deinol's page

I created extended encounter charts for the first section of the Kingmaker Adventure Path. These replace the charts for volumes 1 and 2. When the characters explore the southern half of the Greenbelt, add 10 to the roll to increase the danger. The River/Lake chart is only intended to be used about half the time. The other half, use the type of terrain that the river flows through.

Monster sources include: Bestiary 1, Bestiary 2, Bestiary 3, Tales of the Margreve, Margreve Web Compilation, Tome of Horrors Complete, and Forgotten Foes.

These charts will make the encounters a little more challenging and the forest a lot more scary.

Since we're busy giving feedback, what books do you want to see in the future of Pathfinder Companions?
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I want:

Races

• Kobolds
• Aasimar
• Tengu

Occupations

• Scholars
• Mercenaries/Soldiers
• Traders/Merchants

How about you?

What are people's favorite level 9 offensive spells/combos?

Ok, here is the discussion thread! How's it going everyone?

Target one creature, or one nonmagical object of up to 100 cu. ft./level

It says that you can change objects from smaller to larger. But it does not say how big. Should it be assumed that you can't make an object larger than 100 cubic feet per level? With no limit you could polymorph a pebble into a planet.

Let's say I'm a 20th level wizard. I have an Int of 30. What is the fastest way for me to build a pyramid the size of Great Pyramid of Giza? (Hint: This is 88.3 million cubic feet of stone.)

If I use all of my level 5 and up spell slots (27 of them) on Wall of Stone, it will take me 215 years to create a pyramid from scratch.

Using only the core rules, can anyone do it faster? Can anyone do it faster than the ancient Egyptians (~30 years)?

Ok, since the Psionics thread started to get way derailed with a discussion about the future and life in the galaxy, I figured I should fork to a new thread. The derail starts somewhere around here.

It seems impossible for life to only develop on our planet. There's evidence that Mars once had life, if only bacteria. But to presume that nobody has left their own solar system just because we haven't been visited seems as blindly ignorant as the Aztecs in 1500.

The evidence you're thinking about turned to be Earth microbes contaminating the sample.

I was probably actually thinking of the ALH84001 meteorite when I mentioned life on Mars. Still, it is hard to imagine that of the billions of star systems in the Milky Way, we're the only ones that have developed life.

The thing is colonization once it starts is exponential. the first colony sends out it's ships and spawns a few more worlds and each successive one does the same until the entire galaxy is filled. If the Earth develops workable FTL technology we would colonize the entire galaxy in maybe 100,000 years, probably a lot less. Given that the age of the Milky Way is in the billions of years old, that's more than enough time for such a thing to happen if even ONE .... ONE starfaring civilization had come to pass.

The Aztec version of you might claim: "If humans develops workable Seafaring technology we would conquer the entire world in maybe 100 years, probably a lot less. Given that the age of the Earth is in the millions of years old, that's more than enough time for such a thing to happen if even ONE .... ONE seafaring civilization had come to pass."

We'd also be seeing their traces of stellar engineering, hearing their radio traffic, even incidental ones. The Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico can detect it's duplicate if it's broadcasting anywhere in the Milky Way.

That's still assumes a lot about the way aliens communicate. The majority of our signals would be washed out by the radiation from the sun. We can barely detect exo-solar planets by seeing them pass in front of stars. As our technology improves, we are using more and more directional signals with less power. How long did Arecibo transmit its message into space? What are the odds that someone would happen to have an Acreibo pointed at us for the hour or so they felt like screaming "We are here!" into space?

BTW, the Aztecs and the Mayans weren't ignorant... they just had a lot less in tools to work with. Yet the Mayans calculated the orbit of Venus to within 8 minutes. Don't underestimate the difference in situation.

I'm not saying the Aztecs and Mayans were completely ignorant of all things. They had a very remarkable civilization. I'm saying they were as ignorant about what was going on in Europe as we are about what is going on in other star systems.

The absence of evidence is not evidence. There are all sorts of reasons why we haven't seen anything yet. It is entirely possible a probe passed through our star system at some point in the past (or right now) took readings, and moved on. Only if it landed would we ever have evidence to the contrary. It is entirely possible life arose on earth from a crashed meteor fragment carrying frozen bacteria. Not necessarily likely, but there are all sorts of things that we simply do not know.

Back to gaming. I find it interesting that Traveller, created when we were still fairly gung-ho about space exploration, presumes the infinite expansion colonialism theory. But even at 6 parsecs per week (~1000x lightspeed), it took months to get from the outer reaches of the empire to the center. And the mapped known space of the Third Imperium was still just a small fraction of the galaxy.

Eclipse Phase takes the more pessimistic route (with the exception of Gates). It looks at the more modern view that we are kind stuck in our own solar system for the forseeable future. Although the level of technology described would allow generational sublight ships.

Ekat Kassen was a crusader and fortune seeker who came to serve Lastwall in the year 4515. While he fought with distinction, he soon realized that he wanted more from life and left the Lastwall military to find his fortune elsewhere. His travels took him all over the region around Lake Encarthan, and he decided to settle down in 4522 after a very profitable adventure. Using a sizable portion of his fortune, he set out to tame a small area of the Fangwood on the banks of the Tourondel River, making it a natural stopover for those traveling up and down the river to Skelt. For the next 10 years, the town, which was then known as Kassen’s Hold, grew and prospered.

All that changed when Asar Vergas came to Kassen’s Hold with a host of mercenaries under his command. Asar was an old companion of Ekat, and the two had traveled together for some time before splitting up just after Ekat’s last adventure. Over the years, Asar became sure that Ekat had cheated him after that adventure. Promising great wealth to his mercenaries, Asar raided the town relentlessly for 2 months. Finally, the townsfolk managed to locate Asar’s camp in an ancient crypt deep in the forest, and Ekat himself went out to deal with his old companion.

The battle was terribly bloody, with only a few townsfolk coming back to tell the tale. In the end, Asar was slain and his mercenaries scattered, but Ekat suffered a mortal wound. He died 2 days later, on the 11th day of Neth, 4535. In honor of their beloved founder, the townsfolk buried Kassen in the ancient crypt, interring his bones in a place of honor, above the simple sarcophagi used to inter Asar, his mercenaries, and the townsfolk that lost their lives in the bitter struggle. They placed an eternal flame above Kassen’s final resting place, so that all who visited might find warmth in the wilderness.

Nearly 200 years later, the Crypt of the Everflame has become an important part of the history of the town, now simply called Kassen. The townsfolk view the crypt as a memorial to those difficult first years of the town’s history. Every autumn, a few of the townsfolk make a pilgrimage to the crypt to light a lantern from the flame and bring it back to town, where it is preserved all winter, a symbol of the town’s resilience. Most years, the town mayor and a group of dignitaries perform this quest. Every few years, however, a handful of younger townsfolk are given the honor of lighting the lantern.

You four have been selected to light the lantern this year. For most of you, it marks your coming of age and becoming an adult in Kassen. For Santoval it will mean your acceptance into the community. You have been asked to meet in the village square just before noon. When you arrive, you find only each other.

Since there seem to be more people wanting to play PbP than GMs, I have decided to try GMing a PbP. I have 20 odd years of tabletop experience, but I've never GM'd play by post before. So I thought I'd give it a try on the module scale before I committed to something ambitious like an Adventure Path.

So, character creation rules. 1st level. 20 point buy. Anything from Paizo or Open Design is legal.

In the interest of fairness, I'm going to take the first 4 players who post interest. I would prefer people who are not already involved in an active PbP game to give newer players a chance.

Edit: For background, everyone will have grown up in Kassen, a small town in Nirmanthas. The characters are just coming of age. Population 750. 93% human, 3% halfling, 2% half-orc, elf 1%, half-elf 1%.

Any questions?

I haven't seen anything yet. Have there been any big announcements? Some bold new strategy for the coming year?

The figure list for the first set is almost certainly set. However, in the interest of future sets, what pre-painted miniatures would you like to see?

The PDF version of GameMastery Map Pack: Magic Academy never got added to my downloads with my other subscription items.

Thanks.

This thread is for us to bask in the awesomeness that is being a Paizo Superscriber. Everyone with a purple border should come say hello!

Over at my Apathy Blogs site I started a new weekly series where I talk about my personal experiences running a high level Pathfinder game. I welcome any comments or discussion my fellow Pathfinder players may have.

I don't have any. Please post some here for those of us who couldn't make it.

Thanks!

My group is heading to Blarney Castle in my game. I need some good sources for Irish mythology and adventure inspiration. Which monsters do you think work best to capture that Irish feel to it? Are there any good published adventures (for any edition or game system really) that I should check out to steal ideas from?

Any links to classic Irish fairy tales that are public domain and freely available on the web would be greatly appreciated too.

My level 16 Pathfinder game is about to assault a battle tech fortress. They don't realize this at once. Some plane hopping and time shifting has occurred. Anyway, I built some mechs as constructs and figured I would share. These are fairly quick and dirty, and probably slightly tougher than the listed CR so they will be reasonable threats to my over-equipped group.
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My friends want me to run a Gamma World (4E) adventure for them. I have some old classic adventures (GW1-4, GW7). I'm thinking of running the older modules with the newer rules. I know there are 4E releases of the first two, but I want to keep some of the old school feel of the original modules. Or at the very least use the best of both versions.

So first question is, which original module do people think is better, Famine in Far-Go or Legion of Gold? How true to the originals are the remakes? Has anyone else on the internet worked on this sort of conversion?

My group (level 16, but with enough magic gear to be about level 18 in power) is going to break into the greatest thieves guild in my world.

If you were in charge of this vault, what would you do for protection?

I figure the whole thing will be a maze of traps. With CL 20 dimensional anchors and teleport traps. What else?

I recently stopped in to a game store that I only get to infrequently. They had a rack of miniatures for a sea battle game called Uncharted Seas. I used to like Man'o'War back in the day when I spent way too much money on Games Workshop products. This game looks similarly themed: fantasy battles on the high seas. Has anyone played it? What's it like? Should I investigate further?

Edit: It does look like Paizo carries it as well.

So there was a blog out on the internets that claimed that the 3PP Pathfinder market was overcrowded. I have to disagree. I remember the d20 days when an entire bookcase at my local gaming store was filled with 3PP d20 books. That was overcrowded.

There are good things coming from many 3PP. Far too many of them are still PDF only. I know the market has changed in the last decade, and game stores are wary of glut. But until I see at least a shelf worth of Pathfinder Compatible products in stores I can't consider the market crowded. There are certainly more products being put out that I want than I can afford to buy, so I have to be a little choosier. But that sounds like a sign of a healthy industry to me.

What do other people think? Too many choices for Pathfinder? Or do you still want more?

It looks like Wizards is finally going to address the dearth of pole-arm types in 4e.

Invisible: Invisible creatures are visually undetectable. An invisible creature gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls against sighted opponents, and ignores its opponents' Dexterity bonuses to AC (if any). See Invisibility, under Special Abilities.

Invisibility: The spell ends if the subject attacks any creature.

This came up in one of the Ninja playtest discussions. We have always played that when someone attacks from invisibility, the opponent is denied their dexterity bonus for the entire action. So if a rogue gets into position invisibly and then performs a full-attack action, all of the rogue's attack get sneak attack. It appears others have interpreted the above rules to mean that the opponent is only denied dexterity for the first attack of the action. I can see how the rules could be read either way.

How do others handle it in game? Is this a change from 3.X?

I doubt I will change the way I run my game, but I am curious if my group is the only ones that run it this way.

I just picked up Dragon Age and like the light feel of the rules. I really enjoy using Paizo's critical hit deck, and was thinking of ways to use it in Dragon Age. Those who have played DA, what would you think of allowing a pull from the critical hit deck as a stunt that costs 4 points? GM would have to be a bit loose in interpreting the mechanics on the cards.

For no particular reason I created a page to visualize the popularity of classes based on user profiles here at Paizo.

I didn't include the APG classes because the iconics pics in the community use package doesn't include them yet. I added the poor magus, but he probably won't see more action until Ultimate Magic comes out.

Enjoy.

Will the APG iconics be added to this sometime in the future?

I don't think Ninja Tricks should be separated from Rogue Talents. I know I will be allowing ninja and rogues to take them interchangeably. If the Ninja Tricks requiring Ki are separated out with a statement like: "The following rogue talents may be chosen if the rogue has access to a Ki Pool." then they can be used by rogue/monks and ninja alike. That also allows the repeated rogue talents to be cut and more cool new rogue talents put in their place.

Once all the ninja tricks are properly balanced, there will be no need to separate them out from regular rogue talents.

So my group defeated ex-devil lord Geryon last night. Our tiefling rogue is a Sensate, the planescape faction that enjoys new sensations. He wants to know if it is safe to eat Geryon's heart. I'm inclined to say ok, it's just a heart. What do other people think? Should there be some magical implications about this?

There aren't any alignment changes necessary, I already moved him to CE after the dragon turtle soup hunting expedition. I ruled that hunting and killing intelligent creatures purely for the culinary benefits is an evil act.

EDIT: Corrected spelling.

I'm selling some of my older gaming books on ebay. All bids start at $1.

I am curious what worlds people use with the Pathfinder RPG. I understand that these boards will skew towards people who probably play in Golarian, but how many of you don't? Do you play in settings produced by other companies? Do you craft your own world? Or are you all in with Golarian as your setting?

I myself run a Planescape based game using Pathfinder. They visit lots of other worlds so they've been to places like Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Golarian, and "Ancient Greece".

I know it will likely be a while (I'm guessing around GenCon) before Paizo will start announcing their plans for 2011, but I think it is worthy of wild speculation. What do you think Paizo should produce for the Pathfinder RPG line next year?

Clearly Bestiary 3 is an obvious choice. We can't stop until all the good OGL/d20 monsters have been converted, plus new ones are always good. I predict a Bestiary a year for at least the first 5 years. So what about the other 2 books for 2011?

Psioncs is a contriversial choice. Paizo staffers have mentioned they'd like to wait for Dreamscar's offering to be out before they make a move on that. I think that's a wise choice so I don't expect psionics to arrive before 2012, or possibly later.

Epic certainly has possibilities. I suspect they will want a little more experience with high level play, so I don't really expect this until 2012 or 2013. Which is too bad because my players will hit level 20 sometime next year. Ah well.

Divine won't happen until after epic, so 2013 or 2014.

So what does that leave for next year?

Alternate Rules A collection of variants, like Unearthed Arcana or the Book of Experimental Might. On the one hand, it might be a little early to start doing wild variants. On the other hand, there are a lot of OGL variants out there which could be compiled and updated to fit the Pathfinder RPG paradigm.

Mass Combat Always a difficult thing to integrate. Every once in a while I want to have my players leading large armies, but I've never found a good solution to this. Of course, we'll see what sort of system shows up in Kingmaker.

Monstrous PCs Expanding player races is always a popular choice. We don't have a level adjustment mechanic, and a fair number of people have been asking for it. On the other hand, our groups centaur barbarian seems to be doing just fine as it is.

Oriental Adventures has been mentioned by staffers a few times, so I think it is the most likely possibility. It doesn't take expanding on the rules very much to add a ninja, samurai (bushi), and eastern sorcerer classes (or blood lines).

Any other obvious options I am missing?

I'm looking for some premade cultists to use against my players. Something around 7th-9th level. The characters are going to be 12th level. I don't need a serious challenge, those I will craft. I just don't want to spend my prep time on what will basically be mooks.

Anybody have a good source? I'm using the guys from level 6 of Dungeonaday and Masks of a Living God for the lowest level thugs, but I'd like something a little tougher for the sergeant level cultists.

My friend's got me a DDI subscription as a gift and I'm trying to figure out how to best use the character builder for our game.

We are running Legacy of Fire, so I allowed people to have special trait bonuses. Is there any way to add a house rule bonus to a stat or defense? I want to give a character +1 to Fort from the Forlorn trait, and +2 HP for Finding Haleen. I can't seem to find a place to do that in the builder.

Also, is there anyway to modify the descriptive text of powers or feats? I want to turn a standard channel divinity power into Power of Sarenrae, but that seems impossible also.

Is there something I'm missing?

Thanks

I want to make an ongoing Dwarf Fortress Game. Each player will play one year of the fortress. They will report on progress as they play. At the beginning of spring (1st of Granite) they will save the game and send it back to me. If our fortress fails, we will start a new one in the same game. I'll try and keep it going as an ever developing world.

Anyone interested? I've already started the game and played through the first year. I also started a record of the game here.

If someone bails (or intentionally destroys the fortress) we'll revert the save and go to the next person.

Strike the earth!

In perpetration for an upcoming adventure I worked up this conversion of the Cacodaemon from the Tome of Horros. Any suggestions or comments are appreciated. Otherwise, enjoy!

PS: I weep for the lack of underline in the BBCode tags.

DAEMON: CACODAEMON CR 12
XP 19,200
NE Medium Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar)
Initiative +4 Senses Darkvision 60ft.; Perception +17
Defense
AC 28 (+4 Dex, +14 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 24
HP 12d10+96 (162 hp)
Saves Fort +16, Ref +12, Will +10
DR 10/cold iron or silver; Immune acid, poison; Resist electricity 10, cold 10, fire 10; SR 22
Offense
Speed 30 ft
Melee +1 longsword +22/+17/+12 melee (1d8+9, 19-20/x2) or 2 claws +20 melee (2d6+8)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks Rend (2 claws, 2d6+12), alter self
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12th DC 19)

• At will—cause fear, deeper darkness, desecrate, detect magic, detect thoughts, see invisibility;
  
• 3/day—greater teleport (self plus 50 pounds of objects only);
  
• 2/day—hold person, protection from good;
  
• 1/day—summon (level 6, 1 cacodaemon or 1d3 derghodaemons 35%);
  

I'm using Secrets of Pact Magic, and one of my players has the 'Unhinge the Spirit' ability. In short, it lets him separate out a beings 'life force' from its body (temporarily). My thought is that this doesn't work on outsiders. Since outsiders can't have souls put back into their body, why should their souls be vulnerable to removal?

So since Magic Jar talks about souls and life force as more or less synonymous, does Magic Jar work on outsiders? Can an outsider use it to possess someone else, leaving their inert body somewhere? Can someone else use Magic Jar on an outsider, trapping the outsider's soul in a jar?

I'm going to be in Fort Lauderdale for business this week. Are there any good game stores in the area I should visit? I need something to do during my off hours. Thanks.

I am looking for volunteers willing to write a review of my 4E adventure, Temple of Outsiders, here on Paizo's website. The first two people to e-mail me (deinol at gmail.com) will get a complimentary copy to review. Anyone else who has questions about the module I'd be happy answer them here.

My party is going to be at a drow dinner with some of the higher ups in the noble house they are working for. My tiefling rogue enjoys fine foods, so I want to be able to describe the interesting foods that drow eat. Any ideas for what to serve?

I'm thinking of a flumph stew and a mold salad. What should I have for the main course?

I was so excited by the prospect, I added an old module to my next subscriber shipment. Everything is awesome!

Then I remembered that I promised myself I'd pick up 1 Crimson Throne book a month until I filled in the gaps in my library. When I selected to combine it as well, it showed the next estimated subscription shipment to be October 2007. I'm sure it'll all work out when it comes to ship, but I thought I'd let you know of the display issue. It also estimated the shipping cost of the two items together, which means I don't actually know if the last item will increase my actual shipping cost at all.

Overall, I'm definitely thrilled by this addition, and plan on using this feature to pick up a module or two each month.

As I pointed out in the Damned Blog discussion, those of us who are already subscribers need to occasionally post feedback about what we like and want to see more of.

Strangely enough for me, while I'm not as excited about the city and area companion books, I really like them as companion books. Perhaps it is because while I know I won't get around to using them as adventuring settings I am reasonably likely to want the option of a having a character from different parts of the world. I like the new direction of having less adventure path specific companions in favor of the general region companions. As an example, I know I'd want the Cheliax companion even without there being an AP set in the area.

I very much like the races of Golarion series, do at least 2 per year. I wouldn't mind seeing 1 per quarter. You could even do one about humans, I won't mind.

I know you've learned your lesson, but I would love to see the missing Osirion Traits someday. ;)

So once again, I'm a satisfied subscriber. Keep up the good work!

My party has gotten to about 7th level, and they are starting to want to hire people. Mostly they own a shop in Sigil, and feel it has accumulated enough wealth that they want some guards for it. Are there any good supplements out there that deal with pricing npc hirelings? I know there are always circumstances to consider, but a baseline price would be good to establish. I told my group for now npc level squared in gold per day. Does that sound reasonable to people?

I've lived in Orange County for a few years now, but I'm looking to expand which game stores I visit. I've been hunting for out-of-print books, but I've mined my usual haunts dry. The two stores I mostly frequent are Comic Quest in Lake Forest and Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove. I also frequent Game Empire (which is an excellent store) in San Diego when I get a chance.

So does anyone know of any good stores I should check out in the area? I remember there used to be a good one in Fullerton, but I don't remember where it is.

I've been thinking about what I'd like to see in future adventure paths, and I thought it would be nice to have a thread for people to talk about what they would like.

I'm hoping Council of Thieves has a real urban campaign feel to it, because there aren't nearly enough of those. Something really political in nature. Power Behind the Throne, the old Warhammer FRP module is the best example I've ever seen.

I also want to see a planar adventure path. I love Planescape, and now that Golarion has its own planar cosmology it should have an adventure path that takes characters to the planes from book 1. I know this won't realistically happen until adventure path 7 or 8, but it really should be explored sometime.

So what would other people like to see in future adventure paths?

I don't see anything in the rules that mentions whether or not you can combine Two Weapon Fighting with Flurry of Blows. Certainly the rules seem to imply that the Flurry use attacks from the primary and secondary hand (or both sides of a quaterstaff, etc.) But I don't see anything that explicitly disallows this combination. So can a 1st level monk with Two Weapon Fighting and Flurry of Blows make 3 attacks at -4?

I'm making a cleric villain for my game and I had a question about determining the save DC for the domain abilities. As an example, he gets Aura of Madness (Su) which effects everyone within 30ft with confusion if they fail a will save. Confusion isn't normally a Cleric spell, and depending on where you get it, it has a different spell level. So should I assume Wizard 4, and give it a DC of 14 + Wis? Some clarification on this sort of thing will be needed in the final rules. I apologize if it exits somewhere and I missed it, but it wasn't mentioned under Cleric or under Domains. I'd put the DC's in the abilities themselves, just to make you not have to hunt.