cappadocius's page

Vivisection is very important to understanding how biological processes work in the absences of MRIs and other non-invasive imaging devices! Stupid hippy liberal clerics calling it evil!

So, this may be a dumb question, but can I use a wand to counterspell? And, if so, and if I have Improved Counterspell, I can then use a Wand of Fireball to counterspell someone's darkness or shatter, right?

Jeez! Are all the APG iconics monsters?

Reaper Minis has a nine entry line of Familiar Packs with a pretty nice selection of small animal minis. Some of them are familiar Familiars, some of them are probably more suited to animal companions or even cohorts (there's, like, a new wyrmling dragon every three packs), but some of them are really fun, unusual small animals. Plus, I want to get the complete bang for my buck when I buy a blister of these guys.

I was hoping for some ideas from people more experienced in actually USING the Pathfinder rules about what sort of special abilities the following animals would give:

Dog
Bobcat
Badger
Giant Spider (small)
Giant Snail (small)
Rabbit
Squirrel
Armadillo
Vulture
Hedgehog
Skunk
Penguin
Fox
Turtle
Raccoon

Angler Fish
Dragonfish
Bull Shark
Moray Eel
Hatchetfish
Manta Ray
Octopus

I would guess things like Turtles and Armadillos might give bonuses to Fortitude saves, while Dogs might benefit Will saves?

1. Do the Sword Lords give their various catspaws in the Stolen Lands any sort of starting funds? At the start, with just exploration and mapping, it seems like it would be logical that the Sword Lords would treat this as a simple above-board expedition, and provide funds for hirelings and necessary equipment. But it's also suggested that this is entirely covert on their part, and every party is on their own. What would be an appropriate "start up"?

2. Approximately how many of the encounters are outright intended to be "kill or be killed"? A few of my potential players are more easily sold if I can say, "Over 75% of encounters (or 50% or 90% or 30%) can be solved without murder." The more times a pacifist/thinking man's solution can solve an encounter, the happier they are - but I also want to be honest about how much fighting there.

3. Will there be an article in an upcoming issue discussing international trade and diplomacy, or do I get to wing it with some house rules? I'm happy either way!

In the real world, without hands-on deities that give undeniable signs of their existence, we see syncretism (the merging of two religions into a new, hybrid) as an aspect of colonialism and cultural contact. Examples include the Greek Hermes being equated to the Roman Mercury, the Egyptian Amun becoming the Greek Zeus Ammon, or Amun becoming Amun-Re when encountering the other Nile deity Re. Before meeting, the resemblance between Hermes and Mercury may have been superficial, at best, but the differences were smoothed out as cultural contact continued. Neither Hermes nor Mercury seems to have minded.

In Golarion, however, the Gods show up, they've indicated some jealousy, but we still see signs of syncretism. The Ulfen deity Erastil is equated to the Stone Giant deity Estig, and the Garundi deity Gozreh is worshipped by the Avistan-native Cloud Giants as Ioz'om, the halfling gods are sidekicks to gods from separate pantheons. It raises the question of whether Estig and Erastil ARE the same, or if Erastil has subsumed Estig's duties, or something even more odd? When a human deity like Irori begins to see worship by Dwarves, does Irori create a new aspect that is a member of Torag's family, or are there new myths explaining his relationship to the Dwarven pantheon (and did those myths "really" happen on whatever reality the gods exist in?), or is Irori's worship independent of Toragian worship, and if so, do the Dwarven worshipers pick up other Vudrani customs, myths, and gods alongside their new god?

Pharasma has come out of Osirion, where I've no doubt she had a pantheon surrounding her, same as Taldor has Abadar, Shelyn, and Zon-Kuthon. What happened to those deities? When Pharasma is worshiped alongside Gorum, like in Brevoy, does the old Osirion god of war get turned into Gorum, or is there an entirely unique body of worship in Brevoy? do Brevic myths spontaneously appear in Osirion? The elven deity Curchanus was murdered by the demon Lamashtu, who is obviously not part of the original Elven pantheon - but is she now, since Lamashtu's myths have intersected with the elves'?

Following the development of syncretic beliefs is an important tool for tracking cultural history and the movements of people, and knowing how it takes place in Golarion can be extremely helpful in fleshing out the world for your players.

I've been going over the Summoning spells, collecting minis for everything summonable by the lists, and noticed that the basic animals summoned have the Celestial template - giving 'em Darkvision, a low-level DR, an okay SR, and smite evil 1/day. Then I checked the half-celestial template, and they get Darkvision, a slightly worse DR, a better SR, a FLYING SPEED, smite evil 1/day and a raft of spell-like abilities based on their HD. At the same CR modifier.

Any reason something with less Celestial blood is more awesome than an actual Celestial?

Can anyone tell me what size base this guy's on? Medium? Large?

I certainly hope we'll see Var the Stick and Neq the Sword in short order after this!

How many 5 dollar miniatures do I get for my 36 bucks?

Three dollars apiece? Wizards doesn't half think highly of the power of the brand name, do they?

I dunno if this should go under this subforum or in the Customer Service one, so here it is.

With the number of Paizo cards - Item Cards, Critical Hit/Fumble Decks, Face Cards, the possibility of Monster Cards... is there any possibility of creating a Card Subscription program like the various Pathfinder book subscriptions? I really like the modularity and visual/tactile experience that the different decks provide in running/playing a game. What would be the stumbling blocks to creating said subscription?

Dangit, Pathfinder!

Ghoul and Ghul are homophones!

Demon and Daemon are, too!

I think this is a Fiction anthology. Does it still go under Roleplaying Games?

In the Blog of, I guess it's been a few days now, whenever, the one with Rombard the Goat and la chupacabra. In that Blog post, we learn that Rombard the Goat is an important NPC - so important he gets a stat block? D&D has needed goat stats for a long time now, will this be our big goat break? Since everyone knows gnomes ride goats like humans ride horses and halflings ride dogs, it'll be really nice to finally have stats for our gnome PCs' mounts.

Hooray for Goats!

Did Pagan solicit this as a Call of Cthulu product, or was this a store typo? It was sheer luck I stumbled across this!

While it seems unlikely, given the d20 bust and the difficulties in getting CoC d20, I have to ask because this *is* Goodman Games, will this be dual-stat, or pure BRP?

Any sense of when this will be available? I enjoyed A Murder of Crows.

1. When the rules say that a spell takes up one page per level of the spell, does this mean it takes one LEAF (one sheet, front AND back) or one PAGE (one side of a leaf, front OR back)

2. Relatedly, the equipment has a standard spellbook containing 100 pages. Is this 100 sheets of paper, or 50 sheets of paper?

(I'm doing my best to not nitpick that neither one of these page counts are likely possible with medieval binding techniques.)

From Jeff Rient's wonderful gameblog, comes this handy chart for when your adventurers suddenly burst in on the stupid little freaks. Just roll 1d20 and rock out.

What are the goblins up to?

1. Making rope out of human hair. A coil 1-100' long is already complete.
2. Boiling up a pot of mud and gravel stew.
3. Singing songs about hidden treasure.
4. Playing poker with blank cards. The printing on both sides is visible only to creatures with infravision
5. Dancing. At least one goblin will be playing an instrument, probably a fiddle or a concertina.
6. Playing tenpins with a skull and some legbones.
7. Interrogating a rat tied to a tiny chair. "I'm gonna ask you one last time: Where is the cheese?"
8. Building a house of cards with the deck from item 4.
9. Discussing the pros and cons of sexual congress with a wide variety of other monsters and races.
10. Eating meat pie. The pie might be stirge or it might be pixie. The goblins can't remember what they put in it.
11. Debating the crisis of succession that would arise from the untimely demise of the current goblin king.
12. Shining shoes of various sizes (kobold to ogre). They all radiate faintly under detect magic but have no known powers.
13. Three words: bunny eating contest.
14. Reading aloud someone else's love letters, preferably detailed notes to or from one of the PCs.
15. Sewing filthy rags into patchwork tunics. If a completed tunic is worn it protects as platemail+1. If the garment is cleaned the magic fades. 1-3 tunics have been completed.
16. Drawing obscene grafitti on the dungeon walls. Each goblin has d4 pieces of chalk in various colors.
17. Arguing vehemently over the proposition that cannibalism should be kept strictly in the family.
18. Strip chess tournament. There's a 1 in 6 chance at least some of the goblins are already in the all-together. Not a sight for the faint of heart.
19. Pickling sliced shrieker. 1-20 jars are done.
20. Trying on pretty pink dresses.

All information is according to the 3.5 SRD, as much of this is monster specific:

The Aquatic Subtype states that "An aquatic creature can breathe underwater. It cannot also breathe air unless it has the amphibious special quality."

Dragon Turtles, which are clearly air breathing creatures, do not have amphibious. Merrow and Scrag, which probably terrorize coastal communities, do not, and begin drowning after about 2 minutes. That's not terrorizing, that's a temper tantrum. Merfolk, which never do more than clamber onto a rock and look pretty, do have Amphibious and could stay out of the water FOREVER. Sahuagin have a unique special quality that lets them stay out of water for a significant period of time, without being able to survive indefinitely out of the water.

The Water Subtype states that "This subtype usually is used for elementals and outsiders with a connection to the Elemental Plane of Water. Creatures with the water subtype always have swim speeds and can move in water without making Swim checks. A water creature can breathe underwater and usually can breathe air as well."

Black and Bronze dragons are famously neither elementals nor outsiders. The only reason to give them the (Water) subtype is to avoid the hassle of giving them Amphibious on top of their hundreds of dragon SQs. In fact, having Amphibious built in is the ONLY reason for a (Water) subtype to exist by the RAW.

Please either eliminate one of these types, or create a more significant mechanical reason for there to be two types. Please go over the Aquatic creatures with a fine-tooth comb and determine, sensibly, who gets Amphibious (if there's a need to keep it), who else beyond the Sahuagin might be a better candidate for their Water Dependent SQ than the Amphibious SQ, and what else might be appropriate to gain Aquatic.

For Animals:
The "Hold Breath" special quality is neat, but is way under-statted - Porpoises by D&D rules can hold their breath for 8 minutes. They normally dive for 20 minutes. This is a DC 22 Constitution Check at a +1 Constitution bonus, by the end of their dive. I'm pretty sure a wild animal isn't going to wait until it starts drowning to catch a breath.

Sperm Whales are even more hilarious. They can dive for 20 minutes, which is great, sure. Unfortunately, real Sperm Whales can dive for up to 90 minutes, and an average dive is 45 minutes. THEY'RE making a DC 35 check with a +7 Con bonus at the end of an AVERAGE dive.

Meanwhile, Alligators can go five HOURS without breathing. I'm not even doing the math for the Hold Breath special quality for these guys. Why don't THEY have the Aquatic subtype, with Amphibious? Or an "Air Dependent" mirror-version of the Sahuagin quality?

And for a last bit of fun, an Elasmosaurus can hold its breath for about as long as an 8th level dwarf.

I know underwater/aquatic adventures are a very small niche of the realm of D&D adventuring, and so might not be a very high priority. However, the number of water-based creatures is small, and it doesn't take too much effort to apply some common sense and basic math to these issues. Bump up 'Hold Breath' multipliers, reconsider the meanings of Aquatic vs. Water, and give ALL diving creatures some sort of 'Hold Breath' ability. For all that, you make running these small niche games easier, and who knows, that might make 'em less of a niche!

So, a hundred of us show up bright and early to play our first PFS Organize Play session at GenCon. How are players distributed? Is it random, giving us the hilarious opportunity for a party of four sub-optimized but flavorful clerics, or better yet, four 1st level wizards , or is it like, "All the clerics stand over there, all the fighters over there" and then the DMs pick up like we're playing Sandlot baseball?

I'm curious, because I want four sub-optimized but flavorful clerics.

Brothers and sisters, the Chelish devil-kissers are gathering in coven in this very messageboard. It falls to us, the true civilization of the Inner Sea, to counter them.

Announce yourself, and help yourself to cucumber sandwiches.

I am very much a Taldor man, and for SOME reason, my PFS ID card says "Osirion". I would like to know how hard this is to fix.

So, now that we have some very rough guidelines for character creation (no evil, use the rules. Thanks guys, very helpful. ~_^) I thought it would be interesting to see what people are planning to play in the GenCon scenarios.

I'm going to be in the Taldorian faction, of course, but I'm still trying to decide if I want to retool my Child of Winter ecologist druid from Eberron for this, or go with a gnomish Cleric of Rovagug.

What are your ideas?!

I'm planning on starting Rise of the Runelords again, with a new group, to playtest the PFRPG rules. I'll be using medium advancement for XP.

However, what this means is that if the party hits 90% of the encounters previous, they will hit 6th level immediately before the fight with Xanesha. Assuming they survive that fight, that will put them a full level below par for Hook Mountain Massacre, which leaves me worrying about a TPK. Thus, I'd like to slip an appropriate module in there to help them make up the short level.

Carnival of Tears can be dropped in right after Burnt Offerings (4th level) or Skinsaw Murders (6h level), and can be localized to Sandpoint thanks to the Whisperwood, but it seems to me that Skinsaw's serial murders could seem diminished in relation to the mass murder of Carnival. Are there any suggestions to dialing it back a notch so that A) Skinsaw still seems horrific, and B) the entire town of Sandpoint doesn't end up with PTSD from the machine gun hits of Goblin Day-Skinsaw-Carnival of Tears?

Any other module suggestions? An overland/wilderness for the trip to Hook Mountain, or a good urban adventure for Magnimar?

Any help you can provide would be appreciated!

Starting a new RotRL game, with a new group, to playtest the PFRPG, and I plan to use the Medium advancement XP rules.

What this means is that the party, if they hit 90% of the encounters previous, will turn 6th level immediately before the fight with Xanesha. This will leave them a full level behind on Hook Mountain Massacre, and even assuming a successful fight with the Lamia, a TPK seems inevitable at a full level below par.

So, what I'm looking for is a good module to slip in either at the end of Burnt Offerings or Skinsaw Murders; Carnival of Tears is supposed to be good, and seems like it can be localized with the Whisperwood near Sandpoint, but I imagine Skinsaw's serial murders will be diminished in relation to the mass-slaughter of Carnival. Obviously, a GameMastery module will be easier to slip into Rise of the Runelords, but any good, appropriate level (4-6) adventure I can buy here in the Paizo store would be appreciated.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

I don't know if this is the right subforum for this, but Jason, are you looking at monster types and subtypes for PFRPG? I'd hope they could be fixed to make some sort of sense.

Athachs, which are three-armed giants, are Aberrations.
Ettins, which are two-headed giants, are Giants.
Minotaurs, which are giants with bull-heads, are Monstrous Humanoids.

What exactly is the determining factor here?

More examples of type-madness:

Dragon Turtles are Dragons.
Dragonnes are Magical Beasts.

Both are reptilian creatures, usually winged, with magical or unusual abilities.

Medusae have scales and serpentine hair. They're Monstrous Humanoids.
Merfolk have scales and fish tails. They're Humanoids.
Lizardfolk are effectively bipedal lizards. They're Humanoids with the Reptilian sub-type.

I think my point is made. If we're going to have types at all, can we either apply them consistently based on the type description, or change the types to match how they're actually meant to be used? If Athachs are aberrations just so they have different saves and skills than Ettins, let's stop talking about alien physiologies and start talking about their mechanical role.

First, I'd like to thank the author for allowing me to avoid the friggin' Super-Pet. Animal Domain lets me at least have a taste of the old 3.0 'menagerie', even if it is only one at a time.

But... am I wrong in seeing a much heavier emphasis on Wild Shape than we had even in 3.5? I'm well aware I'm not "core" audience for D&D, but seriously, I hardly ever *use* Wild Shape, and I'm a regular, hard core Druid player.

Could we scale back the Wild Shape?

These are aimed largely at the Paizo folks, but I'd love to tap the brain trust of really creative fans here, too:

1) What would you suggest as a regional/racial/cultural bonus feat for Sanos Forest gnomes? The rest of my all demihuman party consists of two orphans and a runaway - I thankfully didn't need to worry about Elven or Dwarven feats. But with everyone sitting on two feats to start with thanks to the bonus feats, my fourth player's poor happy-home-life gnome is looking a little Feat-lite.

2) Would I be far off in assuming Erastil's Herald is a Stag of some sort?
Or would it be more of a Hound, which better combines hunting and home life?

Quick question: What do Thaumaturges of Lamashtu do to replenish their spells? It would be a nice bit of descriptive flavor for the party to encounter Eryllium as she was finishing her invocations, and explain why she's full up on spells when the party comes calling.

Note: I'm using Armies of the Abyss as my source for the Thaumaturge, rather than Book of Fiends. I don't know if the class changed between editions.

So, the 10 Things About Goblins that was in the blog and made it into the Pathfinder #1 introduction was really useful to me as a DM. It gave me just enough nuggets of info to run the goblins without having to read an entire book about them, but still left room for that book to come out someday. :)

I was wondering if there were any blog posts, or could be, or anything similar about the demihumans of Varisia? Selfishly, I'd be happy with just gnomes or dwarves, but all of 'em would be awesome.

Please Paizo People! Help me get my PCs feeling Varisian!