbers contribute to the suspense aspect of the game’s atmosphere. It was brought to my attention that I promised to post my list of all the known spots where the numbers occur but I never actually did.
This is to finally take care of that. Also, it may shed a bit of light on which occurrences are by design and which are just coincidences. Every time somebody shows me one I have missed I get the willies. If anyone knows of any more, please let me know.
The Number 11
Spoiler:
There are 11 layers of linen used to cover the skin of the dead in the rites of Osiriani mummification.
There are 11 scorpion tail traps in the Black Reliquary. (This was actually accidental but noticed early on and left in.)
There are 11 sarcophagi in the Exhibitory (Also accidental but not noticed until much later.)
Part 3 “Into the Tomb”, in which the pyramid is introduced, begins on p.11 of the module (fluke).
There are 11 encircled runes in total to be found in the dungeon (not counting the two destroyed ruins) (fluke – freaks me out.)
There are 11 sculpted stones and 11 star charts sold at the auction – deliberate.
The unnamed party of Raegos, Imivus and Seraton was composed of eleven members (10 died, Raegos lived – or as Raegos describes it in the adventure, Imivus brought 10 men with him) - deliberate
Area 2 - the arch has 11 symbols (1 large one with 5 smaller ones on each side) - deliberate
Area 3 – there are 11 pillars - deliberate
Area 4b - The Pharaoh of Numbers’ equations are based off of 11. (Paizo editors added this in development –very cool.)
Area 8 – there are 11 dragon scale puzzle pieces – deliberate.
Area 8 - there are 11 torch staves on the island - deliberate.
Area 9 - has 11 windows - deliberate.
Area 11 – the 11th rung from the top has an encircled rune - deliberate
Area 13 – The planet Aucturn has 11 rings – deliberate.
There are 11 letters in the word “GameMastery” which appears on the adventure’s cover. : )
Chelish legionnaires have 11 hit points which is their sole statistic to appear in their statblock on p. 11 of the module.
Aucturn, according to hard cover, is the furthest of eleven planets in Golarion’s solar system. I don’t think this was me. Could have been and I don’t recall, but I think it was someone at Paizo – hope it wasn’t a coincidence. That would really disturb me.
The Number 56
Spoiler:
The elemental excitation caused by the planet Aucturn is every 56 years (area 4b & Aucturn Sidebar)
This caused the window for Raegos, Imivus and Seraton’s doomed expedition 56 years ago. It also enables the PCs expedition to take place now, one cycle of 56 years later.
There are 56 feathers on the golden funeral mask of the Four Pharaohs of Ascension.
The slope of each pyramid walls is 56 degrees [Area 1] and the pyramid is 556 feet high.
Area 5 – there are 56 canopic jars.
Area 8 – has 56 puzzle pieces in total (11 + 45).
Area 11 – there are 56 rungs in the ladder.
On p.14 where the numerology sidebar appears there are exactly 56 lines from top to bottom (on the centre column). The one in which the word “egg” for Easter egg appears. This is of course just another coincidence as I believe exactly 56 lines appear in a GameMastery (now Pathfinder module) column every time a column runs from top to bottom without headings or stat blocks.
In Pathfinder #1, Eric Mona writes an article entitled “Pathfinder’s Journal”, the one that kicks it all off. He throws in an Easter egg on p.85 by referencing the NPC Sceptre and Osirion in the course of recounting various Pathfinder journal entries. The volume of the fictional journal? 56. This article was written before the numerology angle was even thought of but I had no way of knowing about it until it hit print.
Please join me in briefly putting our many secondary allegiances aside and join me in a toast!
For as you know on Oathday many of us will arrive in Absalom. There we shall have our courage and ingenuity tested time and time again. Not all of us are coming back.
For there we will face challenges not meant to be challenged and discover secrets not made for discovery.
And we do it all with only ourselves and our fellow Pathfinders!
I am enjoying Pathfinder Alpha – thanks for making it publicly available and including us in the process.
Here is a small suggested design change. The change is respecting the second use of the Acrobatics skill: moving past opponents without drawing attacks of opportunity (p.22).
Currently the skill is resolved through the use of rolling over a static DC of 15. It’s easy to remember and easy to resolve.
But this has three collateral effects which I think might be avoided:
At higher levels success becomes a near certainty. At level 10 rogue (13 ranks) with a 14 Dex (+2 modifier) only ever fails on a 1. There is minimal risk and excitement.
Conversely at lower levels PCs would be relatively unwise to try it. The chance of success is low to average and the consequences are quite serious with a PC’s relatively low hit points.
There is no difference in the risk of tumbling past a level 1 commoner and a level 20 fighter.
Suggestion:
Change the Acrobatics DC to 10 + the BAB of the opponent whom is getting tumbled past. Hence tumbling by an orc at level 1 the DC is 11. Moving past a 5th level fighter is DC 15, and moving past a 20th level fighter is DC 30.
Similarly the DC for moving through an opponent’s square could be DC 20 + BAB.
P.S. Apologies to anyone who has already posted this idea somewhere already but I missed it. I am sure this is a house rule already somewhere.
[The following floats upwards upon your movie screen in bold type-setting, while catchy-yet-overly-repetitive, theme music plays in the background.]
This is a staggeringly true story. The names have not been changed in order to better expose the guilty, some of whom you will know from these boards, but since this tale is based on my memory, perhaps there’s been just a slight alteration of a few of the actual facts.
For the uninitiated, True Dungeon is “live” dungeon experience which is played out at Gen Con with increadible stage setting and props. After True Dungeon was featured in both Dungeon magazine editorial #128 and Dragon #349, once I finally decided to embark on the trip to Indianapolis, I knew True Dungeon was something I wanted to try. (Those were fun editorials incidentally, talk about your free advertising.) What I didn't know until much later, however, is that I would also be chronicling this famed expedition.
Disclaimer:
Before I get any further, be warned: this recap includes several scenes of gratuitous sex, horrific violence and Tim Hitchock.
Well I got my #142 and am reading through it and I was wondering if anyone has had a chance to play Masque of Dreams yet? It is great to be back to the Lost City, be it ever so found.
In particular, the adventure looks like an interesting way to bring a new party together to kick things off: "Oh, us? We all met at an oasis party, with most of the guests under a drug-induced haze, while being raided by goblinoids for sacrificial slaves. You know how it is. I recollect the crab-cakes were terrific."
I think I will give XP awards for players who come up with particularly interesting masks for their PCs. I also suspect one of my players in particular will be disappointed if his PC doesn't manage to consume some elixir of fantasy of his own and get to ham up his own delusions. Chapter One may call for some Mountain Dew (Yes, we're wild and crazy).
Finally, Durakka just rocks. Beware getting pummeled by bugbear women. Yikes! Just say'in is all.
(Yes! I just noticed my intials sort of look like the short form for Masterwork. Suddenly I like 3rd ed. even more.)
THE MENAGERIE
PART I: Overview
This year's Origins convention hosted a “play with a creator” session in which Great Green God ran his contest winning, Side Trek adventure, “The Menagerie”. As most of you know, “The Menagerie” is now immortalized in Dungeon Issue No.126.
I had the privileged of attending this session, which GGG called his “Director’s Cut”. The following is an assortment of half-truths and overly grandiose statements, loosely based on the actual play session. Because I am such a busy guy (read “lazy”) I expect that I will post this in installments.
Well, I am excited. So without further adieu, Ladies and Gentlemen may I present : “The Menagerie: The Directors Cut”. Also known as, “GGG, could I take that turn back?”
THE PARTY: THE 20 STRONG
First, permit me to introduce you to the party: the well known band of “The 20 Strong” (current membership roster: 3). As you may deduce from their title, The 20 Strong have experienced chronic misfortunes and recruitment has become something of a challenge. The inducement of a free +1 anarchic toaster-oven no longer works like it once did.
This is not to say that the current roster is anything less than astounding:
Vrodish: Male dwarven barbarian 6. ‘Rage without a cage’, Vrodish brings exactly the right amount of subtlety and charm needed to navigate a delicate adventure like “The Menagerie”. He also brings a very big axe. That axe, by the way, frequently proved to be an exceptional problem-solving tool. Vrodish was played by Todd Hankinson, a runner-up for the Dragon Prestige Class design competition. Whenever the party strategists brilliantly conclude that it is to the party’s tactical advantage for their opponents to become dead, Vrodish is called to the forefront.
Rimbrener, AKA, The Living Lantern: Male half-elvin rogue 2/sorcerer 4. Capable of both plot advancement as well as common sense, the Living Lantern is the glue which holds The 20 Strong together. Hmmmm, perhaps he then shares some of the blame . . . Rimbrener was played by Herman Lau, also a runner-up for the Dragon Prestige Class design competition. Coincidentally, Herman happens to be a kick-*** artist. You gotta see his stuff!
Kian: Male, human cleric of Xan Yae 4/Monk 2 (Sacred Fist Wannabe). One of the 20 Strong’s founding members, Kian brings. . . well heck, I am not sure what Kian brings to The 20 Strong outside of his dubious claim to be a founding member. Despite his diatribes about the benefits of discipline, Kian rivals the chaos caused by Vrodish, largely brought about by his frequent abuse of his power gamer tan bag of tricks. Dare I admit it, Kian was played by myself.
Yes, yes, this will work. How could a finely balanced party such as this do anything but succeed against the paltry challenges presented in “The Menagerie”?
One of the recurring themes which has come out over the past few months is that word count is at a premium. Dungeon cannot be all-things-to-all-people-all-the-time because of the logistics of space restrictions in a magazine. Obviously the solution is to simply get an extradimensional Dungeon with a ridiculously expanded space, similar to a bag of holding. But since I am told that idea has already been discarded as impractical due to its effect on the cover price, I am forced to consider other ideas. Below is my modest proposal of how we might scrimp and save a few words in Dungeon. Not very many, I admit, but I get the impression that we are at the point where every syllable saved might help.
One of my very favourite sections of the magazine is “tactics”. People often talk about what they read first in each issue, but for me, I usually scan my swanky new mag for the bold heading “tactics” to see if the writers or staff have inserted something nasty or clever I can use, and they usually have.
With 3.5 ed, it’s common to list which spells are cast in advance by villains before the battle. This leads to the inevitable question of whether the buffs are already in the stat block. Stat block seers can usually figure it out by reverse engineering the stats, but it’s often too time consuming when one is in the middle of a game. To solve this, the author usually sacrifices the word count to tell you directly. I.e. “Lupe the Sorcerer casts Bull’s Strength, which is included in the statistics block.” or “If Lenny the Cleric of Kortes hears the PCs on the stairs he uses his scroll of magic vestment, and so the DM should increase his AC from 10 to 11.”
Here’s my thought: what if instead of writing out what tactics modify the stat block, we instead just mark it with a superscript symbol? I.e. Just, "Lupe the Sorcerer casts Bull's Strength -symbol-." I unfortunately can't draw superscript on on the message board to illustrate, but it would look similar to how we mark domain spells in stat blocks with the snazzy, upper case “D”. (Like a footnote people, you know what I mean)
One symbol would mean “already factored into the stat block” and the second would stand for “not in the stat block and the DM must add it.” It would save space and more importantly it would avoid those unfortunate times when a DM accidentally buffs the NPC twice or not at all.
There is, of course, a downside. We’d be introducing yet more obscure symbols in a game which is already working overtime in order to be inclusive to new players. That alone makes me wonder if this could fly. But hey, if it helps make room for a few more lines of flavor text or more space for a sidebar, maybe its worth a consideration?
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