carborundum's page

Fascinating stuff, I'm looking forward to the next installment!

And would you believe I hadn't seen the letter pi in the golem until now?!

Well, my group has decided to ... storm Taboo Island. They went right up to the front door and met the (projected) wastrilith. They'd already chased it off once (Khala had to teleport it away after it was level-drained and stunned).

It stunned a few with a Blasphemy and sicced a water elemental on them before spamming dispels to try and find the three greater invisible pinpricks who were hurting it.

The wizard, polymorphed with claws of the werebear active, stunned it back and dimensional anchor'd it, and it took a lot of full attacks before slipping underwater. Khala dispelled the dim. anchor and the wastrilith dove, followed by the invisible, freedom of movement-ed uber-buffed wizard.

Above ground, two arrow demons crashed into the wall of force blocking the steps, and the (now all greater invisible) party moved in to kick their asses. The wizard let rip with a claw/ claw/ bite to the wastrilith and Khala ended up taking matters into his own hands. He swapped places with the wastrilith just before the final, fatal bite and his gaze terrified the poor arcanist who promptly used celerity to dimension door to the rest of the party.

Three skinwalker fighters and a skinwalker acolyte arrived to support the beleagured arrow demons and that's where we had to stop.

So - what do you guys think?
Will Khala surface and fight, or keep himself and his powers secret for now?
Will he have, say, the Hezrou teleport in to support the skinwalkers?
Something new and funky?

All ideas welcome - I want to beat the players off for their brazen full-on assault. They've only ever retreated once in 14 levels, and Khala seems like a good candidate for number two :-)

I am loving this story! Thank you, James - I like having something to look forward to :-D

Beta video on youtube - it's like the old Dungeon Master game that I bought an Atari ST for back in the old days :-)

LINK

I've been thinking about this and reading all the old threads, so I thought it was time to chuck it out there.

How about changing the bow to do lines of lightning? I'm thinking you shoot an arrow and it becomes a 4d6 line lightning as it reaches the target, then continues as a 60 foot line. Reflex DC... oh, 18?

I'd make this a standard action power of the bow to avoid too much spamming of energy damage. Still a bit of a mooksweeper and a nice weapon for the 2nd archer. (The first is never letting the outsider bane bow go!)

What do you think?

Is the price correct? It seems the same as the mint version, you see.

So I stole Mr Pett's idea of the Necklace of Lovelies and dropped it into my Savage Tide game, strung around the neck of the disguised Jujalimus in the fake Noltus Innersol attack.

The Dragon Shaman breathed acid on the beast and it activated the necklace. Cue tiny screams and a red furry neck. The pixies, now awake, begin to scream and beg. "Please don't hit it again! Pleeaassee!"

The Lawful Good party fighter proceeds to spend four rounds pummeling the beast into the dirt, earning the deaths of four more pixies and ignoring their increasingly shrill screams and then tears.

The player says if he gave in to blackmail he could never fight evil.

I think he's due at least a few nightmares. What about you guys?

My credit card is out of date and I have activated a new one. I updated my details here but was not asked for the secret code/ verification number thing. Will this happen when you go to process my next subscription?
(It's different from the previous card you see.)

In my game, I replaced the Kopru with illithid, to great effect. Especially once they were mounted on Destrachan and accompanied by Dweomercats :-)

Anyhow - I'm prepping CoBI, where the players have fought off Xerkamat's first attack, deep in the jungles of Taboo Island. It's just dawned on me that Khala is very, very, very Kopru-like. How would you change him if you wanted to make him a two-headed Illithid-aspect?

And, artists, what would he look like?

Hi folks,

Would you mind delaying this order to the end of the month please? I'll have the funds ready for the 31st but if you'd prefer a new request to process the order I'll be happy to do that instead.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the hassle

mumblemumble...stupid...leaky...roof...mumble...mumble

Iĺl be running this next weekend and wondered if anyone had converted the statblocks to PFRPG. I suddenly have less (almost none) prep time than expected.

Would someone please talk me through the following situation and explain the rules and options?

What happened at the end of our last game is now causing unrest. We played a little too far and ended up leaving it at a point that we would have been better dealing with there and then. The (13th level) party removed the caked in blood on an alter, revealing a symbol of death. The symbol activated and killed the (greater invisible, flying) spellthief above it.

Cue calls of "What a cliffhanger!" and "Got to go, the wife will kill me!"

So now the players have 2 weeks to think of loopholes to change the outcome, and that's rather tricky. Five guys + the internet is not the same as 5 guys imagination in the heat of the moment.

The trickiest suggestion is that of the wizard, who suggests that as a Diviner with the Forewarned ability, he could act in the surprise round. He has an arcane version of the status spell and knows the instant the spellthief dies. This "acting in the surprise round" could either be before the trap - whereby he could do all sorts of stuff or straight after - whereby he would try tricky stuff via Limited Wish.

I'm fine with him acting immediately after the trap and helping out - I'm a little unsure of the order of actions if the trap becomes a thing acting in a surprise round and needs an initiative count.

So, if someone could talk me through traps, surprise, initiative and Forewarned - I'd be very grateful.

I really want the beginner box - for completeness' sake - but with a new baby I can't really justify it. I won't be teaching any new players in the forseeable future either - no time :-)
Plus, I can afford either the box or the postage, basically!

The novels don't really fit in an envelope either, so I'd like to stop them too. For now. That way I can keep getting the other stuff.

Regretfully, I would like to hereby cancel my rpg and novels subscriptions. I'll restart as soon as possible, I hate missing out on stuff :-)

My group is busy in Golismorga, having offed the Devourer and some freaky aboleth servitor/constructs with T2 melty powers. They're torn between the head (guarded by two vemeraks with ethereal phasing instead of earthquake) and the Ziggurat, and I think they're going for the head first. N'glothnoru was VERY persuasive, the silver-tongued pragmatic devil.

I've been prepping the Ziggurat just in case and have hit a speedbump. Is the inside big enough? I remember the first boss fight, way back in Sasserine, where Rowan Kellani's office was way too small for a fun combat.

The outside is 140 feet wide, and inside half that. Adding a bit more depth between levels I could easily make all those 5' squares 10' squares. More room, more bad guys, more actions for me :-)
What do you folks think?

Caveat: No Kopru, but Mind Flayers. No Behemoths but advanced Gugs.

I'm thinking of having patches of black tentacles in Ulioth's chamber, which ignore him. This will replace the terrain effects of his flooding the chamber, and if someone is grappled by them he can try to extract their brain with his dual actions. Mwahahahaha!!!

But anyway - is bigger better, or should I keep it cramped?

When you're statting up monsters or NPCs do you have a custom document style that you use? Do you use the Paizo statblock? Something much more superficial?

An example - here's the version I'm currently using for "pimped" monsters. I can usually find everything pretty quickly on it but I'm not happy yet. What about you folks?

I got a tattoo-of-my-choice as a birthday present from my girlfriend and have a sketching appointment next week with the artist. Problem is - I have NO IDEA what to get.

It'll be my right shoulder, that's for sure. But... what?
A d20 on a Games Workshop black sun, surrounded by Paizo goblins?
An anchor, a mermaid and the name of my just-born daughter?

The guy doesn't do stuff out of books, and refuses cliché work... which means I need to show up with some decent ideas and sketches, so we can work them out and decide on a final design.

You guys got any ideas?

On my PC I alternate between Chrome and Firefox, and the boards work. On my (Android) HTC Desire the basic browser displays the forum-collapse triangles but my browser-of-choice, Dolphin HD, does not.
Do you have any idea what setting I would need to tweak to get the triangles in that browser?

I toyed with posting it in the Tech forum, but ended up choosing this one. Hope I got it right :-)

On Wednesday we became parents! We didn't know what it would be and it turned out to be a daughter - totally gorgeous, complete with the full complement of appendages, plenty of hair and even eyebrows!

Say hi to Isobel! Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Best thing is - Wednesday night is games night, so she's obviously going to be a gamer! ;-)

Due to an impending birth (next week - hooray!) my credit card has again taken a pounding.

On the bright side: we have a super hanging cradle thingy.
On the dark side: there isn't quite enough to cover my entire order at the minute.

If you could put the Inner Sea World Guide on ice for a week or three, I'd be very grateful. That leaves me with

1 x Pathfinder Tales: Plague of Shadows Print Edition
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #43: Haunting of Harrowstone (Carrion Crown 1 of 6)
1 x Pathfinder Player Companion: Halflings of Golarion

to look forward to.

Would this be possible?

Thanks in advance,

Jeff aka carborundum

Since STAP has no dragons, and my party have met their first beholders and Illtithid in Golismorga, I figure I can go for a trifecta of classic D&D monsters, and throw them a dragon.

Ideally, a big slimy, rotten diseased one - coiled around the stone Head. I don't think the brain collector will really resonate with my group, and we haven't had a dragon yet.

Anyone have/ know of a mouldy dragon? Maybe one that breathes... yellow mold or something? :-)

I was digging through my APs looking for Aberrations to populate Golismorga (Savage Tide) when I came across the Irlgaunt.

Climb speed, shoots acid bombs, Int 16 - this can use tactics and everything - I like it! Then I noticed the CR - 13. Now I know that I can change what I like and my inclination is to make it a 9 or 10, but I may be missing something.

By the table in the Bestiary, the stats make it a reasonably good 10. No Su or Sp powers with DCs drop it to a 9 and a 5 higher AC brings it back up to 10. That's by my reckoning, of course.

Then I come back to 13. Is it just a bit high, am I overestimating my own party, or am I underestimating the fiendish aberrationness of the Irlgaunt?

Curse you Paizo!
<shakes fist>

I like the cut of its jib! Looks like I'll be restarting my subscription to the tales :-)

It's just a shame they don't really fit in the envelopes, since I'm in Europe. That makes the postage instantly ginormous... Or do they?

Anyhow - thanks for the preview, I loved it!

How do I add 5 Psion levels to a Psionic Aboleth?

It's powers are all Psi-Like abilities, with a Manifester Level of either 7 or 13. Leaving these as is and adding 5 levels of Psion on the side is unsatisfying, as the PPs and powers are of a much lower level than the innate ability.

I'm tempted to change the psi-like abilities to actual powers and give the thing PPs as if it already was, say, Psion 7. Then add 5 more levels of Psion to round it off. Possibly also give it a racial ability increasing the ML of those abilities listed as ML13 by 6.

What would the CR be for such a beast? If I make the Psion levels stack and the thing is an actual Psion 12, then CR 13 seems reasonable. If the thing has its racial Psi-Likes and is ALSO a Psion 5 then I don't think 13 is reasonable at all. Maybe 9 - as if the levels were non-associated.

Tricky tricky tricky... Anyone ever worked this out?

Hi folks,

Insufficient funds at the worst possible time - sorry!
It doesn't look like I'll have more than $102 on my card until after Christmas. Would it be possible to ship the following two items in the next shipment?

1 x The Drow War II: The Dying Light Hardcover (d20)
1 x Kill Doctor Lucky: Monkey Hand T-Shirt (XL)

That would bring the total into the budgetary range necessary, and possibly mean one less package. If you would rather not hang on to Blac Friday stuff any longer than necessary, my second choice would be to delay the Bestiary II. Again, the rest would then be affordable and could be shipped as soon as you have time.

I'll be refilling my credit card as soon as my Christmas bonus arrives, but the funds won't transfer until the 28th of December or so. Getting a few pdfs before that would be sweet!

Hope you can do something with the above, and again - my apologies.

All the best,

Jeff

Five more classics to come!

Go immediately to www.gog.com and revel in nostalgia/ discover what those old farts are always going on about.

I've seen this idea a few times but haven't seen it seriously discussed... Let the Magus prepare his spells in the morning, infusing them into his weapon, so that he can cast them later from the same weapon... while holding a shield or 2nd weapon or a 2-handed weapon or whatever.

Hope I haven't missed an identical idea by someone else.

Just found out that we're going to be parents in March! :-)
Can't stop smiling!

Any tips? Anecdotes? Ideas for how long to leave it before rolling up its first character?

I've just discovered that I'm going to be a dad in March. Hooray!
I've also just discovered how much baby stuff costs! Booo!

Seriously, though, it means cutting back on almost everything. I can't bring myself to cancel everything, of course, but some pruning is unavoidable. It is with a heavy heart that I ask you to cancel my Pathfinder Tales, Modules and Player Companion subscriptions.

I'll try to survive on the rest for now!

If it's possible to put a date on these things, I'd like to cancel the Modules subscription after the latest one - the Witchwar Legacy, has been shipped.

I'd also like to cancel my pre-order for the Beholders, order number 1463801, which is in my sidecart.

Hopefully I can survive on the remaining three subs for the near future.

Thanks in advance!

Jeff

My group has a dilemma. Their wizard wants to craft a pile of stuff, but the party is on its way into the Underdark. Their solution is as follows:

The Wizard has researched an Arcane version of Status, so he knows the condition of the party. He has also learned the spell Gemjump and has given a gem to the party fighter. His plan is to Gemjump to the party in the evening, cast Leomund's Hidden Lodge and catch up with the gossip. In the morning he casts Status and teleports back to the city to craft.

Should warning bells go off in his head, he'll Gemjump to the rescue. He is convinced the Status won't bother his crafting, as he also took the skill trick that lets him keep concentration as a Swift action. He's quite happy to lose a day's crafting every time he has to go to the rescue, and make any necessary checks to succeed at crafting while being distracted.

As DM I sympathize, and agree that a 12th level party should be able to do this kind of thing, but I can't help finding it a bit too much... the best of both worlds. I need some help in deciding where to draw the line
- what do you guys think?

Okay - this is a request for a total surprise, I didn't see THAT coming look on my players faces.

The situation so far: they saved Farshore and went on a mopping-up expedition to tick off the last few plot points in the area. On the island with the 'missing' village they discovered that everyone had been killed by a rogue Zombiemaster turned lich. The lich was too powerful so they backed off... for now. They also discovered that the lich had been sending the zombified villagers to raid the nearby Bullywugs. He'd been stealing their eggs and dominating their warriors who came to rescue the eggs.

Now that the players have gone to do "The Lightless Depths" I want something to happen with the Bullywugs. The first thing I thought of was - the PCs return to Farshore to discover it's under seige by Bullywugs, forced off their own island. Or... the Bullywugs have allied with Farshore, sent the Jade Ravens in and had them captured by the lich (though that spoils Serpents of Scuttlecove - rescuing the Jade Ravens twice?).

So - I turn to you guys for a total RBDM, left field, holy crap, I never say THAT coming surprise.

Let 'er rip!!!!

My players will be storming the trogs this week, in their way to Golismorga. I know the trogs have a jar of green slime to throw, and their spells will have almost ni chance against my players, so I am looking for simple, troggie dirty tricks.

I think one will throw green slime while another throws a jar of brown mould. Any fire used to born off the slime will cause a mold bloom :-)

Any more like that?

Just read a great article on io9 and followed it to the source - Smithsonian article. Imagining Temples in Golarion just got a lot more fun :-)

So, my party of 5 level 12 powerful PCs (homebrew PRC and Splatbooks agogo) has just started The Lightless Depths. I've decided to swap out the Kopru and Behemoths for Mind FLayers and Beholders.

Mostly because I don't like Kopru.

Issue 1
Now, the switch from Kopru to Mind Flayer is reasonable - simply replacing them one-for-one swaps CR6 beasts for CR8. The jump is covered by a) an extra PC and b) the splatbooks and other tweaks.

Swapping Kopru Bholders one-for-one for Beholders is a different proposition. I may use one Beholder to replace 1 Behemoth AND 1 Dark Naga. What do you guys think?

Issue 2
Kopru can worship Big D. Why would Illithid be worshipping him?
Hope you guys can help me - I think these beasts fit Golismorga nicely and they're classic D&D monsters we've rarely used and always wanted to.

They also tie in to a certain Monkamuck/Turin Lich via a portal, which will really freak out my players!

LINK!

Now that is some good news!

I was fiddling around with my latest adventure and had originally planned to adapt a lich from a module as my BBEG.

Unfortunately he was a little underpowered for my needs and I went digging in my books for a CR14 or 15 wizard lich. Alas, no luck!

I considered tweaking the one in the Monster Manual but he needs TOTALLY redone. (Who picks Toughness for 3hp?) Since I don't have the time to build one from scratch this week, I thought I'd ask..

Has anyone got a CR14 or 15 lich lying around? Preferably using Spell Compendium, Libris Mortis, Book of Vile Darkness and all the other good splatbooks for a fully tweaked challenge.

If not, would you have any tips? Great feats/ spells/ items or tactics?
The party is level 12 with decent saves boosted by various items, using feats from every splatbook known to man.

Can't wait to see what vileness you folks produce!

Balor Nimbus from the Spell Compendium is a scary spell, if you have it when you need it. It does 6d6 fire damage to an enemy grappling you (or being grappled by you) on your turn.

Let's say a tentacle beast attacks you, hits, gets a free grapple, possibly does extra constrict damage immediately (depending on house rules) and lets you go as a free action - all on its turn. Ouch!

Does that mean it doesn't get burned at all, since the Balor Nimbus only flares up when your initiative comes round?

It's a trap!

I'd just resigned myself to getting pdfs next week, what with paizocon and all, and then I get two shipping mails and can download five or six of those babies! You made my weekend! Thank you!

In a Savage Tide side trek my PCs have found themselves (or will next week) with a conflict between undead and Bullywugs blocking their path to their goal. The undead include nasty Mohrgs, while the Bullywugs are 7th - 9th level Fighters and Clerics of Dagon. In preparation for the tasks in their future, I want to give the players some training in "working with the lesser of two evils".

The main premise - a group of Bullywugs have been dominated by the big Bad, and the undead summoned by him. I want them to emerge from their Secure Shelter and stumble upon a Bullywug fighting against a few Mohrgs. Hopefully they won't fireball the lot, I'll throw them some clues to intrigue them about the BW, and describe the undead in extra icky detail. With a bit of luck, they'll kill the undead and interrogate the Bullywug, who has thrown off his domination. The idea is that they travel to the BW village, nervously but safely, and get their help to fight the big bad necromancer type.

The thing is... how to portray a CE Bullywug sympathetically in the first place? Let alone a whole tribe!

Any ideas?

I was curious if there was something delaying my order #1433392? It's been sulking in the corner for about ten days now. If so, feel free to swap stuff around and delay the offending article until the next subscription shipment (if such swapping is possible).

My order #1434641 is set to ship with the next subscription shipment. Could you ship this with the above order if it all fits in one box, please?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Jeff

I know that Blindsight works underwater, and I am nice enough to let a character with the spell active see in air and in water... but what about from one into the other? Can a character flying ten feet up in a dark cave with Blindsight active see an enemy 5 feet under the water's surface? Ten feet? Thirty? If it's choppy?

What software would you recommend to make a character sheet? I started missing about with Adobe InDesign but it seemed rather fiddly. Word, Publisher and PowerPoint don't really do it for me. If I should stick with Adobe, can you recommend a good tutorial or book? I'd like to end up with something in the style of Neceros' sheets.

I have Adobe Creative Suite, Office 2010 and can get most packages cheap through my work. Any and all ideas appreciated!

How much would you charge for 3x daily Sniper's Shot goggles/ gloves? (Activation: command word (swift action))

(Spell Compendium: all ranged attacks can be sneak attacks this round - regardless of distance)

1800 (lev 1 x caster lev 1 x 1800) seems too little to me, I'm leaning towards 5000, same as Deathstrike Bracers. I can't find any pricing guidelines for a swift activation as opposed to a standard action.

What do you guys think?

Quick one : when buying equipment for monsters or NPCs for an encounter, do you have to pay 5x the cost for one-shot items like potions? It sounds familiar...

Another player in our Shackled City game has an Elf Ranger, now at 3rd level.

Strength 17
Dexterity 15
Constitution 11
Intelligence 9
Wisdom 13
Charisma 9

Feats: Blind-fight, Power Attack
Combat Style: Two-weapon fighting

He wants to make her an acrobatic, two-weapon demon. Can you guys suggest the way to go? My forte is more wizards than fighters.

I've been thinking of Swordsage, or some sort of Dervish but haven't been so far as to check out prerequisites etc. (My attention is on prepping my own STAP game!)

If you have any nice tips that will take her to, say, 10th level I'd appreciate it.

Just checking... if some...thing is buffed to the eyeballs and under the effects of both invisibility and nondetection, it would be undetectable by a PC with permanent arcane sight. Right?

Do you concur?

Some of you may recall the Gulguthydra, either from Monsters of Faerun or from the sealed Scuttlecove Dungeon. I believe it is a 3.0 monster, and in need of some lovin' before I set one on the beach in my Torrents of Dread for 11th level characters.

I'm giving it a new special ability, based on the Rhagodessa. If it hits with a tentacle it pulls the victim to its faces and delivers 6 free bites. Ouch! I'm also giving it Large and In Charge, Improved Multigrab and Fling Enemy, and letting its stench Sicken opponents with more than 8HD.

For attacks it gets both tentacles, each with free Bite Frenzy. What would you say this does to the CR? I'm thinking 13 is reasonable...

And don't you just love it??? :-)

Right - I'm a little confused by the wording. It says make a Fort save or be paralyzed for 3d6 rounds. It also says save every round.

Does it work like this?

The easy bit
Roll a Fort save. If you succeed you are not paralyzed. If you fail you are paralyzed for 3d6 rounds.
The trickier bit
If you start the round paralyzed, roll a Fort save. If you succeed you break free of the paralysis. If you fail, you continue to be paralyzed. You can continue to try to break free every round, and you also become automatically unparalyzed when the original 3d6 rounds have elapsed. You also take acid damage every round, and if you are still inside the round after the paralysis wears off, you save again.