The Black Bard's page

Basically looking to see if anyone thinks this combo is too good to allow. A beastmorph alchemist in my group would like to take levels in dragon disciple. Now, to be fair, he has been of a draconic bent in his mutagen usage since day one, using bits gathered from defeated dragons and purchased from trophy shops and arcane dealers.

His idea is to only go for 5 levels, because he doesn't actually want the Form of the Dragon ability acquired at 6th. He's even willing to have all the abilities except extracts be restricted to mutagen form.

So, does anyone think this would be a broken combination? Everything I see says its overall weaker than just staying in alchemist for the beastmorph increases, or going into Master Chymist for more mutagen options. Am I missing something?

A question: while the rules are clear on multiple grapplers working towards the same goal (extras use Aid Another actions), what happens when the grapplers are not all working to the same goal.

Most expressions of this are corner case, but two come to mind (and came up recently in my game).

A chupacabra drains blood when it pins a target or maintains a pin. If multiple chupacabras grapple a foe, obviously all of them are attempting to drain blood, but by the RAW, only one can, because the others are simply aiding the first. On a semantic level, one could argue that by assisting the pin they are accomplishing it by proxy. Pinned is a condition, it can't be given multiple times.

Personally, the RAW image of two gentlemanly chupacabra holding down the victim while a third graciously drinks the blood is funny, but not realistic. The RAI image of three chupacabra frantically all trying to get a hold and suck away seems much more appropriate.

I personally think the "assisting" chupacabra should just roll a CMB check as if they were pinning. If they succeed, they drain blood.

On a semi-related note, what happens if one of two aggressive grapplers wants to move the grapple, but his partner is instead trying for damage or a pin. Related to that, what happens if a grappler is involuntarily moved, (bull rush, telekinesis, etc)? Is the grapple broken for the moving creature? Do both parties go flying?

As per the magic section, a summoned creature that is slain dissapears and is unavailable for 24 hours, whereupon it reforms on its home plane and can be summoned again.

So, during those intervening 24 hours, what happens if the summoner tries to summon it again? Does he get a poof of smoke and nothing arrives? Does he get a similar but different summon of the same type? Does he get Celestial Badger "B" while Celestial Badger "A" is sleeping off his brush with death?

And depending on if he gets nothing, what happens when he summons multiples with a higher level spell? Does he just get Celestial Badgers "B,C,D, and E" if he rolls well on his 1d4+1?

I recall 3.5s Unearthed Arcana having some rules/options for this, but I was wondering if Pathfinder has actually set it in stone, or at least clay.

So, we have the first gods, who made the titans, who made the gigas, who made the giants.

We have statted versions of the Hell and Abyssal gigas. We have mentions of the Maelstrom and Nirvana gigas.

So, what more to the gigas is there? Elysian, Boneyard, Axis, or Abadon? Are we limited to outer planes for gigas sources, or could there be a fire gigas, an entropic gigas, or even a material plane gigas?

Any and all ideas are welcome (especially from any developers who might want to hint at upcoming books!). I've got a plot line involving a storm giant "ascending" to gigas status that I want to develop more aggressively within one of my games.

Its been almost five years, but the Wreck is getting raised once more! My Savage Tide game has finally come back to this point, revived from the catacombs of failed campaigns by dimension hopping sorcery!

Some of you may recall I built the Wreck for my previous Savage Tide game. I wanted to get photos up, but didn't have a digital camera at the time. Well, it went into the attic, and its coming down now. I'm assembling it, and will take photos and upload them to my facebook page.

It begins!

So in my home game, my players have found a hidden, sealed dungeon in the upper city-ledge of Tumen in Osirion, specifically the one once owned by the Pharaoh of Numbers. They have already played through Entombed with the Pharaohs, and are working on discovering the location of The Pact Stone Pyramid, so I have plenty of material to work with.

I want this small dungeon in Tumen (which is almost a megadungeon in its own right) to be a hidden stronghold of the Pharaoh of Numbers, a place where he recorded lore on the Dominion of the Black and what their inevitable return to Golarion might mean. I also want them to find one of the doomsday clocks, since that was their entire goal in this expedition and they've done a darn good job with info gathering, smart exploration, and so on.

But for the life of me, I can't figure out what to put in this mini-dungeon/stronghold. The relation to the Pharaoh of Numbers makes stuff relating to Aucturn the 11th planet and the numbers 11 and 56 a no brainer, but beyond that, I feel like there should be something truly unusual, like a chunk of the dungeon being a permanent demiplane with objective gravity for some sort of MC Escher madness.

I'm just drawing a blank, so I figured I'd ask for a few ideas here to get the engine warmed up.

Any thoughts?

So.... an Alchemist's competence bonus to alchemy checks goes away in an anti-magic field, because its part of the Alchemy (SU) ability. The creation of entirely non-magic tindertwigs and alchemist fire is tangibly more difficult for him in such an area. He also can't identify potions within an anti-magic field for the same reason.

Conversely, that same Alchemist can brew those potions in an anti-magic field with ease (although they won't work until he comes out) because it is listed as Brew Potion (EX).

I'm not griping about these on some deeply personally offended level. I just thought this was amusing. Anyone else have some odd quirks they have noticed in the rules?

Are there any discoveries besides Feral Mutagen (and the Greater/Grand mutagens) that only apply while in mutagen form?

I figure I can simply self restrict using discoveries like Vestigial Limb and Tentacle to when the alchemist is in Mutagen Form, but such acts tend to lead quickly towards "shoot self in foot" land. Then again, any sort of compensation for self-limiting often goes the way of munchkin (Unearthed Arcana Flaws).

Are there any recommendable 3PP Alchemist materials? Or any Alchemist stuff beyond what Paizo has in their core line?

Am I the only one who thinks there should be more "Hulk" discoveries besides the few in Master Chymist, most of which seem rather underpowered for their prerequisite level? (Still miffed at Half-Dragon Mutagen)

All help is appreciated, and thanks in advance!

I read through the archives and while it seems the RAW is pretty clear that undead just make crappy barbarians due to the fact the primary benefits of rage are morale bonuses, and the undead type is immune to morale effects, I wanted to see if there was any official ruling on this one way or another.

I don't like calling for developer intervention, but there have been enough undead barbarians in the modules (including ones described as gaining said levels after becoming undead) that I think it might be nice to put this to rest once and for all.

So, does anyone know of a stated confirmation? Or is this just a slightly grey area made blurry grey by the time when the Beta listed rage as typeless bonuses?

And for bonus points: if you cast Create Undead on a peasant, you can get a ghoul. If you cast it on a 4th level fighter, can you get a Ghoul with 4 levels of fighter? I'm not advocating Create Undead as poor man's ressurection (well, maybe, but not for those reasons). Just curious if that is withing the rules, not allowed, or just not covered.

Are there any encounter tables or even just lists of inhabitants for the Boneyard? I have a detour coming up in my Kingmaker game that makes me really in need of such info.

Should I just assume there may be just about any type of outsider capabable of honeyed words and concerned with mortal souls? Are there any inhabitants specific to the Boneyard?

Anyhow, help would be appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

Title says it all, I have a player at level 11 who is looking to pick up a divine caster class as part of delving into the background of the tribe she is from. Rage Prophet is interesting, but oracle just doesn't quite fit, and shes been rolling Cha 10 from day one, but Wis 14.

So is there any feat/class/prestige class love for a Barbarian/Divine Caster beyond Rage Prophet? 3.5 material is fine too, but Rage Mage is arcane only, and again, Cha (and Int) of 10.

Is she just destined to take druid levels from this point on? Not that there couldn't be a lot of flavor and interesting stuff there, but it just struck me how little there is for this niche. Maybe its too niche.

Wide audience specifically gives you extra numbers of creatures affected when you use a bardic music effect that targets "multiple creatures". I assume this wording is meant to differentiate from bardic performances that simply affect an area (which receive their own expanded capacities via Wide Performance, as noted one sentence prior).

When a bard gets Inspire Greatness at 9th level (something Court Bards still get), it only affects one creature. As they level up, it begins to affect multiple creatures.

Would Wide Audience grant extra targets to Inspire Greatness at level 10 (when it grants its first extra target), when you can technically only target a single creature (it does specifically note that it does not affect powers that only affect single creatures)? Or do you have to wait until level 12, at which point you can normally target 2, and Wide Audience would then grant 1 more, total 3.

RAW, it's pretty obvious that until Inspire Greatness can affect 2 targets on its own, Wide Audience does not apply.

RAI, its a pretty fuzzy to me, enough so that I'm asking for others opinions/dev comment/etc.

I've been toying with my semi-annual irritation at the weapon proficiency system, and wanted to throw out my current idea mish-mash that came up. Feel free to comment/advise/critique, although I don't have much yet.

Weapon Proficiency Points

Instead of standard weapon proficiencies, a character gains a number of points with which to purchase weapon proficiencies. (Idea is heavily influenced by Unearthed Arcana's Weapon Group system back in 3.5)

Simple weapons cost 1 point to learn.
Martial cost 2
Exotic cost 4.

Proficiency with all simple weapons costs 10.
Proficiency with a weapon group (see Fighter)costs 10.

A class can always choose to take the "default" list, as the class is normally presented.

A wizard starts with 5 points.
A rogue starts with 22 points. (Should this be lowered to 20, to represent a cost for deviating from the standard? Or should it be left as a 1-1 conversion with just a "default" selection?)
A fighter (or any other full martial proficiency character) starts with 150 (Again, should this be lowered? This would be the cost of simple weapons and 14 weapon groups, but many of the groups have overlap. Should the number just be an itemized tally from the core weapon list? Conversely, should a fighter receive any sort of extra points beyond what barbarian/paladin/ranger get to represent their consumate skill and training?

I can't decide if I want to make a Weapon Proficiency feat that grants a certain number of proficiency points, or if I want to make skill points usable as proficiency points (but certainly not the other way around, that way lies min-maxing).

The ultimate goal for me, and as such in my games, is to eliminate the flux point between exotic weapons that are classified as such for being culturally exotic (kama, nunchaku, etc) and those that are actually mechanically superior to martial weapons (one handed bastard sword, dwarven waraxe, etc), while at the same time providing the option for a specific character concept's weapon proficiency to be viable and beleivable without requiring spending feats on it, such as an egyptian flavored sorceror having proficiency with things like the kopesh, or the crescent shaped polearms.

Again, constructive criticism and input is welcome and encouraged!

Enough time has passed that I can write this now. My daughter, Kaiya Annette Rands, died on Febuary 28th. Some of you may remember my posting regarding her birth two years ago. I'll give you a short summary of what has occurred since then.

About two weeks after we returned from the hospital, we had to go back. Kaiya was failing to thrive, as getting food into her was immensely difficult. She was unable to nurse effectively, and it was a constant effort to pump milk into her with a syringe taped to a finger. Another week spent at the hospital and we found the problem. Kaiya had intense acid reflux, so we received medications for such, learned some new feeding techniques, and returned home.

Some time passed, and by the six month mark it became very apparent that Kaiya was behind in most of her development. Her health was fine, although she didn't have the babyfat most infants possessed. In fact, she was actually startlingly muscled, with actual definition in her legs. However, she was not vocalizing beyond cries, and she was unable to sit or crawl, or even effectively grab objects.

After a pair of MRIs and some visits to neurologists, we learned why. Kaiya had cerebral palsy, due to five cavernous angiomas inside her cerebellum. Cavernous angiomas are blood vessels with thin walls which become inflated, like a sort of baloon animal in the brain. The push aside and compress brain tissue, interfering with normal operations. They aren't that uncommon, but having five was definitely unusual. Being in the cerebellum, they were the answer for her difficulties in balance, motor control, and speech acquisition.

We learned that there was a, by the cold scientific odds, cumulative 1% chance per year of a cavernoma rupturing and causing a brain bleed. With five cavernomas, and how deep they were, that basically came up to a 100% chance of Kaiya having a likely fatal brain bleed by the time she was 20.

But almost as if in response to this, Kaiya began to show her strength. Horrifically strong, and I do not use that term lightly as she literally broke out (as in broke the wood itself) of a wooden crib three times, she began pushing herself to her knees, pulling herself to standing on objects, focusing and trying her best to grab things with hands that almost seemed to work backwards. She was bright, alert, and enjoyed life immensely. The time we spent with her was wonderful, even if we only heard her laugh once, when she was 10 months old. Since that point, we could only get a sort of chuckle.

She was also an adrenaline junkie. She loved to be thrown into the air, spun rapidly (she loved being set in an office chair and spun), or even just held upside down. She would pull herself to standing, in her crib, by the couch, whereever, and then just let go, enjoying the fall, and shrugging off the head bonk that followed. Yes, the little girl with five pressure sensitive time bombs in her head had a love for things that put them even more at risk. My wife and I shared a moment once, both of us knowing that the 100% by age 20 was likely more by age 10, with how she was.

Food made her sneeze more often than not, but she loved food, even things like pickles and lemons. She would make a face the first time, but if she didn't like it, she would still eat it, if she liked it, she would devour it. Once her teeth came in, we shifted fully to spoon feeding (she was never able to feed herself, although we had a few messy experiments with oatmeal that were starting to show progress.)

We padded her crib with foam so that she wouldn't hurt herself, as she liked to pull herself up in the crib, and leg go, slamming against the other side. This is what allowed her to break out, as she blasted out the wooden slats with her head. So we put the foam on the damaged side and turned it to the wall. She liked falling against it, it gave her all the rush, and none of the ouch.

Kaiya was a night owl, rarely going to sleep before 11, and usually closer to 12. But she was up at 9 in the morning, like clockwork, playing in her crib for a few minutes before crying for me to come get her, so she could have breakfast. This worked just fine, as I had quickly gained the habit of waking up instantly when she cried for me.

On Monday, Febuary 28th, everything changed. I woke up at noon, and instantly knew something was wrong. I rushed into her bedroom, and found her. Out of character, she had pulled herself up on the foam side of the crib (as she prefered the other side, where she could see the door), and with her immense strength pulled it free of its attachments, and somehow, despite the relative height of the foam (we had cut it tall so that she couldn't reach it, but she had been showing progress in balancing on her knees that last week).

She had pulled the foam down with her as she fell, and it caught under her chin, the height that was supposed to be unreachable making it angle across the crib in the perfect length to put pressure on her neck. I found her in a sitting position, something she could never do due to her arching back and lack of balance.

I admit, I screamed. The physical therapists who were working with her had told us that by three, you generally know where the limitations will be. As the days had gone by past 1 and a half years, I was watching those limitations, and realized that I might have to care for Kaiya for the rest of my life. And I was happy with that. 100%. I was more sure in myself that I would be okay with it than when I married my wife. Kaiya was my everything, my purpose, practically my god.

And she was gone. I'm educated, and human physiology and forensics were a dalliance I had engaged in during college. I knew she was gone, from temperature, lividity, and so on. My baby girl was gone. But I did what I had to, I called 911, I gave her CPR, I gave my statement to the police, I held Anna when she got home from work on her lunch break (she was on the way when I awoke, so I couldn't even warn her). I held it together to see everything through, and it wasn't until the paramedics had left and the funeral home attendant gave us a moment to say goodbye that I let myself finally go.

There are sounds the human voice should never have to make, nor the human ear ever have to hear.

Her memorial service was wonderful, so many people who had touched her life and been touched by her attended. It helped to know she had spread her smile to so many. Kaiya was amazing in that she never felt anger. Oh, she would get upset about a diaper or being hungry, but she never showed true anger.

We buried her in Jacksonville Cemetery, in a plot that will serve our whole family (Jacksonville has loose restrictions on how many can be interred in one plot, so as time rolls by, my urn and my wife's casket will eventually join hers where it rests under the headstone). I dressed my daughter for burial, putting her into her swimsuit one last time. Her swimsuit was the only peice of clothing she ever cared about or recognized, as it meant bathtime (she was too slippery and strong to bathe without it) and she loved bathtime more than any other thing. I put on her softest pajamas over the swimsuit, put her favorite toys (a tentacled rubber squiggle ball, and a string of mardi-gras beads) into her hands, and tucked her in with her blanket (the only blanket she could sleep under, her favorite blanket).

I, with the help of my wife's father, buried her. I've since had dreams about her, where she stands up and runs to me, or gets up despite being dead a moment prior, and I take her to my wife in the dream, and we hug her, and love her, and then we look at her and say "this is a dream, isn't it?" and then the dream ends as we say "yes, but its a good one". The dreams have been good for me, helpful.

We've been doing well. My wife's faith has supported her immensely. My acceptance of the reality of potentially loosing her has served me well, paid some of the greif-debt ahead of time, if you will. It has been by no means easy, it just hasn't been too hard. Kaiya is free of a body that betrayed her, held her back, prevented her from doing the things she so desperately wanted to do. She won't have to live in a world that is, sadly, still rather horrible to people with disabilities. We don't have to worry about what will happen to her when we are gone. I don't have to say "goodbye" along with "goodnight" anymore. Her death was, as the medical examiner tells us, painless, and short of me sleeping in her room or not using the foam to protect her from bashing her head against the wall, unpredictable and unpreventable. Quite literally, a one in a million freak accident. And so much gentler on us than it could have been. Kaiya was getting so strong and heavy, we would soon have a hard time carrying her. We had already begun to fear the day she might push herself out of our grasp and fall to the floor. A bad landing, a bad surface, and how terrible, how easy to blame ourselves, things could have become.

I hope no one takes this as an implication that I'm happy to have lost her. Nothing could be further from the truth. I know that if I found a genie's lamp, my first wish would be to have her back. I am not at the point yet where I can fully accept what has happened and move forward. But I am getting closer each day. Because I remember Kaiya, and her strength and force of will, her fundamental nature of reach for what you want, pull yourself up if you fall, smile if you are happy or hurt, because it means you got to feel something. She was only unhappy when my wife and I were unhappy, she could read the feelings in the air even if we weren't speaking, and she made her displeasure known. So for her, we are doing our best to be happy. She would want that.

I have buried my daughter. I have taken her last breath into myself when I tried to resuscitate her. In her death, she is a part of me, and her strength is as well. I have lived through the hell of kissing her goodnight knowing she may be gone the next day, and I have lived through the greater hell of that happening. I have, quite literally, survived my worst nightmare, thanks to the strength of my baby girl, and the love of my freinds and family.

Her strength is mine. I will live for her, and one day, I will be laid down next to her again. Until then, I carry her with me, and I am unbreakable.

To whoever has read this to the end, I thank you, and I hope you can take something good from this, some portion of Kaiya's strength and joy of living. Hug your children, kiss your lovers, call your family, spend time with your friends. Appreciate the life you have, and the joy in it. And when you fall down, when you hurt: smile and stand up.

If people have any questions, feel free. Talking about this is part of my healing process. Anyone who wants to see some of the pictures we have taken over the years, the photostream is here.

If this should be in the Campaign Setting section, please move it.

Title says it all: what would be the favored weapons of the Elder Gods? Specifically, I'm looking for Yog-Sothoth, as an amazing coincidence has cropped up in my Kingmaker game as a result of a player giving me a blank check on his Oracle's patron and me not reading very far ahead in the adventure. So, anyone have any ideas, or has any official favored weapons been listed anywhere?

I'll admit I haven't read deeply into the main Pathfinder Campaign Setting book, so if this information is in there (I put NOTHING past the Paizo crew) my apologies for not looking deeper.

That said, does anyone know/have any idea/use any specific racial slurs in their games regarding the various fantastic races and such? Things like the following:

What do goblins call orcs?
What do orcs call elves?
What do dragons call dwarves?
What do brave people call drow?
What do gnomes call halflings?

I'm looking for the fighting words, the names that get arched eyebrows at best and start vendettas at worst. If anyone has any, official or not, I'd love to know/hear about them!

So, as my second DMing of Savage Tide approaches Olangru, and the Advanced Players Guide sits on my table, I started thinking.

"Witch and Oracle seem very well suited to the Olman culture, as far as classes go. Let's explore this idea!"

So what do the rest of you think? I'm looking at both the "modern" Isle of Dread Olman culture, and the "ancient" Thanaclan Olman culture, since my PCs are more than likely to go hunting for the "Sleeping Princes" if they hear of the legend.

I'm currently thinking Oracle of Bones for the Zombie Masters, but then again, the Plague Witch can do that as well. Which brought two ideas to mind.

1. The current Zombie Master tradition is a perversion/rebellion from the previous "ancient" traditions, likely deliberately done by survivors of the first Savage Tide but unknown by modern Olmans to be anything other than "the way its done".

2. The current Tradition is decended from the only "Prince" to survive the first Savage Tide, and didn't go into temporal stasis. This could set up an interesting figure hidden somewhere on the Island, an active Prince of Thanaclan. Likely an undead of some sort, given the lifespan needed, but this is also sensible in its own way. Granted, its trying to shove Voodoo into the Mesoamerican melting pot that the Olman already are, but it got me thinking of a sort of Baron Samedi type character.

I'm interesting in what others have to say. I'm not worried about breaking with the "canon" Olman lore, but at the same time, the more canon lore I have, the more of a foundation I have to build and modify.

Any thoughts?

Unless otherwise noted, the opponent can be up to one size category smaller than the swallowing creature.

T-Rexs in Pathfinder are Gargantuan (a change from 3.5 which I agree with). This means, that by the rules, a T-Rex can swallow a huge creature whole.

Lets pick a huge creature we can relate to. The Elephant.

Now lets picture a T-Rex swallowing an Elephant whole.

......

Yeah, I don't think so either.

With the exception of creatures like a Vurgen's Eel, or maybe some of the more ambitious storks out in the marshes, I can't think of many creatures that can actually swallow whole a creature just one size below them. And I wouldn't count snakes either, as their "swallow whole" is a more out of combat ability. At least, they usually don't begin to swallow the prey until it is dead or at least no longer struggling.

I could see a T-Rex theoretically swallowing a horse whole. Humans, no problem. But the idea of an elephant, a killer whale, an animated wagon, or a 12 ton Storm Giant (which also outweighs the Rex by 5 tons, and would put it past it's heavy load of 8 tons) going down it's gullet is just ridiculous. And since we are dealing with a real (if extinct) creature, "it's magic" or "a wizard did it" doesn't really fly.

Most creatures that are one size category below a swallower will generally fall into at least the medium if not the heavy load, or beyond, of the swallower, barring "supernatural" grade strength or being a quadruped.

I would propose amending the Swallow Whole Text to read: Unless otherwise noted, the opponent can be up to two size categories smaller than the swallowing creature.

Or the Swallow Whole text could be left alone and the T-Rex (and perhaps other monsters) could get some of that "Otherwise Noted" love.

Regardless, the modification is going in for my own game, I just wanted to bring the logistics issue up for others to be aware of.

So the Brew Potion bonus feat of an alchemist has specific wording to make it viable to use, such as the alchemist having a caster level equal to his alchemist level for potion brewing purposes.

But what about other feats? Does the Alchemist's not-really-a-caster-level and Extract's not-really-a-spell nature prevent the alchemist from taking other magic item creation feats (disregarding the Master Craftsman path, for the moment)?

It seems to me that the Rules as Written basically slams its staff against the ground and yells at the Alchemist "YOU SHALL NOT CRAFT!"

And its true that thematically, I don't see an alchemist having much reason to be making magic weapons and armor, rods, staves, rings, scrolls, or even wands (Unless they can use them. Can an alchemist even use a wand?).

But what about wondrous items? Yeah, not so much on a belt of strength or a cloak of the mountebank. But what about Salve of Slipperiness? Dust of Appearance? Marvelous Pigments? Soverign Glue? Elixer of Fire Breath? And a whole bunch of other very alchemically flavored or related items like those previously mentioned?

Anyhow, just looking for some official rules regarding how item creation (besides brew potion) interacts with the alchemist. Any opinions or theoretical work is also welcome.

Right, so in my Savage Tide game, I have a summoner (hey Leo).

His summon, a fishman-esque critter named Killwright, is currently the top dog in the party. A party that also includes a sahuagain alchemist and an immature storm giant.

The player is great, and knows that Summonner is currently looking fairly overpowered compared to the other PCs. He knows that when the APG comes out, there may be nerfs, and he's cool with that.

So here is some basic info about Killwright (party level is 6 atm):
Biped
Large Size
Extra Limbs x2
Claws x2
Improved Damage (claws)
BaB +5
Str 26

Main feat is Improved Natural Attack (Claws) and Weapon Focus (Claws). Killwright is dishing out 4 attacks at +13 to hit, and they do 2d6+8 each. Very few CR 6 critters can hold up to that kind of attack barrage, so its starting to get a little show-stealing, unless the fight starts at range or flying. Add on enlarge person extracts from the alchemist and it gets even worse.

So here is where I ask for advice on challenging both the summoner and the summoner's party. Also, here are my two main "potential house rules" regarding the summoner (and the game in general) that I would like feedback/opinions on.

1. Summoners may not "double-tap" by having a summoned creature attack, then summon it again that same round to attack again. My games use the variant rule where you summon the same individual monster each time, so this is supported by the idea of "put it back in the barn before you call it out again". Double-tapping with a different creature is fine.

2. Eidolons, and other cohort type creatures that do not have a built in control mechanic (animal companions/handle animal), operate on their own initiative modifier, separate from their "parent" PCs. In my specific case, Leo the summoner has an incredibly good initiative modifier (+8), which usually allows Killwright to go first in the initiative order. Combined with suprise rounds (the party is fairly stealthy overall) and Killwright often gets full attacks on flatfooted enemies, despite his own initiative mod being only +2.

So yeah, any advice or commentary on these proposed rulings or dealing with summoners in general is both welcome and appreciated.

Also, for what its worth, some extra info. A bit of backstory that both the player and PC are unaware of (hooray for players who like a bit of DM skulldugery). That being said, LEO, DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT THE BIG SECRET SPOILED.

Righty, Wakfu.

Watch it. Enjoy it.

Kind of suprised there wasn't a thread about it yet. Here's a short synopsis. Band of heros versus machinations of epic chronomancer. Flash animated in ways you never thought possible. Anime style fight scenes with all of the awesome and none of the fail. Also, french. Subtitled versions found easily.

Basic (and relatively poor, prototype footage and footage from a web special episode) trailer for the series here.

Lets see if this thread lives or dies. I can provide more links if people are interested.

For a bit of a Savage Species-esque racial HD thing I'm doing, I'm trying to calculate the height and weight of a storm giant at each racial HD (1 through 19).

Due to campaign specifics, the starting height was 6', appearing as a lanky but well build young girl (equivalent to a 14 year old human girl). The starting weight was 190 pounds, to represent the extra muscle mass from a +4 starting strength.

The final height will be 20'2", using a formula of "every HD, gain height in inches equal to that new HD". So at HD 2, gain 2 inches, 3 at 3, 4 at 4, etc, etc.

But the final weight, according to the Bestiary, should be around 12,000 pounds, technically a little less, since this giant is both female and 10 inches shorter than the listed 21' average height.

I've spent a rather ridiculous amount of time on the internet trying to solve this, looking at height to weight charts, BMI indexes and formulas, and so on. I've stopped short of the tedious and not very accurate last resort of plugging data into a line graph until it "looks about right". The only bit of helpful info I can give is that according to one BMI calculator, a 21' human weighing 12,000 pounds is horrifically obese, with a BMI of 180, relative to the 25 BMI of our giant's starting 6' height and 190 weight. But said height to weight charts are horrifically bad at accounting for muscle density, and storm giants are described as being incredibly well build and proportioned.

So, can anybody help me with this mathematical nightmare? A formula, or even just a set of numbers so that I can say "at this HD you weigh this much"?

9 months ago, I retired from posting on these boards. Now, I ask those who might remember me if I should return. Before, I felt invisible and ignored, and it seemed as if the tone of the boards had shifted from what I had come to expect. With preparing to move into a new house and taking care of a brand new daughter, it simply was nonsensical to waste time posting on a board where my words fell before blind eyes.

Now, as we are finished moving in (for the most part) and our daughter is almost a year old (and sleeping through the night), I ask: should I return? Are my commentaries and insights welcome and wanted?

This is no cry for attention; I should think a 9 month absence indicates I need no such thing (disregarding my annoyance with being previously ignored, of course). I simply have recovered some of my free time, and am now deciding where to allocate it.

So let it rip. Encourage me to return. Flame me for begging for attention. Cajole me into posting my 6'x9' version of the Wreck from Savage Tide (yes, I did finish it, and finally have a digital camera and floorspace capable of displaying and capturing it). Have at it.

What babe?

The babe with the power...

What power?

The power of voodoo...

Now that I have your attention, anyone know of any 3.0/3.5 material on voodoo? A quick search of the Dragon Magazine index and the messageboard archives turned up nothing.

Anyone know where to point me?

As my Age of Worms game advances, and more PCs die, a few have taken to reincarnation to restore their characters.

I've given a bit of thought to the ideas behind it, and I feel that regional tables makes a bit of sense. It strikes me as odd that a reincarnation performed in a desert could produce a swamp dweller like a lizardman, or one performed in the underdark produces non-drow elves.

I've also wanted to expand the "other" result a bit, but I suppose I shouldn't be too generous with what the PCs can get. Perhaps I should say that I want to expand the definition of the other result. It already states in the spell description what types of creatures can and can not be reincarnated. I think there should be similar guidelines for the possible forms as well. It strikes me that outsiders, undead, and constructs should be absolutely off the list. Aberrations should be 99% off, barring the few exceptional cases that seem to fit into the natural ecology in their own perverse way. Dragons and magical beasts should be extremely rare. Fey and elementals should actually be rather common on the "other" list. Giants and monstrous humanoids shouldn't be too much of a stretch either.

Personally, I think animals should go back on the list, but thats the RP side of me, not the game balance side.

I think that there should be a "if you do not have sufficent hit dice to exchange to pay for the ECL of the creature, reroll" note. More generous DMs may extend that too "if a creature would require you to exchange levels to pay for its ecl, you can choose to reroll".

Anyhow, to wrap this up before I get to building some tables of my own, since my players are in the Free City of Greyhawk, what sort of creatures should be on a regional table for that area?

In my Age of Worms game, the resident nature lover decided they wanted to find a dire snapping turtle in the Mistmarsh, for taming and such. Game mechanics are a breeze, I don't need help with that, but what I do need is a mini!

So, Lords of the Boards, where do I find a mini suitable for a burly, spiny, hellbeast of a turtle, size Large? I'm not saying its fiendish or anything, its just a big alligator snapping turtle, which makes it terrifying by default.

Any trails for me to follow?

Right, my wife's water broke, were off to the hospital. Will post again whence we return with our daughter!

Right, so as I am running Age of Worms again, and this group isn't retardedly powerful like the last one that I played in, I find myself in need of a bit of information.

Specifically, the levels of various service providers in the Free City, for things like healing and spellcasting. The most powerful cleric at Diamond Lake was able to handle a Restoration, but for anything above that, its going to take some travel, and I would like to stay "within" the Greyhawk lore as much as possible (events from the previous Shackled City game nonwithstanding).

So who's who in Greyhawk? Where can I go to find this information?

____ Yeah Seaking!

If anybody else on paizo gets this (or rather, I wasn't the only one to think it) then you get a cookie. Not a Lillith Cookie, but a paltry, crum/b/ling splenda-instead-of-sugar sort of cookie.

I love you all, its way too late, time to sleep.

On a more related note, I love this author. Leigh Brackett is a literary addiction, indeed.

Fast healing is definied as "just like natural healing, except where noted here". I'm curious to how that interacts with the rules for being damaged to the point of falling unconcious, stabilizing, and then recovering? To cut through a slew of example scenarios, I'm trying to figure out of a creature with fast healing rendered unconcious through damage is down for a while, or merely for a round or two?

Advice is most appreciated, as I have spent probably over an hour trying to pick apart the wording on this, and I'm an English Major! Which makes me sad...

Firstly, this thread is hopefully a think tank for an adventure path that would follow Savage Tide in the in-gameworld timeline of the Dungeon Greyhawk setting.

If this thread should be moved to the standard 3.5 section, please do so.

Basically, as I was looking over products, release dates, and the content of said products, I noticed a trend. Dragon related stuff. Me, I love my dragons, so I didn't mind. I know others are less enthused by a plethora of draconic marketing, but thats besides the point.

As my current gaming group is actually moving through the entire Dungeon APs sequentially (we are in Age of Worms now), it struck me that a 4th adventure path using all this material (I am also counting D&D Minis in this regard) could be quite interesting.

So even as I DM Age of Worms, I am doing some very basic groundwork for a 4th AP. Anyone who wants to assist is more than welcome, as I respect the individual and combined talents of these boards.

So far, I have the following:

The Dragonfall war between Bahamut and Tiamat coming to a head. Previous AP event with some relation: the destruction of Dragotha. Conversely, Illthane's experiments could have been a pioneering prelude to the Dragonspawn. (In my current age of worms, I am replacing Illthane's draconic kobolds with Greenspawn Sneaks, even if recolored as black dragonspawn)

Dragonborn appearing in greater numbers. (A PC in Age of Worms may soon become dragonborn, and will be one of the "first".)

Spawn of Tiamat appearing in greater numbers. See Illthane comments.

Of particular note, I am interested in making use of some of the less known/used dragons/dragon lore. Particularily:

Saridor and the Gem Dragons, including the Obsidian Dragons.
The slain sister-dragon to Bahamut.
The ferrous dragons.

As I develop more, I will post it. For now, I would love to see what other ideas this generates in the minds of those who read it. Thanks to you all for taking the time to peruse this, and thanks twice if you take the time to post!

In my freshly starting Age of Worms game, I have a half-troll PC. The player is interested in the character potentially "exploring" her troll heritage, so I've been looking at the Paragon Classes from Unearthed Arcana, and the savage progression for trolls from Savage Species. But I thought of a simpler solution, and figured I would put it to the excellent minds on these boards:

If you have Fast Healing "X", how many feats must you invest to turn it into Regeneration "X", and what would the prerequisites be?

Considering Regen doesn't really do much more than make you annoying to kill, relative to Fast Healing. You still get up after you should go down, put yourself back together fast, and with decent pacing start each fight at full HP. Regen character just won't stay down unless its via "anti-regen" means. High level death effects work just fine either way as well.

Granted, we use the Paizo Crit and Fumble decks, so the issue of a severed head or limb, while present, becomes a lot less frustrating for a regenerating character.

So, whats the upgrade worth? One feat? Two? The regen is half of the origional fast healing value? Any thoughts or ideas?

Does anyone recall an item that effectively gave bardic music benefits? Any degree of power, single use, charges, times per day, whatever. I recall a Dragon article that had "modern" magic items, like a arcane GPS and such, but I think the "sound recorder" in that article only recorded sounds, and couldnt reproduce bardic music (at least not with the bonuses that come with it).

Anyone seen anything like this?

Alrighty, we finished it up last night! I'll give you the short version, so that my awesome players (two of which are leaving the game group due to college graduations and transfers) can have a testament to their exploits. This is huge, read it if you like, comment if you want; ultimately, this is to record what happened, nothing more, nothing less. Because when we start up Age of Worms or Savage Tide, this is part of the setting now! Those of you familiar with the APs, you may find some interesting twists in the conclusion paragraphs.

So we have the cast:
(PC) Miiri (CG Half-Song Dragon Bard/Lyric Thaumaturge) The result of a failed Cagewright experiment at creating a "empowered" Shackleborn. Leader of the new theive's guild of Cauldron, the Faceless Flames.
(PC) Azbera (LG Admantine Clad Dwarven Knight) Descended from a family of dwarves who's ritual bonding to an adamantine skin hides a terrible family curse. Current Captain of the Cauldron Guard.
(PC) Laecim (CN Raptoran Warlock/Acolyte of the Skin:Slaad Variant) A power hungry Magnificent Bastard that hits on anything that walks. Recently got lucky with a the marilith Byakala.
(PC) Todd "Freaking" Vanderboren (CN Human Rogue/Assasin/Duelist) Partially redeemed by Miiri due to a song about the Vanderboren family that she performed, he joined the party seeking revenge for his own murder. Currently masquerading as Vhalantru, thanks to the simulacrum suit.
(PC) Genon (NG Human Healer) A soft spoken, feminine young man, who's healing powers have become the stuff of legend. Currently the Lord Mayor of Cauldron.
Nidrama - The Angel who watches over Cauldron and the region, now joined with the PCs in an effort to put down Adimarchus.
Pharoh - A balor trapped in Skullrot. Seeking some sort of aid, the party used what few divination spells they had, and found the most favorable result to lie in the cell of this Balor. An ancient being who's mortal soul hailed from a land of rivers, sand, and pyramids, he unexpectedly freed thousands of the slaves under his watch and voluntarily incarcerated himself in Skullrot.

After much debate, they decided to free Pharoh, having recovered a chime of opening from Slouva the Hag thanks to a cunning ambush from inside a cell, made possible by the last remaining minutes of a Wind Walk spell.

They then proceeded to free a powerful unique slaad, which the warlock Laecim had been siphoning power from for some time. The encounter was tense, as no one was quite sure what the slaad would do. The slaad acknowledged Laecim as being stronger than it, and gave him a final peice of its power, thus raising him to the last level of the Acolyte of the Skin class, and making him officially an outsider in type. The slaad then left Skullrot, violently.

Dark Myrakul at this point decided that enough prisoners had escaped, and so flew down to confront the heroes. While the balor gave them some warning, none were prepared for the sight of the demonflesh golem that attended the Warden of Skullrot. But the suprises did not end there. Pharoh tackled the golem off of the balcony on which they stood, sending the both of them plummeting several stories to the ground below, where they continued their scuffle.

Up above them, Dark Myrakul prepared to unleash hideous magics upon the heros. But then from the shadows stepped Todd Vanderboren, his crossbow cocked and pointed at the lichfiend. The crossbow's twang was muffled by the screams of the inmates, but the sight of the lichfiend's undead form falling from the air to crash in a lifeless heap on the floor next to the balor brought a gallery of disbeleiving looks to young Vanderboren from the rest of the heroes.

For his part, Todd merely looked back at them quizzically and asked "What?" as he stepped to the railing, loaded another crossbow, and shot the demonflesh golem locked in combat far below him. With a spasm and a quiver, the hideous construct slumped and did not move. Todd checked his crossbow to make sure it was still in good order, and replaced it on his hip. (I will never look down on Slaying Arrows ever again!)

After no small celebration, the party ascended the stairs to Adimarchus' cage. Nidrama, knowing she would not fare well in a fight with a demon lord, gave them what protections she could and waited on the level below, praying for their victory. They elected to fight him at the top of Skullrot, using a scroll of Wall of Force to seal off the opening in the floor and give them a large battlefield free of advantages for either side. While he appeared as an angel at first, he assumed a demonic form as the battle was joined, and the ensuing conflict was quite severe, as he resisted almost all of their spells, and banished the warlock to a labrynth of madness (Maze). The party nearly fell when he caused the blood to erupt from their bodies (Horrid Wilting), but the healer Genon did not flinch and restored their health even as it fell (readied Mass Heal).

The fight began to turn in their favor when the dwarf Azbera realized that, fighting on the wall of force as she was, her ancestral dwarven axe would not aid her as well (Earthbound, looses benefits if not touching ground, we agreed that Wall of Force was not ground), and Adimarchus seemed quite content to stay where he was. As such, she elected to grabble the demon lord using her prodigious strength. Calling on the might of Moradin and St. Cuthbert, she held the demon lord still long enough for Laecim to return from his prison and summon a blue slaad to serve him. The slaad likewise attempted to hold Adimarchus in place, and in that moment of vunerability, and thanks to the courage flowing through them from the song sung by Miiri, the balor Pharoh was able to bring his sword cleaving through the demon lord's neck. (Nat 20 crit only confirmed due to loss of dex from grapple and bardic music)

To their shock and horror, the headless body did not fall, instead it shimmered and changed, revealing the angel they had seen before (Bad coin tosses, Adimarchus never flipped forms after the initial flip to demonic form), hale and hearty, and enraged moreso than ever. His razor wings inflicted terrible wounds upon those around, and only the hearty strength of Azbera and the indomitable luck of Todd Vanderboren prevented them from succumbing to the implosive might of his touch (Todd could only make the save on a nat 20, which he rolled).

Adimarchus fought tooth and nail, but now that a previous success had been seen, the party fought invigorated, and attempted to recreate their victory on the demon lord. As if the gods themselves smiled upon them for such faith in fate and each other, the balor's blade soon cleaved through the neck of the entangled and grappled angel (Immune to crits thanks to Golden Tatoos doesn't stop vorpal).

His life force waning and being pulled back to Occipitus, Adimarchus uttered a dying curse even as his head hit the floor. "May you all fall into madness! Let the whole be sundered and the sundered be whole!" (At this part, the PCs have won, the rest was "cutscene" and as such, outside of normal game mechanics, with the exception of an occasional saving through or d20 roll, which my players were fine with.)

The walls of Skullrot began to crack apart under the might of the demon lords curse. Worse so were the effects upon the heroes. Azbera's adamantine skin began to peel itself off of her; Miiri's dragon and human halves began to tear free from each other. Laecim, having experienced one such transformation already, held firm against the power assaulting him. The balor began to split, into a bronze skinned human man, and a gargantuan demonic beast that was to a balor what a balor is to a human. Genon the healer and Todd the assasin, rather than splitting as the others did, instead seemed to fuse together, becoming a luminous humanoid composed of roiling white and black light.

Even as Azbera willed herself to bear the pain of forcing her skin back onto herself, both Miiri and the balor's respective halves completed their separation. The amalgam of Genon and Todd dissapeared, seeming to sink into the body of Laecim, who stood next to them, and reappeared from the crumpled body of the human half of Pharoh. Even as a glowing white hand touched the pain wracked man, who slumped in releif under the touch, the other hand, a vibrant appendage black as night, thrust up into the chest of the great demonic beast looming over them, which fell with a crash, dead in an instant.

Reaching up as if to pull off a mask who's seam lay in the middle of the face, Genon and Todd somehow separated themselves, returning to their normal forms, although they looked at each other with wonder.

As Skullrot began to crumble even more, its peices falling and floating in all directions as even gravity obeyed the dying curse of Adimarchus, leaving only the wall of force hanging in midair, Todd leapt from rubble to rubble to the floor below, gathering the crumpled form of Nidrama. She too had succumbed to the curse, and her wings were now plucked bald, her body covered with thousands of tiny punctures. The heroes huddled together on the wall of force, and Genon opened a gate to Occipitus.

There they found the body of Adimarchus, alternating between its forms, its head still severed. After a moment of discussion, the realized that the demond lord would revive unless another claimed the throne of the abyssal realm. Only Azbera and Genon sought to claim it, and so they elected to let the realm itself choose between them. They lifted Adimarchus into the plasm rift, and spoke their claim of Occipitus out loud. There was a rumble, and when it subsided, Azbera gave a small chuckle, and kneeled before Genon, haling him as the Lord of Occipitus.

Things sorted themselves out from there with some ease. Genon asked Todd to accept his nomination as the new Lord Mayor, who reluctantly agreed, stating it was the least he could do for his brother. Their melding had brought clarity to shared memories, and the younger sibling Todd had been separated from at the orphanage was finally returned to him.

Miiri's human half went on to become the Head Professor of Bluecrater Academy, and went to great lengths to open its doors to all who showed talent, not simply the wealthy. The theives guild under her control became an unspoken, unnofficial first and last line of defense for the city; the few who caused it harm that were not dealth with by the city guard found their stay cut very short by the Faceless Flames, who became quite beloved by the rest of the population. Her dragon half retained her wanderlust, and although she made her lair on the slowly purifying realm of Occipitus, she was rarely ever found at it, instead scouring the world for stories and songs to hoard.

Laecim found a soulmate in the woman Cora Lathenmire, who had suffered many terrible ordeals in the last few weeks, some of which had left her physically scarred. Not one to place much weight on appearance, the raptoran's relationship with her blossomed. Genon revealed to him that his union with the marilith Byakala had resulted in a child. As the marilith was possessed of the sign of the smoking eye, it was a simple matter for Genon to summon her to him with his new powers. She was wracked with pain, barely able to move, apparently due to the child she now bore. She begged for it to be removed, and so Genon did, placing it inside a plasm he pulled from the stream and purified. While never one to care much about good or evil, Laecim cared for his child greatly, and espoused a good lifestyle as best he could, to counter the influence of evil he feared remained in his child. Not neccessarily regretful, he was at least respectful of the results of his previous dalliances, and as such was faithful to Cora unswervingly, to his last days and beyond.

Todd masqueraded as Vhalantru for a few weeks, before growing tired and annoyed with the duties of Lord Mayor, and so passed the office to Azbera. A roundabout relationship with the angel Nidrama began, in which the arguments were as fierce as the affections, which ultimately led to a wedding. When Sasserine freed itself from the rule of the Sea Princes, they moved to establish Vanderboren holdings there. They had two children, Vanthus and Lavina.

Azbera, after becoming Lord Mayor, served the position with care, kindness, and determination for many years. She became known as "She of the Iron Hand and the Silken Heart". A minor scandal erupted when a rematch of the Drinking Contest at the next year's Flood Festival resulted in her waking up next to the half-orc High Priest of Kord, Alsfekir, and a signed marrige certificate. A child was born of their union, but their marrige was less than perfect, and they divorced soon after. She remarried, to the dwarven smuggler Adrick Garthun, who had fallen in love with her at first sight when they first met at the Cusp of Sunrise so long ago, and after she spared him at House Rhivadi, he turned over a new leaf to make himself worthy of her. Their marrige was happy, and Moradin blessed them with several children.

Genon, Lord of Occipitus, came to be known by many names. To the fiends, he was known as the Deathlord, for his melding with Todd had given him great insights into the nature of life and death, which coupled with his already incredible skill at healing, made him as capable of taking lives as restoring them, although he was loathe to do so. To the forces of light, he became known as the Hope of the Abyss, as he began expanding the influence of the celestial rubble through Occipitus, a slow and tedious process, but one that showed visible results. In short time, celestial creatures flocked to Occipitus through a permanent gate he opened between his throne room there and the flotilla in the middle of Crater Lake, where the statues of the Heroes of Cauldron had been erected. As such, Cauldron became known for having a large population of angelic and celestial creatures, and even a small smattering of rebel fiends.

On the first aniversary of the Ritual of Planar junction which had so devastated Cauldron, Genon made his first and last appearance on the material plane since his ascension to the throne of Occipitus. He stepped through the gate and dipped a hand into the waters of Crater Lake. The waters rippled and roiled, and a great wave rushed up the streets, frothy and foamy, fast enough to reach the outer wall's edge in moments, but gentle enough that it did not knock a petal from a flower. As the mist of the wave settle to the ground, all those that had died unneccessarily in the chaos of Cauldron's darkest times were restored to life, returned to their loved ones. From that day forth, the waters of Crater Lake glowed, even at night, and those that drank from them did not fall prey to sickness, poison, or infirmity. Many made the pilgramage to drink of the water, as its power did not last if removed from the lake. Cauldron quickly returned to its former size and more, as more buildings were built around the outer wall.

The citizens of Cauldron lived happy lives, blessed with education, health, a gentle but firm government, celestial neighbors, and stalwart defenders.

But the battle for peace is ongoing, and the citzens of Cauldron had learned that lesson well. They knew, like the Heroes of Cauldron, and Surabar Spellmason before them, that when the times were darkest, heroes would rise. Cauldron would not loose hope. Even as the dark clouds of the Age of Worms roll in, and the roiling Savage Tide behind them, they would not loose hope.

But those are stories for another day.

My gaming group is loosing a member, and I've trolled around Matchup and Penandpapergames looking for some new faces. Some of those I see here on Paizo, so I figured I'd spread the word here, see if anyone bites.

Gimme a response in this thread if your interested/available, and I'll post some more information about what our gaming group is like. Hope to see a few posts in this thread soon, lonely threads die cold lonely deaths. Please, think of the lonely threads!

Does anyone have extra inmates they made for Skullrot's many cells? My PCs are both canny and patient, and I think they may do a full inventory of the place simply to release certain entities to give them an edge in combat with the wardens. My group favors wind-walk, which has given them an edge in undected entry.

I'm generating my own, but its nice to see what other people have come up with. I've also been making use of the STAP Gaping Maw Prison Dressing page, which has been marvelous, but as Skullrot is an Asylum, and a near fully stocked one at that, I can't use it overmuch.

Currently, due to other plot concerns, I have two specific inmates: a Bronze Dragon paladin, grandfather of a PC. A unique slaad, patron of a PC with an altered Acolyte of the Skin PRC.

I've been using the tables in the SCAP hardcover, and generated a few more inmates (I like to view percentile rolls of 01 or 100 as "special", so I have a special Balor on deck, but haven't figured out what about it as of yet) but the process is, well, rather tedious. And at this stage of the game, finale and all that, I don't want to handwave it and deny my players the attention to detail that I bring to the game.

Any thoughts, ideas, or places to go for inspiration? On either the inmates themselves, or the crimes they commited to get there (crime being relative, in the case of some of the trapped good creatures).

Specifically, I'm looking for if anyone has seen information, on this or other forums, that adds to, modifies, or otherwise expands upon the material presented in this alternate class ability. Like say a Feat to give the basic combat form a poisonous bite, or such nonsense.

Anybody seen anything?

Well, this thread will either die under the cold stares of my peers, or flourish. So then, Twilight. The movie. I've seen it. I liked it. Wait, no, I loved it. It was a great book-to-movie conversion, casting was stellar, and chemistry was great between actors.

But most of all, I have a weakness for "superpowered at rest/play". X-men sometimes satisfies this, but is often too concerned with the "save the world" aspects to linger on it as much a I would like.

So the baseball scene in Twilight officially put it on my favorite scenes of all time.

So, anyone else? Love it? Hate it? Opinions? Comments? Rabbits?

This isn't a question or a query or otherwise request. Just wanted to let the Paizo community in on an awesome thing that happened last SCAP session. Just a bit of shameless praise for my wonderful group and the fun they bring to my house every weekend.

Alright, my group for SCAP actually named themselves the Electric Morkoths, due to the group having a high affinity for electricity and lightning, and because the monk/drunken master of the group absolutely fell in love with the Drunken Morkoth inn. Meeting the morkoth was his absolute goal and dream. Much hilarity ensued.

Now, 14 levels later, Foundations of Flame is under way, and we just had the Morkoth Rising event.

Now, a sad reality is that our monk had to leave the game due to family issues. Nothing to be done about it. So we wrote him out as now acting as a bodyguard for Annah Taskerhill (the Stormblades feature prominently in my game) who has left the protection (and domination) of her family.

So they needed a new member, and an old freind had a schedule opening to join us. But the PCs themselves wouldn't just accept any random yahoo who wanted to join, what with the paranoia of the Cagewrights machinations looming over them. So it had to be a beleivable person to join the group, one that they knew and at least moderately trusted.

Enter Todd "Freakin" Vanderboren, who by this point was reformed by the PCs a bit, to be CN but still having assasin levels. My freind takes him over as the new PC, and the hilarity starts. First, he claims the Vhalantru suit as his own, and keeps the Vhalantru identity going! He also keeps with Todds one hit one kill nature, and buys a few more slaying arrows.

So when the morkoth rises, Todd wins initiative, loads the proper slaying arrow, and fires. A solid hit, even at 2 range penalties out. Morkoth natural 1's its save. (I houserule that "major" villains don't fail save or dies in the first round, unless they natural 1. PCs like it, as they prefer epic fights over anticlimactic.)

Hardly anticlimactic here, the massive campaign long foreshadowing of the morkoth, combined with the obsession of the missing character, and the sheer audacity of Todd made this an awesome moment. When the rest of the party looked at Todd astonishedly and asked "How did you do that?" he replied, "Because I'm Todd Freakin' Vanderboren!"

Thats now his catchphrase, and the game is rocking even more than ever. Just wanted to immortalize the great exploits of my wonderful players on the internet. Thanks to any who read this and hope you get a laugh! Until Next Time!

Okay, so Undead have the blanket statement of being immune to fortitude saves unless the effect can affect objects. Fair enough. This prevents things like thunderstones from affecting them, which is fair, hard to deafen something that has no fleshy inner ear to abuse.

But what about raw damage? It recently came up in my Shackled City game that a sonic spell with a fortitude for half against the sonic damage was leveled on a group of enemies that included a dread wraith and a vampire. The spell doesn't have the object tag, so I had to deal with an odd call.

The dread wraith got lucky and managed to avoid the issue with incorporeality.

But the vamp no only was physical, but her fortitude save was enough to easily fail. In the end, the results would have made little difference in the fight overall, but im wondering about it nonetheless.

The letter of the rules seems to state that all undead can exist just fine in a sonic boom filled enviorment as long as fortitude saves are being made rather than reflex. But is it in the spirit of the rules to excuse them from said damage? A ghoul is almost as flesh and blood as a human; shouldn't the sonic assault that harms one harm the other? Is this another case of some undead being more construct-ish and other more alive-ish? Skeletons I can sort of see ignoring it, depending on the frequency. But ghouls, and even vampires, strike me as being susceptible.

Any personal opinions on the matter? The issue is past, but I'm sure it will rise again, and I'm mostly curious what the Paizo Collective has to say on it.

Can any of the other DMs who have managed to make their way through the AP give me any advice on "wealth bottlenecks"? I'm talking about points where PCs are unable to have "gear appropriate to level" due to either a lack of material wealth, or an inability to change the material wealth they have into gear. I noticed Demonskar Legacy being rather sparse on raw GP equivalent loot; most of the loot was functional, but likely already possessed by most PCs at that point (Ring of Protection +2, Amulet of Mighty Fists +1, etc).

Any other bottlenecks coming up? I could see Occipitus being problematic if I wasn't using the Delvesdeep version. I can always alter loot to compensate, either value or actual item wise, but I prefer to know in advance. Something happened along the way, because even with a few gifts from NPCs, my PCs were all 10,000gp or more short of the listed gear benchmark at the end of Demonskar Legacy. That seemed a bit excessive.

Just found this file and am now flogging myself with weasels for not doing so earlier in my SCAP.

Its in the general files (chapter non-specific) of the Shackled City archive at RPGenius.

It details the changing inventory of Skies Treasurey, which is a boatload of work off the DM's shoulders. But even more wonderful, it provides backstory for many of the items available there, and sometimes even loops them back into the storyline. (A weapon for sale in the earlier chapters is bought by an NPC and used against the PCs down the line, etc, etc). This creates a wonderful sense of world versimilitude, which anyone who follows my posts knows I appreciate greatly.

So heres my question: the file only goes to Chapter 5. Would anyone else out there be willing to help me advance the file further into the campaign? The backstories of 15th level items could be hilarious and awesome, especially when tied into the exploits of the various Cauldron citizens.

So, I took an opportunity at my local Barnes and Noble to peruse the 4eMM. It certainly looked like any book of a system I had never seen before, in that I was mostly thinking "Huh?" whenever I looked at the actual stat blocks. Overall, I got the gist of things, though.

As to the actual material, I felt it was a rampant success in crunch (a monstrous amount of monsters, to be sure) but close to anorexia in terms of fluff, with only a few sidebars that felt like they were there to specifically placate veteran 3rd edition players who might take offense to the changes to demons, devils, and the like.

That being said, the art, with a few exceptions here and there of poor or recycled art, was VERY GOOD. Perhaps not on an artistic level, but on a "wow, I could imagine describing a monster like that to my PCs!" level. Which leads to my next comment. Content wise, a lot of monsters were redescribed in interesting ways, which was pleasing to see. Even my initial irritation at Bulettes being shrunk to large was allayed by the inclusion of a "dire" bulette of huge size.

However, this old dog doesn't exactly feel like learning new tricks, and neither really do his mate or his pack, if you'll excuse the extended metaphore. So my question, to sum it up, is this:

Does anyone have, or would anyone be interested in, plans to put together a backwards conversion effort on some of the new monsters in the 4eMM? While many of them already exist in 3e, I think a "restatting" might not hurt, especially if the 4e illustration demands it a bit. (I'm looking at you, yuan-ti anathema!)

So, any interest out there? Or work in progress that I might be able to join, once I force myself to figure out 4e enough to convert it?

Does anyone recall if there are any adventures where PCs either fight good dragons (as good guys themselves, not just a BoVD side adventure sort of thing) or engage in (relatively) non-violent encounters with Evil Dragons?

The first that comes to mind is Lashonna from AoW, but that doesnt fit because she's a good dragon who became evil. And it wasn't even a transition that happened around the PCs; she had been evil for a long time. An adventure where a good dragon goes evil and the PCs have to fight it could be cool, especially if they had the opportunity to fight alongside it prior to its change.

So, anyone recall any adventures where you diplomacy the green dragon, or throw down with the bronze?

Rightyo, I'm just copy-pasting my post from the Fear Effects Becoming Worthless Thread, as I think this silly wee idea of mine might actually have merit, so I want it out there a second time. Granted, the fighter has gotten a beautiful overhaul, but I really do like this idea here.

Oooh! An idea! What if fighters who have the proper feat (Improved Trip, Improved Disarm) could have a fighter only use of the feat: specifically, the ability to employ the feat during a regular attack!

So, instead of using an attack roll to make an improved trip attempt, the fighter makes a regular attack, which if it lands, he could then opt to use improved trip to make a trip attempt in addition to normal damage? Same with disarm, etc? Harder to envision with grapple, but even overrun and bullrush could be used in this manner too. If its too strong, perhaps a penalty on the attack roll? Or on the CMB roll if it lands?

The only thing a fighter has going besides attacking is the option of battlefield control, but he has to give up his regular attacks to do it. Just like everyone else. What if the fighter's special ability is being able to use battlefield control WITHOUT giving up his attacks?

Anyone else think this has merit? Or at least Jason or someone else coming in to say "We considered this a while back, but decided against it, nyah nyah, know your place peon!"

I'd settle for getting called a peon by Jason. It would make me smile. Zug zug.

I just blew 30 minutes on the search function to no avail, so now I ask you, the communal paizo host:

A few days ago, I think (but am not sure) in the Alpha Release 2 area, a thread in which someone mentioned the problem with mundane item crafting being that it is determined by the cost of the finished product, thus a 500g candlestick took longer to make than a 2g dagger, despite the fact that the materials involved are much easier to work with on the candlestick's side.

This thread linked to an incredibly interesting article written by one of the industry boys (I think Keith Baker, but my memory is by no means trustworthy at this point.) Called Gears something, something of Gears, or maybe I just have gears on the brain.

Any help tracking down this thread would be appreciated.

This idea sprang to mind, and I admit I hadn't thought of it while perusing the Alphas, so it may be already covered and I missed it unintentionally. But here we go.

Counterspell has, in the heavy majority of my 3.0/3.5 experience, been a nearly useless ability. Few spellcasters see the utility in sacrificing their own ability to control the battlefield or damage enemies in order to prevent the enemy from doing just that. There seems to be some sort of passive/agressive break point, and counterspell is often it. Until the Spell Compendium and a spell within it that enabled counterspelling as an immediate action, it was limited to casters who already happened to have a dispel magic prepared and were both not expecting to need it for something "more important", and just plain bored with blasting enemies.

Here are some ideas I figured I'd throw out to the Paizo Masses.

1. Counterspell becomes an actual spell, 1 level lower than Dispel Magic and Greater Dispel Magic, but functioning exactly like the counterspell option of Dispel Magic.

1a. Counterspell, as a spell, has a casting time of immediate? Too powerful, or just right? Return it to same level as dispel magic with this option?

2. Sorcerors gain a "spontaneous counterspell" class feature, similar to option 1, but in that they spontaneously convert a spell slot into a rampant snarl of magical energy to "bugger up" an enemy spell (using the Dispel Magic rules for counterspelling). Again, determining if this is a immediate action or not might still be the deal breaker, but it certainly gives Sorcerors an interesting tactical option, and makes them extremely attractive, at least in my eyes, relative to wizards. Of course, if any level of spell could be sacrificed, the maximum caster level bonus on the counterspell roll would have to be appropriately adjusted for the level of spell. Perhaps they could get a maximum bonus equal to the spell level x2+1? That means the bonus caps right before getting the next level of spells.

So, does this have any merit? Or am I just passing mental gas again?

Congratulations, Pathfinder Paizo Pros, you make a skill system that tickled my proverbial pickle! For a long time I wondered at the x4 at first level mechanic, as it never sat well with me, well, mechanically.

I will most likely be using the current Alpha2 skill system, in all of my games, unless you happen to come up with something better. Just wanted to say that, for this one gamer, you got the porridge just right!