So I am thinjing about the whole black powder cannons and magic and I came up with the question: Should the cannons themselves be magical OR should it just be the cannonball itself? Let me hear your opinions on this. Thanks!
This is kind of an offshoot of the fundamental question of how society has advanced / is advancing technologically. If the cannons are black-powder based it suggests that old magic is being displaced by new science. OTOH if your firearms are magically based then your society is developing further in the magical "magictech" direction and is mostly bypassing rational physics and chemistry.
As a matter of gameplay, if the cannons are magically based then they would likely be vulnerable to anti-magic effects and the like.
Assuming you are running the adventure as written, Almah is the primary motivator for clearing Kelmarane of enemies. If the first battle with Kardswann was a fiasco, she could produce some "emergency" potions and scrolls to give the party, that could tip the balance in their favor.
I love Nynaeve. I think she and Min are my favorite chars in the series, because she MOST of the time they are the most genuine. Which is why, in the story, those two are the only people that Rand actually *really* trusts, because they are not coming at him with secret agendas, trying to manipulate him, or treating him like a freakshow. With occasional exceptions, they treat him like he's Just A Guy - sure, he's the Dragon Reborn, but it wasn't so long ago that you were just a little farmboy in trouble, and don't think I've forgotten or will ever let YOU forget it.
Nynaeve is indeed awesome.
But I have embarrassing manlove for al'Lan Mandragoran "The Man Alone." Total badass. When the fricken Aiel think you're a badass, you are a badass.
He is the Chuck Norris of RandLand. He's the reason Rand has the "Trained by a Master" advantage. He calls the Dragon Reborn "Sheepherder."
My understanding, from reading other authorblogs, is that since the multi-book epic fantasy series took over S&S in the late eighties/early nineties, the big publishers have been somewhat unwilling to publish individual standalone S&S fantasy novels (unless the author is well-known enough to have a guaranteed audience).
I suspect this has more to do with the Belgariad/Malloreon, Wheel of Time, Sword of Truth, etc. than Drizzt.
I think it's been pretty well established that Paizo is overclocked right now producing Pathfinder RPG, AP, modules and assorted GameMastery stuff (not to mention Planet Stories), so any cycles spent on a licensed product like WoT would be cycles lost to other Paizo products.
If I were spinning up a RandLand campaign, I would use the base Pathfinder RPG rules for mundane stuff, and retrofit the GURPS Magic mana-pool system for One Power channeling (angreal == powerstones). A long time ago I used to run GURPS Fantasy, and the way Aes Sedai work with angreal is almost exactly how a GURPS mage works with powerstones.
I am curious about the communities perspectives on 'wish phrasing'. Your thoughts are appreciated.
My characters are currently wrestling with this -- they have successfully negotiated for three wishes from a djinni, and are trying to figure out exactly what to wish for to balance the various desires of the party.
The bigger problem than the wording, in this case, is that they are bumping up against the upper limits of the power of the spell (as well as some general effect restrictions in my campaign imposed on genie wishes by Nethys).
I think it is because the pages served by paizo.com are headered "Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate". This "forces" your browser to reload the page, losing your scrolling status.
delabarre, I noted that about Xulthos too, when I converted him. Being an evil GM, I used his extra feat slot he gains with the Pathfinder RPG rules for Ability Focus (drone) and then decided that it would be better for the PCs if I had Almah send them to the Refuge of Nethys first, so they can be 5th level when they enter the crypt.
The version on Pathfinder Wiki assigns it to Improved Natural Armor, which brings Xultho's AC back up to 19, after accounting for the error in the 3.5 version where he does not suffer an AC penalty for being Large.
The PCs should be 5th level by the time they finish the first adventure. This means that they MIGHT be entering the crypt at 4th level's tail end or 5th level's start. You know your players and what they can handle better than me, though... if they're experienced players they can probably handle the crypt at 4th level, but for most they should probably be 5th. There's some tough stuff in there.
Xulthos, converted to PFRPG, pretty neatly fits into CR8 when compared against the table in the Bestiary p. 291. FYI.
In the Antechamber D1 in the Kelmarane Undercrypt, the text talks about "three man-sized shapes", while the statblock below lists "Medium Fire Elementals (2)". Which is the intended number here?
Most likely two. The encounter may originally have been tougher and then scaled back, but the text was not corrected. In any event, 2 x CR3 = EL5.
Although I disagree with some of the CRs, based on the CR table in the Bestiary.
Hmmm. Not seeing the baboons listed there, and they are not in the Bestiary. Do I just add the Giant template to the monkey and go with Small baboons instead the Medium ones from the Monster Manual? This would make them the appropriate CR.
My understanding is that we should just use the stat block for monkey.
I think the important thing to remember about Aroden's death is that it made prophecy go all pear-shaped. My working theory is that his death was part of a massive temporal paradox that has thrown the timeline into disarray.
I just read Howl of the Carrion King and the Battle MArket is a GREAT setpiece. However, Am I missing something? How do you get to the thrid level? I don;t see any stairs or ladders...
Or am I just blind?
There is a set of stairs from Area C11 to Area C12.
So, I'm putting together a character sheet for the Astral Deva, and I can't figure out where it gets the bonus to Escape Artist. Best I can tell, it doesn't have any skill ranks or bonus class skills left for it, and I don't see any feats, racial modifiers, etc. to account for it.
Have I missed something?
I would assume that the creature gains a +5 racial bonus; it also appears to have +4 bonuses to Fly, Perception, and Sense Motive.
Wings spread, maw agape, sheathed in leather and gold and spun from the blood of thousands stands Calix Sabinus, god-emperor of the undead lords, bringer of death, destroyer of angels, a power before the cataclysm, a tyrant after.
I've heard of spinning wool into thread, but how do you spin blood into monsters?
LMPjr007 wrote:
There is nothing more dangerous on all of Abaddon than Calix Sabinus. Calix has killed thousands, enslaved millions and crushed the wills of all that live on the lands of terror called Abaddon.
<snark> He runs an HMO? </snark>
LMPjr007 wrote:
To see Calix Sabinus can easily mean death. To actually meet Calix Sabinus face to face means worst that that. Tempt fate if you dare.
That must be very inconvenient when interviewing minions.
"Jimmy, this is our boss, Calix Sab..."
<Jimmy dies> *thud*
"...crap. Mimi, call maintainance for a cleanup. Sorry sir, I'll call Inhuman Resources for another minion candidate..."
I would have never guessed when I began playing Role-playing games(rpgs) in the 7th grade I would still be playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), Have the creator of Pathfinder RPG as a facebook friend and be teaching Middle schoolers the basics or Role playing. Still 20 years later here I am still dorking it up. Having played D&D, Marvel, Star Wars, and with no end in sight I had another idea for an RPG based on the muppets.
What? You say I am crazy. It would not be the first time I have been told that. Think of it though. Frank Oz and Jim henson are responsible for Yoda, and The Dark Crystal and many other fantasy staples. It is only natural that the Sesame Street and the Muppet Show gang would have their own role playing game.
It would not be as rules intensive or as combat oriented as D20, or a sappy and emotional as the burning wheel system. You could play any muppet you wanted or create your own. It would be "muppetational." I can see a big furry combatant meeting with a giant multi-eyed creature, and as they came to the end of the confrontation they could learn a new letter, or why it is wrong to be a bully.
O.K. maybe not as hokey as all that, but Disney has Kingdom Hearts, and there are many other well done animal rpg's. I am just saying I think it would be supercool to be a sword swinging, blue fur covered, saver of the day.
In muppets & monsters, the panicked condition causes the creature to run around in circles with their mouth open and their arms waving around.
So if Obsidian Twilight is a "Dark Sun/Ravenloft mashup", and Pirates of the Bronze Sky is a "Spelljammer/Eberron mashup", I look forward to your next logical project: Tales of 1001 Worlds, a "Planescape/Al'Qadim mashup". :-)
Anyway, does anyone have some advice as to what to expect with this AP? Most of the players like to role-play more, but they all enjoy combat.
Can you expand on the question a bit? The first module in the path has both lots of combat and lots of NPCs to interact with, so you can probably get as much roleplaying as they want.
My four players just cleared the monastery and are heading into part three. They are all level 2 at this point. Looking over part 3 and heading into Kelmarane it seems that a lot of the things they are up against are CR4. While I don't mind giving my players a challenge, even ones that could kill them- CR4, just seems a little too hard for level 2. I am still adjusting to the pathfinder from the 3.5- is it normal for level 2 characters to be thrown CR4 challenges like this in pathfinder? Or should I be directing my characters to do something different at this point in order to gain a level? I was thinking of the Nethys side quest, but even that says its designed for level 3 characters.
Thanks.
First of all, I went through and recomputed all the CRs using the guidelines in the Bestiary, and a lot of the encounters drop by 1 in PFRPG.
Spoiler:
The one exception was the endboss, Xulthos, who actually looks more like CR8 than CR7.
Whether a party of APL 2 can handle CR4 encounters largely depends on the number and builds of the characters and adversaries. In general, my 5 PCs @ level 2 (druid, pally, monk, cleric, wizard) have been easily handling groups that add up to CR4, and have found individual CR4 creatures to be challenging but beatable.
I was running for about a year a game with people in DC, PA and NY. I have a vent server, we found a dice server, and a virutal table program and ran with it. There are some out there for 3.5 and Castles and Crusades/1st ed at least that I know of. Not sure about 4e. I even have a website where I keep records of the game with week by week postings about what happened the previous week for those who could not make it, listing of known NPCs, cities, and geographical data the players should have access to and other little bits and pieces.
We had a good time finished one game and most of Paizo's first AP too. My middle earth 4e is actually looking to be done the same way and I will find a way to have a virtual table top either buying out from a 3rd party or making our own (which frankly isn't impossible). Sure it might not be perfect but it will do what we need.
Can you supply a link for the VTT?
Thurgon wrote:
((City of Heroes....boy that takes me back. Been years since I played but I did have some fun with that game. Too bad it got a case of ED...))
<threadjack>
Enhancement Diversification was more of a communications issue at the time -- they rolled it out after promising no more system-wide power nerfs. In any event, with the rollout of Invention Origin (IO) enhancement sets, it's a complete non-issue now -- the power builds are orange and purple IO sets with set bonuses.
Slight threadjack...but on the original subject...does anyone know what year LoF is starts in??
You can start it anytime after 4700...the first book came out in 2008, though, so it (sort-of) starts in 4708. It doesn't really matter too much, so long as you backdate Xulthos imprisonment to around 20 years before.
Jhavul and his entourage were banished to Kakishon probably more than two hundred years ago, and probably less than a thousand; I placed it around 400 years ago in my timeline, but that was just a dartboard shot.
Are you really unable to see why one might want a virtual tabletop with a real DM using it? There are very real, very good reasons for wanting a way to get as authentic a D&D experience as possible even when the players can't sit down around the same table. Statements like the above are simply dismissive of those reasons, and I have a hard time understanding why someone would make them.
A virtual tabletop isn't something I'd get a whole lot of use out of, personally, but I know there are loads of people out there who currently use them, and loads more who would use them if WotC released one.
At the cataclysmic risk of agreeing with Scott (gasp!), if the DDI virtual tabletop ever became a real thing, it could entice me into playing/running 4E, since so many of my gaming friends are geographically remote (my SCA household -slash- City of Heroes Supergroup).
Oh my no. An Adventure Path covers dozens, if not hundreds of encounters. Many of which give out multiple items as treasure or NPC gear. Since each item card deck is limited to 52 items, we just pick and choose a mix of actual items that will appear in the Adventure Path and mix those up with some that don't but are still "on theme" for that Adventure Path.
Like the "Bottle City" in the Legacy of Fire deck. A nice nod to Sandman ("Ramadan") but I don't think I'm going to be handing that one out to my PCs.
Do Eidelons have the word eidelon stamped on their forhead, or is it summoners? I mean I've played in tons of games where I fought a wizard and some strange new monster minion before the summoner arrived, what all of the sudden makes the eidelon/summoner combo more recognizable to your typical wizard/strange monster combo. I don't get how people say oh yeah just target the summoner. Hell I'd love to for my players to do that, that way when the "summoner" drops and they think that the nasty monster that was a much worse threat is beaten, but instead it just continues on killing them and they wasted their best offense on the spellcaster.
P. 4:
Quote:
The eidolon also bears a glowing rune that is identical to a rune that appears on the summoner’s forehead as long as the eidolon is summoned. While this rune can be hidden through mundane means, it cannot be concealed through magic that changes appearance, such as alter self or polymorph (although invisibility does conceal it as long as the spell lasts).
So, yes, if your character is in a room with a summoner and his eidolon, you can theoretically spot the connection.
*I'm running Legacy of Fire with Pathfinder RPG rules instead of DnD 3.5. Pardon the pun, but lycanthropes are very different beasts in Pathfinder. Since Pathfinder lycanthropes don't get additional hit dice from the base animal, Haidar ended up as a paper tiger. Even in hybrid form he only had 19 hp, but he could have easily killed a PC in a single round with a successful charge and pounce (5 attacks at +7 damage!). It was a moot point in my game though; Haidar never beat the DC 15 Con check required to change from human to hybrid or leopard form.
Haidar is supposed to be CR5, but doesn't cut it with 19 hp. The simplest thing to do is make him a 7th level aristocrat to make his numbers line up closely with the 3.5 version.
Haidar, CR5
Male human lycanthrope (Katapeshi wereleopard) aristocrat 7
human form: hp 38 (7d8+7)
hybrid form: hp 52 (HD 7d8+21)
I´ve been visiting this board regularly over the last few years, since I ran all three Dungeon Adventure Paths and found the resources here to be incredibly helpful.
Since our Curse of the Crimson Throne Campaign came to a crashing halt last night when my buddy TPK´d us for the second time, I return to gamemastering duties. And I´m looking forward to running Legacy of Fire (Pathfinder ruleset).
I got the Player´s Guide and the Guide to Katapesh, but is there anything beyond the sticky reference threads that a DM absolutely needs to know or take care of when starting LoF? Looking forward to your input!
Greetings from Germany!
If you have the AP, the Player's Guide and Dark Markets, you have everything you absolutely need.
When just starting the AP, and creating the PCs, pay attention to the character storyline hooks in the Player's Guide. These hooks allow you to create personal storylines for the characters that pay off in objectives in HotCK.
I'm sure the WotC marketing department is crying in their beer at this point - their job is to somehow make a database program sound cool and exciting - which ranks write up there with being the head of tourism for Iceland.
<threadjack>
Heh. You clearly don't know anything about Iceland. Tourists go there in the summer to ride the Icelandic horses on a tour of the volcanoes. Rich friends of mine did this a couple years ago and had a blast, they brought back great pictures.
I got my screen today. I really like the quaility and most of the info on it. But IMO I think it would have been better if the screen did not have the XP rewards and treasure value per encounter tables on it. It should have had the actions in combat instead. Those two tables that are on it IMO are not really used during the game, just for game prep.
/disagree
I run a sandbox game. The party is free to go anywhere and open any door they want to; I don't know ahead of time exactly what they're going to get into. This means I have to improvise the encounters at the game table, most times, and the XP table becomes one of the most-consulted tables.
I'm just the past few days statted up two "legendary" (improving) weapons for my Katapesh Nights / Legacy of Fire campaign.
The first is Titanslayer's Battlestaff (pivoted off the item from Room 21 of Dragon's Delve, which in my Katapesh is the ancient Osirian tomb complex under El-Fatar).
Titanslayer's Battlestaff
Spoiler:
Minor Artifact, Quarterstaff
This quarterstaff was created by the mage Shakaran Titanslayer by means of multiple powerful wishes and other magical rituals. Rather than imbue the staff with a fixed set of capabilities, Shakaran created a universal weapon that would magically adapt itself to the capabilities of its wielder, enhancing her melee offense and defense capabilities.
In any form, the enhancement bonus for attack and damage rolls of the battlestaff is equal to one-quarter of the wielder's level, rounded up.
In its default, unattuned state, the battlestaff operates as a simple +1 dancing quarterstaff. However, after two days of possession by a new wielder, the battlestaff transmutes both its physical appearance and magical capabilities to match the wielder's class and build.
(I've only statted out the capabilities for a druid, because that is the build of the PC that grabbed the staff. If she passes it off to one of the other PCs I'll create a new progression for that build.)
barkskin – while the battlestaff is wielded, the druid gains an enhancement bonus to her natural armor equal to the current enhancement bonus on the staff. This effect is identical to the effect of the spell barkskin and does not stack with that spell.
If the battlestaff is being wielded when the druid wildshapes, the barkskin effect continues to benefit the druid in her animal form.
shillelagh – at will, the druid may call upon the battlestaff to quicken the casting of the shillelagh spell (only onto the battlestaff).
elemental – Starting at 5th level, as a swift action, the druid may choose an element, once per day; for the rest of that day, the battlestaff will add 1d6 energy damage for that element on successful hits, as if it were a corrosive, flaming, icy, or shocking weapon.
wildfang – Starting at 9th level, whenever the druid wildshapes while wielding the battlestaff, she gains an enhancement bonus to hit and damage with natural attacks equal to the current enhancement bonus of the battlestaff. This bonus is identical to the enhancement bonus from magic fang or greater magic fang and does not stack with those spells.
In addition, the druid gains the benefit of the elemental energy damage with her primary natural attack(s) (either bite or claws) in wildshape form. This effect ends whenever the druid returns to her natural form.
elemental burst – Starting at 14th level, the elemental enhancement improves to the equivalent burst enhancement for the selected element: corrosive burst, flaming burst, icy burst, or shocking burst. This bonus energy damage is also available with the natural attack of the druid's wildshapes, if the battlestaff was wielded when the druid changed form.
wildskin – Starting at 17th level, if the druid wildshapes while wielding the battlestaff, any armor she is wearing, instead of being absorbed into the animal form, alters its shape and size to accommodate the druid's wildshape, and continues to benefit the druid in animal form. The druid may suppress this ability at will when changing, if she prefers.
The second is Borealis, which is my replacement for Vardishal's sword, Tempest.
Borealis
Spoiler:
I've made some changes to the LoF backstory involving Jhavul, Nefeshti and the Templars. In my continuity, Vardishal was a djinni paladin who fell at the Battle of Pale Mountain, defeated and killed by Jhavul just before he (Jhavul) was banished to Kakishon. As with Tempest, the wish magic that Nefeshti had placed upon him caused his spirit to become partially bound to his magic sword, which was recovered by Nefeshti after the battle and placed in his shrine near Kelmarane. This weapon will come into the possession of the paladin in my group.
Question: are magical foods (created under the rules in Elves of Golarion) considered "potions" or "wondrous items" or something else? Would a magical food submission be considered in our out of bounds?
Jason, can you verify that it is your intention that, by making offensive hexes "supernatural abilities", they are supposed to bypass Spell Resistance, per the rule on p. 220?
I'm not arguing the point, I just wonder whether it was a minor error not making these spell-like abilities.
Speaking of the Orb spells, would it be balanced for a Rogue/Sorcerer to take one of the Lesser Orb Of __ spells? I'm only asking because I want a spell I can sneak attack with that isn't a cantrip.
(Halfling Rogue taking a level of Sorcerer(Celestial) soon, if you're curious.)
EDIT: Also, let's keep this derail as short as possible, alright?
For melee touch sneak attacks, I recommend shocking grasp. (Particularly combined with invisibility, but it doesn't look like you're going to dip deep enough into sorcerer for that.)
If you want to spellsniper, I recommend your celestial sorcerer's heavenly fire spell-like ability.
I would personally like to see Bestiary II update the balance of the creatures that appeared in the first 24 Pathfinder AP "Bestiary" section to PFRPG rules. I think the only one that made it into B1 was the Shaitan (to have a complete set of 5 genies).
The ones that could most use the conversion are the undead, who seem to have undergone the most substantial changes from 3.5.
Beyond these, I would like to see the balance of the SRD creatures (particularly real-world animals) that have appeared in Pathfinder APs and modules as encounters updated.
8) Charm Monster, Black Tentacles, Dimension Door, Fire Shield, Minor Creation, Stoneskin, Wall of Fire, etc. are now available as 3rd level Wand spells thanks to the Summoner's spell list. Wands and Scrolls of Haste and Slow, at CL 4, will be available as 2nd level spells as well, from Summoners who bother to take Crafting feats.
And Teleport, Baleful Polymorph, Overland Flight, Summon Monster V, Dismissal, etc. become usable as 4th level spells, in Wands.
Eeenteresting!
Huh, hadn't thought of that.
....aaaaand, this is why I don't like repackaging high-level spells as lower-level spells for specialty class lists.
I know, it's just me, it's my peeve, I'll just be over here muttering to myself in the corner.
I am concerned that so many of the offensive hexes (such as slumber, agony, etc.) are classified as Supernatural (Su) abilities rather than Spell-Like (Sp) abilities, since under the rules on p. 221 of the Core Rulebook, supernatural abilities are not subject to spell resistance, dispel magic, or counterspells.
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