primemover003's page

Hey there!

@KingofVrock: Well, check out the "reloaded" version below. I went ahead and converted the module to my new format - and along the way, I fixed a Bunch of Stuff. Of course, as always, this sucker is not done, I didn't even make it back to the Temple yet. But it's coming along.

@XD: I was using Adobe elements and MS Publisher. I am now using Photoshop and InDesign. I hope you agree (looking at the Reloaded version, it comes out nicer).

@Sha: Right click on the link and choose "Save As".

Here is the new version. Now, some may not like it because I went to in-line monsters and some are saved to the appendix (not included yet). I also did away with the extra nice fully spelled out attack routines. So, I will keep the "old" version up as well as the new. Probably will complete some time in the summer (I'm working on a new project though, so doing both slows things down).

A Paladin in Hell (Reloaded) [50.61MB]

Other Conversions:

X2 Castle Amber [74.25MB]
B4 The Lost City [67.75MB]
A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity [40.00MB]
G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl [23.41MB]
I2 Tomb of the Lizard King [43.75MB]
A Paladin in Hell [67.69MB] - (unfinished)

edit: updated file to the newest one.

Paladin of Baha-who? wrote:

Monologuing is not a free action! "You sly dog! You got me monologuing! I can't believe it."

It's driving me crazy. What movie is this from? Wait...Mastermind?

You'll feel incredible when you figure it out.

Jason, big big big props for the Real Genius reference. :)

Clark

Kits, like those seen in the Pathfinder Society Field Guide.

An Alchemist formula book.

Let Russ Taylor re-write Adventurer's Sash the way he wanted to.

Nathonicus has hit the nail square on the head. If you want to go the way HPL would then don't try to ooga-booga them to insanity or even fridge-horror them to it with implications. Instead, you'd attack their understanding of how the universe works and turn everything on its head. Since that is very difficult to show the best you can do is abstract it and convey the idea to the players.

They leave a room, take two lefts, and wind up back in the same room.

They enter a square room. There is a pentagram in the center with an arm stretching to each corner.

The other people they've been chasing around the circular dungeon and can never seem to catch are actually them. The people that also seem to be chasing them but never catch up are also actually them.

Usually in these stories it's when their minds try to make sense of such things that they break.

At least you could do that if it wasn't for pre-existing (and known) magic, outsiders, and crazy supernatural stuff subverting the natural laws. Put next to all that, it sort of loses its punch when everything can be rationalized with "a wizard did it". Considering how often wizards (and other casters) do crazy things in APs, it wouldn't be an unreasonable assumption. I'm starting to think that Pathfinder (and fantasy in general, especially high magic fantasy) is ill-suited to this flavor of horror.

In magic items, Boots/Shoes/Sandals is severely lacking.

Also, with the proliferation of animal companions/steeds/familiars, there really needs to be more magic items geared toward such creatures.

So who has completed their time machine so I can hand over my money now?

You can find it on page 262.

If I might make a suggestion in this most awesome thread, I've got an idea to give Adivion the means to taunt the PCs with some villain monologuing while they're on their march up the spire. Just have him cast message and then use it to make harsh whispers of all those lines Brandon shared above. He's from the Whispering Way, after all. So, the evil whisperings of a madman's message spell ought to be a perfect fit. It also keeps him out of sight for a bit while he completes his transformation, since a message spell can travel around and down the spire to reach them, regardless of where Adivion retreats.

Just my two cents,
--Neil

This is not so much about the items, but more a comment on organization (ok, maybe more of a cranky rant than a comment).

I'm really surprised by the number of people in the critique my item thread who either don't have the final submitted version of their item, or aren't sure if what they have is the final version.

Computer crashes and viruses are somewhat understandable, but that's why backups are important.

Editing in the submission box instead of on your final draft copy (and/or not transferring those changes to your final draft copy) is a bad idea, and is bound to leave you without the final version. It's just a recipe for confusion.

Simply not knowing if you have the final version or not? Really? You're essentially applying to be a professional game designer and you didn't keep track of what was a rough draft and what was final?

I don't know how you can expect to succeed as a professional without this basic level of organization.

There is simply no good reason for anyone not to have a copy the final version of any work that they do for hire or profit.

My mind is boggled.

Even if you didn't make the top 32, start building your portfolio with your best examples of finished, polished writing! Would you tell a potential client/boss that you entered the contest, and then show them a rough draft of your work? Or worse, tell them that you don't know if what you showed them is final or not? You'd never get hired.

(If I remember correctly, this was even mentioned last year by one of the judges)

Guys

This is the official "Critique My Item" Placeholder thread.

But Clark, why are you doing this now and why is it locked?

Excellent questions my young padawan. Let me explain, no there is too much, let me sum up.

First, I want there to be an official thread and this is how we have done it in the past.

Second, I want it to be locked until at least Wednesday. Today is the day to celebrate those who made the cut. Starting tomorrow, or whenever Gary and Vic think it is wise, we can open up this thread to discuss the items that didn't make it. It's how we've done it in the past and it has worked well.

So for today, if you didn't make the cut, turn your attention to those who did. Discuss their items. Then, when this thread opens, submit yours for discussion and feedback.

Please don't post in this thread between now and when Vic/Gary lock it.

Thanks everyone! Congrats for entering and good luck! If you don't make the cut, I look forward to discussing your item in this thread. This community has always been really great and the discussion of non-advancing items has been civil and professional and excellent.

If you dinnae want to use numbers this might help :)

Really, you can divide submitted items into several rough categories:

The Good

Great Wyrms. Superstar Top 32
Ancient Dragons. Potential Superstar, but doesn't make the final cut
Old Dragons. Interesting but flawed, like it enough to keep it initially, doesnt hold up once all the "kept" items are examined together

[the above three categories make it initially into the keep folder for later sorting]

The Not Quite Good Enough

Mature Dragons good execution of an average idea, the item would make a book of wondrous items, but not good enough to be superstar
Young Adult Dragons poor execution of a above average idea (if it was a little better, this likely would have been in category 3, above, and gotten into the keep folder)

[the above two types of items represent the BULK of all items submitted, which is a credit to this community. normally we require three of the four judges to review and vote to reject before the item is moved into the reject pile]

The Bad

Wyrmlings the clear reject item--the spell in a can, the boring skill bonus item, etc. See Sean's list of bad item stereotypes.
Not yet hatched dragons the auto-reject item--over word count, wrong format, gag item, other clear rules violations.

...

Congratulations and good luck! It's not easy to hit that submit button - period. Several of us were first timers last year so it is possible. What do you do if you make it?

Well, I had a panic attack at work and had to take a break so I could squeal, jump up and down, breathe deeply and...panic some more. That kind of excitement looks funny in a social services office. :P

Then I had to hurry up and read the parts of the core rulebook not directly related to character creation and crack the brand-spanky new APG that had arrived two days before. I didn't think I'd make it, so reading slowed. Like Scott, my lack of rules-fu showed up and I was out in round 3.

Would I change it? Not on your life. I started doing a little bit of layout with Rite Publishing the same month I submitted my wondrous item, and I've turned my RPGSS appearance into two freelance contracts so far. I've just finished my first one and am waiting on feedback from the publisher. The contest is a good gauge of "Can I handle the...deadlines, feedback, stress, fear of rejection, etc."

So, good luck again. Whether you make it or don't, what you choose to do with it is entirely up to you. :D

Rock, paper, scissors, lizards, vrock? a nod to Scott Fernandez if I borrow the name for amusement

Still amazed when folk run smack at the original judges and drivers of this competition. Take the opportunity, and leave the ego at the door.

Just wait till we announce the top 32. Every year there is the "one guy" who accuses us of bias and goes all crazy on the forums. Happens every year. Though sometimes it takes until the "critique my item" thread for it to rear its head when "that guy" has to read that his (or her) item was not actually that close to making the top 32. :)

Don't worry about us. We are thick skinned. And the freedom of discussion is one of the greatest things about this contest. Frankly, but for the occasional flare up, the discussion here is about as appropriate, supportive, grown up and intelligent as you will find on the net. The excellence of the community is one of the reasons I was willing to do the "critique my item" threads in the first place. There is almost nowhere else that would work, but at Paizo.com it does because of the amazing community Paizo has cultivated here.

So its all good... ;)

Sometimes I wonder if better advice wouldn't be to just do what I do when creating content for homebrew campaigns: Find a couple things similar done by Paizo, and follow the template exactly, by breaking it down into its component parts.

For example, here's the description of Gloves of Arrow Snaring.

Once worn, these snug gloves seem to meld with the hands, becoming almost invisible to casual observation. Twice per day, the wearer can act as if he had the Snatch Arrows feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites for the feat. Both gloves must be worn for the magic to be effective, and at least one hand must be free to take advantage of the magic.

Which boils down to:

<descriptive sentence>. <frequency>, <benefit>, <clarification>. <additional requirements>.

So, using this format, more than one sentence of description would be right out, and really you should keep that length about the same. It then shows a reasonable order for presenting the rest of the information, and reminds you to put clarifications and special requirements at the end, after describing all the cool stuff the magical item lets you do.

So, an example using that format for Bracers of Distance Throwing:

These heavy bronze bracers, set with images of giants hurling boulders, clasp snugly around the wearer's forearms. For five rounds each day, which need not be consecutive, the wearer can act as if he had the Distance Thrower feat, or double the benefit gained if the wearer already has the feat. Both bracers must be worn for the magic to be effective.

Obviously, this is Feat-in-a-can and no wow factor at all, so no chance at Superstar for something this simple, but it illustrates how to find an item and follow the basic format.

Having had the teasing about an amour bonus (when trying to correct my spelling of 'armour' to American spelling) and not realizing it's not spelled Beastiary. (Though now in my mind I pronounce it best-ee-air-ee) I'm just going to +1 Neil's post.

Part of writing professionally (says the guy who doesn't) is conforming to the style of your employer. Just as Paizo doesn't want antipaladins wearing armor made of living babies for thematic reasons, they don't want extra 'u's in their armor, or color.

They just assume these magic items are filled with "wonder" and so it must be spelled "wonderous."

If it helps, think that Wonder Woman's wondrous costume is filled with wonderful cleavage. ;-)

OK one little bit of round 1 errata to clear up... the calendar says entries are due 1/6/2012, but the round one rules say 12/30/2011.

--Jingle Bell Vrock

I overheard the phrase 'rock formation' in our epic game tonight and immediately thought of you. THere was another good one but I don't remember it right now.

The answer to this question depends on a number of factors which will vary GREATLY from group to group:

1 - The Adventure Path Being Run: Some APs are much longer than other, while a few are quite a bit shorter than others. So far, I think that Kingmaker is clearly the longest of the Paizo APs while Council of Thieves is the shortest.

2- Play Style of the Group and GM: There are some comments on this thread which suggest to me that the speed with which some groups move through these modules means to me that they are playing the game very differently than we do when it comes to taking the time to role-play certain aspects of the game.

It also probably means that the GM is not taking the time to add things to the AP as he or she was supposed to add, either.

Most APs have significant XP "holes" in them which must be filled with other encounters and CP point awards to ensure the party levels at the proper time. Some GMs hand wave this and just award ad hoc experience to level the party when they think they should level.

These different approaches to gaming style and adding content can have a TREMENDOUS impact upon the number of sessions required.

3 -Number of Players: More players, when the CR is topped up to account for the greater number of players (and adding XP points to the adventure will greatly increase the length of time it takes to run combats, all other things being equal) Over the course of an entire AP, this can add many, many sessions to the AP's length.

4. All the Other Differences: There are a vast number of other differences in play style, approach, combat resolution, length of the game session and many other factors which can impact upon the length of time.

In my experience, an "average" Adventure Path, if played weekly, should take about one year to play to its conclusion. Example: Legacy of Fire, Carrion Crown.

A shorter Adventure Path, might be played in 9 months' time. Example: To date, the shortest AP seems to be Council of Thieves.

A few of the longer APs can take 15-18 months to play.Example, Serpent's Skull, RotRL,

The LONGEST AP, Kingmaker, can easily take more than 18 months and come closer to 2 years to play out to its conclusion, depending on the time taken for Kingdom management, additions made to the AP and the detail and approach taken by the GM to resolve the War of the River Kings.

The Nine Heavenly Guides

The Dipplemere Swamp in Ustalav can be a harsh place: trolls, blood caiman, even rampaging flesh golems can be found along its trails. However, one of the worst enemies of a lost traveler in the swamp can be a Will'o'Wisp. Tired of seeing soul after soul perishing to the fear inducing wisps, an intrepid band of Lantern Archons beseeched the Huntsman to allow them to guide those lost in the swamp and plagued by the Will'o'Wisps.

The Nine Heavenly Guides, as folk have come to call them, appear on gloomy nights (those when the Wisps are at their most conniving), and call out lone travelers, their warm calm reassuring the folk that these are anything but enemies. The Archons generally accompany their companions for the night, moving on to help others the next. They never ask for payment (where would the keep it!?), and always bid the blessings of Erastil before departing.

When confronted by the rare creature dumb enough to attack a cadre of Archons, the Guides use their menacing auras to debilitate, before blasting the creature with their light rays. They provide a brief respite to allow the creature to run away, and if it refuses, they join as a Gestalt, and show their true power.

@ Nightflier - take your time, man. I hope you feel better soon.

I've never quite understood it, but the devs really really really really really don't want PCs to be able to draw anything quickly unless it is a traditional weapon. The Quick Draw feat for Pathfinder has its wording changed from 3.5 to explicitly forbid all of the adventuring items one would expect PCs would want to draw quickly, such as positions.

I'm of the complete opposite mind. I want to see a whole slew of mundane items that are specifically tailored to make PCs more efficient. I dislike that magic is the only way to really start becoming efficient.

The problem is that the game rules have system mastery baked into it from 3.0, but almost all of that system mastery is very "meta" where it deals with combining this or that feat or ability to gain more effectiveness. Because these elements are fairly abstract and framed within the meta-structure of the rules, you aren't really mapping efficiency to anything the player is doing within the game world.

What would be great would be for a lot of efficiency to come from ordinary mundane items. Go down the list of actions in the combat chapter and tease out as many different actions which could be performed faster if the PC uses an item or combination of items. Say, make sheaths mean something in the game. Allow for quick access belts and bandoliers, have quick release backpacks, etc.

If you did that, then at least it would provide a baseline of efficiency with the system that properly maps over the immersion of being in the here-and-now of the game. That experience of efficiency, by using the power of tools to perform more quickly, helps augment immersion because it fits in with our intuitive understanding of how the world works.

Unfortunately, that isn't there and instead we have weird incoherent abstract effects. Wizards can grab whatever they need from their pouch in an instant, likewise Alchemists can get their concoctions out without any effort... but otherwise it requires everyone else, dedicated adventurers that would have learned from experience, to get something out with a move action or full round action.

The other element is that swift actions simply aren't being used much in the system, and they would be mechanism for these kinds of equipment. They don't jump to a free action, which can have unintended side effects, and instead fit right into the timeframe that models well equipment that is designed to be accessed quickly.

Given that spellcasters can instantly leaf through their Rolodex of bat guano and live crickets and pull out whatever they need for any given spell, I have no problem with someone wearing a bandolier, a chatelaine, or even an anachronistic photographer's vest instantly having some small useful item in their hand without having to rummage around in their backpack for it.

The "Attack of Opportunity" business is also extremely overdone, IMHO.

It's legit, but every time you do it you are required to shout "YOINK!"

Hi all,

as promissed the Broken Moon Gm material is now availible, HOWEVER I need to redo the Feldengrau Map AND complete the Moster Log...but that might take at least until next week.

So enjoy so far...I'll post when the new version is online.

langenhan.info/RPG

Vorkstag IS his own friends in high places! ]

Oh, and this is such a good quote, you must make use of it in some way. Perhaps coming up with some macabre labels on his 'coats' in the Cabinet O.S.A.F. one of which reads "Friends in High Places". Other horrid labels such as "Isn't She a Looker?", "We've Been Friends Since Childhood", "Trust Me, I'm A Doctor" etc could really creep people out.

Not sure I see the big issue here. So there's something that a barbarian needs help to defeat. *shrug*

We've got things in the game that are immune to magic; what's wrong with things that are immune to melee? Any force effect is going to pound the bejeezus out of it: magic missile is a first level spell, and force punch is level 3.

Way I see it, not every character/class can defeat every challenge. That's why adventurers form parties.

Or you could simply use the holy water, or that wand of magic missiles. Or the fighter's cold iron weapon (and he should really have one by then). Now it being +1 could be a bit of an issue, but that's why he should have an oil, scroll or wand for the caster by now.

At 5th level you've got 10,500 gp worth of stuff. For a fighter I would be expecting a +1 main weapon, as well as a cold iron and silver weapon (possibly mithril if he's desperate for damage) ending with a ranged weapon that's +1 as well, a +1 armor, perhaps a +1 ring and some potions and oils. Excluding the potions and oils he's got 8.5k stuff there, leaving enough room for a wand of magic weapon and a nice stock pile of potions as well as mundane gear.

The shadow has 3 attacks that do 1d8 +1d6 cold -- not a lot of cold there and it is rather possible the cold damage won't be happening.

With the (now) +1 cold iron weapon the fighter can kill the shadow demon only losing out damage to the incorporeal part.

The solution cost under 100 gold pieces as an oil and under 800 gold pieces as a wand which he can continue getting use out of for a while.

And this is ignoring stuff like channeling against alignment, the paladin's now ghost touch weapon that he's smiting with, the bard's abilities that would add in, the magus's... etc.

All in all it's not an overwhelming challenge unless the party goes in willfully unprepared for adventuring.

More combats... wear them down: Pathfinder Society modules on average present six encounters across a single day of adventuring and all of those encounters average out to APL+1, rather than APL. So the CR system is already a bit off as is and Paizo acknowledges it with how they construct their PFS modules.

More missile fire: If Grog is making humanoids explode with his greatsword, have enemies in superior terrain (CR+1) who rain missile fire down on Grog.

Multiple wave combats: If the spellcaster is shutting down an encounter with a well placed sleep spell, just make sure that you're breaking up the timing and composition of the enemy. Don't have them all come out at once and cluster together, but instead have an initial wave that gets dumped on with choice spells, then send out the second wave.

Bombs: The alchemist class is a wonderful GM friendly class to put on the enemy. Those pesky bombs can coat an area and wear multiple PCs down. Crazed kobolds and hobgoblins work great as alchemists.

Spells: Enemy casters... how about a crack squad of sorcerer kobolds, all who know magic missile. It gets nasty and can make Grog start to cry as he gets lit up with multiple magic missiles from 100 feet away. Grog also likely has a lousy will save so just dump some save-or-suck spells on him. Not enough to TPK, but enough to make them have to think of tactics other than charging forward to meat grind.

Swarms: The big beater weapons are useless against swarms. Watch as everyone scrambles to pull out flasks of oil, if they were smart enough to take some along, and start tossing them all over.

As far as the spellcasters go. The key is that they have to use up their spells for the day, which means lots of combats and no 15-minute work days. Use time sensitive plots, or random encounters to ensure that the high DC spell casters can't unload their show stopping spells and then kick back and rest.

Actually, if you are a native outsider, don't you get darkvision 60 as part of the package?

Scoop Up or Gather would make a nice cantrip.

Prestige classes should be in the adventure paths, not the rule books.

They should be campaign specific.

They were originally designed to be a way for the GM to add a little extra color to the world by giving, for example, the elite guard of the king a specific set of abilities/powers, more powerful than feats. They need to return to those roots.

PrCs went off the rails when the later game designers started using them as a way to sell more books by offering munchkins pluggable power sets for optimization tricks.

I was looking at my gaming shelf the other day and noticed that I had a lot of these.

So I decided to make myself a nice carrying/display case for my current Pathfinder character. Here it is:

Front View.

Rear View. I put the combat table on here. It lists what action is a standard, move, swift, etc, and whether or not it provokes an Attack of Oppurtunity. We seem to look these rules up a lot.

Another Front View.

Spine View.

Another Rear View.

Inside View. Notice the character sheet on the left, a pencil in the middle, and stuff behind a plastic screen on the right.

Another Inside View. The plastic screen is opened up. Revealing a set of dice to use along with my miniature for this character. Oh look, it also holds a complete set of spell cards that my character can cast.

Everything View. This is everything that's inside the box.

I plan to make one for each of the characters/players in the party. What does everyone think?

Running this right now for my group.

Prep like mad. Usually, I'm fine with improving, but for this, since getting the details correct is so important, you need to know your stuff cold. Create GM notes.

Think through the likely questions and have answers for them ready. For example:
- where was the Beast during the attacks on Morast? (the PCs might want to visit his camp)
- where was the Beast during the attack on the Sanctuary?
- why hasn't Karl gotten himself un-blinded yet? it's only a 2nd level spell
- what are the names of the three other people on the prosecution?
- where do the four prosecuters live, and when do they get in for work? (PCs might want to pay them a visit)
- what are the exact rules for cross-examining witnesses?
- if they ask Gustav Kaple to help them do research (and he certainly would help) what are his stats, or at least bonuses to pertenant Knowledge skills?
- they might push the Beast hard on where he came from. Be ready to roleplay out his resistance to that line of questioning
- time is extremely sensative in this module: figure out exactly how long it takes to get to the 3 outlying locations (remember, it's a swamp)
- it's a major pain that you can't cast Speak With Dead on a corpse first (to see if it will say the things you want) before taking it to trail (because of the 1/week limit). PCs may ask to hire a Notary, to officially witness the casting of the spell, so they can decide which transcripts to enter into court. Think about how you'll do this.

About the investigations: think about how you'll run them.
- brush up on the rules for Taking 20. Especially with Perception.
- be sure to be up-front with your PCs about what they have and have not done. For example, if they start searching the Boneyard, and they roll a DC 20, that's enough to find both the campfire AND the coracle. However, I would suggest saying "in your searching, you find a campfire. Would you like to stop and investigate this, or would you like to keep surveying the island?" Be very explicit about what they have and have not looked at yet.
- give the PCs oppurtunities to say they act, don't assume things for them. Continuing campfire example, don't say "you find a campfire. Digging around it, you find a wineskin half-full of spoiled wine, an empty potion that smells funny, and some trail ration wrappers" if you do that, you take away their feeling of involvement. Do something like this: "You find evidence of a campfire. Do you investigate?" then let them respond. Then you can say "you find a wineskin, a glass bottle, and some rations." Then prompt them to ask "what is in the wineskin?" before you say "half filled with spoiled wine." This allows them to feel involved like they are taking actions, and trains them to take initiative in their investigation, rather than the GM handing them clues once they hit the DC.

Personally, I roleplayed the Beast as more angry than child-like (like the Mary Shelly Creature), but that was my personal choice.

I hope those extremely random insights were somewhat helpful. Goodluck!

He stated they're using the "Invisible" condition to make it easier to remember any modifications, it is NOT invisibility, per say.

See Invisibility (and the like) are magicks that pierce through illusions that conceal. The idea of being stealthy is your movement is so inconspicuous, the targets simply just don't perceive you yet. See Invisibility and the like don't increase your Perception, they just unveil what's magically hidden from sight.

Stealth isn't magical, it's a skill. Meaning you've mastered methods and techniques to stay out of sight and to move with little to no noise in order for your enemy to accept you as nothing to notice as any threat (or to not notice you at all). See Invisibility has nothing to do with that.

I don't see the problem. They're playing smart and being rewarded for it, and you still have options (by your own description) to make them step up their game when you want a challenging combat scene.

As a first cut, I'd keep the above in mind. I like to get on the other screen from time to time because it's easy to forget how different the game feels as a player. Gaming culture is overly influenced by the spectre of the Mony Haul DM - it's easy to fool yourself into thinking that a compentent party makes you an incompetent DM. As a player, it feels good to see your well-built character locking into a well-built party and creating a Voltron of ass-beating fun. There's a lot of good advice here about how to challenge the party, but it sounds to me like you're running a good game and everyone's having fun. Make sure to stop and smell the roses.

And then hit them with a dozen swarms led by a pit fiend!

While I like what I've read, there is still one issue that concerns me. mass die rolls.

Stealth performed every round, by multiple opponents observing can lead to a combat round getting bogged down by uncessessary die rolls.

What I propose is that if you are considering re-writing the rules perhaps is the time to hardcode in some static rules to cover stealth and perception.

Consider them along the lines of CMB/CMD where one is fixed while the other is rolled.

The advantage I see to this is allowing room for additional rules such as class benefits (assassin and ninja springs to mind) and perhaps stackable and situational bonuses to cover the differential between perception (sight) and perception (sound).

An example might be that the stealth skill for a character might be rolled against a fixed DC of perception (sight) and/or perception (sound) specified in each opponent. Perception might consider a flat 10, like AC, but gets boosted by +5 for a character that is considered alert to danger and +10 that is aware of who or where that danger is.

Fixed dice does require a slight adjustment in the rules for determining stealth since as an opposed roll the chances of succeeding against a automatic 20 rolled perception doesnt put the odds favorably on the stealthy character.

Thoughts?

I am a fan of bifurcated dice system for players vs NPC's. Make the perceptions static(10+mod)DC to roll against if the characters are stealthing. Make the stealth checks static(10+mod) if the characters are the ones perceiving. This way the action is focused on the players and their characters.

People who don't want Lovecraft in D&D are, no offense, displaying quite a bit of ignorance about where fantasy fiction comes from.

Fantasy as a genre would not exist if not for a small handful of pulp writers. One of the most important of these writers is Robert E. Howard, who created Conan, defined the sword and sorcery genre, and more or less created the adult fantasy genre. The only person who has had the same impact on fantasy as Howard is Tolkien, and Tolkien wouldn't have gotten Lord of the Rings published if Howard hadn't created the genre of heroic fantasy adventure. So, without Howard, we would likely have no Tolkien, and we would almost certainly have no D&D.

But Howard wasn't much of a fantasist. He didn't actually care much for fantasy - his tastes leaned more towards historical fiction, westerns and stories about boxing and sports. He did heroic fantasy for the money.

So where did he get his ideas for Hyborea and the fantastic elements of Conan? He got them from his contemporary, H.P. Lovecraft. That's what most of their correspondence is about, how to develop a fantastic setting. And if you read that correspondence, its mostly Howard asking Lovecraft how to do this thing he has to do.

And Howard was far from the only fantasy writer that Lovecraft influenced - another was Lin Carter. Now, Lin Carter wasn't a great writer (I like his stuff, but he's the definition of a hack; nothing he writes is original, its all pastiche of better writers), but he was a fantastic editor and literary historian, and had a huge impact on the development of fantasy as a genre in the late 60s and early 70s. Guess who his two favorite authors were. Lovecraft and Tolkien. Guess who the two most influential fantasy writers of all time are. Lovecraft and Tolkien. That's Lin Carter's influence right there.

So when people say they don't want Lovecraft in Golarion because it doesn't feel right, I just have to laugh. Lovecraft is a lot more than Lovecraft's own stories, and Lovecraft is everywhere in fantasy. You know those demon summoning wizards that are behind so much of the evil in fantasy worlds? That's Lovecraft's influence. In Lovecraft's stories, men of reason and science are driven to madness by confrontations with such supernatural evils. But that's just one take - Howard wrote stories featuring entirely Lovecraftian horrors, he just feature them in stories with Nietzschean supermen who respond to such evils with a sword. That's totally D&D.

And for all of Cthulhu's cosmic terror, try to remember that when he rises in Call of Cthulhu, he's driven back and defeated (for now) by ramming him with a large fishing vessel. Sure, everyone on the ship goes hopelessly insane, but still. They knocked out Cthulhu with a boat.

Six pages each on catfolk, aasimar, and tieflings? I'm sold.

After the Beginner's Box is out (and only due to budget limitations), I'm subscribing. The fact that the third bestiary will include a clockwork subtype is just icing on an already delicious cake.

So it's safe to say that the subtype has you wound up?

Nice way of thanking the devs who cared enough to reply by pulling this sort of thread-jack and busting out the Wrong Bad Fun™ arguments. I'm sure they'll not make that mistake again.

Quite the service to your fellow posters too. If your debate is so damned important, why not have the courtesy to spin it off into its own thread rather than trashing a helpful one?

We will be adding new material to the PRD in the near future. (But you'll have to wait until Ultimate Combat is released for that to be added!)

Brilliant! I can't wait! My Pathfinder gaming backpack is gaining weight faster that the PRD is growing. I'm considering purchasing a mastercraft wheelbarrow :-)

On the other defender thread, SKR posted a link to the FAQ.

To wit, you must attack with a Defender weapon to gain its bonus. Just holding onto it is not sufficient.
You can stack it onto a shield. You get the bonus if you perform a Shield Bash with it. SO you'd need Improved Shield Bash to get both bonuses.

So, no Defender gaunts/spikes providing free AC, tyvm.

==Aelryinth

I like compound traps.

Start with a Camouflaged Spiked Pit Trap (CR 8). Add Shocking Floor Trap to the bottom (CR 9). Add Acid Arrow Trap for every 10 feet they need to climb out (CR 3). And end it with a Wall Scythe Trap (CR 4), except it acts as the roof of the trap slamming shut.

Assuming similar rules as for monsters this would total about a CR 12 trap. Most rogues assume when the trap has been triggered that is all there is to it and won't bother checking for more traps. This will teach them.