Pax Veritas's page

I like having the whole collection. Its amazing to have such rich resources to draw from. I suggested keeping it unless money is an issue.

James, Vic, et.al., I just wanted to say not all fans/subscribers get their Girdles of Giant Strength in a bunch over things like this. The quality APs you make and ship are excellent whether they are early or late, doubled-up, or off by a month. With new products in the works, I bet this will be another amazing year for PAIZO, and I'll bet most customers can appreciate the crunch you're feeling right now. Good work on everything, no worries, and good luck on all the new products and innovations!

Pax

I run a monthly Pathfinder RPG game for a different group of players than my weekly game. One character is a necromancer (wizard) who wishes to craft and empower scrolls.

Can someone with a good understanding of RAW, please explain the crafting, empowering, and casting process for these scrolls?

Many thanks!

lol. nope it was a wizard.

So a 20 point buy system could generate:
12
12
14
16
12
12

Or even:
9
10
11
12
13
15

I'm looking at Ezren Level 1 in the back of Serpent Skull AP pg 90:

Ezren has:
11
9
12
18
15
9
So would you say this is possibly a 14 point buy system?

What does a 15 point buy system mean?

I probably know this already and will say, "duh" to myself for asking...

Good to know.

I'm just finishing up a homebrew campaign that's run since February of 2008. PCs will just obtain 14th level.

I'm looking to switch gears now that their "home country" is well established. Do you think it work well if I adapted Kingmaker's Greenbelt to an untamed 'Stolen Land' just east of the country the players have been playing in for years?

I'm still open to using Golarion, but I have my own gods/pantheon and homeworld feel/maps etc. From what I'm reading in the responses of this thread it should be easily adaptable...?

Hi GMs,

I've got some questions - forgive if these are simple:
> I read through the player's guide, and it seems a TON of advance information. How much of that stuff are you revealing to players? I'm thinking to not use the players guide due to all the stuff in there. Also I'm concerned that since I own (but haven't read) all six parts yet, that the players guide would introduce stuff I'm not as familiar with.

> Has anyone adapted Kingmaker to their own world? I think doing so for Part 1/6 would be easy, but I'm concerned that all the many many references to different provinces, house names, countries etc. might be just too much to convert on the fly with the other modules. Thoughts?

> Would you recommend that the GM read all 6 parts first before running the first one? I can see how I could run the first one without reading the rest... but I'm wondering if I would lose the richness of all the forshadowing, or find myself unable to answer all the questions. Thanks.

Dumb question - but when folks use a "point buy" system, is there a base number they are starting with. Exactly which point buy system would have been used for the PCs provided in the back of Kingmaker? I'm thinking to run the AP soon, and I want to dial my typical power levels down to what's presented in the Ezren, Valeros, etc. stats for Level 1.

I cought a bad cold and had to cancel the session. I'll follow up next week with results ;)

Hey DeathQuaker - thanks for your interest.

Using all the spells listed above, along with a limited wish, Malcanthet steps into the party in the bard's place just before the current battle. Malcanthet could have possessed all the observations and gotten all the party's knowledge through the Bard's eyes via her spells, then at the last possible moment, stepped into the group in full disguise with all prepped spells at work. The real bard would be tied up and hidden at that point. Malcanthet has a +20 to disguise anyhow, so a DC48 would clear the PC previous rolls that morning.

As for where she'd been? I introduced an NPC who was "bound" to the main ballroom on the ship the PCs are traveling upon. She raised early suspicions by at least one PC that she might have been a succubus already - so this works out well enough, without needing to slice and dice all the details of how this was achieved to the party. Suffice it to say its believable and would work.

Afterthought:
I considered writing out all this detail and accounting for it to the party. But honestly, I'm a bit tired of the "explaining" GMs usually have to do in modern game groups. GMing was designed to be a flowing spontaneous act, so I reason that as long as its reasonable, that needs to be good enough for the party. (I kinda miss the old days of GMing. There's still plenty of room for GM fiat, but I as a player myself in other campaigns I do appreciate a reasonable explanation. So, this has been a balancing act.)

3d6 per Ability Score. Assigned in the order rolled. Bwahahahaha

Seriously though. Does anybody ever do that anymore?

On occasion, yes. Every few months I offer a 1e game for those interested. Back in the 1980s, we would determine which "class" to play based off the rolls in order that way. So If I happened to land a high score in wisdom I played the cleric, a high strength then I played a fighter etc. This is still fun and efficient when playing AD&D 1e/OSRIC.

Responding to thread title questions, and having mentioned roll vs. role...

I posted this as I seek to understand the players quotations. At the time I posted, I just couldn't wrap my mind around where the player was coming from.

So far, I've heard he's "burnt out", or "obsessed with game mechanics". And frankly, that's where I get the idea that since is judgment of the wizard was based on the performance in combat that he must be "comparing" the class to other players' characters. In this regard, it seems like "roll" play.

But moving beyond the thread title... there have been some good insights as to what might be going on with the player, but the ideas are quite varied, and there are many of them.

I've enjoyed his company, but still cannot understand why he would reach these conclusions. Again, had he tried various other spells, or defensive tactics mixed in to stave off his death, it might make some sense... but all I seem to get from this is that he's quite focused on evaluating his ability to realize his character through game mechanics-- and that's where, at least at first, I thought maybe the gaming world is changing to forget about roleplaying, and personality, and remembering not to always press the attack as I've seen folks do in video games.

But I'm open to ideas. Setting aside video games, and "roll"play for a moment... what gives? Is it normal for players to base so much of their enjoyment out of mechanics alone? What do you say to a guy like that?

Yeah, I think I have a mismatched set of players somehow. I'm trying to wrap my mind around the player's statements but I can't seem to see his point in all this.

To answer questions (above) he's got about 10 years of experience since the third edition ruleset. And it may surprise to learn he is in his 50s. He does play a lot of Warmachine, and I been wondering if other rulesets like that one or other games, or video games have something to do with this mindset.

In all my years, those playing rpgs usually do so with much more of the "spirit" of the game, not min maxing and then finding some narrow area where they can break the game and boast about it.

I really don't agree with the player. I think the wizard is a great and powerful class. I didn't see the player try a full withdraw, regroup and quaff a potion, nor parlay with the enemy, nor take cover and cast spells from a better protected postion. It almost feels like he tried to buff his own brains out then try to go toe-to-toe as a fighter. He's certainly shined outside of combat in the campaign, in many cases the party would not have succeeded without him, but he doesn't seem to care about that stuff. I just wondered maybe it was some kind of "modernist gaming style" I wasn't aware of? But I'm starting to think its just kind of ... well, I've got to idea what this is all about.

I'd like to intern their souls to the Styx for a bit, then have them reform as Lemures. Neither are coming back from the dead. But I am curious, if there's any precedence in AD&D/3.5/Pathfinder...
... Especially Pathfinder RPG. Any page/book references you can share for any of these systems for the GM who typically follows RAW because he trusts the traditions of the game, not because he has to. James and the PAIZO crew really understand the traditions of the game... but I'm having trouble finding a source-reference, and honestly cannot recall how I handled this back in the 80's and 90's lol.

Two of my PCs died on the 2nd plane of Hell (Dis).
Do they get sucked into the River Styx? Do they become Lemures? What happens to their souls?

Erynes.

Has our gaming become so influenced by video games, that a player would quit a character just based on game mechanics? Are we completely split as a gaming community? I never thought mechanics were more important than personality and story.
Have a look at what one of my players has said about his PFRPG L13 wizard. Has ROLL-playing replaced ROLE-playing for good?

* * *

"While its true that my character chose to die to give his companions a few more seconds- this was NOT the hero Boromir taking arrows to buy time for the hobbits. My character made that choice the way a red-shirt chooses to take a phaser blast for Captain Kirk- because he has no kung-fu like Sulu and no Vulcan death grip like Spock. He is not a hero, but a nameless, faceless mook who could be replaced by anyone of the other 400 crew members and he dies, because he has nothing more useful to do. If you want to bury him as a hero, be my guest- but his death felt stupid and pointless to me, there was nothing heroic about it."

"Don't tell me that my character is supposed to be a hero- his abilities and interaction with the other characters will dictate his role. If he has the capability of performing heroic deeds, he may evolve into a hero, if not- perhaps he will just be a disgruntled taxi driver."

"After a look inward, my character found that 18 more seconds of the fighter's heroic sword was more important to the world than anything he could cast, swing, speak or invoke. With nothing to contribute, he envisioned himself a red-shirt rather than a hero- and he behaved accordingly."

"Whether the game mechanic or my inability to work with it is to blame, the result is the same: I cannot create what I envision as a Wizard with the tools I have available to me. I still maintain (although phrased slightly more tactfully) that any Wizard created within the framework of the CORE RULEBOOK is useless to me. Nearly everything that my character could do can be accomplished with a few scrolls in the rogue's backpack or a cheap NPC."

"In my experience, there are parallel ways to accomplish every skill and spell available to a Wizard and even the possession of a familiar is not unique. Call me a poor player if you wish, but I am unable to fashion a Wizard into anything but supporting cast. Each time I got excited about a new spell or ability, I ended up frustrated with it's drawbacks and dissappointed with it's party benefit compared to other classes I have played. The Wizard is NOT a viable character class.

"After staring long and hard at my character sheet (and I had a week to do so), I determined that the most useful thing that my character could do in the current situation was to stay in a position far from the other party members and soak up as much damage and as many attacks as I could, to buy time for members of the party with more significant offensive capabilities. I stuck to the plan and found my character woefully inadequate for the task of defeating any enemies, so I used the only other advantage that I had available to me: 103 targetable hit points."

"I understand that a Wizard is not meant to be an offensive powerhouse, but (as we are supposedly not under the constraints of a video game) I fully expected to be able to transform my character into one, given that our current task was to walk into hell and extract items from the principals there. I was not able to do this, despite my best attempts. With a DEX of 22, Mage Armor, Shield spell, an expensive Ring of Protection and +6 Natural Gianty-Armor- I still ended up with an AC that was easily bypassed (and several less than others in the party). With the nastiest 'top level spells' I could muster, I was only able to deal a bit of damage to some minions, while the attacks of subordinate enemies easily felled my fully-beefed wizard in a couple of rounds. On top of that, with each spell I cast, my usefulness diminished significantly while an archer or fighter can fight at FULL efficiency until they perish. It became evident that damage magnet was the best I could hope for."

"Whenever I, as a player, notice this much disparity between characters at a single level I begin looking at several possible causes:"

"- My knowledge of playing the Wizard Class is incomplete. It is certainly possible to make them as effective as other classes, but I'm not doing it correctly. Perhaps some prestige classes are better suited to what I was trying to do with my character. Guess I better hit the books."

"- Players are not playing their characters according to the class rules, leading to a wider than normal disparity in AC, CMD, Attack bonuses, etc. This happens when players continue to take shield or buckler benefits, even when fighting with two handed weapons; players add +5 to a power attack but forget to subtract it off their AC when attacked later in the round, etc."

"- The Game Mechanics are not balanced, leading to classes that lag behind their counterparts at certain levels. Everyone knows that low-level wizards are not as effective in battle or as robust as other classes. Perhaps these gaps appear at other levels as well. (Maybe at the NEXT level, wizards get some killer battle spells?)"

"- Magic Bloat. A +4 Vorpal sword, for example, significantly boosts a fighter's level. Beef his strength up with a Belt of Giant Strength and a few properly (or improperly) stacked feats and you have a 10th level fighter easily defeating ELs designed for a 15th. If the encounter levels are increased to be a challenge for Mr. super-fighter, then the unbuffed 10th level members of the party become fodder."

"In three out of four of these areas, the disparity and complexity increase as levels get higher- contributing to my general distaste of higher level campaigns. For the sake of argument, we'll say that all players are appropriately equipped and playing their characters correctly within the boundaries of sound, well-balanced game mechanics. That leaves us with me, or rather my lack of Wizardly prowess and brings me to the second topic:"

"Wanting to Stay Dead
I did my best to pump my character for combat and still fell way short of the mark. Essentially, I Min-Maxed a Wizard and the pinnacle of my efforts with was bested in moments, by supporting actresses. Accepting as a given that combat is NOT my strong suit, I looked at other character traits- does my character have a saving grace that warrants resurrection? Since I've never wanted to be a support caster, the majority of my spells are offensive in nature, leaving little of usefulness outside of combat. The Inquisitor has a comparable Knowledge Planes roll, the cleric is my equal in Knowledge Religion, the fighter excels with Knowledge Engineering and the Archer knows Dungeoneering and Spellcraft at least as well as I. What unique ability makes the wizard useful to the party?"

"Teleport. I'm a taxi? (as long as the party doesn't mind landing in a lake- I'm not very good at teleporting either ;)"

"My character is bland and generic, without much agenda and acts mostly as a sounding board for the cleric. He was not given the same care as as my monk or rogue, through no one’s fault but my own. So, without being able to contribute significantly to battle, knowledge or story- he's consequently not much fun to play. That's what it boils down to- he's not fun anymore. Not to be an RPG snob, but if I'm going to pour my hard-earned free time into D&D, I'd best enjoy a character who plays a significant role in battle, skills and story. That's the only time that it’s fun."

"Real Life has challenges, inequities and setbacks. There is no reset button so we soldier on with whatever dignity we can muster. One of the best things about D&D is that the ONLY real rule is that it should be fun. When D&D life gives you lemons, you don't HAVE to make lemonade- you can just go to the pub, have an ale- then punch a nasty looking half-orc when you get bored. And if you're not happy with your life in D&D, you CAN have someone else’s life. Grab a blank character sheet."

"If your unhappiness occurs at a higher level- find a different game (and that is what we're talking about here, right? A game?) D&D not happening? Go play Monopoly."

"Perhaps it IS primarily a video game mentality to press the reset button when things aren't going well, but one thing is for certain in either type of game: if you're not having fun playing the game, do something different. "

"Speaking of Video Games...
The language that I chose to voice my umbrage was the language of video games, but if you review the causes I list above: (my own lack of skill, player cheesing, improperly designed game mechanics or equipment bloat), ALL of the things I mention are the areas where RPG and Video games overlap. In fact, my specific issues with my wizard's configuration are from the only space where RPG and video games are the same. I'm not advocating that RPG should be more like a video game, essentially I'm upset that RPG is too much like a video game when it comes to building a character. I couldn't seem to build an effective wizard within the video-game-like boundaries imposed by Pathfinder. With effort on my part I could give my wizard more RPG depth- but I do not believe that I can make him a viable combatant nor will his skills ever provide any unique benefit to the party because the numbers won't let that happen."

I kindly request a copy of your awesome conversion, please. Thanks!

Hey, I looked at Ezren and Valeros and the other PFRPG characters in the back of Serpent Skull last night because this thread made me curious as to what kind of ability scores L1 characters PAIZO uses/recommends.

I could immediately see that all thier stats totaled to 74. What system would this infer?

I'm so impressed at PAIZO's drive for a quality community experience. Great job!

Background
From a rules perspective... there are times when the GM absolutely needs to mask the identity of an NPC.

Main Question?
How would you do this against L13 players who will travel with the NPC? Assume the players have decent ability stats and access to Arcane/Inquisitor/Cleric spells and abilities...

Example:
If a powerful (CR20) demonlord wanted to travel with the players (for a time) by impersonating an NPC bard, how would you mask the NPC's identity enough to fool the players?

Scenario:
Malcanthet, Queen of Succubi (see Fiendish Codex I), reveals herself as the bard the players traveled with. As a GM, I'd like to take the extra step to ensure this can be explained with the rules for a few players who need that sort of thing. At first I thought about possession, but I actually need Malcanthet to appear instead of the NPC in the final location. Then I thought about disguise +40, but the players already tried true seeing and discern lies etc. and did not detect her previously (over the weeks they'd traveled with the NPC bard.) So my thought is at the last moment she stepped in (disguised) and joined the party in the NPCs place. But the wizard had arcane sight with permanency set to his eyes, and would have seen her powerful magic aura.

Bottom Line:
As a GM, how would the fool-proof disguise take place per RAW?

Okay... so the rod is easily wrested from the fighter, who has an effective STR of zero. Got it, thanks! It can be basically picked up on the move with a flyby attack, or the adjacent creature can begin Coup de Gras, or telekinesis can swiftly bring the rod to the enemy.

Either way, this battle has taken a turn for the worse. Mwahaha. Thanks!

Hey all,

Last game the villain cast Hold Person on the fighter who was holding a rod. What would need to happen to telekinesis that rod out of the player's hand? Is the hand then assumed to be loose enough to pull the rod out? If the player's STR is 22, and the spell pulls up to 25 lbs., is there a chance of being unsuccessful, or is this an easy thing to do with a HELD target?

Got it. Cool.

Okay cool. That's what I ruled.

So creature declares Coup de Grace on his count.
That's a full round action.
Other players attempt to move the creature during their subsequent rounds by using their CMB vs. creatures CMD. If they are successful the coup fails. If the creature is still adjacent to the player upon which it is attempting coup de grace, on the creatures count next round (completing the Full Round Action), the PC dies. Is this accurate?

If I have experienced players, I'll give out the Pax Array:
17,16,15,14,13,12 - with the option to move up to 2 points in any direction.

So can a creature, such as a horned devil, Coup de Grace a player that is held?

Would anything prohibit this action?

I ruled that using Giantform II doesn't affect his ability to cast spells, assuming the giant form still has 2 hands etc.

Also, does the damage from a club go up by 2-dice levels since Giant form II is huge?

Please advise.
Pax

4 players is fun.
5 players is probably ideal.
6 players is a handful but still manageable, flow of game slowed a bit
7 players is usually less manageable and slows things down noticably
8 players is avoidable

Sweet spot is 5 players.

I have GM'ed for 6 players 1/week since 2006.

Again, there are some minor trade-offs with six players in terms of pace of game, and GM-attention to each one is reduced a bit, but still manageable.

Ah yes. Building one's own table - a gamer's dream.

Here's my set up:
>Large wide oak table with center base for lots of leg room (seats 6 or 7 players closely.
>Swivel chairs (good stuff)
>Finished Basement with 4-5 soft light lamps
>2 clear bright mini lamps on the game table, one shining semi-behind the home made screen for clarity, the other light for drawing attention to the game area
>3-5 tiered long shelf racks displaying minis and drawer organizers for game tiles and bulk miniatures such as 70 orcs or 40 goblins or 30 hobgoblins (these mini drawers are labled for easy access, terrain bits, and other sculpts I made from clay).
>Major Bookshelf with entire 3.5 collection and other essentials such as Tome of Horrors 1-9, Collection of Pathfinder APs, extra Core Rule Books and other PAIZO stuff.
>A side flat table for preliminary game set up
>Wall rack with poster hanging frames for collection of Gamemastery maps, and other maps I created or taped together via printing pages
>I am buying and installing a projector next week - this will add variety of display to our maps for the table (I ensure we do as much roleplay as battle, but I think the projector will add some fun and variety)
>Dedicated refrigerator for beer and diet pop
>Dedicated coffee station with Keurig for 1-shot gourmet coffees, and a regular basic Mr. Coffee for bulk brew
>CD Player, collection of Nox Arcana
>Accross the room - blueray player for streaming Pandora, where I made a soundtrack station for miscellaneous background music
>Two short box-like open racks of templates (SteelSquire metal collection for area effect spells, and some 20 others I created from paper, duct tape, or plastic parts. The racks also use CombatTiers Family Pack for air combat placement, and some line of sight indicators (rarely needed).
>Old PC with Fractal Mapper, wherein the whole world is drawn and scaleable for development of areas traveled in, and set for easy printing if needed.
>Custom PC tags that hang over my screen to easily display initiative count once determined, and display some basic PC stats for hidden rolls.
>Dedicated snack shelf - players often bring some, sometimes I'll load it up.
>Adjacent living room area with comfy old furniture, for those side-bar conversations or times when I need to set up the scene on the main table for a few minutes.
>Various cardboard towers, walls, styrofoam crafts I created for terrain. (Also adjacent to the game room is a storage room, where I have a multipurpose shelf for major crafts such as big castle walls, or towers.
>Secitons of bookshelves dedicated for Castles & Crusades/1e/Osric, and the top shelves of the coffeestation displaying the newest case of Pathfinder minis. (PFRPG always gets top shelf everything, and is my game of choice.)
>A small white drafting table set adjacent to the main table for GM book sprawl, along with two side tables and accessory shelves directly behind me. Side tables house the occasional laptop for quick spell look up. The shelves also house Diamond Clear card cases and all the Pathfinder Card sets, some multiples organized by melee, armor, ranged, scrolls, wands, rods, periapts and neclasses, rare reagents and components, jemstones, etc. etc. you get the idea. I keep small mini-post it tags-for quickly writting the treasure description to stick to the card then the card goes in the diamond slip cover. I keep three tiny boxes on the GM table for a) Treasure b) Condition Summaries c) SpellBuff Cards (I made these).
>I keep 6-7 sets of Zocchi precision cut dice on the GM table and have a carved wooden dice roller set to one side, along with some campaign binders holding all the campaign artifacts, maps, descriptions, etc.
>Extra mirror 1" circles, homemade magnetic picture tokens, extra 2" and 3" magnetic circles (never know when you need to have more of something. A few custom color area effect crafts I made such as cloudkill or wall of fire. I keep a set of "hero points" I crafted on 1" disks. I keep a great golden 1/2 golf ball-bowl of dice atop a small pedistal (probably 25 sets mixed together)
>I keep a few black "protection" candles, incense sticks, and a singing bowl handy near a stack of miniature 3m Page flags for tagging "delay action" "readied actions" or pages in my books.
>Clip pad, dry erase board, bulletin board, game art on the walls, a few sets of Battlefield In A Box just for fun.
>I keep a few european darkwood boxes and other small boxes to hide adventure minis from the players until needed.
>Some 1200 miniatures which are not in drawers are open and exposed on all the shelves, each creature in duplicats of 5-10. These are organized by monster type - so for example I know where to grab an aberation from.
>1 Set of Invisible minis, 1 Set of gamemastery torchbearer motes, and plenty of miniature crates, barrels, etc.
>I keep a few rolls of black rubber shelf-liner for laying out whenever I decide to use dungeon tiles (keeps them secure in place), and black tablecloths handy for occasional use if I do a major setup and need to make several tables look like one big one.
>Finally, I post pictures of the "gods" of my world to a side bulletin board, along with other small pictures posted as needed.

**** The thing to remember about this crazy post, and my unreal set-up, is that I've played the world's oldest rpg for about 25 years without any of this stuff. I've even played it without any books. None of this stuff is needed, nor is it necessary to play Pathfinder RPG. After all these years of playing on floors, couches, cardtables, I just focused the past 4-6 years on acquiring anything/everything step by step. However, I enjoy the game just fine without any of it.

1. Look at their ability stats. If they are anywhere near 17,16,15,14,13,12 then you have a heroic group on your hands.
2. Count the number of players. If you have six players, then recalulate the average party level as +1. For example consider a group of six L2 players to be average party level 3 (APL+1).
3. Set all average encounters to 3 (APL+0)
4. Set all challenging encounters to 4 (APL+1)
5. Set all hard encounters to 5 (APL+2)
6. Set all epic encounters to 6 (APL+3)

See for details: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/gamemastering.html

Now if for any reason your players are walking around with epic ability scores or tons of magic items you can always bump your APL estimate to APL+2 as a baseline.

I figured this out the hard way, through trial and error, and only after experiencing times when the party was too tough.

In your specific case, I notice that you list armor classes primarily in your original post. Its possible that this is your primary concern. If so, your particular challenge may not be that as a gamemaster you cannot "hit" your players.

Chances are... by recalibrating your encounters you'll find the creatures have higher armor class and better to-hit bonuses, including higher base attacks. This should do the trick.

18 AC isn't that bad, but it probably implies each character has already found good armor. This is good for players, but bad for most low level foes - and this would be responsible for you not being able "to-hit".

Provided you haven't given out too much magic items, and provided their ability scores are reasonable... this might be only a small effort to increase the challenges without having to reduce anything about the characters (something players cannot stand).

Good luck, let us know how it goes.
Pax

Drejk wrote:

Coup de Grace: As a full-round action, you can use a melee weapon to deliver a coup de grace (pronounced “coo day grahs”) to a helpless opponent. You can also use a bow or crossbow, provided you are adjacent to the target.

While touch ranged spells might be considered melee weapons ray spells are hardly bows/crossbow.

Ah, yes. I was thinking it could be done with any ranged weapon, but to do so you had to be adjacent. While this seems a fair adjustment, RAW it can truly only be preformed with bows/crossbows. Thanks Drejk. That's what I get for not referencing stuff.

I sometimes misread rules that refer to "melee weapon", so can you clarify for me...

I currently have a L13 fighter who's been HELD by "Rex", a part of the Rod of Seven Parts, he is adjacent to a Horned Devil. The horned devil isn't using a "melee weapon" but would its natural attacks ever count for CdG?

800x600 resolution is waaaaaaaay too low in my opinion.

Which resolution would you recommend?

800x600 resolution is waaaaaaaay too low in my opinion.

I hear ya. Turns out the next leap up is to buy a good quality projector... and I'm trying to decide between low res and functional, with easily affordable replacable bulbs versus the next step up...

The Optoma Pro350w for example is a leap up to 699.99.

So, I'm wondering if the 200.00 with a back up bulb, cords, remote, and basic functionality is all I need to get started. I guess I wonder since the display range will be short... ceiling to a first surface mirror down to the table... if maybe "resolution" would be over-rated for the purposes of displaying pages from the PAIZO APs.

The maps are rich in color and definition, and it wouldn't be like I'm trying to watch a movie... just display a castle, or a field, or a dungeon...

I'm thinking about this one: Affordable Projector

@UndeadDan - my game table is brown wood color, but I think on "projector nights" I'll overlay a dry-erase board that I customize to fit snug over the table and project and write on. At least... those are my initial thoughts.

Link to my favorite art supply shop

@Squawk - were you suggesting printing the maps on little ascetate cards then projecting? I'm not sure I need to do that step with 188 PDFs in my PAIZO collection. I'd like to go straight from the PDF map to the projector (and possibly filter using MAP TOOLS for torchlight distance display - I'm told the program does that...).

For example, following one of these links, I see a gamer recommends: Sanyo PLC XU41 XGA (1024 x 768) LCD projector - 1500 ANSI lumens

But I don't understand why? There are plenty of 2000 lumens projectors that are now considered low-end and available...

What features am I looking for to get the best visual, and the best projection distance ratio? In the case of Pathfinder RPG, I'm hoping a short distance to the table from the ceiling or wall would do.

Any advise is welcome.

One has to ask oneself...

Do I really want my gaming sessions to feel like a corporate boardroom meeting? Projectors, laptops, smartphone apps, how much is too much?

I understand your point --- and when I play away from home I get a healthy gaming dose of no-battlemat old skool as well. I enjoy it just fine. I believe imagination is all you need. But... for my tripped-out game room at home... I want to add a projector to my ultimate game room because I can. lol

I particularly wish to project all the varied PAIZO maps from Dungeon/Dragon magazines as well as Pathfinder Adventure Paths, Modules, etc.

I happen to have 2 recessed light panels above my game table that I don't use, I use various other soft lighting and small lamps on the table usually. (So I can mount on ceiling if I wish, angled, pointed down, with room for airflow I think.) The mirror approach would work fine - provided someone help me understand roughly how far from the table and how high up the projector would need to be to hit the ceiling mirror properly. I don't think I will project from underneath, as I wish to still use the actual table for other games as needed.

I figure 2000 lumens might be good-enough. I think on ebay I can find something between $200-$300 bucks.

The real question is, from those of you who have already done this, which projector should I buy? I already use all kind of variety of mats and vynal, etc. You name it, I use it. But with the projector, I feel someone out there has first hand experience to recommend the best KIND of projector specifications to help me choose wisely.

Amazon? Ebay? Used? New? Low-end and scrappy? High-end? Distance from the table? Which projector works best with Paizo's PDF Maps that come with the adventure paths and other supplements? Use Map Tool with it? Use 2 computers? Best experiences with projectors? Basically, please advise!

Ok. Would he revel in crushing her, since she is a demon and a member of the Abyssal council? Sounds like he would enjoy her destruction, rather than use her.

The situation is Malcanthet has arrived in Dispater's throneroom wherein the last 2 pieces of the Rod of Law rest.

PCs enter, Dispater is not home, Malcanthet's hidden identity is revealed (has been traveling with the party in the body of an NPC).

Fight.

Dispater's guardsman premier fights the party, Malcanthet grasps the last two pieces, affixes to her 1 part. Making three parts hers.

Question: Any ideas why Malcanthet would seek to assemble and possess the Rod of Law?

My thought was she's a newcomer to the Abyssal council, wanted to secure her power by performing a major transgression against devil-kind.

Any flaws with this idea?
Its possible Dispater could return, he spends 1 day per year in a meeting with Asmodeus, he might cut his trip short and return. If so, I need a reason why he'd be pleased with the PCs for delivering her to him.

Thanks.
3 hours till game time.

I've got about 5 hours until we start playing-the mega adventure path is coming to a head in Dispater's throneroom on L2 of hell.

Question: Can you provide some reason Malcanthet (Queen of Succubi) is the one who has been pursuing the Rod of 7 Parts this time?

Question: Would Dispater, upon learning it was Malcanthet and not the Queen of Chaos pursuing the rod, want to keep her as his slave? That is, would a devil like Dispater make "use" of Malcanthet's 40 charisma beauty for his own purposes if he could? Has there ever been liaisons beetween devils and demons?

I have some ideas, but I'm too close to the story to think objectively. Thanks for any input.

"Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"Yeti."

"Yeti who?"

"He's dedicated; yeti can't make it to work due to the snow."

*Stay warm, Paizonians!"

It says "your purchase helps" but I'm not sure its all the money.

I think its nice that they finally contribute to the Gygax memorial.

Its too bad that they seemed to marginalize Gary during his living years, and ignore his contributions to gaming by distancing themselves from Gary at GENCON.

I like that its seems gamers respect for Gary is finally being heard by WotC. The memorial, afterall, is for all of us, and although I am estranged from WotC - we are all gamers afterall. Its equally nice to see WotC change their "bad boy" personna (the one that used to make fun of gamers during GENCON speaches) into one that shows a little heart and respect.

Is the OGL included in the reprint? 4e was not OGL, but if they wish to mend broken fences with the community, an Open Game Licence with 1e/2e material would certainly decrease much of the enmity and friction generated by the GSL.

well... there are three powerful suggestions not yet mentioned:

>>TIME<< Hand-waive the passage of time during the slow, boring or meaningless parts; conversely, when the party wishes to achieve a bunch of things like gathering knowledge or meeting with the council to make battle plans - say that it takes the rest of the day. Quickly moving to the next morning can help make it seem very reasonable.

>>DISTANCE<< Have the party travel to their next destination, and surcharge the appropriate time to get there. Battles are fun, but only one part of a roleplaying game. Have the battle site be unknown until the party spends time researching where the enemy is, then travel there.

<<24>> I use what I call the "24" technique in my games. I tend to design my adventures to spec, with a good assortment of easy, challenging, hard, epic battles thoughout the day. All this takes is good story planning to ensure the believability of all those different encounters happening on the same day. But let me assure you, its not a 15 minute day - if the story is good, the players must press on with less than adequate resources, and will surprise you with their ingenuity when they cannot blast their biggest best stuff at the boss at the end.

Hope that helps.

Good point.

Anyone want to design a better devil box for my game?

thanks Weables. I think you're right, and we've always played this way. But I wonder if it wouldn't make more sense to allow those things...

The RAW implies that:
> A powerful human fighter of any level cannot squeeze 5 feet next to an ally to get a melee attack in, because even though he has 30 feet of movement and only 20 (10 in and 10 out) would be used up, the rules prohit him moving attacking then moving again. So 10 feet of movement is lost, and the scnenario suffers as we say the 13the level fighter cannot squeeze and attack, even though we normally don't even count "friendly" squares as movement.

I hope I was able to be clear about the issue. Does this make sense to anyone?

Just to be clear... these are scenarios involving the last space of squeeze movement as the max movement for the creature or PC that is moving. Example, the last 10 feet of move spent on sqeezing 1 square.