Paul Watson's page

Linky

I think it's certainly a contender.

Link to Guardian article

Shorter article: Female US soldiers are more likely to be raped by one of their 'colleagues' than they are to be killed in action.

Response: What?! I don't have a meaningful response to this. Nothing I write would get anywhere near the profanity filiter without causing it to explode. I defy anyone who's still a functioning human to read the article and not be disgusted.

This is not an attack on America, or the US military, most of whom will be just as outraged as I am, but, seriously, what the f$@! is wrong with this picture?

Introduction. The party of three who will be undertaking the exploration and taming of the greenbelt and Stolen Lands are:

Krager, the Scourge of Bandits, a dwarvern ranger who specialises in a waraxe in each hand;

Terjion Lebeda of Abadar, a priest with somewhat heretical views on the Lord of Coins rates, believing in a much more `noblesse oblige' approach than is traditional;

Visari Surtova, a noble who prefers light armour, mobility and subtlety to a direct blow.

Fireday, 30th Rova, 4711. The party left Rostland on the main road, Krager checking that neither of his companions were wanted bandits. Terjion was quick with his denial but Visari decided to be cryptic, prompting a lot of muttering from Krager and an ongoing suspicion.

They approached Oleg's on foot, finding the gates open. Svetlana greeted them warmly, insisting they have some good stew, while Oleg remained stubbornly mending the roof, grunting what might have been a greeting between hammer blows. Svetlana asked if the party were here to help with the bandits. Krager lit up at mention of the words `bandit', while Terjion described banditry as a scourge on civilisation, "and the only scourge around here is me." Krager agreed.

On pressing them for details, Svetlana insisted they should talk to her husband, shouting several times for Oleg to come down. Only when she shouted, "OLEG!!! The FOOD is getting COLD!!" did her husband clamber down, muttering that he asked for soldiers and got this. Krager, after the food, pressed Oleg for details of the bandits.

"Bastards have been coming here for three months. First time they were led by this scary b#**@ with the hatchets. She threatened to chop my hand off, almost did, too, and then took my Svetlana's ring as `compensation' fer not doing it. B###$." When asked about numbers, he said they started out with a dozen, but each month they come to take their `taxes' "as if I don't pay enough to the Lords" there were less, first half a dozen and last time only four. They always turned up on the first of the month, within an hour of sunrise. Asked about the scary b+#!! with hatchets, he said she hadn't been back since, just some moron in a hood. While Svetlana was in the kitchen, he explained that Svetlana "says she isn't bothered about the ring. And you know what a woman means when she says she ain't bothered."

"They ain't bothered?" Krager suggested, as dwarvern women tend to be far more straightforward.

"Human women, then. Look, it's not much, but it's my Sveti's ring and if you can get it back, make her happy, well, I might be able to grant you some credit."

More questions followed and the group made their plans. Oleg would leave all the goods out as normal. When the bandits were inside the gates, Terjion and Krager would close the doors and the party would get the bandits to surrender. Or not.

Starday, 1st Lamashan, 4711 The bandits emerged on time, the hooded leader and his 4 subordinates. As they sauntered into the trading post, calling out to Oleg about where his pretty wife was so they could show her what a real man was like. As soon as all were within, Krager and Terjion pushed the doors shut behind them as Oleg ran back into the house. Visari was in his position on the walkways above. While the bandits milled around, startled by the resistance, Krager dropped the bar into place and roared out: "Surrender or die!" the bandits, seeing only two opponents moved to attack them. Sadly, two of them failed to control their horses, so only one trotted up to each of Terjion and Krager.

Visari took a shot at the leader (Happs Bydon) but missed. Terjion unlimbered his greatsword and sliced open the bandit attacking him. Krager had slightly more trouble with his, missing on the first swing while his heavily armoured coat deflected the strike back. Happ slipped off his mount, drawing his longbow to strike back at Visari, but the walkway took the arrow instead. Two bandits slid off their horses, and as they moved to circle the party, Terjion cut another down, just after that bandit had stabed him in the thigh and another sliced off his own ear while showing off drawing his sword. Happ and Visari continued to exchange missed shots, while Krager finally managed to pull the bandit from his horse and slicing into his chest with his axe. Visari finally got fed up with Happ hiding behind his horse and aimed at the horse, driving it off.

Terjion strode up to Krager, just as the final bandit managed to find a gap in the dwarf's thick armour and scored a nasty wound through the shoulder. Terjion shouted "In the name of Abadar, be healed!" and Krager quickly dispatched him. Noticing that he was now alone, and as an arrow buried itself in his side, Happ yelled out "I surrender!" Terjion and Krager stabilised the bandits, and then turned to interrogate the bandit chief, finding out about Kressle (scary b~@#~ with the axes), the approximate location of the bandit camp, the passphrase, existence of the Stag Lord and pretty much whatever else they wanted to know. Despite Visari's suggestion of killing the bandits, Krager and Terjion had them empty one of the middens and used it as a makeshift jail. Krager triumphantly claimed Happ's longbow once he found it was tensioned perfectly for him. Oleg passed out a small reward to the players and happily bought the bandits' gear off them, issuing credit with promises of turning it into cash once he could offload the supplies.

After another delicious stew, Svetlana approached Terjion, asking him if, in the explorations he could gather some moonradishes for Oleg.

Starday, 2 Lamashan, 4711. The party took off on their newly acquired horses, beginning their explorations with the area around Oleg's. On spotting more people travelling towards the trading post they rode up and introduced themselves to Sergeant Kestren Garess. Sergeant Garess was quite happy to conduct the swift trial, and execution, of the bandits, approaching Krager afterwards to enlist his help in hunting down Falgrim Sneed.

Moonday, 3 Lamashan, 4711. The party headed south, finding Svetlana's radish patch occupied by four groaning black-scaled kobolds. Krager and Terjion approached them, with weapons sheather, but were confronted by spears as the kobolds yapped about this being "Ourses!" Slowly and carefully, they managed to calm them down and began to negotiate for the radishes. With much waving of spears and declarations of "Ourses!", they slowly agreed to agree for Terjion to cure their painful bellies with his restorative touch in exchange for one and a half baskets of radishes. When Krager tried to ask questions about the recent strife with the humans, he was told "We'z neogitaing, stupids dwarf. We'z talking afters."

After the negotiations, Krager tried again, asking why they were more aggressive and it was explained as "We'z not at war with humies, silly dwarf, we'z at war with the mitesies!" After some wracking of brains to translate this into "mites", Krager tried to find out why they were at war, but didn't get satisfactory answers, just that "Tartuk said they's bad and they steals from us and they's badsies." His suggestion that the radishes work best with curried mountain goat, brought laughter as "there's no mountains here!"

When prompted about the possibility of more formal trade deals concerning the radishes, the kobolds looked nervous and said they'd have to talk to chief about that. So Terjion got them to promise to tell the chief they were coming, didn't mean any harm and they left having mapped the hex out and gotten vague directions "thats way" to the kobold home.

The party decided to press on to the bandit camp, but we had to stop there for the night.

Hi, all,
I'm just about to start a new AP (haven't decided which one yet, but we've already played CoT and CotCT so not them, or JR) and need a player or two as our group has lost some players to education and night shifts. We meet up at the Horse and Groom on Great Portland Street on Mondays. Game starts around 7 and finished just before 10. I'm around earlier.

Anyone interested?

This might belong in Homebrew, but as it concerns the work of three third party publishers, I figured I'd post here.

As a fan of both the Archetype system used by the fine people at Super Genius Games, as well as the classes put out by Rite Publishing and Dreemscarred Press, here are my wholly unofficial attempts to create arcehtype packages for the Psionics Unleashed classes (from Dreamscarred), the Divine Channeller, the Taskshaper and the Luckbringer (all from Rite Publishing).

SGG archetypes are packages that are removed from one class, so they can take the package from a different class, or an external archetype package in the various Suoer Genius Guide to Archetypes.

Anyway, here are the packages, each one spoilered to prevent casting wall of text.

Divine Channeller:

Luckbringer:

Taskshaper:

Psion:

Psychic Warrior:

Soulknife:

Wilder:

Anyone else have any thoughts on whether these are balanced?

Good addition. Looking forward to the third part.

One question: What does Exalted Channel Smite actually do? At the moment it seems to be identical to Channel Smite unless I've misread something

As I've been very bored lately, I've worked out which APG Archetyypes will mesh with each other on the classes. The details are spoilered as some of the classes have a LOT of synergistic archetypes

Barbarian: 10 combinations

Bard: None. All archetypes use the same features.

Cleric: None. No new Archetypes.

Druid: None. All archetypes replace the same features.

Fighter: None. All archetypes replace the same features.

Monk: 18 combinations.

Paladin: 16 combinations
These assume that the Divine Defender's Armour Divine Bond is an option rather than a requirement so it can merge with Shining Knight and Sacred Servant's compulsory Divine Bonds.

They also assume that the Sacred Servant and Hospitaler's changes to Smite Evil are as identical as they appear, and that these cahgnes also stack with the changes for the Undead Scourge's Smite Evil.

Ranger: 13 combinations

Rogue: 27 (!) combinations

Sorcerer: None. No new Archetypes.

Wizard: None. No new Archetypes.

If I've missed any or any aren't valid, let me know.

Moonday, 5th Pharast, 4710

The adventure begins with Janiven meeting with 6 adventurers in the city of Westcrown: Inquisitor Thorien, a pale-skinned, tall elven Solomon Kane who serves Desna and hunts for the answer to Westcrown’s darkness; Cassandra, a pale, provocative elven woman, warrior of Callistria and former guard of one of the few orphanages in Westcrown (currently being rebuilt after arson) on a mission of revenge against the unknown perpetrators; Pharangese, diplomatic human noblewoman and Paladin of Shelyn, in Westcrown tracking down her scandalous aunt somewhere in the Westcrown theatrical community; the two firebrand ex-gladiator blood brothers, Corva, a burly human who uses his strength and notched axe for devastating effect, and Dor’rand, a tiger-aspected anumus who disdains weapons in favour of his claws, both with a grudge against humans in general and nobles in particular; and the shadowy, secretive Tsaren, of noble background but with an upbringing on the shadowed streets of the city of Twilight. These are the heroes who will be participating in the Council of thieves campaign.

Asked to meet her at Vizio’s Tavern, Corva, Dor’rand and Thorien arrived two hours early, finding Janiven busy with preparations. She put off their few questions, preferring to tuck into the snacks and drink available, although they did notice she glanced frequently at the large window. Arriving at the same time, Tsaren sequestered himself across the street, watching the tavern closely for an hour before he decided it was prudent to enter, still an hour ahead of their appointed rendezvous. He kept silent as he was seated, awaiting developments. As Pharangese and Cassandra arrived, only slightly early, Janiven provided them their food.

As they ate, Janiven began her impassioned speech, thumping the table for emphasis, concluding with her treasonous railing against the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune. As it became clear that none of the assembled was going to stand up and protest, Tsaren slipped his dagger back into his sleeve. However, before anything more could come of it, they heard a frantic hammering on the door and Janiven opened it on a panting teenager who gasped out that they’d taken Arael and were on their way. The regimented clank of armoured feet along the street soon confirmed this as Janiven threw the bar on the door. She apologised for involving them in this, while she and the boy threw open the trapdoor. Dor’rand leapt down first, followed swiftly by the others. Thorien muttered a prayer to Desna, causing his blow to glow with starlight and allowing them to see down the cramped sewer passages. Pharangese was not pleased and insisted on stepping very carefully along the walkways. Tsaren took the lead, cautiously checking every inch for traps as Janiven explained the marking system and they set off.

Several turns and intersections later, Tsaren spotted an odd pile of rubble and discovered a chest inside it. Rather than waste time opening the rusty lock, he shouldered it and they continued rapidly on their way.

Some time later, Thorien’s keen senses heard, and identified, the shuffle of zombie feet. Tsaren slipped into the fetid sewer waters while Thorien called on his judgement to harm the foul things and fired off an arrow, to no effect. Cassandra charged forward but her short blade stabbed through the rotting corpse to little effect. Dor’rand’s claws proved far more effective, ripping one of the undead trio in half, while Korva’s axe decapitated another and Tsaren rose from the waters, driving his sword up through the jaw of the third until it emerged from the back of the skull. Pharangese said a quick prayer over the twice-dead corpses and the group hurried on.

An hour of turns later, they saw a light behind them and ducked around the corner to prepare an ambush. Thorien cast his light spell on Dor;rand who stood in plain sight while Tsaren once more slipped into the sewage to hide, spreading caltrops along the walkway. Pharangese, Janiven and the teenager kept back around the corner with Thorien standing behind Dor’rand, his bow nocked and Divine Favour cast. Corvar stood at his blood-brother’s shoulder around the corner with Cassandra behind him. On spotting the light, the Hellknights charged forward, laughing about how they’d put the freak back in his cage. They were saying the same thing right up until Dor’rand’s javelin and one of Thorien’s arrows dropped one of them. Their jokes turning to rage, they charged forward, one of them stumbling in Tsaren’s caltrop field, the other meeting a swift end on then end of Dor’rand’s claws as he unleashed his fury at humans in general on the hapless armiger. Tsaren leapt up to stab the slowed Hellknight but his blade skidded of the chain armour, at which point Corvar and Dor’rand caught up and quickly put the knight down. Tsaren then ensured they stayed down with his knife while Dor’rand ransacked the bodies, distributing the crossbows, swords and potions. Tsaren then slipped the bodies into the sewage and covered them expertly as the party again fled.

Some time after the Hellknights, they encountered a trio of Goblins, all wielding two rusty and cracked dogslicers. Pharangese, tired of serving as guard to Janiven stepped up to intercept them. The three goblins swiftly fell to the party and Cassandra stayed behind to loot their pitiful lair before running to catch up with the others. The only item of note was when Corva tried to push his way past Pharangese, almost knocking her into the sewage. Aghast, she sidestepped him and he ended up fighting in the muck instead.

Later, at a crossroads, Tsaren failed to notice a light chittering and was attacked by a swarm of ooze-bugs, taking a painful bite. Deciding to let his blood-brother have some fun, Dor’rand stayed back with Janiven, while the others attempted to kill the tiny vermin. Cassandra and Tsaren got painful bites each but their diminutive size made fighting them difficult. At least until Dor’rand got bored and started carving through them. Eventually, the remaining bugs fled.

Finally, they reached an arrow pointing upwards that led to the safe house. Dor’rand insisted on leading the way, while Tsaren doubled back, concealing the previous way marker. And, as they emerged into the late evening light, we left the party for the week.

Is this really going to be a product? Anyone know? It seems too "Bulky" and would cost too much for the items included. Wondering if the item inside were quoted incorrectly.

My Source = http://critical-hits.com/2010/04/01/exclusive-preview-alliance-2011-catalog /

Their source is hard copy of the Alliance 2011 Catalog (Dist copy)

Pathfinder Essentials
For those of you who love Pathfinder but are having a bit of trouble introducing it to new players, we have developed the new Pathfinder Essentials boxed set. Designed as a starter portable product, containing everything you need to get you started, the boxed set contains:

A slimmed down version of the rulebook, weighing in at only 450 pages and 15 pounds
Revised Bestiary, containing over 3,000 monsters in 4 3-ring binders for easy removal in encounter planning
A set of the first 3 Pathfinder adventure paths
Enough pewter miniatures of size categories tiny through colossal to represent all the monsters you could encounter
Magic Item Compendiums and Spell Compendiums, meticulously converted to Pathfinder rules from the original 2nd edition D&D tomes
A Geek Chic Emissary table (some assembly required)
Original Wayne Reynolds art (including frame)
Look for it premiering at GenCon 2011. Due to the limited nature of this product, it is recommended that buyers line up early to acquire one (special accommodations will be made for those who wish to get in line at GenCon 2010.)

It's an April Fool's joke. The Geek Chic Emissary table is the biggest giveaway. Those things are huuuuge.

Ok. I'm preparing to run a new campaign in the nearish future and would like some comments on the houserules and home-brewed feats I'm proposing. For info it will be Core Pathfinder, probably Council of Thieves, with some spells and feats from other 3.5 products (mostly the Spell Compendium) let in on an individual basis.

That said, here's the rules:
Critical Hits:

Dying:

Charge:

Keen and Improved Critical:

Combat Reflexes:

Fighters:

Paladins:

Monks:

Initiative:

Moment of Awesome:

Additional Feats:
Improved Armour Training (Combat):

Greater Armour Training (Combat):

Superior Armour Training (Combat):

Improved Weapon Training (Combat):

Greater Weapon Training (Combat):

Superior Weapon Training (Combat):

Bane Weapon:

Minor Magic:

Improved Magic:

Greater Magic:

Monk Weapon Training:

Rapid Attack (Combat):

Rapid Casting:

Combat Step (Combat):

Improved Combat Step (Combat):

Greater Combat Step (Combat):

Teamwork:

Extra Teamwork:

Expanded Smite:

Ok. Derail question time again. My party has decided not to ally with the Kuthenites (blasted clerics of Iomedae). It says in the adventure that they'll turn up separately, but I can't figure out where they're supposed to come back.

I'm planning on the Ally being the cavalry (in the exceedingly unlikely event my players need help) or when they try and get past the Repulsion ward. I figure actually helping them might persuade the cleric to STFU.

The Traitor, I'm thinking of following them in and accusing the Ally when they meet the Nightcrawler. That will give the cleric something to blow up, too.

Any thoughts?

This question popped into my head as I'm preparing for my players to assault Scarwall. How should the turning immunity of things like Skeleton Warriors and Chained spirits interact with the Channel Energy rules?

I can see three options:
1) It doesn't. They are immune to Turning, not Channel Energy so they take normal damage.
2) Full Immunity. Channel energy doesn't hurt them at all.
3) Partial immunity. They are always considered to have made their saving through, so suffer half channel damage.

I'm leaning towards option 3 at the moment, as 1 seems too weak and 2 is very powerful. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I'm just in the middle of Seven Days at the moment, but I can see a problem coming up. Namely, how does the paladin (forbidden from associating with known evil people) work with Lauri and the Shadowcount. Even if he doesn't detect them as evil, the calling on the deity of darkness, pain and sadism is likely to be a bit obvious (and for the Shadowcount, the chain DEVIL is likely to be a bit of a stumbling block).

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Would Spell Penetration stack with the Arcane Duelist ability's +2 bonus to overcome spell resistance? And, for that matter, would Spell Focus stack with AD's ability to increase a spell's DC by +1?

Pretty much as it says. In replacing a fallen character, we've encountered a significant disparity between the WBL of the new character from t he tables, and the WBL of the others per the adventure. My current cludge is to allow the existing characters to spend up to WBL at the end of the module (just finished Edge of Anarchy) and justifying it as outfitting by the Guard. But does anyone have a a more elegant solution? Preferably one that doesn't mean I'm rewriting the treasure throughout the adventures?

Characters:
Cortonne, Voice of Brigh – NG M Half-Orc Cleric of Brigh (who intends to go with the Renegade Master Maker prestige class and is often suggesting 'improvements' to his colleagues)
Kanaris – CN M Shonti Human Barbarian
Galariel – CG F Half-Elf Sorcerer (Aberation bloodline)
Malak – NG M Elf Rogue
Torgul Frostbreath – NG M Ulfen Human Fighter

Ok. Most of the evening was taken up with character and background, but we did get started. The group was very eager to go after Lamm, even without Zellarra's urging, but I guess that's what happens when you have a couple of tortured victims, a widow and an orphan pissed at you.

On approaching the fisheries, they decided to go with the barbarian lock pick (Kanaris' Earthbreaker) and shattered their way through the doors into the front room. Naturally, Bloo didn't like people intruding on his space and charged resulting in a minor bite to the barbarian before he was dispatched. Cortonne stabilised the poor dog but an angry Kanaris wasn't having any of this and went for the coup de grace (with the earthbreaker). Resulting in a smear of guard dog. Kaanaris then proceeded to wreck Bloo's den.

The party proceeded to the upper workfloor where Torgul managed to notice Hookshanks’ kukri despite his disguise skill. Torgul promptly threatened Hookshanks with his two-handed sword, but rolled really badly on his intimidate check and Hookshanks was unimpressed. The others, having no idea why Torgul was threatening the orphan (as Hookshanks appeared) assumed he knew what he was talking about, especially when Hookshanks tried, and failed to gut the Ulfen. Cortonne rolled double 20's with his light hammer and proceeded to roll maximum damage, taking Hookshanks to significant negatives with one hit that I ruled sent the little gnome flying. Cortonne immediately cast stabilise and tried to cure him but the gnome had taken so much damage he remained insensible. Torgul did suggest killing the gnome, but the outrage this caused in most of the rest of the party has dissuaded him for now.

Which is where we left things.

One of my players has expressed an interest in playing a Master of Many Forms in our Pathfinder game and has even worked out a progression of the abilities. I've made a couple of modifications, and am provisionally accepting it, but would like thoughts on where it's likely to break down. We're still only first level, so plenty of time to make changes before it comes into play.

So requirements are now:
Feats: Alertness, Endurance
Special: Wild Shape

Still no new proficiencies.

Skills (as MoMF): Acrobatics, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Fly,
Handle Animal, Knowledge (Nature), Perception, Spellcraft, Stealth,
Swim, Survival (4+Int)

HD (as MoMF): d8

Progression:
1) Shifter's Speech, Wild Shape (Alter Self)
2) WS (Beast Shape II)
3) WS (Elemental Body I), Fast Wild Shape
4) WS (Plant Shape I)
5) WS (Beast Shape III), WS (Elemental Body II)
6) WS (Form of Dragon I), WS (Beast Shape IV)
7) Master of Forms, WS (Giant Form I), WS (Elemental Body III)
8) WS (Form of Dragon II), WS (Plant Shape II)
9) WS (Giant Form II), WS (Elemental Body IV), Thousand Faces
10) Evershifting form, WS (Form of Dragon III)

Shifter's Speech, Fast Wild Shape and Evershifting Form are exactly the same as the 3.5 MoMF. Thousand Faces is as the Druid ability.

Master of Forms is a new ability to replicate some of the 'lost' shapes. The Master of Many Forms can use Beast Shape to assume the form of either an animal or vermin. This does not change the list of abilities. He may also use the ability to shift into magical beasts to shift into Monstrous Humanoids, again keeping the same restrictions on abilities.

Evershifting Form. MoMF levels stack with Druid levels for purposes of Wild Shape (This would give the MoMF extra uses of Wild Shape. This is mostly so that the highly appropriate Wild Shape at Will is gained at 20th level, without acquiring it up to 5 levels earlier as a capstone power of the MoMF.

Any thoughts?

Not sure if anyone else has posted about this, but...

Green Ronin have announced on its website how it will be rebranding its existing 3.5 books, including a Print-On Demand option for things out of print.

Press Release: Green Ronin Announces 3rd Era

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GREEN RONIN ANNOUNCES 3RD ERA
Industry Leader to Keep Classic Titles Available Under New Brand

3rd EraDecember 9, 2008--SEATTLE, WA: Green Ronin Publishing announced today that it would keep its classic d20 System titles available under its new 3rd Era brand name. The process began this week with the re-release of six books in PDF format and will continue on a regular basis until all the titles are updated.

"The status of the old d20 logo is now unclear," said Green Ronin President Chris Pramas, "so we created a new logo to replace it. This will keep PDFs of our back catalog available. We're also going to offer Print on Demand editions through Lulu, so gamers who want hard copies of difficult to find products like the Book of Fiends will be able to get them."

The first six 3rd Era books are Aasimar & Tiefling, Advanced Bestiary, Book of Fiends, Creatures of Freeport, Eternal Rome, and the Freeport Trilogy: 5-Year Anniversary Edition. PDFs of these titles are available now in the Green Ronin Online Store and print versions will be available from Lulu soon. 3rd Era books are compatible with the 3rd edition of the world's most popular roleplaying game and its many offshoots and variants.

As today is Remembrance Sunday here in the UK, I'd just like to ask everyone to pause for a minute at some point during the day to remember all the young men and women who've given their lives in defence of their countries.

And A Pittance of Time video to set the scene for you.

Peace out.

... and they're British.

Title says it all. The Iconics have done a great job of creating visual images for the races and classes of Pahtfinder but there is one missing. There are no half-orc Iconics. Where's the love for the tuskies?

Can we have a thirteenth Iconic to give us some half-orcy goodness (preferably not a barbarian as the others have tended to steer clear of the stereotypical classes).

Hi all.
I'm planning on starting up a Rise of the Rune Lords campaign using the Pathfinder Alpha (and then Beta, and then final) rules soon.

The game will be running at the Black Horse pub Rathbone place (Pretty close to Tottenham Court Road tube station) on Monday evenings.

Any one interested?