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Have we heard anything about a new set of minis representing some of the new creature looks in the revised Monster Core book?

Any idea when these will be available in the Paizo store?

PaizoCon 2019 Promo minis

I've been a subscriber since the beginning and, at this point, I have 145 Adventure Path books and 50+ stand alone adventures. Besides the adventures themselves, there are a ton of rules and character options contained in those 200 volumes... more than anyone can reasonably keep track of.

Proposal, now that we're kicking off Pathfinder 2.0, I'd like to suggest that Paizo consider publishing an Anthology at the end of each year (or each summer, at the end of their cycle) that reprints all the new spells, feats, ancestries, backgrounds, classes and sub-classes, monsters and threats, etc. that were published in the adventure paths and stand alone modules Don't waste any space on context or fluff for them (other than maybe a teaser paragraph for the AP/adventure), just reprint the stats and rules.

I suspect it would be a fairly quick/easy/cheap product to put together given that all the content would already be created and would just need to get formatted into a new book.

I don't think it would hurt existing AP/adventure sales because I doubt there are many people who only buy APs/adventures for the monsters and spells. But I do think a decent number of folks who don't currently buy the APs or adventures might pick up an Anthology to get the extra crunch for their home campaigns. And then I know that, even as (ESPECIALLY as) a current AP/adventure subscriber, I'd pay the extra money to get all the crunch from the year collected in one place so that if I want to use a cool feat or background I saw in an AP once, I won't have to go flipping through dozens of books to find it. At 1/year, each Anthology would corral goodies 12 AP volumes and 1-2 modules each year. That's a lot easier to reference and transport if I'm playing in Pathfinder Society or something.

Anyway, just a suggestion. I'd be curious what other GMs and players think. Would you buy an Anthology each year? And are you a current AP/adventure subscriber?

Urban:
• I like the recent "hazards expansion" with floods, fires, and damaged buildings.
• Would like to see a set with open spaces like plazas, gardens, fountains, wide streets and intersections, monuments, etc.
• Would also like to see larger buildings, some multi-tile buildings, and not just taverns, maybe some larger residential units or a row of similar-but-varied townhouses, a tenement/apartment building, some offices, etc.
• How about some urban water features like canals, bridges, docks, riversides, places where the sewer (upcoming set) dumps int the river, maybe even a water wheel and factory/mill.
• Liked the bits of city wall in "hazards," I would be 100% happy with a set that was all walls, towers and gates.

Dungeons:
• Water features like canals and bridges, some with walkways and some water-tunnel-only. Maybe even docks for boats that ply the waters of a sunless sea...
• More traps, with before and after versions.

Wilderness:
• Good start on forests.
• How about other modular environments like snowy, desert and jungle? Or features one could add to an otherwise boring plain, like rock outcroppings, cairn entrances, small copses of trees.

Town/Village:
• We've got a good start on dense urban, so how about a new line focusing on town/village - dirt roads, less dense structures, etc. You could hit some of the same theses - a starter set, then hazards expansion with fire and flood, then open spaces and water features.
• More so than with a city, a town probably has a more gradual boundary, so some transition to wilderness pieces with a little road or an isolated building (guard station, toll booth, etc.) might be nice.

Could you - without resorting to "magic!" - have a planet with a cold North Pole and warm South Pole? Oh, and have it be livable by standard humans and animals.

If the axis of rotation were always pointed at the sun (instead of being fixed), you'd get a perpetual summer South and a perpetual winter North. You'd still have regular summer/winter length days and nights, assuming the axis is still tilted and the planet is still rotating. You might have to worry about long-term over heating and over-cooling, but the main effect I see here is it always being summer in the South and winter in the North.

So, if seasons are normally caused by a fixed axis of rotation pointing in different directions relative to the sun at different phases of the planet's revolution around the sun... are there any other ways to cause seasons? What about plain old distance from the sun? If the planet had an oval eliptical orbit and was closer to the sun for a while and farther from the sun for a while... could that mimic seasons? Focusing on the Northern Hemisphere, would that result in a "cold winter" when the planet was farther away and a "warm winter" when it was closer? The angle of the light would still always be "winter" but I wonder if the amount of additional heat would be enough to make "warm winter" almost like summer. (The Southern Hemisphere, on the other hand, would probably go from "warm summer" to "incredibly hot super-summer" and might be pretty desolate.) The sun would appear larger in the sky during "warm winter"/summer than it would during "cold winter." I was going to say that eclipses would be interesting because sometime the moon would be big enough to block the sun and sometimes not... but if the orbit of the moon is perpendicular to the axis of rotation, there would never be a time when it passes between the sun and planet, would there?

The other effect would to have 2 winters and 2 summers per full revolution, so the faux seasons would be really quick. (Maybe too quick for much change to happen in between?) But what if 1 revolution took the equivalent of 24 months? They might measure 1 "year" as Mid-Winter/aphelion to Mid-Winter/aphelion, even though they would be at opposite sides of the sun. One winter you'd see one set of constellations and the next you might see them slightly differently (although a 2AU change in location probably isn't enough to change constellations. But other planets might look a lot more wobbly!).

So, would any of that work? Would that give the Northern Hemisphere a winter/summer experience and an always-cold North Pole, and the Southern Hemisphere a summer/super-summer experience and an always-hot South Pole? Would the planet still be livable (at least in the North)? Any other bizarre repercussion or side effects?

Thanks!

Not sure how folks feel about Kickstarter campaigns, but Christopher West is one of the top fantasy cartographer in the business. He did tons of amazing maps back in the days of Dungeon and Dragon magazines and now does a lot of freelance work. You can see examples of his stuff on his website - Maps of Mastery. He's got a new Kickstarter up for a series of up to 8 battlemaps that together form an enormous castle. It's already 100% funded and Christopher usually has everything done before he starts a campaign, so there is zero chance of backers not getting what they pledge for. Take a second and check it out.

Kickstarter link - Halls of Legend - Castle Poster Map Set

Here's Christopher's description of the project:

Welcome to the Halls of Legend, a castle of myth and mystery waiting to be explored!

This is a map-building project larger than any I've attempted before: a set of poster maps that let you build an enormous castle section-by-section for use with tabletop RPGs and miniatures games. As funding for this project grows, so will your castle: new sections will be unlocked and added to the available rewards via stretch goals, revealing new iconic castle set-pieces lavishly illustrated and ready for your gaming table!

This crenelated and gargoyle-encrusted medieval fortress mixes the practical needs of a defensive stronghold with the mystical trappings of a secret arcane academy and the luxurious appointments of a royal residence. Each modular poster map is designed to be useful on its own, while connecting seamlessly to adjacent sections as part of a greater whole.

Most of the artwork for this map series is already done, and I'll be finishing the expansion areas as we go. As always, the real hurdle to making these poster maps available is funding. Poster printing requires large print runs to keep the individual costs down for everyone, so your contribution to this project is crucial to getting it into print, and every bit of your funding goes directly into the cost of producing and delivering the maps.

I hope you like what you see, and that you'll be inspired to help bring this castle to life!

BTW - He's got some really good sci fi maps available on his website (many available digitally or in print) for those needing material for Starfinder.

I enjoy low-magic campaigns where skills and knowledge make a big difference. And, as someone who has learned a second language, I've never been satisfied with how easy it is to learn languages in Pathfinder. What follows is an intentionally more complex system for learning and using language (and it's as much a exercise in rules-writing as something I would actually subject players to). I'd love some feedback on balance and possible angles and unintended consequences I may have missed. I'm not really looking for suggestions to try another game system or questions about why I would want to make language more complex. Thanks!

LANGUAGES

For the purpose of the game and these house rules, the majority of languages player characters will encounter can be said to be similarly complex and equally challenging to learn and use. There are, however, a few exceptions. Pidgin languages and trade tongues naturally arise from the interaction between linguistically diverse peoples and are relatively easy to learn, but, as a consequence of haphazard hybridization, they are unable to express the same level of complexity as languages with longer, more literary and academic histories (Note: With time and concerted effort, these languages might someday develop into full literary languages, but they are not currently capable of expressing this level of sophistication.). The languages of the outer planes, like Celestial and Infernal, and of certain ancient aberrant creatures with strange and alien mindsets, on the other hand, reach levels of complexity beyond anything seen by most on Golarion. These languages have existed for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands or even millions of years and involve myriad layers of nuance and meaning requiring multiple lifespans to master. The highest levels of fluency in these languages are unobtainable by mortals without some form of special (usually magical) training.

Learning and Using Languages

Fluency
For the majority of languages, there are four ranks of language fluency:

• Rudimentary (1) – Character can either understand/speak or read/write a smattering of words and phrases, enough to attempt to orally communicate or to get the gist of written text. Communication is limited to simple ideas and is prone to errors. A DC 10 Linguistics check is required to communicate successfully, +5 to DC if the GM determines that the message attempted is “too complex”; failure means communication has been unsuccessful, and failure by 5 or more means the opposite of the intended message has been understood/communicated.

• Basic (2) – Character can both understand/speak and read/write the language with growing accuracy, although may still make non-critical errors and speaks with a noticeable accent. A DC 5 Linguistics check is required to communicate successfully; failure means communication has been unsuccessful.

• Fluent (3) – Character can understand/speak and read/write the language with native or near-native fluency. No checks are required to communicate unless dealing with either a distinctly different historical variation or regional dialect of the language or a particularly formal or academic use of the language, in which case the difficulty varies from DC 2 to DC 4, depending on how different it is from the version the character knows.

Additional benefits of fluency rank 3 include:
o For each language in which a character is fluent after the first, he or she receives a +1 bonus on all Linguistics checks.

• Advanced (4) – Character has advanced, academic and literary understanding of the language as well as familiarity with major historical variations and regional and dialects. No checks are required to communicate.

Additional benefits of fluency rank 4 include:
o For each language in which a character has advanced fluency, including the first, he or she receives an additional +1 bonus on all Linguistics checks (in addition to the +1 for rank 3);
o +2 to Knowledge and research checks involving texts written in this language.

A character’s language fluency rank is indicated by a small subscript number after the name of the language, such as: Dwarven2, Elven3, Taldane4, or Infernal1S and Celestial1W in the case of rank 1 spoken-only or written-only fluency. If no subscript number is present, assume the character has a fluency rank of 3 (native fluency), unless the GM determines that another rank would be more appropriate.

Simple languages (such as pidgins and trade tongues) have a maximum fluency rank of 3 due to their simple structures and lack of complex vocabulary, and exceptionally complex languages (such as planar languages and those of ancient aberrations) require an additional level of fluency to full represent their intricacies:

• Transcendent (5) – Character has mastered the myriad nuances and layers of meaning of a complex and ancient language used by the inhabitants of the outer planes or aberrant creatures with strange and alien mindsets. This level of fluency is not normally available to player characters unless they complete some sort of epic undertaking, and it is even rare (though not unheard of) for outsiders and aberrations to attain transcendent fluency.

Additional benefits of fluency rank 5:
o For each language in which a character has transcendent fluency, he or she receives an additional +1 bonus on all Linguistics checks (in addition to the +1s for ranks 3 and 4);
o +2 to Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate with others who speak this language;
o +5 to Knowledge and research checks involving texts written in this language;
o +2 on saves versus language-dependent spells and spell-like abilities in this language; +2 to effective caster level on language-dependent spells and spell-like abilities cast in this language.

Due mostly to physical characteristics and limitations, in some cases characters may be unable to reach higher levels of fluency in certain languages (again, most often planar and aberrant languages) without some form of magical assistance. Communication in Lithan and Terran, for example, involves subtle vibrations as well as spoken words, something that most characters simply cannot produce or perceive. Likewise, Ignan uses fluctuations in heat and the color of flame to communicate meaning, Riman uses waves of cold and frost, Aquan uses the manipulation of water currents and buoyancy, and Auran uses the manipulation of air currents and pressure. Without some form of magical assistance to aide them in perceiving and producing these effects, most characters cannot attain a fluency rank higher than 2 in these languages.

Starting Languages
Characters begin with one language at native fluency (rank 3). Additional languages granted through class features, such as Druidic or Thieves’ Cant, also begin at rank 3. After that, for each +1 bonus granted to characters for above average intelligence, they have 1 additional point to spend on further improving their native language or learning additional languages, as described in Acquiring Languages below.

Characters with below average intelligence suffer a penalty to languages and fluency, and because they probably don’t have additional languages to penalize, they suffer the loss of fluency in their native language (although not as harshly as one might expect). Characters with a -1 Int modifier (Int 8 or 9) still start with 3 ranks of fluency in their native language, but characters with a -2 Int modifier (Int 6 or 7) only start with 2 ranks of fluency in their native language, and characters with a -3 Int modifier (Int 4 or 5) only starts with 1 rank of fluency in their native language (i.e., characters with below average intelligence get a small grace of one rank in fluency compared to their negative Int modifier, but then begin losing ranks at the rate of 1 per -1, as one would expect… although a strict GM might only extend this grace to spoken language and not to reading or writing). Characters with below average intelligence who start with multiple languages (usually gained through a class feature) may chose which starting language to penalize, and any characters who start with lower-than-native fluency in a starting language may invest skill points to increase their fluency as normal, as described in Acquiring Languages below.

If a character has the Bilingual trait, he or she begins with a second language at native fluency (rank 3) for free.

Acquiring Languages
Additional languages are no longer learned by adding points to the Linguistics skill. Instead, skill points are spent to purchase language fluency ranks. For most common languages, the cost to increase fluency is 1 skill point per rank. It would cost, for example, 1 skill point to move from Dwarven1 to Dwarven2 or from Elven3 to Elven4. However, if a character wants to increase his or her fluency by more than 1 rank per increase in character level, the cost of each additional rank doubles, so that +1 rank costs 1 skill point, but +2 ranks costs 3 skill points (1+2), +3 ranks costs 7 skill points (1+2+4), and +4 ranks – going from no knowledge of a language to advanced fluency in one character level gain – costs 15 skill points (1+2+4+8). At the GM’s option, if a character is immersed in an environment where the target language predominates, the cumulative cost of increasing fluency by multiple ranks in a single character level increase may decrease by 1, so +2 ranks would only cost 2 skill points, +3 ranks would only cost 6 skill points, and +4 ranks would only cost 14 skill points.

For particularly challenging languages that are more difficult to learn – planar languages, aberrant languages, and dead languages that are no longer widely used – the cost to gain fluency doubles. Rather than costing 1 skill point per rank to increase fluency, it costs 2 skill points per rank. Cumulative costs for increasing fluency by multiple ranks in a single character level increase are likewise doubled.

For languages that are easier to learn – usually pidgins and trade tongues – the cost to gain fluency is halved. Rather than costing 1 skill point per rank to increase fluency, it costs ½ skill point per rank (rounded up). This has little practical effect if characters only increase fluency by 1 rank per character level increase, but the cumulative costs for increasing fluency by multiple ranks in a single character level increase are also halved, meaning that +1 rank would still cost 1 skill point (½), but +2 ranks would only cost 2 skill points (½+1), +3 ranks would only cost 4 skill points (½+1+2), and +4 ranks would only cost 8 skill points (½+1+2+4). Applying the “immersion rule” from above and further reduce the cumulative costs for increasing fluency by multiple ranks in a single character level increase to 1 skill point for +2 ranks (meaning that, when immersed in a pidgin or trade tongue, most people skip rudimentary fluency and go directly to basic fluency), 3 skill points for +3 ranks, and 7 skill points for +4 ranks (keeping in mind, however, that most of these easy-to-learn languages are the same ones that max out at 3 ranks of fluency/complexity).

Using Languages
While learning languages is no longer governed by the Linguistics skill, using them still is. Once characters reach rank 3 in a language, Linguistics checks are no longer required in most cases, but for characters attempting to use languages in which they only have 1 or 2 ranks of fluency, Linguistics checks are necessary to hold a conversation or to read and write text. The degree of challenge in using a language successfully is dependent on a character’s fluency (base DC = 10 for rudimentary fluency, 5 for basic fluency), and is subject to the following modifiers:

Language Use Modifiers
The other participant in the exchange has rudimentary fluency in the language. DC +10
The other participant in the exchange has basic fluency in the language. DC +5
The exchange is casual or friendly, with all parties having the desire to understand each other. DC -5
The exchange is rushed or takes place in a tense and/or hostile situation. DC +5
The exchange involves a distinctly different historical variation or regional dialect of the language that one of the participants is not familiar with. DC +2 or +4
The exchange involves a particularly formal or academic use of the language. DC +2 or +4
Each additional language closely related to the target language the character understands fluently (ex: Osiriani and Ancient Osiriani, Taldane and High Taldane). DC -2

Awesome!

Any word on if/when this year's promo minis from PaizoCon and GenCon will be available to the rest of us?

http://www.pathfinderminis.com/gallery0.htm

Christopher West is well known for his sci fi and fantasy maps and mini-scale map work, including a lot of work with Paizo. He put out 3 fantastic dungeon/drow-themed maps a few years ago, called Deep Vistas, and currently has a Kickstarter going to produce a 4th map in the series. It'll be $15 when funded and is well worth the money.

Link: Deep Vistas IV

If you're a little leery about getting involved in a Kickstarter campaign, don't be. Christopher has run a bunch of very successful campaigns, has all the artwork done in advance, and always delivers an amazing product within a few months of the project funding. He really just does the Kickstarter to cover production costs so he doesn't have to pay it all himself upfront. Seriously, zero risk.

My favorite part of any of the "Gods of ..." books are the little bits of mythology, stories about the gods and their adventures. I feel like that helps me get the feel of them better than any stats or special trait, etc. One thing I'd really like to see is a book, like an actual novel, with full stories about the gods. No crunch. Almost like a "Bullfinches Guide to Inner Sea Mythology." For whatever reason, I'm not a huge fan of in-world fiction (nothing against it, just not my thing), but a book of mythology would be 100% useful to me as a GM or player in adding depth to my characters. Look how many references we have on a daily bases to Greek and other mythologies. I'd love to be able to drop those kinds of references in games, or even design adventures that echo the Inner Seas's most famous myths.

I love the Map Packs and appreciate the variety of themes that are out there. I'm curious, though, if there is any interest in seeing Paizo revisit and expand on some of the themes they've already created Map Packs for... Basically a "2" series.

For example, for a lot of the standards, Paizo have a nice combo thing going - Cave Chambers/Cave Tunnels, Dungeon Rooms/Dungeon Corridors, Starship Chambers/Starship Corridors, etc. [I'd like to see a few more of these pairs rounded out - Forest Trails (existing) + a new "Forest Clearings," March Trails (existing) + a new "March Clearings," Sea Caves (existing, and more accurately "Sea Cave Tunnels") + a new "Sea Caves Chambers."] But in all the above examples, the tunnels/corridors/trails are all 10' wide. I know, it's the standards, it's a good place to start, but would anyone else like to see "Cave Tunnels 2" with extra wide tunnels and some funky twists? Or "Dungeon Corridors 2" with wide corridors and some more unusual options? Maybe a Cave/Dungeon transition, or an entrance to Forest?

I could easily see:
• Cave Chambers/Cave Tunnels 2
• Dungeon Rooms/Dungeon Corridors 2
• Forest Trails 2 with more interesting variations on the theme
• Urban Sites 2 with more shops, a burned down building, a park, a construction site, an execution block, a cafe, a bank, a bulletin board, a flooded street, etc.
• River System 2 with wider rivers and different angles of turns, shallow, swamp transitions
• Road System 2 with wider roads, some dirt roads, a road-to-city transition
• Evil Ruins 2 (or maybe just call it "Ruins") with some more generic ruins filler to use by itself as stand-alone ruins or to go between the existing "evil" locales
• Ice Caverns 2 with larger chambers and weird pools and lairs
• Jungle Paths/Jungle Clearings 2 that connect to Lost Island and maybe the old Jungle set from 2014 (the styles of Lost Island and Jungle are pretty different, though)
• Desert Paths/Desert Features with some all-sand cars, but also partially buried structures and rocky outcroppings and sink holes
• I know it's not even out yet, but I can imagine a "Perilous Perches" with extra wide ledges or tiers with ledges and hiding spots above other ledges and PCs have to scale cliff faces to get to enemies, or ledges on opposite sides of a gorge (but a real WIDE gorge, not a 10' crack), big bird nests, a small watchtower overlooking a valley below

The other think I really appreciate is when Map Packs play well with Flip-Mats. Like when you have a fairly bland open space on a Flip-Mat but can add features with the Map Packs (like the Shops/City Streets pairing, or Crypts/Necropolis pairing). Or when Map Packs can be use to extend the map off a Flip-Mat. For example, if the edges of the Lost City Flip-Mat blended into the jungle of the Lost Coast, that would be brilliant!

So where does magic on Golarion come from? Is it just the ability to bend the laws of physics, or to tap into laws of physics beyond those that we in RL understand? If so, why isn’t there magic everywhere, across the whole universe? We know that Golarion and Earth exist in the same universe, so why is there magic there but not here? Could be that the laws of the universe vary from place to place – and they probably do to a certain extent – but I don’t find that a very satisfying answer, to just say “because that’s the way it works there.”

Instead, let’s think about what else we know about Golarion, what else we know makes it special, unique, in the universe.

Rovag.

That sure as hell makes it unique. (Note: I suppose there could be other “cages” in other corners of the universe, but there can’t be that many of them.) A group of very powerful gods invested some major energy, maybe even some of their divinity, in caging the Rough Beast. There have to be some residual, ambient effects of that.

Like what?

I imagine seeping magic from the bindings, or maybe even from Rovag itself, could cause/explain any of the following:

• Mutations, both magical and mundane. More mutations would result in more freakish creatures, dire beasts, “abominations” even. Many might be unique creatures (probably sterile and/or living short, tortured lives), but some would more stable and recurrent. More mutations would also mean a faster rate of evolution, too, with population-wide changes taking generations rather than millennia. Maybe Lamarkian genetics even work here.

• A faster mutation rate could also mean more diseases and plagues. Some might wipe out whole societies and keep re-setting the clock on civilizations, and some might just leave victims… changed.

• More tolerant DNA (or whatever genetic material exists on Golarion). In RL, sometimes two very closely related species can interbreed, but mostly DNA from two different species is just too different to stick. But anyone who’s ever perused a Monster Manual or Bestiary knows that, on Golarion, there are hybrids everywhere. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a ½-this-½-that. I mean the ½-dragons, the ½-giants, the ½-orcs, the ½-elves and so on. Somehow the magic of Rovag and/or the Cage seems to help hold unlike DNA together, and sometimes even to generate new, viable true-breeding species.

• Chimerics. Maybe all the human-headed lions and bird-headed snakes and goats with wings are the result of magical experiments gone awry or ancient curses, or maybe the emanations of Rovag and the Cage are enough to allow freakish non-blended hybrids (ew!) or for bits of genetic material to jump from one creature to another through close proximity, like super viruses (meaning that tribe of folks living around too many scorpions didn’t have to do it with scorpions, their babies just started being born that way!).

• Sentience. Seems like half the creatures in the Bestiary have near-human-level intelligence, if not higher. How’d that happen? Could be lots of cases of parallel (hastened) evolution, especially if it’s necessary to keep up with your newly self-aware neighbors. Or it could be something almost like a spontaneous Awaken effect – as Rovag stirs and pushes its consciousness out, sometimes dumb beasts are touched and changed, their minds suddenly clear (or crazed).

• Fluctuations in natural laws and physics. Reactions that worked yesterday, or last year, don’t work the same way anymore, or not in certain places (“Wild Physics” zones). Science struggles to advance because of inconsistencies and dead-ends.

• Magic. Normally, altering reality and bending the laws of physics are the providence of the divine, but on Golarion, mere mortals can sometimes learn to shape the world to their will. It’s an inexact science (magic is a fickle thing), and all but the greatest wizards leave nothing more than fleeting marks on the world – what is the power of even an archmage compared to that of a god, after all? – but it’s more accessible to mortals on Golarion than almost anywhere else in the universe. More than wizards, the saturation of magic in the environment leads to men, women and beasts who are naturally plugged into the arcane and use magic as easily as the breathe.

• Weak boundaries between the planes. The Cage traps Rovag in the Material Plane, but it may wreak havoc the walls that separate this dimension from the next. Creatures and manifest zones from elemental planes, outer planes and even the farthest reaches of the universe may leak through, tainting landscapes and adding templates to creature and bloodlines to sorcerers. (I also like the idea that certain kinds of magic – Dimension Door and Teleport – weaken the Cage by tearing little tiny holes in the fabric of Reality.)

• Visitors. Being unique in the universe (and unique in the multiverse), Golarion attracts visitors from across the galaxy and planes, beings who want to study Golarion and the phenomenon of “magic,” who want to tap into its power, guardians who want to make sure Rovag stays in its cage, and madmen (and madwomen… and madcreatures) who want to set it free…

Now that you all are winding down the Item Cards, would you ever consider adding the various components of the Item Card images - borders, backgrounds, icons, etc. - to the Community Use Packages so we could continue making cards for ourselves?

Are Gloom 2nd edition sets (like this one) compatible with Gloom 1st edition cards?

Anyone know what the origin/meaning of the name Golarion is, in game?

Does anyone know if there exists a map of Golarion or at least the Inner Sea region without labels? I'm looking for something that shows landforms but not country names or borders. I know APs come with interactive maps these days that you can turn off the labels, but I'm not aware of any continent-level maps where you can do the same thing. Thanks.

Anyone remember the name of Asmodeus' daughter in Pathfinder? If I recall correctly, her mother wasn't a devil, she was some kind of royalty from the elemental plane of fire. I can't remember her name either. I'd love a reference to which book they are referenced in. Thanks

Just sain' - Chirstopher West organic starship map tiles

I've found all the other Kobold guides very useful. Any chance of a print version of this one coming out any time soon?

Congratulations Monte!

I'm lucky enough to be teaching a Pathfinder class as an elective this year in middle school. So far, we've played a lot of Basic Box, but the kids are ready to move on to the full CRB and PFS. I took 6 kids to a Con in February and they loved it. What I'd like to do for the rest of the year is emulate the PFS structure in my class. I've got 10 kids who have volunteered to come in during spring break and play a PFS scenario (two actually, 5 kids one day and 5 kids another day). I'll GM, they'll play, get PFS credit, everyone is happy. Then when school comes back from spring break, those kids who have played will GM for the rest of the kids in class. GMs get more PFS credit, other kids get their PFS numbers and first XP, and when the next Con comes around in May, lots of kids will have PFS legal characters and a bit of PFS experience (both XP and RL experience) to go actually go to a COn and play with the wider community.

BUT, after the last Con I had my kids who went GM the mods they'd played for everyone else, and it only went so-so. Main problems was they had played more role-play intensive investigation type mods at the Con. With an adult GM, the more advanced kids loved it. But to then have those kids try to GM it for less sophisticated kids... not so much. The kids back in class just wanted to fight. Which is fine - they're 12-14. But I'd like to pick the next mods that I run for the GMs and that they then run for the rest of the kids in class with that in mind.

I'm looking for:
• Relatively simple plots, linear is fine
• Combat heavy
• Traps are okay but avoid tricky mechanics like haunts or things they have to keep track of like "plague points" or "corruption points"

Suggestions? (Thanks)

There's already a thread for this in Miniatures, but that can get kinda' buried and I wanted to make sure anyone who might be interested has a chance to see this. It's down to about 48 hours at this point. Beautiful cave tiles. Tons of stretch goals and freebies. If you're not part of this yet, this is absolutely the cheapest way to get start getting into amazing 3D terrain. Most of it is caves, caves and water, and caves and lava, but there are some wide (full 10') and narrow (5') dungeon passages in there too.

Dwarven Forge Cave Tiles Kickstarter

Enjoy.

I love the WizKids Pathfinder minis, but why no small or tiny bases? There's got to be a reason, I'm just curious what it is.

If I'm a TWFer, does my "primary hand" always have to be the same hand? My dualist fights with a rapier and dagger; both are magic weapons, but the rapier is also keen. With a strength of 14, the difference between "primary" and "secondary" is only 1 point of damage but when I only make a standard attack, I do so with the rapier. However, I also have Improved TWF (4 attacks) and TW Feint (I can sacrifice my first primary attack for a feint). It occurs to me that in those situations, I'd rather the dagger be my "primary" so I could still use my keen rapier twice (attacks 2 and 4). Can I do that? Can I say "this round, my right is my primary, and next round, left will be my primary"?

I know, I know, there are a bunch of threads about the Liberation (Su) domain power already. But none of them agree or seem particularly definitive. Here's how I read it:

"Liberation (Su): You have the ability to ignore impediments to your mobility. For a number of rounds per day equal to your cleric level, you can move normally regardless of magical effects that impede movement, as if you were affected by freedom of movement. This effect occurs automatically as soon as it applies. These rounds do not need to be consecutive."

1) I kept trying to figure out what kind of an action it was to activate, then I realized there is no need to activate it... it automatically activates as soon as it applies. So I get hit with a Web spell and fail my Reflex save. Pop! It activates and I've got one round of Freedom of Movement (1st level cleric). No need to activate, but no choice either - it automatically activates as soon as it applies.

2) I've seen a lot of arguments about whether or not it applies to grappling, but it seems clear to me that it says magical effects. Grapple isn't magical, so I don't believe it will apply. Tanglefoot bags or being tied up, either. Just magical impediments to movement like Hold, Web, Entangle, etc.

I'll run this by my GM (starting a new campaign tonight), but thought I'd share.

The middle school where I teach is greatly expanding it's elective offerings next year, and on a whim I pitched a Role-Playing Games class to my principal: lots of reading and high-level vocabulary; writing about characters and narrative story arcs; presentations, drama and cooperative interaction; math skills and applying formulas; working with abstract rule systems. Great stuff, right? Especially with the shift toward Common Core in the next few years.

I got an e-mail today: Sure, why not?

Bam! I'm teaching two periods of Pathfinder next year!

Now that the euphoria has worn off, I need to figure out how I'm going to do it.

I figure I'll start with a disclaimer and parent permission slip, something along the lines of "This class will teach students to think critically and problems solve through adventure gaming. Students will participate in cooperative story telling. These stories will involve about the same level of imaginary action, danger and violence as a PG or maybe PG13 movie or video game, in the spirit of popular stories like "the Hobbit," "Harry Potter," or "Pirates of the Caribbean."

We can start the first class talking about rules, in the game sense. Have everyone pick a table game - checkers, Uno, Monopoly - and try to write the rules. Maybe read the rules to a partner without revealing the name of the game. Discuss the idea of a rule set.

Then maybe watch a period worth of the Hobbit to get them in the mood for fantasy storytelling.

I'm thinking I'll use the Beginnner's Box Hero's Handbook for my textbook. It starts with a nice little solo adventure that uses dice, then some super basics of character building. For this, though, I think I'd assign them pre-gens to look at through the character creation process, at least the first time. I'll have about 24 kids, so maybe assign 6 kids to each pre-gen. After that, run through a couple of encounters where the group decides what the pre-gen should do (over the course of 6 rounds, each kid would have a chance to lead and call the actions).

My big challenge is going to be that there's only one of me and no one else who knows how to GM. Maybe just spend a day having them battle each other, or one play a pre-gen and one a random monster out of the GM's Guide (I spent hours doing this back in the days of AD&D). Then the GM's Guide has a sample adventure in a handy one-encounter-per-page format, maybe have them rotate being GM on each encounter. I can do some observations and see who's ready to GM a full adventure. Follow the Pathfinder Society model and run them through a basic adventure then have them run other kids through it.

After a few adventures with pre-gens, it'd be time to go back and create their own personal characters. In the various adventures above, they probably should have tried each of the 4 pre-gens at least once. Have them brainstorm their favorite characters from books and movies and decide which classes they fall into. Talk about archetypes and "party roles" - might be a good time to watch a little more of something, Lord of the Rings or the Avatar cartoon or Buffy or even ScoobyDo, and talk about how every character has his or her niche. Also use the random background generator from Ultimate Campaign to help them flesh out their character.

Give them a chance to play around with those for a while. Then it would be fun to do something on maps. Look at a few published adventures and compare the maps and the encounters, then have them draw a map and add traps, monsters and challenges. I can just imagine my grading rubric: "must include 1 trap, 1 puzzle, 1 thug encounter, and one boss encounter." Have them write a little boxed text and run each other through their encounters. Evaluate each other and re-write. I'd love to use the Paizo submission guidelines for PFS scenarios or maybe from the Superstar contest. (Wouldn't that be a kick? Have every kid submit something to the Superstar contest.) Maybe look at Wolfgang Baur's Kobold Guides to Writing to see if I can find some adventure templates for them to follow.

It may take some tinkering, but I feel like we can get a good balance of reading, writing, analysis of character and genre, art, cooperation and leadership skills, problem solving and fun.

Nuts and bolts-wise, I have my personal set of books. I can probably pick up an extra Beginner Box, but we'll probably mostly be working off photocopies and the PRD. I have tons of minis, but I'm not sure I'm ready to expose those to heavy use and pilferage, so I'll probably pick up a couple of Bestiary Boxes of pawns, many the NPC box too. Won't be able to swing dice for each kid (that's be 50 sets), but I can probably get a set or 2 per group - they can share. He-he, I could use dice as prizes for kids who do really well, offer boons like re-rolls for extra credit.

We're lucky - there is a convention (Strategicon) three times a year just a mile away from my school. Maybe I can take a few of the best students to an afternoon game, see if they can hang with the big kids (rules-wise), or maybe I can convince my local Venture Captain to help me organize a KidCon and round up some GMs to run my kids through an actual PFS module. Possibilities are endless.

Anyway, this has turned into me brainstorming and thinking out-loud as much as anything else. I know some other folks have run Pathfinder clubs or maybe even a class before. I'd love to hear your experiences and get your suggestions. Same with anyone who has experience teaching kids to play Pathfinder. And anyone else with ideas about how or what to teach kids about this game we obsess over, with a few academic skills thrown in to boot.

So who is this guy?

After Ultimate Campaigns, I'm guessing we're going to start running low on Ultimate topics, so what next?

One idea might be a line of 64-page "GM's Guides" with titles like "GM's Guide to High-Level Combat," or "GM's Guide to Traps and Environmental Hazards," or "GMs Guide to Stealth and Perception," etc. Find some topics that many GMs struggle with and would really help mid-experience GMs hone their skills. It could be part crunch and part essays from experienced GMs and developers, lots of little "this is how I do it" tips. Could even introduce us to some of the experts house-rules and short-cuts in these areas.

Okay, so this probably couldn't replace on of the hardbacks each year, but really would be interested in seeing Paizo put out some better-GMing essays. Maybe as part of the GameMastery line (if that isn't defunct at this point).

That's pretty much it. I've got some baddies who can cast Undetectable Alignment. A player has a Holy weapon. Just curious if the weapon will apply the extra damage even if the player/PC doesn't know it. I guess the question is if the weapon will "know it."

Thanks.

With all the talk about new books, I like to offer a suggestions. A book, probably just a 32-pager on exciting terrain. Advice for a GM on how to build encounters around interesting terrain that affects attack values, skill checks, etc. Maybe that can be neutralized or set upon an opponent with other skill checks. It should probably include a nice long list of sample terrains, almost like a list of sample traps, w/ CRs - floating rocks, spinning wheels, rickety catwalks, breaking ice, zero gravity, cinematic things like that. Just a thought.

I'm a big fan of the Item Cards and have two or three sets of each. I usually keep one set boxed "for future use" and alphabetize rest in with the old ones so I can find them easily. Alphabetizing has led me to some observations and suggestions for naming future Item Cards (note: I forget which cards came with which sets, so some of these may have already been taking into account by Paizo):

1) PLEASE try to be more consistent in naming items. We have Chain Mail vs. Chainmail, Scale Mail vs. Scailmail, Studded Leather vs. Studded Leather Armor, Padded Armor vs. Padded Suit, Leather Armor vs. Leather Suit, plus Heavy Shields, Light Shields, Steel Shields, Wooden Shields and just plain Shields. Please try to use the standard nomenclature from the Core Rule Book or whatever other supplement the armor is drawn from.

The same is true for weapons - Short Sword vs. Shortsword, Bastard Sword vs. Bastardsword, Axe vs. Battle Axe, and the whole Crossbow, Heavy Crossbow, Light Crossbow, Hand Crossbow group is inconsistent.

Gems vs. Gemstones, Robe vs. Robes in Wondrous Items, Glasscutter vs. Glass Cutter, Scroll Case vs. Scroll Tube, Thieves Tools vs. Thieves' Tools, Poison vs. Vial of Poison in Mundane (there is also a Poison in Wondrous Items). Even Dress and Gown could maybe be the same, especially when the Dress is a lot more classy looking that the Gown.

There's a Seige Engine that says on the back "This catapult..."

Less variety in names isn't as linguistically entertaining, but it does make it easier to find the card you're looking for.

2) Be more careful which sub-group you put items into. There is a Rum Bottle in the Potions groups, but always before Potions were just Potions, and alcohol was in Mundane stuff - Wine, Sake, etc. And there are Mundane items called Magic Dust and Arcane Dagger. The only Catapult we have is a Wondrous Item, same with Cannon and Balista, Wondrous not Mundane. And why is Treasure a Wondrous Item? Hooked Chain should be a Weapon, not a Mundane

3) Consider avoiding adjectives in front of the names of items unless that is part of the name (ex: DWARVEN Waraxe = okay, SILVER Ring = not so helpful). When I go looking for a ring, I don't look for a SILVER Ring, so the silver part throws me off. More examples: JADE Statue, BITTEN Coins, BLEEDING Ruby, BROKEN Comb, BRONZE Gorget, BUTTERFLY Ring, DAGGER Necklace, DEMONIC Statue, DEVIL Box, DOG Amulet, ELVEN Ring, FAIRY Amber, FLAWED Gem, GOLDEN Chain, HELM Pendant, HEROIC Tapestry, HOWLING Gen, ICE WITCH Talisman (not Wondrous?), LIBRAM Amulet, MONSTROUS Idol, MYSTERIOUS Cage, POLISHED Mask, PORTABLE Ram (vs. just plain RAM), REDSTONE Bracelet, ROUND Harp, RUBY Ring, SATIN Cushion, SCARRAB Buckle, SILVER Ring, SKULLSTONE Amulet, SKULL Pendant, SNAKE Bracelt, SPHINX Coin, SWORD Broach, TEARDROP Gem (whose description actually describes it as a Necklace), TREASURE Map, VARISIAN Idol, WOODEN Pendant. [NOTE: most of these are from the same set awhile back, so I think Paizo has probably avoided this recently, but just a reminded maybe to stick to the new rule and not slip back.]

I think you've standardized this one already, but don't put the names of gods on their holy symbols, Just say Holy Symbol Instead of Holy Symbol of Abadar. And don''s say UNholy Symbol.

Anyway, like I said, more nit-picking than complaining, but maybe a way to fine tune an already excellent product and make it just a tad better.

So I'm currently running two different groups through Kingmaker, fairly different styles, but both a lot of fun. One is currently in Ch 4 and the other in Ch 5. I've started looking back and thinking about how I'd do things differently if I were to ever run Kingmaker again. Some thoughts (and feel free to add your own):

0) I'd fudge the map and make Restov farther away. Oleg's is only a couple of days away by the highway. I'd want it to be a week or two. I might even double the size of each hex, making them 24 miles across (about 500 sq miles.). I'd also sprinkle a couple of existing settlements, thorps really, around the Stolen Lands.

1) I think starting off, I wouldn't make the PCs the center of attention. They'd be hirelings for a more notable petty-noble who was setting off to conquer the Stolen Lands. I'd ramp up the expedition-member roles some of us have played around with, like cartographer, naturalist, medic, etc. More focus on just how hard exploring really is, effects of terrain and weather, more random encounters, etc. Then this leader guy would turn out to be a looser and might hide from combat or might just die early in the story, during or soon after the first couple of bandit encounters. Might be cool to make him die by the Stag Lord's hand. Give the PC's a moment of ... uh, what do we do now? Then they have to nut up and finish the job without the boss. Restov might be in a bind and might not want to recognize the PCs claims to the territory but not have any choice. facts on the ground.

2) Before the PCs leave Restov, I'd have a party or something where they'd meet Meager Varn, Drelev and the Iron Wraiths. They just knew too little about their neighbors until it was action time. I'd want them to know what's going on and have relationships (good or bad) with these folks from the beginning. It's would make later events more meaningful.

3) Pretty soon after establishing their kingdom, say the end of Ch 2 or after exploring the west side of the mountain in Ch 3, maybe level 6 or 7, I might have the players create 2nd characters. It just seems odd to me that the duke/duchess is running around doing odd jobs like gathering eels and roc eggs. Not very dignified. Also, my players obviously want to be at the center of all the action, but would a real ruler really be out there fighting and exploring like that? It also means that the base-line encounters have to scale up with the PCs, so by Ch 3 and 4, just walking around the Stolen Lands is potentially pretty epic deadly from the perspective of an NPC commoner or warrior. If players rolled up a second character, 1st or 2nd level, the second string could work for the original PCs, the rulers. The new guys could continue exploring (at lower levels of danger, making the Stolen Lands a bit more even) and the ruler characters could engage in political stuff and come out of "retirement" to deal with the really hard stuff.

4) Find ways to elongate the timeline, especially in the beginning. They've risen in levels in 2 or 3 years. I'd like to see them age a bit more before they become rules of a huge kingdom.

5) Work in more hints about the final BBG earlier. I tacked on the Fellnight Queen module between Ch 2 and 3, and I think that kept the fey theme going a bit more. Actually both of my groups used the Fellnight Queen's scrying mirror to survey the surrounding lands and discovered the surprise in Ch 3! They had to hightail it over there.

6) I'd like to lower the magic level quite a bit. Moving Restov helps with that a little (limiting access to purchasable magic items), as would limiting or eliminating Craft Magic Stuff feats. I'd be hesitant to completely ban them, but maybe require unique components they'd have to side-trek to acquire. Jack up the cost of special materials like adamantite and mithril. Replace the Magic Item Economy in kingdom building with some other means of generating regular BP. Consider limiting travel magic like teleport, or making it a ritual that takes hours to prepare or something. Be a lot stricter on scrolls they can find for purchase.

7) Really consider a level cap like E6 or E8. My players are pretty experienced, and it just gets silly around 11th or 12th level what they can do.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying Kingmaker and it'd be a great intro AP for players new to the game. I'd love to hear other folks' thoughts on my thoughts, or maybe some changes you'd make if you were to start over. Thanks!

I was trying to think of a good character concept for a spooky campaign and came up with a kid with a ghost. Maybe a beloved relative who guides him, or maybe Capt. Howdy, not sure yet. But anyone have any suggestions on how I might go about building this?

My first thought was as a summoner and just skin his eilodon as a ghost. There's an Undead Appearance evolution in UM, but it costs 4 points. I could get there with the Extra Evolution feat, but that would be all it'd have. I'd be okay with it starting out almost like a haunt and getting stronger as he levels, but I'm not sure if summoner/eilodon is the best way to do it.

Anyway, brainstorming and suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

I just ran a combat where PCs fought a bunch of Large creature, and I was really dissatisfied with how immobile the big creatures were. Then I thought about this in the extreme - a gargantuan or colossal creature still only gets a 5' step. So just brain-storming here, what if your "5' step" was actually equal to your base-size?

No change for Medium and Small creature (who are effectively treated as having a 5' base in most situations).

Tiny creatures would only get a 2.5' step.

Large creatures would get a 10' step. THAT makes big a little scarier. Those long legs could actually take big steps. They'd be able to get a lot more full attacks because they could close those gaps with steps rather than moves. If they've got 10' reach too, you'd have to be 20' away to be safe. Enlarge Person would get another benefit.

Huge creatures could really move around in battle and be truly scary. With a 15' reach, the safe zone would be 30' out. You'd have to use ranged weapons or Spring Attack to be able to get in and out, otherwise you're in full attack range.

Definitely something to the monsters' advantage, but like I've said, I've been disappointed by some of the bigger critters' staying power lately, so I'd like to find another way to give their size some umph.

Any other thoughts on consequences?

Would that work? Instead of a +1 level metamagic, you have to make a, say, DC 20 Spellcraft check to modify your spell. Maybe DC 25 for +2 level and DC 30 for +3 level?

I don't play caster that often and am just starting to play with metamagic, but I'd like to find a better way of involving Spellcraft, especially in the actual casting of spells.

I've seen Grappled described in a variety of ways since the PfRPG came out - by players and developers alike - as everything from mid-way into a wrestle to just grabbed. I was trying to clarify this in my head and came up with the idea of separating Grappled into two, more clearly delineated conditions - Grabbed and Grappled. Grabbed would just fit into the existing progression, meaning it would take 3 steps rather that 2 to pin someone. First they're Grabbed, then Grappled, then Pinned.

Thoughts? Reactions?

Reverse engineering from Grappled and Pinned, I get:

Grabbed: A grabbed creature is forcibly held by a creature, trap, or effect. Grabbed creatures cannot move freely but may take a 5' step as long as they remain adjacent to creature, trap or effect that has grabbed them. A grappled creature takes a –2 penalty to Dexterity and an additional –2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks, except those made to grapple or escape a grab/grapple. A creatures may be able to take actions that requires two hands to perform, depending on where they have been grabbed. A grabbed character who attempts to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability must make a concentration check (DC 10 + grappler's CMB + spell level), or lose the spell. Grabbed creatures can make attacks of opportunity.

So it is totally just a lesser form of Grappled. What do you think? Would it add anything to the Grapple-Pin chain to have a 3rd step? First I grab you, then I get you into a grapple, then I pin you?

Couple of questions if I move forward with this:

1) Two-handed actions- Is it worth it, and how would I, distinguish between a Grab that grabs a leg or the back of a shirt, etc. vs. a Grab that grabs an arm and makes two-handed actions impossible (like Grapple/Pin)? Would the attacked have to target an arm? Would there be a penalty for doing so because it's a specific target? [Called Shots say targeting an arm is -2, but Sunder and Disarm don't apply any penalty for targeting specific objects or weapons.]

2) Reach- Not even entirely sure how this interacts with regular Grapple. If a critter has reach and it grapples you from afar, are you grappled where you stood, or are you automatically moved toward the critter? If I let Grabbed creatures take a 5' step that has to be adjacent to the grabber, and the grabber was using reach, the 5' step could logically be anywhere adjacent to the location on the grid where he was Grabbed, right? [I'm thinking of a long tentacle reaching out an grabbing an arm - you can flail around where you were standing.]

Just want to check something with y'all... With Disarm and Sunder, there's no adjustment depending on the size of the object/weapon the attacker is trying to Disarm or Sunder, right? A tiny object is no harder (or easier) to disarm than a large one.

Likewise, it is no harder to Disarm something held in two hands than it is something held in one hand, right?

(99% sure that I already know the answers to these question, but I just wanted to confirm. Also, if anyone has any fiddly little house rules on this, I like to hear them. Thanks.)

If someone sees someone else go invisible (or hide in plain sight or whatever), can the observer ready an action to attack Mr. Invisible when he becomes visible again, most likely when he attacks and breaks invisibility?

Readied actions go off before the triggering action...

But you're flat-footed against unseen opponents (unless you Perceive them). Can you take readied actions vs. someone you're flat-footed against? You can't take AoOs (unless you have Combat Reflexes), but what about readied actions?

I guess, more generally, what I'm wondering is if you can beat someone's readied action?

Several of my players are very into diplomacy and want to make all kinds of treaties with other river kingdoms. So far I've just been making up challenges and Diplomacy DCs, but I'd like to use something a little more systematic.

I know the following is much more complicated that necessary, but humor me. I'd love some feedback on this draft of a treaty system. Thanks.

Step 8 – Negotiate Treaties: Your kingdom may make one attempt per month to negotiate a Treaty with another nation. Negotiating a Treaty, however, is a delicate and time-consuming process and there is no guarantee of success. Use the following process to determine the success or failure of your efforts.

Overtures: To initiate Treaty negotiations, your Diplomat must first make a Diplomacy skill check with the DC equal to the attitude modifier of the target nation (based on its attitude toward your kingdom) plus its Prestige score. He or she adds your kingdom’s Prestige score to his/her roll, plus +1 for every 1 BP spent on gifts and enticements given to the target nation. One additional kingdom leader (other than the Ruler) may attempt to assist with this skill check. If the check is successful, the target nation is interested and the two nations may advance to formal Treaty negotiations immediately; if the check exceeds the DC by 5 or more, the target nation’s attitude toward your kingdom is improved by one step for the rest of the negotiations. If the check is unsuccessful, the target nation is uninterested in negotiating a Treaty at this time, although overtures may be made again the following month; any gifts and enticements (i.e., BP) are wasted; if the check fails by 5 or more, an “incident” occurs, offending the target nation, and that nation’s attitude toward your kingdom permanently worsens by one step. A natural 1 is always a failure for these checks, and a natural 20 is always a success.

Attitude Modifiers
Target Nation’s Attitude
Toward Your Kingdom DC Modifier
Hostile +30
Unfriendly +20
Indifferent +15
Friendly +10
Helpful +0

Negotiations: Once formal Treaty negotiations have been entered into, the real work begins. Generally speaking, there are three types of Treaties that your kingdom may seek: Pacts of Recognition, Trade Agreements, and Military Alliances.

Pacts of Recognition are the easiest to achieve, and are a pre-requisite for the other two. To gain the recognition of another nation, your Diplomat must succeed on two consecutive Diplomacy skill checks with the DC equal to 10 plus the attitude modifier of the target nation (based on its attitude toward your kingdom) plus its Prestige score. He or she adds your kingdom’s Prestige score to his/her rolls, plus +1 for every 1 BP spent on gifts and enticements given to the target nation. One additional kingdom leader may attempt to assist with this skill checks (your kingdom’s Ruler may become involved in the negotiations at this point, but not without some risk – if the Ruler is involved and the negotiations succeed, increase the nation’s Prestige by 1, but if the Ruler is involved and the negotiations fail, reduce the nation’s Prestige by 1). If both checks are successful, the target nation formally recognizes the legitimacy of your government and agrees not to make any claims on your territory; increase your kingdom’s Stability by 2. If the first check exceeds the DC by 5 or more, the target nation’s attitude toward your kingdom is improved by one step for the rest of the negotiations, and if the second check exceeds the DC by 5 or more, the target nation’s attitude toward your kingdom is permanently improved by one step. If either check is unsuccessful, negotiations end and the target nation is uninterested in recognizing your kingdom at this time, although overtures may be made again the following month; any gifts and enticements (i.e., BP) are wasted; if either check fails by 5 or more, an “incident” occurs, offending the target nation, and that nation’s attitude toward your kingdom permanently worsens by one step. A natural 1 is always a failure for these checks, and a natural 20 is always a success.

In order for two nations to negotiate either a Trade Agreement or a Military Alliance, they must first have mutual Pacts of Recognition. Next, the two nations must come to a mutually satisfactory accord. Be warned, however – the larger the nation, the harder it is to satisfy. Your Diplomat must make a series of Diplomacy skill checks with the DC equal to half the target nation’s Command DC plus the attitude modifier of the target nation (based on its attitude toward your kingdom) plus its Prestige score. He or she adds your kingdom’s Prestige score to his/her roll, and one additional kingdom leader may attempt to assist with the check (if the Ruler is involved and the negotiations succeed, increase the nation’s Prestige by 2, but if the Ruler is involved and the negotiations fail, reduce the nation’s Prestige by 2). To secure a Trade Agreement, your Diplomat must succeed on 3 checks before failing 2, and to secure a Military Alliance, your Diplomat must succeed on 4 checks before failing 2. Each successful check moves the process forward, and for each check that exceeds the DC by 5 or more, the target nation’s attitude toward your kingdom is improved by one step for the rest of the negotiations. One failed check represents a temporary setback, although if the check fails by 5 or more, the target nation’s attitude toward your kingdom worsens by one step for the rest of negotiations. A second failed check means that negotiations have failed; if this check fails by 5 or more, the target nation has been offended and that nation’s attitude toward your kingdom permanently worsens by one step. Failed negotiations may be reattempted after a cooling-off period of 1d4 months and new set of overtures. A natural 1 is always a failure for these checks, and a natural 20 is always a success.

Terms: Successfully completing the required sequence of Diplomacy skill checks means that both nations are satisfied with the terms of the Trade Agreement or Military Alliance. All that remains is to determine what those terms are; they must, by definition, be beneficial to both sides, however, exactly how beneficial it is to each nation depends largely on the skill of its Diplomats. Your kingdoms’ Diplomat and the target nation’s Diplomat must make one final Diplomacy skill check, but unlike other checks made throughout this process, this is an opposed role – Diplomat vs. Diplomat. Each Diplomat adds his/her kingdom’s Prestige score to the roll, but no other kingdom leaders may assist, as this roll represents the Diplomat’s leadership and coordination of his/her team throughout the process as well as his/her actual negotiating skills. If the results of the two checks are relatively close (within 4 points of each other), both nations benefit equally and gain a bonus equal to 10% of the other nation’s Command DC to Economy for a Trade Agreement or Stability for a Military Alliance. If the results of the two checks differ by 5 of more, the nation with the higher check benefits more and the nation with the lower check benefits less, but both still gain from the Treaty, to a maximum +20% for the higher check and a minimum of +5% for the lower check (see the table below for precise values).

Besides the Stability bonuses, Military Alliances have additional benefits, though they come with additional responsibilities as well. First, two nations joined by a Military Alliance have the right to house armies in each other’s Forts and Garrisons (but not Barracks, Castles, Palaces or Watchtowers) as long as there is space available, i.e., an allied nation can use any unoccupied space in your Forts and Garrisons, and you can use any unoccupied space in theirs. The owner of the armies retains command and must continue to pay for them while housed in an ally’s facilities (at an additional cost because they are housed outside their own nation – see Part 3: Building Armies and 3.3 Building an Army for more information on maintaining armies). Also, foreign armies, even allied ones, are often unpopular with the citizens of the host country. Every month there is an allied army housed in one of your Forts or Garrisons, you must make a Loyalty check vs. your kingdom’s current Command DC (check separately for each allied army in your kingdom). Success indicates your citizens accept the foreign army on their soil. Failure indicates that they do not – increase Unrest by1d2; if the army remains in your kingdom next month, apply a -5 penalty to the next Loyalty check. Note: This check is waived, and all accumulated Loyalty penalties reset to 0, in any month when foreign armies aid in the defense of your kingdom.

Second, and more important, if either nation in a Military Alliance is attacked by a third nation, the other ally has an obligation to aid in the defense of the first. The size and composition of the armies sent to assist the attacked nation are left to the players and GM to decide upon, but it should be in line with the degree of benefit the aiding nation was receiving from the Military Alliance as well as its attitude to toward the attacked nation. To not send any aid would be considered a breach of the Treaty, ending it immediately.

[I'm doing a couple other rules about breaking treaties = Prestige loss, maybe trying to renegotiate treaties, but the above is the core of the system. Feedback please!]

Saw a movie today where the sneaky bad guy snuck up behind someone, quickly put his hand over the victim's mouth so he couldn't scream, then cut his throat.

How would you model that in game?

Stealth to sneak up, then a surprise Grapple? Or maybe a surprise Dirty Trick giving a "silenced" condition?

The classic is left hand over the mouth, right hand knife across the throat. Two-weapon attack? But only the first would be a surprise, so the second wouldn't get sneak attack damage. That doesn't seem right.

Suggestions?

I'm a pretty constant tinkerer and I've fiddled with the city-building rules in Kingmaker to get them right where I want them. One thing I've noticed is that Kingmaker #2 came out right before the GMG and Paizo's final take on city stat-blocks. Whereas Kingmaker assigns cities 3 stats: Econ, Loyalty and Stability, the GMG assigns 6: Corruption, Crime, Economy, Law, Lore and Society. I'm curious if anyone has played with this and tried to re-key buildings to GMG stats, and then, what would be the implications for kingdom stats? (Note: this is probably WAY too much work to actually do, but I'd be curious to hear other folks thoughts)

Econ is, well, Econ. Shops, markets, etc. would keep their Econ scores.

Libraries, colleges and academies, museums, etc. would contribute to Lore.

Brothels, tenements, black markets would add to Crime, while watchtowers and garrisons would reduce Crime. It would track closely with Unrest.

Law would be more like town halls and courts. Stability.

Society is described as being open-mindedness, but it's hard to match buildings to diversity.

Corruption is hard too. It's almost like negative Loyalty.

I don't know. Any other thoughts?

Arg, I thought there was a discount code good on Paizo stuff until today. Can't find the email or the blog. Anybody remember what it was?

Or am I just engaging in wishful thinking?

A regular medium druid can Wild Shape at 4th level into a small or medium animal. What about a large druid? By RAW, I guess, it's Beast Shape 1, which says "small or medium," but most druids don't get the ability to drop 2 sizes until 6th. Any traction on the idea that a large druid can Wild Shape into a medium or large animal at 4th?

In last night's game (me GMing), the party got ambushed by a bunch of trolls. One PC went invisible (she saw the trolls before they saw her), but ended up standing in the path of least resistance for the troll as it moved forward (basically, narrow path, it had to be half on path, half in the tree line, and the part of the treeline where the PC was invisible/hiding was one the straightest line to where he was going, so crash).

Question - He didn't/couldn't see her, but he moved into her square. How would you adjudicate that?

She saw him coming and wanted to get out of way, but it wasn't her turn. Reflex to get out of the way? Acrobatics? Too bad? And if she does get out of the way, what does that do to being hidden/invisible?

[The other crazy factor is that trolls have Scent, but that gets into problems with the stealth/invisibility rules being gray and not interacting so well.]

Inner Sea Combat?

Seriously. I know the name sucks, but think of the niche. Ultimate Combat will contain a lot of non-world specific combat options. What about a splat book with how these combat options fit into Golarion?

• Avistani and Garundi monk traditions (rather than the typical pseudo-Asian monks), non-oriental monk weapon lists suitable for the Inner Sea region.

• How gunslingers and gunsmithing fit into Alkensar society, maybe a Alkensar-specific PrC and feats.

• More on Golarion-specific fighting styles, especially if fighting styles and martial arts are introduced in Ultimate Combat.

• Cavalier orders of the Inner Sea.

• Exotic weapons lists by region (what is exotic and what isn't).

Stuff like this.

I've seen a few suggestions here and there, but maybe it's time to brainstorm a bunch of new suggestions for MapPacks and FlipMats. (The last time we did this, a lot of our ideas ended up being used :)

Map Packs

• Mines - different tunnel configurations, collapses, store rooms, bunk rooms, some with tracks, some without, connections to caves.

• Narrow Cliffs - don't need a whole square mountain, just a variety of long 5, 10 and 20' wide mountain trails with blurry rocks below and ledges above. Maybe a few mesa tops as well.

• Rivers - rapids, waterfalls with pools (and caves behind), beaver pond, 2 cards with only one river bank + an all water card so you can make a 2-card-wide river or 3-card-wide river (the rivers on existing Flip Mats are too narrow for a good bank-to-bank combat or a boat-to-bank combat, or if you make the water match the boat cards, you could slip a boat between the two banks and sail up river), fords, bridges, dams... single river bank cards could also double as lakeshore. I know they mess with the neat grids, but could we find a way to avoid the 90º turns so common in river battle maps?

• Traps - the old mini adventure packs with a short adventure and the first map cards had two sided cards. Mad Druid had a forest scene on one side and the same scene with sprung traps on the other - fantastic. I'd pay extra for a special set of Map Cards like that, or just less variety and print two cards for each location, one with visible trap and one without. Probably impossible, but traps printed on otherwise transparent cards would be AMAZING!

• Crazy Obstacles - just played Lego Indiana Jones with my son, and we were swinging from ropes and jumping from column top to column top. I'd love to see a Map Pack with extreme terrain obstacles, like an obstacle course or an episode of Survivor. As neutral a background as possible (again, transparent would be AMAZING) but could also match the Arena FlipMat floor.

• City Walls - sections of wall with towers and a gate house. I seem to remember on small gate section in maybe the Town MapPack, but give us straight walls and corners and towers so we can surround our towns and cities. If you do 90º turns inwards and outwards, people might buy several sets to create elaborate wall configurations. Maybe some siege engine cards too. Just what everyone needs for storming the city!

• Beach and Sea Terrain - sea caves at high and low tide, rock outcroppings, coral reefs, patches of sea weed, a whirlpool, mostly stuff that could be used as either surface features or in underwater encounters.

• Flying Rocks - with blurry ground far below, basically good for jumping from one to another or landing flying mounts on, some big, some small. Common fantasy troupe for years but Avatar made them look cool again. Maybe some solid clouds. Basically, aerial terrain.

• Zoo or Managery - I originally thought FlipMat, but that would lock you into one plan, but if you did a variety of cages, a person could make an actual zoo or just use a few for slave pens. A few "park" cards could also combine well with this set or other urban detail sets. Or you could go the other direction and just do a "Cages" set and show a variety of settings. Circus and Freak Show also came to mind.

• Urban Details - I mentioned a few "park" cards already, but statues, monuments, streets, sinkholes, barricades, tipped over carts and booths, canals, bridges over canals, buildings under construction, fire-gutted versions of buildings in other packs... all with the same shading/texture as other urban MapPacks so we can combine them to create HUGE city scenes.

• Battlefield - trenches, barricades, craters, siege equipment, ruined siege equipment, a camp with command tents and regular solder tents.

Flip Mats

• Shipwreck - maybe underwater on one side and on a sandy beach on the other. Or shipwreck on one side and ocean bottom with coral and what-not on the other - we really don't have much for undersea encounters.

• Treetop City - like Solace from Dragonlance or the Ewok village, huts around tree trunks and balconies and rope bridges everywhere. Could be partnered with a MapPack (like Tombs and Graveyards) to show the insides on huts, hidden spots for arhers, and add a few "drawbridges" that could be laid over the FlipMat to close gaps.

• Urban Lair - we have several squares, streets and alleys maps now (which I love), but how about a block of buildings with inter-connected interiors. Maybe just a bunch of shops and residences... or maybe a thieves guild or urban dungeon!

• Museum - many people love the PFS scenarios in the Blackthorn (?) Museum. Pretty good place for a generic adventure too. Main floor on one side, basement on the other. Could release other layers in the future.

• Throneroom - somebody else's idea, but I agree - a lot of climactic battles take place in big throne rooms. Maybe instead of a big FlipMat, you could make a set of Map Cards called "Climactic Battles" and have the throne room, the narrow bridge, the bell tower, the burning house - basically all those cool-but-cliche-but-still-cool scenes for the showdown with the BBG.

• Underground Ecosystems - we have several caves but very little underground flora. How 'bout a cave with underground mushroom forests or weird ferns, pathways and underground steams. Maybe the other side could be an underground encampment or even village.

• Monstrous Humanoid Village - Maybe rustic on one side, like orcs or lizardfolk, huts and animal skins, and more orderly, militaristic on the the other, like a hobgoblin camp with palisades, guard towers, tents in neat rows, a stockade, parade grounds.

• Canyon - we don't have a good narrow canyon yet. This could combine well with the above suggested "Narrow Cliffs" MapPack - the Canyon FlipMap could mostly represent the floor of the canyon with a bit of wall on each side and the Narrow Cliffs could be the rim. Could also include a few caves, rope bridges, mine entrances (crossover potential...). One side could be a narrow canyon with several twists (shading could indicate elevations) and the other side a wide canyon with plenty of flat floor.

Anyway, just some ideas. Please, brainstorm more and add to the list!