gigglestick's page

I'm running this AP for the second time. There's not a lot of loot and the campaign is pretty hard, but don't despair. I've had the temples of the "good" religions buy evil magic stuff from the PC's, so that it can be destroyed (someone on the boards recommended that approach and it worked fine...

GRU

This is how I (mostly) ran it too. Though the temples often "traded" an equivalent item cost for the item destroyed. This gave the PCs a chance to get that Cure Potion or Reincarnation Scroll (or Restoration Scroll) they needed.

For the actual ROTR game, I did do a few side quests (I used Into the Haunted Woods as a pre-game, with a few other side quests to Chopper's Hill at level 2 and a trip to Wolf's Ear between ROTR 1 and 2.)

The party has 6 characters, and two are crafters (Wizard and Hedge Witch), so they have some nice potions. And ITHW gives the option for some low level MI as well.

It's been a little hard to judge the total party wealth, as we've had 6 character deaths (4 or 5 from player impulsiveness or an ID10T error) and a few of the more creative players CREATED a side quest or two through RP that led to some small $$.

After SSM, we now have 6 characters...4 are L6 and 2 are L5. And nobody died fighting Xanesha...

As for the OP party $ split. First of all, you ended up with ~5.5K after splitting the party $$ 5 ways. ROTR is designed for 4 players, so the GM should have upped the treasure. (I had to for 6).

And it also sounds like your GM isn't doing enough prepwork for your group. A GM should have a list of available common MI...it doesnt take long to do and the new Gamemastery guide makes it even easier....

With a few tweaks

I ran this as part of my Absalom campaign for 5 2nd level heroes (gnome Rogue, halfogre Fighter, halfelf sorceress, human Cleric of Shelyn, kobold ranger) and the players had a blast.

It works well with just about any character mix and does well for 2nd or even 3rd level characters if you just add a few extra baddies to the encounters. (We had one room that ended up with an encounter just like the cover of the module...)

Here in Rochester NY I wish I had a Varisian winter to look forward to. See ya'll when I dig myself out of the snowbanks in early April.

I'll see your Rochester, NY Winter and raise you my Syracuse NY Winter (or even my old Oswego/ Adams Winters... "Oh look, 5 feet of snow. It must be Thursday.")

Actually, I was working on an HVAC system one night when there was a 15 mph wind. Looking over at the bank clock in Watertown, we could see that, without wind chill, it was -25 degrees F... And a few years ago, my Watertown rep was there on consecutive days when it was +36 F on the first day and -36 F on the second day...yeah, a 72 degree temperature drop in 24 hours, passing the freezing point...That's how I run my winters in Pathfinder....)

In the game I'm running, the heroes kept the artifacts. (As they were tricked into getting them in the first place, they didn't feel obligated to give them up.)

Actually, as Cachee gave them the Vial of Pure Water in trade, it belongs to them. And the fact that the heroes were the ones to give the druid his final rest made them feel like they'd earned them.

And the Sheriff was not too keen on taking on the party once they returned with the artifacts in tow. Though they did let the sage examine them for a few days.

With 6 initial characters, I made Brightflame into part of the Panapoly as well, along with the melee weapon the final opponent uses.

I made them leveling artifacts, with minor abilities that gradually increased once the heroes possessing them acquired enough magical karma (leveled up). They increase at every 4 levels (4,8,12,16).

Initially: (Level 1)

Brightflame: +1 Dagger. Grants DR: Fire 5

Vial of Pure Water: Once per day, user can fill it with ANY liquid. It will turn the liquid to Pure Water (great way to get rid of Unholy Water and Poisons)

Spirit Staff of Narwen: +1 Staff. +2 Damage vs Undead. Non-coporeal Undead are treated as if they were coporeal.

Wand of Earth's Ire: Burning Hands at wielder's level (up to 5d4). 50 Charges. May be recharged as a staff.

Breastplate of Sacred Fire: +1 Breastplate with Continual Flame (can be tunred off). Reduces Armor Check Penalty by -1 and increases MAx DEX by +1.

Codex of the Firmament: Holds 6 levels of Divine Spells (like a Scroll). Initially came with 3 spells (1 lvl 1, 1 lvl 2 and 1 level 3). Once the spells are cast, the caster can "refill" the empty spell levels by Using Scribe Scroll to store the spell. This uses up the caster's spell slot for the day, but costs no GP.

Staff Spear of the Protector: +1 Staff. User can change it at will to a +1 Spear.

At level 4,

Brightflame gained +1d4 fire damage,

The Vial can be used 1/ day to store a level 1 potion (Caster makes a spelcraft vs 15, though this does not use up the spell slot)

The Breastplate gained an additional +1 to all of the modifiers

Etc.

I think what I'd rather see is an AP that takes you from 15-25 or so. So once you have these awesome characters you're very proud of at 15th level you don't have to just abandon them. A venue to continue adventuring with them published in an AP. Preferably with Epic rules :)

This is something I'm not really that interested in, and I doubt it would be financially feasible for Paizo. As they've said, the 17-20 lvl AP mods don't sell as well as the lower level ones.

My feelings on this:

1) As a GM (and the one who buys the mods we play) I'm not as fond of running the higher level adventures. By that point, magic makes a lot of the more interesting role playing encounters too "easy" or at least not as interactive. And the monsters are just too much for the most part.

2) If you want to run an adventure at that level, there are lots of options already available in PF. Look at the APs:

And so on.

And some adventures allow for more side quests as well. For my ROTR campaign, we used Into the Haunted Woods as the first adventure (placing it near Wolf's Ear) with the heroes all coming from Riddlesport and Cairwynvian. Then we did Burnt Offerings, followed by a side quest back to Wolf's Ear

[spoiler=Movie plot spoiler] They were already on their way there to follow up on the backstory of one of the NPCs in the party when Classic Monsters Revisited came out, giving me the stat block for one of the villains in town...[spoiler]

And then we did Skinsaw Murders. The next adventure will be Armageddon Echo, with Shelelu (who is in both APs...) coming back to recruit the heroes to help against the dangers in Celwynvian. (If you wnat to know the secret of Celwynvian, play that module...)..

Then we'll do Hook Mountain...

If you want more adventures, look at the APs, there ARE lots of great ideas there for high level stuff. If elf-threatening greater demons, spawn of Rovagug, and lovecraftian horrors don't get your players going, there are also lots of high level adventures sprinkled throughout the supplements as well. The red dragon that tyrranizes Darkmoon Vale comes to mind...

OK. I am already geting one of these as part of my subscription. If I want more than one, can I just preorder a second one or will that mess up the way the subscription works?

SirUrza wrote:

LeadPal wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Would adding in a bit that says what average party level each of the various portions of the adventure expects be a good thing?

Yes it would. You can't really control pacing, but having suggestions for it would be a great help.

And the CR10 next to her name isn't fair enough warning for the DM?

Actually, it is MUCH worse then a CR 10 encounter because of the location.

If the party does not have access to the FLY spell (relistic if the party's main arcantist is a Sorcerer) then she has a big combat advantage - on top of her CR. And the location on top of the tower means that they really have no cover or way to force her to close if she does not wish to.

Further, the climb up the watchtower means that the characters have no realistic option to retreat. Remember also that when the Bell was dropped, the stairs back down were broken - not that they were easy to climb in the first place.)

Finally, an AC 34 (when you add in all of her buffs) is a bit much for all but the most heavily optimized character to hit (and she is not light on hit points either). WAY above what would be expected at that character level.

So, the CR 10 did send up alarm bells. But it still GROSSLY under rates the difficulty of that battle.

I think her AC is 26 WITH all the buffs.

Our party had 5 characters level 5 and 6. It took some time and a LOT of healing, but they managed to just take her out. Now, she did roll three crit fumbles and those fumble cards can be ruthless.

But I also expected her to kill a lot more of the party than she did. Xanesha IS a great boss villain and she requires some party teamwork to take out.

Dragonborn3 wrote:

So two more skill points a level equals 1 feat...

That`s how the Pathfinder Campaign Setting Fighter variant works...

(he also was just sharing ONE aspect of his class variant, y´know...)

I LOVE the variant fighter from the PFCG...especially the flavor behind it.

We have one in one of the games I GM and he gets much more out of the extra skill points and class skills than he would with one more fighter feat...(then again, we have a lot of non-combat encounters)

gigglestick wrote:

Hi there.

Order 1503626 shipped on August 26th. (Over 10 business days ago)

It has not arrived.

What can we do?

1503626 is for a copy of the Wayfinder. Paizo shipped these to the contributors as a favor for Paizo Fans United so unfortunately we don't have any recourse for missing shipments. However, at this point, it is only one business day after the estimate so there is a really good chance that it will still arrive. If it gets returned to us we will let you know right away!

thanks

Sara Marie

OK, I'll keep looking.

Thanks

Hi there.

Order 1503626 shipped on August 26th. (Over 10 business days ago)

It has not arrived.

What can we do?

Mageye wrote:

I got a second opinion from the pastor of the church I used to go to and he said that for someone that doesn't have a knowledge of the game that he would say he would treat it as any other thing that takes our time away from god and say that we must have a balance of how we use up our 24 hours each day and that if the game becomes the center of who we are then maybe it is a bad thing for us. "To much of a good thing can become a bad thing" So I will continue to play the game but I will not let the game play me to the point that it controls my life. Also I made a phone call to my therapist and discussed his statement with him and he said the reason he mad such statements he had heard bad things about the game I asked him have you ever seen the game played he said no I asked him how he can judge something when he has no knowledge of the thing he is against and he said I'm right his statement was wrong and that he felt that he let his religious up bringing as a catholic get in the way of treating me. I will be seeing him on the 14th again and possibly will be switching to another therapist.

That pastor's advice sounds quite a bit more evenhanded.

RPG-trashing aside, I would drop this therapist immediately, because what sort of counselor is giving advice on things HE DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT, BASED ON HEARSAY? Scary stuff..........

+1

This is what would scare me the most. Not that he was against Pathfinder. There might be plenty of good, psychological reasons for not wanting you to play a RPG. (Then again, he's only a therapist, not an actual Psychologist, which might be part of the problem.)

But to use the reason he did, without actually doing the research. That's just a bad therapist and, frankly, a dangerous one. Who knows what else he'll make snap judgements on.

There are plenty of good therapists out there. I'd drop this one quickly and find another who is a bit less likely to let his own personal problems interfere with your mental health.

I think this violates one of my own House Rules.

Keep the game fun.

I don't think that carrying around bags of sacrificial chickens will be fun for the game or the other players.

It's a beardy sort of thing and if a player tried to actually do this in a game (instead of just joking about it), I'd explain to him why this was against the spirit of heroic roleplaying.

Rosgakori wrote:

He teached the girl in secret, and she later became a cleris, seeking justice, law and order in chaotic Brevoy.

Be careful as Asmodeus is not much into Justice as in "give a fair & just judgement". He would ruthlessly apply the law whether you stole to eat or just for the sake of it.

Sorry but English isn't my mother tongue (I am a Frog) and it's hard to explain all the subtleties I would like to explain...

I think you did fine with your English. And I think you are correct. Asmodeus is interested in enforcing the law at all costs. Contracts WITHOUT loopholes are the basis for gaining souls.

Stole to feed your family? Sorry, you still stole. Welcome to Hell.

HANG ON PEOPLE!!!!!!

We do not have the whole story of the OPs disorder. Yes, on the surface it seems like the therapist overstepped their professional boundary. BUT there is NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION here to recommend that the OP walk away from the therapist.

How many of you are professional therapists that you can make this call without a thorough investigation of the OPs status? You are treading on VERY DANGEROUS ground by making those suggestions.

To the OP: TALK TO YOUR THERAPIST! Find out if there is a SOLID reason based on your individual case of bi-polar disorder that you should not play. If your individual case merits putting Pathfinder on the shelf for the time being then you should do so.

Again, TALK TO YOUR THERAPIST, and your Pastor! They are the people you should be listening to!

This isn't about whether he's Poloar or Bi-Polar.

His therapist told him that Pathfinder "Promoted the works of the Devil".

No matter what, that is unprofessional, possibly a violation of his liscence, amd definitely unethical and dangerous.

If he'd said soemthing like "You really should avoid games that let you play in an imaginary world because your diorder might not allow you to function properly." That would be acceptable.

But to actually LIE and say that PF promotes the work of the devil is wrong.

You shold still stay in therapy, but I would find a new therapist. And I'd report this one.

Therapists like this are dangerous, because people trust them to know what they are talking about and when they make biased, uninformed, and false statements like this, it can influence or damage the psyche of the patients...

You don't have to be a therapist to see that.

Judy Bauer wrote:

Matthew Morris wrote:

Most groups make exceptions of story content for the players personal histories/tastes. Why shouldn't the GM get the same break?

I'm all for accommodating players' and the GM's preferences. But if the GM is uncomfortable RPing gay romantic/sexual encounters, there are also more options than just having the person play cross-gender. You could have a willing player take over an NPC love interest, or just play campaigns where romance is unlikely for anyone, for example. Talk with your players and see what works best for both of you.

But it also only seems fair/tactful that if you're squeamish about GMing queer sex/romance, you don't still GM graphic hetero sex, you know?

Just curious, Judy. Why?

If I have a player terrified of spiders, I don't use spiders, but I use snakes. If I have a player who's an abuse survivor, I don't put in molested children, but I will put in orphans and child eating monsters.

We've had this come up before. In my last 3.5 game, we had one player with a serious arachniphobia, so we did substitute other monsters for spiders, at least when using counters or figures. (Which led to a funny situation where I'd brought the wrong bag of counters and we ended up with a dreaded Phase-Camel).

In the same group, we also had 4 players who had been raped or molested. So, villains who were inclined to that sort of thing were described and glossed over ("the Overlord subjuctated and abused the peasants") and then there was always a chance to kill them permenantly. The villains actions were never descrbed in detail.

Also, phrases like "we really raped him" or "those orcs completely molested us" were off limits. (Which are phrases in bad taste anyway.)

With 8 players, the game was sometimes just a therapy session with dice rolling and lots of blood. Which is fine. Gaming was sometimes just a way for a bunch of friends to get things off their chest or to just deal with stresses and insults and mean people of the day.

After all that, homosexuality in the game is not much of a problem.

This is pretty much the overriding objective of the heroes in the second PF campaign I'm running. The heroes left FH with the intent of returning to bump of Kreed as soon as they could.

I'd be surprised if Kreed and his boys survive many FH campaigns. I can't imagine most mid-level parties of good-minded players and characters putting up with his antics. (His tendency to rape people gets a lot of my players in a murdering mood as soon as it is mentioned...)

I think the consortium would indeed send someone else, but as long as the profits keep rolling in I can't see them caring too much.

(I may have mentioned this elsewhere...this is a long thread).

In my present PF campaign, I have one player who is bisexual. When he opened up and let us know this, I told him that it was up to him to play his character how he wished. And none of the other players cared either...in effect, he came out to the group in real life through Pathfinder. (And at the risk of feeling superior, I was proud of the players by not making a big deal either way about it.)

In the past, with other groups, I've had some bisexual players, and one lesbian player. While it sometimes came up in the game as far as who they were attracted to, it never really became much of a playing issue. (Actually, me and my hetero friends were probably more obnoxious about our "romantic details" in a few of the games.)

As far as I'm concerned, as a GM, let the players play who they want. If a hetero player wants to play bi or gay, as long as they don't make it offensive, I say go for it. And the reverse can be true too.

And, of course, some players don't play romance and sex at all. One of my long-running players confounded one of my early 3.5 games when I had an entire romantic subplot set up and he pretty much ignored the whole thing. Left me with a major NPC (damsel in distress) with no one willing to help her for a while...

As for actual sexual detail in the game, most of the time I leave that level to the players (though in a game with players under 17, we keep the stories at Fade To Black/ FTB). This next comment wil be VERY sexist, but at least with the groups I have GM'd, the female players tended to be a lot more explicit than the males. Though they might have just been more confident than the males.

Now, for my present game, there has been a question about sex and clerics/ paladins. We have a cleric a of Sarenrae and a Paladin of Sarenrae. They want to know just what IS permitted in their faith.

I don't see anything in Sarenrae's writeup that implies that she would be offended by friendly, loving erotic encounters. So, I let it slide (though the screams of "SARENRAE!!!" in the night got to be a bit funny...

I've read these but have only GM'd ROTR so far. But, just from reading them:

ROTR: GREAT Adventure. Lots of room for Roleplaying (it took my party almost 3 months playing once a week to finish the first Book alone...). Fun monsters, interesting locales, and a plot that keeps the heroes as heroes (until #5). A great intro to the world of Golarion.

COCT: Korvosa is a great city and this looks like a terriffic urban adventure. I admit that Skarwall looks like a long, boring Dungeon Crawl, so I'll probably edit it. But the rest of the scenarios look great.

SD: I like the first 3 adventures (I'm running Armageddon Echo as a side quest in my ROTR campaign. Shelelu will bring the heroes in...and one of the characters has the Celwynvian Trait already.) But the last 3 books look long and fairly frustrating. Though all of my players want to take a run at Treerazer...

LOF: Great setting and background. Like others, I'm not sure how my players would deal with the "escape from another plane" scenario 2 books ina row. But the end boss (and the boss that comes after him if the players aren;t careful) are great!

COT: I liked the sixfold trial. But the rest of the scenario never really grabbed me as a GM. Not enough Cheliaxian stuff and too much Westcrown adventureing. Wstcrown just isn't interesting enough to support 6 books.

KM: Love every part of this. If I wasn't running ROTR, I'd be doing this one. Great new rules, Sandboxing done right, and a chance to ally with Kobolds!

Dragonborn3 wrote:

Sandpoint is the name of the coastal city you start in during the first Rise of the Runelords book.

Ah so only useful if you play in Golarion. Thanks!

Any of the other traits can be used by your GM if they fit his world.

I'm running ROTR right now, but we ahve a character with a Second Darkness Trait and one with a Legacy of Fire Trait because the Trait fit the backstory that they had. While traits are, of course, very game-mechanicky, they also help provide a background. As a GM, I think its great to reward players who have a good backround hook that isn;t just a game mechanic. If it fits, and they have a good story, then I let them use it.

Now, when the Halfling Ranger from Riddleport wanted to take Keleshite Princess, I said no....

Part of what I included and eluded to is that Thassalonian culture used magic that was different than what is used today. It was at the same time more primal and more refined than what is used today. And it was influenced by the foriegn powers of Leng and other places.

Just about everything in a Runelords enclave radiates magic. So, it's actually tougher and more time consuming to find real magic items. And it can be confusing as well. Dispel Magic will work as written on simple cast spells and items, but things like the magically consturcted walls and buildings have multiple magical effects on them, that each must be removed separately. And so on.

One of our players (Diviner Mage) took Thassalonian as a language a tthe start and he's been slowly teaching it to the rest of the party.

Instead of derailing the adventure, it is giving me a chance to add clues, plot, and red herrings to the adventure while also continuing the mystery of Thassalonian culture.

"Wait, giant tower? Is that a tower that is just really big, a tower built for use by giants, or a tower made of giants?"

heh heh heh....

While I have allowed potions to be "applied" without the need to drink them (like potions of healng), there is always a difficulty involved.

For injecting a potion, because it is injected, not imbibed (and there is a big difference between what goes on in your stomach and intestine and what goes on in your skin and muscle) I would give a -5 penalty to the save DC.

Yes, you can inject a potion of blindness, but it would be easier to resist.

Otherwise, this becomes very dangerously close to a kind of gaming that makes negative references to people of small stature...

M's lack of maneuverability was the big benefit to the heroes in this encounter. Well, that and a paladin with Smite Evil and Enlarge...

gigglestick wrote:

Callous Jack wrote:

Sorry guys, it's completely out of my control.

OK, its been over a month.

I'm 1/2 way through SSM and still no minis.

Any word from Ashton on what the holdup is?

No, I'm sorry for the delay..

I know there was some slowdown with Paizocon coming...

But hopefully, thats past now.

Sorry guys, it's completely out of my control.

OK, its been over a month.

I'm 1/2 way through SSM and still no minis.

Any word from Ashton on what the holdup is?

Would there perhaps have been a fourth package?

It doesn't look like there may have been room in the box for the rest of the books.

As this is the double shipment month, when is the next order going out?

First time using these and I must say: while they look lovely, they are markedly smaller than my metal/plastic minis.

Are they all like this?

Depends on how you print them.

They easily can be either letter or executive, which will give you two different sizes.

Or just scale up the minis in your print options. (I often make one or two sheets lightly larger or smaller to get a better variety).

These seem to be 25-35 mm depending on your print options, and they should end up about the same size as D&D minis goblins.

Games Workshop Minis are almost always larger because they are going for wargaming style, which tends to have larger, and often exaggerated features (but still can look good).

If you look at the above links, you can see how I put a number of these together at different sizes.

And you can see how big they ae by looking at the 1" squares in the game.

gigglestick wrote:

I have always believed that all children of all races are evil..

Just take a look at how a bunch of elementary schoolers treat eah other (or worse...pre-schoolers) and there is definietly some evil going on...

I have to question whether or not the "all children are evil" actually HAVE children.

All children are selfish, or have selfish tendencies. They are not evil -- their selfishness doesn't derive from a desire to hurt others at their expense. When my youngest wants a toy another child has, he isn't seeking to get the toy at the other kid's expense -- he just wants the toy.

In order to have an alignment (other than N, I suppose), the character has to make a conscious decision, a moral decision before taking the action.

From the PFRPG:
"Lawful Evil represents methodical, intentional, and organized evil."
"Netural evil represents pure evil without nonor and without variation."
"Chaotic evil represents the destruction not only of beauty and life, but also of the order on which beauty and life depend."

None of those statements depict children's behavior.

Now at some point, the child is able to determine between action & consequence and make a moral judgement. For example, an abused child blindly lashes out in anger and if questioned is unable to express why they did it. The act may have been evil, but the motivation isn't and the consequence likely wasn't even a consideration. Fast-forward a few years and having never received help or been removed from the abusive environment, the child may shift to someone who inflicts violence upon another intentionally. The child is now consciously making evil choices and is aware of the cause-effect relationship of violence = harming another. In game terms, the child's alignment is now evil, or at least on it's way to getting there.

As for the goblins? Perhaps, depending upon your view of psychology & genetics, you could argue a genetic predisposition towards evil. But to arbitrarily say all are evil and to...

1) It was (mostly) intesnded as a joke.

2) When I see kids horribly torment one another (or at least one) at ages 4,5,6 and so on, that's past the age of "i didnt know any better".

But, it was intended as a joke.

Recieved my packages for order 1444320.

It was in 3 separate containers.

The greyhawk poster by itself shoed up (yay)
The package witht eh plot twist cards and warduke cling came ok

The package with everything else was missing a lot. (Invoice said in this package...)

What arrived:
Dungeon Instant Tiles City
Dungeon Sleeping Dragon Poaster Map
Star Wars Lego Poster
Orc Was Swords
Flip Map Pirate Island

Whats Missing:
Template Novel
PF AP 35 War of the River Kings
PFC City of Strangers
PFC Kingmaker Poster Map
PFM Curse of the Riven Sky

That's a lot.

What do I do?

We started BO back in September of 09.

We took three weeks off for assorted non-game things, three weeks as a pre-game (Into The Haunted Woods...which I placed just south of Wolf's Ear), Two weeks to palytest the APG characters, and three weeks for a side quest between BO and SSM.

With all of that, BO took us about 20 weeks and we are now 6 weeks into SSM and

They should be done with this part of SSM next week and the Magnimar adventures I expect to take them 3 more.

Mind you, this party does a lot of delving and side trekking of their own accord, including fighting the SPD, fighting giant crabs, exploring crashed ships, and exploring romantic involvements.

This is why, when I DM, there is generally a no distractions rule enacted. I'm not going to go around and make sure cell phones are off or anything, but if someone is spending half a session texting I'll say something about it once...after that if they miss their initiative, then their character had a brain fart and stood around with his thumb up his...nose. It's never come up, but I would put a squash to net surfing during a game. Honestly, that's something I would expect from the no attention span teenagers I share the college with...which are not my friends.

As for the encounter itself, I'm fine with it. Enemies who don't act intelligently are insulting to the party in my opinion. As stated above, some encounters should be a ways above average party level.

There are encounters in some of the PF APs that state that the party needs to be careful and pick off the targets one or two encounters at a time.

There comes a time when party stupidity or worse, impulsiveness, can result in the characters getting in WAYYYY over thier head. As long as you give SOME clue that the encounter is too much for them (and that many opponents should have been a dead givaway) then I see no problem with it.

AS long as the GM wasn't planning on bringing these guys all together regardless of how the party attacked, then its OK.

As for distractions, I don't allow the internet at my table. And all texting MUST be turned off. (You text at my game once, and you don't come back. Obviously, there are exceptions for family calls and so on.) Players should be there to play and interact with their friends. If someone calls or texts a player, the FIRST response should be "Hi, I'm gaming so I can't talk." Then if it's important, of course they should take it.

(I played in a game where the GM confiscated a player's phone and locked it out in the car until after the game because the player kept "Tweeting" or whatever they call it.)

Now, if they want to work on other game stuff (writing a journal, painting minis, converting characters) that's fine. Especially if we're in a situation where part of the party is doing something that will take some time while someone else is just "waiting". That sort of stuff allows you to work and pay attention at the same time. But it seems that if you put a computer in front of someone and suddenly their attention is divided.

I think there is room for ACTUAL chaotic neutral character, but I agree that often its picked because its the 'no-strings' alignment. In my opinion you can have interesting characters who are not good or evil, but have a dislike for authority or tradition. I have played characters that would not have made sense in other alignments.

+1

Your first sentence puts it all on the table.

There is nothing inherhently wrong with CN characters, if played correctly. Its just that most gamers I've met who play CN do so to get the "no strings attached" benefits.

Just read it.

absolutely AWESOME!

Makes me wish I could run two APs at the same time. (Myu group is almost through SSM...)

This issue actually became a plot point in a side trek for ROTR.

The characters went to a town where the Church of Erastil had been overrun by servants of Lamashtu who were slowly converting (or consuming) the townspeople.

The party cleric and paladin both realised that there was something not right about a temple to Erastil being run by two female clerics...

I have always believed that all children of all races are evil..

Just take a look at how a bunch of elementary schoolers treat eah other (or worse...pre-schoolers) and there is definietly some evil going on...

Well, after several player adds and drops and some character deaths, the party, now about to enter Foxglove Manor, is the following:

Verios: Elf Diviner 5 (pretty much the anchor for the party)

Danforth: Human Ranger 4 (his player was playing a halfelf rogue3/ranger1, but that character died) Sometimes team leader

Makai: Dwarf Cleric of Sarenrae 4 : Team healer and uber-channeler. (Clerics are NASTY in this adventure and CLerics of the Sun especially so)

Yabaday: Halforc Monk 4 (Used to be a bugbear, then got reincarnated. Before that, the player had a halfelf Rogue 1/Spellblade 3 who died and came back as a goblin Rogue 1/ Spellblade 3) He's the party"rogue" now. Still recovering from the negative level damage from being reincarnated.

Estle: Human (Hagspawn) Hedgewitch 5 Party backup healer and token cheesecake

Goryl: Halforc Barbarian 5 the self-described meatshield. (61 HP at level 5!)

They are working together much better. For the longest time, the Hedgewitch was the party healer. Now that there is a cleric as well (and Estle has a wand of wonder) they have more combat flexibility.

This has been a brutal campaign, and everybody is loving it. A lot of the adventures end with the party at single digit HP by the end of the fights...close calls, but they survive (most of them).

Not surprisingly, most of the deaths have been from player..."impulsiveness" as opposed to bad dice rolls...

Just started SSM and we've had a few deaths.

Because of the disparity between character levels (several players missed several adventures) we had a small side trek to Wolf's Ear.

Death #1
Name of PC: Jakk
Class/Level: Halfelf Rogue 1/Spellblade 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Swimming
Story: Investigating a ship that crashed offshore. They fought a giant crab in the half submerged ship and then had to recover and explore. Jakk (no swimming skill) kept failing his swim checks, taking damage. Then he discovered the bilge and, nearly dead, decided to go swimming in the sunbmerged bilge. The party found his drowned corpse several minutes later when they discovered him missing.

Death #2
Name of PC: Jakk
Class/Level: Goblin Rogue 1/Spellblade 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings Sidetrek
Catalyst: Carrion Worm
Story: Jakk got reincarnated as a goblin (much to the amusement of the party). He got injured during a battle and then went off with some of the others to explore in the woods, explicitly refusing healing. With only 18 hp left, they encountered a Carrion Worm. (Similar stat block to Owlbear). The creature hit, did a crit, confirmed, and picked a Crit card that tripled damage. At 1d6+4 that became 3d6+12. I rolled the dice (I use Q-workshop's ROTR, COCT, and SD dice for my PF games) and it came up: Rune of Wrath, Crown of Fangs, and Drow Rune. (For those of you without the cool Pathfinder Dice, that's 6 6 and 6...) 18+12 = 30 damage. Jakk failed his stabilize test and died again. (Though the dice roll was cool.)

Name of PC: Yabaday (Jakk's Player)
Class/Level: Bugbear Monk 1
Adventure: Burnt Offerings Sidetrek to Wolf's Ear
Catalyst: Greatsword
Story: Jakk's character gave up on Jakk and rolled up a new character. He wanted to play a bugbear, so we let him take a bugbear with 1 level of monk (that's 4 HD and some NICE stat bonuses). The discipline of monk training explained why the bugbear (raised from a cub) would have the personality to get along with the "good races".

For the Wolf's Ear adventure, I modified the old Against the Cult of the Reptile God adventure. It has a nicely fleshed out town and a good, paranoid feel, with half of the town knowing about a secret the other half does not...perfect for Wolf's Ear.
Well, after defeating almost all of the baddies from the town, the party was recovering, as most of them were badly wounded. But Yabaday wanted to go see the mayor about buying or selling the abandoned inn in town. Well, the mayor's evil bodyguard saw him coming and assumed that he was there to kill the bodyguard (a very nasty fellow who'd already had words with the party.)
Everyone else told Yabaday to wait and heal with the rest fo the party.
Nope!
He got surprised and cut down with two turns of vicious blows from a greatsword. (He only had a few HP when the fight started and the bodyguard did one crit...)
Yabaday got reincarnated as a halforc when the party got back to Sandpoint, though they haven't been able to remove the negative levels yet...

Death #4
Name of PC: Kitt
Class/Level: Halfelf Rogue 3/Ranger 1
Adventure: Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Ghouls in the cornfield
Story: The heroes get into the cornfields, bringing their horses and cart with them...during the battle, the horses bolt and take off with the party's gear.
After a nasty battle against several ghouls (and after shooting one of the innocent farmers strapped to a scarecrow post) Kitt was wounded, but decided to take off in a chase after the fleeing horses.
He ran into the cornfields alone while the rest of the party was healing and recovering. Four ghouls found him and 12 attacks later he was dead and partially eaten...
He decided against reincarnation.

FYI-If you can get your hands on Against the Cult of the Reptile God, it would make a good generic town adventure...

And check out Hangman's Noose (set in Absalom) for a nice Victorian-style mystery...

Doesn't the we'll be back ability seem a bit O.P.?

I'm probably mistaken, but just seems so.

It's pretty much one of the core things that make Necrons Necrons...though originally, you had to be in a certain range of other, standing Necrons (2" or 6" I forget which) for that to be in effect.

I tried the Feather Fall thing in my Eberron Campaign.

The villain (a halfling minion of Droaam) tried to jump off one of the Sharn Towers and cast Feather Fall from a token.

The party Warforged just jumped after him...counting on his momentum to crash into the little bugger.

One collision followed by the party Feather Fall spell AND a creative use of Shadow Bridge and Web, and the halfling didn't escape so well...

Selk wrote:

It's a fun AP, but a fey character might start to feel like they're wearing silver hotpants in an abattoir.

LOL. I had a sneaking suspicion that the AP would come up short in the dreams, starlight and laughter departments. Sounds like it might be a fun playground for an unseelie fey, but your summation tells me that the AP would crush all the dreams and innocence out of even the most resilient of sprites.

Actually, there is a lot of dark humor in this AP, and a lot of room for some happiness too. It depends on the party.

However, there are some VERY grim scenarios...

But then again, we have singing goblins and happy-fun ogres.

I'm sure they would love to play Mig-A-Mug-Tug with your fey...

I have always allowed spellbooks to be used as scrolls.

This give a bit more flexibility ot sorcerors to have that one-use spell. And it makes enemy spellbooks more useful, because if you already know a spell in the book, but don;t want to memorise it, you can carry the extra spellbook and use the one there...

gigglestick wrote:

I haven't gone back to look at the other card sets, but I hope this isn't the new format. (And if so, I'm glad I got mine before the switch).

Am I missing something with this set?

Your older spell cards were nice because there were 6 spells per page on a very art-lite/ printer frendly format.

The wizard set I just downloaded is art heavy (detailed border on EVERY card) and it will just consume nk cartridges...and now you get one spell per page...

WHY????

How is this any better than having the PFRPG book?

If I am missing something and this is usable like the other sets (6 per page) PLEASE expalin to me what I'm missing.

Otherwise, in my opinion, this was a big letdown...

I have heard the complaints and I WILL BE releasing an updated version with 6 cards to the page. We MAY do a blank card version without the border art if there is a large demand for it. So I hope you forgive up for this oversight. Thanks for your support.

Well, then, thank the gods for that.

If we get this in the old format, it would instantly become a 5 star value again.

Thanks.

(But in the meantime, how do you see the prenet version being used? As it stands, it looks like I would have a bunch of 8 1/3 x 11 pages with one spell each...)

I haven't gone back to look at the other card sets, but I hope this isn't the new format. (And if so, I'm glad I got mine before the switch).

Am I missing something with this set?

Your older spell cards were nice because there were 6 spells per page on a very art-lite/ printer frendly format.

The wizard set I just downloaded is art heavy (detailed border on EVERY card) and it will just consume nk cartridges...and now you get one spell per page...

WHY????

How is this any better than having the PFRPG book?

If I am missing something and this is usable like the other sets (6 per page) PLEASE expalin to me what I'm missing.

Otherwise, in my opinion, this was a big letdown...

nathan blackmer wrote:

Twin Agate Dragons wrote:

How does this even cover fantastic creatures that would call lava their home? Those whales from Atlantis: The Lost Empire spring to mind.

I really dislike comedy products. I wish I could remove this from my download list now.

Sir, there's nothing comedic about it.

This is the first universally acepted rules addendum to EVER hit the gaming community.

This, sir, is an ACHIEVEMENT.

So you are saying that in a fantasy campaign it shouldn't be possible to survive falling in lava or that there should be creatures that are native to it? Lets agree to disagree.

Actually, there is an entire sidebar devoted to creatures that are immune to the effects of lava. So, it DOES deal with creatures who would be native to lava.

And the same sidebar deals with characters who would be immune to the effects of lava.

I don't see the problem here and I look forward to more products like this.

Wow! Good thing I bought it when it was new..

Hmm. I think my local retailer still has some of the Rise of the Runelords books lying about. Maybe I should buy them all and sell them on ebay or something :)

You ought to show your local game store some love and post the website/ email/phoe/address on the forums so that people who don't have ROTR 1 can get one AND give your FLGS some $$. (And tell your FLGS that you are doing it, they might be REALLY appreciative.)

And yes, I already have a copy for myself.

Laughing Goblin wrote:

I could be wrong, but I think the vast majority of Ed's fiction is directly tied to Forgotten Realms, as he was one of the primary authors of that setting. While I have no idea for certain, but I would think it more likely that existing Paizo authors would likely be the first tapped to write Golarion setting novels.

If by "primary author" you mean setting creator and mastermind. Actually, Elaine Cunningham, who is writing the inaugural Pathifinder novel Winter Witch, is most well known for her many novels set in the Forgotten Realms, and creator of one of my personal favorite FR characters, Elaith "the Serpent" Craulnober. I look forward to seeing her work with Golarion.

Personally, after reading some of his novels and how he handled FR, I'd cancel my PF Fiction/ Novels subscriptions on the months his books were on the roster. Not something I'd spend my $$ on without getting a REALLY good look at them first.

The Realms (and his handling of it) is part of what drove me away from D&D for a long time. (I HATE Elmister and how he was written/ involved in the setting...so that may be part of it, so take that as part of my bias)

As in raised his voice and told me that I shouldn't compare my 3/4 bab melee character vs the ranged full bab character when I started to compare the two. It's a good thing I'm moving out of here in july as he just officially embarrassed me infront my freinds in my own house. After the other players leave I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. I'm going out to the movies now instead of playing dnd.

Well, as a GM who has had to add a few house rules and some "common sense" rule interpretation, I can understand that sometimes you have to change things in a game.

But you need to do that after discussing this with ALL the players so that they all have some input. I am the GM, and it is, sort of, my game (but not really) but the other players have a stake in it as well.

We have a rules lawyer in our group, but he keeps it in check and he is geat when I need to know the rule on something or if I make a mistake (easy to do when you go from 3.5 to PF). He'll say "no, _________ is supposed to work like ________" and have the page ready.

If its an honest mistake, we go oops and move on.

We did the 4d6 drop lowest system and are using the Max HP at L 1 & 2 and 75% after that ruling, so the characters have a few extra HP and have a VASTLY different skew of stats. ( And after a player death we now have a Bugbear Monk...but it works).

All of this takes some change and adaptaion to the CR system and how combat is played. Sometimes there are REALLY tough fights. Soemtimes, soething I think is a challenge ends up being a cakewalk do to bad die rolls and good player tactics.

Either way, GMs have to adapt and sometimes have to ask players to change the rules with them.

But your GM sounds like a total @$$#ole. Sometimes I have to raise my voice to tell someone to stop being disruptive or to let another player speak. But your guy is just a jerk.

You're lucky to get out when you can.

fray wrote:

They would be a +1 LA in my book.

+2 to perception & acrobatics... wow
40' speed... again wow
+1 skill point is super RAD. (THIS is the reason to take human.)
+2 Dex
+2 Wis
-2 Con
The +1 AC, +1 initiative, +1 acrobatics, +1 escape artist (+3 total for these) and +1 Will save is strong vs -1 hp/level and -1 Fort save.

This would be the race of choice for any Dex fighter and any rogue.

Very flavorful race. Don't see any downside to taking them.

the bonuses look good on paper, but aren't as amazing in practice. i think you may be overexxagerrating thier importance. a 40 foot speed becomes useless once your get your second attack. as you won't likely be moving more than 5 feet. unless you are a spring attack build.

con penalty hurts a lot harder than the bonus to dexteirty and wisdom. dextrity provides skill bonuses. and the ac bonus is still limited by armor. the initiative bonus is rather minor and negligilbe as is the will save bonus. rogues and dex fighters already have high initiative anyway, and +1 to will saves doesn't make a difference. the -1 to fort saves is worth more than the +1 to will saves. will saves rarely apply beyond enchanbtment spells. and a lot of spells have fortitude saves, as do all poisons, all diseases and many monster abilities. light armor is vastly inferior to the heavy stuff if you can wear it. with acrobatics, bigger monsters have ludicrous CMD making tumbling irrelevant, same with escape artist. perception, a lot of races get a +2 to perception. a lot of these advantages that you see as overpowered, i see as short lived or a potnetial wash. less hit points mean you die easier, as does a lower negatives threshhold. +1 skill point per level can be mimicked by an intellegence bonus or by favored class bonus and is the weakest (and most replaceable) human advantage. humans get a bonus feat and the ability to pick thier +2. they could be a rogue or a dex fighter, that drops to the negatives after 1 full attack by a CR appropriate brute. heck, a...

Still +1 LA.

I'd say drop the move to 30' (That extra 10' is a huge advantage in some combats and chases and undercuts the abilities of some classes. If you want a "fast" Neko, take a monk or barbarian - both of which fit with the Anime feel.)

Drop the Darkvision to Low-light Vision/ nightvision (I forget what its called now).

Nerf the +1 Skill Point....that's always been a Human-Only kind of thing. Even half races don't get it.

Drop one of the skills they get +2 with. I'd suggest Escape Artist. (If for no other reason than there is an Anime (probably Hentai) tradtion of cat girls (and lets face it, thats what these are) being tied up. For better or for worse.)

But its a good concept, just too Overpowered for a character race.

_

Edition Wars
01-04: 4e vs. PF
05-08: PF vs. 3.5
09-12: 3.5 vs. 2e
13-16: 2e vs. 1e
17-20: 1e vs. BECMI

BECMI?

Edit: Ah- Basic - Expert - Companion - Master - Immortal

Or just AD&D vs D&D (Which is what they were called back then).

And you forgot:

D&D vs. Religeous Conservatives

Am I the only one trying to figure out what the magazines and books are in the standing shelf nearby...

Some wierd looking stuff there...