Jirelle

Ryan Kappler's page

Organized Play Member. 64 posts. 4 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 6 Organized Play characters.


RSS

1 to 50 of 64 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>

I got your attention, didn't I?

One of my groups has been encountering devils and demons. The sorcerer in the group is collecting souvenirs as they go. She recently collected the horns and wings of a succubus, and the feathers and wings of an erinyes. (there was also an incubus which she harvested from. Forget what she took from them. Maybe the skull.)

She has a habit of collecting this stuff and then trying to sell it by the pound to local alchemists and apothecaries. I allow challenge appraise and diplomacy checks between her and the potential buyer, and then roll percentile dice and add a mental modifier to offer her a price for the souvenirs.

She's about to do it again with what she collected from this succubus and erinyes (and incubus) in our next session. Instead of offering her straight up gold, though, I wanted to make it more interesting and have the potential buyer offer her some sort of bow with ammunition that would make sense in exchange for these goods. Some sort of devil or demon aligned and/or magical bow and ammunition that would make sense.

What kind of special ranged weapons are there out there that could be made from or used against devils and demons?


Ugh. A year later, it seems that Staples is again refusing to print gaming maps. I'm going to try the GIMP method. I'll let everyone know how it goes.


I'm asking for a friend. :)


+1


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Hey, heads-up. I have an update. It appears that Staples reversed their 30% saturation policy. I was able to send the maps for "Citadel of Flame" to them a couple hours ago, and the order is already done. I'm going to pick it up tonight. The size of each map is going to be 24 X 36, and each one costs only about $6. So, I just wanted to let everyone know of the good news.


I've been trying to report sessions for event number 154,735, but I keep getting the Sad Golem page. I've tried many times, being patient, and thinking it's just a server thing.

But, then, as an experiment, I tried the same thing with some of my other events, and those worked fine.

So, general issue, or just an issue with my one event?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

For the past several years, Staples was my go-to place to print out maps for my games. Even after the image of the map was blown up to scale, if you chose to print it as an engineering drawing, it would only cost $3 for a 2 foot by 3 foot map.

For color, it was only $6. And, the quality was always good, and you could use them again and again. For particularly good maps, I would add another $3 to get it laminated for long-term use.

The maps were always nice eye-candy, and got a lot of attention from my gamers - of both organized and home games. I have accumulated quite a stack, and have actually donated some of them to other gamers - when the stack got too big.

But, just recently, now Staples refuses to print these large maps for me any more. They say that if the saturation is more than 30%, it ruins their printers. I tried with a couple different Staples locations, and got the same answer every time. So, it looks like something recently changed internally with Staples.

The only other option is to have Staples print them as full-color posters, but that inflates the price from $6 to something like $60. Ugh.

I even priced out large plot printers to be able to do it at home. But, even a used one would be $600 - and that doesn't include the ink or paper.

Guess I have to dust off my old Chessex battlemaps and Vis-a-vis markers.


Was anyone able to accurately resize the Ghoral-Ray map - which would end up being HUGE - and then chop it up for easy printing?


Ah, well for starters, he's not using it correctly. Thank you for all that information. I appreciate it. It helped solve the problem.


I'm asking because a young player at my table is playing a cleric. I am allowing material from sources other than the Core Rulebook, but with many restrictions.

He took Psychic Healing as a feat. It's breaking the game, so I'm looking into it. This feat is from Occult Adventures, which I don't have, nor am I familiar with it. It says that the prerequisites are having either Psychic Sensitivity or the ability to cast Psychic Spells.

On the face, I don't think he can have this feat, but I've heard that Occult Adventures is a little wonky, and I don't know if there are some exceptions that I don't know about when it comes to psychic stuff.

Help from anyone who has access to this material?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Thank you everyone! I knew I could count on my fellow Pathfinders!

Then, I need advice. The players were wronged by the Aspis Consortium, and want to both exact revenge and gain some important information. They are in Magnimar, and I was going to use the Thief Guild Flipmat as the local Aspis stronghold. I planned in my head this epic battle were this Commander is the only occupant of the establishment at the time, and they fight this one guy all the way through the corridors, and then escape out through the sewers.

There are three reasons I want to do it this way:

1. Up until now, the players have been fighting large groups of small creatures, like kobolds and goblins. I want the players to have the experience of going up against one big bad guy.

2. This Commander is the lowest level Aspis agent that would have the specific information that they are looking for.

3. I want them to experience a huge win. Something to be proud of.

But, I would feel guilty about awarding 2nd level characters almost 5000 experience. That would immediately take them to 3rd level, and a good ways towards 4th level.

Is what I'm doing making sense, and would you come to the same conclusion, or would you do it differently?


The Aspis Consortium Commander is in the Inner Sea NPC Codex. Here is the link to the stat block on Archives of Nethys:

Aspis Consortium Commander

It says it is a CR13 enemy. I really do not see why, though. Sure, triple digit hit points and multiple attacks and many feats, but the damages are low, and he would need a way to be able to use the sneak attack damage.

I'm seriously considering putting my group of six 2nd level characters against him. The fighter and barbarian can keep him tangled up, while the rogue flanks. The sorcerer and wizard can harry him and disrupt him, and the cleric can keep everyone in the party healed up. Sure, it would be a long combat, but I think my players would not have much problem with this enemy.

I think this enemy should be more like CR5 or CR6. Any thoughts?

What's with the extra levels of Aspis Agent?


1. UMD should be on the wizard class, not the sorcerer class. Wizards get their arcane abilities from years of study of tomes and objects. Sorcerers get their power innately. It makes much more sense that a wizard would be able to easily use a device, than a sorcerer.

2. CRs need to go down because combat is too easy. I believe this was a side-effect of going from 3.5 to Pathfinder, and adding some facets to the classes that made them more powerful in the transition. So, if CRs go down, then combats would have to include more enemies to be challenging again.

3. Paladin should be a prestige class.

That's all I got. Otherwise, I love Pathfinder.


Well, I'm going to be working with mostly novice players that have 1st level characters. They've been emailing me, and it's going to be a pretty cool and varied group of characters.

Anyway, I know that I had to start them off with small things like goblins and kobolds. The mental image of the two races fighting over a jewel in the woods seemed funny to me.

The other details of the plot:

I've never done anything in Lastwall, so I wanted to cut my teeth on that. When I did research on Lastwall, I saw the connections to Varisia, which I'm very familiar with, so that locked that in for me.

So, then I did further research and found the exterior threats of undead and orcs. I initially was going to make the buried sorcerer a half-elf, for the fairness of the image, but when I saw how prevalent orcs are in the area, I didn't have to stretch too far to make it work.

I'm going to use this campaign to expose the new players to different aspects of the game little by little. Goblins, orcs, kobolds, undead, nations, families, sorcerers, Aspis Consortium, politics, tomb raiding. It's all there. :)


I think I got it.

In the beginning:

• A good portion of Varisia’s history and inhabitants originally came from Lastwall, including a lot of the original noble families. I remember reading that somewhere.

• One of the young princesses of the Leroung family, during a family excursion, started a relationship with, not only a peasant, but an orc, while on vacation along the Tourondel River. It was soon discovered that she was pregnant with a daughter.

• The Leroung family, not being a particularly political family, but a scholarly and friendly family of high morals, saw the implications of what an illegitimate half-orc offspring born outside of the Hold of Belkzen to a noble family that has ties in both Vigil and Korvosa might create.

• But, they loved their newborn half-orc daughter. So, they didn’t kill her or hide her. They simply gave her the surname of one of their orc servants, who also filled the role of a bodyguard for the family. Her name was Penelope Hurck. This way, they always had access to her, she was always around the family, and she was protected by her surrogate orc father, and they could easily move her at short notice, or hide her in a university, if necessary.

• She lived a young privileged life of travel, wonder, and education.

• Along the way, her father taught her martial skills, but her innate magical arcane powers surfaced during early adulthood. She practiced as a sorcerer both as formal education, and in private.

• Her powers of scrying increased to the point where she uncovered the truth about her heritage, and her true mother and father and family. She went further with her scrying with both her human and orc heritages, and mentally spied on both Lastwall and The Hold of Belkzen, where she discovered secrets of both sides.

• She was true to her family and human heritage, and passed these secrets along to Lastwall, which helped them bolster their defenses, and win key incursions against the orcs.

• She lived a long and happy life, dying at an old age. To keep her safe in death, a very formal and respectful, but secret burial was performed in the depths of the Fangwood Forest. She was buried with a simple crown of iron which was inlaid with very valuable jewels, denoting her nobility, but not fully acknowledging it. Her tomb was sealed from the outside and buried, to remain hidden.

Recently:

• The Aspis Consortium, through subterfuge and espionage, came across long-buried documents that described a secret half-orc that possessed secrets that held powerful military and political weight. Looking to get into the lucrative market of information trading, the Aspis Consortium is on the hunt for the hidden tomb. They intend to retrieve her body to perform Speak with Dead to get those secrets.

• In the meantime, a spunky group of goblins are in an ongoing skirmish with the local kobolds concerning territory, and the ownership of a very pretty jewel that one of them found…


Well, all those details about family lineage I'm not trying to specify right now. Trying to keep options open, and see how the campaign starts. But, yeah, the century difference is supposed to be one of those little hooks to add a little mystery.

I just looked on the Pathfinder Wiki, but could not find this information. Anyone have a list of noble families from Lastwall?


That's good. That's really good.

But, record of her birth would be recorded somewhere. Unless, the characters unearth evidence that records of her existence were erased by someone, if not her herself.

Perhaps, she willingly left her family when she was seduced by the Whispering Tyrant, leading to the shame, embarrassment, and records being destroyed. And, maybe she had time to build her own crypt within the ground, sealing herself within.

What kind of valuable knowledge, or uncompleted quest would she rise to complete?

I was thinking of making her half-elf, as to maybe bring to light an unapproved union between a human and an elf.


I'm going to be starting a new home campaign with new players to Pathfinder. I'm really jazzed. I love doing stuff like this. I could pull out any of my other home campaigns and just start one of those up, but I am feeling inspired to start something completely new, but I need brainstorming help to connect some of the dots.

Location: Lastwall, near the Fangwood Forest.

Hook: The 1st level characters just start out as local ne'er-do-wells who just never left the farm. They are wandering aimlessly through the forest when they come across a small group of kobolds who are discussing something amongst themselves very intently. Enter a scene where they have to announce themselves to the kobolds, and figure out how to communicate with them.

Come to find out that the kobolds are very upset because their precious jewel is missing, and those goshdarned goblins stole it!

"Where are they?"

"Over there."

Short dungeon crawl through a small goblin warren to find the missing jewel. They take it back to the kobolds. The kobolds are very thankful, only to ask them, "What about the other two jewels?"

"There were two more? We only found one."

Well, the kobolds tell the characters that the other two were in the care of the local kobold champion who found all three in the first place. Where did he find them? Only he knows, and he's keeping it a secret.

"Where is he?

"Over there."

They go there only to find the kobold champion's home has been broken into, ransacked, and the kobold champion is missing. Goblin footprints lead away.

The characters follow the tracks into another slightly larger and more challenging goblin warren, and rescue the kobold champion. He does not have the jewels anymore. The goblins took them from him, and he does not know where to. But, he can show the characters where he is getting these jewels.

"Where is that?"

"Over there."

The kobold champion takes them to a hole that he has dug in the ground. The characters follow him, crawling into the hole. It goes down a few feet and then breaks through the ceiling of an underground tomb. The characters find in the tomb an opened sarcophagus. Inside the sarcophagus is the body of a dead female half-elf sorcerer.

The sorcerer is wearing a simple iron crown on her head. The crown has seven jewels inlaid into it - shaped not unlike the starstone - but three of the jewels are missing. The kobold points at the crown. "That is where I got them."

Inside the tomb, the characters try to read the old script that is carved into the wall. They gather the name of the dead sorcerer and the date of the death. This tells them the following:

  • The sorcerer has been dead about a hundred years.
  • The sorcerer's family name is a well-known name. They were nobles in this area for a long time, but the last of them died-off two hundred years ago.
  • Her specific name is not recognized or remembered in text or memory.
  • She was buried in the middle of the forest, in an unmarked one-room tomb that was covered over so that there is no entrance.

When the characters finally come back out, they hear some movement nearby, so they hide. They spy through the trees to see a small group of Aspis Consortium agents heading their way. Leading them is a goblin.

So, my questions are:

  • Who is the sorcerer?
  • Why is she not known, even though being from a famous family?
  • Why was she hidden in life, and in death?
  • Is there any connection to her and the starstone?
  • Why are the Aspis Consortium so interested in finding this hidden tomb?


Hey Everyone,

Just posting this here for potential players and GMs to find.

We are getting some Pathfinder Society going at Empire Games in Cleveland. The store is an excellent gaming venue. It's right at the eastern end of I-480. It's in Streetsboro, right by the turnpike, as well as other major highways. Kent University is right down the road, and the store is nestled the middle of several communities like Twinsburg, Hudson, Stow, and Aurora. Easy access.

The store is clean, bright, large, and open. The staff are extremely friendly and accommodating. The store is very conducive for very satisfying gaming sessions.

The gaming is at 1 PM on Saturdays. Please go to Ohio PFS for the schedule of gaming and to reserve your spot.

Ryan Kappler
Venture-Captain, Cleveland, Ohio


Can anyone point me towards a map in any PFS scenarios or modules that has a multi-level mill or tower, and the surrounding grounds?


Can someone point me towards an extensive family tree for the Foxglove family? I'm hoping it is in a printable version.

Also, are there any know families that are enemies or friends - or even frenemies of the Foxglove family?

Also, is there in-depth background information about Aldern and Vorel Foxglove? Alliances. Betrayals.


Looking at the nymph, that is an excellent non-demonic equivalent. That idea is the leading idea right now. But, reading the past couple posts, the three main ideas are:

  • He slays the succubus with the scimitar. The demon taint travels into his body and turns him into an incubus, and her into a nymph. I can totally see a scene in my head where, once he comes to grips with being a chaotic-evil incubus demon, he looks down and sees with relief that his lover still exists and is alive. But, from her point of view, she looks up and sees in horror that her lover is an incubus. I can totally play that out, that she is horrified of him, and wants to get away, but loves him, so she is torn.

  • She is turned into a human. Her wings, tail, and horns falls off, and she is weak from the transformation. She's not angry, as she still has her lover, and comes to terms with what he did. But, this group of adventurers has had run-ins with both demons and devils in this campaign so far. They are known by both sides. So, they are hunted, and now she is a fragile helpless human. He must protect her.

    Along with:

  • She is turned into a human, but is still chaotic-evil. He must keep her safe and alive long enough to help her improve her alignment - a sort of retraining - for fear of her dying a mortal death and becoming a succubus again.


Tacticslion wrote:

I am curious... what's going to happen to the succubus when the demon taint is removed? What will she become?

(My vote is a nymph, though I could see arguments such as an archon or something similar due to the "opposite alignment" thing.)

Shoot. I haven't thought about that. I am certainly open for suggestions on what an untainted succubus would become, and why. I'll throw that out to the community for suggestions...


2 people marked this as a favorite.

For all those interested, I made a decision on how I'm going to do this.

But, first, a clarification. At the beginning of the thread, I stated:

Quote:

I have a character in my home game who is at the final stages of attaining one of their main destinies: to become an incubus.

Long story, but I approve of it, and it's been a hard and long journey.

That context is misleading. He does not know this is going to happen. This is his destiny that I chose for him.

I stated that I approved of it, simply to prevent anyone from trying to talk me out of it, and the destiny part refers to what he's been wrestling with - specifically, a succubus.

So, why was I misleading? Because he is a long-time and close friend of mine. When we started this campaign, he described his character as a fallen one. A good cleric of Calistria - perhaps even a little naive and martyrish. Naturally, he encountered a succubus, who marked him and overtook him.

He loves her, and she loves him, but he has been desperately grasping for ways to cure her of her demon taint - in order to save her. He has demonstrated his willingness to put her interests and well-being ahead of his own. All the while, he has slowly been slipping. It's unfolded in dramatic and heart-wrenching ways. I have been testing his loyalties and inner strength.

So, what I'm going to do is, he was led to believe that he had to recover a specific kind of scimitar, in a long-abandoned devil stronghold. If he slays his succubus with this scimitar, but then revives her, when she comes back, she will be free of the demon taint.

However, he was told this by an incubus. I described the incubus in full, and even had the incubus do some demonish things to make him suspicious. But, when talking to the incubus, he didn't question the incubus' motives at all. The group's sense motive check failed miserably against the incubus' +16 bluff check (which I did not roll, as to not alert the players in a meta-gaming way - just took 10).

The incubus wasn't in any kind of disguise at all. Just standing there. My friend's character basically had a couple of lines of dialog with this incubus, and as soon as the incubus said that he himself removed the taint from a succubus in this method, my friend said, "Can you point it out on a map? K. Thanks. Bye!"

He didn't question anything, or look into anything, and just bought the whole story. He didn't even let the incubus finish speaking.

Due to all of the soul-wrenching torture he's endured from the succubus, my friend's character already almost looks like an incubus - just minus the wings and cloven hooves.

They are about to start a dungeon crawl through this abandoned devil stronghold. When they get to the end, they will find the devils' horde of demon-fighting toys. Among them will be this scimitar.

We'll roleplay through him slaying his succubus, but as soon as the succubus falls unconscious, I will describe his transformation as the demon taint leaves the succubus' body, travels up through the scimitar, and transforms him into an incubus.

I'll hand him a print-out of the incubus entry from the Bestiary, and tell him that he is now an incubus, and that is his character sheet. The incubus entry is pretty powerful, and it exemplifies qualities his character already has, so I'm sure he will be happy.

I'm not doing all this for any vicious reason, or to be a nasty GM. My friend thrives on epic stuff like this, and leans towards the dark a lot.

I'll leave a way out, though. The rules with the scimitar are that all he has to do is slay a creature of the opposite alignment, and in a sort of equalization, the demon taint will be pulled out of his body again - leaving him as just his normal cleric self again, but minus all the scars.

So:

  • If you slay a demon with this scimitar, you become a demon yourself - whatever kind of demon your character was most like.

  • To reverse that, you need to slay someone of the opposite alignment - namely lawful-good, which will equalize and remove the demon taint.

This second part will also test my friend's wherewithal.

I think he'll like this. He's kind of a dark individual, but also very caring. He'll see that his character made the ultimate sacrifice for the succubus, and attained his goal, and has a way out if he does not like being an incubus.


Also, I had set up a similar world-building campaign for 4th Edition (yes, that existed). It was a wiki, and I purposefully made it wide open, where users were able to upload their own changes to the map and upload scenarios, documents, flavor, etc. I used WikiDot. It worked very well.


Deviant Art is an excellent source for fantasy-type art and maps. For instance, check out this one:

MAP!

If you don't like that one, try any of the others here:

MORE MAPS!

Plus, they are mainly free to use - as long as you give credit back.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Tacticslion wrote:

EDIT 2: I was really proud of how that one was coming so far, too - showing the evolution of an aasimar to an incubus, having linked a bunch of stuff, going over the different domains... blarg.

Ryan, could you tell us if he's got a standard aasimar and what domains he has and stuff like that, please?

If you can gather up the wherewithal to do it again, I would love to see it. I have the evolution transition framework in place, but it isn't set in stone, and needs fleshed-out.

The domains are the Luck and Trickery domains. He is heavily aligned with Calistria's values and morals.

EDIT: Whoops, you already did.


First off, thank you everyone for your input. I have read every post, and it is all excellent information. I knew I could count on the community to come up with some superb ideas. Not only are you giving me good ideas on this subject, but you are inspiring other aspects of the campaign.

eakratz wrote:
A post of the players build might help with planning something.

Yes, of course. That would have helped. :)

He is a 6th-level aasimar cleric of Calistria. The most recent milestone is that his alignment has changed to chaotic-evil.


I have a character in my home game who is at the final stages of attaining one of their main destinies: to become an incubus.

Long story, but I approve of it, and it's been a hard and long journey.

Ignoring the fact that a demon has to be a mortal chaotic-evil soul that dies and goes to the Abyss to be reborn as a demon, because this is happening through alternate means...

...The average party level is 6. This character is currently 6th level, and will probably still be 6th level when this happens.

I am not at all familiar with the whole "Monster as PC" rules.

Can someone give me a quick crash course on how to set this PC up as an incubus that would be roughly equivalent to a 6th level PC?

Oh! And how would it progress? Class skills? Skill points? Feats?

I'm only asking because the section on Monsters as PCs is vague, but it states to be careful, which I am being, and that if anything, a PC monster should be of a higher CR than the level of the party. But, looking over the incubus template, it's pretty darn powerful. I want this incubus to be less powerful than the incubus entry.

I'm thinking of having the character retain their same ability scores and class skills and feats as when they were a PC, which would lower this incubus' overall numbers, but have them gain the resistances and abilities of an incubus. They would be an incubus but with a big fat asterisk next to the levels that they had when they were a PC.

I mean, I think I have a good plan, but I wanted others' input, as this is a first for me, but I have a feeling others have been through this before.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I am giving this feedback solely from the perspective a GM who hasn't played an actual scenario in over two years. I take honing my GMing skills very seriously, and put an utmost importance on player enjoyment - above all else.

This scenario runs long. There are a lot of words. It is not at all accommodating towards parties of players who like to stop and look around and roleplay.

As a word of feedback to TPTB, please take it easy on the GMs. I savor the Golarion-shattering scenarios - as this one is - but when you know that the scenario you are writing is important, give some leeway and time for the players to process. Remember that the most important priority is that the players have fun - not to fill the scenario chock-full of encounters.

By the time we got to the behir encounter, I knew that we were running behind, so I skipped it.

I also skipped the whole chase flow chart, and had the characters actually physically chase Nefti and Kafar through the flip-map, basing their distance in a subjective manner of how they did with the Chase Points up to that point. I think it went very well, as there was an actual sense of chase when they saw the miniatures moving on the map.

The players did not notice any difference at all, and very much enjoyed exploring around, and digesting the information.

Also, during the combat in the age-old temple, in order to run it, I had two Bestiaries open in front of me, as well as the Core Rulebook to refer to (because I don't have the whole thing memorized), and the pages of the scenario. I was taking up an ungodly amount of table space just to run that encounter, and almost injured my neck looking back and forth to make sure I did not miss anything.

My point is, please take it easy on the GMs. We have stress to keep it within four hours at my gaming store, plus the stress of running the scenario to the letter, and also all the administrative paperwork and juggling the numbers from the books and the scenario. The least the creators of a scenario can do is consolidate data, and lessen the extraneous non-important facets of the scenario.

Oh, we spent the first half-four of the scenario going over the mythic powers. No one had the Mythic Powers book on them, or were familiar with mythic powers, so we spent some time digesting and figuring that stuff out. I also do not have a copy of the Advanced Player's Guide on me, so I had to rely on a player's memory of how the alchemist's bombs work.

Was it really necessary to have all the pages of text dealing with all the various possible outcomes of the exchanges between the characters and Nefti and Kafar? And the conversation between Amenopheus and the Diamond Sage? Or, how the characters can get from area A1 to A3 - never mind that area A2 isn't even detailed. Really, I could have boiled it down to a set of bullet-points detailing the motivations and box text of what is actually said.

Just put yourself in the position of a GM, who wants to run the best table possible, with a table full of players looking at you, as you are searching through pages of text looking for the correct answer.

In short, it's a great scenario that brings to light some very important Golarion mythology. I prepared the scenario properly, but I did not have every letter of the darn thing memorized.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Wow. There are a lot of words in this scenario.


grandpoobah wrote:
Ryan K: did you have any trouble going over the character records at the end? The boons are pretty big.

I mean, every input and opinion I could give about this scenario would fall squarely within the "your mileage may vary" vein, so take it with that.

Knowing that it would take a while to go over those sheets, and we have a hard stop time at the store where I game, I had to push the characters to the end and take some liberties to streamline it - something I feel bad about, but all of the players repeatedly said how awesome of an adventure it was. If they had fun, then my goal was accomplished.

We ended with about 20 minutes left in the four hours. I pointed out the first sheet, then the second, and how it flowed into the third. I then filled them out and handed them out to the players and let them digest it themselves, making myself available for questions for a couple minutes.

BigNorseWolf, those details are exactly what makes this scenario great. I felt I did a pretty good job of leaking details along the way, and each one that got leaked made the players sit back and wonder where that fit into the whole scheme of things. Lots of "Aha!" moments.


I ran this scenario last night, and I have some creative feedback, and advice for GMs who plan on running this.

To approach this scenario in an effective frame of mind, it will totally depend on the table of players. Immediately gauge whether they are combat hungry, or lean more towards role playing, or if they like the meta table crosstalk. The scenario is wide open to accommodate all three types, and you should tailor your delivery as much towards which type of table it is.

In other words, this scenario will test your willingness to be flexible as a GM.

In this case, it is a shame that players will only get credit for the scenario once, because I have a feeling this scenario could be played five times, and the player could have five different experiences.

Spoiler:
When the party reached the oasis, and after they beat the gnolls, they were confident that they had a good lead on the opposing party - because they chose to take the shortcut and they rocked those Survival rolls.

On the last stretch to the folly, they discussed either going back to the oasis and ambush whoever was coming, or to set a boobytrap at the front door of the folly.

Even though neither case is covered in the scenario, I totally sat back and let them discuss it.

In the end, the Rogue fashioned together a trap on the front doors using flasks of Alchemist's Fire and oil. I let him take 10 on it, giving him a 17, and we agreed that his trap was akin to the ol' bucket of water over a doorway trap. My hidden die roll for the NPC's Perception was not enough to detect the trap.

Right when they were about to reach the final couple rooms, I told them that they heard the Alchemist's Fire ignite way back there, and screams of pain. They ran back to find the bodyguard running away in fear, and the female putting out the flames of the male, who was on the ground on fire. I gave him 3D6 damage from the flasks, and then another 3D6. This reduced him to single-digit hit points. To reward the players, the NPC immediately submitted. The players felt bad, and gave him some magic items.

Spoiler:
I agree that the water elemental encounter should not be optional. It's too far towards the beginning of the scenario, and the players get much more out of that encounter than the haunt encounter. I would make the haunt encounter optional instead.

Spoiler:
Speaking of making encounters optional, this scenario, if you give the players time to explore and digest information, will run long. So, be prepared to push the players, and abbreviate where necessary.

Spoiler:
Unless I'm just ignorant of how the mythologies connect together, the different deities and historical figures that the party encountered seemed to confuse them. Maybe a little disjointed? They spent time trying to figure out the connections between the various reliefs, carvings, and statues. I had to make up some history on the fly.

In the end, excellent scenario. Kudos to all the 5th season scenarios thus far for being so wide open and fluid. It is challenging me as a GM to keep up. :)


So, excellent input all around. Thank you everyone.

I do have a rules mechanics question, then, of which I'm too lazy - er - trust my fellow Pathfinders' knowledge too much to look up the answers myself.

Can demons and devils disguise themselves? I mean, give me some options, other than the infamous Hat of Disguise (because the players would just stop trusting anyone who is wearing a hat) or the Disguise Self spell.

Any creative ideas on how to weave the appearance into the falsehood?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I think my favorite part of all D20 role-playing games is the uneasy relationship between devils and demons, and how humankind often gets caught in the middle. I want to run the best home-game to my ability, but it is so hard to get the devil and demon personalities and motivations just right - well, because I'm a human after all.

I want to ratchet it up a notch with my home-game. They know the difference between a demon and a devil, and have had exposure to them in the game - but it's more or less been limited to picking sides and fighting them because they are both a common enemy.

I want to get them closer to the demons and devils to see the true wrath of each species.

Demons want destruction.

Devils want to corrupt.

So, how, in your opinion, could a stock demon and devil each approach the following juicy characters?

Scenario 1:

Neutral aasimar cleric of Calistria.

He was once a goodly cleric crusading against evil, until he met and was tempted by a succubus. Falling in love with this succubus (but also knowing her true nature), he has dedicated his life to pleasing her without falling prey to her true nature. His goal is to find a way to remove the curse of her demonic nature so that he can be with her.

Feeling spurned by his relationship with the succubus, and angry with the institution of love, he seeks to torment those around him with terrible relationships and false hopes of companionship. Nothing makes him happier than to coerce or trick another mortal into a relationship he finds as unsatisfying as his own.

Scenario 2:

Lawful-neutral tiefling commoner.

He is a blacksmith by trade, and a very proud individual - being very good at his craft and knowing it. He works for crusaders and adventurers, crafting and selling them very fine weaponry.

Once married, his wife died young, but only after they had three children. He has no problem supporting those children because of the high quality of his goods and his reputation as a blacksmith, but he worries about raising his children in a proper manner. He overcompensates by doting on them, and trying to keep them distracted from the evils of the world by training them in his trade, and saving enough money to eventually send each one off to prestigious institutions.


First off, I really like the new streamlined reporting method. Much cleaner.

But, there are four boxes labeled A, B, C, and D on both the reporting form and also in the system. They are to be used to record which scenario missions were accomplished. But, I have no idea what each one is referring to.

I've scoured the scenario in reference to what missions these are referring to, but cannot find any mention.

Can someone help?


What is the most common ways that demons and devils travel from the Abyss and Hell to the Material Plane?

Once defeated in combat, do they automatically teleport back to their own realm?


I want to incorporate aspects of the Shattered Star and it's shards and ioun stones into a home campaign.

Would it violate any policies if someone copied and pasted the rules specifically concerning the mechanics of the shards and ioun stones here?

And if not, would someone be willing to do that for me?


Please suggest the proper name of either a demon or a devil that Calistria would likely have a tumultuous and tempestuous relationship with.

...

Please name as many humanoid-shaped winged creatures that you can think of:

1. Succubus.
2. Erinyes.
3. Harpies.

...


I am having some GM block.

Can you help inspire me?

I know that I want the following aspects to be part of the campaign. Can you tie them together for me?

  • Everything will be Pathfinder and Golarion canon.

  • Locations will be Varisia and Absalom, with the characters travelling between the two locations often.

  • The Foxglove family.

  • Wayfinders.

  • Sheila Heidmarch and the fledgling Pathfinder Society lodge that is her estate.

  • A Pathfinder Society agent that went missing. She is a female elven sorcerer and rogue.

  • She went missing while going undercover into Chelish society to investigate the Aspis Consortium.

  • She was reporting back to Sheila by way of Whispering Wind, but she hasn't been heard from for a couple weeks.

  • A mysterious wooden box.

  • Devils and demons.

  • A recurring golem.

  • A succubus.

  • Some mysterious Aspis Consortium agent that goes by the moniker of "The Cartographer".

  • Dragons. Both good and evil.

  • A gnomish airship.


In the ghoul's stat block they have a bite and two claws - as opposed to most other monsters that have either a bite or two claws, or a bite [comma] two claws.

Does this mean that a ghoul gets three attacks every round?


Cintra Bristol wrote:

So, is anyone who has this willing to comment on the maps?

I'd like to know if the castles are fully mapped out or not, and if so, what you think of those maps?

Thanks!

+1!


So then take an Adult Green Dragon, which has a combination of primary and secondary attacks. What would a standard and full-round attack look like?

Adult Green Dragon:

Melee bite +21 (2d8+12/19–20), 2 claws +21 (2d6+8/19–20), 2 wings +16 (1d8+4), tail slap +16 (2d6+12)


When you say one attack for the standard action, taking the Pukwudgie for example, would they get one claw attack and damage roll, or two?

I'm pointing out that using the bolded text above, each claw would be from a different appendage.

Also, the rules seem to make a big deal of:

Quote:
You do not receive additional natural attacks for a high base attack bonus. Instead, you receive additional attack rolls for multiple limb and body parts capable of making the attack (as noted by the race or ability that grants the attacks).


There are already a couple historical threads about this subject. It seems to be quite a confusing, misunderstood, and an important rules question. Can you tell me, and why, what the standard and full-round melee attacks are of the following monsters?

Pukwudgie:

Melee 2 claws +14 (1d4+2 plus poison)

Rakshasa, Maharaja:

Melee +3 falchion +31/+26/+21/+16 (2d4+15/15–20), 4 bites +23 (1d6+4)

Rakshasa, Dandasuka:

Melee bite +8 (1d6+1 plus bleed), 2 claws +8 (1d4+1)


I'm interested in getting this for my home game for an epic dungeon delve, but I need some help assembling them in my mind. Can someone help me put them together?

I see that the middle two images are linked by the blue glowing corridor, but where do the other two images go? Above? Below? Cattywumpus?

Specifically, I see various staircases going up and down, but I do not see where they connect to the other images.

Also, I am assuming that the glowing yellow and green areas are portals. I see where the yellow portals connect, but where does the green portal go to?


I ran it last night, and actually my fears were unfounded, because...

Spoiler:
The time mechanic that I was dreading wasn't an issue at all - barely even acknowledged. Once I laid out the scene (BTW, I had the two maps in the scenario professionally printed full-size at Staple for only $ 3.50 each - yay!) the players looked at the setup and quickly figured out how they were going to navigate their way through the embassy.

The rules are pretty lenient and subjective on how the characters can do this, and the players came up with some creative solutions that weren't described in the scenario, so I just let them go with it.

I tried to keep track of the amount of time it took them to get to Zarta's chambers - and then back out afterwards - but really, it was only a handful of skill checks each way, and really creative role-playing that got them through. I rewarded them for the creative role-playing by allowing different types of skill checks, and lower DCs when I was impressed with their problem-solving.

Any other GMs that run this scenario, I would suggest being more descriptive than usual of the characters' surroundings and the goings-on, and maybe give hints, and allow a lot of perception and sense motive checks to deduce maybe the best course of action and movement. But, overall, be lenient and let the players be creative.

The total navigation time in real-time was maybe a half hour of game time. They spent most of their time and energy on the combats, the deciphering of the code, and searching the vault.


TOZ, why did yours turn into a catastrophe? I'm curious, as I want to avoid the same pitfalls.


I was looking forward to experiencing this scenario when I first heard the bullet-points of it, but now that I have read the scenario over, and am scheduled to run it at a convention in less than a month, I will tweak this heavily.

Spoiler:
Just reading the flow of the scenario, I can see there being significant sequence and focus problems with the GM having to stop and parse through the text for specific skill checks and DCs for that specific section of corridor.

And the time-keeping mechanic seems very complicated, yet subjective at the same time.

The average GM is going to have a tough time weighing what can and cannot happen in the scenario. It seems unfair to make them stay canon in this scenario, when there are just too many details to keep track of. The victim here is going to be the player.

Oh, and the scenario uses a single map that is large and detailed, but it is a custom one - not available via a mat or map? Sheesh.

What I'm going to do instead is tell the players that they have three hours to complete the mission (which leaves a half hour on either side for set-up and wrap-up). When they enter the waiting room, I'm going to start a count-down timer at the table.

The map I'm going to cobble together with map packs and make it as accurate as possible to the map in the scenario. I'll only reveal each piece of corridor as they encounter it. And I'll have a pre-made mental list of random encounters, pulled directly from the scenario, in the hallways - waiters, dignitaries, drunk guests, etc.

I'm volunteering to run it this way for a willing group of volunteers before the convention to see how this works instead.

Before anyone criticizes me for not running this scenario to the letter of the text, I would have to say that when I GM, my ONLY concern is player enjoyment, and this scenario - as written - does not pass my GM-spidey-sense muster.


I need some maps or mats of indoor locations, like studies, libraries, living quarters, kitchens, etc.

Can someone point me towards some specific maps or mats that would work?

1 to 50 of 64 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>