delabarre's page

well talking about magic, surely an elf who desperetly wanted a beards could just use a spell or other and have one no? alter-self anyone?

Sweet Sarenrae, that was what led to the Taershanian Whisker Heresy and the bloodbath of the Barber Jihad!

I *really* don't like new monsters with names that are existing words--it's all but guaranteed to cause confusion down the line when the GM says "the tomb has a small doorway leading to an ossuary," and the players are going to want to attack the ossuary, not realizing the GM means "place to hold bones" and not "construct monster containing an undead." I was fine with this creature's original name of "ossuary golem" because that name was clear that it wasn't referring to the object-noun, but this one lacks that clarity.

It's also worth pointing out that in the Pathfinder cosmology, "The Ossuary" is a location in the Maelstrom.

Also, still chuckling from the comment upthread about 'turtles all the way down.' :)

Reference

*Snort*

*Choke*
*Fall over*

Are you still here? I thought you ran away... ;-)

... the "area where madness lies and the Lovecraft stuff comes from" is actually the Material Plane. The Dark Tapestry, to be precise: the black spaces between the stars.

...doesn't that mean that the Dark Tapestry has a negative counterpart on the Plane of Shadow? O_o

Edit: The Darkbad

So a few years ago we published a new core setting book, The Pirate's Guide to Freeport. It is a systemless book, a pure sourcebook without game stats for any RPG. Since then we've done a series of companion books that provide mechanical support for various games. To date we've done True20, d20, Savage Worlds, and Castles & Crusades, and Expeditious Retreat Press just released a 4E version under license. The titles are usually titled [System] Freeport Companion, so we've had the True20 Freeport Companion, the Savage Worlds Freeport Companion, etc.

The tricky bit is that the Pathfinder compatibility license does not allow a publisher to use "Pathfinder" in the title, so we need to figure out what to call it. Which option do you think would be better?

A) Call it Freeport Companion Revisited and rely on the PF logo and the sales text make it clear that this was for Pathfinder.

B) Call it something like the Voyager Freeport Companion. This could potentially make people think it's for a non-existent game called Voyager though.

Opinions?

Chris Pramas
Green Ronin Publishing

Hokay, so the tricky bit here appears to be sentence 4(c) from the compatibility license:

The titles of your products may not include any Paizo trademarked terms (or marks confusingly similar thereto), including "Pathfinder" or "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game."

I'm going to assume that Paizo would consider "PFRPG" to be "confusingly similar thereto" "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game".

So the crux of the dilemma is to come up with a word or phrase that suggests "PFRPG" without being "PFRPG". Ideally this would be something that could be used across the 3PP spectrum.

I'm liking "P20"...

I also considered Freeport Companion Unearthed. That's good from a D&D reference POV, but it doesn't necessarily scream out Pathfinder.

If you released "Freeport Companion Unearthed" I would automatically assume it was for Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed/Evolved ruleset.

Although I do wish Storm would finally hook up with someone. Forge, Yukio, hell, even Callisto or Thor. Just get out some, dammit.

Didn't she "hook up" with Black Panther in a big way?

I lurved me some Whedon/Cassaday Astonishing X-Men. Too bad it took so long to crank out issues.

And I say that with the full recognition that even Joss is capable of writing some boring crap. *cough*Runaways*cough*. Occasionally.

I have been very pleasantly surprised and impressed with Matt Fraction's work on Uncanny the past couple of years.

And, tying this back to the thread topic...Joe Q needed to go when he rewound the entire Spider-Man mythology back to sometime in the late '60s, rendering ~40 years of continuity null and void. Frakker.

Which book did you see this?

Pathfinder Companion: Dwarves of Golarion, p. 19.

So I just noticed the section on the "sand dwarves" (Pahmet) of southwestern Osirion. Since these guys seem to have been invented since the publication of the Osirion book, can anyone answer the following:

* Whereabouts do these guys operate? In the Footprints of Rovagug? Near the Brazen Peaks? Near the ruins of Kho?

* Which pharaonic dynasty are they guarding the necropolis of? (The only dynasty we've been given a name for is the An Dynasty, of which the last Pharoah was the notorious An-Hepsu XI, the Incorruptible Pharoah.)

I would propose a change to the alignments, first of all I think they should get rid of all good alignments. Think about it? Who in the real world is actually good? Humans are just different shades of evil and corruption, even so called goodie goodies. The alignments would progress like this; Uncorrupted ( neutral ), Neutral evil, Lawful evil, and Chaotic evil. With most people falling into the Lawful evil category, meaning they would do more evil acts, but they might get caught and punished. I think this would streamline game play and open the doors for people to play Paladins who could not previously play them, because they have no idea how to be good.

The alignments are fine as they are, if you want to have alignments per se. There are actually "good" people in the world.

That being said, I would replace the entire alignment system with something like the "Exalted/Vile" mechanic from BED/BVD.

Edit: Although, having played around with this on paper, it makes an ugly hash of a lot of the alignment-oriented spells.

What kind of salves? Embalmig salves? Healing salves? Mentholyptus?

Peshtroleum Jelly.

Under our expanded system, Orbs stayed as conjuration because they were actually pockets "summoned" from the Elemental Planes. An evocation, by contrast, would coalesce the forces of the present plane into the spell effect, meaning it could function within the bounds of a dimensional anchor or similar — and the orb spells could not.

That is brilliant. I'm totally nicking this for my house rules.

Did you make orb of force and orb of sound evocations, then?

I have no idea what to tell him it would cost. I was thinking 100gp per class level and 50 gp for 0th...with mark ups based on attractiveness/strength and race?

As you may have guessed there really is no fixed price list or even a framework. Basing the price on Hit Dice or Challenge Rating seems like a good basis.

The basic prices in the Core Rulebook for horseflesh gives you an idea of the economic range you are looking at: 30gp for a pony at the low end, up to 300gp for a trained heavy warhorse.

So, let's make some educated guesses. Perhaps 25gp as an average price for a commoner 1? You could roll 1d4/level commoner x 10gp to randomize a sale price. Increase this to 35gp/level for an expert (1d6x10gp) or aristocrat, 45gp/level (1d8x10gp) for a warrior or adept.

Also, the Jackal's Lair, is it meant to be 10 foot squares on the map? It seems quite large in a number of spots. The guard's rooms would be 30 feet by 30 feet, the sarcophagus would be 20 feet long, all the doors 10 feet wide...

I know the map is not really meant as an accurate depiction in all, but it just does not seem to fit with 10 foot squares. I could be wrong, can someone help me out?

Objects on map may be smaller than they appear?

Finally, the Greenman gets a little of what he deserves!

Thanks, Delabarre!

You know I spend too much time on these messageboards when I flip through my stack of new comics and wonder to myself "What is Mairkurion doing in Astro City?"

Forgotten Realms had a feat in the old days. Don't recall the exact language or name, but liked the mechanics:

Requirement: Spell Mastery feat

Benefit: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time, choose one spell you have mastered through Spell Mastery feat. You gain the ability to spontaneously cast this spell by dropping a spell of equal or higher level like clerics with "cure" spells.

I actually like the magic system, except for the loss of 2nd edition "casting time." Seemed realistic that casting would take more than half a second. But without altering all actions, imposing a casting time would sign a death warrant for casters.

Signature Spell.

"Your" avatar appears to be on the cover of the new issue of Astro City. Cover illustration by Alex Ross!

Here

;-)

My party's fight with the pugs went a grueling twelve rounds, because the PC's ACs and the pugwampi's unluck aura made it so that almost nobody could hit anybody. (Almost nobody? Er, whatever.)

The only really comedic moment occurred after the druid set the nest on fire with flaming sphere, causing all the pugs to come scurrying out onto the rafters. Mokknokk charged the pally (kicking his own guys out of his way, of course, onto the floor). After a couple passes the pally got irritated with Mokknokk's high AC (and relatively high HP) and invoked his Holy Smite. At this point the pally had switched to his backup mace because the pugwampis had broken his scimitar. So he hauls back and Holy Smites the mace down on Mokknokk's head, smashing the King right through the rafter beam and down onto the floor below (the pally was standing on the edge of the choir loft). He peers over the edge to check the damage, and sees Mokknokk get up, shake it off, and start engaging the other PCs on the floor below.

The wiz had a potion of levitation and was hover-blasting through the fight with his crossbow and ray of frost. Eventually he figured out how the unluck aura was working (Spellcraft roll), and by this point all the pugs had been driven down to the floor of the chapel. So he levitates up to 25' above the floor (outside the unluck aura) and starts plinking the pugwampis with his ray.

What's up with the crazy new titles guys? Are congratulations in order? Congrats!

And how can you have a "Fiction Editor" when you haven't announced a Fiction line yet. :P

Here

Class Skill: Knowledge (Planes).

Yep.

Bonus Spells: disguise self (3rd), invisibility (5th), gaseous form (7th), minor creation (9th), persistent image (11th), analyze dweomer (13th), limited wish (15th), moment of prescience (17th), wish (19th).

See, limited wish doesn't really show up as a genie SLA; I would place plane shift in here. Moment of prescience seems a mismatch, but the entire 8th spell level range is tough for this; one possibility is a choice of iron body, polar ray, sunburst or whirlwind depending on genie type.

Bonus Feats: Combat Reflexes, Combat Casting, Improved Initiative, Quicken Spell, Dodge, Mobility, Skill Focus (Knowledge [planes]), Spell Penetration.

Good.

Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell of the figment subschool, increase the spell’s DC by +2.

Okay. You could also make a case for the "creation" subschool.

Bloodline Powers: Your ability to shape reality to your own desires has made you wily and elusive.

Lucky Touch (Sp): At 1st level, you can touch a creature as a standard action, bestowing on it a luck bonus on attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and saving throws equal to ½ your sorcerer level (minimum 1) for 1 round. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your charisma modifier.

That is a very interesting take on genies. Pathfinder genies aren't really thematically linked to fortune and fate, but that idea is intriguing (and also explains the moment of presciences choice earlier).

Genie Resistances (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain resist energy 5 for a specific type, either: fire, or electricity or acid. The choice cannot be changed once selected. At 9th level your resist energy 5 increases to 10, or you can choose another resist energy type 5. At 15th level, you can increase your original resist energy type to 20, increase your secondary resist energy type to 10, or choose one final resist energy type 5.

Okay.

Dimensional Shift (Su): At 9th level, you can teleport as the spell dimension door, except that activating the ability requires a move action, not a standard. The ability can be used twice per day.

I would have dropped a flight power or greater invisibility in here...they just seem a bit more genie-like than dim door.

Test the Fates (Su): At 15th level, you gain the ability to increase your chances at making a saving throw, ability check, attack roll, or skill check. You can choose either to add a d10 die to your saving throw or check before you roll your result, or a d6 die after the saving throw or check has been made. This ability can be used once per day.

Mechanically somewhat awkward, but intriguing. I like that it rewards the player who declares the use of the ability before he knows whether he needs it or not.

Shaper of Dreams (Su): At 20th level you have mastered control over reality. You gain immunity to your highest resist energy type (fire, electricity or acid), and the ability to cast shapechange once per day as a spell-like ability using your sorcerer level as your caster level. Once per week, you also gain the ability to cast limited wish as a spell-like ability using your sorcerer level as your caster level.

The general problem I have with 1/week abilities is that they encourage players to say something like "We rest in Azure City for a month while Jazeer uses his limited wishes to remove all our negative levels and curses."

This one tugged at my memory, and eventually I dredged up the reference: it reminds me a bit of two creatures from the 3.X MM2 -- the shrapnyl raggamoffyn and the chain golem.

Anyone willing to critique my wall of text?

Last year I spent some time messing around on paper with some ideas similar to this.

A few notes:

* You have based the spellcasting check, which is the core mechanic of a spellcaster, on a skill bonus. By comparison, the martial attack mechanic is based on a nonskill bonus (Base Attack Bonus). My personal opinion is that if you are attempting to introduce a success/failure check for spellcasting, that it should be a similar nonskill bonus (Base Spellcasting Bonus), or else justify why Spellcraft should be the Gotta Max skill for all spellcasters (including the ones that don't ordinarily rely on Int), and Magical Aptitude becomes a Gotta Have feat.

* Offensive spells generally have an existing (RAW) success/failure mechanic -- either a saving throw or a touch attack roll. (The notable exception is magic missile which, for historical reasons, is auto-hit unless the target is magically protected or under cover.) Consider also the Spell Resistance mechanic; how do you want the spellcasting check mechanic to interact with these other rolls? If you leave the saves, resistances and touch attack rolls as written, then casting an offensive spell such as scorching ray now has two possible points of failure instead of one, and a successful attack requires two successful rolls, slowing down the action in combat (to determine bonuses/penalties, roll, determine success/failure).

* Also, inversely, you have introduced a failure mechanic for nonoffensive spells that used to function automatically (ie, invisibility). You might want to consider introducing a bonus for spells cast upon yourself.

And at least one more thing that we haven't yet announced but will very soon...

Magic Ponies of Golarion? ;-)

Pathfinder #21, p. 49:

Marids have bodies covered in fine scales and hair like flowing kelp, most often blue, black, or green...

PFRPG Bestiary, p. 142:

(A marid) resembles a powerful giant with hairless blue-green skin, deep blue eyes, flamboyant eyebrows, and pearlescent teeth.

Sooo...hairless or kelplike blue/black/green hair? Blue-green scaly skin?

I don't know what "flamboyant" eyebrows means.

I'm totally down with the pearlescent teeth though.

No rules for harems in this Pathfinder. We'll have to look into covering harem rules in a later volume.

Let's get Gwen Kestrel on that ASAP. ;-)

I'm not sure about the CR calculation though. According to the PFRPG section on adding class levels (pg. 296 to 297), this should be a CR6 (Gnoll CR1 plus Barbarian 5 = CR6). A gnoll counts as a combat oriented role so any class levels in barbarian would be added to the existing CR of 1. I'm especially asking because I hope to stat out Hakkur's sister when I have some time. And to make sure I'm not misreading something.

I think that calculation is for situations where the creature CR is greater than the class levels (like an efreeti with levels of fighter). For a CR1 gnoll I think the humanoid-with-class standard (CR = PC class level - 1 OR NPC class level - 2) should apply.

But that's just my $0.02.

EDIT: Wow, I expanded my vocabulary today.

And not in a good way. ;-)

Our first encounter with pugwampis starts about here, some very funny goings on with that cactus...

My last session ended with "And then you look up, and observe that the rafters are crawling with pugwampis! Aaaaand we're out of time tonight, we'll pick it up here next week."

Assorted looks of horror on the PC's faces. *glee*

The only thing I don't like about this entry is the word "skintaker." Maybe it's just me, but there seem to be lots of "skinwalkers" and "skinchangers" and whatnot everywhere.

But the concept is very very solid.

I kinda like this guy. I think I'll call him "Jacks".

It's a creature AND an adventure seed. O_o

It seems to me that we've pretty much established kobolds as being the rabble of the draconic kingdom.

I knew what a haruspex was, but that is because my Ars Magica-fu is strong.

What? You mean not everyone knows what to call the guy who tears out the entrails of a creature and divines the future from them?

Sheesh, I tell ya.

Kids these days! It's the schools' fault, I tells ya...

As stated, this feels more like an (Arabian-style) adventure seed than a creature. That being said, it's a good adventure seed...I'm already trying to think of how to steal^H^H^H^H^Hintegrate this into my Katapesh Nights campaign...but it's not a complete creature description.

Glaives are 'Slashing' weapons, Spears and Lances are 'Piercing' weapons and thereby make more sense to be used to 'Set Against A Charge', to help me put this little query to bed, in my original ruling Non-Piercing type weapons cant set against a charge since the concept of setting against a charge dictates that the enemy 'impales' themselves on the weapon when they attack which is not feasible (but not quite impossible) with a slashing type weapon.

You're mostly correct on the fundamentals, but the question is really not "slashing vs. piercing", it's "swing vs. thrust". If the weapon is designed to be thrust at the target, then it can be used to stop thrust an advancing or charging opponent. If the weapon is designed to be swung, then the business end is oriented 90 degrees to the haft, and it can't stop-thrust.

Unfortunately, PFRPG (for reasons of simplicity) doesn't distinguish between thrust or swung weapons or attacks. Looking at the descriptions of standard weapons in the Core Rulebook, you can see that several of these polearms are designed to either be swung or thrusted, such as the ranseur, which has a vertical (thrusting) spike flanked by two side-mounted (swung) cutting blades.

The glaive described in the Core Rulebook appears to be a polearm with a blade equivalent to a large chefs knife such as a santuko. The point on this blade would allow the glaive to be used as a thrusting weapon.

The question then remains how similar this "ripper" is to a standard glaive. Unfortunately I was unable to locate the reference to the ripper in my MotP. So if you just say "it's a glaive" then the answer is yes, it can be set against a charge.

Edit: I was not previously aware of the "brace" mechanic introduced in PFRPG. So, Jason has ruled that glaives cannot be braced.

Thanks!

And I'm gonna take that as a no.

If you are referring to the flyspeck island in the straits between Qadira and Osirion, then no, I can't find any reference to it anywhere.

However, it has been a while since I've written up monsters with PC stats. Following is Hakkur, the leader of the Three Jaw Tribe. I didn't have stats for a Flind so I just used the stats for a gnoll/barbarian. Does anyone see any major glaring errors?

Your math is slightly off on hit points, should be 2d8+6 + 5d12+15 = 62.

Assuming you are using PFRPG:

For a CR6 you really want/need to make him a 6th level barbarian (CR = 1 (for gnoll) + 5 (for Bar6)). If you compare him against the table on Bestiary p. 291 you will see that he is lagging for CR6.

Also consider upgrading his armor + shield to get his AC up to about 20 or 21.

Inaccurate: All non-rifled firearms have an inherent -1 to hit penalty.

I would model this on a sliding scale based on range, for example a -1 inaccuracy penalty for each full 15 or 20 ft (depending on the muzzle length) from the shooter to the target, on top of the standard distance penalties for ranged weapons.

I haven't gotten to this point in my campaign yet, but it is the biggest question mark in my mind. My players are ultra-cautious about major magic items like the Scroll, and would be more likely to hand it over to the Church of Abadar to store in a vault for the next thousand years than to risk selling it or activating it -- even if they have no idea what happened at Pale Mountain or what is going on in Kakishon itself. I consider this the weakest link in the overall AP.

One of my tasks going forward is to try to come up with some storyline or quest objective that will compel them to travel into Kakishon, even if they are aware of the dangers and repercussions.

Yeah, I know. Probably one of the more off-the-wall questions that's been asked about Golarion.

One of the followers one of my Korvosa campaign players has due to Leadership somehow wound up being Scout from Team Fortress 2 in all but name and equipment. I still don't know exactly how it happened. But he's pretty firmly entrenched in the ragtag band of misfits that comprises the player's band of mercenaries and it would be even more jarring to change his accent than come up with a crazy explanation for it.

So uh, yeah. Any cities in Andoran sound good?

He is from a small, isolated village deep in the Storval Plateau, that has long been disconnected from the rest of civilization, and thus has developed a unique, barbarous dialect of Common. ;-)

I'm wondering, was there a picture of Nefeshti somewhere in the adventures?

It's not canon, but when my players encountered Nefeshti in Katapesh City (during a sales transaction for a particular ring), I showed them this.

How about cannon balls that turn into or release swarms on impact, or that are actually small constructs that unfold and attack.

If you're a slaver: tanglefoot cannonballs!

I want there to be certain spells that you can cast on magical cannonballs that will activate when the cannonball hits, like stinking cloud for example. I don't want the cannons themselves to be able to "fire" magic spells.

One word: Alchemunitions. ;-)

Is there a preview somewhere? Maybe scans of a filled-in portfolio? The thumbnail preview on RPGNow doesn't appear to be enabled.

Dammit!

I jsut wrote the whole thing out and hit preview and I lost all my text... Arg!

I had been writing for almost an hour...

I will post it later this evening Joey. Sorry about that. Lesson learned in previewing on these boards.

A general rule of thumb on the Paizo boards, is that if you spend more than two minutes entering a post, you should copy'n'paste it into NotePad (or equivalent) before hitting Preview or Submit.

The bigger the text block, the more likely that the content will disappear into the Astral plane. ;-)

Now this looks like an interesting resource, if you have the means.

Amazon Link

Google Books Preview

If a player wanted to spend the gold an enhance "The Tempest" how should I go about it because it grows in enchantment as the PCs level up

There are currently no rules for pricing the creation (or enhancement) of an evolving-enhancement weapon such as Tempest.

At a guess I would compute the price of a weapon with all of Tempest's maximum-level powers (+2 fire outsider bane icy burst = +5 = 50k gp) and divide it by some denominator (due to the fact that those powers are not available continuously to any wielder), perhaps 1.25, for a price of 40k gp.

Another possible way would be to average the cost over the four phases of the weapon's enhancement:

((+1) 2k + (+2) 8k + (+4) 32k + (+5) 50k) / 4 = 92k / 4 = 23k gp.

Fatespinner wrote:

So... could a creature benefit from multiple castings of Breath of Life, then? Say the party has two clerics, both with Breath of Life memorized. The party's rogue takes a massive crit from a greataxe-wielding giant and is reduced to -40 HP. His CON is 10, so he's extremely dead.

Cleric #1 tags him with BoL, healing him for 25, which brings his HP up to -15. Still dead. Then cleric #2 jumps in and does the same. Is the rogue now alive with 10 HP to spare?

Absolutely. Assuming you could get enough breath of life spells on a creature before they died (which would normally require multiple spellcasters or a quickened spell), a creature that can't be saved by one spell could be saved by two or more.

In that situation in my game, said clerics would also have to do some hasty running around collecting body bits and reassembling them before they could cast the spell successfully. ;-)